morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-06-04
From: Burkes Garden Road -Garden Mountain

To: US 52 - Bland
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: fog

After she talked about yesterday's lunch at the general store, they knew they would stop there for lunch today. First we split a lemon turnover, and fresh homemade strawberry ice cream topped with fresh strawberry topping. It was so tasty! The. We decided to split a sandwich, chips, and a birch beer for lunch. It was so yummy. We also bought another loaf of fresh sourdough bread. The lady was a little surprised the two of us finished a whole loaf in one day. We also bought a bottle of local maple syrup made in Burkes Garden. We can't wait to taste it! Yummy! After lunch we headed up to Garden Mountain again where Sherpa was starting from today. Today's hike was northbound, which meant he wouldn't meet as many hikers. He saw a few deer along the way, but mostly had an uneventful morning. After he left, she decided to head out and see if she had time for a grocery stop... thankfully she had enough time to make the 20 minute drive before meeting him for a snack break. She ended up in West Virginia! Crazy...but it was only a 20 minute drive from where she was on I-77. She met up with him at around 4 pm at Suiter Road which was 8.9 miles into his hike. He had been chatting with a biker at the trailhead while waiting for her to come. He guy was actually a pastor of a church we had past the previous day. He seemed really down to earth, we plan to visit his church in the morning. Sherpa enjoyed some of the fresh sourdough! It is so yummy when it's fresh baked! He walked the first 4.5 miles with a hiker named "momma duck." The guy was an extreme Boy Scout and knew everything about backpacking. He had an eagerness to teach others which led to his name. Not surprisingly, he was ridiculously smart (a theoretical math major) which led to interesting conversations with Sherpa, a fellow nerd. The second half of the hike was uneventful except for a rain shower that rolled in towards the end. He took a picture and joked that it was a fantastic view for a bathroom... After their break, she went to wait for Sherpa at the I-77 overpass. When it was about 30 minutes prior to his projected arrival time it began to rain heavily. She made the executive decision to come 0.4 miles closer to save him from some of the rain. It turns out to have been a good choice. After he came up, another hiker showed up who looked miserable and wet. He needed a ride. We were able to drop him off at a hotel where he was hoping to dry out his boots. His name was tortoise and he was very nice. We were happy to be able to help him out! We went back to camp to make BLTs for dinner. As soon as we started cooking it started to rain. It got heavier and heavier. Soon it was pouring. We ate our dinner in the car! That's a first for us...we didn't want to eat in our tent though and attract the bears though!
Date: 2016-06-05
From: Off Trail

To: Off Trail
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: moderate rain

We are thankful that we are still able to take Sunday's off to attend church and spend the day together. Today we went to Green Valley Community Church. Yesterday Sherpa met a man on a mountain bike named John Blessing who just so happened to be the pastor of this congregation. He invited us so we came. We went to both Sunday school and the regular service. We were incredibly blessed by this church service. After church we headed to Wyethville to grab some lunch...because it's the nearest large town. We found a Chinese restaurant and decided to give it a try. After lunch, we had to settle for an indoor activity because it was raining and it is expected to rain all day. We decided to go see the new X-Men film. After dinner and some errands, we went to Starbucks to use the wifi and catch up on our trail journal. It seems as though poor quality connections are everywhere in this area so we're having to wait until we have decent wifi to update our journal. Sorry! We're trying!
Date: 2016-06-06
From: US 52 - Bland

To: VA 606
Miles today: 18.4
Weather: broken clouds

This morning we picked back up where we left off Stopped in a city called aptly named "Bland" near a senior center. This is where she rescued him from the rain on Saturday. He crossed paths with a very special hiker named "special k". "Special k" is a 14 year old girl who is hiking the trail unsupported, with the goal of being the youngest to ever complete the trail by herself. After a quick hello, he pressed on. Meanwhile, she got the car vacuumed out- it had gotten very dirty over the last few weeks!!! She also got up to Bog Walker Gap, a store with a nice view. We were able to coordinate our day so that we could meet up after about 8 miles to walk together to the 600 mile mark on the trail. It was really nice to hike together, even if it was only a short distance. When we found the marking on a tree, she turned back to the car and he plowed ahead toward a location several miles further for lunch. She got to meet "Special k" on her return hike to the car too. Lunch involved peanut butter, jelly, bread, and snacks. We knew this was a shorter day and kept lunch small to save room for a big dinner. Pushing ahead, he noticed that this section of trail has lots of caterpillars eating everything. It was almost annoying to walk because the caterpillars hang from trees and you constantly walk into them and then have to wipe hem off your clothes. While finishing the last few miles, he crossed paths with a pair of hikers that we hadn't seen since our first week on the trail. They had offered us peanut m&ms while we camped near a shelter and we never forgot it. Always good to run into people you haven't seen in 500 miles, like running into an old friend! With the northbound hike finished for the day, we headed back to camp. It was our last night at the Stoney form campground and we had amassed quite a horde of firewood left behind by other campers. You aren't supposed to move firewood from one place to the next because you can spread pests and diseases to other forests. Most people seem to be obeying this rule, which has worked out for us because we hardly ever have to buy firewood. Due to all the rain of the last few days, this was going to be our last chance to have a good fire before packing up. After a little effort given the wet wood, he got it lit good. Nothing better than Bratwurst over a fire, yum!
Date: 2016-06-07
From: VA 606

To: Pearisburg
Miles today: 26.4

Today's goal was to walk a marathon. For those of you who have been to Greece, this is the distance from the city of Athens to the city of - you guessed it - the city of Marathon, about 26.2 miles. Some ancient runner made the trek and now people everywhere are doing it as the ultimate long distance running event. Sherpa walked it. Took a long time. Not a lot more to say about that. Kudos to people who can do it in 4 hours. Early in the day, Sherpa crossed paths with our old Peanut m&m dealing friends. Their names are squish (because he yelled squish to let other hikers know the trail was muddy) and yogi (because she growled like a bear and had a bear sweatshirt early on). After catching up, we said see ya later again. A short way down the path, he saw a cub running down the trail. No mamma bear anywhere to be seen though. Cautiously, he continued his trek. He passed the infamous Wapiti shelter, unaware of its dark history (hikers were murdered there years ago). Thankfully, we were able to meet for a nice lunch at Sugar run gap. Afterwards, we hiked together to a nearby scenic overlook. Always nice to spend a mile together on the trail. We parted ways, and as it got later in the evening, he passed "prov", a hiker girl from Chicago who had lots of running advice. Saw another bear, this one a little bigger than a cub but not huge. She met him after he crossed a road and they walked together the last .4 miles into the outskirts of Pearisburg. The highlight of our day though, by far, was running into Sandals and snail while at dinner. They are another married couple with similar values to us who are in our age range. We met them early on but were going way faster than them because snail had shin splints. After taking a few weeks off, we assumed they were ahead of us and had been hoping to catch up to them. It's such a small world on the trail. We just happened to be at a Mexican restaurant when we ran into them. Yay.
Date: 2016-06-09
From: Cherokee Flats Picnic Area

To: VA 601 - Rocky Gap
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: clear sky

Driving out to the starting point, we saw a really pretty historic covered bridge and stopped to take a few pictures. Today, We split the hike up. The first section was a couple downhill miles bak to the Cherokee Flats picnic area where we had left off yesterday. The second section continued from the starting point (a USFS road) and headed Northbound about 9 miles. In the morning, Sherpa ran into "Waist Management", a hiker in his 70's that slackpacked himself with a van and a motorcycle. He would park his van at a trailhead, get his motorcycle off a trailer and drive it to another trailhead, walk back to his van, drive back to his motorcycle, sleep in his van, and then repeat the process. What a lot of driving. He was averaging 8-10 miles of walking a day. He told Sherpa that a bear had visited him the night before and to check out his van, which was parked up at the start of Sherpa's afternoon hike. Sure enough, there were paw prints all over. Not the kind of guests you want to visit you in the night! We started the afternoon hike together for the first mile to get to a scenic overlook. Porter drove around to a midway point where she met Sherpa later in the day. The road was treacherous (potholes, very steep) and Sherpa decided that he did not want Porter to drive it back by herself so he drove the car down the road, ending their hiking for the day. We were alright with it because it allowed us to get back to the MAcArthur Inn for a third night! Mr Neely had convinced us to stay one more night to attend a folk music jam session that he hosts at his hotel. The Curator for folk music recording for the national archives in Washington DC was in attendance recording the music. They played old folk songs like "the war of 1812", "I'll fly away", "redwing", "Kingdom Coming" and many others we didn't recognize. We really enjoyed listening. We also met all kinds of interesting people. For example, we met a guy who told us how his grandma used to can opossum. He said, "If grandma went to the trouble of canning it, you ate it!". It reminded us of a few days ago when we saw someone carrying a squirming opossum by the tail in one hand with a shiny piston in the other. Dinner! There was another guy who kept walking up to Sherpa and telling him Bill Clinton jokes. The dinner was pretty good. Sherpa ordered a second one. The portions were pretty large. Mr Neely came to the rescue and explained to the cook that thruhikers can eat! The waitress had meth mouth. We knew that drugs were bad for you, and were sad to someone with this condition, especially young and pregnant. Apparently, the Meth is something like battery acid and eats away your teeth.
Date: 2016-06-11
From: Miller Cove Road

To: VA 311
Miles today: 13.8
Weather: scattered clouds

Starting Point - 693.9 (Miller Cove Road) Ending Point - 707.7 (VA 311, Catawba Valley Drive) This morning we woke up in our "tarptent" on the side of the trail, walked to our car, got out our Coleman campstove with a built in griddle, and began grilling pancakes. Wow! What a way to start the day. It wasn't long before a group of hungry thruhikers had plopped down nearby and benefited from Porter's culinary skills. Giggles was the first to venture over, followed by Jackie Love, firefly and eventually Kernel. As we were leaving, the group all bathed in a nearby stream. We later learned that most of them ended up staying at a nearby cabin that the owner offered them in exchange for some yard work. What a deal! Not that we can complain, tonight we are staying with some friends that we met at Grindstone campground a couple weeks ago. As Sherpa was tearing down camp, Porter struck up a conversation with a couple who were walking their dog. After a few minutes, they exchanged contact info and invited us to stay when we reached the McAfee Knob area. We are excited because we will get to go to church with them in the morning. They took us to dinner tonight at a local Seafood restaurant. What a kind couple! The hike today, while not super long, was spectacular. Sherpa hiked northbound, while Porter drove the car to a lunch spot and then walked Southbound on the trail back towards Sherpa. We wanted to hike past the 700 mile mark together. We met at the Dragon's Tooth. It turns out that the most difficult section of the trail yet occurred around that mile mark. This was put down the trekking poles, scramble on all fours kind of climbing. We enjoyed it thoroughly. We hiked back to the car for lunch, which presented a dilemma. We had 4 hot dog buns, but only 2 hot dogs. Why don't they putthe same number of buns in the packages as they do hot dogs! This is undoubtable one of the biggest first world problems. Maybe Hillary or Donald can help! We solved the problem by splitting the hot dogs in half lengthwise and eating half a hot dog on each bun. Then Sherpa gulped down some wonderful Chocolate milk and the hike continued! The second section of the hike was fairly uneventful. Sherpa ran into a group of weekend warriors who had parked next to us where we camped in the morning. They had left their window down. We assumed this was not intentional and rolled it up for them. They were appreciative when we let them know what we did.
Date: 2016-06-12
From: Off Trail

To: Off Trail
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

This morning we went to church with our new friends. They are Gideons, which as best as we can tell, means that they work with churches to secure support and distribute bibles. They had lots of bibles in their house. They also had lots of guns. The husband had showed Sherpa his collection the night before. Even the handgun they kept in their kitchen. We wonder if they show all of the strangers that stay in their house where they keep their loaded guns? They were armed to the teeth and would fit in nicely in Texas. They also had more wall mounts of deer than the average native Texan, which is quite impressive. After church, they took us four wheeling on some land they owned in the country. They had a travel trailer on the property and another one for hunting back in the woods. Along with the two travel trailers in their driveway at their house and an RV van, they had 5 homes away from home! They also had one truck, one jeep, 2 cars, and an SUV. Everything was well maintained and very neat. The only thing they just had one of was Gussy, their German shepherd and travel buddy. In the evening, we grilled out in their back yard. Sherpa was set over the cooking as Porter had bragged on his culinary skills. You buy it, we cook it! We really are grateful for all that you guys did for us! We were treated like family. We hope they come visit us some day in Texas.
Date: 2016-06-13
From: 311 Catawba balley drive

To: US 220
Miles today: 19.8
Weather: clear sky

Starting Point: 707.7Ending Point: 727.5Today we hiked up McAfee's Knob. This is reputed by some to be the most beautiful spot in Virginia. The view was truly spectacular. There is a large overhanging rock that many people take precarious pictures on to scare family members who have acrophobia (the fear of heights). We spared all of you by taking pictures safely away from the edge. Thanks "worst case Ontario" for snapping the picture for us. You almost convinced Sherpa to switch to a hiking kilt... Almost... They reputedly can save the world from its chafing problems... First world issues... It was nice as always to start the hike together. He continued to hike North from the knob, while she headed back to our car. On her way, she crossed paths with giggles, firefly, and Jackie love again. Apparently giggles was behind because he started a fire and forgot to put it out. He did the right thing though and went back. As Sherpa pushed on, he met Keith higgenbaum(real name) aka huckleberry. Keith is doing a documentary and we included his real name in case he becomes famous someday. Unfortunatley, there were no road crossings to meet for lunch. We had dinner at a bbq restaurant near the trail. We saw lots of hikers we knew at the restaurant such as 3 navy guys we had first met back at the Fontana dam and then seen off and on throughout the Smokies. We also saw Purple rain and the guy she hikes with and Kryptonite. We are staying one last night with our friends from the campground. While sharing stories tonight, the husband mentioned to us that he finally located his lost glock. He had it under the mattress of the first bed! You never know when your guests might need a semi-automatic weapon! He also shared a story with us about a country church that had a division because they hosted a revival and invited a guest speaker against the senior pastors wish. The pastor resigned and was quickly hired by another nearby congregation. Unfortunately, the church he left quickly fell apart. They begged him to come back after a few months, but he declined. There were only a few members left, and they were meeting in the churches kitchen to keep warm while saving money because they couldn't afford to heat the sanctuary. They said to him, frustrated, what do you want us to do with the church? The pastor told them, "put hay in it, it's not a church." A few years later, the building which had been a country church, was being used to store hay. Wow! There are a lot of buildings in America that probably could be used for that same purpose. God is not a respecter of buildings, otherwise the tabernacle would never have been destroyed by Philistines, the first temple by Babalonians, the second temple by Romans, and other religious buildings used as places of worship throughout history. God desires his people to worship him!
Date: 2016-06-15
From: Bearwallow Gap - VA 43

To: Blue Ridge Parkway MP 76.3
Miles today: 20.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Starting point: 769.4Ending point: 749.1Today's hike only had one crossing two miles in where we could meet. He opted to hike in his new shoes the whole day to try them out. No blisters so far. The trail climbed over "Apple Orchard Mountain", the last 4200 foot mountain until New Hampshire! The trail really flattens out over the next several states. Sherpa spent the majority of his hiking thinking about John the Baptist, the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets according to Jesus. At a shelter, he saw several hikers chatting and stopped for a break. One hiker recounted the tale of how he had been craving corn dog that morning, and was able to catch a ride to a nearby grill and buy a corns of! Someone shouted "your like nostridamus." Why the world is fascinated by false prophets when there are vreal ones like John the Baptist whose words came to pass is hard to understand. There is so much deception in the world today. They got out some drugs, promting Sherpa to head on his way. Speaking of John the Baptist, so we discovered a new protein source on the trail. Bugs! John the Baptist liked his with honey... Seriously though, Sherpa eats a few a day inadvertently when they just fly into his mouth. Also along the trail, deer have become so plentiful they aren't worth writing about. Saw another bear today as well. While Sherpa was thinking about John the Baptist, Porter was finishing a book called the Hising Place about Corrie Ten Boom, a Dutch woman who hid Jews in her house during WWII. When you pause and think about how no one wanted those people and they were being slaughtered, it makes you sad. Surely that will never happen again. For example, look how everyone is helping the Syrians who are being slaughtered today as a result of the conflict with ISIS. The world is welcoming them with open arms. Oh wait, no they aren't! People are behaving the same today towards the Syrian refugees as they did to the Jews less than 100 years ago. It's just easy to hate the Nazis, never mind that our American bombers intentionally did not target the railroads that were bring Jews into the concentration camps. Hopefully there is a godly remnant today like Corrie ten Boom of the past century, who are willing to love people and save lives despite cultural and religious differences. Jesus said (Matthew 5:43-48) we are no better than tax collectors and Gentiles if we just love the ones that are easy for us to love. We are commanded to love those that we perceive to be our enemies too. To illustrate this point, Jesus then tells how God sends rain on both the just and the unjust. To an agricultural society, rain was everything. God showed he same love to those who hated him by providing for them the rain necessary to live. Does our response to the Syrian refugee crisis situation reflect Gods love?
Date: 2016-06-16
From: Petites Gap

To: Punchbowl Mountain Crossing
Miles today: 20.8
Weather: light rain

Today we skipped a small 5 mile section that we plan to hike tomorrow. We did this so that we could have good pick up and dropoff locations with reasonable mileage to hike. For the first half of the hike, Porter dropped Sherpa off at the Punchbowl Mountain overlook on the blue ridge parkway around noon. He walked southbound about 11 miles to the James River Foot Bridge, arriving around 3:45PM. Sherpa focused on memorizing part of Johns gospel, which really made time pass quickly. He carried his super awesome fanny pack with several bottles of water and some delicious snacks. Meanwhile, Porter went to a visitor center along the blue ridge parkway. A helpful park ranger pointed to a map of the parkway on the wall and said, you can have one if you want. She thanked him and told him that she already had one. Meanwhile, a developmentally challenged individual proceeded to try to peel the map off the wall. He said, "you said we could have this, but it won't come off." The park ranger was quick to give him one as well...For the second section of the hike, they drove back to Petites Gap on the blue ridge parkway where she dropped him off at 5pm. He walked northbound about 10 miles back to the same foot bridge he had finished at earlier, arriving around 7:45pm. The weather forecast called for rain beginning at 7pm. Typically a 10 mile hike would have taken him until 8:20pm to complete going about three miles an hour. He donned his running shoes and they both prayed that the rain would hold off until he was safely in the car. His super awesome new running shoes allowed him to make really good time and thankfully the rain held off long enough for him to finish the hike. Thank you God. "Many men will drink the rain, then turn and thank the clouds" (sad but true lyrics from an old song). We are so grateful that God is in control of everything, including the rain. While Sherpa was making his way North in the afternoon, "Paul Bunion" lost his glasses. Bunion ran into some southbound hikers, and asked them to keep an eye out (pun intended). Apparently, they came across the glasses. Sherpa approached the same couple miles later. They gave him Paul Bunion's glasses, relating that they had found them and wanted a NOBO (northbounder) to keep an eye out (shameless- same pun) for their rightful owner. Sherpa walked about 6 miles with the glasses until the next shelter. When he got there, he shouted, did someone lose their glasses? A grateful hiker quickly presented himself. In exchange for the glasses, Sherpa offered the couple some beta (rock climber slangfor advice) on the next campground which they were approaching. Sherpa had noticed an ominous note left there which read "Bear came to camp multiple times. More than one and they are persistent. Used mace and still roamed around camp for several hours after. Not much sleep last night." They thanked him, as they had been planning to stay at that campsite. For the count, Sherpa saw several deer, two black snakes, and one black bear today. 3rd day in a row seeing a bear!