morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2018-05-24
To: Mile 620
Miles today: 15.7
Weather: clear sky

Yesterday we had a lovely relaxing day at Lickskillet Hostel. It is an old church being used as a donation based hostel. It is a work in progress for sure, but nothing could beat the hospitality of our host, Mongo. He even bbq¢d us a steak dinner with shrimp, salad and garlic bread. I don¢t think he does that every day, but we were sure thrilled and appreciative. This morning we were driven back to the trail head. We did a bit of math and decided that if we are going to reach Katahdin by the time we have to leave the US, then we have to pick up the pace at bit. So, we will be aiming to do 14-16 miles a day now. I hope that I can handle it.In the morning we crossed a suspension bridge. On the other side of the bridge a gentleman stopped us to ask if we needed anything. We said no but stayed and chatted with him for a short bit. Then he asked again. Are you sure you don¢t need anything? Do you need a ride to Trent¢s Grocery store. We had intended to walk there anywayso we went ahead and accepted his offer. Trent¢s grocery store is a small gas station convenience store, but they also have a little bit deli. Our thoughts were set on burgers.Ya know, I weighed myself at the hostel. I don¢t know what I started the trail at, but I do know what I was in Hot Springs and I have only lost 2.5 pounds since then. I wonder why? Let¢s see, a burger two days ago, a big steak dinner yesterday, another burger today. Nope, don¢t have a clue why the pounds aren¢t falling off faster! Oh, by the way, have you tried M and M almonds? They¢re great!!Ok, not everything I eat is junk, but if I feel like packing out that Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut Bar, then I do. I am just always hungry and for the first time in a long time I don¢t feel guilty about eating chocolate! What a sweet reward for hiking my butt off!Trent¢s burgers were fine, but not as awesome as the one two days ago.Afterwards we walked the half mile back to the trail head and resumed our hike. The weather was lovely and the terrain was favourable. There is a fable that experienced thru hikers like to pass on to newbies. I had found out about it while researching the AT, so I knew enough not to fall for it when it was passed on to me. The fable is that Virginia is flat. Don¢t believe it. We have climbed many steep mountains in Virginia. However a good long stretch of our hike today actually was relatively flat. There were rocks and muddy bogs, roots, blow downs and all of the usual obstacles, but not much in the way of climbing until the very end of the day. In the last two miles we ascended a big hill. At mile 620 I collapsed into an exhausted pile and that is where we called it a day. Someone on Guthooks had noted that there was a good view of the sunrise from here, but all I saw were trees.
Date: 2018-05-26
From: Landfill Road

To: Mile 653.6
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: moderate rain

I usually do a foot inspection every night. Last night I found a small rash on my ankle. This morning it had blistered. Not really sure what it was, but fearing the worst I covered it with KT tape to keep it contained. The only things I know about poison ivy are that it blisters, it spreads and it is itchy!My foot inspection also revealed bruising on the top of my right foot along the base of my toes. I have no idea what would be the cause of that. There is a reason that they tell you to wait for two weeks once you decide to give up the trail. That reason is because of days like today. It just sucked. Less than an hour into our hike it began to rain. And rain. And rain. My heels were hurting. Then my ankle started to itch. My right boot became a sloshy wet mess almost immediately and so it wasn¢t too long before the entire foot ached. We sat in Rice Field Shelter for a good long while staring out at the rain and willing it to stop. That didn¢t work so we ate lunch and trudged on.The rain stopped around 2 in the afternoon, but by then I was so wet and miserable that there was no turning my grumpiness around....and no way to dry my feet so they would stop aching. I need to get my footwear sorted! There will be a lot more rain between here and Maine and I don¢t want to keep whining about feet that are aching from being wet. Well actually, I won¢t be whining because I¢ll be throwing in the towel. There actually was one short time today when I wasn¢t miserable. I sat down to rest just as the rain was letting up. An older lady, coming from the other direction, was taking a seat to rest too. She clearly wasn¢t a backpacker, with her thin see through rain poncho and her mason jar of drinking water. I asked her where she was headed to. Back on the trail a way we had seen yellow police tape blocking off a section in the trees. She told us that behind this police line there is a tree sitter. The man sitting in the trees is trying to stop a pipe line from going through. The woman was on her way to try to smuggle food to the tree sitter. She spent some time explaining to me why she supports him, including how a chunk of her farm land was taken from her (with no compensation) for the use of the pipeline. I think that the reason that I was able to not be miserable as I sat and listened to her story is because for the first time all day I was not thinking about myself. After we had parted ways, I continued to think about her for a time, but then my thoughts turned back to grumpy old me with my sore feet and I was miserable once again.We weren¢t exactly sure where we were aiming to get to. A few hikers we had lunch with said that they were going to Pine Swamp Branch Shelter even though it was closed. We considered this briefly, but when I spied a flat piece of ground under a soft bed of needles my feet decided that they were done. That¢s it. No more. Not one more step.....until tomorrow.
Date: 2018-05-27
From: Mile 653.6

To: Campsite at mile 669.4
Miles today: 15.9
Weather: light rain

Too tired to type much today. There was only a little bit more rain during the day, but both of us had wet feet all day. Then it dumped on us again in the evening. The rash on Cole¢s toes has returned, so we are now confident that it is from hiking with wet feet. His boots have holes and we need to replace them ASAP. He still has a positive spirit. I think that sometimes he is stronger than I am.The rain gets me down.
Date: 2018-05-28
From: Campsite at mile 669.4

To: Niday Shelter
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: overcast clouds

The trail took its tole on us again today. At first I thought that it was only beating on me. We had some very steep climbs, more rocks and even cliffs. My knees and toes were complaining. Despite the rash on his toes, Cole seemed to be doing great, as always. The sun shone in the morning, but in the afternoon on and off drizzle kept the ground and rocks wet. Then Cole fell. I didn¢t see it thankfully because it would have scared me to death. He said that his pole protected him from bashing his face and his arm on a rock, but he limped away with a sore foot and a broken trekking pole. He is rather upset about the pole. Better a broken pole than a broken Cole, I say. He walked with me for a little bit after he had fallen saying that he couldn¢t go fast with only one pole. He picked up speed soon enough though and passed me as always. The shelter was only a couple of miles away. Once there he was concerned that his foot was a bit swollen and was worried about whether he could hike. My knees were doing a lot of throbbing and secretly I was wondering the same thing about myself. I guess that we will both have to wait and see what the morning brings.Oh, and we are rope less. It seems that it was left behind at the last campsite. We have no way to hang our food tonight.
Date: 2018-05-31
From: LambertÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Meadow Shelter

To: Daleville VA
Miles today: 9.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Ugh! What a night. Eventually I had to pull out my quilt because I became cold. I woke up numerous times and kept myself awake constantly feeling around my air mattress to make certain that nothing was touching the tent walls. We had a hard time getting up in the morning, which wasn¢t surprising. What was surprising was that we had managed to keep our sleeping clothes and covers dry. When we emerged from our tent we found that new streams had formed around us. The shelter was not full last night and Cole had mumbled a few times that we should have stayed in it. I was thinking the same thing but hadn¢t voiced it. However, when I popped by the shelter on my way to the privy the occupants told me that they had been plagued by small flying insects all night long and hadn¢t slept a wink. Hmm...what would have been worse, the flood or the gnats? Well, really it didn¢t matter because no matter what was thrown at me there was one thing keeping me smiling and sane today. Daleville! Today we were go into Daleville. We didn¢t feel the need to rush. We only had just over nine miles to hike. My boots were a wet mess so I pulled out my plastic bags again. Of course my socks were damp so all the bags did was minimize the sloshing. Cole didn¢t want bags on his feet and even wouldn¢t let me put body glide on his flaming red swollen toes. I really hope they heal quickly once we get him new boots. The trail was mostly good to us today with some long flat stretches. There was a bit of climbing up to Hay Rock. The miles ticked by quickly at first and then slowly in the end, but just after lunch we arrived in Daleville. Time for rest and rejuvenation!
Date: 2018-06-01
From: Daleville VA

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

We have had a very productive day and a half of rest. Um, that sounds like an oxymoron. Productive rest days? Yup, that is exactly what zeros are. Here is what we did in a nutshell:Yesterday-showered -went to the outfitter and bought Cole new boots and sox. I got an inflatable pillow.-ate pizza-did laundry (Cole played on the iPod)-aired out the tent-updated journal and Instagram Today-Buffet breakfast in the hotel-Took some cold weather clothes to the UPS store and mailed them home.-Got the prescriptions filled that the trail angel doc had written for me. (my face has not cleared up yet)-shopped for our food Resupply.-soaked in the bathtub for a loooong time.-had an afternoon nap. (Cole was mostly on the iPod)-went to Bojangles for dinner-packed our backpacks in preparation for tomorrow.-continued to update my journal and InstagramOh, and one more thing. At Kroger they gave us three itty bitty little suction cup super hero figures. We decided to hide them around the hotel room. We giggled, wondering if the cleaning staff would find them, if they would be a surprise for the next guest, or if they would stay here hidden forever. If you find yourself in room 305 at the Howard Johnson in Daleville VA, see if you can find them. lol
Date: 2018-06-02
From: Daleville VA

To: HarveyÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Knob Overlook
Miles today: 16.0

As we were leaving our hotel room, the cleaning staff were headed in. We shared a secret little laugh, wondering if they were going to find the toys we had hidden. Sometimes it is just the silly little shared moments like that which can determine your attitude. I needed all the silly little uplifting moments I could get because as we were headed out of our warm, dry hotel room, it was drizzling. Drizzle is actually ok. It keeps the temperature down, and once we are in among the trees, most of it misses us. however I have found that drizzle is quite often the precursor to heavier rainfall.I tried something new this morning...hiking while listening to an audio book. I do like to hear what is going on around me, so I only put in one ear bud. I enjoyed it and it made time go by faster. When the drizzle turned to heavier rainfall, I put the book away.I had plastic bags in my boots which kept my feet dry for most of the day. When we stopped for the day and Cole took his new boots off, he was excited to report that his sox were only sweaty and his toes were looking and feeling much better. We had to set the tent up in the rain so the floor inside was wet by the time we got the fly on. We do have an absorbent cloth specifically for moments like this, and it was actually dry and useful for cleaning up the water today. Before I did laundry in Daleville, it had been constantly wet for a long time and not useful for much.Once the floor was cleaned up, we crawled inside our dry little sanctuary. We had almost no water, so cooking was out of the question. We ate sandwich rounds with bacon and cheese on them. The cheese was already a little bit sweaty from the humidity. Eventually the rain stopped but the trees above us dripped dripped dripped on the tent all night long.
Date: 2018-06-04
From: Bryant Ridge Shelter

To: Marble Spring Campsite
Miles today: 17.1

We were up very early in the morning today. Everyone had been talking about the long steep climb that was ahead of us. For 9 miles most of the trail went up up up at a steep incline. It tired me out very quickly. Fr¤ulein hiked with me for a while again today, slowing down her pace to match mine as we climbed the steep mountain. I tired out long before she did and finally had to sit down to take a break. She told me that every year she travels to Spain to hike a Camino. I didn¢t know that there was more than one Camino. She said that the most popular Camino is not the most beautiful Camino. We hiked through the guillotine today which is a rock hallway of sorts with a large bolder on top that looks as though it is threatening to come down on your head. It is a popular spot for photos. We stopped for lunch at Thunder Hill Shelter and sat down at the picnic table with a section hiking couple. The wife was going through her food bag seemingly irritated and mumbling about too much weight.¢Do you want some snickers bars?¢ She asked, tossing three down onto the table.I replied with something like ¢My Son is always happy to have more snacks.¢She added three more snickers bars to the pile. Then she pulled out three protein bars and added those. Next came some packages of cheese crackers, a dehydrated dinner and a bag of beef jerky. A bag of trail mix topped the pile and finally she was done. ¢Do you need fuel?¢ She asked, pulling out a large canister. I had to decline that.Cole was thrilled and had gobbled up a pack of crackers and two snickers bars before I swept the pile into our food bags for later. We should hang out with section hikers more often! The afternoon¢s hike was easier than the morning¢s. We arrived to a packed saddle at Marble Spring. As I cooked dinner, a curious young fawn skirted the perimeter of the campsite, perhaps intrigued by all of the tents. She disappeared into the trees in one direction, but soon returned and cast her curious eyes our way as she casually passed by heading the opposite way. She never returned after that.
Date: 2018-06-05
From: Marble Spring Campsite

To: Bluff Mountain
Miles today: 16.6
Weather: broken clouds

It was another beautiful day for hiking today and most of the morning hike was gentle and down hill. Our plan was to Resupply in Glasgow and get right back out again. The only hitch was....we had to hitch. It is 5.9 miles from the trail into Glasgow. We haven¢t hitchhiked yet, but it is common on the trail for hikers to do this to get to town. Our closest experience was asking people for a ride when we were trying to get to Gatlinburg. Last night Fr¤ulein told me a funny story about her hitchhiking experience. The spot she came out to the road at from the trail did not appear to be a good place to hitchhike so she walked up the road a ways in the opposite direction that she wanted to go and found a pull out which seemed like a better place to hitchhike. A car pulled over and the driver told her that he could only take her a short way. She thought he said 3 miles but in actuality he said .3 of a mile. He ended up driving her right back to the spot on the road where she had come off the trail. When we reached US 501 I stuck out my thumb. I was actually on the opposite side of the road to what I should have been on, but due to the curve of the road and the lack of a shoulder, I chose the safer side.It took about 20 minutes before a truck pulled over. His wife was hiking the AT and he and their five year old twins were following along pulling a travel trailer. I sat in the back with the chatty five year olds. A third hiker showed up needing a ride, so he joined Cole in the front seat. Not only did our driver take us in to the Dollar General, but he brought us back to the trail as well. We had talked about having lunch in town, but couldn¢t say no to a guaranteed ride back to the trail. I really didn¢t want to have to hitchhike again if I could avoid it. Our afternoon hike was not nearly as gentle as our morning hike had been. It was steep. The afternoon wore on slowly as we climbed. Even Cole was getting tired out. At one point we sat resting together on a rock, scratching each other¢s backs. With our daily mileage goal, often we are not aiming for a shelter or marked campsite, but just hoping to find a spot to set up near our mileage destination. Today we were hoping for something near Saltlog Gap. We were both exhausted by the time we reached the Gap, but all we could find was one small campsite that was already occupied by a sleeping hammocker. We had to keep going. Up we went some more, climbing all the way up Bluff mountain. It was a beautiful view, and just before the top, down a somewhat overgrown trail, there was a grass covered clearing with room for a dozen tents. It was perfect.
Date: 2018-06-08
From: The Priest Summit

To: Maupin Field Shelter
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: broken clouds

Roberts and Fr¤ulein set out very early this morning. They are both on a tight schedule to get to Harpers Ferry. Fr¤ulein has a short visa and will be going home. Roberts hiked the AT last year with his wife, but had to stop due to injury around mile 1300. This year he started all over again, but his wife didn¢t want to redo what she had already done. She is meeting him at Harpers Ferry and they will continue on from there together.There were lots of rocky climbs and descents today. I sometimes think that Virginia is trying to prepare us for what is to come in Pensilvania. We stopped for the day at Maupin Field Shelter, a couple of miles short of our goal. My guidebook said that approx 1.7 miles from this shelter there was a cabin resort that had a country store and deli on site. Not one to ever want to walk extra miles, I did have strong motivation to get to that store. We were almost out of toilet paper. I have been taking an antibiotic since our stop in Daleville to try to get the infection on my skin cleared up. Unfortunately I¢ve been experiencing some side effects. I need toilet paper. Well, I need more than that, but for now, TP would help. Cole was almost out of snacks too and I had decided that ¢deli¢ must include hamburgers, and I wanted one. Cole agreed. We set up the tent and leaving everything but our raincoats behind, we headed down a forest service road, following the directions in the guidebook. It rained briefly. Wet and smelly we arrived at Royal Oaks Cabins. There was nobody around but a big banner said Hiker and Biker entrance. That made us slightly less concerned about our appearance and we headed that way. Finally we found a building that said Country Store on the front and we went inside. There was one shelf laden with a jumbled assortment of grocery type items, but no toilet paper. A white board had a list of deli items that you could order. Ham burgers were on the list. With a price of only $3 I assumed that they would be fairly small, so we both ordered a sandwich to go along with it. ¢Sorry, we are out of burgers.¢We ordered hotdogs instead and stocked up on snacks.The food was ok, certainly better than what we would have whipped up back at camp. With full bellies we retraced our way back to camp. I headed to bed while Cole hung around the campfire with section hikers eating s¢mores.
Date: 2018-06-09
From: Maupin Field Shelter

To: Paul C Wolfe Shelter
Miles today: 15.8

First thing in the morning I grabbed our small amount of remaining TP and dashed to the privy to take care of business. Sitting there on the ledge beside the privy was a glorious roll of nearly new quilted two ply. On two previous occasions I have found toilet paper in the privy, however both times it had been ravaged by mice. This roll was in pristine condition. Amazing! Around my mostly empty roll I wound as much as I felt we required to get us to Waynesboro and left the remainder for the next needy soul.There was more climbing and more rocks, but also sunshine and lovely views. Our backpacks were light which meant that our food supply was low, but Cole was stocked up on snacks and our bellies were content.In the late afternoon the sky began to rumble. Quite a few hikers who we hadn¢t seen for a while wizzed on by us headed into town. One hiker named Pika slowed for a bit and we walked together for the last mile and a half to the shelter. It made the time fly by quickly. We talked about the¢Virginia Blues¢. A lot of people seem to be feeling them, myself included.At the shelter Cole and I finished setting up the tent just as the clouds let loose the torrent they had been threatening. At this particular shelter the roof extended out over a deck to make a covered seating area. At most shelters only the sleeping area is covered. We cooked our dinner at the picnic table and chatted with the three other thru hikers and half a dozen section hikers who were there. We have been encountering a lot more section hikers lately. With the thru hikers we talked about the people we knew who had quit the trail (given up on thru hiking), and the people we wondered about because we had not seen them in a long time.¢It should be like The Hunger Games,¢ someone suggested. ¢Whenever a person quits, a cannon should go off and their image should appear in the sky.¢Shortly thereafter an incredibly loud cracking sound jerked us all to attention. Through the canopy of the trees not far away we saw a tree toppling. There was no final crash, thud or any sound indicating the tree had hit the ground. It must have been caught in the arms of the trees that surrounded it. I am certain it will make its grand finale when the limbs, branches or even trunks that are supporting it give way. Nobody ventured over to check it out. ¢There is your cannon shot,¢ I said. Somebody must have quit the trail.¢The rain petered out and I retreated to the tent for the night. Cole followed shortly after.