morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-05-21
From: Damascus,VA

To: Lost Mt. Shelter
Miles today: 15.8

484.3 miles                                                   5/21/05 Saturday                                                               Day 38 Sunny   "A free hair cut is good"Good night of sleep. Up early for breakfast. Eggs-ham-bisquits-fruit and o.j. It all tasted so good. On the trail you do miss real food so bad. Special home cooked food. Off to do our town chores. First the post office- Sent our bounce box and a box of stuff back home. Then the Outfitters to get a new head lamp mine is not working right. Then the town library to use their computer to check on my trail journal site. Thank you all for your guest book signings. Then went to get a hair cut. The barber shop was closed on Saturday. We did end up getting a free cut at one of the beauty shops. Really nice. Packed up and started out of town had to stop and get a cheese burger and icecream for lunch. hit the trail at 1:30. We started our hike and out of towns it is always up and up it was. Got to the first shelter and Lightning wanted to go on so on we went for 6 more miles. The shelters in VA are so much nicer than Tenn. In VA they even have outhouses. No more digging holes. The hike today was just the regular hike nothing special. Got to the shelter and it was full so we set up our tent. All new hikers we did not know any of them. Some were out just for the weekend.                      Chores are done. Off to bed.
Date: 2005-05-23
From: Wise Shelter

To: Troutdale Baptist Church
Miles today: 16.1

517.6 miles                                                      5/23/05 Monday                                                         Day 40 Sunny and windy   "Sun makes you hike faster"O/K night of sleep till the storm came in lots of heavy wind and rain. The good news is it stopped before we had to hike. Over more of the Grayson Highlands the hiking was the same as any other day just up and down. Met a few hikers today. Heard of a few more hikers getting off the trail in Damascus. It does seem like there are less hikers out here. Lightning and I were the only ones at Wise Shelter last night. Tonight we planned on staying on the trail camping out somewhere but the sky was getting bad looking so we needed to go to Troutdale for food resupply in the morning. We said to each other lets go tonight and stay out of the rain. Really nice Hostel it is run by the church-clean. Got a shower-did some laundry-called the wife-life is good. Up early in the morning going out for breakfast-food shopping and then hit the trail. Lets hope for sun.                  Good Day to all
Date: 2005-05-24
From: Troutdale Baptist Church

To: Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: light rain

533.1 miles                                                   5/24/05 Tuesday                                                      Day 41 Sun,Rain,and wind   "It is nice to call home"Good night of sleep. Relaxing night. It was great to talk to my wife. I miss her. Great breakfast. Food resupply was not the best. Slim pickings. O/K day on the trail 15 plus mile day most of it was in the woods no views. Mellow ups and downs. Went through old farm fields today. Lightning and I have not taken any days off so we are catching up to a lot of new hikers that we have not seen before. we hope that some hikers that we were with catch up to us. Tonight we are at Partnership shelter it is a special shelter it has a hot water shower and a phone you can order pizza with and they deliver. The bad thing is it is close to the road so there is about 25 people here and some are drinking and partying too much. Who knows how much sleep we will get tonight. Legs are o/k. Feet do hurt some but all the hikers say the same. It is from the pounding all day on them. they say they will hurt all the way to maine.                         See you tomorrow
Date: 2005-05-25
From: Partnership Shelter

To: Crawfish Valley
Miles today: 17.9

551.0 miles                                                   5/25/05 Wednesday                                                      Day 42 Cloudy and Windy Bad night of sleep the people partyied all night till the sun came up. I am hiking on about half hour of sleep. Very slow today. Morning was all up till we got up on the Mt. ridge.As I was hiking today a deer was running down the trail and it did not see me until it was about 10' away it stopped looked at me for a while then ran into the woods. There are no views now we are hiking down low. We are going through a lot of farm lands. Some of them are old and not being used any more. It is cool looking at the old barns that are falling down. Some of the farms are still a working cow farm so we are walking with the cows. I think the neat thing of the day was an old one room school house. It is set up as a museum. I went in and just sat there thinking what it must have been like 100 years ago. 1894-1937 the school was used. It was still set up like it was back then. The trail today went right by a Dairy Queen so yes I stopped and got a big icecream and enjoyed every lick. Tonight we are camping on the trail next to a stream with a hiker named Noonin and he saw a snipe bird and told us all about them. Good day. Off to hang the bear bag.                  See you later                  Miss you Chris
Date: 2005-05-26
From: Crawfish Valley

To: Chestnut Knob Shelter
Miles today: 16.6
Weather: clear sky

567.6 miles                                                   5/26/05 Thursday                                                               Day 43 Sunny   "Water is very heavy"Great night of sleep. Up early on the trail early. Climb up out of the campsite. Saw a few deer today in an old farm field. Hiked through a lot of old farms today. Got to the first shelter to have lunch and fell a sleep for one and a half hours until a hiker woke me up. More climbs up from that shelter. Today met a few south bound hikers. Then at the end of the day was a 5 mile long climb up. To Chestnut Knob Shelter. It is a nice shelter it's all rock and it was an old fire warden's cabin with the fire tower right next to it. They took down the tower but kept the cabin as a shelter. For water we had to carry it the last 2 miles up which added about 8 more lbs to your pack. No sunset tonight too many clouds. Mac and cheese for dinner. I miss the home cooking. Staying here with 3 other hikers. Pirate has hiked the trail 8 times. don't worry Chris I will not. Off to do my chores and to bed. In 2 days we hope to be in Bland VA for a food resupply.                        Good night
Date: 2005-05-27
From: Chestnut Knob Shelter

To: Trail side camping
Miles today: 17.1

584.7 miles                                                      5/27/05 Friday                                                            Day 44 Rain-Sunny   "Coolers with just ice are no fun"Good night of sleep. My sleeping pad has a hole in it so I have to add more air to it each night. Woke up to day to rain. It did not last long. Saw a few more deer today and saw my biggest snake yet. Stopped at the first shelter for lunch and I beat Lightning there. Thats a first he said. The rocks were slowing him down. I think he is low on food so he is not eating much. Met up with a hiker again today. The hikers name is Free. So him and I hiked together after lunch. Tonight we are camping on the side of the trail. We went past the last campsite by about 2 and a half miles so we would be closer to Bland VA in the morning. Going in for food resupply and grab some lunch too. Hoping to call home too. I miss my wife more than anything while I am out here. Passed by a hiker that we stayed with last night Woodchuck, his knee was hurting real bad so he is getting off the trail for a few days to let it heal. We came across some trail magic today. A cooler by the road crossing. I opened it up and all there was were ice. I missed the soda. I have not had any luck on trail magic. Off to bed.                                 Talk to you again soon
Date: 2005-05-28
From: Trail side camping

To: Jenny Knob Shelter
Miles today: 16.5
Weather: light rain

601.2 miles                                                   5/28/05 Saturday                                                               Day 45 Sunny   "Subs taste better in the Mts"Not to good night of sleep. Too hot tossed and turned all night. Up real early on the trail by 8:00. Hit the town of Bland VA for breakfast and food resupply. Out of town by 11:00. Got some lucky on rides today. Third car going into town. Coming out of town we did not even get a chance to put up our thumbs and a lady stopped and gave us a ride right back to the trail head. Had about 12 miles to do and you can feel all the extra food weight. Plus we picked up a sub at subway for dinner. The trail started straight up. Once you get up on the ridge it was not bad at all. As I was hiking i was losing speed so I stopped to eat. The sub smelled so good. I ate half my sub. Now I am in trouble for dinner. Maybe I will have to go hunting for a deer or bear my luck all I could get would be a mouse. Good shelter tonight there are 9 of us here so far. Water spring is not good. The water is getting harder to get. Some of the springs have dryed up. Tenting tonight. Trying to get a good night of sleep. Lightning got lucky in town today and found $6.00 dollars and he still would not buy me an icecream. Well dinner and then my chores. Going to bed early tonight. Lightning says we got a long day tomorrow.                        Love you Chris
Date: 2005-05-29
From: Jenny Knob Shelter

To: Woodshole Hostel
Miles today: 20.4
Weather: clear sky

621.6 miles                                                      5/29/05 Sunday                                                                  Day 46 Sunny   "Long days are hard"O/K night of sleep. My sleeping pad is leaking more now. When I wake up it is almost flat. Got to try to find the leak. Saw two deer today. Today was a long day so that means I am still hiking later and it is starting to get dark so that is when the animals come out. We stopped at a deli today and got cheeseburgers for lunch. Little things like that mean a lot to you. Some of the hiking today was along a river so that is fun. Saw four young hikers out here today that are just hiking for a few days. You should see their packs they are about 60 lbs! They could not believe that Lightning and I have hiked over 600 miles. We were going to camp on the trail tonight but the campsite was not a good one and the water spring did not look safe. So we hiked 2 more miles and stayed at the Woodshole Hostel. Busy 20 hikers are here. One of the best hostels yet. I need to say goodnight. It is dark and still have not had dinner.
Date: 2005-05-30
From: Woodshole Hostel

To: Rendezvous Motel
Miles today: 10.0

631.6 miles                                                      5/30/05 Monday                                                                  Day 47 Sunny   "It is good to find the dog's home"O/K night of sleep. Up real early. The hostel gives you breakfast at 7:00 A.M So we did get a early start on the trail. 10 miles today into Pearisburg VA. My feet do hurt so hiking today is slow for me. I had hoped to get into town sooner to relax. Maybe next time. On the trail today a hiker by the name of Hobo found a small dog so he and Baby Steps took the dog and put it in her pack. Baby Steps carried him down. The good thing was he had a dog tag with a phone # so they called the owner. The dog was out there lost for about 1 week. Went out tonight to dinner to a home cooking restaurant. Had a great chicken dinner. back to the motel and got a few things done. Got to pick up our mail drop in the morning-food shop and hit the trail. Don't know how many miles we will do yet. It all depends on what time we get out of town. Talk to you soon. P.S. Hi Mr. Young how are you doing-I miss seeing you around town. Hope you are taking care of East Sandwich.
Date: 2005-05-31
From: Rendezvous Motel 

To: Rice Field Shelter
Miles today: 6.8
Weather: overcast clouds

638.4 miles                                                5/31/05 Tuesday                                                                Day 48 Sunny    "I Love my wife" xoxoxoxGood night of sleep. It felt good to go to bed after showering-a real cooked meal. I did watch a little TV last night. Red Sox game and yes they were losing. When you are on the trail you hear nothing of what is going on in the world. Sometimes when you go into town you may hear a little. Went to the Post Office got our mail drop. Lightning was looking for a care package [Food] but there was none. Got lunch-stopped at Dairy Queen for a ice cream and hit the trail at 2:00. Short day only 6 miles. Staying at Rice Field Shelter tonight. It is up on a ridge all grass around us. Hoping to get a good sunset tonight. Sometimes I wonder if it is worth doing your laundry and showering I already smell in one day. Also the bugs like the smell of soap so they fly all around you. The bugs and centipeds. Snails too and they are big like the size of a silver dollar. Good food tonight. There is a hiker here tonight from Scotland-his trail name is Vermont. There are hikers out here from all over the world. Off to do my chores. Talk to you soon.                   The day is ending with a sunset
Date: 2005-06-01
From: Rice Field Shelter

To: Bailey Gap Shelter
Miles today: 16.2
Weather: overcast clouds

654.6 miles                                                   6/1/05 Wednesday                                                         Day 49 Cloudy-Sun-Rain   "Trail Angels are Nice"Good night of sleep. Lightning and I were the only ones in the shelter all the other hikers used their tents. Sunset was good. Could not see the sun but the clouds had great color. Todays hike started out by seeing three deer just standing there looking at me. There was a good size black racer snake scared the heck out of me. Other than that most of the day's hike was the same just up and down. Lightning and I did have lunch together which we had not had in a long time. After lunch we came across some hikers that told us the bridge over Stony Creek had washed out. Sure enough it did. So we took our boots off and walked through the water to the other side. That water is sure cold. On the other side was my first trail magic. An Angel had left a cooler full of cold soda-candy and oranges. So the Root beer-Hershey Kisses and orange tasted great. At the shelter tonight we got seven of us here. It feels good to be out of the rain. There is an older couple here that are being a pain in the butt. I think they think they own the shelter. Time for dinner and chores.                      Good night to all the Homes
Date: 2005-06-02
From: Bailey Gap Shelter

To: Trail side camping
Miles today: 18.0

672.6 miles                                                   6/2/05 Thursday                                                            Day 50 Rain-Rain   O/K night of sleep. A lot of wood was cut last night but I was tired so I slept through most of it. Up or awakend up at 5:30 by the older couple. Good thing they left us. Long day today. We need to go into Newtown VA for food resupply and hike at least 17 miles also. Rain all night and rain all day today. It makes hiking harder you have to be careful where you walk. Mud and wet rocks are very slippery. I almost fell once [not bad]. Saw a dead deer on the trail today looked like some animals got it. Also saw a neat old farm today. Looks like from early 1900- It was starting to fall down. What a shame. It could be a fixer upper. Got to the road. Took about 1/2 hour to get a ride. Shopped for our food picked up 2 sandwiches and a quart of chocolate milk for dinner. Tasted some good. Got a ride real quick. Right back to the trail head. Hiked in about a mile and set up camp right by Sinking Creek. Yes it is still raining. All day long. Lots of farms today still working farms. good night.         Looks like a 20 mile day tomorrow.
Date: 2005-06-03
From: Trail side camping

To: Pickle Branch Shelter
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: overcast clouds

691.6 miles                                                      6/3/05 Friday                                                            Day 51 Rain-Sunny   "Rain Gets Everything Wet"Good night of sleep. Slept late today. When you are in a tent it is hard to tell the time because it is darker. Lightning got up and going fast today. Hiking today was just a long day. Walked by some streams which is always nice to do. On the ridge today it was tough going lots of rocks and they were still wet so you do slip and slide a lot. got to the shelter-had dinner and went to bed early. Need to get a different sleeping bag. The one I have is a 20' rating bag and it is to hot. I would like to get a 40' bag. when I can. If I can it might be a little lighter too in weight. Your pack weight does mean a lot. At the end of the day you know if your pack is heavy. The rest of my gear is doing o/k. Boots are getting old looking and worn hope to get a few hundred miles out of them. When you are having to get new boots it means a chance of getting blisters and I have been very lucky on not getting any yet and I would like to keep it that way.
Date: 2005-06-04
From: Pickle Branch Shelter

To: Campbell Shelter
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: light rain

708.6 miles                                                   6/4/05 Saturday                                                            Day 52 Sunny-Rain   "Cows Are Fun To Talk To"O/K night of sleep. Slow getting going today. Hiking about 17 miles today. Need to get to Catawba VA for food resupply. Morning hiking had a lot of up and downs but we are hiking in the Mts. Went through a lot of working cow farms and at one point the cows blocked the whole trail. Tried to get them to move but they would not so I had to walk around them. Saw a really neat small owl today. He was just sitting on a tree branch watching all the hikers go by. Hiked some today with Vermont. Got to the road for the food resupply and could not get a ride so we walked the 2 plus miles into them. Neat old country store. then got dinner at the Homeplace Restaurant. Some good. After dinner we had a 4.5 mile hike to the shelter. On the hike to the shelter we stopped at McAfee Knob to watch the sunset. It was a good one tonight. Big and red. Got to the shelter late so crawled into the sleeping bag and started dreaming .          Talk to you soon.P.S. George and Frank still seeing a lot of birds. You would be having fun seeing them all.
Date: 2005-06-05
From: Campbell Shelter

To: Troutville VA Motel
Miles today: 15.4

724.0 miles                                                      6/5/05 Sunday                                                                  Day 53 Sunny   "The VA Sun Is Hot"O/K night of sleep. I think I am going to try to sleep in a tent. Bugs are getting bad and hikers make a lot of funny noises during the night. On the trail by 8:30. Hiking with Free. He is a fast hiker so will not stay with him long. got to Tinker cliffs which is rock cliffs over looking the farm lands.Sat there for a while. Looking out over the valleys are beautiful. Onward down the trail stopped at the next shelter to have an early lunch,then went on to hike the last 10 miles into town. Most of the hike was on an open ridge so I got some nice views but the sun was hot-very hot. Got to town later than I wanted to. Lightning was sitting by the pool relaxing. got a shower in and off to dinner. Got my gear spread out around the room to air out and dry some. I feel bad for the next people to stay in a hikers room. They do smell. Talked to my wife for a while till my phone card ran out of time. Worked on my gear-checked the guest book on trailjournals. Thank you all for signing the book it is great to read it.               Good night and thank you
Date: 2005-06-06
From: Troutville VA Motel

To: Wilson Creek Shelter
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: few clouds

735.2 miles                                                   6/6/05 Monday                                                            day 54 Sun-Rain   "Mt Streams are Relaxing"O/K night of sleep. Lightning was watching TV till after midnight and I could not sleep. up early and got the breakfast at the Motel. back to the room to pack up. Called a company by the name of Big Agnes and they are going to send me a new sleeping pad. The one I have has a small leak in it so I have to blow it up during the night. Got some food resupply and a burger with fries for lunch. Headed out on the trail about 1:30. I told Lightning I was only going to the 2 nd shelter for the night so only 11 miles. had a big climb out of town. The weather has gotten really hot and humid and I do not do well in the heat. so I took it easy today. Got to a nice stream today sat down mixed up some ice tea put my water bottle in the stream to cool down and was watching some small fish swimming around. You guessed it the afternoon thunder and lightning storm came in. so I grab my pack to try to make it to the shelter before the rain started. I made it and it was a good storm with plenty of wind. Cooked dinner. Ramon noodles with tuna. Had a bag of Gummy Bears for dessert. 4 of us in the shelter and 5 camping out. The rain has slowed down some.                Time for bed.            See you tomorrow
Date: 2005-06-07
From: Wilson Creek Shelter

To: Trailside Camping by Jennings Creek
Miles today: 16.9

752.1 miles                                                      6/7/05 Tuesday                                                               Day 55-Sunny-Hot   "Baby Fawns are Cute"O/K night of sleep. Up early to try to beat the day's heat. They say it was 90' plus yesterday. The map shows a easier day today. Not too many climbs. Camping by a creek tonight I love going to sleep with the sound of water. Trail was good today not many rocks that you have to walk on. Drank a lot of water today at least 2 gallons. Today we started to hike next to the Blue Ridge Parkway road which will turn into the skyline Drive. Not sure if I like the sounds of the cars going by. Got to see a mother deer today with a new born baby fawn. The mother deer ran but the baby just fell to the ground and layed there. It is getting harder to get water. The springs are drying up. Got a ride to and back for our food resupply today. We picked up some hot dogs and beans. Got a fire going and cooked up our hot dogs. They were great. Looking forward so much to seeing my wife in a week. This being away from her has been much harder on me than hiking the trail. The young kids hiking are lucky. they do not have their lives set yet. They are more free.       The sleeping bag is calling
Date: 2005-06-08
From: Trailside Camping by Jennings Creek

To: Trailside Camping by Harrison Ground Spring
Miles today: 17.3

769.4 miles                                                   6/8/05 Wednesday                                                            Day 56 Sunny-Hot   "A Little More Than 1/3 Done"Good night of sleep. Love the creek sound to put you to sleep. Good day of hiking still very hot and humid. I get water at any spring-good looking stream or shelter I go by. It is helping me a lot. a big climb up today about 3500' up. The biggest we hiked in a while. Today we passed no other hikers South or North bound. We did pass a group of 6 older people working on the trail. The trails in VA have been in real good shape. The trail did cross over the Blue Ridge Parkway a few more times today. Camping tonight on the trail by a spring so we can get our needed water. Out here your day is planned so much around water. It does make you hike more miles to get to it. Six more days till I see my wife. I know that will be a big happy day for me. Eagle Scout Tom sounds good. Congratulations Tom great job. Wish I could of helped you on your project. as we get closer to Mt Greylock I will be giving you the date and how many hikers to feed. tell your dad it will be on the weekend. Hi Ritchey- Derrick says to say hello too. He says you better be ready to go fishing when he gets back. Today I was thinking about Twin Acres icecream.                            Talk to you later