morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-06-01
From: VA 624/ Four Pines Hostel

To: Four Pines
Miles today: 0.0

Everyone at Four Pines woke up at 6 am, which woke me up, which made me slightly cranky considering the lack of sleep the night before. I checked my phone to see the news that a coworker had been in an incredibly serious ATV accident the previous night and was not expected to make it through. I spent a chunk of the morning trying to contact coworkers at home for accurate information regarding this incident. At 10 am Joe (the owner of 4 pines) announced we were going to the Captain's for his hiker feed and shuttled everyone there back to the Captains. We had amazing portions of burgers, dogs, potato salad, fruit salad, salads, sides, cookies, cakes, etc. along with more of the Captain's awesome soda (and now beer) selection. The only hiker I recognized that was not from 4 pines was Embassador, who I spoke with for a long time during a heavy downpour that forced all the hikers to gather under 2 food tents. After the feed Joe shuttled us back to 4 pines. On the way to the hostel, I check my phone again when reception returned. I had learned that my coworker had passed away at 11:30 am at the young age of 24 When we got back to the hostel there were 5 additional hikers that had arrived while we were gone. We spent the night talking, playing cornhole, and watching Shaggy try to swing on a tire swing placed 4 feet above the ground. I grabbed a reclining chase lounge, hoping it would be a better night's rest. It was not. Yet again, I tossed and turned all night, barely sleeping.
Date: 2013-06-02
From: Four Pines

To: Catawba Shelter
Miles today: 7.9

Today, I was the one waking up early. I got up and grabbed the first shower. I grabbed all my gear and went outside to pack up. Bass, Steps and I walked to the grocery store to grab breakfast sandwiches before hitting the trail. Just after getting to John's Springs shelter, it began to downpour. I ran to the shelter in an attempt to stay dry, yet I was already soaked. I huddled there with Bass, Steps, Mamma, Shepard and their doodles for a few hours, trying to take a nap. My throat started feeling weird and I was very tired all the sudden. The rain stopped for a bit and we decided to hike one more mile to Catawba shelter. I got a spot and set up my gear. I made garlic shells for dinner and then went to bed just after it started raining... again.
Date: 2013-06-03
From: Catawba Shelter

To: Daleville
Miles today: 17.8
Weather: broken clouds

The goal: McAfee's Knob at sunrise. Success. McAfee's knob is the most photographed location on the AT. At times, over 300 people can be huddled in the area with hopes of getting the famous "legs dangling" picture. We wanted to get there before any tourists arrived, so we were up and hiking by 5:30 am. I woke up feeling horrible. My head felt like it was in a bubble and it was slightly difficult to breathe. Thankfully the hike to the knob was easy and short. Steps, Bass and I arrived with no one else to be seen and took probably 100 pictures each. We had breakfast and ran around the cliffs a little, then decided to keep hiking. The other awesome sight of the day was the Tinker Cliffs, gorgeous cliffs that looked back to McAfee's knob. Thru hikers were splayed out over the rock outcroppings, relaxing and listening to music. I liked the tinker cliffs better than McAfees knob. Tourist attractions really seem to be big let-downs on this trip!We hiked over 19 miles and arrived in Daleville, VA where we had a reservation waiting at the Howard Johnson. The three of us agreed to split a room and zero the next day. Shortly after we arrived, Bass got a phone call asking for him to go home early so that he could work at Bonoroo. He was busy making phone calls the rest of the night and him and Steps decided they would leave soon. I took a shower and went to bed, glad to have a comfy bed to sleep in!
Date: 2013-06-04
From: Daleville

To: Daleville
Miles today: 0.0

6/4The idea was to have an awesome zero to rest my weary legs and stay out of the heat. I got up, got a shower, and got out to find Steps and Bass packed up and heading out the door. I said my goodbyes and laid down on the bed to relax. My head cold was getting worse and I could barely breathe out of my nose. I felt exhausted and was thankful to have a day off. I decided to check my e-mails and see where my hiking FB friends were. I saw my friend Storytime had pictures up and asked where they were taken. Turns out, he had gotten off the trail for a few days and was arriving in Daleville later that night. I offered him to split my hotel room and he arrived around 6. We grabbed some dinner and margaritas at the Mexican restaurant across the street and then watched some TV. I fell asleep really early, barely able to breathe.
Date: 2013-06-05
From: Daleville

To: Daleville
Miles today: 0.0

So sick! Today I woke up to find that my head cold had moved into my chest. I couldnt' stop coughing and I was starting to sound like a 90 year old smoker. Any time I took a deep breath or laughed I would start with a hacking cough. Yeah, that's not very condusive to hiking. Between the comfy bed factor and the hacking cough factor I made the executive decision to zero again. The only time I left the bed was to get dinner at 3 little pigs BBQ, which was highly overrated and to go to the grocery store to stock up on Robitussin DM and Advil Cold and Sinus. The rest of the day was spent taking medications and napping.
Date: 2013-06-06
From: Daleville

To: Daleville
Miles today: 0.0

This is getting ridiculous.My cough had only gotten worse and we woke up to find it downpouring with not a blue bit of sky in sight. Zero #3- commence. The good thing about being sick for so long? Siren caught back up! She arrived at the hotel around 7 pm dripping wet and excited to get a hot shower. The bad thing? Siren and Storytime both are obsessed with Law and Order SVU, so I was overruled on TV time and had to watch that crap all night long. Boo.
Date: 2013-06-08
From: Daleville

To: Troutville
Miles today: 1.5

We made it out of Daleville! Not far, but out of Daleville, nonetheless.Troutville had a trail days festival, which we were not planning on attending, but Siren read that they had a baking contest, judged by hikers, so we decided to make an appearance. We caught a quick ride to the town park and arrived just in time to judge the contest. 18 desserts later we had premature diabetes and all felt sick. Good job to the sticky bun cook- yours were my favorite!The event also had things like gear repair (thanks osprey!), food, and hiker interviews, where Siren, Atlas, Jungle Jim and I answered questions from a panel in front of the entire town. Hopefully there are a few more people interested in hiking or helping hikers in the Troutville area now! They thanked us for our participation with about 20 hiker bars and a trail days t-shirt. The town seemed super exicted that their event was growing and they really want to be trail friendly. Many thanks to the town of Troutville! The cool thing about that town is that there is always free tenting at the park and free laundry and showers at the fire department. Totally worth the mile hitch in The town park also had free tenting- so we made an executive decision to camp in the wooden fort at the park, complete with a yellow slide and fire pole. Siren, Storytime, Odie and myself crammed into the play set and attempted to fall asleep... between a trail that nearly ran passed our heads and the other hiekrs in the area that didn't quite happen, but it was a pretty cool place to crash regardless.
Date: 2013-06-09
From: Troutville

To: Bobblets Knob Shelter
Miles today: 17.0

Holy long day. Way to long for the amount of zeros I just did. The actual hiking day wasn't too bad. My cough started acting up (I ran out of medicine yesterday), so uphills or areas I would usually breathe deeply were particularly challenging. Today, we paralleled the blue ridge parkway (BRP), which reminds me a lot of the AT in Shenandoah. It's gorgeous, but not as gorgeous as the path the road takes. It was yet again hot and humid, so we took 2 very long breaks, both at the shelters. I introduced Siren and Storytime to the chocolate orange, which they both seemed to love. We also experimented with some register rumor starting, which clearly works. I left a mesage in the first shelter, and by the time we arrived at the second shelter, a hiker not in our group was busy asking questions. Lol, as Miss Janet says, the AT is the longest game of whisper down the lane in the universe... and with adults which makes it even more fun.We stopped at a BRP overlook for dinner, where we scared off 2 tourists and got eaten alive by bugs. Siren started hiking immediately after dinner to avoid bugs. I was still eating and decided to wait for storytime. 3 miles from the shelter was another overlook where you could clearly see a line of rain heading our direction. He mentioned maybe tenting early. "Nah" I said, "we'll be fine". 2 miles from the shelter the skies opened up and we got soaked in under 5 minutes. It got too dark to see, so we started night hiking in the downpour. When we finally arrived at the shelter there was a note saying "No tenting". It was passed 10 and there was 0 chance of an open spot with the rain. We continued hiking to a flat area about 100 yards away and threw up our tents. Everything was soaked. EVERYTHING... ugh. Even after my tent was up it continued to rain inside my tent from the condensation on the tarp. It was a very long, very wet night.
Date: 2013-06-10
From: Bobblets Knob Shelter

To: Buchanon, VA
Miles today: 3.1

We woke up to rain, pouring rain. My tent was still misting and everything was soaked. Not so awesome. I wasn't in a really bad mood until I decided to get up and realized my semi-dry clothes from the night before were soaking up the misting rain in the bottom of my tent and were now soaked as well. Wet clothes, wet tent, wet pack, wet me. I didn't have a single piece of gear that was completely dry. That stinks.Siren and I texted throughout the morning. She had gotten the last space in the shelter, so it was good we kept hiking and decided to tent. I explained all my stuff was wet and that I needed to find somewhere warm to dry out. We called around hotels and found they were incredibly pricey (and rude) in the area. Siren called Cazz again to see if she had recommendations and Cazz found a boating outfitter in Buchanon that agreed to allow us to dry out our gear. That's a start!We hiked the 3 miles (which felt like 50 with wet gear= heavy and sloshing socks and shoes. The trail was yet again a flooded stream due to the incredible amount of run off from the constant heavy rain. Normal stream crossing turned into nearly whitewater rivers and required extra attention to footing and balance. I arrived at the road to find Siren and Storytime shaking their heads saying "no cars!". 10 minutes later a pickup drove by and took us in to town.We went to Twin Rivers Outfitter and they are amazing! They let us dry out our gear on the picinic tables out back and gave us dining options. We talked to some of their employees and asked about tubing options. We grabbed dinner at the local BK and ran back as black clouds started coming over the mountain. Not a minute to soon either! I frantically grabbed my mostly-dry gear and threw it under the back porch of the outfitter just in time to wittness some seriously heavy rain that was coming in sideways and hard. My gear was yet again wet as the rain pelted under the back porch Showers continued on and off all day, so I decided to go to the library and finish some journal entries while Siren and Storytime updated blogs on their phones. Odie went to the store to do some shopping. The outfitter was kind enough to offer their back porch for camping due to more impending storms overnight. Many many thanks to Twin Rivers for their generosity!
Date: 2013-06-11
From: Buchanon, VA

To: Cornelius Creek Shelter
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: broken clouds

I awoke to the porch light shining overhead and the back door of the outfitter being opened. "Hey, thru hikers, you gotta move. The river is flooding and in 2 hours there will be 25 boyscouts all over here." At 1230 am we woke up out of a deep sleep and had to be somewhat functional. Am i at work again? ;-)We moved our tents to the nearby town park and fell asleep about an hour later. At 7 am we woke up, for good this time, and packed up before anyone realized we were there. Many breakfast sandwiches and 2 ice creams later, we were catching a ride back to the trail.The trail was a stream most of the day and also seemed to go nearly vertical most of the day. By the time we got to the last shelter, i was ready for a late dinner and bed. Storytime started a fire so that i could cook dinner. I ate my stroganoff pasta mix and fell asleep instantly.
Date: 2013-06-12
From: Cornelius Creek Shelter

To: Gunter Ridge Trail
Miles today: 14.51
Weather: light rain

Let the sweat bath begin...Bugs were out in full force all day long. I had so many bites and was swatting at so many insects that I was ready to scream. My 99% deet wasn't touching them. Ugh. Stupid bugs. My feet hurt so bad too. I am starting to question my decision to get rid of the superfeet, despite the fact they were getting torn up. Maybe it is that the shoes have over 500 miles on them? I don't know but either way it is painful to hike with dying shoes I took a break at an awesome overlook just off the Blueridge Parkway with Siren and Storytime. I remembered my friends from work are on their annual fishing trip, so I sent them a picture of my views for lunch. I was pretty excited when my phone rang a few minutes later and I could say "hi" to everyone. It was the first time I had spoken with them since I left for my trip.The rest of the day was fairly easy hiking. I met Siren at the top of a mountain where she had found a dry campsite. I set up my tent and fell asleep after cooking some beef stroganoff on the fire.
Date: 2013-06-13
From: Gunter Ridge Trail

To: Glascow, VA
Miles today: 5.4

It ended up being an unexpected nero into Glascow. The highlight of the day was supposed to be crossing the river again and taking a mini-bath. It was also the day we crossed the longest "pedistrian only" bridge on the trail (over the river). Siren and I took a quick bird bath, which really just left everything feeling more dirty since the river was flooded and incredibly muddy. Storytime came up shortly and said he was hitching into town. I made the mistake of looking at the map and seeing that there was a pizza joint in Glascow. Without much pushing, I convinced Siren to go into Glascow for "a quick lunch" and then back to the trail.While we were eating some pretty awesome pizza, wings, and drinking sodas the TV started beeping an emergency tone. Apparently, some very serious thunderstorms were headed our way and were spread out up and down the east coast. We were told that we should head for the library to wait out the storm. At the library we ran into Indigo's mom. I guess Siren spoke with her and got us a slackpack for tomorrow. Many thanks!When the storm warning got moved into the late night, we were all ushered toward the episcopal church. The church had opened their doors to hikers to spend the night to avoid the storms. Just as we got inside the church, the skies opened up and rain began pouring down. Thunder and lightning cracked as piper and chief put on a guitar and native american flute performance. We later learned how to play maou (sp?) and had a pancake dinner thanks to Odie's awesome cooking. Ynot2k got coffee and hot chocolate and we all made hand drawn thank you cards to the church, 3rd grade style. I feel asleep in the church to cool, air conditioned quiet.
Date: 2013-06-14
From: Glascow, VA

To: Buena Vista, VA
Miles today: 21.8
Weather: clear sky

What a day. First, we had a really long slack pack where everyone got split up. I was in front and pulled off trail to use the ladies room. Usually, we leave our packs on the side of the trail so that others know that you are now behind them, kind of a courtesy to your friends. Well when you slack pack, you don't have a pack to drop. Storytime apparently thought I was hiking super fast and decided to try to "catch up" even though I ended up being behind him. We didn't see storytime for the rest of the day. I ran into Siren and Odie and they were confused how I got behind too. Slacking is confusing!I ran out of bug spray today, so the bites increased exponentially. It was pretty bad. I also realized the only food that I brought was jerky and chocolate... it was going to be a long day. We passed Jungle Jim, who we had met at Troutville and again in the church. He mentioned the guy that gave him a ride to the trail offered to host some hikers for the night. He invited us to join him at the guy's house. Jungle Jim, Siren, Odie and I hiked the rest of the day together until we got to the road. Storytime had left us a message saying that he was trying to catch up to me and that he was getting a ride to town if he didn't see me before the road. I giggled as I read the message, thinking he would have to go so fast he goes back in time if he wanted to catch up.When we got to the road, Siren and I caught a hitch from a 17 year old named Justin that said he just graduated high school. He was rocking the Justin Beiber haircut and kept flipping his hair... oh teenagers. His first question to us was "what's wrong!?". We explained that nothing was wrong and that we were hikers and needed a ride into town. After 5 minutes of explaining, it finally sunk in and he gave the four of us a ride to the blue dog art cafe, where a package and hostel reservations were waiting. I picked up my package and cancelled the reservations. Storytime was in the cafe area and said he had already paid for a night's stay. The staff was kind enough to refund his money. A few minutes later, Jason, a local that works with nuclear engineering, arrived and drove us to his amazing home in the countryside. We had margaritas and pizza and got hot showers and did laundry. He had plenty of space for us to crash, as he hosts students from a local school occasionally. I fell asleep that night clean and exhausted after a long hiking day.
Date: 2013-06-15
From: Buena Vista, VA

To: Piney Fork Campsite
Miles today: 12.1
Weather: scattered clouds

We woke up and Jason had made toast with eggs. Delicious breakfast! We helped clean up a bit from the night before, packed up our things and he gave us a ride to burger king and then to the trail. He hiked for a few miles with us, up to a bald with gorgeous views. About 10 other hikers arrived to hang out and Jason bid us fairwell and headed back to the car.We continued hiking for a bit and set up at the campsite for some rest.
Date: 2013-06-16
From: Waynesboro, VA

To: Roadbed 1.5 miles shy of Harper's Creek Shelter
Miles today: 16.4
Weather: broken clouds

Ugh, feet hurt so bad! This shoe thing is really starting to wear on me. I was hoping my feet would have toughened up, however they just hurt more. It's time to order new shoes and I will asap at the next town.I felt slow all day long and a few miles short of our destination I knew I needed food. I stopped by the creek and made dinner, while getting eaten alive by what looked like mini beetles. It was getting dark quick, so I thew on my headlamp and hiked to the next level spot, which happened to be an old, unused roadbed. My feet hurt and I'm exhausted. I fell asleep immediately.
Date: 2013-06-17
From: Roadbed 1.5 miles shy of Harper's Creek Shelter

To: Paul C. Wolfe Shelter
Miles today: 22.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I woke up really early and hiked to the shelter to meet up with Siren and Odie. They were still in their tents. I explained what happened the day before and that I was going to start hiking a while. I'll meet up with them in the near future (siren is a bit faster than me recently, so it wouldn't take long). Three ridges mountain is a PIA, there is no other way to say that. It just keeps on going and going... up up and away! The good thing about being so high up is that there are some pretty amazing views. I hung out at most of them for a while and ate meals/ snacks. This is my longest day with a pack so far. My feet were KILLING me. New shoes are the only thing I can think of. Toward the end of the day I was nearly in tears because the ground was rocky and my feet hurt so bad. As I night-hiked in to the shelter all I could think of was only 5 more miles to Waynesboro in these shoes! I pulled into the shelter around 9:30 and was informed that there were no tenting areas left. I responded with a "WTF, seriously?" and was told to look around. I saw 30+ tents set up all around the shelter and was told that a church group had hiked in earlier from the road. I walked up to the shelter and noticed only 2 people had set up. The shelter was decent enough and I set up my gear, ate candy for dinner and laid down just in time to hear the rain start to downpour outside. "hahaha", I laughed to myself. At least I'm dry and my gear is dry in the shelter, maybe the church group was a blessing in disguise. I fell asleep to my feet throbbing, only to be woken up an hour later to a squeaking next to my head. I had forgotten to remove a protein bar wrapper from my side pocket and a shelter mouse had gotten it. I reached back, grabbed the wrapper, put it in my odor proof sack and fell back asleep to the thunder clapping, lightning and the hardest rain I had heard in weeks.
Date: 2013-06-18
From: Paul C. Wolfe Shelter

To: Waynesboro, VA
Miles today: 5.0

6/18 Waynesboro, VAI woke up dry, which was better than most. Saw Odie had arrived. Vuvuzella! The church group gotup, but siren was still sleeping. Somehow, Odie convinced the group of teenage girls to gather around her tent and sing. Ha ha, what a wonderful way to wake up! Patches came up with beer growler shortly after siren had started hiking. He went to Devils backbone brewing company the previous day and packed out his favorite beer. Delicious! The actual hike in was very easy. When we got to the trailhead it started to rain. A gentleman came over and said he could give us a ride shortly. After waiting in the rain for 45 minutes we were cold and still didn't have a ride. Thankfully, another hiker pulled up in a car and gave us beers, Oreos and other delicious snacks. She then offered to drive us in to town. Another car pulled up and offered us rides at the same time.We got in to the second car, where the driver introduced himself as Sharkie, a 3 time thru hiker. Sharkie was amazing! He drove us the the awesome Chinese buffet in Waynesboro, then Walmart, then he offered us to stay at his place.We all loaded back in to the car and went to his amazing home at the base of the Shenandoah valley, complete with soft beds, a hot shower, and a hot tub to soak in. We had pizza and great conversation until hiker 3 am (aka 11).
Date: 2013-06-19
From: Waynesboro, VA

To: Waynesboro, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

We got up and packed up, it was sad to have to leave Sharkie's amazing home. Before we left, Storytime made an amazing breakfast of French toast with a pear compote that he's been taking about for a while. It lived up to the hype :-)Sharkie dropped me of at the outfitter with Miss Janet and uncle buck. Lots of plans with aquablazing changed, and we decided to wait until tomorrow use to rockfish gap outfitters for our kayak rentals and have miss Janet shuttle us. After arranging things with the outfitter, a nice guy gave us ride to YMCA where they have free tenting. We set up packs and went back to Chinese buffet, it was pretty amazing. The entire group decided to zero in Waynesboro, and it was great to hang out for another night. Uncle buck and i went shopping for the trip, then returned to the campsite to listen to siren and jungle Jim play music and sing us to sleep.