morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-08-31
From: Poplar Ridge Lean-to

To: Lodge on Sugarloaf
Miles today: 10.9

Lodge on Sugarloaf 10.9 miles, mile 1975.7It was a wild night of intense thunder and lightning, and it rained light I have never seen rain come down. At some point I lost track of when the rain stopped and what was the sound of water rushing down the little brook in front of the shelter and now a torent of water. The rain had mostly stopped by morning luckily. After a few miles we came upon a stream to ford. What must usually be a simple crossing was a frightening challenge. I was happy to see Flip-flop changing into his sandals. I did not want to cross tis thing without some one around to help me should I get into trouble. Flip-flop crosed first, he is a fairly big guy a former army Ranger and he did not look like he was having a good time. I started after he made it to the oter side. I figured my shoes where already wet so I went right in. The water on top of the stones that you usually stepped across was knee deep. It was a bit hairy but made it without incident. I waited for Meanderthal to show up and make it across. He cut straight across and was hiking in thigh deep water. Therewas a lot of mudd to continue to slogg through. At the next shelter, the threeof us[Flip-flop, Meanderthal, and I] again ran into each other. It was starting to cool off even though it was still overcast we agreed that the weather was changing and any change was better. I decided that I would join the guys and aim to stay on top of Sugarloaf Mtn. There is a lodge on top that was abandoned by the ski resort but they leave open for hikers. Well the day starting getting better. The wind picked up and suddenly the clouds cleared out just as the summit came into view. The lodge was not iin the greatest shape but it had four walls with windows all around and electricty. There was one lightbuld, a microwave, and a radio. I got in early and actually made headway on catching up on my journal, although I am still a week behind. The wind was howeling but we were well protected and it served to quickly dry off our wet gear. There were some fantastic views of the surrounding mountains and Meanderthal thought he could see Katahdin. I tired so Iwent to bed early.
Date: 2004-09-01
From: Lodge on Sugarloaf

To: Horns Pond Lean-tos
Miles today: 15.7
Weather: broken clouds

Horns Pond Lean-tos 15.7 miles, mile 1991.7 on ATI woke in the middle of the night and I thought that someone had turned on thelights. The moon was full and shining through the window, it was amazinglybright. I wanted to get up and look out but instead I fell back asleep. I wokebefore sunrise and got to see the moon heading down. Sunrise was just asspectacular. As the clouds cleared out in better light Meanderthal convinced me that I was looking at Katahdin and it was a great feling to see the end of the journey at the edge of the horizon. I woke feeling really rested and full of energy. I zoomed. There was a big down and than back up to two 4,000 footers. I got to the top of the first South Crocker and I could not believe I was thetop. I started to think that if I kept up this pace I migt have time to hitchinto town at the next road crossing. I zoomed up the second Crocker and started down. About half-way down. I took a rest and talked to a SOBO who was seeming despondent. It has seemed like the last several SOBO's have been thirsting for conversation. After a bit of a rest I flew down the mountain moon. I promised myself that if I hit the road by 1:00 PM I would try to hitch into town but only give half an hour to hitch. I hit the road at 12:56. There was Flip-flop who had been trying to get a ride for an hour and a half. The last time I had seen Flip-flop hitching he got a ride as Ipassed by. So I joined in and said I would show him how it was done. He didnot seem amused, but in ten minutes a truck stopped and Flip-flop put up withme. it was a quick stop, phone and food. Specifically, one 14" pizza, a soda,and a pint of Ben&Jery's New York Super Fudge Chunk. Not bad for an hour in town. I started walking out of town I saw Flip-flop half a mile ahead. I startedhitching and after a short while a car pulls over with a familliar face. BobO'Brian who owns the lodge in Rangeley stops. He was helping a section hker drop off his car. Bob picks me up and in a short bit we stop to pick up Flip-flop. We bid Bob thanks and goodbye again. Flip-flop takes off and I slog up the Bigelow ridge. I feel good full of food and before long I am looking down on the beautiful pond with the Horn of Bigelow Mtn rising above it. I catch up with Meanderthal at the shelter. There is a crowd of NOBOs, SOBOs, and section hikers but two shelters so room for all. Whether it is the altitude or a change in the weather but it cools off prettyfast. I mae a bet with a section hiker Rick, from Philidelphia, about what themorninngs temperature will be. I say 34 and he says 38 and we agree to a twodegree spread, with 36 degrees being a wash. The bet is for a snixkers bar, so a serious bet by hiker standards.
Date: 2004-09-02
From: Horns Pond Lean-tos

To: Little Bigelow Lean-to
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: clear sky

Little Bigelow Lean-to 10.2 miles, mile 2001.6 on ATI woke up in the middle of the night and the moon was again shining so brightyou did not need a light. I checked the temperature and it was 40 degrees. Ifigured I was going to lose the bet. I woke again at 6:00 AM and it feltsignificantly colder. when I checked the temperature it was 36 on the dot, atie. I had Meanderthal confirm so that when Rick got up I would havecorroberation. I knew it was a short day so i made some tea and huddled back in my sleeping bag. There was clouds hanging on the peak and no one was verymotivated to move. It was not till after 9:00 that we got rolling. As I madeit to the first peak the clouds were still blowing out. By the time I made itto the next higher peak the sky was crystal clear. We could see out over thelast several days of hiking. In the distance to the south on the horizon wasthe Presidential Range and there to the north looking equally far away wasclearly Mt. Katahdin. Thee peaks were a bit crowded as there were several college groups out hiking. From the highest peak the view were evenbetter. I think that the Bigelow's were the most spectacular of the whole trip. I took a nice long lunch than headed on. The rest of the day was walking the lower part of the ridge. there continued to be views although not as spectacular. i pulled into the shelter and there was a familliar face. It was Millipied who had flip-floped up to Katahdin and was heading south. I had not seen him since Vermount. Meanderthal and I pumped him with questions about the trail. I did not even realize that we had passed the 2,000 mile mark until later in the evening when I was looking at my guide. That does fel nice though, 2,000 miles.
Date: 2004-09-03
From: Little Bigelow Lean-to

To: Pierce Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Pierce Pond Lean-toI woke early and again caught the beautiful moon now just past full. Down themountain I passed the edge of a large lake the fog was hanging over the waterand several islands were just in sight. The sun was breaking through it was abeautiful scene. Soon I crossed a road and there in the middle of the road waspainted 2000 miles, a wonder sight. The trail was mostly flat, and passedseveral beautiful ponds. I reached the first shelter and took a long break. There was a copy of the book The Hobbit. I made the mistake of picking it upand before I knew it I had blown 45 minutes. I love the fact that the beginingis about an adventure, as I feel I am on a big adventure. There were morebeautiful ponds, and one had a wonderful little stretch of white sand. I satfor awhile on the beach. There was a woman on the beach, whose trail name isBlueberry. I was going to head on but Blueberry said "it would be a travesty not to get in the water" on a beautiful day. So I took my shoes off and walked out a ways. The water was cooler than the last pond I had swam in, so I decided not to go for a dive. It was not long before I reached Pierce Pond. This is the most beautiful pond I have seen on the trail. I met Bush Pilot an older guy who had done the AT, PCT, and parts of the CDT inyears past. I took a dive in the pond as I was feling pretty dirty so it was arefreshing dip. The place filled up pretty quick, Took, Grass, and Blueberryshowed up. Meanderthal went and made breakfast reservations. There is a lodgeright beyond the shelter that serves up breakfast if you make a reservation. Isat by the pond and watched the light of day fade away. Bush Pilot entertainedme with tales of when he flew up to Alaska and flew his single engine planearound for several months.
Date: 2004-04-23
From: US 58 STRAIGHT BRANCH

To: Damascus, Va. City park
Miles today: 5.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Okay it's another night at the Maples bed and breakfast. It's like having your own private Suite. There's no one else staying here in any other room. So the bathroom was ours alone. Woke up this morning about 5 till 7 a.m. Shave my legs in the bathroom because there's no worry about other people coming in. And we went down and had breakfast. It was only Terry and I. Another fantastic meal, French toast, scrambled eggs, bacon all sorts of side treats, fried apples, chocolate cake and tomatoes. The French toast was different than I've ever had with pecans and cinnamon. It was all really really good . We were finished by 8:30 am, and walk down the street to the bicycle rental shop. We rented two bikes and a shuttle up to White Top Station for the Virginia Creeper Trail. It's a 17 Mile ride back to town and a ride we really enjoyed. We got to ride up with Junior in his Cherokee Laredo. He told us lots of stories about hunting, fishing, hikers and the ramp plant (wild onion). The White Top Station was not open when we first got up there at 10 till 10 am. But the lady who runs it showed up right as we were about to take off, and we went on in to learn the railroad history. The lady wanted to tell us all the history of the railroad and more information than we could remember. We took off and biked along and rested and biked some more and came to where the Appalachian Trail joined in.  The bike ride down you don't even have to pedal.We finally get down to Taylor's Valley and there's a little cafe along the side of the trail. It started to drizzle so we went into the cafe and had ice cream and waited out the rain. We did have to put our rain gear on for the last 5 miles into town, as it continued to rain. When we got to town it stopped raining, so we rode on over to the city park and the Appalachian Trail welcome sign.We took some pictures there. We got the bikes back to the bike station at 1:40pm. They had called up to Taylor Valley cafe to see if we were waiting for the rain to stop, they were going to come pick us up. We told them we have rain gear, no problem. So then we picked up some Subways and went back to Maples and ate the sweet chicken teriyaki on the porch. So we got ready to hike and took a car up on US 58 at Straight Branch, for the hike back into Damascus. We got on the trail at 2:55 p.m. By 3:55 we were up at the Iron Mountain trail junction. We passed Buckeye, who we had seen start off this morning north of Damascus on one of the flatter sections. Talk to Buckeye for a few minutes and then a few more guys walked by. We just said hi to them and then a few more guys came by that we just said hello too. And we finally came out to the steps into Damascus on US 58 at 5:16 p.m. It was a 5.6 mile hike today. We have to walk thru town to Damascus City park to complete our hike, then we'll possibly stop by Mount Rogers Outfitters. Another night at Maples B and B.
Date: 2004-04-25
From:  Va. 600, Elk Garden

To: Grayson Highlands, Massie Gap
Miles today: 9.5

April 25th 2004. We woke up, had breakfast on our picnic table, at Grindstone Campground. Drove on up to Elk garden, VA 600, and got on the trail at 8:50 am. We dropped off our rental car at Massie Gap yesterday. It starts out you go up on a meadow and it's real nice. And on into the woods and down to a gap. Back up and you get a giant view of another meadow. Looks like some snow on the other Mountain, that's all we could figure out. We went by the trail that goes to Mount Rogers, we decided we didn't want to do it right now. Then we went over to the Thomas Knob shelter. There was a lady sitting in the shelter having lunch. We stopped and talked to her. It was 11:18 a.m. when we got there, and almost 12 noon when we left. The lady was 66 years old and trying to thru-hike the entire Trail. Her Trail name is GG, and her real name is Arlene from Missouri, east of Springfield Missouri, Near Branson. She talked about, a lot of her friends have had to get off the trail since Springer Mountain. Her friend Woody had to get off the trail. Because her 73 year old husband needed her back at home, she was only 53 . That was a bad time for GG, which stands for great grandma. She was interviewed at Miss Janet's in Erwin Tennessee by the local TV station. And a lot of other hikers have seen that interview. So now she has a reputation on the trail like a celebrity . So we left there and continued on. There were very rocky areas, And some knobs. And finally we started to see some ponies, For a total of 15 ponies for the day. They were always grouped in groups of three. We kept going and we talked about how it would have been closer to have come up Massie Gap, instead of the spur Trail. Some sign said the spur Trail was a mile, where Massie Gap might have only been a half mile. So we finally came around, came on down, and got to the car at 3:05 pm. And now we're headed out. Grindstone campground again tonight.
Date: 2004-04-29
From: USFS 86 Glade Mt road

To: VA 617
Miles today: 8.5

We spent last night at the Relax Inn. And we saw GG(Arlene), so we talked to her, she was celebrating being 1/4 complete, with some of the older hikers there. Possibly Lead Dog was there. GG had been up to buy some sandwiches and brought them back to her room. We went out to the Barn for supper and had to hurry back so Cindy could watch television, The West Wing. Today is April 29th, Thursday.We got up at 6 this morning. Shuttled 1 car up to Virginia 617, north of I-81. Came on up to Glade Mt road, USF 86, And got on the trail at 7:10. A fantastic morning, nice and cool. We hiked up Glade Mountain, Berkeley Bill came along and talked to us for a while , got up to a Chatfield shelter at 8:42 a.m. There was Stumblebum and Add Rock. At first we just said good morning, then started reading the trail Journal. Then we asked if we had met them before, and they said yeah 2 nights ago at a shelter, and we said, oh yeah. Stumblebum seems to be a purist, he made his hiking rules up before he started, no blue blazing or yellow blazing (Highway), but hiking all the White blazes. He will do a shelter Loop if there is one. Left there at 9:07 am, and now at 10:00am we came out to the Settlers Museum, went inside but didn't have a time for a tour. We came out on US 11 there by the Dairy Queen and the Relax Inn and the Old Barn At 11:17 a.m. We ran into Silver a little while back on the trail, I talked to him for a while, he was looking for Berkeley Bill. We walked on under the interstate 81 to our car on VA 617. We got to our car at 11:47 a.m. We drove back to Glade Mt road, got our first car, changed clothes. Take everything out of the rental car and got ready to drop the rental car back off at the rental place. Time to go home and cut the grass and water the plants.
Date: 2004-05-13
From:  Va. 611

To: Va. 612, Kimberling Creek
Miles today: 8.1

So again last night we spent at the big Walker hotel in Bland, Virginia. I got to watch The West Wing, but it wasn't any good. So today is Thursday May 13th. And we got up at 7:28 am, we're on the go at 7:40 am. Stopped and got some milk and drove over to Virginia 612. And had our breakfast there, and then drove down to Virginia 611 to start our hike On Kimberly Creek. May have been Slide Mountain Road. We got on the trail at 8:50 a.m. We weren't out there five minutes when we passed Homeboy, who said he was having some pain in his butt area. So he had stopped early at a shelter yesterday. He said we should be seeing four elderly hiking gentleman today, before too long. So now we've been going up and down and seeing some beautiful Flaming Azaleas. We took a short break from 9:55 to 10:15 a.m. We found the first gentleman resting on the trail, Papa Quick, their group is section hiking to Pearisburg. His son through hiked north to south in 1999. The second guy was called the Professor. The third guy was 81 years old and he said, ¢why do you need a trail name¢. We said it gives you something to talk about. And the fourth guy was named Mel from Louisville. They are doing this 93 mile section, which will complete the trail for the 81 year old guy. We were taking another rest at 11:35 p.m, when two guys walk by. The first guy asked, ¢what time is it¢, which we told him. The second guy says ¢do you have a monkey on your head, or is that your hair¢, and kept walking . So we hope we're only two miles from the car . There have been a lot of nice old logging roads to hike on today. We went by the Helveys Mill shelter turn off at 12:45. Then the trail started going down very steeply and down and down. And we came to the car at 1:25 pm. I think rain forecast stops us from doing any more hiking today.  We had plans to hike another 4.3 miles, but we sat at the trailhead waiting for the rain to stop, and finally decided not to hike. We waited a good half-hour with our boots on, while relaxing in the car, but finally we gave up. We got back to the motel at 4 or so. I think we looked outside at 5:30 p.m, and we could see the Interstate 77 was totally blocked, and no traffic was moving. There was cops down there. It was still raining. we went to DQ, had supper, bought a USA Today, brought it back to our room. it was still raining. We took another trip down to the interstate, just to watch the policeman yell at anybody who tried to pull onto the Interstate from the side road. They all had to go around and everybody was mad at the cop. And they were just parking their trucks down there at the gas station and the Dairy Queen. There had been a tunnel fire on the interstate, but finally the cop just left and trucks and cars started to get up on the interstate. And sure enough, jammed it up completely again until late, when it finally started to clear.
Date: 2004-05-17
From: Va 613

To: Va 635, Stoney Creek
Miles today: 5.2

Today is Monday May 17th, It's our last day and we're trying to get in a 5.2 mile hike. Last night at the hotel there were a number of hikers and some with dogs. We did see Suds, from the Wapiti shelter, walking across the street when we got there. It appears some hikers are back from Damascus Trail Days, because there is more drinking, dancing and wildness at the hotel. Nothing that affected us at all. We decided to do the 5.2 mile hike, because it gives us time to get back to the hotel, before checkout, so we can shower, before the trip home. It was hard finding the trail Crossings on the VA 613 road but we finally got the trail located at 8:00am. So now we're on our way from Virginia 613 to Virginia 635, Cherokee Flats. The trail has been very rocky on top. Kind of slow going and on a hillside. We met Tree Frog, a guy we met way back on Virginia 615. And we talk more about sandals and foot pain and toes. He said Homeboy was somewhere up ahead now. He uses Merrell sandals. We talked about Go-light and materials for hiking. Tree Frog had been telling us about a hiker Mr.Cotton, that's why we were talking materials. We met Strider 60 up the trail. We told him we were from Belleville Illinois and he said, yeah I lived there for 6 years. He was stationed at Scott Air Force Base back then. One of his kids lives in Wildwood, south of Smithton. So he knew our area very well. He now lives in Charlotte, South Carolina . So he's hiking the trail a month at a time starting when he was 60 years old. Coming down the mountain we talk to a couple for about 10 minutes. Their Trail names were Huff and Puff. They are backpacking the trail 1 week per year and they're 25% done After 11 years. Next year they're going to finish Virginia and then his wife retires, and they'll do the final thousand miles in one year. As soon as they left, Cindy had to do her Duty, and I went ahead on the trail and told Cindy,¢ I can see a shelter up here¢. Cindy said,¢ I wish I had known that¢. We get to the shelter and there's a guy there who's Trail name was HeatMiser. We're at the Bailey Gap shelter. Cindy remembers seeing his name back at the motel, and he said yeah, he had stayed there Saturday night. He knew most of the hikers weve seen in the last few weeks. He got his name when complaining about cold weather, and said he loved the heat so much more. We left the shelter at 11:30 a.m and knew we had to hurry back to our motel room. So the trail was much easier now, and we moved rapidly down the hill, and came out to our car at 12 noon. We picked up our other car at Va 613 and hurried back to the hotel, needing to be there before 1:00 check out time. We went by a place called Mountain Lake Resort on the way. Got to highway 460 and back to our Hotel at 12:45 p.m. We took a quick shower and turned in our keys at 1:05 and gave our rental Impala a car wash. But it did rain on the way back to Beckley, we were lucky to not be hiking. Turn in our rental car and headed home to Belleville at 2:38 p.m.
Date: 2004-09-27
From: Pa. 850

To: Conodoguinet Creek, Sherwood Rd
Miles today: 6.3

What is a split hike? 2 or more separate hikes in same day.9/27/2004  Conodoguinet Creek, Sherwood Rd to Pa. 850 S 5.3miles9/27/2004  Conodoguinet Creek, Scott Farm to   Conodoguinet Creek, Sherwood Rd  N 1.0miles Today is September 27th 2004, we are doing a section in Pennsylvania. We got into Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and we picked up our rental car at 11:00am. We tried to find the Appalachian Trail at Scott Farm in Carlilse, Pa., but we couldn't find parking, so we park the car a mile up the trail at Conodoguinet Creek, Sherwood Rd. Drove around on Pa 850 over Blue Mountain to a parking lot, and got on the trail at 1:15pm. it's kind of a warm and humid day, and we go charging up Blue Mountain. Took about an hour to get on top of Blue Mountain. There's supposed to be a Darlington shelter up there, but it was torn down this year. They will replace it. There's a Crossing Trail at the top of the mountain. On the way up we saw an old Studebaker and a manure spreader off in the woods. So then we went over the top and down a little way. So there is a nice Stone bench with a view looking over the valley. It looks like a long way out to where our car was parked past Pa 944. So we get back on the trail and just charge down there. We met one guy with his dog coming up the hill hiking. Got down to Pa 944, but I don't know what time it was. A little after 3:00pm with heavy traffic from Rush Hour. Cross PA 944 and had about a mile to go to our car. We met a couple down at the Creek hiking the opposite way. They just told us about the rain damage ahead, down by the Big Creek, from the hurricane. And there was a big tree limb across one Bridge. Tree smashed it good. We went on down and got to our car about 3:45pm at Conodoguinet Creek, Sherwood Rd. Drove back, got our other car using Millers Gap Road shortcut to PA 850. Drop the Focus off at the Conodoguinet Creek, Sherwood Rd again, and drive to the Scott Work farm for the 1-mile walk back along the river and through the woods to the car. So we got done with that at about 5:20pm. Then we started driving out of there. Found a Walmart ,found a Subway, got some ice and drove to Pine Grove forest State Park. But they had no showers, so we drove to Caledonia State Park, had a nice shower. Started raining about midnight, rained all night, get up in the morning and have a flat tire on the Focus. That's where we are right now. That one mile section of the trail, we just did yesterday, is now officially closed, due to flooding. Luckily we got it done that day.