morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2018-05-28
From: Daleville

To: Near BRP (Mi. 745)
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: moderate rain

Day 54- I made myself comfortable at the breakfast buffet downstairs while everyone else slept in. The first wave was normal guests; the second wave was all thruhikers including Pappy, the oldest triple crowner and now attempting to be the oldest AT thruhiker at 87!! The thing he wish he knew when he was in his 20¢s: how to train for marathons better. Our morning was spent delaying the inevitable with tasks requiring wifi like paying bills and updating the journal.We didn¢t get hiking until after 11. Today was overcast keeping the temperatures somewhat tolerable but the humidity still kills me and our skin. After a couple of road crossings we started traveling through scenic mountain laurel tunnels.There has been so much rain recently that everything and more is flowing. We took our shoes and socks off twice to cross streams. There were also a couple of fresh trees down across the trail making for some fun navigating. We passed a shelter where we assumed most people we leap frogged with today are stopping at. The trail was empty after that except for a guy in a tent (we assume video chatting someone) who said in a very enthusiastic voice, ¢Wow! That was a big bite!¢ right as we walked by. It was moments like this that cheered us up a bit. Today was the first day that felt like work and it seemed like the forest knew it by how quiet and still everything was (except fo the streams). It would have been fun to spend the day with Wings and his girlfriend in Roanoke but it was an unspoken agreement that we would be hiking today instead. Once the clock hit 6:30pm, we ended our day at the first established camp spot we found. We lovingly bickered as we let our skin try and dry out. Then chowed on some Knorr fried rice before konking out.
Date: 2018-05-29
From: Near BRP (Mi. 745)

To: Cornelius Creek Shelter 
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: light rain

Day 55- As great as hotel rooms can be, I always sleep better outside. Today we slept in and it was marvelous! We didn¢t start hiking until 8:30. Instead of doing our normal thing , we both started listening to an audiobook together. Broken Seal pulled over at the first shelter to use the privy and we didn¢t see each other again until lunch. It¢s the longest time we have hiked separately before. I was absorbed mentally by the book and the hiking part just came naturally. When it was getting to be about chow time, I came across a great swim hole with a little beach under the bridge the trail crosses. I booted it down to the shore, took my clothes off, and waded in before diving into the center of the moving river. It was majestic and I had the whole place to myself. Standing in the deep cold water, I just soaked my surroundings in.I was shaken out of my bliss by the sound of car doors closing. I was joined by a sweet, local couple and soon Broken Seal showed up too.After Broken Seal took more of a bathe then a swim, we chatted over lunch about how the hiking had not come as easy to him. He just couldn¢t find his right gear and that was a sentiment he would carry for the rest of the day unfortunately. From the swim hole, it was going to be a lot of climbing to our final destination. We hiked together the rest of the way. The forest had changed from a bushy and rocky undergrowth to a beautiful green, leafy carpet with the trees well-spaced apart shooting up from the floor.It felt good to arrive at the shelter especially because there was a couple there, Springbok and Dandelion, we had been hoping to catch. After good chats, we crawled into the tent. I fell asleep while watching an architecture show Broken Seal had downloaded for me- what a sweetie.
Date: 2018-05-30
From: Cornelius Creek Shelter 

To: Glasgow, VA
Miles today: 19.9

Day 56- We were weenies today. It had rained all night and was raining when I woke up. Instead of encouraging Broken Seal awake, I kept telling him to go back to sleep and he did. Today was the kind of day when I wish we could just lounge around inside a small cabin with a wood fire and cup of tea wearing sweaters. Instead we got up and hiked, just not until 9 am. Most people had gotten a head start on us and we only saw two people on trail the whole day.The end of the climb up Apple Orchard Mountain was steep and engulfed in clouds. Broken Seal¢s feet were hurting from the day before and the long descent to the road from the summit really tested him. The main thing that would cheer him up was spotting little orange salamanders in the trail. I knew each time he found one because he would start talking in a high pitch voice and remove it from the trail. My favorite part of the day was walking through the craziest rhododendron tunnels! After not seeing any rhododendrons for a couple days, we were walking through beautiful pink and purple flowers. The mountain laurels were stunning as well.We were not paying too much attention to the weather until it started to swing wildly from sunny to torrential downpour every ten minutes. After the fifth dousing, I didn¢t care what the weather was as long as it made up its mind!! The back and forth was driving me mad; I would¢ve even chosen the rain over this. It became a little too much for Broken Seal but we were saved as the sun cleared enough for us to cross the longest footbridge on the trail and hitch a ride into Glasgow, VA with above local man returning from his son¢s baseball game.Glasgow is this tiny town that does a lot to have hikers come. Right downtown, they¢ve built a large shelter with electricity (even a microwave), trash, picnic tables, drying lines, port-a-johns, and even a hot shower with soaps. It was above and beyond I feel and could easily see getting stuck there. I should¢ve known based on the social scene we found there when we arrived that it was not going to be a quiet night. We ignored that little voice, took the last two bunks, and set our things out to dry before going to get pizza at the only restaurant in town, Scotto¢s. We each got our own large pizza and then did our resupply at the super quirky local grocery. Once back in the town¢s shelter, we had to lay in our bunks with a boisterous party going on until someone finally said something to the group after 10pm.
Date: 2018-05-31
From: Glasgow, VA

To: Brown Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: moderate rain

Day 57- I went to bed cranky and I woke up cranky. The shelter was a total mess and the things on the drying lines ended up more wet than they started. Everyone was still asleep so I went alone to the gas station to get a hot breakfast of microwave Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches. Employees were sitting at the only table in the place so I sat on the curb outside. It took us much longer to get out of this place than I would¢ve liked but we finally got a ride in the back of a van by a ranting conservative who also gave us all of the Sasquatch spotting tips. Today was a big up to the top of Bluff Mountain followed by an equally big down the other side followed by a long flat. We decided to climb separately and we both got into the same audiobook. When we met up to lunch on leftover pizza, we compared our hypothesis as to what would happen next. It helped us stay steady with our pace and do the climb without having to stop and catch our breath.We took an audiobook break on the descent to enjoy the full blown flower fest the trail was having with blossoming rhododendrons and mountain laurel all mixed together. With all the recent rain, a colorful carpet of flowers had begun to form under the plants too. It was the highlight of the day! Everything got tougher from there.I got my first real blister; it was from the pilling on a new pair of Smartwool socks. Then we heard the thunder start rumbling and soon we had the hardest rain of the trip. We had to yell to communicate because of how loud it was! We were soaked. It was only a couple of miles to the shelter when the rain subsided. In that time, my heat rash exploded to new levels of pain. Today was a trying day for me but I was fortunate to have Broken Seal to help me out. He lathered me in baby powder and took charge in getting us set up in the shelter. There were nice people there including an old friend, Grasshopper. After some food, hot chocolate, and a firefly show, we closed the pages on today¢s saga. Tomorrow will be better!
Date: 2018-06-03
From: ReedÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Gap

To: Rockfish Gap (Waynesboro)
Miles today: 19.1
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 60- Can you say, ¢I awoke...¢ if you were up all night? From some loud party people in the campground to the heaviest nighttime rain, it was a restless night. Even before leaving the tent, we could see our shelter was covered in spiders! It would have been a lot harder to get up if we didn¢t have a hiker breakfast awaiting us and the knowledge that we would be in a room that night. It was still hard. In addition to the tent, there were bugs (and mud!) all over our packs, and self! We enjoyed the generous (and secret) hiker breakfast offered by Devil¢s Backbone Basecamp, and grabbed some shwag before getting shuttled back to the trail. The trail was in a cloud all day so we moved swiftly, ignoring all potential views, just trying to get to town. We were so excited for town clothes and food! We ended up linking with another young couple, NinjaSnail and Sandals, for the whole hike to Rockfish Gap. With all of this rain, the trail was an absolute river at some points. There were a couple of water crossings that I bet only exist a few days of every year. At one point, we all needed to look around for a blaze because we thought we might have just walked up a river bed instead of the trail. We heard a big tree fall in the forest nearby and got a better poison ivy briefing from them. We also learned from a day hiker that Broken Seal¢s favorite little lizards are actually Eastern Red-Spotted Newts.We got picked up by Stanimal and brought back to his hostel in a zippy shuttle ride. The first thing we did was shower and jump into the loaner close before gathering a crew to go to Mings garden, a trail famous Chinese buffet! When we walked in the door I knew we were in the right place because of the decorative bridge they have over a cold he pond. The islands of food or mouthwatering and I got about five plates sampling all of the different options before I had to round out the meal with two dessert plates. The cherry on the buffet cake though was that wings caught up to us and met us at the buffet. He had done 125 miles in the last four days to be reunited with Broken Seal. In addition to many hikers, there were lots of locals enjoying the place too which is always a good sign. We were exhausted from the food and from the relief of being in Waynesboro. The only thing I had to do before going to bed was to enjoy a session in the massage chair.
Date: 2018-06-04
From: Rockfish Gap (Waynesboro)

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 61- Zero days can be so busy. We had about 15 items on our to do list and most of them got done. After sleeping in, we indulged in the local, farm eggs someone had delivered to the hostel for thruhikers. Then we jumped right on the list for today. Food planning and buying, catching up on the journal, a post office run, buying new socks at the outfitters, cleaning our tent, finally getting permethrin on our shoes and gators. There are all little task but they end up taking up most of the day. While I got to spend some afternoon hours at the hostel with my feet up working on the journal, Broken Seal and Wings had their own epic journey to a local Walmart to do the food shopping and buy some personal items. We lunched at a fast food place called the cookout and the guys made egg fried rice for dinner. Then it was off to bed for us!
Date: 2018-06-08
From: Franklin Cliffs

To: Pass Mountain Shelter 
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: light rain

Day 65- It was only 4 miles to get to breakfast at a restaurant so we were up and moving pretty efficiently. Broken Seal had to go dig a cathole and Wings pulled off at the first shelter so I had the first hour to hike in solitude. The trail was not too rocky though so they caught up pretty quickly and then ran ahead to the restaurant. It feels funny walking up to these nice, clean buildings feeling dirty and smelly but those feelings of self-consciousness are forgotten once the breakfast buffet was in front of us!! Coffee and juice, omelettes made to order, pancakes, fruit salad, baked goods, it was extraordinaryThe rest of the day we stuck together joking around, singing songs. We saw two bears and hung out a little bit to admire the second one as it rummaged on the forest floor. In the park, the bears do not seem phased by humans at all. Almost more interesting was the people-watching and the commentary we overheard day and section hikers make to each other. My favorite was the husband who was absolutely adamant that they were going to correct way back to the car. They weren¢t. But the husband didn¢t want to hear it and had already hiked off and out of sight. I wouldn¢t want to be them. Once we made it to Thorton Gap, we easily hitched into Luray, Virginia in the back of a pick up. Luray is very cute, little town and Wings and I had packages to pick up (hooray!). We chose to resupply at Shoppers Value with an aisle where everything is only $.88! We definitely got way too much, it was fun anyway. We had to walk to Open Arms Hostel to get a shuttle back up to the trail. It was there we met Allison, really great individual who is obviously doing a lot to provide for hikers; she encouraged us to make the most of her hiker box and trail magic that someone had left. Suddenly our big food bag got even bigger.We were kind of moaning and groaning as we hiked less than 2 miles to the Pass Mountain Hut. We could¢ve made it farther but the idea of having a bear to store all this food sounded smart based on how many bears we¢d seen. It was a nice crew there and we indulged in some beers we had carried up. We went to bed happy!
Date: 2018-06-09
From: Pass Mountain Hut

To: Tom Floyd Shelter 
Miles today: 22.7

Day 66- Other than a mice eating something, I woke up to birdsong. Within five minutes of hiking, a bear and I surprised each other. It scurried a little farther away and then stood watching me as I slowly kept walking by. My adrenaline was up but I just wasn¢t feeling like pushing it today. I think I would¢ve put my headphones in today if we weren¢t in the national park.We had an early early lunch at the Elkwallow Wayside just trying to quench my increasing hunger. Soon it was pretty clear I would be feeling lazy all day. Not tired or bored, but just not wanting to huff and puff up every hill or flit down every descent. I¢d get there when I would get there.Broken Seal stayed by my side for most of the afternoon and had some more life talks about our upcoming fall. Leaving the park was uneventful. We made it to the Tom Floyd Shelter in time to set our tent up before a brief but heavy rainfall. The shelter was full with section hikers about to enter the park. They were all excited but it translated into being kind of loud. After finishing the heavy gnocchi, we went to bed. There¢s a lot of exciting stuff ahead like passing the 1,000 miles mark, reaching Harper¢s Ferry, attempting the Four State Challenege, but mostly my mama will be coming to help us out on Tuesday! Can¢t wait!
Date: 2018-06-10
From: Tom Floyd Shelter

To: DickÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Dome/ Whiskey Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Day 67- I woke up dancing. The alarm this morning was another ABBA song, something about ¢the winner takes it all¢. The tent had dried overnight and it didn¢t take too long to start the day. There were 3 shelters today all spaced only 4-6 miles from each other with a final fourth one 8+ miles from the third. I would push out first from each, then Wings would catch me, followed by Broken Seal.The first cool thing we passed was the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute property; the chain link fences were overgrown with sweet smelling honeysuckle. I think the time frame that some of these flowers are blooming for feels extended because we are hiking north following the blooming of spring.Then we hit the Jim & Molly Denton Shelter which was our first shelter with a horseshoe setup OR with a solar shower!! Plus it was clean with nice deck chairs for the nice porch. It was hard walking away from that place. Five-ish miles later we lunched at Manassas Gap Shelter. They caught up to me right as I turned down the side trail to it and they let me know they had looked at the forecast. The rain today was supposed to start at 3pm with lightning and overnight it was falling for 1-2 inches of additional rain. Suddenly only going as far as the next (third) Shelter sounded nice instead of pushing. A southbounder confirmed our fears about a lot of hikers between the third and fourth shelter so we decided to cut the day short. It was a bit tricky because I felt like I was hiking really well today but a miserable night with little sleep didn¢t sound too nice either.The third shelter, Dick¢s Dome was a small hexagonal shelter right by a creek. It was actually kind of sweet and we would¢ve set up camp right away except we saw a paper note written about a cool shelter nearby. It took only a little exploring to find a brand new shelter only 200 feet away. It was a large, two-story shelter with a good size covered porch. We immediately backtracked to bring our packs to this new shelter instead. It was so new that there was absolutely no graffiti yet- how cool!Our hiking day was over by 3:30 at the latest but it gave us an afternoon to relax and eat food. Two days ago, I thought we packed too much. Our hunger has been next level though and we are demolishing everything edible. Our hunger is so strong that we allowed ourselves to eat extra food knowing that tomorrow we can go to Bear¢s Den, an ATC run hostel, to pick up more food. It seems that I have upped the ante and blown through very thruhiker hunger threshold with time. By the end of the night, there were less than 10 of us in this new shelter and everyone was in bed by eight. That is except for the fireflies. They were having a fiesta as we fell asleep!
Date: 2018-06-12
From: Blackburn AT Center 

To: Appalachian Trail Conservancy
Miles today: 11.9
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 69- It had been chilly morning and I saw it was completely fogged in when I pulled the buff from over my eyes. I went and crawled onto Broken Seal just waking up on a couch nearby to mobilized for a quick 12 miles into Harpers Ferry! Other than the honey buns for this morning and a couple snack bars to get us there, the only thing left in our food bag was one extra Knorrs Rice Side. While we are proud to have calculated our food ration very accurately, it did not go without some stress. We have been hungry this whole section; I really feel like a bottomless pit. I headed out first, making a little more headway on our North Korean novel and crossing many section hikers just like we¢ve been doing for last couple days it seems. One guy said I looked fresh and I chuckled to myself because my last shower was in Waynesboro before the Shenandoah. My guess is that he just saw my energy and excitement about reaching this point today.We walked above the Shenandoah River together, climbed up into the town of Harper¢s Ferry, crossed the old Storer College campus, and walked hand in hand into the Appalachian Trail Conservancy HQ! Got our halfway mark hiker numbers which were 723 and 724¢¦ Just a reminder our Amicalola hiker numbers were 1949 and 1950. We flipped through the log of the hikers who have come before us this year and definitely recognized some faces. Most of them we didn¢t recognize, even people who had checked in on the same day. Elation doesn¢t even begin to cover how I felt being there, hanging out in the hiker lounge. We went to an Italian place, Mena¢s, for lunch and then headed to the jotel where the much anticipated arrival of Mama Mac would be happening later that afternoon.As we were walking through town, a guy at the farmers market warned us that we would soon be in Yankee turf and to hide any ¢heat¢ we were maybe packing. It was bizarre to me and wondered if the Mason-Dixon Line was more legit than I realized.Our first priority was laundry and itdidn¢t take me long to lock us out of the hotel room wearing nothing but our puffies and a towel; really it was just an excuse to steal more cookies from the front desk platter. Before Mom came, a thruhiking buddy of ours named Midlife came to the hotel with his dad to say goodbye. His original plan was to go to Maine but he missed his kids a lot and he was happy to reach Harpers Ferry. He took his dad ¢s visit as a sign and opportunity to get home easier. It was bittersweet and I can see a lot more people choosing to end here.The real star of the evening for me was Mama Mac coming. I was glad she was content to eat at the restaurant in the hotel. It¢s so nice seeing someone is just as happy to see you as you are to see them. Also, we knew it was going to be crucial and helpful to have her assisting us on the Four State Challenge tomorrow. So after dinner with the three of us and a little time reorganizing, she drove us back to the Virginia/West Virginia border crossing where we would set up camp and then head out really early for our attempt.
Date: 2018-06-14
From: HarperÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Ferry 

To: HarperÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Ferry 
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Day 71- I woke up right as the hot breakfast served by the hotel was opened and I found my seat for the next couple of hours eating and chatting with Mama Mac and Broken Seal. His entire legs were still covered in heat rash but he had recovered his energy. My feet ached and going up a flight of stairs was a challenge but I was doing fine otherwise. After laying in bed for a couple more hours, Mama Mac and I returned to the ATC to look up past thruhiker friends of ours. Being back in Harper¢s Ferry gave us an opportunity to explore the historic downtown a little more and cross the Potomac in the daylight. Upon returning to the hotel, I flopped onto the bed face down and horizontally. Mama Mac rubbed my feet with lotion and wheeled a chair over to support my feet. I took a nap in that exact position, purse still on and all. More relaxing at the hotel, Mediterranean dinner, and then bed!!