morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2015-03-28
From: Uncle Johnny's Shelter

To: Curly Maple Gap Shelter
Miles today: 4.3

Start - 3:12End - 5:05Best Part - Red Ice gave me the shirt off his backBiggest Complaint - Cold         I went on the morning breakfast run and found that run doesn't include stopping at Walmart. I figured maybe I could buy a shirt at Uncle Johnny's.      I found a shirt at Uncle Johnny's but it was $35. I heard a hiker say he was getting off the trail and offering someone some part of his gear so I asked if he had a shirt I could use. He ended up giving me his long sleeved wicking shirt right off his back. He wouldn't take any money. I did give him a protein bar. I offered him an apple as he was about to leave but he refused. His trail name is Red Ice because his daughter told him his beard looks like red ice when he comes in from the cold in the winter. You meet some really nice people on the A.T.   I hiked to the shelter but I put up my tent. You stay warmer in a tent and it will probably get into the teens, twenties down below and probably 10 degrees lower in the mountains. I put my tent up on a flat spot and then while talking to the guys in the shelter I realized I didn't pick a level spot, just flat. No problem, just sleep in the downhill corner.   When I got up in the morning my water bottle was frozen. No oatmeal for breakfast. No problem, Fritos will do fine.
Date: 2015-03-29
From: Curly Maple Gap Shelter

To: Cherry Gap Shelter
Miles today: 12.8
Weather: clear sky

Start 8:25End 5:35Best Part - Fresh Ground's Leapfrog CafeBiggest Complaint - Noisy water bottle   My biggest complaint is not really a complaint. Sometimes when I'm hiking with a half full water bottle I'm slightly aggravated by the sloshing sound. It's no big deal really. Today I didn't have just a sloshing sound. It was accompanied by ice clattering against the side of the bottle. Oh these problems I have.   As I was hiking along I heard several voices ahead and there was no shelter supposed to be coming up. I soon found out I was at Fresh Ground's Leap Frog Cafe. Fresh Ground is a former thru hiker who finds places along the trail where he can get a car close enough to set up his little cafe. He serves coffee, hot tea, hot chocolate and punch. He also makes pancakes and hot dogs and I don't know what all. I had three cups of coffee, three pancakes and three cups of fruit cocktail with sliced peaches added. He'll setup his cafe and stay in one spot for about a week. Then he'll move up the trail about a hundred miles and find a new spot and setup his leap frog cafe again. He doesn't charge anything but accepts donations. He said he'll keep going north till the funds run out.    Three tenths of a mile past this trail magic we crossed a road and BP was serving coffee, banana nut bread, apples and I'm not sure what else. Since BP was so close to Fresh Ground's setup I don't think he was getting as many takers. Of course I had to stop and have a couple more cups of coffee. I also had an apple. It turns out BP stands for Brother Paul. I stayed and talked to him for about thirty minutes. I learned that Brothers don't live in Monasteries, don't celebrate Mass or any of the sacraments. They work out in the field so to speak. He said that Brothers are like Sisters (Nuns). I ended up telling him my 28 stanza poem titled "My Relationship With God" that I wrote in college. I think I remembered 26 stanzas.
Date: 2015-03-30
From: Cherry Gap Shelter

To: Greasy Creek Friendly Hostel
Miles today: 7.2

Greasy Creek Friendly HostelStart 10:05End 2:30Best Part - Nice Friendly HostelBiggest Complaint - Directions to hostel   It was a short day to get to the hostel, only 7.2 miles. Someone had scratched the word hostel and an arrow into a blaze. The directions said 0.6 miles east. Take the old woods road trail east, take the first left, you should be going downhill all the way, first house on the right. There were a couple more turns but if you followed the 'you should be going downhill all the way' rule it worked out. It wasn't that the directions didn't work. Following directions through the woods just seemed so iffy. Also downhill all the way to get there means uphill all the way back to the A.T.   If I had arrived ten minutes later I would have been waiting a few hours for Connie to get back. She runs the place by herself so trips to town mean you wait till she gets back.   I went to town with Connie and Tabasco. Tabasco is a fellow hiker I met back at Uncle Johnny's. He's ex-military, ex-contract security who has spent time in various parts of the world including Moscow. He hikes about the same number of miles a day that I do. He got his trail name because he was carrying a bottle of Tabasco in his pack and it broke. He smelled like Tabasco for several days.
Date: 2015-03-31
From: Greasy Creek Friendly Hostel

To: Roan High Knob Shelter
Miles today: 10.3
Weather: clear sky

Start 10:20End 5:40Best Part - Nice ShelterBiggest Complaint - Corduroy Pants    I was going to hike 8.2 miles to a campsite at Ash Gap but Tabasco talked me into hiking 10.3 to Roan High Knob Shelter. It's the highest elevation shelter on the A.T., 6194 feet. Most shelter are open in front but this was a cabin, four walls and a door. No bunks but room for six on the bottom floor and ten more on the ladder accessible loft. It was a lot of uphill but since it was very windy at Ash Gap (not good for camping) it turned out to be a good idea.   When I was getting my laundry done at the Greasy Creek Friendly hostel I was wearing clothes from the hostel. Many hiker hostels have extra clothes to wear while you get your laundry done. I found a pair corduroy pants that fit me. Thinking about how cold it was going to be at 6194 feet I decided to ask if I could buy the pants. I really did need something for this colder weather. I could buy them for $5 or mail them back when I was done using them. Since I could tell she'd prefer I mail them back that's what I decided to do. They were her only corduroy pair of pants that fit most people. When I packed them and realized they probably weighed two pounds I regretted not having looked for something not so heavy.   Today was the second day I got to use the one item I added to my gear this year, Yak Traks. At one point some younger faster hikers had passed me up and a little later I was keeping up with them. It was because we had hit an icy patch and they had to slow down while I didn't. Actually I had figured I could use the Yak Traks on steep rocky downhill when it's rainy. I wasn't really expecting ice.
Date: 2015-04-01
From: Roan High Knob Shelter

To: Overmountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.1
Weather: clear sky

Start 10:20End 4:09Best Part - BaldsBiggest Complaint - Someone took my hiking stick   Since I hiked longer than planned yesterday I had a shorter day today, only 7.1 miles. I slept in and later realized I could have got up early and did a 17 mile day. I'm glad I didn't. Instead of a stressful long day I had an enjoyable shorter day. After Carvers Gap we hiked over Round Bald and Jane Bald. The views were really beautiful. At the side trail to the next bald, Grassy Ridge Bald, I decided to have lunch at some rocks by the trail. I put my stick on the ground next to the rocks. Then I decided on a spot a little further down more out of the wind. After lunch with all the great views I got back to the rocks by the trail and my hiking stick was gone. Since I left it on the ground and setup for lunch further down I have to say and it was fair game. Since I use Mother Nature supplied hiking sticks I will just have to find another. An inconvenience and it was such a nice hiking stick, just the right size.   There was a sign near Overmountian shelter. In September of 1780 men from the brigades of Virginia, North Carolina and what would become Tennessee got together and hiked 172 miles from here through Yellow mountain gap to Kings Mountain and there helped win a victory over British loyalists. They were called Overmountain men.   Overmountain shelter is actually a barn converted into a shelter for A.T. hikers. Four high school kids on Spring break were there. They were actually members of a band. They had two guitars with them and they sounded pretty good. All their songs were original. Since it was 17 years to the day since I had my last beer I borrowed one of their guitars and played my 'Brown Bottle' song. They liked my song.
Date: 2015-04-02
From: Overmountain Shelter

To: Mountain Harbor hostel
Miles today: 9.2
Weather: broken clouds

Start - 8:19End - 3:45Best Part - Back To The FutureBiggest Complaint - No diet pop   Well I made it over the hump today. Hump Mountain that is. I had lunch on top of Little Hump Mountain. Lunch was a package of five crackers and a small can of chicken salad. Desert was a cup of fruit cocktail. The box of crackers and chicken salad is something you can get at dollar stores, a favorite place for hikers to resupply.   I hiked to Mountain Harbor Hostel and B&B. They used to supply a shuttle to town but not anymore. They prefer you buy things from their general store. It did have a lot of items for sale including Ben and Jerry's ice cream for $7.00 a pint. I bought enough to resupply which didn't take a lot since I had some leftover food from previous days that I hadn't used. They had a pop machine but none of the selections were diet. I asked the guy running the store about it. He said they use to sell diet but no one bought diet.   They served a fabulous breakfast for $12.00 which Tabasco and I chose not to get. Tabasco tries to keep his spending down and we wanted to get an early start the next day since it was supposed to rain in the afternoon.    They had a TV at the hostel. It didn't get any TV stations but they had a VCR player and about 100 VCR tapes. When Tabasco mentioned Rambo I said no thanks. When he mentioned Back To The Future I said great. Some others staying at the hostel (younger folks) said they hadn't seen it. We enjoyed watching TV for a change. At the end I realized the movie took place in 1985. They went back thirty years to 1955. At the end of the movie Dr Emmitt Brown then went forward 30 years to 2015. Where are the flying cars were supposed to have by now.
Date: 2015-04-03
From: Mountain Harbor hostel

To: Mountaineer Falls Shelter
Miles today: 8.8

Start 8:43End 1:00Best Part - Talking with fellow hikers around the fireBiggest Complaint - Hearing about how great the breakfast was that we didn't get   It was only 8.8 miles and not a lot of tough uphill. It was a rolling hills kind of day. We're at lower elevation now and it's warmer. No need for a jacket, shorts suffice and it's cool enough, in the sixties, to be comfortable hiking.   At one spot I came upon a southbound hiker who asked if I had seen his brother who he thought was ahead of him. I told him I hadn't and he said he may have taken a side trail a while back. That is what had happened. His brother had inadvertently taken a blue blazed side trail to Jones Falls. When I talked to him about it he told me Jones Falls was well worth the 0.1 mile side trail. I checked it out and was beautiful. I told each brother a different joke so they could exchange the jokes later. We talked about the Indians. He was impressed I have a brick in the Indians Hall of fame area.   I got to the shelter at 1:00 PM. Not long after I arrived a girl whose trail name is Chicago showed up. We gathered dry wood before it rained for a fire later. Tabasco arrived later and he got rained on but it was pretty light. He went to work sawing logs with the saw he carries.   It turns out Chicago had just gotten out the Peace Corps in January. She had been in Cameroon (near Nigeria). I told her about Katie's time in Jordan in the Peace Corps and where she's taught English since then (Iraq, Moscow and France). Since Chicago returned from the Peace Corps she's received her 'teaching English as a second language certification' just like Katie did. On the fifteenth of the month she will be doing a skype interview at 1:00 AM for a position teaching English in Korea. We talked about different cultures. Her fellow Peace Corp volunteers in northern Cameroon had to be relocated because of the recent Boko Horam activity.      The conversation with the other hikers was more normal stuff. One guy is from Medina. Another now lives in New Jersey but formerly lived in Columbus and his brother lived in Akron and Batberton. Hearing about how great the breakfast was a little disheartening. I guess it's so good some hikers decide to do a zero because they're too stuffed to want to hike afterward. Well we did save $12 and we didn't get soaked. Come to think of it neither did the guys who stayed for breakfast. It didn't rain hard until later that night.
Date: 2015-04-04
From: Mountaineer Falls Shelter

To: Moreland Gap Shelter
Miles today: 9.3
Weather: broken clouds

Start 9:25End 3:50Best Part - FireBiggest Complaint - Wind   A fairly easy 9.6 miles. The trail I've hiked so far has been relatively easy compared to other parts I've hiked. Shenandoah was easier but that's about it. I met Mr. Bean today. He seems OK but he seems to be on a different frequency. Four, Five, Sleuth, Boyd, Hawkeye and his dog were also there. Four and Five got their trail names from their names being the forth and fifth generation in their families with the same name.   Moreland Gap Shelter was in a gap, No big surprise there. When we got there it was windy. The wind was blowing directly into the shelter. We chose to put our sleeping gear in the shelter. The thru hikers arriving later all chose to tent and questioned our decision to sleep in the wind. When the sun went down the wind quit so we won't know if it would have been too cold in the wind.   Tabasco tried to start a fire which he did but didn't keep it going. I then tried and was able to keep a fire going. It was pretty windy which made it a little cold so having a fire was nice.    Tonight I remembered to use my ear plugs. They help dampen the odd noises here and there. I slept fine and didn't want to get up in the morning.
Date: 2015-04-05
From: Moreland Gap Shelter

To: Kincora Hiking Hostel
Miles today: 6.3

Start 8:22End 11:35Best Part - Easter DinnerBiggest Complaint - Last in line   I got to Kincora hostel and got my mail drop. It was Easter and my mail drop included a chocolate Easter bunny and a very small ham. An extra nice thought from my wife. As it turns out the people at Kincora planned an Easter dinner for us hikers. They had a good sized ham, steamed carrots and green bean casserole. I ended up being at the end of the line but even though there was a little more than a dozen hikers there was plenty to eat.   Kincora had one problem. Ed Peoples owns Kincora and is very friendly to hikers. He also is kind to cats. The hikers share the main bunk room with 5 or six cats. The smell is not desirable. They have three different bunk rooms and although I didn't see the third room it was in a second building and I think it probably smelled better.   I was able to pull off my 'pick a card'card trick. I didn't do any other tricks. They started playing Mononoly.    Ed Peoples got back from visiting relatives in Ashville, NC. He announced he would take whoever wanted to go to Brown's Hardware and Grocery in nearby Braemer. Actually they're not open on Sunday but they open the store when Ed Peoples brings his hikers on Sunday evening for resupply.
Date: 2015-04-06
From: Kincora Hiking Hostel

To: Braemer Castle Hostel
Miles today: 3.7

Start 9:45End 11:40Best Part - Chocolate Easter Bunny for morning snackBiggest Complaint - Hostel had no wifi   One of the shelters on the A.T. was closed for 2015 because of bear activity. It made it tough because to hike past the closed area meant an 18 mile day. We didn't want to do an eighteen mile day. Instead we hiked 3.7 miles to the next hostel in Braemer. It's called Braemer Castle hostel. It's run by Sutton Brown, the same guy that owns Brown's Hardware and Grocery. They didn't have wifi or any books to read, only magazines. The building had thick walls like a castle. The building was built by the logging company that existed years ago and cut all the big timber in the area. It's gone and so is the logging company but the building remains. Tabasco says they remodeled since the last time he was here. This is Tabasco's fourth hike of the southern half of the A.T. He doesn't care for the northern half so he keeps doing the southern half. Hike your own hike so they say. Anyway he knows a lot about this part of the A.T. which is good for me since I'm hiking with him. It was supposed to rain all day Tuesday so we decided to zero.
Date: 2015-04-07
From: Braemer Castle Hostel

To: Braemer Castle Hostel
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Zero MilesBest Part - Deciding to zeroBiggest Complaint - Only 21 out of 25   Since it was supposed to rain all day we decided to zero. It rained all day. It was a good decision.   The hostel had no TV or wifi or anything to read other than magazines. I did my remember 25 things trick but I could only remember 21. It was disappointing. I'm out of practice.
Date: 2015-04-08
From: Braemer Castle Hostel

To: Iron Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 15.9
Weather: overcast clouds

Start 8:10End 4:36Best Part - Long Easy DayBiggest Complaint - Too many pictures of my finger   Well we did 15.9 miles today but the trail was pretty easy. The trail was fairly level and the uphills weren't bad. I checked my pictures and found I took several pictures of my finger. None of them were any good. Oh well. After it rained all day yesterday it was nice to have nice weather to hike in. It's been getting warmer, sometimes warmer than I'd prefer but cool breezes now and again make the hiking more pleasant.   One spot mentioned in out AT guide was a monument for Nick Grindstaff. Nick Grindstaff was going to go out West to find his fortune. The stagecoach he was on got robbed so he lost all his money and had to come back home. The monument was the remains of the chimney from the long gone cabin he lived in. One side was his grave and the other was his headstone. The headstone said:Uncle Nick GrindstaffBorn Dec 26 1851Died Jul 22 1923Lived alone, suffered alone, and died alone.
Date: 2015-04-10
From: Damascus

To: Damascus
Miles today: 0.0

Tabasco didn't make it till 1:00 AM. The Place hostel was closed for the night. Tabasco cowboy camped on Dave's Hostel's porch which is where we had planned to stay. I found him there in the morning. We checked in there after someone else checked out. At Dave's two people share a small room with two bunks and lots of shelves. You get a key and can lock your door.   I had a real breakfast including a blueberry scone with ice cream for desert. We decided to do two zero days in Damascus. It's kind of traditional to do two zero days in Damascus. It's Trail Town USA. There's like five hostels, more costly places to stay, several places to get breakfast and of course, a Dollar Store. They have city wide wifi for the hikers. The people are very friendly to hikers. It's like the town's only business. Several people talked about places that had closed. I guess if you only get business part of the year it's hard to keep a business going.   We ate at Cowboy's, the restaurant at the corner gas station. I got ice cream for desert later at the dollar store.
Date: 2015-04-11
From: Damascus

To: Damascus
Miles today: 0.0

We spent another zero day.   I found out the city wide internet wasn't fast enough to upload my photos. We went to the library. I found out the library's wifi was faster and there I was able to upload photos. So now I've gotten up to date for trail journals. This will be temporary since it will be seven days before were in a town again. I may be able to post from the trail now that I've got my Iphone battery rechargers. We shall see.   I figured out that at the rate I'm hiking I'm going to be able to get to my destination, Pearisburg, VA, one week earlier than I hoped. I hope to make it by April 26th instead of May 3rd. That's not counting any zero days. That also we shall see.
Date: 2015-04-12
From: Damascus

To: Lost Mountain shelter
Miles today: 15.6
Weather: scattered clouds

Start - 7:20 - 8:28End - 3:52Best Part - Sub Sandwich for LunchBiggest Complaint - None   I put two start times. The first was when I left the hostel. I hiked from the middle of Damascus and walked to Mojoe's Coffeehouse on the edge of town. I had the 2+2+2 breakfast. Two eggs, two pancakes and two pieces of bacon. After that and two cups of coffee I really started my hike at 8:28.       Today I needed to hike 15.6 miles. Tabasco was going to hike the Creeper Trail. The Creeper Trail was created as a bike and hike trail from the old railroad bed and many trestles in the area to encourage visitors to Damascus. You can rent bikes from many shops and they take you thirty miles up the trail and you can basically coast all the way back to Damascus. The Creeper Trail parallels the A.T. for a portion of that thirty miles and at a few spots they run together. Tabasco has previously hiked the A.T. trail here and since the Creeper Trail is more scenic he hiked that instead. That route meant he'd end up at the second shelter which is 15.6 miles from Damacus. I found out a fellow hiker, Snow Zombie, on a zero day in Damascus rented a bike and did a round trip in the opposite direction than the way people are shuttled. He biked 16 miles to nearby Abingdon. He told me it was a much nicer town than Damascus with a lot of Colonial homes.   Dinner yesterday was half a footlong sub from Subway. The other half of the sub was today's lunch. That's a heavy meal but doing it the first day justifies it. Maybe somebody could figure out how to freeze dry a Subway sub.
Date: 2015-04-13
From: Lost Mountain shelter

To: Thomas Knob shelter
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: broken clouds

Start - 8:20End - 3:25Best Part - Big shelterBiggest Complaint - Last miles hard   Today we ascended Mt. Rodgers. Seeing the mountains before you start climbing can be intimidating. To ascend Mt. Rodger you first ascend Whitetop mountain. We started at 3400 feet elevation. Whitetop mountain is 5235. Once you've done that getting to the top of Mt. Rodgers at 5490 isn't that big of a deal but those last miles today seemed extra hard. I spent the last mile or so hiking in a cloud.   The shelter on Mt. Rodgers is a bigger one. It has a loft. I stayed on the lower level in a spot away from the ladder going up to the loft. There were probably ten or more at the shelter. There are lots of people hiking this year and we are trying to stay ahead of the bubble. Supposedly one week behind us is a bubble of too many hikers for the shelters.   The side trail to the shelter was marked with a sign on a post. I almost missed it. Several others did. People in the shelter asked about two fellow hikers and I said they had passed me. Since they weren't at the shelter meant they had missed the sign. A little while later they showed up. They realized since they were going downhill that they missed it and came back. A couple days later I talked to some hikers who said they also missed the sign but decided to not come back. When you're hiking with your head down you can miss a sign unless you look up. In the Smokies one year I saw a maintenance guy whose job was to lower all the signs just because of this problem.