morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-05-12
From: Dickenson Gap

To: Campsite near Wind Rock
Miles today: 13.8

A Day of CelebrationDay 25: Happy Birthday AND Happy Mother's Day to ET today. With these joyous thoughts in mind we awoke to the sound of rain on our tent...what happened to the forecast for partly cloudy? So we packed up, in the tent, putting on our raingear. However when we opened up the zippers of the tent to get out, we found partly cloudy skies above us. Mother Nature must have a mean sense of humor, because now the forecast is right...but Spider still has to carry a wet tent! We kept our raingear on as we hit the trail at 7:45am...not for rain but for warmth..it was 38 degrees and the wind was blowing at 15 mph. Fortunately as we descended the leeward side of the mountain and the sun had a chance to do its "thing", the temperature eventually rose to 60 degrees. Our goal was to reach a shelter about 18 miles away but the trail did not cooperate. Today we had several steep ups and downs that we couldn't do quickly. Added to that was a very rocky trail forcing us to slow down and pay attention where each foot was placed. The net result was that by mid-day we knew we weren't going to make 18 miles, so we set our sights on a campsite several miles before the shelter. We finally arrived at our campsite at 5:45, set up the tent, then had a birthday celebration. Spider had smuggled 2 small bottles of wine and some cheese and crackers for the celebration. After consuming all the goodies, we retired to the tent because we could feel the temperature quickly dropping. Tonight is supposed to be colder than last night..Brr. Hope it doesn't snow!!
Date: 2013-05-13
From: Campsite near Wind Rock

To: Sarver Hallow Shelter
Miles today: 15.9

Wonder when Spring will arrive?Day 26: We awoke to partly cloudy skies and 36 degrees..Brr...but no snow!! We hit the trail at 7:45am wearing our raingear to stay warm. We almost immediately began to descend..and as we did so it began to warm up. We stopped at a shelter to have breakfast and meet two young German brothers who had spend the night there. After leaving the shelter, we had to cross several small creeks. We never know what to expect with creek crossings...sometimes there is a well constructed bridge, somtimes there is a log and sometimes, like in the attached picture, we have to jump from rock to rock..who decides these things...?Next we faced a steep 1700 foot climb. Part way up a Trail Angel had left a cooler with sodas, apples and cookies....Mmm. After transiting a ridge for several miles, down we went off the mountain again, only to have another steep climb...this time of 1000 feet. Our legs were tired after all these climbs and our knees were "talking" to us, so we were happy when we arrived at our destination shelter at 6:15. It was a long day and we started talkng about all the things that slow us down on the trail: foremost is a steep trail, up or down. But other trail conditions like rocky, muddy or flooded. Other non-trail related slow-downs are: stopping to talk to other hikers, stopping to eat Trail Angel "goodies", stopping to take pictures, stopping for a "call of Nature", stopping to check to see if we have cell service to send off the latest journal and on and on...It's a wonder we ever get down the trail very far!! We are now bundled up in our sleeping bags wearing extra clothing since tonight is supposed to be even COLDER than last night! When will Spring reach Virginia??
Date: 2013-05-14
From: Sarver Hallow Shelter

To: Pickle Branch Shelter
Miles today: 16.1
Weather: clear sky

What a Difference a Day MakesDay 27: We awoke to a clear sky and 40 degrees...not bad considering what we have faced the last couple of mornings. We packed up and hit the trail at 7:30am...the "sloths" of the shelter since everyone else was already gone!! We soon climbed to a knife ridge of limestone...and I do mean "knife". Sometimes it was only two feet wide with steep drop-offs on both sides. At one point the ridge was just a wide open rock with great views. We stopped and ate our breakfast there!! We had a view of three other ridges of the Appalachians to the east. As we continued along the ridge, we came to the sign in the attached picture...turns out we were hiking the Eastern Continental Divide!!After a descent and a 1500 foot climb, we arrived at the Audie Murphy Memorial Monument. For those of you unfamiliar with him, he was the most decorated soldier in WWII who later became a Hollywood actor. He was killed in an aiplane crash in 1971 near the monument we visited. After the monument, we had a long descent, our second of the day. We arrived at our shelter, after a brief climb, at 6:15. The temperature got up almost to 70 degrees today and as I type this, it is in the balmy mid-50s...probably 15 degrees warmer than the same time last night...Maybe there is hope for spring!! Another positive thing for today is that just short of the 4 week mark we passed the 300 mile mark...we are 2/3 done with our hike!!
Date: 2013-05-15
From: Pickle Branch Shelter

To: Catawba Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: clear sky

A Shelter Too FarDay 28: We awoke to a clear sky and 61 degrees...what happened to spring??...We seem to have jumped to summer!! We had plans for a 17 mile day so had set the alarm for 5:30 am...we hit the trail at 6:50. Being the first on the trail we had an immediate reward...we saw our first deer of this whole hike!! Then, 30 minutes later, we saw another deer. Later in the day, ET would see our 2nd snake of the hike...so a good day for wildlife. Within an hour of hiking we knew our 17 mile day was in jeopardy when the ridge we had climbed to became more and more rocky...soon we were scambling over and between huge limestone rocks. Eventually we came to an area called the Dragon's Tooth (that was probably a clue!!). As you can see from the attached picture, it is huge, pointed, vertical slab of limestone...from a distance it looks like a pointed tooth. On leaving the Dragon's Tooth we left the ridge and began to descend toward the valley far below. We hoped that by getting off the ridge, we would finally be able to speed up our pace...Boy were we wrong. What we now faced was some of the toughest "trail" we have ever hiked. I say "trail" because there was no trail in the traditional sense...what we had was a type of rock climb. In some places the "trail" was a 4 inch wide ledge on a near veriical slab of limestone. In other places, it was a huge slab at a 45 degree angle that you had to slide down...mind you, all of this with a 30-35 lb backpack on our backs. Needless to say that when we finally reached the valley floor and realized that we had only covered about 6 miles in 6 hours, doing 17 miles wasn't probably going to happen. The profile on the map made it look doable...but the reality was something different. Besides the time it had taken, the 6 hours of scrambling (and the terror at times!!) had taken a physical toll too. To add to the physical drain, the temperature reached 86 degrees...we were sweating "buckets"!! Spider estimated that he had drunk 1 1/2 gallons of water today!! We finally made it to the shelter BEFORE the one we had planned to stay at. It was 6:20 and we still had 2.4 miles to go and 1000 foot climb to reach the planned shelter. We were spent, so decided to stop for the day. It leaves a 17 plus mile day tomorrow to get to town...hopefully the trail will be nicer to us tomorrow!!
Date: 2013-05-16
From: Catawba Mountain Shelter

To: Howard Johnson Motel, Daleville, VA
Miles today: 17.8

The Call of the Bed and ShowerDay 29: Once again, we set the alarm for 5:30am to get an early start on a planned long day of hiking. Not sure the other folks in the shelter appreciated it...but such is the life in "communal" sleeping arrangements!! We were on the trail at 6:30 and started the 1000 foot climb we had put off yesterday. The temperature was already 71 degrees...we worried about how hot this day would be!! About an hour later we reached the top of McAfee Knob and had the grand views you see in the attached picture. Obviously we could think of no better place to stop for breakfast!! After our morning feast...for the stomach and the eyes, we started our descent toward the valley below. We made a stop at the shelter we had tried for yesterday, to fill up on water. We are now very conscious of water management on these hot days where we sweat a lot...and today, in particular, since we will be mostly on ridges where the water is scarce. Fortunately some high clouds came in and tempered the sun's effects...the temperature never got over 87 degrees. We continued our descent, transited the valley floor and began our second climb of the day. This climb ended at Tinker's Cliffs. These were huge limestone slabs jutting out over the valley below, similar to McAfee Knob except about 10 times more expansive. We will always remember these cliffs because it was here that we made a wrong turn and hiked a trail at the base of the cliffs, that was not the AT, for about 1/4 mile. We finally realized we had not seen a white "blaze" that marks the AT in some while. So we stopped, dropped our packs and each of us explored opposite directions to find the illusive white blaze. ET returned to say she found where we had missed the turn of the AT..so on with the packs and back the 1/4 mile...just what we needed on an already long day!! Once back on the AT the trail climbed to the top of the cliffs and followed the ragged edge. We had grand views up the Shenandoah Valley (we are now at the southern end of it). We stopped at the next shelter to water up again but were told by a hiker resting there that a spring 1/2 mile up the trail had better water..so off we went. We watered up at the spring and began a rollercoaster trail along the ridge...unfortunately near the end it became a rock scramble...not something you want to do on legs that have already walked 15+ miles!! We finally left the ridge and started the steep descent toward the valley. We arrived at our motel at 6:30...a 12-hour day!! We showered (Boy did we need that), put on the cleanest clothes we had (Spider had to wash a shirt in the shower to have something to wear) and headed across the street to a Mexican restaurant. The beers and margarita helped ease the pain of our highest mileage day so far!!
Date: 2013-05-17
From: Howard Johnson Motel, Daleville, VA

To: Howard Johnson Motel, Daleville, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Chillin' in DalevilleDay 30: Our 4th Zero Day and our bodies sure appreciated it. We slept in until 7am, then went over to the lobby for our free breakfast. We both have noticed that we are hungry most of the time...our minds seem to be focused more on when the next opportunity to eat will be. It's called the Hiker Hunger. After breakfast it was time for laundry and gear repair, then off to the supermarket to buy some snacks and supplies...and stop at Wendy's for an early lunch...see the pattern here!! The afternoon was spent relaxing and Spider getting his golf "fix" on TV. We pretty much take over a room, as you can see from the attached picture, to dry gear, reorganize new supplies etc. Part of the afternoon is also taken up with phone calls to some family and friends. Lastly a trip across the street to Pizza Hut to EAT!! Physically we are okay...but last week's rigorous schedule took some toll. Spider's left knee has been giving him some pain, but a triple knee brace system he has worked out seems to have neutralized most the issue. Still no blisters and the shoulders and hips have toughened up for carrying the pack. We head out tomorrow with the forecast of thundershowers for 6 of the next 7 days..we got a taste of what is to come when the sky opened up at about 4:30pm today and dumped buckets of rain for about 15 minutes...and then the sun came out. It appears we have moved from winter to summer in about 4 days. We have met a lot of interesting people along the trail. One of them called the "Professor" (because that is what he used to be) said the best way to hike in this weather is to get on the trail early and get to your destination by mid-afternoon...so you can hunker down when the afternoon thunderstorms hit. We have toned down next week's hiking schedule somewhat, so that we might be able to follow the Professor's advice. However, we are not sure if Mother Nature will play by the same rules!!
Date: 2013-05-18
From: Howard Johnson Motel, Daleville, VA

To: Bobblet's Gap Shelter
Miles today: 18.5

Weather or Not, Here we ComeDay 31: We didn't tone down our pace very much today...we hiked more miles than any other day on this hike. It started fairly normally with the free breakfast at the motel and hitting the trail at 7:10am. It was foggy and 70 degrees. We had a steady climb out of the valley, but it was well graded and we were able to keep a good pace. We arrived at the first shelter at 9:30...and had "first lunch". After leaving the shelter we dropped in and out of several gullies with running creeks and lots of blooming Rhododendrons...so we took a picture...another indication that spring has arrived. We are also finding fully leafed-out trees at 3000 feet where they were only buds a couple of weeks ago. We will be above 4000 feet in a couple of days...wonder what the trees will look like there? We arrived at our planned destination shelter at 1:10pm..and had "second lunch"!!. With rain/thunderstorms forecasted we wanted to stay in a shelter tonight, but 1pm seemed way too early to stop. A look at the map showed that the next shelter was a little more than 7 miles away. That would make for a long day, but it would set us up for staying at a shelter every night for the rest of this week...given the uncertain weather, that would be a plus. Since the rain was still holding off, we decided to go for it. After leaving the shelter, we climbed into the clouds. Soon we began paralleling the famous Blue Ridge Parkway. There were several view points/overlooks on the Parkway that we passed...but all we could see was fog!! We finally arrived at the new destination shelter at 5:50. Initially we were the only ones there, but we were soon joined by 3 other hikers. It has sprinkled several times since we have been in the shelter, but no serious rain so far. This was a good day for animal sightings: we saw a cottontail rabbit, a racer snake and 2 deer.
Date: 2013-05-19
From: Bobblet's Gap Shelter

To: Bryant Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: light rain

Rain, Rain Go AwayDay 32: We were awakened at about midnight by rain hitting the roof of the shelter. It was still raining when we awoke at 6am. So we ate our breakfast in the shelter, instead of on the trail as is usual, put on our raingear and hit the trail at 8:20. We immediately climbed into the clouds. Like yesterday we came to a couple viewpoints on the Blue Ridge Parkway but had no views because of the clouds/fog. However, hiking teaches us to appreciate the little things in life...and the one thing that the viewpoints had were trash cans, so we were able to dump our accumulated trash. That's less weight to haul up and down the mountains!! It rained on and off the whole day. However, unlike previous rainstorms, this was a relatively warm storm. As on previous rainy days, e tend to just hike when it is raining...it's difficult to stop for a rest with no cover. Spider calls this "Shelter Hopping"!! So we hiked to the next shelter for our lunch break then hiked to our destination shelter..arriving at 4pm. An eerie thing was that we were not passed by any thru-hikers today. We think that's because the annual Trail Fest celebration in Damascus (the town we had our first Zero Day). Many hikers get off the trail to go back to Damascus..they say the town sees 30,000 visitors for Trail Fest.It was nice to get in to the shelter early and have some relaxation time. There was one other person here, Don's Brother is his trail name. This is an amazing shelter..the picture doesn't do it justice, it is 3-story with a covered varanda with a picnic table, widows (most shelters don't have windows) and it can sleep up to 20 people. It's billed as one of the largest shelters on the AT. Needless to say, with just 3 of us there, we have plenty of room!!
Date: 2013-05-20
From: Bryant Ridge Shelter

To: Thunder Hill Shelter
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: light rain

Climb the Highest MountainDay 33: Just as we turned off our headlamps to go to sleep last night a "squall" moved in and starting dumping buckets of rain. As I let the pounding on the shelter roof lull me to sleep, my last thoughts were, "I am sure glad I'm not in a tent!!". We awoke to a clear sky and sunshine...Wahoo!! Today was the day of a big climb...2000 feet in the first 3 miles and eventually a gain of 3000 feet by the end of the day. We hit the trail at 8am. We were soon passed by Don's Brother who had shared the shelter with us last night...Spider is pretty slow going uphill because of his knee issue. We had lunch near the next shelter and continued on. An iteresting phenomenon we have been noticing almost from the beginning of our hike is that the trail is often bordered by a band of grass on each side, as you can see in the attached picture. It is very useful because you can often see where the trail is going by spotting the dual green "bands" up ahead...but we always wondered how they got there...does the grass on the edge get more sun as the hikers tromp down the leaves in the middle? Did Johnny Grassseed hike the AT and spread grass seed on both sides of the trail as he walked? Or do the trekking poles used by hikers pick up the leaves, much like a groundskeeper uses a spiked pole to pick up trash...and thus gives the grass on the edge of the trail early access to the sun? It will probably remain one of life's mysteries. The sky began clouding up around 1pm and soon we heard the rumble of thunder. That caused us to quicken our step!! We finally arrived at our destination shelter at 5pm without getting rained on. There were 2 hikers already moved into the shelter...one of them was Don's Brother...we found out last night the he took this trailname because he is thru-hiking the AT in memory of his brother, Don, who recently died of ALS. His brother was an outdoors kind of guy and he thought that a hike would be a fitting tribute. Today we passed the 100 miles to go mark..the end is in sight!!
Date: 2013-05-21
From: Thunder Hill Shelter

To: John's Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 16.3

Hot Summer NightsDay 34: We saw something last night that we hadn't seen in weeks...the moon and stars!! We had stayed in the shelter because of the forecast of a 50 percent chance of rain, but the skies cleared in the evening. We still prefer to stay in our tent for many reasons...the more we stay in shelters the more additional reasons we find to stay in our tent. With the warmer weather has come the bugs. There is a biting black fly that can drive you crazy: by day they fly circles around your head and periodically dive-bomb into yor eye, nose, mouth or ear...then when they have you distracted one will land on you and suck blood. Their saliva is like a mosquito's in that it causes an allergic reaction that raises a red welt that itches for several days. As dusk comes, the black flies leave, but their partners in crime, the mosquito, comes out. So as we lie in the shelter on a warm night, unable to stay in our sleeping bags because they are too warm, but knowing any skin we expose will be attacked...maybe the cold and rain wasn't so bad after all!! We awoke to a clear sky and 70 degrees. We hit the trail at 7:40am. We had a slight climb then we began a descent. We had lunch at a gap before our big climb for the day. It was only a 700 foot climb, but it was almost straight up. Since there were no clouds, the temperature rose quickly..eventually reaching 90 degrees. Coupled with the high humidity, sweat was pouring off us as we climbed. After finally reaching the top, we started our long descent to the James River. Once there, we crossed the longest footbridge on the AT. This is the widest river we have crossed so far and it was full to the banks and muddy from all the recent rains. In a couple more miles we arrived at our destination shelter at 6:05. As I write this, we are the only ones here.
Date: 2013-05-22
From: John's Hollow Shelter

To: Campsite near Rice Mtn
Miles today: 12.6

Hike Your Own HikeDay 35: We awoke at 5:30am. We had a 2500 foot climb right away and we wanted to get most of it done before it got too hot. Like yesterday, we had clear skies and 70 degrees...although the forecast is for a build up of thunder clouds in the afternoon and a 50 per cent chance of showers. We hit the trail at 6:55am and immediately started to climb. It was a steep climb and progress was slow. We stopped after a hour to have breakfast and we had climbed half the distance we needed to. As we ate breakfast, a hiker stopped to talk and we realized that we had first met him and wife, Onyx and Dragonfly, at the B&B when we started our hike...we figured they were long gone up the trail. However, it turns out Dragonfly got a leg infection, so they were off the trail for some time. She can't hike for a month, so she is shuttling Onyx to and from the trail each day. He is "slack packing" (just carrying a day pack) between road junctions where he is dropped off and picked up by Dragonfly. In a month she will, once again, join him on the trail. After they finish the rest of the AT, they will come back to this area and she will slack pack the sections she missed...there are lots of ways to hike the AT. We continued our climb and reached a ridge after a 2000 foot ascent. Now the trail followed a ridge for several miles. This is where ET encountered a rattlesnake on the trail in front of her...that was exciting!! After another 500 foot climb we finally reached the top and had a grand view of the Shenandoah Valley, as you can see from the attached picture. Now down, down, down we went...losing all that hard-earned elevation. We stopped at a shelter to water up (this was the first water we had seen since leaving the last shelter). We continued on another 4 miles to a spring we planned to camp by. The problem was that the spring was on a vertical part of the trail and there were no camping spots. Spider did some looking around and found a reasonably flat spot about 1/2 mile down the trail. So we loaded up with water and headed to the "stealth" campsite, arriving at 5pm. Once the tent was set up, we got in and rested for a while. Soon we began to hear the rumble of thunder around us. Hmmm. We decided to get up and get our dinner fixed in case we became the "lucky" 50 percent that got thunder showers. We had just finished preparing dinner and here comes the rain. So we dove into the tent and ate our dinner in the vestibules. As I type this there is booming thunder and bright lightning overhead and the tent is being pummeled with rain. But we aren't concerned because tomorrow we head to town and a well-deserved zero day!!