morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-05-16
From: 3.5 miles from Wapiti Shelter

To: Pearisburg, Va
Miles today: 21.5
Weather: overcast clouds

OC1 and I got up and were walking by 6:30 am. It's been getting lighter every morning. Noticeably lighter. This morning by 5:40 it was light. That's why we got started so early.We got up to Wapiti Shelter by 8 o'clock, guess who was there? Albert! I hadn't seen him in a few weeks. He walked out of there with us. It was a pretty cool reunion. We walked all the way to Doc's Knob Shelter. We sat there and cooked. Then took a walk down into Pearisburg, which is about 7.8 miles away.   Nasty, nasty downhills. Long, forever downhills, the kind that hurt to go slow and hurt to go fast. You just have to take it. As you get into Pearisburg, there is poison ivy everywhere, overhanging the Trail. It was kind of hard to avoid. We walked up to the Rendezous Motel, only to find it was totally booked. I had 3 huge boxes here. We grabbed all three boxes and jumped into Brenda's car. She runs the Rendezous.   She took us to the Hostel, where we stayed. It's way out of town. We walked into town last night. Had my 2 Long Island Iced Teas at the Sports Bar. We went to the Chinese All You Can Eat place. I ended up getting lost on my way back to the hostel. I got in at about 11:30. I slept on the back porch in my new summer bag, which kept me warm.
Date: 2005-05-18
From: 1 mile from Rice Field Shelter

To: War Spur Shelter
Miles today: 23.6
Weather: light rain

What a day!!OC1 and I were up and walking at 6:30 as usual. Albert is slow to get up. We had to wake him up. He ended up catching up to us about an hour after. The 3 of us made 11 miles by 11 o'clock. We made it to Pine Swamp Branch Shelter, where I decided to cook something big. My ass has been dragging all day. I don't know what it is, maybe low fuel. I made some ramen noodles with hickory chicken, crushed red peppers, dehydrated red beans and olive oil. Hopefully that will pick up my energy level.I think part of the problem is that I didn't get much sleep last night because of the hammock. The damn fly kept flapping like crazy in the wind. It also takes some getting used to sleeping in it. The rest of the day was walking. The intention was to get the 23.5 miles in. I sure got a hell of alot more than that in today.I got on the rige above War Spur Shelter where the AT hooks sharply down the hill to the right. Unfortunately, I kept going straight. It seems that the Trail might have gone through there at one point because there were white blazes on trees. I spent 3 hours without water. I had run out of water at 1 o'clock. I was in the process of looking for a spring that was supposed to be at this place-if I had only been at THAT place! I was miles away, wandering through the woods on this ridge with no water for 6 hours. When I finally found my way down, it was 7:30 before I hit the shelter at War Spur. Surprisingly, OC1 and Albert were not here. Somehow I had passed by them in the process of getting lost. They had gone ahead and stopped for a couple of hours on the ridge and eaten and rested. OC1 told me that he went back to try to find me because they never saw me pass.So, I easliy walked 30 miles today. Some pretty crappy conditions too. As soon as I got to the shelter I drank a 2 liter bottle of water, then I had another shortly after that. I cooked and made some tea and hot cocoa and I'm still thirsty as hell. I'll probably drink 2 gallons of water before I go to bed, which means I'll be up all night. I'm beat. My legs are killing me. The next couple of days we will be taking it alot easier. We will be doing two 18 mile days and one short 5 mile day into Catawba to pick up our mail drops and to eat at the Homeplace Restaurant. Hopefully, the day after that, we are going to run out about 20 miles to Daleville. We will get a hotel room there and pig out at the Chinese All You Can Eat there.I have to try to get some sleep tonight to make up for the extra miles and lack of sleep. I was falling asleep walking today. It's kind of weird to be walking along and your eyes are closing.
Date: 2005-05-27
From: Little Irish Creek

To: Seeley-Woodworth Shelter
Miles today: 20.5
Weather: broken clouds

Today was a pretty rough day for me, especially physically. I definitely ran out of energy the last couple of hours of the day. I think I probably made a mistake this morning, keeping up with OC1 and Easy Goer, going up the 3,000 foot climb that we did first thing this morning. I generally do my own thing and I just decided to keep up with them. Usually I tend to conserve energy at the uphills, walking at a pace I can keep all day no matter what. This time, I kind of pushed it. We stopped at the top at 11:30, and I was still feeling OK at the time. We sat and ate for a little bit and that's when I ran out of water. I went without water until 4 o'clock. It was a hot day, so lack of water definitely contributed to my lack of energy. I was having a hard time going uphills, I was thirsty as hell and I was finding myself staggering through the rock fields.Instead of picking through them, I kept bumping them with my feet. It really sucked. To top it off, it was also a day of roller coastering. Which means up 500 feet and down 500 feet and back up and down all day long. That wears me out more than a long uphill or a long downhill because it just changes the muscles I use. It kind of makes me think that maybe it's time for a week off. I was going to wait for Boiling Springs to do that, and come back for the party, but I may end up having to take some time off soon. It's not just the feeling of lack of energy today and part of yesterday, but both knees are giving me trouble now. The right one is a full blown out problem and the left one is coming around to be the same way. So, it might be time for a rest. I'm going to think about it in the next day or two.Tomorrow I need to make it to Maupin Shelter, because on Sunday morning I have plans with Gordon, Draft Runner's husband, to be on the road near Reeds Gap at 8:30 am to be picked up to go to their home.Even then, it won't be a day off, because we have things to do. We have to go to the outfitters, pick up our mail drops, go shopping, do laundry, take showers, and eat of course.I got to the shelter today at a good time, considering I was feeling like crap. I pulled into the shelter a little after 4, I went down and got water and started boiling it to cook. I also started a fire because I had some freeze dried pork chops I had rehydrated in some tin foil. I figured I'd throw them in the fire. It ended up being a nice fire. We sat around and talked for quite a bit of time. Besides the 3 of us here tonight, there's also 2 through hikers here named Mongrel and Mouth, who is very aptly named, because he likes to talk. I'm tired, I'm in my sleeping bag. People are out there talking and making noise. About 6 young guys walked in at 9 o'clock. They had been out for a few days and are looking to live it up. I'm going to try to get some sleep.
Date: 2005-05-28
From: Seeley-Woodworth Shelter

To: Reeds Gap
Miles today: 22.2

I'm beat to hell, and I'm leaving out alot of details on this entry. I'm just too tired to try to do this. It seems like the longer the day, the harder it is to try to keep up with the journals. I'll make this short and sweet.We got up and started running. It was a hard day. We stopped to cook a couple of times. We weren't intending on going as far as we did, but we felt pretty good considering. We called Draft Runner and Gordon from the top of Three Ridges to pick us up. Draft Runner took us to the Outfitters, where we got a bunch of stuff that we needed to get fixed.
Date: 2005-05-29
From: Reeds Gap

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Luckily, we timed this, by accident. It's Memorial Day, and both Draft Runner and Gordon were around. They took absolutely amazing, fabulous care of us. Between feeding us non-stop pizza, surf and turf dinners, breakfasts, shuttling us to Wal-Mart, outfitters, all kinds of places. I can't say enough good things about this couple. Even their son, Ryan helped us out with doing a slide presentation off my camera.We had a wonderful Zero Day, as far as I'm concerned. That was the best day off I have had on the Trail so far. Good for refreshing the soul, filling the stomach, and for beefing up. I'm still feeling tired.
Date: 2005-05-30
From: Reeds Gap

To: Calf Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 26.4
Weather: scattered clouds

I moved outside last night because I was too hot. We are still at Draft Runner's house. I was sleeping in my sleeping bag and my Therma Rest, and I was starting to get sweaty, so I ended up sleeping on their front porch. I woke up at 5:10 this morning to the sound of Gordon and Tammy (Draft Runner) in the kitchen. They were preparing a pancake breakfast for us.I got up, put my shoes on, and started packing my stuff away.I saw that Tammy had gotten in the car at about 5:30. I figured she had run out of something she needed for breakfast. They had gotten up early to make us breakfast because they knew we wanted to get back to the Trail early. She ended up dropping us off after long good-byes to everyone. She dropped us off at Reeds Gap and we were walking again by 7:20.We made good time today, we made it all the way into Waynesboro through fairly forgiving terrain, unlike the previous days, specifically mentioning Three Ridges was a little rough yesterday, with the 800 vertical foot rock scrambles where you need to use both hands and feet. Today was nothing like that. We made the 19.4 miles by 3 o'clock. We sat there at the Afton Convenience Store, and got a few things to eat, and took off again by 4 o'clock. The guys decided that they wanted to run to the next shelter. OC1 and I had mail drops at the Inn at Afton, but they don't accept U.S. Mail, which is totally screwed up. SO we didn't get our mail drops. Tammy said she would pick them up from the Post Office tomorrow and deliver them to Loft Mountain Campground. We are going to run 20 or so miles and try to meet her at around 4 o'clock. It should not be a bad day tomorrow in terms of hiking.I'll be up early, I'm so tired.
Date: 2005-06-11
From: Old Forge Picnic Area

To: Shippensburg Road
Miles today: 21.1

I got an early start this morning, I was out before 6 o'clock. OC1 caught up to me and we walked together to Caledonia State Park through some nice, challenging boulder scrambles. We got there at 10:30 am. Immediately, I got some water and sat down and started cooking. Even though the grill was supposed to open in 30 minutes, I made some ramen noodles with freeze dried chicken and a cut up pork chop.Albert walked in and we shared the ramen noodles while we waited for the consession stand to open. Some other guy that we had seen the day before walked in, too. His name was Walrus, he thought that OC1 had stolen his pole. It turned out he was cunfusing Vern with 3 Feathers. Vern is starting to get a complex that everyone is confusing him with 3 Feathers. 3 Feathers is 10 years older and has 1 eye, so Vern gets insulted every time. The consession stand opened and we all got food. It was horrible and very expensive. I think the hamburgers were made of a soy product. There was no lettuce, no onions, nothing. Just katsup, salt and mustard. The only good thing there was the ice cream. We hung out there way too long, 12:00.We hauled ass out of there again, pretty good uphill out of there. We made it to Quarry Gap Shelters, a really nice double shelter with a covered area between the 2 of them and picnic tables. The maintainer was there, he's very eager about his responsibilities there. He was painting the privy while we were there. It was the best damned privy I've seen on the Trail. We talked to him for about a half hour. We started walking up the hill and immediately someone almost stepped on a snake. I think it was OC1. The maintainer came over and told us that this 6 foot long black snake was the resident snake for the shelter. Before we left there, he said to us, "Don't you want to see the rattle snake too??" Apparently, the whole time, there was a coiled up rattle snake about 2 feet away from us. It was a little freaky. From there, we had a pretty good walk over some rocks and some pretty level stuff all the way up to Shippensburg Road. We were considering hiking a little further but, we were pretty worn out by the time we got there and Mike Smith was already there. So, we called it quits there. Mike took us back to his house, where he let us use the shower. He lent us clothes that were way too big for all of us. We are all way too skinny. We need to get some orange cord for belts. We look like a construction crew, all dressed the same. We went to Wal-Mart and Giant and picked up some stuff. I got some cheap ear phones to replace the ones I had. I got some Hershey's Vanilla Creme Milkshakes - 640 calories per bottle! Good stuff!! He then took us over to the pizza place, where we ordered various things. I split 20 wings and a large white pizza with Albert. Then we went back to Mike's house and pigged out. We sat down and watched a movie.We went to bed at about 11 o'clock or so.
Date: 2005-06-12
From: Shippensburg Road

To: Whiskey Spring Road
Miles today: 22.1

We got up early, grabbed all the stuff we had to eat, I had my Hershey's milkshakes, glazed donuts and danish. We walked 2 blocks to have a cigar because Mike lives in a section where there's no smoking allowed. I had to hike to smoke. I came back and watched everyone else eat. We packed up and Mike took us back to the Trail. We started walking on a really nice Trail this morning. Not many ups and downs, very wide in places, some road blocks leading down to Pine Grove Furnace State Park. Despite the fact that we started at 7:30, we still made it there by 10:30. I was in such a hurry to get there, that I walked right by the store. I walked about 1/2 mile past it to the swimming area. I was encouraged by a biker there who told me the store was still ahead. The store he was talking about was the one at the swimming area. I talked to a Ranger who told me to get back on the road and go back to the store, which was what I did. OC1 and Easy goer were already there. Fatty was there with a girl anmed Angela who had come to hike with him for a few days. She was a cute girl, I hope he's getting some of that!Back at the store....Vern tried the '1/2 Gallon Challenge' with cherries jubilee ice cream. I think he fell a pint short. Fatty had already started on his when we got there. I forget what flavor he had, but it was gone in about 42 minutes. The real winner was A.J. who sat down after us and had a 1/2 gallon of chocolate ice cream in 18 minutes! I don't think he's going to be hiking very far today. There was a UPS guy there who seemed very excited about meeting hikers. I think he was excited about meeting anybody. He kept proclaiming that he was a bachelor and had nothing to do at home. He bought me a hot dog, he was a real nice guy. We also met 2 of OC1's friends, Rich and Carolyn Danjak. They sat with us and watched us eat ice cream. Angela had a handful of cameras and was taking pictures of everybody. We all exchanged pictures and various stuff. Walrus was there too, he had the '1 pint challenege', which he finished in under 40 minutes. We all hiked out of there together to the halfway point and took some more pictures. The Danjaks live close to the Trail, so they hiked home. When they left, I started moving fast, figuring I could save us some time by getting to the Green Mountain Store and getting us some Cokes before the guys got there.   Rich had already made it there. I didn't know he was going to meet us again. He gave me a ride back and we waited for OC1 and Easy Goer. We started walking and drank some Cokes.I thought it was going to be a big uphill, but the maps are never right! Apparently, the re-routed this section for the good this time, because we missed about 200 feet of uphill. We are within minutes of the road that leads to OC1's house.That's going to be it for hiking for the week. It's a well deserved break. I'm very excited about it.
Date: 2005-06-23
From: Hertlein Campsite

To: Port Clinton, Pa
Miles today: 18.1
Weather: clear sky

There's not a hell of alot to say about this section of walking except, OUCH! I'm walking through rivers and seas of rocks. Ankle twisting, shoe destroying rocks.Surprisingly, I impressed myself. I got up and started walking even earlier than normal. By 5:15 I had hit the Trail and was walking through the street in Port Clinton as the church bells were chiming noon. I walked over to the Port Clinton Hotel, which isn't particularly friendly, from what my impression was, as well as the impressions of others who were staying there. Horizon and Montana Lush were at the Port Clinton too, I bought each of them a Hiker Burger at the Port Clinton Hotel. I had one too. They were huge! It's like 1/2 pound of meat, the burger hangs off the bun about an inch all around. They were just as good as the on tap Yeunglings. I had quite a few of them.I managed to get the last room available in the place. 3 Cats, Florida and anyone who walked in behind me got screwed because they couldn't get a room. 3 Cats and Florida were pretty amazed that I got into town before them. Especially considering that they had walked extra miles last night. That's what happens when you start walking 3 hours earlier than most people wake up. We found out that the Appalachian Outfitters in town here is now only open on Saturday between 10-3. Apparently, he couldn't get enough business to stay open full time. I guess he had to go get a real job. If you call the number, it says that they are remodeling, but it sure doesn't seem like they're doing anything in there. I was feeling a little frantic because my maildrops were all to there. At 2 o'clock, I walked down to the post office when it re-opened. There was 1 box there for me. I thought I had at least 1 more box and there was a shirt that Mark Z sent that never got there. I had to forward that home. I don't know what I'm going to do as far as a shirt now. I'd like to have an extra shirt. I hung around the hotel for the rest of the day, drinking and eating with a section hiker, who is a retired math teacher. He has been section hiking the AT for the last 4 years. His name is Tom, he's a good guy, I had a good time hanging out with him. I took a shower and did laundry, I threw Tom's things in with mine. I let him sneak up to my room to take a shower.I repackaged all my things. I got a new pair of shoes in this mail drop, which was perfect timing. The rocks trash shoes in a big way. Tom and I each got some beers to take out. I got some Foster's, he got Yeunglings, and we walked down to the Pavillion.   The hikers are allowed to stay there. It's a huge pavillion, it seats 200 people. We hung out with the other through hikers there until about 11 o'clock.I went to bed right after that.That's the way it was.
Date: 2005-07-02
From: Unionville, N.Y.

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

It has been a long zero day. It always seems like it's much longer when you're not walking, but then again, the walking days seem pretty long too. I hung out in Unionville. I did alot of little things; sewing, repairs, got my mail drop and Vern's mail drop, I mailed stuff out, I ate, drank and waited for Vern to show up.   I timed him just perfectly. I guess you get to know people after you have been with them for a while. At one point this afternoon, I got up from where I was, thought to myself that it was time for him to walk out of the woods, I walked to the store and got a Coke for him and walked up the road to the Trail, and as I got there, he was popping out of the Trail. I handed him his Coke and we went down to the restaurant and bar. We ate, we drank, we went to the park. He is pitching a tent right now. I am sleeping here in one of the gazebos in Unionville, N.Y.         No miles today for me. Gosh, I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow. The pack seems incredible heavy, just from walking the 1/4 mile from the restaurant to the park. I was thinking to myself, "How the f**k am I carrying this thing for 1,300 miles if I can't carry it 1/4 miles!"   Tomorrow it will be a different story, I think.   Vern and I are back together again for a few days or a week, until Estee comes out.Fireworks are going off, people are getting excited.It's going to be interesting sleeping tonight.   9:30I'm trying to go to sleep and I just can't. Every time I close my eyes, there's a huge white flash every now and then, followed by a huge BOOM. I guess people around here are getting excited about the 4th of July. I'm in a pavillion at the park in Unionville. Vern decided to set up his tent about 200 yards away. There are 'booms' everywhere - the 4th of July has commenced. I see sparklers going off in the house behind where we are. It's going to be an interesting holiday. We hope to get a view where we will be on the evening of the 4th, overlooking the New York skyline. That might be a pretty cool fireworks display.
Date: 2005-07-04
From:  Vernon, New Jersey St. Mark's Episcopal Church

To: Wildcat Shelter
Miles today: 17.1
Weather: few clouds

We has an early wake up this morning to pack, eat and get out of town by about 6:30 or so. It was 2.5 miles back to the Trail from Vernon, New Jersey and the chances of getting a ride didn't look good because it's the 4th of July and there's no one working and the roads are pretty deserted. Luckily, after about a half a mile, this guy who had just dropped his daughter off at work, picked us up. Thanks to him, we were on the Trail and walking by 7:00.Right off the bat, it was a 950 foot climb up to alot of rock steps. The rest of the day pretty much stayed up on that ridge between 1,100 and 1,400 feet. We may have only been going up 200-300 feet at a time, but physically, it was very challenging. We had about 20 of these ups and downs, and it was always through these big boulders and small ankle busters. This was something new for us, we had alot of these extended ridge walks across solid rock tops of the mountain. It was quite steep in areas, and if they had been wet, we would have been in big trouble because they were sloping off very extremely in some places.To top it off, it was pretty hot, the sun was out, there weren't that many clouds. There wasn't much cover out there as far as trees out there. The rocks were definitely absorbing and radiating alot of heat. We took a couple of breaks today, one where I took my switchblade out to cut up my sandwich and, I must have put it back wrong or not at all, because I lost it and now I need to get another one. Vern's feet appear to be better today. Between the bandaging and the sneakers, he seems to think they are starting to heal. It definitely showed it because he was walking alot faster, especially when we started getting closer to 17A. About 3 miles out, some day hikers showed up and told us there was Trail Magic up ahead. That must have made it imperative to get up to the road. We kept passing all these day hikers and asking them where the road was and they kept saying, "less that 30 minutes." It didn't matter how many times 30 minutes would go by, they kept saying, "less than 30 minutes." We finally got there at about 2:30. The guy with the Trail Magic was Matteo, a through hiker that Vern and I had both met. He had burgers and hot dogs, sodas and beer, and cookies. We were only the 2nd or 3rd through hikers he had seen all day. The Trail is definitely getting very thin. We sat there, shooting the breeze with him and other people that showed up. We sat there until 4:45, and then we hiked the 2 miles to the next shelter, all fat and happy. When we got to the shelter, I cooked and ate again. Tomorrow is bound to be physically harder than today. We are trying to get to bed early. I am making a point of having as much fluid as I can tonight because, I am expecting that we will be out on the hot rocks for quite a bit, and for longer climbs and rougher territory. We are definitely doing climbs more often now. Upper Virginia and Pennsylvania spoiled us in terms of elevation changes, but here they come again. That's it for tonight.