morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2006-06-07
From: Laurel Creek Shelter

To: Niday shelter
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: scattered clouds

It¢s kinda weird that I now consider a 12-mile day to be easy. But I do, and judging by the fact that a two-hour nap separated those two sentences, I really needed a short and easy day.        Unfortunately, now it¢s dark and I have just discovered that my headlamp has vanished. That sucks since I had just bought a brand new one. So no I have to buy another new one. Also, now I can¢t see, so this journal is a short one.
Date: 2006-06-08
From: Niday shelter

To: Pickle Branch Shelter
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Today was not the best of days. On top of losing my headlamp yesterday, it rained on me most of the day today.        I got a nice early start today, with the possible intention of heading further today than I had planned. I thought maybe I¢d get a mile beyond Catawba in a long day and camp at the shelter there. Instead it started raining on me as I came over the first ridge and didn¢t stop until just now. I¢ve been at the shelter for a few hours now.        Now a whole bunch of other people has shown up, where previously there were only four of us. Now there¢s eight and the shelter only holds six. Two of them are George and Gail, though, which is nice. One of the others is this incredibly rude guy who makes it a habit of getting up at 4 a.m. and packing up all his stuff. That¢s fine if you¢re tenting, but when you¢re waking up an entire shelter just so you can leave early, that¢s a problem.        It promises to be a kinda crappy night. Fortunately tomorrow I get picked up by my sister to spend a day or two at home. That¢s definitely something I need at this point. We¢ve only got a one-day stop planned, but with everything I need to do, I¢ll need two days.
Date: 2006-06-09
From: Pickle Branch Shelter

To: home
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: scattered clouds

Last night wasn¢t nearly as bad as I feared. One of the later arrivals actually had my headlamp, which was awesome. He¢d found it beside where I camped the night before I noticed it missing. Also the sun came out just before sunset and I got my tent set up, thus avoiding the hugely crowded shelter.        Today¢s hike was horrible. A relatively short distance, it was made so much longer by the presence of massive rock scrambles that required me to slow down to a crawl to pick my way over them. I love a good rock scramble when I¢m day-hiking, but in the middle of a long-distance hike with a huge pack on they¢re just aggravating.        Anyway, my sister picked me up at the end of the hike and brought me back for a couple days at home. I really need the rest.
Date: 2006-06-12
From: home

To: Campbell Shelter
Miles today: 4.4
Weather: mist

In a rather extreme case of my usual getting a late start after time off, I didn¢t start today¢s hike until 4:30 p.m. Granted I had to be driven four hours from Manassas to Catawba before I could start, but we didn¢t even leave home until noon. The cause was that I was visiting Nic and Joe last night and didn¢t want to cut the night short in order to get an earlier start today.        I wasn¢t really in any hurry, anyway. The shelters today were at one mile, two miles and four miles. There are a ton of shelters in this section as it is a high-use area. Also I wasn¢t feeling terribly enthusiastic about getting back on the trail. It¢s hard to make yourself return to hardship and deprivation when you know you don¢t have to. Only my firm resolve to see this thing through got me back out here today.        As it was, I was considering being completely lazy and stopping at one of the first two shelters since the big climb up McAfee was before the third. Once I got moving, though, my enthusiasm returned and since I hate leaving a climb for the morning, I decided to hit the third shelter after all.        I was very glad I did. I met a trio of hikers atop McAfee Knob by the names of ¢Poles¢, ¢Nickname¢, and ¢Flying Turtle¢. They had packed beer and wine up from Catawba and were sitting at the truly amazing viewpoint on top of the mountain. Without hesitation they invited me to join them and the four of us sat there for hours to catch the sunset.         What a great way to get back to the trail after a break.
Date: 2006-06-13
From: Campbell Shelter

To: Econo Lodge #175
Miles today: 15.4

A lot of hard hiking today. It was mostly the sort of ridgewalks I¢ve been seeing throughout Southwest Virginia; however, today the ridge had tons of knobs to climb and was very rocky. Lots of little rocky climbs are just as bad as big climbs.        The high point of the day was the Tinker Cliffs, a series of sharp rock cliffs with terrific views. The AT goes right across the cliffs for a full half-mile. It was easily one of the coolest things I¢ve seen so far on the trail.        In a bizarre bit of irony, I have found myself once more at the ¢Rancho Viejo¢. This restaurant was last visited by Joe and me during our initial drive to Springer Mountain. The At apparently goes right past the place, a fact that I was not aware of during the drive to Springer. During that first visit, though, a local told us about a nearby trail that people went up and never came back. She must have been referring to the AT.        The major downside to today¢s hike is that the belt straps on my pack had worked loose. The frame of my pack had started to rub against my backside. By the time I noticed, a series of extremely painful sores had formed on my back. The last few miles of the hike were excruciating. I¢ve taken an anti-inflammatory for it and covered it with Body-Glide. I hope it heals up overnight, as taking a zero to heal so soon after spending two days at home would be aggravating.
Date: 2006-06-14
From: Econo Lodge #175

To: Econo Lodge room #175
Miles today: 0.0

The pack sores from yesterday were still hurting this morning, plus it was raining; thus I felt I had to take another day off rather than aggravate the problem. As always when I¢m in a place with civilization, I tend to forget to write in my journal. I write in my journal so often on the trail, largely because there¢s nothing else to do at night. When I¢m in a hotel I¢ve got other things to occupy my time so my journal entries are fairly short. This was especially true during the two days I spent at home. With all my stuff around, I completely neglected to journal at all. Apparently this offended my mother somewhat, so I guess I¢ll offer a brief recap of those days.        On Friday my sister Alana arrived in Catawba to take me back home. I wanted to eat at the Home Place Restaurant in Catawba, but Alana had plans for the evening and couldn¢t wait for a sit-down meal. By all accounts I missed one of the best meals on the trail. Oh, well.        It was very strange being in my own bed after two months, though I had no problem sleeping in it. I still woke up at 6:30 a.m. as I tend to since I started the trail.        Even stranger was seeing all the members of my mother¢s side of the family. I don¢t see them nearly as often as my father¢s side, so I have a lot of trouble remembering who is who, especially when they all look different. It was fun being around so much family though. They all seemed aware of what I¢m up to, even if some thought I was already done. There were also a ton of small children running around whom I¢ve never seen before. I suppose I¢m getting old.        Sunday was spent resupplying. I finally managed to find a pair of trail shoes that fit my huge (13EEEE) feet, so I can save my heavy boots for the more rugged terrain in the north. I also went to see X-men 3, which I thought was okay. The comic geek in me didn¢t like many of the changes they made to characters, plus the whole movie was just too cluttered.        That night I went out with my friends Nik and Joe to Bamboo Sushi. Bamboo is one of the best restaurants in the DC area and is easily the best sushi in the same. Man I missed sushi. Not many sushi places in the tiny mountain towns that the trail typically passes near. I have a return visit planned for when I get to Front Royal. Just something to look forward to to keep me moving.
Date: 2006-06-15
From: Econo Lodge room #175

To: Wilson Creek Shelter
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Well, I didn¢t get a late start this morning, but I didn¢t get an early start either. I definitely wanted to hike more than eleven miles today, but when I got to the shelter I realized that if I continued I¢d have to go all the way to the next shelter instead of camping halfway like I¢d planned. The next ten miles or so closely parallel the Blue Ridge Parkway, and there¢s no camping allowed except at shelters. Duh!        Trail conditions today were pretty good. Lots of good grading and switchbacks and few really steep sections. I can only hope that this continues as tomorrow I will be going for twenty-one miles to try and make up for lost time. There¢s only one big climb in that stretch, so it should be doable provided I get a nice early start in the morning. Early starts are a snap out in the woods, of course, as I¢m usually up with first light.        Mom¢s news last night that Grandmas was having chest pains had me worried all day. Fortunately I¢m in a place with good cell phone reception so I was able to get the good news that it wasn¢t a heart problem. Now if only I could pick up a halfway decent radio station¢¦..
Date: 2006-06-16
From: Wilson Creek Shelter

To: Bryant Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: clear sky

Made it! Unfortunately there are no tent sites at all at this shelter, so I have to stay in the shelter, and the shelter is full of ¢Green Blazers¢, to use a nicer term than I¢m thinking. They¢re all thru-hikers, but for some reason feel the need to smoke pot every night. They also hiked like four miles today, so aren¢t tired. The shelter is two stories tall, and I¢m on top, so I don¢t have to be right next to them, but they¢re being loud enough that I don¢t have to be.Today¢s hike was pretty good, all things considered. The trails were nicely constructed and well-maintained. The miles were long, but relatively easy.        Now I am discovering the other problem with sleeping in a shelter: there¢s nothing to keep the bugs off of me. It¢s pretty damned annoying. I need to remember to just press on to a tent site if I come across a shelter like this.        Additional problems come in the form of the sores on my backside. They¢re hurting again. Hopefully they¢ll feel better in the morning, as I cannot afford another day off to let them heal.        Good news is this: my brother might be coming out to hike with me in Shenandoah. The plan right now is to get two cars up there for us to use and the two of us will slackpack the whole park. I really, really hope this pans out.
Date: 2006-06-17
From: Bryant Ridge Shelter

To: Home
Miles today: 5.0
Weather: few clouds

So¢¦¢¦last night was even worse than I had imagined. While I was writing in my journal I saw a bug crawling across the page. I put my finger on it to squish it¢¦. and it just kept on crawling. I pressed my fingernail against it and it died with a loud crack. Great, I thought, on top of everything else this shelter has fleas.        So the stoners went to bed late, and got up around 5 a.m. They didn¢t even try to whisper or otherwise not disturb the rest of us. In fact they started whistling birdcalls! Needless to say I got an early start this morning. The sores on my back hurt so bad, I was so tired, I was covered in fleabites, and I was making a 2,200-foot ascent first thing in the morning. I had almost resolved to quit when all my favorite songs came up in a row on my MP3 player. ¢I Choose¢ by The Offspring, ¢The Middle¢ by Jimmy Eat World, and several others of the same Oh cheer up theme. By the time I got to the shelter at the top of the big climb (and the subsequent access to the Blue Ridge Parkway) I had instead resolved to go home for a healing day, then come back and start the slackpacking with my brother early.        So no I sit at home for the second time in two weeks. Hopefully, things will turn back around.
Date: 2006-06-19
From: Home

To: Otter Creek Campground
Miles today: 19.9

First day of the slackpacking expedition! We didn¢t really hike 20 miles today, as there is no parking at the place where I left the trail. We had to start about six miles further on. I will go back and pick up those six miles sometime in the future. I include them now as being hiked just because it makes for easier bookkeeping.        The hiking today was great, well-graded trails, not too hot, and no freaking pack full of stuff on my back! It was great hiking with Daniel too as this is the first time in a very long time that we¢ve been in comparable physical condition. He said it was nice to be able to hike together without me slowing us down, and I agree whole-heartedly.        Tomorrow we have a legitimate 20-miler planned. Our end point today was the James River. Tomorrow we¢ll leave one of our cars on US-60 and then drive back to the James and begin hiking. The total distance covered is nearly 22 miles, and we¢ll be making a 2,000+ climb first thing in the morning. Ordinarily that¢s be a killer day, and it still will be, but with the slackpacking it becomes much more doable. The next three days are all very similar that way. Big mile, Big climb. Fortunately there¢s only one big climb each day. After each big climb the rest of the day is fairly routine.        Hopefully the days I have planned won¢t be too strenuous. Getting in several 20¢s in a row ill do a lot to help me get back on tract after all the unexpected zeros I¢ve had to take.
Date: 2006-06-20
From: Otter Creek Campground

To: Otter Creek Campground
Miles today: 21.8

The slackpack attach continues! The first full day of slacking yields a day I couldn¢t possibly have done with a full pack: a 22-mile day including a 3,000-foot climb. As it was it took us all day to finish and we rolled into our finishing point at 8 p.m. We didn¢t move quite as fast as we expected since other than the initial major climb, the trail was largely downhill. Even slackpacking you can only go so fast downhill without just pitching over and rolling head over heels to the bottom of the mountain.        There are two more of those monster climbs ahead of us now. I have no idea why they¢re suddenly looking to send us over the top of very large mountain in the area, but it¢s getting annoying. There¢s a 2,000-foot climb tomorrow and another 3,000 footer the day after. Since I¢ve already made such climbs many, many times before, I¢m not concerned about my ability to do them. I¢m just concerned about getting miles in while I can. So, since I¢ve proven over and over again that I can make such climbs, I don¢t feel bad about doing a little cheating. Tomorrow we¢ll leave a car where we ended today, then drive to tomorrow¢s planned terminus and hike SOUTH. This will turn the big climb into a big drop. Plans are in the works to do the same thing the next day. It¢s the miles that are important here, not the direction you hike them in.
Date: 2006-06-24
From: home

To: home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Just a recap of the past few days rather than individual journals. We pulled some big miles over our slackpacking trip, and that combined with having someone to talk to at night meant that I didn¢t really feel like keeping up the journal.        The terrain over the past few days has been pretty bad. Lots of the sort of constant pointless ups-and-downs that characterized the earlier sections of the trial in Georgia, though, this time combined with 3,000-foot climbs and descents. Even though we were slackpacking the whole thing, the fact that we were going for big miles made it almost as difficult as if I was carrying my full pack.        Eventually Daniel¢s lacking the sort of extended conditioning that I have caught up to us. His knees started to hurt pretty badly on steep descents. To give him a bit of a break, I decided to skip the ¢three peaks¢ in favor of moving on to terrain that would be easier on his knees. I¢ll go back and do that little section as a day-hike after I finish the rest of the trail.        The camping was definitely a lot more enjoyable than usual. We drove to one of the Blue Ridge parkways¢ car-camping sites for the first couple days. Having a cooler full of sodas, beer and lunchmeat was definitely a novel experience to say the least. I wish every hike out here could end with me getting to a car full of cold drinks and driving to a comfortable place to stay.        The field of hikers definitely seems to be thinning out dramatically. I¢m not sure if it¢s because they¢re all in front of me, if I¢m in a think pocket, or if it¢s just that almost everyone has quit. I just know that I rarely see more than one or two other hikers in a day anymore.        Anyway, I¢m at home now, taking advantage of the proximity while I can. In another week of hiking I¢ll be at my closest point to home in Front Royal. After that I start to gradually move away. Fortunately I have plenty more to look forward to as I move north in the form of people I have met during my journey who have offered to get together at various places sometime in the future.        Tomorrow the weather reports say there¢s a 100% chance of severe thunderstorms. I¢m definitely not looking forward to that, but I can¢t afford yet another day of rest just yet. I¢m not really worrying about overall time anymore, really, as you can always skip ahead and hike Katahdin before it closes. My main concern is that the longer I stay here, the less I want to leave. At least the next section is Shenandoah National Park, an area very familiar to me, and also very easy hiking. Knowing this helps make it easier to get back out there.
Date: 2006-06-25
From: home

To: Calf Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: light rain

After a day off, four days of slackpacking, and two more days off, I come out today, hike seven freaking miles and already the pack sores are coming back. I really don¢t know what else I can do here. I am at the end of my rope. I can¢t keep hiking if I keep getting these sores, and as much as I might like to quit, I very much do not want to.        The only thing that¢s different now from the previous two sore-free months is that I¢m forty pounds lighter. That could be affecting the way my pack rides in a negative manner. The only thing that can really be done about that, though, is to buy a new pack. Unfortunately, as much as I joke about this being a budget less hike, I really cannot afford to buy a new pack. Mom offered to cover it for me when I called her earlier, but I¢d feel terrible if they did that and it didn¢t help.        Right now I¢m just going to continue my planned hike for tomorrow and see what happens. Hopefully things won¢t get any worse, but that doesn¢t seem likely. I wish I knew what I should do to fix this.        In other news I got a late start today, as usual. My plan to miss the worst of the severe thunderstorms seems to have paid off, however. It didn¢t rain on me while I was hiking, though it did soon after I arrived in the shelter. My friend ¢Joe Crow¢ arrived shortly after I did, and it was good to see him. For a while it was just he and I here, and for laughs we set our tents up inside the shelter. Eventually more people showed up as they always do when it rains, and I moved my tent out onto one of the tent sites here. Sadly the tent sites here are all pretty bad, but I¢m making do as best I can.
Date: 2006-06-26
From: Calf Mountain Shelter

To: home
Miles today: 12.3
Weather: light rain

Unfortunately things did get worse. By the time I got to Blackrock Gap, I was chafed around the midsection again and had new areas of chafing in both my armpits. I was in such pain that I had no choice but to call home and have someone pick me up again.        I¢m sure things weren¢t helped by the fact that it rained all day while I was trying to hike. I ended up taking two days off to heal and try to figure out what the heck the problem is. I visited REI to see if a new backpack would help. The staff there didn¢t think it would and instead helped me readjust my current pack to try and correct the problem.        More slackpacking is in store for when I go back to the trail on Thursday. Gotta try and make up the time I¢ve lost every time I stop to heal the stupid chafing.
Date: 2006-06-29
From: home

To: Elkton Motel #12
Miles today: 24.2

First day of ¢Operation: Move Faster¢ is a success. Twenty-four miles today, twenty-three tomorrow, and so on. Hopefully this will help me get more of a buffer in place so future mishaps won¢t completely end my hike.        The day itself wasn¢t the best of days by any stretch of the imagination. The first thing I did today was accidentally locking my keys in the car. Fortunately, that¢s covered by my roadside service plan, but I did have to wait an hour for the tow-truck to get there and open the car up.        So, with the universe conspiring to make me get a late start even when I get up early, I hit the trail at around 10:30. At around four in the afternoon it started raining. Again. Thankfully it wasn¢t the city-destroying deluge that they¢ve been having the past few days, but even being stormed on for half an hour is a distinctly unpleasant experience,        To top things off, now even my freaking slackpack is chafing me. I¢m concerned that there might be some sort of medical issue that¢s causing me to chafe easier or something. My parents have suggested I switch out my shirt in case my usual shirt is housing some sort of bacteria that washing isn¢t getting out.        I¢ll give that a try tomorrow. I really, really hope that helps. If I can¢t get this problem under control, I won¢t be able to continue on.
Date: 2006-06-30
From: Elkton Motel #12

To: home/Hawksbill Gap
Miles today: 23.1

Switching out the shirt did not help at all. By the middle of the day my back had several large and very painful heat rashes making it very hard to continue.         I bailed out off of the trail about five miles short of my goal, intending to hit the wayside at Big Meadows and call my mom to pick me up when she came up to move my car to it¢s next drop point. About the only thing that went right today was that my mom drive past just a few minutes after I hit the road.        Mom had a few remedies to try so, after moving my car and covering the rash in Desitin, I set off to finish my hike without any pack at all. That last five miles were absolute agony. The Desitin seemed to have aggravated the rashes rather than help. Rather than camping in one of the ¢Doah¢s¢ campgrounds, I came home to heal once more. Tomorrow I¢ll try to get to the doctor and see if he has any ideas.
Date: 2006-07-01
From: home

To: home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Went to the doctor this morning. Unfortunately he didn¢t have any sort of solutions either. He says it appears to just be normal chafing and is at a loss to explain why it¢s never happened before or why it appears so rapidly.        He gave me a prescription for an anti-fungal cream, just in case, and I¢ll be giving that a try when I go back out tomorrow. Mom will be joining me for part of my hike in the morning. The ¢Doah¢s¢ are definitely the place for non-hikers to join us for a section. The terrain is ridiculously easy and very newbie-friendly.