morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2009-04-18
From: Hot Springs, NC

To: Hot Springs, NC
Miles today: 36.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Ugg. Terrible time sleeping last night. The river masked any noise from the roudier tent city inhabitants, thankfully, but the street lights in the pavilion area stayed on all night and lit my tent like daylight. I kept waking up and thinking that it was morning only to look at the watch and see that it was still the middle of the night.But finally morning did come, and with it free breakfast from the trail magic crew. Pancakes, sausage, and eggs really hit the spot. After breakfast Pickle and I procured a cabin for tonight. At least there we can turn the lights off.Spent the afternoon running the usual town errands: laundry, resupply, wandering aimlessly around the outfitter.There's still some debate about the plan for tomorrow. We may zero again to avoid some potentially severe storms, or we may hike out anyway.Editer's note: New pictures have also been posted, see link below.
Date: 2009-04-19
From: Hot Springs, NC

To: Hot Springs, NC
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Weather forecast, plus general laziness prompted us to zero again today. And indeed it did end up raining off and on all day. We did another round of the usual town errands: another load of laundry to wash the clothes we had been wearing while doing the laundry yesterday, and another trip to the grocery store, this time for the fixings for dinner in the cabin. Since we have a full kitchen right at our fingertips we might as well use it. Tonight's main course was beef taco's. I ate 6, narrowing out taco-ing Pickle who inhaled a full 5 1/2 of them.A couple of quick items:-if you're visiting or hiking through Hot Springs I highly recommend the Springbrook Cabins as a place to stay. Very nice cabins, very accomodating and hiker friendly, and an excellent value particularly if you've got a group you can split it with.- I posted another big batch of photos to the link in my signature at the bottom of this page. It looks like my night shots from Max Patch didn't turn out though, unfortunately.
Date: 2009-04-20
From: Hot Springs, NC

To: Spring Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: light rain

Lost: One set of reasonably well adjusted trail legs. Last seen on descent into Hot Springs prior to our two zero days. If found and returned I will gladly trade them for this pair of achy, useless, sausage-shaped poor substitutes for legs that I used today for the climb out of town. Big Reward!
Date: 2009-04-21
From: Spring Mountain Shelter

To: Campsite Near Blackstack Cliffs
Miles today: 11.6

Ok, I found some of the trail legs today. We got a late start due to a rainy morning but once we were warmed up it all felt much better. The pack was a little bit lighter too, having eaten one days worth of food. Dinner last night was a Knorr "Sides Plus" teriaky noodles & veggies plus a pouch of salmon and a handful of wasaby peas thrown in just for variety's sake. Wasn't too bad at all.Got an excellent "trail magic" lunch at Allen Gap at the home of Hercules and Fall, two 1997 thru-hikers that now invite current hikers into their home for lunch. A Belgian waffle, a muffin sized little cheese quiche, a bowl of pork stew with a couple slices of homemade bread, all followed by a banana split with scoops of chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla ice cream that looked straight out of a Dairy Queen commercial (not to be confused with the actual food they would serve you at a DQ), made for a VERY filling lunch. We suffered for our glutony over the next several miles.The original plan had been to do about 15 miles today, but the 10:30 start time combined with a two hour lunch stop prompted us to cut things a bit short. We'll try to make it up some tomorrow.
Date: 2009-04-23
From: Campsite Near Sugarloaf Gap

To: Campsite Near Low Gap
Miles today: 11.0

Slightly shorter day than we had planned on, thanks largely to an off-trail lunch stop. At Sams Gap we hitched a ride to Donna's Country Kitchen for burgers and chicken fingers. The heavy belly of food was counteracted somewhat by all the Dr. Pepper that I drank, but it still made for a slow afternoon climb.We're in camp tonight with Pork Chop, Papa Squat, Ahab, and Rain Man.Oh, and today is Moose's birthday. He turned the big 30.Weather was damn near perfect today too: not a cloud in the sky and 70 degrees.
Date: 2009-04-24
From: Campsite Near Low Gap

To: No Business Knob Hill Shelter
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: clear sky

Big-ish day today to set up an early arrival into Erwin tommorrow am. The Post Office is only open from 10am to noon, so Moose pushed on a little further from the shelter to make sure he will get there on time.Warmer today, with some rumbles of thunder in the evening, but it seems that the storms went around us.
Date: 2009-04-25
From: No Business Knob Hill Shelter

To: Erwin, TN
Miles today: 6.3
Weather: clear sky

Another week, another trail town. The three of us: Pickle, Skunk, and I, opted to stay at the Holiday Inn Express rather than the hostel. Sometimes it's nicer to have your own private space, and split 3 ways it's really not much more than a bunk would have been.Got settled in, did the whole shower and laundry routine, and then walked to lunch and resupply at the grocery store. We are breaking the next hiking run to Damascus up into smaller chunks so we only have to carry 3 days of food out of here. That should make tomorrow a lot easier than the climb out of Hot Springs was. We hope.
Date: 2009-04-26
From: Erwin, TN

To: camping on Beauty Spot Bald
Miles today: 10.6

Hey whatayaknow, we do learn from our mistakes. The climb out of erwin was much more pleasant than the climb out of Hot Springs, thanks in part to our not packing the bags full to the brim with unneccessary food weight.The plan had been to go a little further past the bald to camp but we met Moose & Buddy, Tape Worm, Peanut Butter, August Rush, and Spotlight encamped up there and decided that it was too pretty a spot to pass up.Good thing we didn't too, as later in the evening first 2008 thru-hiker Tree and his friend stopped by with beer, snacks and firewood, and then later Papa Squat and Jackie O drove up to share pizza's and more beer with whoever happened to be camping up there. Gotta love hiker generosity.Stayed up much too late sitting around the campfire, and will probably be a bit groggy in the mourning.
Date: 2009-04-27
From: camping on Beauty Spot Bald

To: Clyde Smith Shelter
Miles today: 15.6
Weather: clear sky

Amazingly everyone was up and moving before 9am. Well, except for Skunk, who isn't really much of a morning person, even on a normal. Pickle and I set off on our own about 9:30, letting Skunk catch up to us at his leisure. Moose didn't meet us at the shelter. I suspect that he and Tape Worm were drawn in by the pull of the hostel a few miles back.Fairly big day, mileage-wise, and my feet are quite sore. Seems like my shoes aren't providing as much cushion as they once did. I'm feeling every pebble and root. Might be due for new insoles in Damascus.
Date: 2009-04-28
From: Clyde Smith Shelter

To: Overmountain Shelter
Miles today: 12.9
Weather: clear sky

Up and over Roan Mountain was the big agenda item for the day today. It's a big climb, some 2200+ feet, but there was a little breeze to counteract the sunshine and we were up and over in time for lunch. The three of us detoured off the AT to the parking and picnic area at the summit on the promise of there being toilets and running water there. We discovered that the facilities aren't yet open for the season yet. Oh well, at least we got to eat lunch at a picnic table like civilized people, instead of sitting on the ground like we usually do.We're camped tonight at the picturesque Overmountain Shelter, which is an old red barn right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Very pretty spot. Should have a nice view of the sunrise tomorrow too.Tomorrow will be a 10 mile run into the hostel and town for resupply. We should be in Damascus in about a week.
Date: 2009-04-29
From: Overmountain Shelter

To: Mountain Harbour Hostel
Miles today: 9.2

Perfect hiking timing today. Just as we were getting the hostel tour it started to rain. It's nice that it worked our favor for once. Beautiful hiking today too. We went up and Little and Big Hump Mountains, which are both open grass balds. I think it might have been the longest stretch of non-forest hiking yet.After showers Terry gave us a ride to the diner for lunch. I had the "Times Square Burger". One the burger was: half a pound of beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, mustard, a slice of ham, a layer of chili, and last but not least a scoop of cole slaw. I couldn't even pick it up. Had to eat it with a fork. And it was good. Better than good. It was damned near perfection. Skunk had one as well, and upped the ante on his by having his side of fries topped with chili and cheese. It was a glorious thing. After lunch Mary gave us a ride down to the Dollar General for resupply. We got back to the hostel around 4. At 6:30 we put a pair of frozen pizza's in the oven to cook. While waiting the three of us split half a gallon of ice cream.I guess that hiker appetite has finally kicked in.
Date: 2009-04-30
From: Mountain Harbour Hostel

To: Mountainier Falls Shelter
Miles today: 8.8

We are planning on staying at the famous Kincora Hostel tomorrow night, so we hiked just enough to put us in range of it tomorrow. Plus this is a nice new shelter to stay in when there's a chance of thunderstorms for tonight. Even hiked in hotdogs and marshmallows to cook on the fire during the lazy afternoon.Moose, Tape Worm, Spotlight, and Peanut Butter all passed through but are pushing on to camp further along.
Date: 2009-05-01
From: Mountainier Falls Shelter

To: Laurel Fork Lodge
Miles today: 15.6

The original plan for tonight was to sleep at the Kincora hostel, but we got a late start, and we're slow, so by the time we got in there were no beds left. But if there's one thing that you learn on a thru-hike it's flexibility. Just half a mile down from Kincora is the Laurel Fork Lodge. For $10 a person the three of us have our own private cabin. Not much of a cabin, mind you, just a set of bunk beds and a table and chairs, but it's clean and quiet. After showers we hung out in the "hiker kitchen" with Quade, Pig Pen, and Featherfoot. We ordered BBQ delivery (they even delivered beer!), and while waiting for it to arrive we split a pair of frozen pizza's. Pizza and BBQ. That's not a combination you eat everyday.The hike into here went pretty quick today, given the mileage and my sore feet. Pickle and I hiked by ourselves for the first part of the day, up until lunch at the 9.6 mile point when Skunk finally caught us. He's really not a morning person, so lately we've just been letting him sleep in and catch up to us after a couple of hours. The weather started off rainy, then slowly ran the gammut from rain to drizzle, to cloudy, and then finally sunny and warm. Made it tough to figure out what to wear.It's 10:00. Way past my bedtime. Tomorrow we start the last leg of the run into Damascus. Should take us about 3 1/2 days, barring any unforseen plan changes.
Date: 2009-05-03
From: Laurel Fork Lodge

To: Iron Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 13.6
Weather: moderate rain

A day of rain and fog. Pickle and I made good time though. Still no sign of Skunk Ape. We did hike for a while this afternoon with Nest and Ben though, which was fun. We met them back at the Mountainview Hostel. Nest thru-hiked last year, and Ben is his dog who is out hiking with him just until Trail Days.Sleeping in the shelter tonight to try to stay dry for the night.Update: The Skunk Ape has arrived. The caterpiller has regained a segment.
Date: 2009-05-04
From: Iron Mountain Shelter

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 26.1
Weather: light rain

Holy cow. Big, big day. Once again our plans got thrown out the window. Instead of doing 16 today and then 10 into town tomorrow we were pushed by the weather forecast to do the full marathon day. Took Pickle and I about 12 hours of hiking to get here. Skunk layed around in his tent until the rain let up, and arrived in town just a few minutes after we did.We are staying at the very nice Augusta's Appalachian Inn B&B for the next two nights.
Date: 2009-05-05
From: Damascus, VA

To: Zero Day in Damascus
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Zero day in Damascus. Bought myself a new pair of shoes. At first I tried just new inserts in my old shoes, but in the end decided that a whole rig was in order. I had always planned on needing new shoes here anyway. They feel nice walking around town, but tomorrow will be the real test.Other than that, today was filled with the usual town chores: post office trips, outfitter wandering, grocery shopping, and of course, eating.
Date: 2009-05-06
From: Zero Day in Damascus

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 5.6
Weather: moderate rain

Today we were supposed to be hitting the trail today, but I had some issues with the new shoes and had to get back into town to have them addressed. Within a couple miles of hiking I started getting very nasty cramps in the arches of both feet. Sort of from the middle toe running all the way back to the heel. Very odd. And very unpleasant. Luckily the trail recrosses VA 58, the main highway through Damascus, after a few miles so we hitched a ride back. Originally it was going to be just me, but the constant rain helped Pickle and Skunk convince themselves to come along as well.We are staying at a different B&B tonight since Augusta's didn't have anything available. We're at the Apple Tree Inn right next door.Evening update: Got the shoes looked at and have hopefully found a solution to the problem by tweaking the insoles and their fit. Feels fine walking around town. Tomorrow will be the real test.
Date: 2009-05-07
From: Damascus, VA

To: Lost Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: scattered clouds

The shoes worked much better today. Not perfect, but the cramping was mostly gone. The theory at the outfitter's was that some of the issues were due to my feet needing to readjust to having proper arch support again, and that it would get better after a few days. But at least i'm blister free.
Date: 2009-05-08
From: Lost Mountain Shelter

To: Thomas Knob Shelter
Miles today: 12.2
Weather: overcast clouds

We had 12 miles of very pretty hiking today. Or at least it would have been pretty if we didn't have to walk through drizzly rain and a thunderstorm during the first part. After lunch the clouds broke up for a bit and we actually got to hike in sunshine for a few hours. The trail today took us through cow pastures and some open fields on it's way over Mt. Rogers.We're staying at the Thomas Knob shelter tonight. This shelter sits right on the edge of a west facing slope of the mountain, right in the path of the oncoming thunderstorms. We might be in for a noisey night.
Date: 2009-05-09
From: Thomas Knob Shelter

To: Old Orchard Shelter
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: light rain

Guess what it did today? It rained! Crazy, I know. For a while this morning it looked like it was going to be a sunshiny day, but by 2:00 it had reverted to what now can only be called, "the usual". We went over the open fields of Stone Mountain in horizontal rain and gusting winds that caught your pack and tried to spin you around.Tenting tonight below Old Orchard shelter. I'm hoping to catch up on sleep that I missed last night. Between the thunderstorm, the winds strong enough to rock the whole shelter, and my sleeping pad having a leak in it that required reinflation every hour, I got very little sleep. So tonight I'm in my tent, and I think I found and patched the hole in the pad. It will probably still storm tonight, and it's still windy, but I'm tucked down in a little hollow of pine trees and am out of the worst of it.Should be in a hostel tomorrow night.
Date: 2009-05-10
From: Old Orchard Shelter

To: Troutdale, VA
Miles today: 10.2

Sunshine!! Awoke to the sun lighting up the interior of the tent this morning. We made the 10 miles to the Troutdale road crossing by about 2:00, and got do walk almost all of it in the sun. The three of us are staying at the cute little church hostel here in town.The shoe situation is improving. I've been starting each day with the Super Feet in, and then switching to the flatter stock insoles later in the day whenever they start to hurt. Each day that switch has been happening later and later, which I assume is a good thing.In other news, my sleeping pad has a leak in it. Woke up to being on the hard ground yesterday. Tried a patch job on it, we'll see if it works.
Date: 2009-05-11
From: Troutdale, VA

To: Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: light rain

Guess what it did today? If you guessed rained, you win today's grand prize. Another day of fog, mist, and rain. All day. But we had pizza for dinner, so that does make everything better. We get to sleep tonight in the famous Partnership Shelter, with it's shower, running water, extra-fancy privy, and phone for calling the pizza delivery guy. We're going to get spoiled.Back into town tomorrow, Atkins.
Date: 2009-05-12
From: Partnership Shelter

To: Atkins, VA
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: clear sky

Had a nice relaxing day hiking into atkins. The day started off cloudy and cool but eventually everything broke up and we got to walk in the sunshine for a while. The three of us took a little detour after lunch to go tour the "Settler's Museum and Farmstead" outside of town. Pretty interesting self guided tour through the preserved 1890's farmhouse and barns. Compared to back then even some aspects of our camping life is luxurious.We're staying at the Relax Inn right near both the trail and I-81, but we're not exactly sure what the plan for tomorrow is. We'd like to find a way to do a little slackpacking tomorrow instead of just zeroing here waiting for Trail Days, but haven't figured out the logistics of that just yet.
Date: 2009-05-13
From: Atkins, VA

To: Zero Day in Atkins, VA
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: scattered clouds

Couldn't figure out a slackpack option for the day, so we walked 3 1/2 miles (each way) down the road to a Subway restaurant. Silly, I know, but we needed something to do to fill the time. In the immediate vicinity of where the AT crosses the interstate there is our motel, a shell station (where we got breakfast donuts today), an exxon station, and a mom&pop restaurant (that we had dinner in last night and tonight). And that's it.Other than that we spent the day lounging around. Did some laundry, but no need to buy food here now since we'll be in Damascus tomorrow.editors note today's milage was to place the total milage at the correct distance.
Date: 2009-05-14
From: Zero Day in Atkins, VA

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

We are in Damascus. The shuttle bus from the baptist church picked us up at the Exxon station and we were here by 11. It took us 4 days to walk to Atkins from Damascus, but less than 45 minutes to backtrack the same distance by car. That definitely puts things in perspective. But of course something like this is never about the destination, if that were true I would have just driven to Maine back in March. No, it's the little daily pieces of the journey.Trail Days is certainly one of those pieces of the journey.I'll have to write more later: we're off to the Hiker Dinner at the church.MORE:Dinner was excellent. Lots of traditional southern home cooking: fried chicken, BBQ sandwiches, sweet potatoes, corn, green beans, etc, etc. Plus desert, of course.Before I forget again, we also had an excellent lunch today at Fatties' Diner. I opted not to try the "6 pound burger challenge", where you have one hour to eat a monster burger consisting of a stack of 6 one pound burger patties, plus cheese, buns, and all the usual accompaniments. Our buddy Tape Worm tried it a week or so ago, and judging by the picture they have of him on their "wall of Shame", he got within a pound or so victory. No, instead I had a couple of chili dogs, with cole slaw (of course! It's the only proper way to eat a chili dog), with fries. Oh, and an order of deep fried pickles.I promise we have done more here in town besides eat. Honest. We got ourselves a nice quiet spot to camp, on the lawn right at the creek bank behind Ms. Jenny's Lazy Fox Inn B&B. This keeps us downtown and away from the roudier Tent City where most of the hikers camp. I'm too old to listen to some drunken idiot bang away on a bongo drum until the wee hours. No thanks. We owe a big thanks to Sissy and Terry at the Augusta for pointing us this direction. Sissy even gave Ms. Jenny a call to make sure it would be ok before we walked over.Hikers are still filing into town, but it already feels like a reunion. We ran into a bunch of the usual suspects over at Tent City: Moose & Buddy, Papa Squat & Jackie O, Spotlight. And several people that we haven't seen since the Smokies or earlier, like Swamp Dog, who was part of the "snowed-in" group, and Racheopod, who I don't think we've seen since Hiawassee maybe. And I ran into Bama and Bill! I met them on the '06 hike; Bama and I went through the Smokies together.Looks like storms for tonight. I'm very tired from all the wandering. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep right through it.
Date: 2009-05-19
From: Davis Path Campsite

To: Jenkins Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Tougher day than even the 16 miles would suggest. The first half was beautiful, even with a 2000' climb. After the climb were several miles of gorgeous mountaintop pastures with gently rolling hills and views north into Burkes Garden. But the last ten miles sucked. The profile showed more miles of nice rolling ridge walking, but it didn't mention that it would all be a rock obstacle course. My feet, ankles, and knees are very sore tonight.Skunk has rejoined us tonight. He ended up staying an extra night with his family. He nearly caught us yesterday, but gave up and camped just a mile short of where we were.A Trail Days tidbit I forgot about: the Library Book Sale. I bought myself 4 new books to read; an Arthur C. Clark sci-fi, and the 3 Madeleine L'Engle "A Wrinkle in Time" books. So I left town carrying an extra pound of paper. But that's nothing. Skunk bought himself The Complete Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales collection, and The Unabridged, 750 page, Warren Report, both in hardcovers. Glutten for punishment.Passing through Bland tomorrow for resupply.
Date: 2009-05-24
From: Jenkins Shelter

To: Pearisburg, VA
Miles today: 84.9
Weather: light rain

Well, I've skipped a few days worth of journal entries, again. We've completed the leg from Bland to Pearisburg, and took a zero day here today to rest up a little. Things have been going really quite smoothly. We even had 4 solid days of nice weather in a row!Short entry tonight, I know, and I apologize. I'm going to try to get back into the journaling habit every night again. I didn't have any luck getting pictures uploaded from here in pearisburg either. I've got a backlog of them that I hope to get online in Daleville, our next major town stop.editor's note: milage is to catch up to where Russ actually is.
Date: 2009-05-25
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: Rice Field Shelter
Miles today: 6.8
Weather: moderate rain

Late start, bellies full of Hardee's breakfast, and a steep climb conspired against us today. But this shelter is in a pretty spot overlooking a meadow, and we just beat the rain in getting here, so life is good.One Pearisburg update that I forgot yesterday: I ordered myself a hammock. The first night at the hostel I borrowed Skunk's hammock and slept like a baby. Got up the next morning and sent the good folks at Hennessey an email. They let me buy one at the Trail Days' prices, and coordinated with me to get it maildropped to me here on the trail.