morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-05-14
From: Priest Shelter

To: View Entry
Miles today: 19.7

so all the wind we've been getting blew in a cold front. it's mid-may and it probably got down to the low 40s last night. whew.anyway, we were camping near the summit of a mountain called The Priest (I'd love to know why), which would explain why it was so cold, since we were over 4000ft. i got on the trail around 7:15 and had a steep downhill off the mountain--made my knees ache. next was a long climb up a mountain called Three Ridges (don't know why they're called that). the trail gossip is that this is the last monster mountain until Vermont, we'll see in a couple hundred miles. but i have to give Virginia credit--almost all of the trail in this state is well grated with switchbacks a-plenty. the climb was a climb, but not that bad and it was a cool day for it. i took a long break at the top to wait for kitty or someone to catch up. 4 women section hikers came up and we chatted for a bit and then up came kitty and next, orb.after the break, i hiked on to the maulpin shelter and from there, kitty, orb, and then lucky came up and we decided to hike on a couple more miles. orb, kitty, and i have been fantasizing about all that we're going to eat starting friday morning. turns out, both orb and kitty love olive garden--oh yea, we're so there. all told, we hiked 19.7, dangerously close to goldberry-x's limit. but we have a wonderful sunset right next to our campsite. kitty made brownies again--i'm going to hike forever, this is the life.2 of the 4 women hikers, corin and julia, camped with us. we sat on a rock to watch the sunset and corin read some poetry from a book julia as carrying. Neat. AND they gave us swedish fish so they're the best in my book.Editor: In the past 3 trailjournals, Goldberry has used the following compliments for other hikers or mere mortals: "human in monkey form","Hard Core", "The Best", "The Coolest", "Pineapple King", "you rock". I just felt you might want to know.
Date: 2003-05-16
From: Waynesboro

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

i got up early to scope out the continental breakfast--pretty good. the weather had cleared up by then and had stopped raining. we had some boring things to do that morning: get laundry done, go to the all-you-can-eat pancake place to meet some other hikers, etc. it sure was easier to do all this will our own CAR! boo ya! orb did all the driving that day--i didn't feel ready for it. i got to meet lucky's parents and sister too. great people and his parents did some incredible trail magic for all of the hikers that morning. thank you! tang and string bean were racing to eat the most pancakes, which was a pretty disgusting thing to think about--these pancakes were enormous.after stuffing ourselves silly, we were on the road back to damascus around 12n. it's a weird feeling: it's taken me about 3-4 weeks to get from damascus to waynesboro on foot and 3 hours to get back in a car. very odd--makes me realize that i'm not hiking this trail to get to Mt. Katadin cause if i was i could drive there in a day or two.i should mention that we did indeed buy a cheesecake for the ride down and i mixed some strawberries for topping. it was sooo good and i think i ate more than a third of it.after taking a detour to find a dairy queen, we get to damascus around 6pm and are suddenly surrounded by hundreds of hikers. this town has totally transformed from a quiet trail town to a party town for the weekend. i was constanty running into people i'd met weeks ago--digger, thorn, radio shack, freemont, leapyear, fubar, argon (from kentucky!) erin, T, margie, to name a few. it was great catching up with everyone. talk about sensory overload though--there were so many people around all the time. kitty and i went walking around town and checking out the booths to orient ourselves. it was difficult for us to go 5 minutes without being stopped by someone we knew. we're camped out in the "toxic waste dump" (why you ask? well, it use to be one) there are so many tents set up here. it's a rainbow of small, one-person tents of every color imaginable, they call it Tent City. it should be a small country.it was a loud night with random fireworks going off all the time and someone was playing drums around 4am i think.
Date: 2003-05-17
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

i was up pretty early (i just can't help it, not even goldberry-x). orb, kitty, and i went to find some pancakes. i was able to meet my mom and sister, joanna, around 10am and we walked around the craft and gear booths for a while. my mom has been able to meet some of my trail friends before, but this time i think she met nearly all of them at once. good times. joanna is now being called jo-berry by some and mom is momma-berry. she made me a very cool t-shirt from one of the pictures i took--maybe she can upload it to the webpage, it's so neat. i won't describe it, the picture will be worth the wait.for some stupid reason that no one can explain, the talent show was moved to sunday afternoon instead od saturday when it's always been in the past. lots of people are upset about this cause nearly everyone is leaving tomorrow late morning. the talent show is so funny and neat and i'm going to miss it and i just want to know why tit's on sunday. Poor Planning and very disappointing.the hiker parade was at 2pm. this is when all the hikers walk in a parade through town--with water guns and balloons to throw at each other or the locals, who try to drench us as well. i managed to stay pretty dry--and caught one balloon that someone threw at me, which i then threw at kitty. good times.[Editor: And people wonder why I feared Goldberry growing up even though I am 2 years older. There's your answer: Ninja Reflexes]not a whole lot happened between then and ~6pm when a bunch of us got together to see The Matrix 2. i'll admit that part of my problem might have been the movie we saw, but i am NOT planning on seeing another movie until I'm done with the Trail. it was just too much...too much violence, action, and really loud noises all at once that i am just not use to right now. so no more movies for a while (unless of course, they release Return of the King months early, that's different). plus we (8 of us) got to the theatre late, couldn't sit together, and couldn't all find seats (some sat on the ground in the front)--i felt a little like hiker trash, like i shouldn't be there anyway. but for the record, i think orb's review of the movie is worth mentioning to the masses fori its information and depth: "definitely an action movie". and there you have it folks!the movie made me more anxious to return to the trail tomorrow. I know my trail life isn't permanent, but for now, I'm more comfortable there than in the "normal" world. hopefully i'll have a week or two to slowly readjust myself to the other world when this is "done".
Date: 2003-05-18
To: Wanesboro
Miles today: 0.0

i think i finally got to sleep around 4am when it finally got quiet. i got up early and grabbed a shower before meeting my mom and sister for a breakfast and a goodbye. chances are this will be the last i see of them until i get to katadin. we gave our left-over breakfast to zipdrive and leif. these are 2 AT hikers from a couple years ago who decided to create a webpage for all trail journals. they are the creators of trailjournals.com and don't make any profit from it. so here's a plug for these great guys: if you like reading my and other hiker's journals on this page, donations can be made to help keep it going. there, the plug is done.we were on the road back to waynesboro by 11am and stringbean drove back with us. our number one priority of the day: find an olive garden for lunch. and boy was it yummy, including their white chocolate rasberry cheesecake--oh yea.the original plan was to get back to the trail by 3pm and hike 7 miles to the first shelter...hmmm, we got back to waynesboro around 6pm and it was raining--so it didn't take much to convince the 4 of us to take just one more zero day in town. besides, we weren't ready to give up the rental car yet :-)at the hotel, it turns out a couple other hikers were there as well, including MULE from when we hiked together in the smokies. i hadn't seen him since hot springs. he's hiking with pig pen and has a similar schedule so i'll probably see him off and on.tomorrow, i start the shenandoah national park. this is good and bad. it's suppose to be really pretty and relativelty easy hiking BUT the trail crosses the skyline drive out 30 times, which is kinda annoying and the RV tourists will be out and about. we'll see.
Date: 2003-05-19
From: Wanesboro

To: View Entry
Miles today: 20.0

after giving up our rental car (it was tough), we were on the trail around 9am. as i write this, i can't really think of anything exciting that happened so i'll try to be brief. it's amazing how quickly i lost my trail legs by not hiking fot 3 days! i've decided not to plan any more zero days (except for delaware water gap) unless i NEED/really want them. they make it too difficult to stay focused.we hiked ~10 miles and ended up taking a 3 hour break at an overlook, hiked another 9 and ran into Tang and her dad doing trail magic (thanks!) and one more mile to the shelter. this makes a 20 mile day.i should explain one thing: goldberry-x is switching back to the original for the week. i'm going to hike to front royal by this friday so i can meet a friend there saturday. that's a total of 110 miles in 5 days, which means lots of 20+ days. but don't worry folks, it's only temporary. I'll be back to a pleasant 17 mile average by next week.
Date: 2003-05-20
To: View Entry
Miles today: 21.4

it was a cold night for May! i bet i'm going to be wishing for temps like this in a couple weeks.i think I'm still catching up on sleep lost over the trail days weekend and i slept in this morning. i was on the trail by 8am. it was a great day and the weather was perfect. i hiked 21.4 total, some with orb, some with stringbean. kitty was up ahead of us all for the day.tonight, we have a plan to sleep until 2am, pack our stuff out and hike out to a mountain in time for the sunrise. how cool would that be if we did it? true, my track record for getting up for night hiking isn't great, but we're going to try it!on a more silly note, I'm trying to get stringbean to introduce himself to new people by saying "i'm bean...string bean" like james bond and then i can be goldmember. hmmm...it's not as funny when i write it down, oh well.we'll probably catch up with lucky in a day or two. his siter went home early but he's still hiking on.
Date: 2003-05-21
To: View Entry
Miles today: 12.2

we did it! we finally got up for a night/morning hike! kitty was awake in her tent (apparently waiting for me to wake up the guys) but i had to wake up orb and stringbean. i walked up to their tents and said "growl i'm a bear" but it didn't fool them. we were on the trail a little before 3am. hiking at night opens up a whole new world. the first hour and a half was in the dark, but then we could barely see the light growing in the sky. my headlamp was a little dim but it lasted the night.orb, who was leading and had a strong light, kept mentioning all the eyes that he saw on the sides of the trail--deer eyes (we hope) but i couldn't see them at first. when i finally did, it was really freaky for a second--you can't see the body, just the eyes. every scary movie i've seen replayed itself in my head for a second. after that, i started seeing lots of eyes, well over a dozen deer total. it makes me wonder how many deer i just walk by when i'm cruising through in the middle of the day. we didn't see any bear though--maybe some day though...ideally, we were going to find a sunrise and take a rest there but it's not an ideal kind of day. it started raining on us around 5:30am, which happened to be when we were near a road crossing that was near a restroom/picnic area. so here we are, 4 hikers, who got up really early, who have already hiked 6 miles, who were short on sleep, who didn't want to get wet, who saw a building right in front of them. we have no pride: we all walked into the women's restroom, pulled out our sleeping bags and stayed there for the next 4 hours, sleeping pon and off, as the rain came down. as string bean would say "that is SO Springer". it wasn't the driest or cleaniest place in the world, but we were grateful for it. luckily, with the weather so bad, it wasn't a popular place for tourist to visit at 6am in the morning. what an interesting day.the weather didn't get better and then the temperature started dropping. it's about 45* probably, maybe colder and it's MID-MAY! sigh.the night hike took a lot out of myself and the rest of the gang so we decided to take an easy 12.2 mile day. the shelter we're at is near a tourist campground and store so we got some treats to get us through the day :-)
Date: 2003-05-22
To: View Entry
Miles today: 16.1

the shenandoah's aren't treating me well. i mean, i was mentally ready for cold, wet, cloudy weather in MARCH...two months later you'd think it'd be different but nooooo. a cold front has decided to establish residency in the park.   sigh. the weather started out cold and got colder and then got wet and then got wetter. i hiked alone for the first part of the morning and then stringbean, LT (I'm going to call her this instead of kitty from here on out), and orb came up. and then, out of the fog in front of us came aurrelius (marcus, aka gypsy boy) hiking south. it was great seeing him again--he's doing some crazy blue blazing, including biking to harper's ferry. we hiked 16.1 miles to skyland diner for lunch by 12:30 (good time). the weather was really getting all of us down, including me, so we talked each other into getting a room for the night at the lodge. they managed to give us a good rate, probably because we looked so cold, wet, and pathetic--that's okay, i have no pride. it was nice to be warm and dry. orb was very happy because he only has a 55* sleeping bag and would have been very miserable sleeping out there that night. something that i've consistently forgot to mention for a couple days: i've got poison ivy now and had it since the weekend. this is bad news for me, i'm very allergic to it and it spreads fast. i haven't been sleeping well since i've gotten it and it's just contributing to an unhappy time. i get this every summer somehow. this is how i treat it when i'm at home: lots of showers, lots of loads of laundry, and no itching (easier said than done). so here i am, out on the AT: so few showers, wearing all the same clothes every day, sleeping in the same "sheets" every night, and really trying not to itch despite it spreading anyway. Not good. i've even gotten really lucky and gotten it near my eyes too. oh happy day... I'll call my doc for a prescription when i find a phone and pharmacy.on a lighter note, since we've entered the shenandoah's, orb has decided to go on a "no water" diet. since there are so many tourist shops and vending machines around, he has only been drinking soda since monday and will be back on water by sunday. his deep thought of the day: "water is for people who don't have soda."reflective stuff: some people think of this journey as some kind of endurance trip, and i'll admit that i thought of it that way sometimes at the beginning. but this is about a lot of things for me now. yes, it's really hard and challenging sometimes (you know, like when it's suppose to be 70* and it's 45* instead), and i do have to hike a certain amount of miles to complete this...but i also want it to be FUN, more than anything. i don't want to push myself to make miles if i could stop and camp at a perfect place earlier in the day. specifically, i don't want to look back on this and think that i should have taken my time more. No Regrets. i'm going to give orb and LT the most credit for helping me figure that out.
Date: 2003-05-23
To: View Entry
Miles today: 15.9

the plan for today: hike some miles this morning and meet LT's mom at a road crossing where she will take us to Front Royal (closest town) for the evening. this is good for me and my poison ivy.we were on the trail around 8:30. i find it hard to believ, but the weather was worse than on thursday. it was colder: the temp was 45* in the morning, wet, foggy, cold, and raining. needless to say we hiked fast to stay warm. the 4 of us, LT, orb, stringbean, and i were at the road crossing an hour early and just sat on our packs for a while. it was so cold but LT's mom, ann, pulled up and she said she felt like it was a rescue mission :-). she's the best and had snacks ready for us in the car. i'm staying with her and LT tonight and really appeciate her generosity ad kindness-she's the bestest.and i got my hair cut! it's not super short but my head feels much better now. i met up with wicked wizard and his girlfriend at pizza hut and after that she drove us to get ice cream. i got to ride in the trunk (i volunteered so it was all okay)! woo hoo! And i got a poison ivy prescription filled so hopefully i can stop this before it gets really bad. things are all good.we've got about 20 more miles of the shenendoah park, also known as Mordor because of the horrible weather, to hike. so tomorrow, we're going to keep our packs in the hotel room and walk these miles without them: known as slackpacking. i just want to be done with this park: i want to be able to camp anywhere i want again. and i want this fluke cold weather to go away. it's going to get warm someday...right? i mean, it's almost June!!Editor: You know... I know Goldberry is convinced that I, as her older brother, have magical psychic powers, but when she doesn't include a mileage (such as this entry), my magical powers fail me. So I have to leave the little box that says "Daily Miles" blank. Which means the total trip miles is wrong. Which means when she comes back, she'll probably break a rip or something explaining to me how foolish I am. What I'm trying to say here is that the trip mileage is probably off by like 100-200 miles at this point and I have no way to fix it. I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do, but I feel bad about it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go back to working on developing my psychic powers. -BroberryAddendum to the Editor's Note: OK, I finally got off my lazy butt and computed BY HAND all the missing mileages. However, this one I had neither a starting nor an ending point and it was the last one, so I just figured I'd bung in enough miles to make the reading in June for Delaware Water Gap right. Not good enough? Are you saying that my worldwide network of spies should have been able to provide me with an exact mileage? Well, sure, they COULD have... but then who would be protecting my Evil Lair from the forces of Good? You have to think about these things when you intend to be an overlord. - Foul Emperor Broberry
Date: 2003-05-24
To: View Entry
Miles today: 18.0

i got to meet my friends/coworker for breakfast this morning. it was great to see them again and chat about local news. and a big thank you to friends who sent down goodies and notes of encouragement too.LT, orb, stringbean and i got dropped off on the trail around 12n and slackpacked ~18 miles by 6:30. it was SO wonderful not to have to carry my backpack (left it at the hotel room). i felt human again. the weather warmed up a little and now and then i even saw a shadow. towards the end of the hike there was some thunder to be heard but we made it back without getting drenched. w also ran into Lady-walks-alot and invited her back to the hotel room.LT's wondermom, Ann, picked us up and took us back to Front Royal. there, who should i run into, but Skeemer! we all went out to dinner and he fit the bill for all of us, which was incredible of him. you're the bestest skeemer. i will hopefully be seeing him off and on for a couple days on the trail. this week, while the weather's been disgusting, has also been filled with wonderful and generous trail magic from LT,s parents and skeemer. it really can change the mood of the day so quickly and i hope they know how much it means to me.
Date: 2003-05-25
To: Jim and Molly Denton Shelter
Miles today: 10.8
Weather: broken clouds

i think i slept well but it sure didn't feel like i did in the morning. the poison ivy medicine is probably creating confusion in my body, it's some pretty powerful stuff.we were on the trail around 10am. not a very eventful day so i won't go into detail. our weekly goal is to get to harper's ferry by wednesday. harper's is known as the "psychological midpoint of the trail". we'll just be over the 1000 mile marker (wow). it's kinda neat to think that i've walked nearly 1000 miles since march.we only walked 10.8 miles today but decided to stop because we were all kinda tired and this is a really nice shelter (called the Jim and Molly Denton Shelter). this shelter has a porch and CHAIRS! i'm sitting in one right now and loving it. Chairs are the best.we were able to leave the evil clutches of shenandoah early this morning. i am not making this up: it was really cold when we started walking this morning and since we crossed the park boarder it definitely got warmer and the sun peaked through the cloud canopy now and then. that park is just pure evil i know it.just kidding: i'll have to come back to this park in the autumn. hopefully it won't be THAT crowded and the weather will be better. add shenandoah to my list of areas i'll have to hike again because of poor weather on the thru-hike.early to bed tonight. i feel like i need it.
Date: 2003-05-26
From: Jim and Molly Denton Shelter

To: View Entry
Miles today: 24.8

i don't know why i sleep in shelters anymore. the snoring is always keeping me up--you'd think i'd learn. well, it makes it easy to get up early at least and i was on the trail by 6:45 or so. it had been raining all night and was drizzling in the morning. the trail was MUD. i slipped and fell even before i got my pack on to leave. everyone else i ran into today had fallen at least once too. it was pretty ugly out there.after a couple of necessary alone hours in the morning, LT caught up with me and we hiked the rest of the day together. we were both feeling strong today and made great time over some moderate terrain: ~19 miles by 2pm. it rained until the afternoon and, wonder of wonders, the sun comes out! not much blue sky to speak of, but it made a world of difference to me. with the sunshine and a good attitude, LT and i felt like doing more than the 19 we had originally planned. orb caught up with us at about this time and we hiked until ~4pmish for a 24.8 mile day (kinda makes up for my 11 mile day yesterday). we're camping out tonight: hopefully i'll sleep better with fewer people around. But, orb does snore and his tent is pitched close to mine. so he tied a rope to his tent that i can tug on if i can hear him in the night. what a nice guy.a good day. hopefully the rain is moving on to other places now and we can have some sun.