morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-06-04
From: Campsite

To: Wonderful Life Campground
Miles today: 8.6

What is it raining again? The rain that started with a thunderstorm in the early morning hours continued to come down in buckets throughout the morning. By the time we reach a shelter for the elevenses, we had decided that we would like to find a place to dry out completely. As I looked in the plan for a possible point from which to hitch into town near the end of our day I noticed something else. My Aunt Cathy was planning to bring us a re-supply package to US60 on Sunday at 3pm. The only problem was we were not scheduled to be there until MONDAY at 3pm. I had told her the wrong day. Now we had to find a phone and call her to let her know that we could not meet her. Only three miles further down the AT was a campground that had a phone. It was on VA614 and only a couple miles from the AT. So we bailed after only 8.6 miles today and are now ensconced in a particle board cabin and we are dry and warm. We called Cathy and left a message concerning my mistake. Tomorrow will be a long hike.                                        --Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-05
From: Wonderful Life Campground

To: Thunder Ridge Overlook
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: light rain

Can you believe it is raining again as I write this entry? I pride myself on being a positive guy, but for crying out loud! Well if the truth be told, we were lucky enough to quickly set up out tent before the real rain set in so we are dry and warm. After bailing yesterday and staying in a cabin at the campground, we were assured by our friends at the Weather Channel that it would be nice today. We went to bed last night with dreams of sunny skies dancing in our heads as listened to the rain our outside. It poured all night and into this morning. We got up late, walked over to the bathhouse and took a shower before buying breakfast at the camp grill. Don¢t Mind had biscuits and gravy and I had two hamburgers. We finally hit the trail at 10:45 and hiked like banshees up Apple Orchard Mountain. We hiked as hard as we could until 8pm and we started looking for a campsite. Just as we found on, it started to rain again, so it could have been much worse. By the way, we ran into Lady Bug, Bear and Radio Flyer today. They looked great!                                        --Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-06
From: Thunder Ridge Overlook

To: Campsite
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: scattered clouds

It continued to rain all night and we awoke to a thoroughly wet world. Our MSR ZOID2 tent continues to perform flawlessly, so we ignored the alarm and cuddled a little longer. We were cuddlin¢ because we love each other and because we were COLD. We were camping at 3000 feet and the temperature dropped steadily all night. We have already changed out our sleeping bag for a lighter blanket and there is a drop in performance. As long as we stay close, we stay warm. Anyway, we survived the night, waited out the rain and hiked 17.3 miles today. This is a really long day for us and it was over a lot of difficult terrain. We are still paying for the other day when we bailed to avoid the rain. Virginia continues to be a beautiful and well laid out part of our hike. Right now we are a walking near the Blue Ridge Parkway much of the time and it is kind of weird to be walking along the wilderness path and hear a car drive by just our of sight. It does provide a park like setting at crossing complete with trash cans. Hurray!                                        -- Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-07
From: Campsite

To: Campsite
Miles today: 18.4
Weather: clear sky

Stop the presses!! We have seen a bear. Early this evening as Don¢t Mind and I were walking up a mountain trying to find a flat spot to camp, I noticed a really cool purple and blue beetle crossing the path. I showed it to Don¢t Mind and as she was turning around to continue on, she stood still and motioned for me to do the same. And there is was!! Our first black bear in the wild! Running like mad away from us. It was just effortless bouncing through the woods VERY FAST.   I think I can forget about trying 2 run away from an angry bear. Fortunately, our bear was doing the running and he was in a clear spot where we could watch him go up and down the fills. He was very dark and bushy. A fine bear for our first!      The rest of the hike was difficult and long so this was a great event to pick us up late in the day. We hiked 18.4 miles to cut a little bit more off of our deficit which now stands at 5.3 miles. I think we will meet Mabel on time in Waynesboro!                                        --Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-08
From: Campsite

To: Priest Shelter
Miles today: 19.9
Weather: broken clouds

Our longest day yet! We walked through some beautiful hills and views that we never saw. It was foggy most of the day. Being wet is becoming a real issue. Everything begins to smell a little stale or mildewed. Even when it hasn¢t rained, it finds a way to make our world damp; Like fog or a heavy dew. We can¢t wait to see Mabel and have a couple of dry days in Mt Sidney.        Don¢t take all this complaining to seriously; we are still having an adventure of a lifetime. If it were easy, it wouldn¢t be near as much fun. By the way, I haven¢t heard when Tom Gregg is coming out to climb a few mountains with us. Now that he is a working stiff, he must not have the time.        We are excited about our family joining us on some hikes in the near future. Don¢t Mind¢s brother and our nephew are both going to join us and who knows who else will be crazy enough. All I know is that I am going to eat a whole tub of homemade ice cream when I get to Mt Sidney.                                        --Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-09
From: Priest Shelter

To: Cedar Cliffs
Miles today: 19.6

DANGER, DANGER Will Robinson!! Today we made out first real tactical error. We were trying to make up miles so we could meet Mabel at Rockfish Gap, but by 6:30 pm we had only done 13 miles. The climb down from Priest Mountain followed by the climb up the Three Ridges had been extremely difficult and we could not make any time. Nobody warned us about the Three Ridges and they were one of the hardest climbs we have encountered. Don¢t Mind thinks they should rename them; the Bishop, the Cardinal and the Pope since they are next to the Priest. Anyway, back to our tactical error. We decided to eat a quick dinner and bang out 2 or 3 more miles before dark. We ended up walking another 6 miles, most in the dark using our head lamps, before we found a place to sleep. At one point, around 11:15 am we were so tired; we sat on our packs in the middle of the path, in total darkness and ate Girl Scout cookies. The Thin Mints gave us new energy and we were able to walk to Cedar Cliffs.   We found a flat rock, dropped our packs and cow-boyed it under the star filled sky. Even our mistakes turn out to be little miracles out here!Goodnight!                        --Don¢t Matter.
Date: 2004-06-10
From: Cedar Cliffs

To: Rockfish Gap
Miles today: 15.1
Weather: few clouds

We spent a buggy night on top of Cedar Cliffs. They finally forced me out of my slumber around 5am just in time to sit up and watch the sky turn orange and the Shenandoah Valley go a deep purple in the shadow of the sun-rise. What a beautiful place! The folks who live down there are truly blessed to live in such a place, even if most of them are sound asleep for this daily show. I shook my wife awake and we spent a nice hour having breakfast and watching the sky put on a tremendous light show. We gathered up our stuff, loaded our packs headed down the trail with extra sore and stiff bodies. We are extremely low on food, so we only had breakfast bars and hot chocolate for breakfast. My body doesn¢t operate too well on this kind of fuel so the first few miles were slow. Things picked up after we stopped and had brunch of Cream of Wheat around 10:30. We stopped at a shelter at 1:30 and took a 45 minute nap. We did the last 5 miles in less than 2 hours and reached Rockfish Gap by 5:00 pm. Two zero days are here. See you Sunday!                                        --Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-13
From: Rockfish Gap

To: Skyline Drive 95.1
Miles today: 9.8

¢On the trail again.   I just can¢t wait to get on the trail again.¢ My apologies to Willie, but we are back in business and back on the trail. The zero days with Don¢t Minds family were wonderful. We are well fed, rested and ready to climb some hills. We walked a quick ten miles this evening to get us into the Skyline Drive. A special treat for us was having Don¢t Mind¢s father walk the first four miles with us. It was a pleasure to share our adventure with him even if it was only for a short time. We were so fresh from our rest that we flew up the hills and bounced down them. We were moving so quickly that we missed the originally planned end point and walked a couple of   extra miles to the next overlook. Fortunately, Don¢t Mind¢s parents figured out what had happened and they drove ahead and picked us up right as we started walking back towards them. It really felt good to stretch our legs and get back on the trail again.Can¢t wait till tomorrow!                                        -- Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-14
From: Sawmill Overlook

To: Loft Mountain Campground
Miles today: 17.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Another great day to be alive and on the AT! It has been a special week with the Foley clan and today we got a surprise visit from my brother Kenny and his wife Leslie. They were staying at Loft Mountain last night and walked down to meet us at the summit of Black Rock Mountain. We hiked a quick eleven miles to meet them and then seven more miles to the campground. There they went about putting on a several course meal of steak, shrimp, potatoes, broccoli and many other wonderful delicacies. What a great way to cap off a hike. Mabel and Don¢t Mind¢s brother Hampton also joined us for dinner. We have been spoiled rotten lately. It will be hard to return to the ¢real¢ life on the trail. The nice thing is that we have so many family and friends who are planning to visit us that we should never be alone for too long.        I want to give a big special thank you to Susan Avey for a wonderfully baked pound cake. It was amazingly good! I ate 4 pieces the first night! Still losing weight!!!                                        --Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-15
From: Loft Mountain Campground

To: Skyline Drive 66.7
Miles today: 16.1

After last night¢s extraordinary dinner, I could barely eat for the required two hours of breakfast this morning. Income (Kenny) and Patible (Leslie) really out did themselves. On top of all this, they agreed to bring us our packs at the end of the day so we could slack again today. I don¢t know if I am going to be able to carry my pack when we have to again. The hike was definitely more like the AT we know and love today with several climbs and descents throughout the day. It was soooo humid that I thought I would drown in my own sweat. Since we are slack packing, we are beginning each day this week freshly showered; however, after thirty minutes I am just as disgusting as I am after a week on the trail. Fortunately, everyone else smells just as bad. We had to run a couple of miles to the last shelter to just beat a downpour. The shelter was full of our thru-hiking friends who proceeded to give us crap about our lack of full packs. Jealously is such an ugly thing! We waited till the rain stopped and then met Mabel at the road for a ride to the Foley house.                         --Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-16
From: Skyline Drive 66.7

To: Big Meadows
Miles today: 18.3
Weather: light rain

Today was a great bear day! First, we saw an adolescent one or two year old bear, the one in the picture, sitting right beside the trail. Don¢t Mind and I were walking along when she stopped and slowly pointed to her left. Every bear we had seen to this point had been running away so we have mostly just seen bear butts bouncing through the woods. This time, however, the bear just sat there sniffing the air and looking us over while we were staring back at him.   As we walked away from this encounter, we decided that this would be our best possible bear encounter and it made our entire walk worthwhile. The truth was that it wasn¢t even our best bear encounter today!   A couple of hours later I spotted a brand new cub trying to climb a tree. It looked like a teddy bear had come to life.   We saw the mother bear about a hundred yards away. Suddenly, the cub ran towards us, along with two other cubs, and climbed the tree right in front of us. They were soooo cute!   The mama bear came running over, but stopped short of us and sat down and watched her cubs play. We watched them for about 5 minutes and then moved along.                                --Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-17
From: Big Meadows

To: Pass Mountain Hut
Miles today: 18.9
Weather: broken clouds

This is so much fun! The only thing that could increase the joy is hiking without a pack. Oh yeah, that¢s what we are doing. Thanks to Don¢t Mind¢s mother, Mabel (A.K.A. Super Support Mom), we have had a wonderful week of slack packing that has allowed our bodies to heal while we walked through the Shenandoah National Park. We have seen bears, deer, turkeys, grouse, chipmonks and a thousand snakes, as well as, many more. In fact, we have seen so much wildlife in the park, that our nephew, Adam, decided to join our hike early. He was supposed to join us in Linden, VA after we had left the park, but his mother suggested he join us now if he wanted to see a bear. As always, mothers know best. Adam joined us after dinner for a mile and a half hike to the hut. We had only taken two steps on the AT when he yelled ¢Bear¢ and pointed to his right. There stood a bear staring at him.   Maybe what makes this the most fun is sharing the bears with others!!                        --Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-18
From: Pass Mountain Hut

To: Hogwallow Spring
Miles today: 16.5

What a first day of hiking for Adam. He did a great job of covering the 16.5 miles and leading the way. He is a fine athlete and in outstanding condition, so the effort did not hurt him. However, hiking the AT does not come easy to anybody and the pounding took its toll on him. He came out here to see wildlife and he saw three snakes, 1 turkey, 2 strange game birds, 2 fawns, 3 grown deer, 2 Orioles and 2 bears!! We all had a great time walking up and over Hogback Mountain and we had some tremendous views. We didn¢t see any bears until we reached our camping spot. I found a stream and asked Adam to scout ahead for a campsite. He ran up the trail and directly into full grown bear. He back all excited and was still talking about the encounter while we were pumping water and Don¢t Mind was cooking dinner. When Don¢t Mind said ¢Bear¢ a year old bear walked into camp. It sat down twenty feet from us and watched us eat dinner. I told it goodnight and we headed for our tents. What a life!--Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-19
From: Hogwallow Spring

To: VA55, Linden VA
Miles today: 18.2

Adam now has a trail name and it¢s ¢Don¢t Bother.¢ He is doing an outstanding job of stepping into a thru-hiker paced schedule. He did 18.2 miles today with very little difficulty and only a little soreness this evening. His parents met us this evening at VA 55 and drove us in with all the windows down to Front Royal. We did laundry, went to Kmart and bought Don¢t Mind a new camera, went to dinner and came back to the hotel and watched Bonanza in Rick and Mary¢s room. A full evening for people who are normally asleep when the sun sets! The weather today was beautiful and the forecast for tomorrow is perfect. I can¢t wait to see what we see tomorrow. The trail is different everyday and there is always something new to experience and see. The terrain is different now that we are out of the park and we will probably see less wildlife, so I wonder what will wow us tomorrow. Goodnight.--Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-20
From: VA55, Linden VA

To: Rod Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 15.9
Weather: clear sky

When my watch alarm began ringing this morning and I opened my eyes, I was disoriented and confused by the strange environment of the hotel room. I have grown accustomed to the natural changing of sunlight as the world slowly rotates. In a hotel room, the light only changes when you flip the switch so you never know what time it is. It is so much easier to rise and set with the sun. But anyway, we dragged ourselves out of bed and showered and joined Don¢t Bother (Adam), Rick and Mary for a great country breakfast at Jimbo¢s Restaurant.   I had the country steak skillet and the French Toast with a Dr. Pepper. The breakfast of champions is not Wheaties when you have 16 miles to hike. We hit the trail around 10 AM and said goodbye to Rick and Mary. We walked about six miles and stopped for a long lunch at Dick¢s Dome Shelter. We sat there with other thru-hikers and talked about trail life and how our hikes are going.   We walked another 10 miles and stopped for the night at a shelter with many of the same folks. What a great way of life.                        --Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-21
From: Rod Hollow Shelter

To: Blackburn AT Center
Miles today: 18.1
Weather: clear sky

Today was an incredible day of hiking. We left West Virginia behind with style. We hiked the famous ¢Roller Coaster¢ section between Rod Hollow Shelter and the Blackburn AT Center in West Virginia. The ¢Roller Coaster¢ is a series of climbs of about 500 ft that add up to over 5000 ft of climb in just over 13 miles. It is quite a workout, but we are now veterans of much larger climbs and we flew through the amusing ride. It helped that halfway through was Bear¢s Den Hostel where we were able to buy cold sodas and Ben and Jerry¢s ice cream. After properly refueling we flew to the state line and onward to an outstanding Hostel at the Blackburn AT Center. The caretakers, Bill and Sara, fed us a wonderful meal complete with dessert. It was a wonderful surprise at the end of a challenging hike. Most hikers think Virginia is a long haul and many suffer from the ¢Virginia Blues.¢ This was not the case for us. Thanks to our family and friends, Virginia just flew by. We will miss our home state.--Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-22
From: Blackburn AT Center

To: Harper's Ferry
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: light rain

Celebrate Good Times, Come On!!!! Lots of things to celebrate tonight and lots of things to be grateful for. We passed the 1000 mile mark today and we are still healthy, safe, stronger and enjoying every minute. We walked out of Virginia yesterday, will spend the rest of the night in West Virginia and tomorrow we cross the footbridge that started it all and walk in to Maryland. Today we encountered our first SOBO - southbound hiker - on the trail. It felt like he was much further into his quest than we are when, in fact, he is only about a 150 miles ahead of us. We are nearly halfway done with our trek. An additional reason to celebrate arrived from our friend, Hawaii - Milk Chocolate Macadamias! It was so thoughtful of her to provide plastic bags so we could pack them, but we just scarfed them upon arrival. If you send more, we promise to be more circumspect in the future. Another great day in the endless stream of great days! We feel so lucky and blessed to be living our lives.--Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-23
From: Hilltop Hotel

To: Ed Garvey Shelter
Miles today: 6.4
Weather: overcast clouds

The theme for today was rest and the plan was to sleep in till 10 or so. The plan was ruined by a call from Mary, Don¢t Mind¢s sister and Don¢t Bother¢s mother, trying to catch us before we began our day. It turned out to be a blessing because we were busy all day doing town chores and still barely got away by 4 pm to cover the 6 + miles to the shelter. We had a big breakfast at the hotel, then went to the ATC Headquarters to become official thru-hikers and get our numbers. Don¢t Mind is number 408 and I¢m 409. When we started our hike in Georgia, over 1,500 hikers had already left for Maine. That number has obviously been greatly reduced. I am just happy that we are still going strong. It is really cool to be a member of the trail community and I wish everyone out here could be successful in their attempt. It is truly only by the grace of God that any of us will make it. Everyday presents opportunity for danger and adventure in equal portion.   I hope we remain two of the lucky ones!                                        -- Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-24
From: Ed Garvey Shelter

To: Pine Knob Shelter
Miles today: 13.6
Weather: clear sky

We have not reached tonight¢s destination yet. We are sitting at a table in a courtyard of the Old South Mountain Inn waiting for it to open for a dinner of what is described as ¢fine dining.¢ We are going to eat a nice meal and then hump a quick six miles to the shelter, hopefully before dark. We are still roughing it on the AT!        Unfortunately, I was not feeling well when I wrote my journal entry last night. I am afraid that my sour stomach may have polluted my disposition. I had been looking forward to crossing that bridge in Harpers Ferry since I first decided to hike the AT. As I walked from West Virginia to Maryland across that bridge yesterday, I was struck by how different reality is from memory or fantasy.   I had a picture in my memory of a simple small bridge, when in fact, the bridge is a railroad bridge. Each step I took across the bridge felt just the same as every other step I have taken on the AT. Nothing special or magical about this short span or the walk across it. At first, this disappointed me, until I remembered how magical the entire trip has been. How did I   expect it to improve?                                        --Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-25
From: Wrong Place

To: Pen Mar Park
Miles today: 20.5

Yesterday¢s journal entry was a lie! We waited for the Inn to open at 5 just like I said. We stuffed ourselves on Lobster Bisque, a garden salad, a few rolls, a King cut of blackened prime rib, bake potato, mixed grilled vegetables and a melted chocolate filled chocolate cake with fresh berries, ice cream and whipped cream. This was my meal but the others consumed similar fare at like portions. After this orgy of consumption, we threw on our packs and started up the mountains to hump the quick six miles to our destination. We made it 3 miles before we crumbled to the forest floor and called it a night. By the way, I highly recommend the Old South Mountain Inn, that is, if you are driving away. Our food induced comas left us 3 additional miles to cover today to get back on plan. This led to our first 20+mile day. Don¢t Bother hung right in there and we cruised through the day. We are camped directly on the Mason Dixon Line and the PA and MD border. Don¢t Bother is leaving us tomorrow. He will be missed.-- Don¢t Matter
Date: 2004-06-26
From: Pen Mar Park

To: Caledonia State Park
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: overcast clouds

It is not easy to dash 18 miles, but our goal today was a park that had a snack bar and pool, so we did our best. By the time we reached the park, however, the day had chilled to the low 60¢s and the pool no longer held our attention. The snack bar, on the other hand, looked like the best restaurant in town. We ordered huge drinks and a bunch of food and ice cream and sat in the sun and waited for Don¢t Bother¢s parents to come and take us to dinner. We did not have to wait long. Don¢t Bother¢s sister, now renamed Don¢t-Want-To, was quickly found to be giving out trail magic near the parking lot. Enigma and Friar were two of her victims. With that we were whisked off to a hotel for a shower, the laundry mat and then to dinner. If you are paying attention, you probably noticed that we ate two meals in a row. If you think this is strange, you don¢t understand thru-hikers. Goodbye Don¢t Bother.                                --Don¢t Matter