morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2009-08-02
From: Byrd's Nest Shelter

To: Big Meadows Lodge in Shenandoah's
Miles today: 0.0

Sun: Shout out to Joe Dirt. He would much rather be out here with me/us hiking the AT. Insted, he is at the moment driving another fretful shuttle of kids to me, farther from NYC every time he comes. This will be his fourth resupply run.The drive down is always a race against the clock and the drive back to NYC is inevitable in the middle of the nite. A big thanks to JD for busting his chops to let his wife bust hers on the trail.Today started out with another brutal cold downpour. I began hiking just after just after dawn in a cloud of mountain mist. This time i used my 'Survivor Joe'smarts and strung up my tarp using my walking poles, one as a stake, the other to support the roof. I crouch under this makeshift shelter for half an hour in the torrents and thunder. Then it cleared momentarily. The heavy mist lifted 2 reveal a covered picnic shelter just a hundred yards down the path. And a park restroom with flush toilets. You know that little squiggly line above Calvin's head (calvin & hobbes) when he does something and it backfires making him look silly? Well, that was above my hed as i took my tarp down & walked to the bath-room to dry off. Sigh. I'VE LOST MY HIKER GUIDE and the rest of jamfam will be here by 8pm so i have a few things to figure out.Post note: The troops arrived 3 hours late, causing me to fret. Dark winding roads, sheer drop-offs. My imagination worked me up in the worst way. Thanks to Susan D. and Diane M. who helped me make contact with my traveling family. I'm so dependant on our friends these days. It was 9:45, as I was trying unsuccessfully to call Wildchild's cell, when they finally rolled in. I was a fretful mess and I had myself a good cry. Of relief, of course.Stayed the night in the lodge, a lovely rustic room with a view of the mountains.
Date: 2009-08-03
From: Big Meadows Lodge in Shenandoah's

To: Pearisburg
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Took a zero day just to drive/jump us down the trail. Joe Dirt hates to leave his family in the middle of the dark forest. So leaving us at the Holy Family Hostel in Pearisburg felt more palatable. I hate that he has to drive 8 hours back to NYC. Another grueling sleepless night for him and back to work at 9AM. Boy he's getting the short end of the stick this summer!Note: My rain hiking seems to have brought on a cold. I'm bleary and tired. Think I will need another day off trail. Will see tomorrow.
Date: 2009-08-04
From: Holy Family Hostel

To: Holy Family Hostel
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

WildChild writing: Saw a black snake in the cabin today. First right outside of the shower. Then it slithered into the crack in the wall.We had a small adventure today bushwacking to Target on a WAY-overgrown trail, less than a mile. Spent a bunch of time there getting and eating food and stuff. Sobo looked for new shoes and ended up with a pair that didn't really work for her. Went to a pool then walked up a road to get back to the cabin. Didn't really want to bushwack again. Stayed a second night because Sobo is recovering from a cold.Realized that WildChild forgot her cellphone charger, and it wasn't even fully charged. We'll have to manage 2 whole weeks w/o a charger!Postnote: I'm not really sure what happened. But all I remember...
Date: 2009-08-05
From: The nearest Hotel or Motel

To: Travel Lodge in Pearisburg
Miles today: 0.0

Here's what the kids didn't know. Staying at the Hostel in Pearisburg was a homeless drifter with a twitchety eye and a machete. I was keeping our distance by camping on the other side of the church grounds and only using the hostel facility for water and storing our food supply. But last night things took a definite turn for the worse. Machete-man was chatting me up, oblivious to the kids who were weary and tugging at me to put them to bed. I was as direct as a New Yorker can be..."I need to get the kids down.." But he cont. to yammer on about his machete and his new plan to turn around and head South [implicitly, with us].I gave my cheeriest.."Goodnight now, see you in the morning," and I took the kids to the tent. I waited until they fell asleep. Then I went to the Pastor of the church and explained to him that, unbeknownst to him, he had a drifter with serious issues living in his hostel. The priest was quite on the ball. (Not an unfamiliar situation for him.) He instructed me to get my children quietly into his car parked around the corner. In the meantime he would go "chat with" the fellow. Minutes later he had deposited me and the sleepy kids at a nearby motel. He tried stubbornly to pay the lodging bill, but I'm a bit more stubborn and I won.
Date: 2009-08-05
To: Travel Lodge in Pearisburg
Miles today: 0.0

So as I said previously: the pastor last night instructed me to get my children into his car while he went to the hostel to check out the situation. Easier said than done. Suddenly-awakened children speak loudly, and protest. Therefore I dragged Isaac out of the tent and carried him still asleep. Wildberry I gagged. Black toe was more cooperative but needed a hand over his mouth part of the walk to the car. When I found the pastor's car, it was locked! So I left each sleeping child on the ground between the car and the church's front step. An odd sight indeed: three slumbering children piled up on the Church doorstep, half-in and half-out of their sleeping bags. It's the middle of the night and a hand-wringing, mom paces around a locked car.
Date: 2009-08-07
From: Sinking Creek

To: Campsite near summit noted in Hikers Guide
Miles today: 4.0

WildChild and Blacktoe disputes have reached a head. I'm not going to hike til they come to some solution.Slept last night at a nice campsite near a creek, amidst Rhododendron and Mountain Laurel. Kids played "wilderness explorers" until the disputes began.Isaac is definitely coming down with something.
Date: 2009-08-09
From: Peter's Creek Road/ VA 632

To: The nearest Hotel or Motel, Christiansburg
Miles today: 2.0

Awesome trail magic. It's a long story how we ended up NORTH of our planned itinerary, 40 miles from the nearest resupply, with nothing but ketchup and mustard packets for food, no cell battery power left(no service anyway), and with one very sick, feverish child. I would have been in a panic had I not known that Jack and Nancy H. were coming to find us.   In our hour of need these now-Hall-of-Fame trail angels drove an hour out of their way on winding nameless backroads to rescue us. We are now safely deposited at a hotel in Christiansburg, VA. J&N and Martha brought with them food and water, not to mention a thermometer and cell phone charger. So now I'm planning my next attack of the AT. "Finally Six" is sleeping deeply, fever still spiking and ebbing. It's hard to imagine these very difficult 5 days have only resulted in 7 miles. I'd had to carry Finally Six down the 2000 foot descent from Peters Mountain. I feel foolish to have hiked him up there in the first place. The point at which I realized the stupidity of continuing our hike: Finally Six asked with trembling lips for "a rest" and we had only just started hiking after a good night's sleep. We were on a ridge with a steep drop to one side and a steep rise to the other. I put down a mat on the narrow trail and Finally Six threw him self down and slept. He was blocking the trail and he didn't care.I am humbled, frazzled, disoriented BUT GRATEFUL, for friends in the most unexpected places. Signing off for today.
Date: 2009-08-10
From: Christiansburg

To: 311N in Salem VA
Miles today: 0.0

While kids swim in the swanky hotel pool I pick up the rental car. We drive to Salem NW of Roanoke and camp behind a church. We were going to hike in tonight after dark, but when we got to the trailhead a major emergency evacuation of lost hikers was in process. We stayed to watch the excitement, then drove a mile away to set up camp behind a random church.
Date: 2009-08-11
From: Catawba Mountain Shelter

To: 311N in Salem VA again
Miles today: 3.0

Hike in with packs. FinallySix not 100% yet. What used to be a blissfully easy hike for him is still a challenge after being sick.Since we're doing easy hikes I carry up a firelog to make the burning of wet wood a cinch.
Date: 2009-08-12
From: 311N in Salem VA again

To: Catawba Again
Miles today: 5.0

Up to MacAfee's Knob. Awesome picture postcard ledge. So fun too. It extends on into the Devil's Kitchen which is an outcropping of many room-size boxish rocks. These blocks are just separated enough by nature, to form a maze of tunnels through which crawled, climbed and slithered. Nature's playground. Slackpack day b/c we'll return to Catawba Mtn. Shelter, strap our packs on and return to the car.
Date: 2009-08-15
From: Pearisburg

To: Hostel in Pearisburg
Miles today: 0.0

JOe Dirt comes into Roanoke on a Greyhound. Our lucky day. Free Day at the Roanoke Science Museum. And the downtown Farmer's Market had delicious peaches.The last 2 weeks has brought a perfect storm of mishaps and dilemmas. I've been managing the best I can, but I'm feeling like I might snap at any point. For the various snafus in detail, check entries from 8/11 to present. In a nutshell: a man with a twitchy eye and a machete wants to tag along with us, shaking him involved a pricey shuttle back North (yes, the wrong direction), leaving us ill-prepared for an unresearched section, FinallySix gets sick, really sick, "evacuation" to nearest hotel, nowhere near the AT. Hence a rental car to get back to the trail. But hiking with a car is pretty tricky, if not impossible. U are always needing a ride back to your car. We've maxed out our summer vacation budget, actually a few times over. So we sleep on the side of the road for a week, with the tent pitched behind the car. It's 100 degrees most days now... and the car's A/C gives out.. Went to Roanoke to trade and one kid opens the car door onto the Enterprise manager's new SUV, scratching the door...the cost of our trip racks up even further..Oivey.Almost forgot to mention: the very first problem was when I dropped my trail guide somwhere on the trail. I went back 2 miles to find it, with no luck. The guide tells me where we'll be sleeping each night, where we can find the next water source, food resupply, and a hundred other bits of vital hiker information.So one can guess that we've lost our hiking groove now. We'd not planned for this bizarre dichotomy of wilderness survival contrasted with swimming at municipal pools and breakfasting at Starbucks.The upsides: b/c of the car we got to skip to some amazing summit hikes, without packs! Slack-packing makes the trail utterly pleasant for the kids. Also, FinallySix recovered. Once the fever broke for good, he was stronger than ever. Lastly, I was able to replace my $15 Wal-mart sneakers (more like slippers) with some proper trail shoes... before I slipped off a rock and broke something!So now that JoeDirt has rejoined us I was trying to recount to JoeDirt the series of setbacks that had beset JaMFam since he'd last resupplied us. That's when he pronounced it "a perfect storm." Right away I felt a consoling relief that there's a term to explain the demise of my dream hike.No, my dream hike is not ruined. But it needs serious rehabilitation. I'm adjusting our family goal. My personal end point is Tennessee, my home state, another 40 miles beyond the original goal. If the kids stay on the trail just one more week we could make it ON FOOT to NC. We are so close! But honestly, the kids and Joe need to go see Grandma and Grandpa. They need to be normal kids for a week. They need waterparks and bicycles, and running around in a big backyard. Alas, I will be traveling alone, which makes us all a bit uncomfortable.
Date: 2009-08-16
From: Va. 634 in Pearisburg

To: Sugar Run Gap
Miles today: 0.0

If you're an artist going thru Sugar Run, ask Neville to show you her journals. They are wonderful and destined to be published. The grounds of Woodshole Hostel are in themselves works of art. Neville and Micheal gave us a detail tour of the recent renovations.Drove on to Dismal Creek to add miles to our day. Put JoeDirt and kids in at 611. But what was supposed to be a mere 1.5 mile evening hike, became a 5 mile night-blind trek..in the wrong direction. Can't believe I sent them in the wrong direction? So unlike me...Anyway, while Joedirt is leaving me a voicemail saying that they've gone 2+ miles and come to no waterfall, I am running up from the the endpoint, the falls, wondering why they aren't there yet. My gut lurches when I put it together: my family is stumbling around in the darkness, with no food, water, or headlamps or map, wearing crocs and sandals.I call them and jsut manage to tell them to turn around and go back down the trail when my phone battery runs out of power. Then I return to the place I set them in and run up the trail calling for them and praying for mercy. The trail is on narrow ridges with steep straight-down tumbles on my left and dangerously soft, loose dirt shoulders. I was barely managing with my headlamps. I found them a good 2 miles up. Oh so happy I was. I had cheetos and Pepsi and headlamps for them. So angry with myself, but so grateful to find them alright.Drove to Dismal Creek Falls and put them to bed in the already-pitched tent.
Date: 2009-08-19
From: hmmm don't remember

To: Route 42, picnic shelter
Miles today: 10.6

JoeDirt couldn't find VA 610 despite asking a host of locals. Sobo hypothermiated. Was found and trail end point, (where JaMfam was supposed to pick up) by trail angels Tom and Mary Ann. These lovely folk took this lost wet puppy back to their house (an awesome country house, I must add), fed me, let me shower, gave me dry clothes, and were prepared to give me a bed if Joe didn't show. Joe Dirt was having his own personal nightmare. Route 610 is a mystery. It will take you into the backwoods, encouraging you to keep going.. and then peter out into nothing. Then a few counties later it will pick up again and be 610 North and 610 South at the same time. 5 hours of frustrated driving later, they found me. I might add that a lack of signal in the countryside makes finding one's way even harder.
Date: 2009-08-20
From: Hurricane Mountain Campground

To: Mount Hurricane Campground
Miles today: 0.0

Today we met up with one of our car camping families, the Stanton's, at Hurricane Mountain Campground. As they asked questions about our hike, we realized that we journal very little about the practical day-in day-out details of trail life. Here are some of those details that are so mundane now to us that we hardly consider them interesting. But here goes: How do you get clean? We don't really. About once a week we happen upon a shower, a hostel or a campground with facilities. I've hiked in the occasional downpour, and tasted the salty sludge washing down my face. My guess is I'm much cleaner after a good rain. Creeks are useful for minimal sponge baths, but so often it seems pointless b/c we're going to get sweaty and filthy again in just a few hours. How do you was dishes? Lick out as much food remains as possible. Use a handful of ground cover, dead leaves, brush, dirt and twigs to scrap out the rest. Get a bowlful of creek water, swish it, and toss it away from the creek. Repeat the water swish. What about your clothes? Again the occasional town with a laundry mat. Creek washings for the items that can't wait. This is tricky b/c you don't want to get hiker funk in the water source. So it involves carring water in a bottle or something, moving well away from the water source, and pouring it over the item there. Same thing for personal bathing. Do you carry pajamas? No pj's. Maybe use long underware if it's chilly. Otherwise just sleep in hiking clothes. Can't sleep in our underwear b/c we don't wear underwear...pointless ounces of packweight. What do you eat? Any food with the highest caloric value for our buck. It's merely fuel for our engines. We thy to keep it at $1 per mile, per person. Dollar stores help us with this budget. We need approx 3000 for a 6-mile day, 5000 for a 10-mile day. (I never feel that I can eat enough on the trail and I'm wearing WildChild's pants these days! ) Ramen Noodles, Snickers bars, trail mix, Little Debbies of all varieties, and every sort of junk food from the Dollar Store. We also choke down 4 Green Food horse-sized pills each day. Aren't you a bit obcessed with the weight of things? Yes, I am. I cut off labels and tags. I tore a Bible into 10-page sections to carry only as much as I could read before resupply. When hiking alone, I don't carry a shelter. I just hike from shelter to shelter. Our toothbrushes have no handles and I consolidate a weeks worth of Ramen noodles into one ziploc, tossing half of the flavoring packets b/c it's too salty to start with. No filter, just pills or drops. What this obcessive behavior gets me is a less-than-20-pound pack and the ability to run the trail whenever i want or need.
Date: 2009-08-21
From: Mt. Hurricane Car Campground

To: Partnership Shelter, Mt Rogers Nat'l Rec. Area
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Nice guy at rent-a-car place drove me to the trail head. Shelter is lovely despite a squeaky brood of bats are thriving in the shower. This is the only shelter I've seen with a shower in it! I sleep tonight for the first time in my new hammock. Hung it from the rafters in the attic and now write while swinging gently.Still trying to shake this sense of "hiker failure". All my efforts (months of planning, huge gear expenses, massive research, physical training, etc) got them (my three kids) a few short miles from North Carolina border. Alas they drove, not walked today into NC. They are tonight, at the grandparents.
Date: 2009-08-22
From: Partnership Shelter, Mt Rogers Nat'l Rec. Area

To: Hurricane Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 19.3
Weather: broken clouds

The signs and my new guide book do not seen to concur, so I've hiked either 19.3 or 23.3 miles. But I am so happy to have found the shelter, miles after I'd decided that it must have been torn down, relocated, and/or I had last year's information. A nice shelter, full of pesky field mice. But there are also Virginia Big-eared Bats. So hopefully the bats will eat all the mice.Speaking of eating, I had Zatarin's beans and rice for dinner (thanks Jack). Tomorrow I must find a wayside store that sells clothing. A cold snap is forecasted for Monday, down into the 50's...brrrr. And that means the 40's on the mountain top where I will be.Spent way too much time stringing up my bear bag tonight. Kind of comical. A bearbag, BTW, is a stuff sac with your food that you pully up to a branch that's too skinny and far up for critters, namely bears, to bother with. First you've got to get your line over the branch. To this end a lot of hikers tie the line to the rock and pitch it over. Tonight it took me about 10 tosses, 3 different trees and 2 rocks to complete a would-be simple task. One hard fling ricocheted off the branch right back at my face. Thankfully my arm blocked it in time. But my arm hurts, but wow, that could have so easily been my eye!
Date: 2009-08-25
From: Damascus, VA

To: View Entry
Miles today: 15.0

Hike 15 miles into Damascus today, daydreaming about coffee and vegetables. So I wouldn¢t assault my first caf© with hiker odor, I bathed in the Feathercamp Branch, the first creek deep enough for a good dunking. Water is still ice cold in late summer. Damascus lives up to its byline as ¢The Friendliest Town on the Trail¢ A huge old house with a suggested donation of $4 per night is one of many choices to stay in town. Vickie at the consignment shop is my new personal fashion consultant, Her husband Joe, cooks at the local diner made me the best beer-batter onion rings and a huge with field greens, not ice berg
Date: 2009-08-26
From: Damascus

To: Tennessee State Line
Miles today: 6.6

Ended our hike today with a 3.3 into Tennessee. (Then returning to hostel in Damascus.)There, about 300 yards past the Tennessee State line, I collected a little square rock for each of us. The biggest was for Joe Dirt, our foundation and home base for this crazy summer adventure. He¢s our cheerleader (in the most masculine sense of the word) and we couldnot have done it with his cheering us on and supporting our every effort. So much thanks to him and all of you who have wished us well and sent up prayers for our safety.
Date: 2009-08-28
From: NYC

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

8/28 Back in NYC. The kids seem antsy. I feel confined in an apartment that needs way too much attention. We are a family with a critical infection of wanderlust. I¢m already plotting our next adventure. Black Toe simply requests that it involve waterparks. Almost on cue, I¢ve come down with some icky virus, cramps, aches crushing fatigue, other unmentionable symptoms.. Doctor says it was the creek water, but tested for Lymes, just in caseI love walking. Great for thinking. The kids love frolicking electronics-free in the wild. And I love that as well. It confirms a deep truth that I¢ve always suspected re:fortunes we¢ve spent/wasted on plastic stuff. Real fun is so accessible. (That¢s not the deep truth: that I¢m still formulating!)Finally, I love the anticipation of ¢what¢s next¢. What¢s the next town. What will we see there. Who will we meet? What¢s the culture? What do they eat, and how do they live? I find everybody else¢s ¢normal and mundane¢ absolutely riveting. I¢ve patronized a hundred small town general stores this summer. I must confess that, next to the actual walking, I¢ve reveled in eavesdropping. As the locals make their purchases I listened in on their easy exchanges about the weather, or about someone¢s Uncle Willet. Really nothing remarkable is said. But I get a glimpse into their lives which seem suddenly to me, huge and full and important. Plain folk. By their mere existence, to which their unassuming words testify, I am humbled and captivated.
Date: 2009-07-15
To: Soon to Maine
Miles today: 0.0

Alright I have my flights booked, now I have to sort out how I'm going to get from Newark New Jersey to Bangor Maine. My dad is going to meet me in Maine and bring me to the trail. My fingers are crossed that the jacket I ordered online makes it to Canada before my dad comes to get me. I've been going through my gear over the past couple of days and have ordered a few things from Mountain Equipment Co-op. Should be good to go. I'm not doing too much prep for the hike, basically just going to hit the trail and take it day by day. I've done enough hiking to feel comfortable enough in my boots to do it this way.
Date: 2009-07-15
From: Townsville

To: Bohle Barn Hotel / Pub
Miles today: 0.0

I only have 3 shifts left at work, gonna miss the regulars at the pub and the people I got to know and work with. So since I'm off today I'm going to hang out with them at work but sit on the other side of the bar.In Australia Rugby League is like Hockey in Canada, today is game 3 of 3 in the State of Origin series...kind of a big thing here, it's Queensland vs New South Wales. I'm cheering for Queensland since it's the state I've been living in for the past couple of years, GO THE MAROONS!!! So later today I'm going to go watch the game at the pub and say a few goodbyes.I better start packing, I have been here for 2 years and have accumulated lots of stuff.I better figure out how I'm getting from New Jersey to Maine.
Date: 2009-07-20
From: NewJersey

To: Maine
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

This is my last night in Australia, maybe I should have married my good friend AIRLIE! I will miss you all, my OZ friends, but will see you soon enough. I hope you have some fun without me. I really should finish packing, tryin to avoid the truth, I'm out of here...Shit I gotta pack, shucks I really am out of here, gotta sleep, plaenes trains buses and trail very soon. Like 2 hours or so.