morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2014-05-22
From: Doc's Knob Shelter

To: Pearisburg
Miles today: 8.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Lou Gehrig, in his farewell speech at Yankee Stadium, proclaimed, "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." Well, that's about how I'm feeling right now. On my way down from Docs Knob Shelter to Pearisburg, I stopped to post yesterday's journal entry and found an email sitting in my inbox from my wife. Tor plans to fly down to DC next weekend, and she and her close friend, Helen, will drive south to meet me along the trail for a couple days. Prior to my AT hike, the longest we'd been apart since meeting 24 years ago was one week. Now it will have been over seven. I've been missing her badly and can't wait to see her in eight days. I also spoke by phone to my oldest son, Justin, and my daughter, Sonja today. So I'm feeling well-connected with my family right now. As I walked into town, Zig Zig, a combination section hiker and trail angel, asked me whether I needed a ride to Walmart for a resupply. I hopped in his truck and by noon had everything I need for the next five days on the trail. Later in the afternoon, Zig Zag left to offer hikers coming off the trail a lift into town and ended up assisting in the rescue of a thru-hiker who sprained his ankle up on the mountain.This afternoon I received an email from Vicki, who stumbled across my journal while reading her friend's daughter's PCT blog. Vicki, who lives farther north near Harper's Ferry, offered to provide trail magic when I pass by the half-way point in a few weeks.After covering 66 miles the last three days, I was feeling drained on the short, eight-mile hike down into town today. I'm staying at the hiker room at the Holiday Motor Lodge, which resembles a hospital scene out of a World War II movie. There at 17 beds in a room big enough to accommodate perhaps 18 tops with just enough space to navigate the aisles between the beds. I was the first one to arrive, but as hikers have dribbled in all afternoon, most of the beds are spoken for.In leaving Pearisburg tomorrow, I'll be moving to map AT-8 of 22.
Date: 2014-05-24
From: VA 613

To: Wind Rock
Miles today: 0.2

I slept in a real bed for the second night in a row last night. But rather than sharing a crammed hiker room with a bunch of rowdy thru-hikers drinking beer and playing rap music until midnight with a soda machine that illuminated the entire area like Times Square, I had my own queen-size bed and a private bathroom last night. The house Sparkle's mom rented is part of the upscale Mountain Lake Resort, where the movie Dirty Dancing was filmed.How do you go from hiking a marathon along a rocky mountain trail one day to taking your first yoga class the next? Another effect of the just-say-yes AT spirit, I suppose. I'd been considering taking up this activity for several years to help alleviate my chronic lower back pain as well as to improve my laughable lack of flexibility. So when Fay, Sparkle's sister's friend, who is staying in the lake house with us, spotted a yoga class on the resort's activity sheet, I was all in. Turns out yoga, which I used to jokingly refer to as yogurt to my wife, is harder than it looks. Much harder. The first stretch required that we reach down, knees straight, and touch our toes. When I managed to make it only to my kneecaps, none of the participants, all of whom but me were women, were able to suppress their snickers. At one point the instructor had to come over and help me contort my body into a particularly difficult position. About half way through the class, I found myself pining for the rocks, mud, and bugs of the AT. In short, my first yoga class was a painful, humbling experience. But the half-hour in the resort's hot tub afterward with Kimpossible helped sooth the pain to my body and ego and ward off any injuries I may have otherwise sustained twisting my body into all sorts of unnatural positions.We then returned to the lake house for our second gourmet meal of the day. And in the evening, Sparkle's mom, Sophia, served an awesome pasta dish along with salad and wine.Sparkle and Kimpossible dropped me back at the trail just before sunset, and after goodbye hugs, I walked up the trail 0.2 miles to the campsite at Wind Rock, thereby avoiding a zero, where I pitched my tent. I joined a dozen other people at the rock outcrop to watch the sunset before turning in. After two nights of relative luxury, I suspect I'm going to experience a period of readjustment in returning to my more rugged life on the trail.
Date: 2014-05-25
From: Wind Rock

To: Niday Shelter
Miles today: 23.1
Weather: overcast clouds

I SAW MY FIRST BEAR TODAY!! About a half-hour after I broke camp at Wind Rock, I was walking down the trail, lost in thought, when all of a sudden I spotted a huge, jet-black animal with a light-colored snout jogging across the trail about 30 yards from me. I recognized it instantly as a bear but was too stunned and amazed to have the presence of mind to pull out my iPhone for a quick picture. The bear was about four feet tall, six feet long, and had the girth of an NFL nose tackle, so I'm guessing it weighed about 300 pounds.When I started out in Georgia, the leaves weren't out yet, so there was little shade early in the trip, which is when I experienced some of the most oppressive days so far. I remember dropping down into Fontana Dam in North Carolina a few weeks later and, in the course of loosing a few thousand vertical feet in a couple of hours, witnessing the trees change from bare to fully covered with leaves. Now, even on the highest ridges, there are plenty of leaves and shade. Since entering Virginia, we've been crossing farms and fields on an almost daily basis, during which it gets significantly hotter due to the lack of shade. And the day I arrived in Pearisburg it felt at least 20 degrees warmer walking along the road into town than it had just before leaving the woods. The forecast for tomorrow is for highs pushing 90, so I'm hoping the trail stays mostly in the woods where it will be bearable.With my recent zeros for Trail Days and to visit Kimpossible and Sparkle at the lake house, I've dropped back into a different bubble of thru-hikers. I see notes in the shelter logs from AZ, ABear, and Bear Juice, who are all about two days ahead of me now. Tonight at the Niday Shelter I had dinner with Tigger, Wild Turkey, and Potato, who come from Ohio, Chicago, and Idaho, respectively.Since I was too slow on the trigger to record this morning's bear sighting, today's picture instead depicts some hiker humor I encountered on the trail a few days ago.
Date: 2014-05-26
From: Niday Shelter

To: Four Pines Hostel
Miles today: 16.8
Weather: few clouds

It seemed appropriate that on the morning of Memorial Day I found myself at the mountaintop memorial of America's most decorated World War II veteran. According to the engraving on the stone monument in his honor, Audie Leon Murphy served in the European Theatre, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division and earned 24 decorations, including the Medal of Honor, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Service Cross, and three Purple Hearts. He died in a plane accident in 1971 near the spot where I stood.Today I encountered more wildlife: two snakes, one of which was black and long enough to span the width of the trail, blocking my path. I could tell by the shape of its head that it wasn't poisonous, but I still had no intention of messing with it. So I attempted to give it a wide berth by passing it on the uphill side of the trail, at which point it slithered in that direction, allowing me to pass while staying on the trail.If it didn't hit 90 today, it came darn close. Not the best conditions for my planned 24-miler, particularly since it had a 14-mile stretch with no water source. At the start of that stretch, I filled up both water bottles and took a swim fully clothed in the river to maximize my potential for staying cool. But after covering the first five miles to Dragons Tooth, a 50-foot rock pinnacle that requires a rock scramble and plenty of nerve to reach the top, my first liter was gone, my clothes were dry, and my throat was parched. So when Wild Turkey suggested we make it a 16-mile day and stop at the Four Pines Hostel instead, she didn't have to ask me twice. The climb down from Dragons Tooth was trecherous, with metal hand holds pounded into the rock ledges in places, such that Hemlock had to lower Cormac, Wild Turkey's 75-pound wire-hair pointing griffin (a French hunting dog), down to Wild Turkey more than once. Potatoes, Hemlock, Wild Turkey, and I rolled into Four Pines around 4:00.The hostel is run by Joe Mitchel, an admitted former hippie, and is located on a farm complete with roosters, chickens, and alpacas, an animal in the llama family. Thru-hikers sleep on couches and cots in a huge garage-turned-bedroom. Since we arrived, Joe has been taking on and beating all comers in corn hole, a game that requires opponents to throw bean bags through a hole in a board from 50 feet.
Date: 2014-05-27
From: Four Pines Hostel

To: Ridge above Daleville
Miles today: 23.7

Someone needs to teach Joe Mitchel's rooster how to tell time. At 11:00 pm, just before the lights were turned off in the garage, the crazy bird crowed several times, and he repeated the act at at 3:00 and 4:00 am. But come daybreak, he made not a peep. Apparently he was off duty by then.Aside from a few folks who left just after midnight for some night hiking, I was the first person to depart from the Four Pines Hostel this morning. I don't quite understand the appeal of hiking in the dark. The one time I did it on this trip I found maintaining my footing along the rocky trail a bit precarious. But with the current heat wave we're experiencing, I suppose it's one way to walk when it's cool.A mile into the day, while crossing a field, I passed the official 700-hundred mile mark, signified by that number written on a post along with the AT symbol. It was six days ago that I hit 600 miles. Tomorrow I'll be one-third of the way to Katahdin.It's not surprising that McAfee Knob is the most photographed spot on the AT. When you can dangle your feet over the edge of the rock outcrop and take in the view of the valley dotted with farms thousands of feet below, it's hard not to be inspired. The view also gives you a feel for how this part of Virginia is dominated by long, parallel ridges, several of which the trail runs along. On my way up to the Knob, I heard thunder in the distance and worried that when I arrived at the summit there'd be no one there to take my picture. So I hiked at a near sprint in the midday sun, arriving at the top completely drenched. Fortunately, the storm never materialized, and a family out for a day hike was happy to photograph me on the famous overhanging rock. They were interested in how my trip was going, asked me all sorts of questions, and gave me the remainder of their food before leaving. Five miles farther along the ridge, Tinker Cliffs is almost as impressive, but with vertical rather than overhanging rock, not nearly as famous.Last weekend, I plotted a set of shelters to stay at in order to arrive at a suitable pick-up point on Friday when Tor and Helen arrive. Yesterday's short day due to the heat threw a wrench in the works, as it turns out there are no AT road crossings in the 30 miles leading up to the one I had originally selected. Therefore, I could stick with the original rendezvous point and somehow make up the miles or go three very short days leading up to Friday. I recognized this issue late this afternoon and decided to push on from the Lamberts Meadow Shelter after dinner and do some night hiking to recover part of the lost mileage. I stopped hiking a bit after 9:00, just as it got completely dark, and am tenting on a ridge a mile or two from Daleville, VA. I'm now about six miles short of the plan, which means I'll need to do a couple of 20+ days on Wednesday and Thursday.
Date: 2014-05-29
From: Cove Mountain Shelter

To: Thunder Hill Shelter
Miles today: 17.2
Weather: clear sky

I went to sleep last night worried about the pain in my knee and woke up with a lower back so stiff I could barely make it the 50 yards to the privy. I'm very familiar with this ailment from playing basketball and know it typically lasts a week or two. My main concern this morning was whether I could walk through the pain to cover the 32 miles between the shelter and tomorrow's mid-day rendezvous point with my wife, Tor, and her friend, Helen. The first mile this morning was unbearable, with every step causing a stabbing pain in my back. At one point I stopped to do sit ups, an exercise I do before basketball games to prevent this from happening in the first place. By three miles, my back had loosened up enough that I decided I could afford to make a .3-mile side-trip to the Jennings Creek swimming hole. And then a miracle occurred. After taking a quick dip and filtering two liters of water, I walked away from that creek pain free and with greatly lifted spirits!I had stopped at the top of the first climb of the day for a quick snack and to write the paragraph above when AZ passed by. Having stayed one shelter farther to the south than me last night, it meant he'd made up 6.5 miles on me by 11:00 am. We agreed to meet a couple miles up the trail for lunch at the next shelter. After lunch, AZ led us up the big, 3500-foot climb of the day, and I struggled mightily to keep from being dropped. Aside from his being an extremely strong hiker, AZ was feeling good today, while I was dragging from my previous two long days. On the less steep sections, we managed to hold a conversation, from which I found out he and his wife have been to a dozen or so Caribbean islands and once went on a guided rappelling trip down a waterfall on the island of Dominica. He also invited me to Arizona for a weekend this October for his annual Grand Canyon rim-to-rim hike. Today was the first time since Dragons Tooth that I spent significant time hiking with another person. The majority of thru-hikers, including myself, seem to prefer to hike alone and meet up with others at mountain tops and shelters for meals and companionship in the evenings. Part of it is that it's hard to hike at someone else's pace for significant periods, and part is that thru-hikers tend to fall on the introverted end of the spectrum.At 4:30, AZ and I arrived at the Thunder Hill Shelter, and I'm listening to thunder in the distance and rain pinging on the tin roof. We'll be sharing the shelter tonight with Skittles, a lightning fast hiker from Pennsylvania, who passed us on the big climb today.I'm excited for tomorrow, when I'll hike 14 miles down the mountain to James River Bridge, where I'll see Tor for the first time in over seven weeks.
Date: 2014-05-30
From: Thunder Hill Shelter

To: Roanoke via VA501
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: scattered clouds

If you want to put some mileage in on the AT, AZ is the one to be with. The ultimate no-nonsense guy, he's consistently the first one out of camp each morning around 6:30. And I wanted to cover some miles today: 14.6 of them, to be precise, to get to the rendezvous point by noon. To save time, I didn't cook oatmeal but instead wolfed down four pop tarts so I could leave the shelter with AZ, right on time at 6:30. The hike was fairly easy, mostly down hill to the James River, which has the longest footbridge on the AT. We stopped once for a quick snack, and before I knew it AZ was up and on his way, so that I had to jump up and cram a handful of gummy worms into my mouth to catch up. We arrived at the meeting point 20 minutes ahead of schedule. A few hikers were in the parking lot, but Tor and Helen were not there yet.To kill time while waiting for the women to arrive, I took a quick dip in the James River. The river bottom near the shore was a soft gooey mud, so it's not clear whether I was cleaner after getting out of the river as I was before.The drive down from DC took Tor and Helen longer than expected, and after waiting around for an hour to meet my wife, AZ needed to leave to make it 10 miles up the mountain to the next shelter. Just before departing, he said he expected her to arrive just after he left. Which she did.It was wonderful to see Tor for the first time in seven weeks, and she showed no reluctance to fall into my arms despite the fact that I smelled like James River mud. Although Tor and Helen didn't get a chance to meet AZ, and vice versa, they did meet a handful of other thru-hikers who arrived over the next hour by handing out trail magic in the form of lemonade, sodas, bananas, apples, and cookies. The lucky beneficiaries included Blueberry Bear, Mountain Mama, Skittles, and Mark, whom we drove five miles into town for a resupply after leaving the remaining food and drinks at the trailhead for latecomers.Tor, Helen, and I then drove 40 miles to Roanoke, where we're staying in a hotel and tomorrow will rent bikes and go for a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Date: 2014-05-31
From: Roanoke via VA501

To: Roanoke via VA501
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

What a wonderful day and a half off the trail it's been with Tor and her close friend, Helen. Last night we went out for a steak dinner, and after finishing my own meal I somehow managed to eat half of Helen's as well. We're staying at the Marriott Courtyard in Roanoke, a town filled with people big into outdoor activities such as hiking and bicycling. Today we rented bikes and toured the greenway along the river in town before driving up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to bicycle the section of the BRP that I'd crossed several days before while on the AT. The scenic road has outlooks every mile or so that provide fabulous views down to valleys on both sides. It was exciting to see the now familiar section of the trail enter and exit the woods at various points and to meet Weatherman, a thru-hiker who today was walking that section several days behind me. And it's absolutely true that from the BRP the distant ridges really do look blue.In anticipation of this weekend, I asked a favor of Helen: to stop by an REI in the DC area and pick up a few items I needed for the trail. Most crucial was a larger Sawyer water filter. I bought a Sawyer mini my first week on the trail in Hiawassee, GA, and although it served me well for six weeks, its flow rate is so low it turns every water filtering task into a 20-minute affair. I highly recommend anyone planning a long-distance hike buy the larger size Sawyer filter rather than the mini. Helen also got me a new backpack rain cover, as my 30-year-old one has been shedding its waterproofing layer, leaving a coating of dandruff on my pack and providing little protection against the rain. She also got me a bunch of Cliff Bars, as I hadn't had luck finding them during my recent resupplies. Tor straightened me out on this, as it turns out they're usually located in a supermarket's health food section. Helen, you're the best!A phone call Tor had with her 92-year-old father this morning reminded me of how much she has on her plate back home and how much I appreciate her support of my trip. Her dad's dementia has him confused and frustrated at times with the assisted living facility he lives in with his 93-year-old wife, and Tor often is called upon to serve as the intermediary. This is on top of her two nursing jobs, running the household, and seeing that the dog gets walked daily. Yet she still somehow found time to come to Virginia to visit me for the weekend. I feel very lucky to have her.Tomorrow Tor and Helen will drop me back at the trail beside the James River so I can continue my trek north. Then they'll drive north to BWI airport for separate flights to New England. I expect it will be a sad departure for both of us at the trailhead.
Date: 2014-06-02
From: Brown Mountain Creek Shelter

To: The Priest Shelter
Miles today: 22.4
Weather: broken clouds

It was surprisingly cold last night, especially since the shelter was relatively low, around 1300 feet. Thor the Red was prepared for both the cold and bugs, wearing a Georgia Bulldogs winter hat underneath a bug net that covered his entire head. I know he would not have appreciated me taking a picture of him in this strange looking headgear.He and Space Blanket needed a resupply, so they hitched into Buena Vista from the first road crossing, two miles up the trail. While I was posting yesterday's journal entry from there, a shuttle arrived from the hostel in Buena Vista containing Pockets, Rod and Reel, and Chicken Feathers.In the morning, I found myself hiking with Chicken Feathers, a 69-year-old Georgian with a white beard and strong accent who first hiked the AT over a three-year span starting in 2010. The first year he made it as far as Harpers Ferry, WV before contracting Lyme disease, which forced him off the trail. In 2011, he picked up from there but came down with a staff infection in Massachusetts and again had to leave the trail. In 2012, he finally completed his three-part section hike to Katahdin. This year he's sectioning to Harpers Ferry, about two weeks north of here. At one point, I offered to pull over to let him go by, as he was right on my heels and seemed to be having no trouble holding my pace, despite being 14 years my senior. Chicken Feathers got his name a few years back when he was sitting by a fire and the wind changed, causing the hair on his arms to singe, which his buddy said smelled like chicken feathers.In the early afternoon, we came to two coolers placed on the side of the trail not far from a road crossing. It was trail magic! I helped myself to an orange soda and a honey bun, just what the doctor ordered to get me the last 10 miles to the shelter. The magic was left by Goman, a 2012 thru-hiker, and his wife. Thanks to both of you for the much needed boost this afternoon!I stopped at Spy Rock late in the afternoon where a group from Virginia Commonwealth University was camped during a multi-day excursion to investigate the James River watershed. On top of the massive rock outcrop, which provided a 360-degree view of the surrounding mountains, a VCU professor explained to me why the distant ridges in Virginia appear to be blue. A substance the vegetation emits to stake out territory by warding off the growth of vegetation nearby causes a kind of short-lived haze or smog that gives the ridges their blue tint.The map showed that, after the initial big climb in the morning, it was mostly a ridge walk with small ups and downs throughout the day. Despite this, I felt unusually tired when I arrived at the Priest Shelter at 7:00 this evening. The second day of back-back 20-milers often seems to be a bit of a struggle.