morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-08-01
From: Flattop Mountain Dispersed Campsite

To: Rock Spring Cabin
Miles today: 29.0

I see the flags, take one more stroke, roll over on to my front and finish with a big stroke into the wall. In a tight tuck I flip my legs over to the wall and push off. With a few dolphin kicks I am off on the last fifty.Isn't it interesting how everything in life can be brought back into a spots metaphor? That is the one that I was thinking about as I was walking today - the last fifty of a 200 meter race. During the first fifty of the race you feel awesome, you are full of energy (anarobic alactic), you don't have everything under control, you try and to get things going smooth and into your rhythem. During the second fifty you are in your rythem and still feeling good. The third fifty is the worst quarter of the race. You are starting to feel awfull, the lactic acid is building up but you are far enough away from the end of the race that you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. Once you get to the fourth fifty, you are beyond pain, but you are so close to finishing that anything besides getting your hand on the wall is irrelavent. I passed the three quarter mark for trail milage today. I was feeling pretty down before, but over the past few days I have been feeling more hope! full. Reaching Katahdin seems to be materializing as an actual event. I think mentally the turning point was went I got an e-mail from Stewie in Maine that said: "you gotta make it through because everything in front of you is breathtaking". I was feeling pretty lonely hiking in VA,and hearing that I had to make it, just pull up the boot straps and slogon put things in a different light. Just a bit more "pain" and things will pay off. I can't wait to get back up north.
Date: 2005-08-02
From: Rock Spring Cabin

To: Gravel Spring Hut 
Miles today: 28.4
Weather: few clouds

This morning I said good-bye to Leprauchan, Sabbath and Petey the dog. Hiking today was the usual Shenandoah hike. Pretty flat well gromed trails punctuated by Skyline Drive crossings. This morning I stopped into the Skyland Dinning Room for breakfast. I stuffed myself with buckwheat pancakes with blueberries, a buiscuit, an egg and GRITS!! I love grits and I am sad to think that this might be the last time that I get to eat them. I guess we eat oatmeal in the north instead.The middle of the day was hot as stink, as usual and I had to take a break from hiking least I pass out frm heat exhaustion. As a result my last mile of the day was done in the dark. Most of the trail night hiking isn't much of a problem because there isn't much large wildlife, but the Shenandoahs have lots of fearless deer and bears. As I was approching the turn-off for the shelter I could here something russling in the underbrush. I started to bang my hking sticks together and sing. The first song that poped into my head was "O Canada" (the Canadian National anthem) so I started singing that. The noise wasn't going away and it sounded more like a bear than a deer. I just stood at the little concrete sign post for a while making noise, a bit scared. Suddently a guy in boxers appeared on the trail. He asked me where I was going. me - to the shelter ? (where else would I be going at this time of night) He told me that he was camping with some friends. I expr! essed interest in these campsites close to the trail, so he told me that he was actually making out with his "lady friend". Then she appeared wrapped up in a blanket. I excused myself and walked down to the shelter.I thought that the shelter was going to be empty, but there was another tru-hiker there - Ryan, the SOBO we met in Mass that was going to trade his 15 degree bag for Stewie's silk liner and fleece blanket. It was super fantastic to see someone I knew and we ended up talking and exchanging stories until late. Ryan goies by the trailname 'Alpha' now ans was the first SOBO through Harpers Ferry.
Date: 2005-08-03
From: Gravel Spring Hut 

To: Manassas Gap Shelter
Miles today: 24.1
Weather: few clouds

Today I got off at a decent time, Alpha and I each heading in opposite directions down the trail. The trail out of the park was no more exciting than the rest of the park. I got to the first shelter out of the park about 11 am just as it was getting hot. I ended up taking a 2 hour lunch. I just felt like my energy was zapped by the heat. In the next three hours I think that I did five miles or so. I really can't deal with the heat, it is like my body wants to shut off. The temperature cooled down enough by 4 for me to feel normal and hike at a normal pace. There are just not enough cool hours in the day. I don't enjoy night hiking even with other hikers so that isn't much of a solution. Tommorrows goal is the Bears Den Hostel. I just need to remember how crappy it is to walk in the heat to motivate me to get out of my sleeping bag in the morning.
Date: 2005-08-04
From: Manassas Gap Shelter

To: Bears Den Hostel
Miles today: 23.3
Weather: few clouds

I got out of camp early this morning and had 14 miles finished by just after 11 am. I stopped for a long lunch before trugging through the afternoon heat. It started to cool off again about four and my hiking speed picked up. I did a shorter day today and finished at the Bears Den Hostel.It is in a "cottage" build in the first half of the century. Queen Diva is a fantastic host. She fed us Chicken pot pie for dinner, which I supplemented with an additonal pizza and a pint of ice cream. There is internet here as well as a piano and guitar. Tommorrow will be an exciting day - Harpers Ferry! I'll check in at the ATC office, get my number and picture taken for the 2005 album. I am excited to see the other hikers that have passed through.
Date: 2005-08-05
From: Bears Den Hostel

To: Ed Garvey Shelter
Miles today: 26.9
Weather: few clouds

I got up at a decent hour this morning to try and beat the mid-day heat. The section hikers left before I did, so I waited until Loofa, Two Step and Stinkerbell were awake to say good-bye. I hope that Loofa and Two Step stay on the trail, whether that means skipping a section or flip-flopping I hope they don't give up.The terrain was pretty easy once I cleared the last few PUDS ofthe rollercoaster. It realy didn't seem like that big of a deal to me. Maybe it is because i have already done the PUDS of Vermont between Maine junction and the VT-NH border. Those were killer.It seems tobe a rule on the AT that it only starts to pour when you are 0.5 mile from where you want to go (and where you would be dry). It started to pour as I was crossing the bridge over the Shenandoah River so heavily that I was soaked in about 10 seconds. And in accordance to the second part of the "Rain on the AT rule" it stopped to where I got to where I was going. End result is that I look a bit like a drowned cat in my picture. Everyone else looks so dry in theirs... I was given NOBO number 682 for 2005. I think that I am jst about the last one to pass through. There might be a few more, but maybe they will be counted as flip-flippers instead. Looking at everyones picture was a great way to spend an hour. I started taing pictures of the polaroids of the peple that i had meet, but my camera ran out of batteries part way through. Aghhhh! The charger is waiting in the Glencliff PO. I guess that is the end of that, in the mean time I will have to get a dispos! able camera. I wish that I had gotten a picture od Buck-a-roo's pic - he is stabbing his hiking pole into the air and he has drawn lines encircling himself as if he is a cartoon or something. I laughed out loud, it was totally Buck-a-roo.After I left the ATC, I stopped by the Outfitter to pick up some stuff. They were super friendly there (there is also a sale going right now, if you were thinking about dropping in). It seems though that everyone trail-related in Harpers Ferry is in counsilor mode. "Do you think that you sould flip-flop?" "You can still make if you try." Not so applicable to me. I am getting totally psyched to be done the south, to be headed into the Whites and Maine, and TO ONLY HAVE 432.8 MILES LEFT.Following dinner and a pint at the pub I headed out to the next shelter. I was lucky enough to pass some people comming back from a walk on the C and O towpath so that I coud get my picture taken on the WV-MD state-"line". Only one more state-line left! I walked the last partmile in the dark, but the trail seems to be really level and straight forward in Maryland. The Ed Garvey shelter seems to be a really awesome shelter, I might just have to sleep in tomorrow and hang around for a bit.
Date: 2005-08-06
From: Ed Garvey Shelter

To: Pine Knob Shelter 
Miles today: 16.6
Weather: broken clouds

Ah today was an easy day. I slept in, sat around the shelter until lunch time and then did essentially a half day. It leaves me with 18 miles to do tommorrow. Given the terrain so far in Maryland I figure with a sunrise start I should be to Pen-Mar a bit after lunch. The park seemed to be pretty busy last time I was there so I hope I don't have too much trouble finding a ride out of there. Hopefully it isn't too far to cities that are large enough to have bus service.I have beenmeting a lot of short-term hikers that have been really interested in thru-hiking and ask me a million questions. I kind of wonder if they are always around, just normally I am not the only thriu-hiker within a days walk and therefore the only one that can answer their questions. Sometimes I feel like it is wasting my time to answer the same questions over and over, but maybe they are next years hikers and will be doing the same for other future hikers.My feet smell absolutely awefull. Worse than any other time on the trip. They don't smell like cheese anymore, something worse than that. Maybe the smell will improve when I get my new shoes in Glencliff. Another thing that i just noticed is that one of the LEDs in my headlamp is broken. Burnt out is not quite th right word I don't think. As my electrical devices prof used to say "these things run on magic smoke. Once you make the smoke come out, they don't work anymore." I seriously don't get how it could have broken, I've spent more time than I care to admit to looking at LED specs and these things basically last for ever. Don't these things follow the Weibull probability distribution? I should be in the trough now! Allright enough enginerding talk. I probably just lost 99.9% of the people reading this.Tommorroe 17.7 miles to Pen-Mar, then the WHITES!
Date: 2005-08-11
From: Beaver Brook Shelter 

To: Kinsman Pond Campsite 
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Wow, the mountains kicked my ass today. I have gone from Northern Virginia and Maryland where I was pulling better than 3 miles an hour to the Whites of New Hampshire where it seems as though I am struggling to do 1.5 miles an hour. And tommorrow dosen't lok like it is going to be any easier. I stopped a bit early today in hopes that my body just needs a bit of time to adjust to the terrain. It didn't feel very good the first few days back in Virginia so maybe I just need to give it time. And Ibuprophen.The waterfalls and cascades created by Beaver Brook and Eliza Brook were beutiful. I feel that I am almost hypnotized my the moving water. It was pretty warm down in the vally today so I stipped down and got into one of the pools in Eliza Brook this afternoon to cool off. Boy that water was cold.Dingle, the caretaker at Kinsman Pond was great to talk to. He is super friendly and has lots of trail stories of his own. He thru-hiked last year and also remembers Teach and Stewie from earlier in the season. It makes me kind od sad to be talking about them. It is still pretty lonely out here. I haven't meet any NOBO thru-hikers yet and so far I am the only one in the shelter tonight. It is going to be dark soon enough and I would be a bit suprised if someone else came in tonight. It seems so strange to me. Hiking down south I thought when I got back up north the trail would be crawling with hikers. I hinestly thought there would be so many that I would be wishing there was less of them. Maybe I will catch some soon or they will catch me. I guess it is just me and Mr. T for now.
Date: 2005-08-12
From: Kinsman Pond Campsite 

To: Guyot Campsite 
Miles today: 20.6

Today was a long day. I hadn't realy intended that it be this long, I figured since I hadn't seen any thru-hikers in the past few days I probably wouldn't see any today either. It seems I solved the mystery as to where they have all been. They are sitting in huts to do work for stay having given up hiking at 2 in the afternoon. I guess I won't be doing work for stay; I refuse to quit hiking that early in the day. Not bitter, not bitter at all. On the plus side I am in a shelter, nice and dry while it is raining out and I finally met another NOBO thru-hiker - Ten Bears. I am also thankful to have hiked the Franconia Ridge under blue skies. It would be nice if it wasn't raining tommrrow, it makes the rocks very slippery and God knows there are a lot of rocks here.
Date: 2005-08-13
From: Guyot Campsite 

To: Nauman Campsite 
Miles today: 18.3
Weather: fog

I get the feeling that AMC weather calls for a chance of thunder storms every day. Each day that I hav read the weather forcast it mentions a risk of thunder storms but they have never happened. I feel like if you read the weather and then cut the severity in half you have the real weather. I wonder what they write in bad weather.Today at Zeland Hut I met the thru-hikrs that spent the day in Washiongton DC with Stewie on his one zero day. I had been there for a while stuffing myself full of 1 dollar all-you-can-eat baked goods when one of the three asked me my name. The guy said "You were hiking with Stewie" and they all had these expectant looks on their faces like I should recognize. I just sort of bit the bullet and said "Have we met before? If we have I am very sorry that I do not remember any of you at all" That is when they told me that they spent the day with Stewie and had heard about me but never met me. They were happy to hear that he had finished the trail. They had met Teah as well, so I was able to fill them in on him too.A lot of people ask me when I am going to see them again. I always say that I don't know, maybe never. We all live quite far apart. I wonder if it is common for old hiking partners to get together post-trail. It seems like such a mix of people from all over the US and the world that in a lot of cases it wouldn't be possible. When I was down in Virginia there were a lot of people who told me that they didn't think much of these "so called hiking partners" that I had been hiking with, "letting a young lady like me go off hiking on my own", yeash. I'm my own person, on my own adventure. The same goes for them too.I think that this campsite has to be the worst campsite. Being beside a hit might seem like a plus, but all I can hear are loud people talking and little kids screaming. These tent platforms suck too, especially when you didn't lug a totally freestanding tent up the ridge. Well, I just used up my complaint quota for the day. There was great weather today, hopefully it hold up tommorow for Mt. Washington.
Date: 2005-08-14
From: Nauman Campsite 

To: Osgood Tentsite 
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: fog

Today started off as a bad day and only got worse from there.It rained a little bit during the night. My tarp was set up ok on the wooden platform but no where near ideal. Wodden platforms for tents makes no sense to me. They work well for large canvas tents like the care takers have; the camp that I worked at used a very similar set up. The platform is made to fit the size of the tent and hools are placed around the base lined up with where the loops on the bottom of the tent are. Out in a camping environment like this everyone has a different type of tent that is set up differently. I gues it works ok when everyone has a frestanding tent but what about all the people who don't? I.e. hikers who don't want to lug around 4 lbs of tent. Fortunatly it didn't rain much and wasn't raining when I got up which made for an easier take down.Once I had gotten up I realized that I had lost one of my contacts. I am using month-long ones that you leave in the whole time. I had mostly packed up when I realize something funny was going on so I didn't bother to look for it. I put in one of my old ones so we will see how that goes.Mt Washington was foggy this morning when I was up there. Just like the other 299 fogged in days they have every year up there. Not to long after I left the summet it started to rain. It rained lightly off and on all afternoon. Being above treeline was no fun today. The trail was just a big rock scramble from cairn to cairn. Not only was the visibility so low I didn't get any views, I could hardly see the trail. At one point I got both my feet stuck wedged between rocks and I feel forward. Unfartunatly one Of my shins got bent over a rock lever style and I was left with a big cut and bruise. Just after that it really started to rain. The decent down to Pinkham Notch was wet, slippery and steep. Iset up camp beside the trail rather than at the campsite proper because I didn't want to set up on those silt wodden platforms. Now I feel like all the water is leaking into the tarp and I am worried that I am too tall to fit properly and I am going to end up all soaking wet.I think I just got out of the wrong side of the sleeping bag. Hopefuly tommorrow is different.
Date: 2005-08-15
From: Osgood Tentsite 

To: Zeta Pass 
Miles today: 13.3

Well, it wasn't raining when I woke up this morning, but everything outside the tent was wet and everything inside was damp. I packed up as best I could to keep the dry things dry and prevent the damp things from becomming damper. I headed downhil to the Pinkham Notch visitor center. I was hoping to havebreakfast there but arrived just after nine. Apparently the AMC keeps hiker hour for meals, breakfast is only served between 6:30 and 8:30. Nowhere else is breakfast served so early. I had a deli sandwich insead. After filling up on water, drying out a bit using the hand-dryer down stairs and using the washroom I headed out.The sun was comming up as I headed out of the notch so I stopped on the first rock overlook and spread out all my belongings to dry. Most things dried, but soping wet things like my tent and ground tarp only got mostly dry. The whole operation of unpacking, drying and repacking took over two hours.Because I spent the time at the visitor center and drying out my things I didn't quite get to my goal of Imp Campsite. I stopped a bit before dark at Zeta Pass eventhough you are not supposed to camp here. For my safety I thought that it was best to camp lower, rather than being caught out above 4000'. The wather forcast for "The Vallys" at the visitor center sugested that it could get down to the 40s tonight. It certainly isn't too warm out tonight, although I don't know if it quite that cold. There was a man and his son also camped out at the Pass which didn't make me feel so bad about stopping here. I gues I should be off to bed. Illegal stealth camping means an early morning tommorrow.
Date: 2005-08-16
From: Zeta Pass 

To: Gorham, NH 
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: light rain

This morning I got up early and headed down the trail towards Gorham. The trail was not as difficult as the previous sections in the Whites but still goes (almost) over some 4000 footers so it wasn't exactly easy either.Rambling Man and the Corporal caught up to me just as we reached the highway. Handiman was already there trying to get a hitch. We all moved down the road a bit and waited for a ride. Not too long later a woman drove us all into town and dropped us of at the Barn. Knees was already there having nearoed from Rattling Run shelter. It was neat to see him again. Last time I saw him was before we got to Damascus!I headed out towards the middle of town to look for some food. As I was walking along a guy in a car asked me if I needed a ride to the grocery store. The grocery store in Gorham is practically not even in town. He was a section hiker named Blue Ox (in this incarnation) and just wanted to pass on the good luck. He even waited for me at the grocery store and drove me back to the Barn. That resuppy could not havegone any better.After getting dinner at the Subway downthe street I called my mom and then watched TV. Normally I wouldn't have sat around watching TV but both CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - somewhere above NPR/PBS but below the level of the BBC) and Radio-Canada (French version of the CBC). I watched the news in English just in case anyone else wanted to sit down and know what was going on. During the school year I would watch french TV ocationally and it would drive my roommate nuts hearing stuff she didn't understand.
Date: 2005-08-17
From: Gorham, NH 

To: Carlo Col Shelter
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: broken clouds

This morning I woke up, ate breakfast and packed up my stuff. When I was down stairs a lady came in and asked me if I needed a ride out to the trail. I was ready to go so I hopped into her car and she drove me out. She lined right by the trail head and stopped into the hostel after work to see if ayone needed a ride.My pack was heavy with food and water comming out of town. I kind of felt like i didn't have any energy today. It seemed like I was moving like a slug but I was determined to cros ito Maine today. I met Dr. Nick and Wal-mart Joe at the Gentian Pond campsite. It has a nice shelter that faces out towards the pond. Wal-Mart Joe was a section hiker wo had just gotten back on the trail and was finished for the day. Dr. Nick had met Stewie in the Shenandoahs and knew me from register entries. His exact words were "it's the imfamous OnStar". I'd rather not people say that I am imfamous, because when asked about it they admit I'm not imfamous. I think they just want to use the word.I got to the state line just before dark. I was there by myself so I had to do the best I could to take a picture of me with the sign. I headed off to the shelter where I met SouthPaw a southbounder who had started from Katahdin July 15.It was really nice to talk to another hiker. Goig thru the Whites I found that he hikers didn't want to talk to you for fear that you might "steal" their planed work-for-stay or they were just unfriendly. SouthPaw had startedoff the trailcarring 70 pounds of gear but was down to 30 now. He told me about all the stuff he had sent home which included several books. It was going to be another cool night tonight. We both bundeld up in our sleeping bags and went to sleep.