morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2015-08-15
From: Devils Backbone Brewery (Reids Gap)

To: waynesboro
Miles today: 19.2
Weather: scattered clouds

After a pretty easy hitch from the brewery up to reeds gap, in the back of a lawn truck with a little mulch, a blower and lawn mower, I did just over 19 miles to get all the way into Waynesboro VA, which is just before entering into Shenandoah. I got to FaceTime Rachel for a little while at one of my breaks so that' always puts a little pep in my step! Got up and over humpback mountain which was a decent view, saw a few day hikers but rather quiet. I have seen substantially more deer this hike than last year. Probably upward of 20+ deer, most of which don't care that I'm passing by 15yds away (which is in bow range, which they clearly aren't familiar with what that is). Got to Waynesboro and right off the trail was Kings Popcorn and they had a list of trial angles who offer free rides. So the very # I called she answered and Ms.Lady was there in 10 minutes giving me a ride down the mountain and a tour of her town. She is very proud of her city! It's a cool spot, they have a Pavillion for hikers with solar panels to supply electricity and picnic tables, it's quiet the set up.   There is also a YMCA less than a block away that allow hikers free showers and they give you a towel and soap! So it was nice to shower. I opted not to do laundry, I mean it's going to smell again within 3 hours of hiking so kind of a waste. I'll wash it in next decent stream again. Got my resupply at Krogers, grabbed a hamburger and fries from Heritage grill and set up camp! Listened to some of the Pirates game on my phone and relaxed. Heading out of town around lunch today, only going to do about 9 miles to the first shelter, so looking forward to the Shenandoahs and hope to post lots of awesome pictures for you all to see! happy trails everyone
Date: 2014-04-14
To: Home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Today marks the one month to-go before we start hiking our 3rd section of the AT. We have been working on losing some weight and getting in shape, but now we start the detailed prep for the hike. Spider has been hard at work mapping out a plan how we are going to cover the planned 500 miles in the allotted 7 weeks. As we did last year, we are creating a to-do list for things that need to get done before we head off for 7 weeks. ET has most the bills being paid automatically and we have arranged for someone to look after our house. We are reviewing our equipment with an eye toward reducing the weight of our packs. One change, based on what we saw last year is that we are trading in our zero-degree sleeping bags for 20-degree quilts (see picture). This has cut another pound or so off our pack weight. Our goal continues to be to have our packs below 30 lbs including water and a week's food....we are almost there.
Date: 2014-04-22
To: Home
Miles today: 0.0

The corner of our dining room has filled up with backpacking food. We have one more thing to pick up tomorrow, then we will begin to pack up our food boxes. We are trying the Post Office's flat rate shipping boxes this year. We had not used these in the past and have paid a lot to UPS etc. Just hope everything fits. The first box will go out next week.Our bedroom has all our gear sitting around the room. We plan on doing a trail packing this week to see if everything fits and the weight of our packs. We are shooting for <30 lbs this year.Spider has been doing the detailed planning for the trip. He has been contacting trail angels along the way to arrange rides to our zero-day towns. Finding sources of fuel canisters for our JetBoil has been problematic for the last half of our hike. Spider has been researching online and making phone calls to inquire about availability.Both of us have to-do lists to complete before we head out for ~7 weeks. As we think of things, we added it to the lists. Unfortunately, with less than 3 weeks to go before we leave the lists don't seem to be getting any shorter!!
Date: 2014-04-28
To: Home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Well, the true countdown has started. In less than a week we send our first supply box out. We will send out the first two boxes, then our neighbor Ginny will send out the remainder. Since her husband, Carl, is taking us to the train station to start our trip east in less than 2 weeks, I guess we have "trail angels" for neighbors!!I did say train station...We had to scrap our plans of taking the train home after last year's hike because of the need to get back to tend to ET's Mom who had fallen. So this year we are taking the train to the Waynesboro, VA area. It will take us 3 days to travel across most of the US. This will be our first time traveling this far by train. We are hoping this will be a relaxing way to ease into this next section of the AT....but we may have "cabin fever" by the time we get to Virginia.Spider, as usual, has been doing lots of planning using the AT Thru-Hiker Companion Guide. Based on our previous years' experiences he has planned for us to eat more at cafe's and restaurants along the way than we did before. This reduces the number of meals we have to carry and increases the calorie intake. We hope this makes the hiking a little easier and the weight-loss on the "AT Diet" a little less dramatic.
Date: 2014-05-02
To: Home
Miles today: 0.0

9 days before we head out for the AT. We decided to take the train across the country to Staunton, VA. The plan is then to take local buses to Waynesboro. We are betting on a lot of connections working to hit the trail on Thursday May 15...hope they do.Spider organized his gear and did a first pass on packing his pack (Attached picture). With some changes in gear he was hoping for a weight of less than 30 lbs. Unfortuantely, it weighed 34 lbs!! That's over a pound less than last year's pack, but far from the goal of 30...So some decisions need to be made about what else to remove or plan on carrying more weight.ET and I are working off the items of our To-Do lists of things that need to get done to hike for 7 weeks and leave our house for 7 weeks...food boxes to send ahead and bills to pay ahead to name a couple.
Date: 2014-05-06
To: Home
Miles today: 0.0

Five days before we leave. We are down to assigning each day with what remains on our To-Do Lists. We think we can get everything done!!Last weekend we checked out all our gear, including testing the water pump and stove. We set up our three-season tent (see picture) to air it out and inventory the parts. We tried out a tarp-tent during our Fall hikes to see if we could use it and reduce some weight. Unfortunately we found it lacking in the ability to stay up in strong winds, keep us and our gear dry during heavy rains and condensation on cool nights was a problem when it made things inside the tent wet....So we are opting to continue to carry the heavier, proven tent.We focused on some physical training last weekend. ET finally ran the half-marathon she has been training for and Spider took a 5-mile hike with steep ups and downs with his fully loaded pack...With the help of a little Advil, we were ready to go the next day.ET is busy packing food boxes. The first box is shipped tomorrow!!
Date: 2014-05-10
To: Home
Miles today: 0.0

The to-do lists still included over 40 things to do today, so ET and I have been scurrying around trying to get everything ready for our long absence from home. We have arrange for ET's sister Sally to house-sit once she finishes her teaching aid job at the end of May, so the house won't be empty the whole time. But we still had bills to pay ahead, or set up for electronic payment, gear to pack, send out the second box of food, etc.I have sent our planned hike itinerary to the family and I got a call from our oldest son, JT, that he will be working for a week in eastern Pennsylvania the same time we will be hiking through...So we are going to try to meet up. That's something to look forward to.I have been reading other hiker's journals and checking the weather every day. It looks like there has been quite a bit of rain and thundershowers. We had hoped to avoid what we experienced last year (i.e. rain and thundershowers) by moving our start date to a month later...Not sure it's going to work.Tomorrow morning we begin our travel to the Eastern US...we climb onto a train in Richmond, CA and spend 4 days seeing the country before we are deposited in Staunton, VA. The plan is to take local buses to our motel in Waynesboro, VA. On the morning of May 15, I have arranged for Trail Angel Sara Doherty to take us to Rockfish Gap to start this year's section hike of the AT.
Date: 2014-05-11
From: Home

To: Somewhere in Nevada
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Day Zero-3: At 9:30 on Mother's Day we climbed on to the California Zephyr and headed east.We had planned to take BART to the Richmond station that it shares with Amtrak, but our neighbor, Carl, volunteered to drive us to Richmond instead...Thanks Carl.So why the train? We have always wanted to take a train trip cross-country. We intended to do it at the end of last year's AT hike, but due to some health issues of ET's mom, we chose to fly back to the West Coast.So it was the train this year. One advantage of planning this a year in advance was we that were able to get a sleeping roomette for the entire trip to Central Virginia. What is a "Roomette"? As you might expect, it's a small room...about 7 feet wide and 4 feet deep. It has two seats that face each other and a window. At night the two seats slide together to make a bed. Another bed folds down from the ceiling, making a set of bunkbeds. It's nice to be able to get horizontal and we have a door for privacy and noise reduction.All in all, it's not a bad way to travel. Best yet, this is considered Amtrak's First Class, so all meals are included...Time to carb up for the upcoming hike!!Some new readers of this trail journal, i.e. those who haven't read the journals of our previous AT section hikes, have asked about why we have the names "Spider" and "ET". These are what are called trailnames. There are lots of people on the AT with the same given name, Tom, Dick, Jim etc., so first-timers on the trail take a unique trailname or are "given" a name by other hikers. Sometimes a trailname changes based on an event on the trail. We met a hiker last year whose trailname changed to "Lucky" because he was struck by lightning on the trail in southern Virginia and survived. After 4 days rest, he was back on the trail!!As for our trailnames, "Spider" got this nickname in high school when, at 6 foot 3 inches, he weighed 145 lbs. He was all arms and legs...like a spider. "ET" got her name when we hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. "ET" stands for "Energizer Turtle" and her trailname was given to her by Spider. She was typically a slow hiker on the trail but had enough energy to go for 10-12 hours..More on the upcoming hike and on our train ride in future postings...
Date: 2014-05-12
From: Somewhere in Nevada

To: Somewhere in Nebraska
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Day Zero-2: For the first time in 3 years, ET didn't have to spend her birthday on the trail!! Instead we were on a train with nothing to do but eat, sleep and watch the world move by out the windows. In fact ET pointed out that this is the only day for the next 2 months where our day is out of our hands regarding making connections or arriving at destinations...so we sat back and enjoyed it!!The birthday celebration was toned down somewhat because what we carried on the train had to be carried on the trail or put in the trash. So we had a pre-celebration before we left home, where ET opened her birthday cards and gifts. However, she had an extra glass of wine on the train to celebrate the day!!We woke up to a country dusted with snow in eastern Utah. The train was climbing the Wasatch Mtns and the higher up we went, the more snow the mountains had on them. In the attached picture, the birthday girl is shivering at the Glenwood Springs, CO train station with snow-capped mountains in the background.The snow covered the ground around the tracks as we continued to climb. However the most dramatic snow appeared when we exited the famous Moffett Tunnel. This is a 7 mile tunnel that runs under the Continental Divide. So when we emerged, we were on the eastern side of the Rockies...and it was a winter wonderland. All the trees were covered with snow and there was over a foot of new snow on the ground...It looks like winter still has a hold on the Rockies!!We have met a lot of interesting people on the train...some, like us, are doing it for the "adventure" while others don't like to fly. In many ways the socialization is like that on the AT. People come and go at each station, so people you have met leave and new people we will soon meet get on the train. On the trail, people congregate at the shelters along the trail..you get a chance to talk and compare trail experiences, then everyone heads out at their own pace the next morning...likely never to meet up again.Lastly, Spider has been monitoring the Zephyr's adherance to the posted schedule. He has been amazed to find that it has arrived at each station pretty much on time...that is until we left Denver. At that point the train pulled off on a siding and sat for ~1.5 hours!!...hope we can make up some time heading across the Mid-west, otherwise we will miss our connection with the Cardinal train in Chicago. When Spider was doing his research on the Amtrak site, he saw that the Zephyr missed the 3 hour window we have to connect with the Cardinal, about 20 percent of the time!! Oh well...it adds to the "adventure"!!
Date: 2014-05-13
From: Somewhere in Nebraska

To: Somewhere in Indiana
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Day Zero-1: We awoke to find that the train had not made up any of it's lost time overnight...It was still about 2 hours behind schedule. We were still good to make our connection as long as the train didn't lose any more time. Unfortunately, throughout the day, the Zephyr continued to pull off on sidings to let long freight trains pass. As one conductor said "The freight companies own the tracks.".Throughout the day, we continued to lose time vis a vis the schedule. When we were almost 3.5 hours behind, we knew we weren't going to make our connection. So we began talking about options: 1) Get off this train early, rent a car one-way, cut cross-country and intersect our other train's route somewhere down the line, 2) Continue on to Chicago, rent a car one-way and make the 800+ mile drive to Waynesboro, VA or 3) Continue to Chicago, cool our heels in there until the next train for Virginia left on Thursday and adjust our hiking schedule accordingly.As we contemplated these options, an announcement came over the PA system that all of those who were scheduled to make connections with the "Cardinal" (our other train) were to disembark at the next station (Galesburg, IL). We were to be bused to Indianapolis, IN to meet up with the Cardinal. It turns out that there were 13 other people trying to make our same connection and Amtrak had decided to avoid a bunch of irate customers and lodging expenses..Boy were we glad to hear that!!While this was all going on, we were traveling, or side-tracked, in America's heartland...crop fields as far as the eye can see. More interesting, was the amount of water everywhere. It was obvious that a major rainstorm had come through recently. .All of the low spots in the fields, next to the tracks, etc. were flooded. And all of the streams and rivers we crossed, were close to overflowing their banks. What a contrast to the drought-ridden California we left two days ago.So at the Galesburg station we "Cardinalites" piled off the train and boarded a Trailways bus that Amtrak had chartered. With only 15 of us on a ~40 passenger bus, we had plenty of room to spread out. It took about 4 hours to get to Indianapolis. About half-way there, we caught up to the storm front that had been dumping rain (and snow) as it moved across the US...and it rained the rest of the way to Indianapolis.We arrived at the Indianapolis Amtrak station at ~9pm...which is where the attached picture was taken. The Cardinal was not scheduled to arrive until about midnight so ET and I walked across the street to a pub and had dinner and some liquid refreshment.The Cardinal arrived a little after midnight. We boarded to find that our roomette beds were all set up for us...and it sure looked good!! It had been a long day with it's fair share of stress. But it ended well. We went to sleep knowing our original schedule was still intact.
Date: 2014-05-15
From: Waynesboro, VA

To: Calf Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.7
Weather: moderate rain

Day 1: After months of planning, we finally set foot back on the AT at 8:01am today. As promised Trail Angel Sara picked us up at the Quality Inn in Waynesboro, VA at 7:45am and drove us the 4.5 miles to Rockfish Gap and the AT (Thanks Sara!!).For the new readers of this journal, "Trail Angels" are people who help out the hiking "community" often without expecting anything in return. Some, like Sara, transport hikers around, others leave food (cookies, sodas, beer etc.) in ice chests next to the trail for hikers. Others BBQ at a road crossing of the AT and serve burgers...anything to brighten the day of a hiker.One of the things about leaving town is that the road to town always goes through a mountain gap. When you hit the trail, you are always hiking uphill out of the gap...so up we went. Within a mile there was a self-registration kiosk for a permit to hike through the Shenandoah National Park (SNP). Soon after that we entered the park.The weather was 65 degrees and foggy. We assumed that the clouds were building above the fog for the impending storm.Within a couple of hours we crossed the Skyline Dr where the attached picture was taken. Skyline Drive is a continuation of the Blue Ridge Parkway(BRP) that runs along the ridge of the mountains to the south. The Skyline Drive follows the ridge for the length of the SNP. Like the BRP, the Skyline Drive has no stop signs or stoplights and the AT crosses it multiple times.Following our usual pattern, we hiked for an hour, then rested for 15 minutes. At each rest we took our boots off, to let our socks and feet dry out. Over time we have found this toughens up our feet and prevents blisters.We were passed by 12 hikers today...about half were thru-hikers, i.e. hikers attempting to hike the entire AT in one year.At 1pm, just as we were approaching our destination shelter, it started to rain. We darted the last 100 yards to the shelter where We found 1 thru-hiker, trailname "Critter", and two section hikers, Hap and Catnip. Over the course of the afternoon 2 more thru-hikers joined us, Kamikazi and The German.Once it started raining, it did not stop. We are sleeping in the shelter tonight rather than get our tent wet. It is supposed to stop raining sometime tomorrow morning. With luck it will stop before we hit the trail!!Animal sightings: 1 deer and 1 marmot.
Date: 2014-05-16
From: Calf Mountain Shelter

To: Blackrock Hut
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: broken clouds

Day 2: It rained all night..With the metal roof on the shelter, it sounded like we had our heads in buckets and someone was pounding on them. Spider used his earplugs and then things were better.We woke up at 6:30 am to the sound of a few drops hitting the roof, but only when the wind blew. Outside we found a partly cloudy sky with the temperature in the mid-40s..Brr.We packed up and hit the trail at 7:50am. The trail was flooded in many places from water pouring off the mountain. We sidestepped and rock-hopped as much as we could, trying to keep our feet dry. By mid-morning the trails were dry.Trail Angel Sara had said that they had not received much rain in the area yet this year, so we suspect much of last nights rain just soaked into the earth. As we hiked more blue sky appeared and the sun warmed up the day...all in all a great day for hiking!The trail continued its serpentine course along the SNP ridge. We crossed Skyline Drive 5 times. It was.our constant "companion".We hiked 13 miles today,.a little longer than we like to do during our first 2 weeks. Normally we keep it under 10 miles a day. We consider our leg muscles and our feet to be "city soft". We have found in previous years that it takes about 2 weeks for us to become "trail hardened". Unfortunately the huts (they call them "huts" in the SNP not "shelters" like every place else) are not spaced to accommodate our needs. We are supposed to stay in huts in the SNP, so we will be hiking a little further than we want most days. Hope our bodies hold up.We are definitely back in the "green tunnel." The trees are leafed-out and flowers are blooming. (See today's photo.) Everything was much browner when we started last year's hike. It's amazing how many times we've experienced early spring in Appalachia, as we hiked different dates, up and down elevations and moved toward northern latitudes. .We finally made it to our destination hut at 4:10pm. Only Critter was here before us. He had passed us around mid-day like we were standing still! Ah youth!! He is doing short days because he is meeting his girlfriend in a couple of days and it is only a few miles away.We are tenting tonight because the weather forecast is good and the black flies are bad. The forecast actually looks good for the next couple of days...Wahoo!!As we were setting up our tent, other hikers started pouring in. Most had waited out the storm in Waynesboro and hiked the 20+ miles today to this location. As I type this there are at least 8 other hikers at this hut and we are being serenaded by a hiker who carries a backpacking guitar.Plant sitings: a dogwood tree in full bloom, azaleas in full bloom and poison ivy innocently creeping