morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2010-05-27
From: Pearisburg

To: Pearisburg
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: few clouds

27 May 2010, Pearisburg   The manager of the Rendezvous Motel shuttled me to Sugar Run at 8 this morning. It was a nice cool morning. I wanted to get this slack pack done as quickly as possible today because the temps were suppose to get in the 90's this afternoon. I realized about a mile into my hike that I dropped my bandana. I did not want to back track to try and find it either. I also realized a few more miles into the hike that I had forgot to put my gators on before I left this morning. That was a mistake I regretted because I kept getting twigs and dirt into my shoes and had to take them off during the hike a few times to empty them out.   I stopped at the Docs Knob shelter to use the privy and sign the register, and then I moved on. I reached a set of power lines, where I stopped for a break and a quick snack. The view of the farm lands below from the power lines was spectacular.   When I got to Angels Rest I expected an awesome view. There was a partial view of Pearisburg below. I could see he motel we were staying at. To be totally honest, in my honest opinion the view of the farmlands from the power line earlier in the day was far better.   After I got back to the room I ran into Logos and Earthling who were two rooms down. Logos told me they stay in one of the other motels in town but when they started walking back to the trail they got to this motel and decided they were not ready to go back to the trail and checked in here. Logos also mentioned that he received some bad news from home and just wanted to chill for a while.   Just as I got done talking to Logos I looked across the street and low and behold Bismarck, Pepper, Chili, Lift and Step were walking out from the trail head and were about to hitch to town. I yelled at them and they came to my room. We made arrangements for dinner to eat at the mexican restaurant at 6 pm. I made a trip into town to Food Lion again to get some more food. While I was at Food Lion I ran into Bismarck and told him that Hopper was still not up to leaving the room and I was just getting some food and heading back to the motel and would not be meeting them for dinner. I had also brought Ben, Hoppers dog with me to Food Lion because he had been cooped up he her room with her all day.
Date: 2010-05-29
From: Pearisburg

To: Pine Swamp shelter
Miles today: 19.3
Weather: broken clouds

29 May 2010, Pine Swamp Shelter   What a great day. The terrain was very easy. The only thing that held me back from putting in the miles to make it to the hiker feed was Hopper. She was not able to stay with me most of the day. I was constantly waiting for her on and off throughout the day. When we reach the side trail to Allegheny Trail I waited for Hopper. She arrived and said she was out of water and was really worried about dehydration. I was out of water too but I was doing fine. We each had a fruit cocktail in our food bags. She took hers out and drank the juice out of it and ate it. I gave her mine to drink the fluid out of. She thanked me and we continued on. About two miles down the trail we came upon a stream running along the trail. We both filled our water bladders and continued.When we reached Pine Swamp Shelter and were only 0.8 from the hiker feed and Hopper announced that she could not go any further. That defeated the whole purpose of coming this far. I was not happy to say the least. I had to take into consideration that she had been sick for almost a week. I was lucky she made it this far. She did really well today. We will head to the hiker feed in the morning in hopes that is is still going on and we did not miss it completely.   The shelter here is odd in the way of the platforms. You cannot sleep facing out. The platforms are not wide enough. We had to sleep at a 30 degree angle so our heads were not hanging off.   Stick Shift came in at about 7:30 tonight and set up his hammock down in front of the shelter. He ended up cooking his dinner in the dark. There is also a couple here behind the shelter that is out just for the weekend.   We are only planning a 12.7 day tomorrow. We cannot make it to Daleville until the fourth because that is when my package is due to arrive from REI. If we get there early then I will have to pay for a motel room to wait for my package to arrive.
Date: 2010-05-30
From: Pine Swamp shelter

To: Camping
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: broken clouds

30 May 2010, Camping   We got up and got out of the shelter this morning, around eight. We got to the Captain's zip line about nine. I was unsure how to use the zip line across the creek work. The Captain came and showed us how to use it. Once we went across on the zip line I saw many other thru hikers I knew, Pepper, Chili, Bismarck, Lift and Step, Indigo, Parachute, Chef, Grizzly, Denver, Tiger Woods, Patches, Wildflower, Logos, Earthling, Popcorn, Puma, Cbass, Motorboat, and more.   We left the hiker feed around 11 and arrived at Bailey Gap Shelter shortly after noon time. I hung out at the shelter for about an hour and a half with Stick Shift, Grizzly, Popcorn, and Hopper.   We left the shelter at 2 pm. The terrain after the shelter was very miserable. It was all rocks for about four miles, a real ankle twister. It took us a long time to cover these four miles. We ran into three trail maintainers taking care of this section. One of the maintainers had thru hiked in 1990 and he told us that one of the other maintainer was 75 and he had fallen down two times already and they were worried about him. After seeing the terrain I can understand why he fell down twice, I had a hard time not falling down.   Hopper and I stopped at Wind Rock for a photo shot and Hopper scattered some of Mike's ashes. As we arrived there Stick Shift showed up. We all sat on the cliffs talking. Two day hikers showed up. They were mother and daughter, from New Jersey. The mother was down here dropping the daughter for some internship program and they wanted to walk on the AT for a little bit.   We hiked 1.2 miles past Wind Rock to a camp site. It was 5 pm when we arrived here, we decided to call it a day and set up camp. Hopper has a big tipi style tent and said I could sleep on one side of it. I took her up on the offer. I am regretting that now as I type this. It is raining pretty hard out right now and the rain is coming through the tent around the edges. If I had set up my hammock and tarp I would not be in this situation.   Here tonight are Tiger Woods, Popcorn, Hopper, Grizzly, and Denver.
Date: 2010-06-02
From: Trout Creek/VA 620

To: Pearisburg
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

02 June 2010, Pearisburg   I woke up this morning and just did not feel like doing any hiking. I had a few things to get done in town anyways. I had to make a Wal-Mart run to get some bug repellent, food, iPod carrying case. While I was there I picked up a toy to place on Ottie Cline Powell monument when I pass through. It is a tradition to place a very small toy on the monument. I don¢t know who started doing this but there always seems to be toys left on it.   On the way to Wal-Mart I stopped at the laundromat to do a load of laundry. Once done the Wal-Mart shopping I stopped by Pizza Hut. I also stopped at the post office to mail my rain pants home. There is no need to carry rain pants in the warmer weather during your hiking. The reason for this is if you put them on in the rain while hiking then you end up sweating and our lower half is just as wet as if you did not wear them. So you are going to get wet either way. So why carry the weight of the rain pants. I will have them mailed back to me when the temps get lower.   I went to Good Will to find a pair of shorts that I can wear when doing laundry in towns. I found a pair of boxer shorts and Hopper sewed up the front flap for me. Also went to Food Lion to get food for the hike tomorrow.   For dinner Hopper offered to take me to dinner and pay the tab. I could not refuse. There was one gimmick though; she got to choose the restaurant. She picked a vegetarian restaurant, I agreed. I had something called Strawberry Trout. It was farm grown smoke trout in greens with goat cheese for dressing and strawberries. It was not too bad but I would never order it on my own.   After dinner we walked to Dairy Queen for an ice cream and ran into Jaybird who was inside cleaning his water filter with a container he got from the workers. He was scrubbing the paper water filter with a toothbrush. It was late when we arrive and Jaybird was so tired he could hardly stay awake, his eyes were all blood shot from being so tired.
Date: 2010-06-03
From: Pearisburg

To: VA 311/Catawba
Miles today: 13.8

03 June 2010, VA 311/Catawba   We got started at 9 am this morning. It was not as early as I would have liked it to be.   Our plans were to stop at the first shelter for a break but when we got to the shelter we realize it was 0.3 off the trail. We took the break at the shelter intersection.   The climb going up to Dragons Tooth was long and growling. What made it so bad was the humidity. When I got to the top I was surprised to see sand similar to beach sand all around the rock outcropping. Just as we got done eating our lunch the thunder started rolling towards us. We packed our packs back up and just as we finished the thunder was on top of us. We put our pack covers on and started down. Within five minutes the rain came. We could see blue skies behind the storm clouds so we put on our rain gear and waited for it to pass over us. I picked up a rain poncho in Pearisburg in a hiker box so I tried that out. The poncho was a large one and Ben crawled under it while we stood there and waited out the storm.   When we finally reached to bottom and the road crossing I went to the other side of the road and tried hitching to the Home Place restaurant. This was our plan from the start and one of the reasons for taking a zero day in Pearisburg, we wanted to hit the much talked about Home Place restaurant. The Home Place is only open Thur-Sun, today is Thursday. If we had not taken a zero day we would have gotten here yesterday and it would have been closed. Hopper yogied a ride from some guy leaving the parking lot. I got the creeps in the car. The guy gave me the creeps but his car was also full of stuff, like he was living in it. We made it to the Home Place without and incident.    The Home Place is a family style restaurant. For those of you that do not know what that is, you sit down at a table with your group and they bring dishes out to you. It is just like sitting at a large family dinner. When the dishes are empty they bring out another dish, it is all you can eat. Boy was it good. While we were eating we discussed our plans for tomorrow. We decided to call a shuttle provider and get a ride to a motel. Tomorrow we would slack pack the 19.8 miles into Daleville.   We called two shuttle providers and they were both busy until about 9:30 pm so we called the outfitter. Sarah at the outfitters said she would pick us up in 45 minutes. The ride in Sarah's car was a little fun. Every stop sign and light her car would stall or studder when she stepped on the gas. She told us that she took it to someone to look at but it seems that whenever someone else looks at it, it stopped having the issues. When she dropped us off at Howard Johnsons her car stalled and would not restart. I was glad we made it to the motel.   While checking into the Motel tonight Hopper was checking in and I was watching Ben on the leash again and Ben saw a rabbit and took off again and yanked the leash right out of my hands and took off. This gave me a big scare because we were right next to a four lane highway. I was able to get Ben back without an incident but very scared.
Date: 2010-06-04
From: VA 311/Catawba

To: Daleville
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

04 June 2010, Daleville   I woke up in the middle of the night last night to us the bathroom as I usually do and had the same heal pain in my left heal that I have had for almost a month. This time after lying back down it started throbbing and my toes had a numb feeling in them. I picked up my phone and started doing an internet search for an emergency room. There are emergency rooms in the area so I looked for a foot doctor. I found one and called them first thing this morning. I was able to get an appointment for 10:50. Bismarck had Rivers vehicle while she was out hiking. He was slack packing her today so he took some of us to the post office and then he took me to my appointment. I picked up three of my packages at the post off.   I checked into the foot doctor¢s office and got all settled in. Then the receptionist told me she needed authorization from my health insurance company. I called my insurance company and they told me it could take a day or two to get the authorization. I made the decision to pay it outright and hope for reimbursement later. I was worried that there was something wrong with my foot. They took some x-rays and looked and told me it was plantar fasciitis. This is an inflammation of the tissue that extends from the heel to the toes. In this condition it becomes inflamed-resulting in heel pain. The doctor gave me a cortisone shot in the heel and said that should help with the inflammation and the pain. He stated that it should last three to four months but could not make any guarantees. I tried calling Bismarck for a ride back but could not get a hold of him. I ended up walking back.   Went to pizza hut for lunch and then back to the room for a nap. After the nap I went down to the lobby to get on the computer and straighten out some paypal issues dealing with WhiteBlaze. When I got done on the computer the skies opened up and let loose with rain. It rained cats and dogs. I had to wait for about 1/2 hour before I could go get Hopper in the room to go to the outfitters and dinner.   We walked to the outfitters because I had to get new tips on my hiking polls. For the last week my polls have not been gripping the rocks. I talked to them about getting my boots replaced by Vasque because of the defect in them but Vasque was closed and they could not contact them.   We went to dinner at some Asian place, it was not too bad. Then we went to Kroger for food resupplies. When I got about 100 yards from Kroger Hopper asked me where my hiking polls were, I freaked and started running back to Kroger. I left them at the self service checkout register and they were still there luckily.
Date: 2010-06-05
From: Daleville

To: Lamberts Meadow shelter
Miles today: 9.6
Weather: scattered clouds

05 June 2020, Lamberts Meadow Shelter   I went down and had the continental breakfast this morning and then back to the room to pack up. Our shuttle provider Del picked us up at 10 am. We arrived at the trail head at 10:45. Del is a great knowledgeable guy. His shuttle prices are very reasonable. He goes out of his was to help out hikers. He said he thru hiked the trail in 1969.   When we reach Catawba Mountain Shelter, Peace Pipe, Dwayne and another hiker were there. We had a quick snack and while we were there Peace Pike and Dwayne left to hike south back to the road to hike to a store to get beer to bring back to the shelter.   The humidity was really bad until we reached McAfee Knob. After we left the knob the skies clouded over and it cooled down a little. The views from the knob were awesome. We stopped for lunch at the knob and talked to another younger couple in their 20's. She asked how many miles we had hiked and I told here today was over 700. Her jaw dropped and she asked where we came from. Hopper said Georgia. Then she asked where we were going and I said Maine. She was flabbergasted. She said her dad had always wanted to do that. We chatted for a while and they left and told us to have a good hike.   Climbing up to Tinker Cliffs was a chore but not as bad as I expected. I love Tinker Cliffs, the AT walks along the edge of the cliffs. I enjoyed this part of the hike better than McAfee Knob. I would have loved to camp up here but I did not have enough water.   We decided Lamberts Meadow Shelter for the night as it was our planned stop. I did not want to walk too far with a new pair of boots I got from my mail drop. I also wanted to see how the cortisone shot in my heel was going to work out before I made a big mile day. My heel did fine today but I was feeling a small warm spot in my foot at one point.   If I had to rate this section today, I would say that this is the best section so far, view wise.
Date: 2010-06-06
From: Montvale Overlook/95.9

To: Daleville
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: broken clouds

06 June 2020, Daleville   Hopper got up and made her coffee at 6:30 like she does every morning on the trail. I laid in my sleeping bag half a sleep for another 1/2 hour as I usually do while she makes her coffee. Then I got up and had breakfast and packed up. We got on the trail this morning at 7:30. We passed Lamberts Meadow Campsite after 0.3 miles after we left the shelter. This was a beautiful place. I wished we had walked the 0.3 more miles to this place. There were two tents and one hammock there and two others packing up. I cannot complain about our shelter last night though because we had it all to ourselves. It was quiet and peaceful.   There were some nice views today. We did not have any major climbs today. The day was relatively easy. I have been walking behind Hopper whenever we hike together giving her space and not walking directly behind her. I have done this since we started hiking together. I was trying to be courteous. Today she made one of the same complaints that she has been making on and off since we have been hiking together. She sounded more enjoyed than she usually does. I think soon I will take the lead and show her what my pace actually is. Then she will see how courteous I have been. She will probably find something to complain about then anyways.   Ben, Hoppers dog did it again. Hopper was in the lead followed by Ben with be in the rear. The next thing I know Ben was hauling ass through the woods. Come to find out there was a big bear on the side of the trail and Ben took off after it. I was very pissed off for two reasons. First because I did not get to see it and will probably never see any wildlife with Ben with us. Second because Ben does not listen to commands, he takes off at his own will and when told ¢No or Stop¢ or any other commands he does not listen. I think the only command he knows is Sit and he does not even do that half the time.   We made it to Daleville at 11:45 and stopped at the BP gas station to get a gatorade and a snack to hold us over until we could shower and make it to Pizza Hut.
Date: 2010-06-11
From: BRP 76.3

To: James River
Miles today: 14.9

11 June 2010, James River/US 501   This was the last day of slack packing for a while for me. There are two more mountains I would rather hike southbound over within the next week, I will not get the opportunity to do this.   We got dropped off at BRP 76.3 at 9:45 and headed north. Thunder Hill Shelter was only 0.5 from the road. When we arrived at the shelter we took a quick break and talked to G-Hippy and Not Yet. Also there was Playboy, Rocky, Fox, and Hazard. After leaving the shelter we passed Not Yet when she stopped to do some stretching just before the Thunder Ridge overlook We stopped for a snack at the overlook. Not Yet never caught us nor did we see her again the rest of the day. I was surprised that she never caught us again as we were hiking slowly.   The only climb of the day was High Cock Knob. It was not real bad though. When we got to the top we took Bens dog food out so he could eat and I checked for a cell phone signal with no luck. We ran into an older male section hiker all decked out in orange. He said he wore it for the bears. I saw a bear running off coming down from the mountain today, all I could make out was its butt running through the woods.   We stopped for lunch in the middle of the trail in the shade about 0.5 miles before Big Cove Branch. We were getting exhausted and we did not know if we were going to remain in the shade so we figured we better take advantage of the shade while we had it. We had been walking in the sun on the side of the mountain for about an hour prior to this lunch break and it was hot.   We made it to Matts Creek Shelter at 3:30 and signed the register and had a quick snack then moved on to catch our pickup point at 5 pm at US 501.   When we got to the James River foot bridge we ran into G-Hippy, Fox, Cop, and Superman along with some locals jumping off the bridge.   When Ken our shuttle provider picked us up he told us that Playboy and Rocky went to the post office in Glasgow and got shuttle over to Montebello Campground. That jumps them three days in front of me. I was hoping to start hiking with them tomorrow, O well.   Ben stayed tied off to Hopper all day today.   After we checked into the motel this afternoon Ben walked into the room and lifted his leg and pissed on the side of the bed. Hopper put him outside on the lease. To say the least I am not happy with Ben. When he is not chasing off the wildlife he is peeing on everything with no consequences.   Today was the last day hiking with Hopper for two about weeks.
Date: 2010-06-12
From: James River

To: Brown Mountain Creek Shelter
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: few clouds

12 June 2010, Brown Mountain Creek Shelter   Ken dropped me off at 7:15 this morning at the James River Foot Bridge parking lot and then he continued on to bring Hopper to Waynesboro.   The climb up Bluff Mountain was miserable this morning, it was very humid. It seemed like it took me forever to get to the top.   I stopped at the Ottie Cline Powell monument and took some photos and placed the hot wheels car I had bought onto the monument. I had a snack and drank some water. The writing on the plaque says;"This is the exact spot.Little Ottie Cline Powell'sBody was found April 5, 1891. AfterStraying from Tower Hill School HouseNov 9 A distance of 7 miles.Age 4 years 11 months".   About 50 feet further north of the monument was the remnants of the cement anchors for an old fire tower with good views all around.   I stopped for lunch at Punchbowl Shelter. I only ate an apple danish and drank the rest of my water. I did not filter from the pond in front of the shelter because it looked nasty. I waited to the next road crossing to get water but could not find the water that was listed in the guidebook. I regretted not getting water for the next five miles or so. It started thundering, shortly followed by rain. I put on my raincoat but started sweating which only made me even thirstier than what I was. I had to stop in the rain and get water at a spring. I did not want to start worrying about dehydration.   I only ran into one other northbound hiker today. His name is Christian and he is from Germany. He is hiking from Springer to Harpers Ferry. I did run into another northbound thru hiker that was hiking south today with his dog. He was only doing the southbound today and heading north again tomorrow. His name was Freeman with his dogs name is Damascus; it is a different Freeman than the one I met further south. I told him there was a Freeman already on the trail and he said he knew.   I made it to this shelter at about 6 pm and I was beet tired. I drank a bunch of water and made dinner, filtered more water and set up my sleeping area in the shelter.   Here tonight are Christian, Wendigo, Karma & Beardylocks, and another southbound section hiker. Karma & Beardylocks are only doing ten mile days and are not doing a thru hike. I cannot remember how long they were out for. Beardylocks told me that they were swimming in the little swimming old at the last crossing and he felt things nibbling at his ankle, now his ankle is all swollen up.   Not Yet was suppose to come in tonight but it is already dark and raining out so I don't know if she will show up.