morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2014-05-03
To: Tent Sleeping Practice
Miles today: 0.0

Practicing sleeping in our tent in the backyard tonight. All three of us are tucked in warm, me in my down bag and the pups in their coats. Jackson is confused, Bandit is snoring, it is 42 degrees and lightly raining. Love the sound of rain on my tent so long as the house is right next door!!!BTW, we survived the very dangerous backyard tenting test. Brrr.... Down to 36 degrees. Gear kept all warm! Yeah!
Date: 2014-05-04
To: Dog Meal Prep
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

We'll be gone at most 16 days. So packed 18 days of food for each dog just to be sure. Each bag is a day's worth of food for one dog and is doubled bagged to ensure it remains dry.My agility friend Ellen asked: Do the dogs get to help carry their own food?Canary: Absolutely. They carry at most five days worth. For Jackson that's 5.6 lbs. and for Bandit 4.0 lbs. worth. And that's why they are double bagged. Dogs will jump in creeks or walk all day in rain and whatever is in their packs gets wet too!Cheryl: Okay, but you have to carry the dog treats Mia!!!! How many lbs. of those are you going to carry?Canary: LOL Nope, dogs carry their own treats too! I'll carry some of their water, all bedding including coats, but otherwise, they have to literally pull their own weight. Ideal weight for them is 10 lbs, absolutely no more than 15 lb (of which most of that would be spare water on a dry day).Ellen: The good news is that the packs should always be getting a little lighter as you go.
Date: 2014-05-05
To: Itinerary Finalized
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Our entire 2014 Section Hike Itinerary is DONE!!! So stoked. All transport arranged, all hotels booked, all maps reviewed, all miles mapped out, all drop boxes planned, all elevations closely inspected!!!! Whew! Big job! Sweet!We depart for this year's adventure on Sunday, May 18th. This very special day was selected based on a very important day, the day before is my oldest son Michael's college graduation day, an event that I absolutely will NOT miss being at.After completing our itinerary, I shared it with a young woman from central Wisconsin who I just met this past February at an Agility Trial at Camp Bandy. Her trail name is Squirrel and she and her dog Zima are currently hiking the entire AT. They departed from Amicalola Falls State Park on March 30, 2014. Squirrel and I each then did a quick calculation and believe that we will be hiking the same Section of the AT at the same time this year!!! How awesome would that be if we could hike together for my Section this year!!! We will keep an eye on Squirrel & Zima's progress and keep our fingers crossed.
Date: 2014-05-06
To: Which is best to give daily to my older dog?
Miles today: 0.0

First decision. Do I give Bandit one daily aspirin or 3 - 2 tablet (ie 6) Traumeel each day for muscle aches? Remember it is for 16 days and I'd have to remember to give all those Traumeel to be effective. In the previous three years I've always given him the aspirin without any stomach issues. I don't plan to give Jackson anything.
Date: 2014-05-07
To: Counting out the proper dosages
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

So I've counted out 16 days of the proper dosages along with a sufficient backup dosage of some items. This includes known daily dosages and emergency pills such as Benadryl, Cerenia (vomiting), metronidazole (diahrea), and Imodium (loose stool).Update.... I see from this picture that I'd decided to go with the Trameel. Due to a mailing snafu, we ended up not having enough Traumeel and I was able to buy one bottle of baby aspirin from someone at the campground. Bandit did very well on the backup plan for the remainder of our trip.
Date: 2014-05-10
To: Rounding up all the food supplies
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

All food supplies rounded up from the pantry and camping supply boxes and tossed in a pile in the kitchen. Walmart run to buy all necessary food supplies - DONE. Dehydrator busy making beef jerky and dehydrated spaghetti sauce. Now to organize into 16 days of manageable meals.
Date: 2014-05-12
To: More practice hiking mixed with Agility
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Went for an hour and a half hike in the storms after work today. All gear worked perfect. Have arrived back at the van before the sky just unleashed a serious thunderhead. I've forgotten how beautiful the Forest is in the rain. ¢ feeling lucky at Scuppernong Hiking Trails (Kettle Moraine State Forest).This past weekend was two hard days of our bi-annual Ann Braue agility seminar. We learned a ton of great new things but are happy about the hiking distraction tonight.
Date: 2014-05-13
To: Dehydrating Spaghetti Sauce
Miles today: 0.0

So tonight's plan is to dehydrate our Spaghetti Sauce. You put it in the dehydrator for 6-8 hours and it comes out like the texture of fruit rollups. Then you place it in zip lock bags. Each bag should make 1 cup of sauce when rehydrated so you know to use about 1 cup of boiling water to rehydrate. So I start with 4 cups of sauce and get four little bags of dehydrated sauce. I'll refrigerate it until we leave for our trip, but it does very well without refrigeration in the mail drops or my backpack.Good progress made on the gear front tonight as well...All gear sorted into proper piles:1) technology - to be tested before departure2) spare equipment - all backup gear to be left in car in case something breaks 3) clothing - to be washed, extras purged to spare equipment, reviewed for wear4) mail drops - items I mail to myself5) first aid kit - review for missing items6) dogs' backpack7) Mia's backpack8) maps9) foodNow to process each pile.
Date: 2014-05-14
To: Bear Hang Kit
Miles today: 0.0

This is my bear bag hanging kit. Each night I have to hang my green food bag (a dry bag to keep the food dry if it rains) and the dog's packs with their food in them 12-20' up in a tree about 6' out on a strong limb. Hung correctly a bear couldn't figure out how to steal our food. With just Bandit and I, I only needed one hanging kit. With Jackson's bag added, the food is too heavy for a single swing. So tonight we doubled the kit. Thx Dave!!!I prefer to use the PCT method of hanging our food. This method is done such that you do NOT tie your rope back to the tree after swinging it. Bears are pretty smart and will break the line to drop the food.
Date: 2014-05-14
To: Personal GPS
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I carry a personal GPS that tracks my progress on-line so someone can find me if I'm in trouble. If I open and press the little red button on the right, International search and rescue will come to my rescue no questions asked. They just come. Non-lit buttons get pressed by me at days end to notify immediate family/key friends by txt msgs that I'm ok even though I can't call them because I have no cell phone signal. This same txt msg is also dropped into FB.This is now an older SPOT and I only have the capability to send one of two preprogrammed messages. The OK button sends a "Good Day" message and the text bubble button sends a "It was a tough day" message. Both messages mean I'm ok, they just distinguish how my day went.If you look very closely, on the left directly across from the red SOS button, there is another covered black button. That button if pressed sends those on my txting list a message that I'm ok, but that they really need them to come and rescue me. That button is reserved for a case where I have no cell phone service and I'm raising the white flag on my current adventure "Please send transport!"
Date: 2014-05-15
To: Technology's Solar Power
Miles today: 0.0

This little toy is my solar cell phone charger. The device on the right with the red light is a battery that the solar panel (upper left) charges. Once the battery has a charge I can then charge my phone from the battery. You can also charge the battery from a wall socket before leaving on your hike as well to carry one FULL phone charge with you. With this setup, I am also able to charge my phone directly from a wall outlet when I can find one.So, while hiking, I strap the solar panel connected to the battery to the back of the outside of my backpack while hiking. There isn't always a ton of sun, but I usually manage to get enough charge into the battery to at least get one phone call out on my phone if I really needed it. A good full day in the sun will produce enough charge to put my phone back to 50%. Thus, this isn't the strongest solar charger on the market but I do like the size and the result.With this configuration, I have always managed to have a cell phone available on a five day outing. One thing to note, you cannot charge your phone directly from the solar panels with this setup. A charging cell phone requires a reliably steady stream of charge as it re-charges. The solar panel fluctuates and that is why you have to charge the battery, not the phone, then use the battery to recharge your phone.
Date: 2014-05-16
To: Matt and Brittany Engagement
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

It is with great excitement and joy that Dave and I announce the engagement of our son Matthew to his longtime girlfriend Brittany!!! We are so proud and thrilled to have her as part of our family. Please reserve Saturday, August 30th, 2014 for their wedding date. The ceremony and reception to follow will be held outdoors at the Erspamer Farm in Dousman, WI. ¢ feeling blessed with Matthew Erspamer and Brittany Vos.
Date: 2014-05-17
To: Dog Gear
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Yippeee! Tomorrow we depart on our 2014 AT Section Hike adventure. Here is all the dog gear organized and ready to go, leashes are already in the van. Each pack fully loaded including food but without water goes 7 lbs. NICE! They've been practicing with 8 lbs.
Date: 2014-05-17
To: Camp Stove
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

This is my entire camp stove and dish set. Tested and ready to go. The stove has a self-starter sparker, the titanium pot doubles as a food dish, the orange bowl is for your coffee/hot chocolate, a single spork is the ONLY utensil, the orange lid is also used as a hot pad, and the black strainer in the lower right is used to strain whatever I'm a'cookin. Believe it or not, this is considered luxurious to thru-hikers, but this is pretty much where I draw my comfort line.
Date: 2014-05-17
To: My Gear
Miles today: 0.0

This pile of gear is mine. Once stuffed in my pack it came out to 26.5 lbs of base weight w/o water or food. It's called base weight because it's weight rarely varies throughout the hike. Most thru-hikers carry a base weight of about 22 lbs. Carrying a few dog things and some extra creature comforts adds an extra few pounds to mine.
Date: 2014-05-17
To: Water Purification
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I use a Steripen to purify my water when hiking. New batteries and a quick test and it's ready for duty!! It uses ultraviolet light to purify the water. It is best used on water that you've acquired at a moving source (i.e. stream). The Steripen does NOT clean up the water like a water filtration system would do. I have a water filter that I could use to turn a muddle puddle or even urine into sparkling clean water but it is too heavy to carry and definitely NOT necessary on the AT.Water I carry for the dogs is purified. Most often the dogs drink directly from the water sources. That's ok so long as the source is a running source. No puddles!!! Oh and dogs drink DOWNSTREAM from where hikers draw their water. Icky to have a dog standing in your water. LOLUpdate: the Steripen failed me this year. It just quit working 8 days into our 15 day Section Hike. Red light would come on and it refused to purify the water. I was gifted bleach by a fellow hiker and we used that with great results the rest of the trip. Many hikers were using Squeeze Filters last year. Squirrel has informed me that I should get a gravity fed filter.
Date: 2014-05-17
To: Michael's College Graduation!!!
Miles today: 0.0

After doing all the finally preparations for our 2014 hike, Dave and I headed off to the UW-Milwaukee Campus for our oldest son Michael's college graduation! It has been a long road for him and we are super proud of him. He now has a degree in Metal Smithing and can make you just about anything artistically out of metal!!!! He has such amazing talent and what a wonderful degree to put those talents to work for him. Way-to-go Michael! You rock!!!
Date: 2014-05-20
From: War Spur Shelter

To: Sarver Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 12.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Up the next morning around 7 a.m. with chores and repacking done and out of the shelter in short order. We weren't the first to leave nor the last. We were greeted with another beautiful sunny but cool day, perfect for hiking. Without any surprise we were also greeted by a 2000' climb over the next 2.5 miles. It was Johns Creek Mountain followed by a lovely 1300' decent to Sinking Creek and VA 42. The pastures were wonderful in the full sunlight and we enjoyed our hike on such a beautiful day. Break time was as Laurel Creek shelter 1/2 way down the decent. We made sure to place an entry in the shelter log book. We spotted few other hikers throughout the day.Sinking Creek was an interesting pasture whose footing seemed to disappear under your feet as you sank into mud. Care was required to jump from dry spot to dry spot which kept me looking mostly where I was stepping. As we neared the footbridge just before VA 42, I looked up to see my two hiking partners swimming in the actual river with their packs floating like little lifer preservers. Just one of those memorably hilarious moments along the trail.After VA42 we stopped for photos at the Keiffer Oak, the largest oak tree on the AT in the south. We had one hiker come up behind us and several SoBo pass us at this point. It was a nice rest before we made the 1000' climb to our shelter for the night, Saver Hallow Shelter. My notes showed this was the 58th Hardest climb on the AT and it didn't let us down. Yep, pretty much straight up and for a hiking team fresh to the trail we just took it slow and rested twice.The two mile ridge walk into our shelter location was pretty and we started seeing piles of rocks here and there. Not little ones, but big ones and I pondered why on earth they'd been piled up but never found out why. The hike DOWN into the shelter was 0.4 miles and I was quickly reminded why you don't pick a shelter that is so far off the trail. It was a hard decent. When we arrived there was one other hiker named Digger (older fella) there who was staying in the shelter, a really nice shelter too I might add. We picked out a tent site and headed to the water source (down hill of course) to stock up on water for dinner. It was a cool well-like structure surrounded by stone, nice water source. Only one other hiker came in for the night and he too setup a tent.Bedtime meant tick check time. I'd neglected to do this chore the night before. Tonight I found 30 ticks on Mouse Hunter and 10 on Jack-Jack. Even I had one. They were all properly de-headed and disposed of. Sun went to bed and so did we.
Date: 2014-05-21
From: Sarver Hollow Shelter

To: Pickle Branch Shelter
Miles today: 16.1
Weather: overcast clouds

We rose early to another absolutely beautiful day. It was going to be a long day for us with many miles with what appeared to be not too many hard ups or downs. We were the first ones out of camp in an attempt get'er done. The 0.4 mile hike OUT of the shelter was exhausting for only our third day on the trail. The path out was lined with stone steps that were taller than your average step making it more of a climb than just doing stairs.Once we reached the Sinking Creek Ridge and were back on the official AT, the path slowly converted from an 18" wide dirt path to full slabs of rock at a good angle. Slab after slab after slab with large jumps down and back up again to get to the next set of slabs. At one scenic spot we stopped to rest and eat second breakfast. The 3.3 miles to the Northern end of the Sinking Creek Ridge was way more time consuming that I'd hoped. When would I ever learn that "flat" on an AT map was not flat!!!The decent of 2000' wasn't memorable or tough, nor was the climb over Brush Mountain, 1500' up and 1500' down. We mostly just put one foot in front of the other all day, taking several breaks. But it was definitely growing late by the time we got to VA 620. So we put a hustle in our step and some hiking music in the air. It was a race against the setting sun.We peeled off the AT and down the side path to the shelter in the setting sun around 8:40 pm. Another shelter 0.3 miles OFF the AT. WHO MADE THIS ITINERARY? We hadn't seen many hikers all day but this shelter was littered with tents on the way in. In the deep dusk we picked out a tent site never actually reaching the shelter, got tent up, gear in, and dinner made by 10:00 pm. The rest of the camp had long been in bed. Thank goodness we didn't need to get water for the night. Oh and my Spot was unable to send out "We're OK" message. Too tired to resolve I collapsed into the tent without a tick check. Update on Jackson's foot, throughout the day I attempted to keep it clean with antiseptic cream, vet wrap, and boots. He refused any real help with it so much of the time he hiked with it exposed. The cut did not appear to be troubling or pussy.
Date: 2014-05-22
From: Pickle Branch Shelter

To: Four Pines Hostel
Miles today: 6.7
Weather: scattered clouds

Today was supposed to be a short day and yesterday had been so exhausting so we all slept in until 8:00 a.m. Once up we didn't get going very fast either. We did all the chores and had breakfast. Once everyone had cleared out of camp, we checked out the shelter and made our way down the 0.2 mile blue-blaze trail to a beautiful river and the shelter water source. I'd emptied each dog's pack and thrown only their empty water bottles in them so they could help carry water back up, Jackson ending up carrying far more than his share. Tough to be the strong one in the group. We lingered at the river taking pictures, dogs swimming, me filling all the water bottles and doing dishes. By the time we got going it was 10:00 am. Probably not the best plan, but what was the rush? We were just off to a hostel and our first mail drop.Yeah, ok, remember, this is the AT. Though it was only a 1000' climb up and then again down for the day, there were some serious boulders to negotiate as seen herein the picture of Mouse Hunter. We didn't make very good time stopping too often to soak up the views on this beautiful day.Today's adventure was to include checking out Dragon's Tooth and hopefully meeting up with Squirrel and Zima. Having dinner at the famed Homeplace Restaurant with Squirrel was the plan. We arrived at Dragon's Tooth around 4:00 p.m. and took loads of great pictures. Then we sat down at the top of the trailhead to have a light lunch before heading off to the Hostel. No sooner had we sat down than Squirrel and Zima popped over the ridge hooting and hollering and everyone was excited!!! Dogs and hikers! What a great place to meet up, we couldn't have planned it any better.After our quick lunch and Squirrel's Dragon Tooth investigation, we worked our way down some tough cliffs and wandered down VA624 to the Four Pines Hostel.We arrived just in time to get my mail drop and catch the last shuttle to the Homeplace Restaurant and had an awesome dinner! Sweet!!! Squirrel, I, and the three pups all slept in the barn with the llamas. Tonight's tick check was tackled along with me getting a nice hot shower. Though lights went out, Squirrel and I chatted in the dark sharing stories. Happiness is much more fun when it is shared!!!! ??
Date: 2014-05-23
From: Four Pines Hostel

To: Lambert's Meadow Campsite
Miles today: 16.6

Today was going to a very exciting day. One I'd looked forward to for the past several years. It was McAfee Knob day!!! And it was one spectacularly beautiful day. Unbelievable weather we were blessed with. Up early, chores done quickly and off we went with new supplies from our mail drop. The first 7 miles of the day were just fun, not to tough. Two shelters to explore, three footbridges, a very old tree. We hiked separate from Squirrel/Zima but then we'd catch them briefly. I found the 1000' climb up McAfee tough as the temps pushed 80 degrees. There were loads of day hikers making for a more interesting climb. McAfee was amazing!!! So much so that we all hung there well longer than 2 hours taking pictures and soaking up views and sun. Once we decided to move on, we came across two lost dogs at Campbell Shelter. There were several other hikers and between everyone and cell phones we managed to locate their owners who were several hours from this locale. Squirrel stayed behind to make arrangements because she could hike so much faster than I. I, Mouse Hunter, and Jack-Jack booked it down the trail, we were going to have to hustle to make it to camp before dark.The trail was most kind to us until Brickeys Gap. We came around a bend in the trail, it dropped straight down and then made a huge straight UP arch. No rocks, no steps, just an impressive up! And then it did that AGAIN multiple times leading up to Tinkers Cliffs. It was a tough climb and I began to swear at Tinkers Cliffs calling it all kinds of bad things and then we summited to outstanding views and an amazing 0.5 mile cliff walk that we were blessed to do at sunset. Spectacular!!! Just one tiny problem!!! We had a 1000' decent ahead of us having promised Squirrel we'd meet her for the night at the next shelter! (Gulp). So we sucked it up, got out the headlamp and hiked in the dark. It really was cool though never having done it before on the AT. The dog's packs have reflective strips on them so I could "see" the outlines of their packs in front of me. Then they'd stop and turn around and look at me and there were their eyes out the in the dark staring back at me.It was a relief to pull into Lambert's Meadow Shelter at 9:30 pm only to have the occupants tell me that Squirrel said I should keep going to the Campsite 0.2 miles further down. I truly thought they were pulling my leg, but they weren't. I found Squirrell in the dark at 10:00 pm. It was a nice site. Did chores and crashed. Whew! Long day followed by our first night hike!