morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2009-05-06
From: Damascus Apple Tree B&B

To: Damascus Hikers Inn Hostel
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: moderate rain

I decided to take one more day off just to be sure I was healing properly, or I was just plain enjoying being in town and being lazy. I'll let you decide for me which it was. Ben had ordered shoes from Mountain Crossings at Neels Gap (about 30 miles from the beginning of the trail) and they came in today. Keen Targhees. Ben let me try them on and they felt awfully good. Wondering more about the Montrails I bought.We moved to the hostel today to save a bit more money but also because we were catching a shuttle back to Elk Gardens tomorrow morning well before breakfast time at the B&B. If your not going to be there for breakfast, it doesn't make sense to stay there. Anyway, we got the last two beds at the hostel. The weather has driven a lot of hikers into town to try and dry out. Almost every place to stay has no vacancy signs out.It rained all day quite hard most of the time. We spent a lazy day at the hostel talking with the other hikers. Went to Food City for lunch and to pick up some last minute supplies. For me it was just an apple. Went to Quincy's for the half pound burger for dinner, then hot shower and early bed in hopes of getting extra sleep before being picked up early tomorrow morning.See you on the trail. Nice Lenses
Date: 2009-05-08
From: Old Orchard Shelter

To: Trimpi Shelter
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: scattered clouds

It rained quite a bit more overnight. A beautiful full moon came out for a while with some stars. The big dipper was directly over the shelter. That didn't last long before it became overcast again.I left the shelter at 8:00 to overcast skies and the threat of rain. It did rain about an hour into the hike and it lasted for two hours. Shoes and socks soaked of course from the rain and runoff that still filled the trail. Thought this would be the case so saved my dry socks for another day and pulled on the wet socks from yesterday this morning. Yuck to putting on wet gear. Everyone else pulled on wet gear too. It didn't take long for both feet to begin hurting and they did hurt the rest of the day. Wet shoes and socks plus shoes that are not properly working for you equals very unhappy feet. I did stop once and changed the moleskin on my right foot, which is definitely the worse of the two.One of the girls had a trail guitar in camp and took it out to play. The two guys happened to be really good with the guitar. One had played since six and the other had just graduated with a music degree specializing in classical guitar. Both much better players than the owner of the guitar. They were soon teaching her new ways to do things that make it easier to play.New developments are the prominence of poison ivy along the trail and the continued harrassment of biting black flies. Glad I decided to carry some bug repellent since Damascus. I found a little in a hiker box. I decided not to use it yet because it was almost dark and the coming storm would drive the flies away.I am definitely seeing fewer people on the trail and in camp. I don't know if they are in town due to the horrid weather, starting to head toward Damascus for Trail Days, grouped ahead or behind us, or if people are leaving the trail. I do like it better when the trail is less crowded though. The birds are singing their goodnight songs and we are bedded down in the shelter.See you on the trail.Nice Lenses
Date: 2009-05-10
From: Marion, VA Virginia House Motor Inn

To: Marion Virginia House Motor Inn
Miles today: 0.0

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!A very lazy day. Worked hard trying to clean and take care of the blister problem. After two showers with ample foot scrubbing, my feet still look like I just came out of the mud. Blisters are drying nicely and I sat with them in the sun for a while. Perhaps shock treatment will bring them back to their pre hike state, they haven't seen sun for months. Did laundry. It is pitiful how small a load of wash you do even when you do everything you have. Hike for a week and you still only wash 1 pair of socks, 1 pair of underware, one pair of shorts, one shirt, and sometimes my coat and hat. A short while ago I was doing a pair of long johns as well. I carry an extra pair of shorts and a shirt to wear in town when you do laundry. When they need washing too, I wear my rain pants and rain coat while doing the laundry. Even when two of us do a load together, it doesn't look like much. On a positive note, we all wear wicking, quick drying clothes so it doesn't take long to dry a load. Socks take the longest to dry.Stopped and had a small pizza for lunch on the way back to the motel. Wandered through the Dollar General for a real exciting trip back to my room. Played with the adjustments on my pack and gave every item a good look to see if I could send anything else home.Decided that I just can't continue on with the shoes I just bought in Damascus. My feet are bruised and blistered. I called Mountain Crossings at Neels Gap and ordered a pair of the same boots as Ben had let me try on. Ordinarily, I wouldn't buy shoes over the phone but I had already tried them on and was sure they would fit. Over night mail will get them to me on Tuesday, since they couldn't ship until Monday. For now I'm wearing my Crocks everywhere. Everywhere isn't very far right now. Rested a lot during the afternoon.Phone book had two listings for Chiropractors in Marion and I was going to be on the doorstep of one of them at 8:00 tomorrow morning when they opened. My headaches are not getting better and definitly detract from my hiking enjoyment.Subway in the room for dinner. Don't go singing that stupid $5.00 song on me, please. Have to be careful what I say about Subway, my son in law works there while he is finishing college, and I don't want him mad at me, Peepers either.I was tired so bed came early tonight.See you on the trail.Nice Lenses
Date: 2009-05-11
From: Marion Virginia House Motor Inn

To: Marion, Virginia
Miles today: 0.0

It was raining when I left the room a little before 7:00 to walk into town, about a mile and a half as it turned out but I didn't know how far when I started. The office at the motel doesn't open until seven so I stopped at MacDonals for a coffee and sandwich on the way. I was at the chiropractors office at 7:45 and walked in when they opened the door. I inquired from the receptionist whether I would be able to see the doctor short notice. She had what I perceived as a bad attitude about me standing in front of her so I left for the other office. We are only 6 miles from the trail. You would think that I was not the first hiker to need help. At the second office there was a completely different feel and was seen immediately after filling out the usual paperwork. Xrays indicated that I indeed did have a whiplash type injury and a slight compression between two of the cervical vertebra. Obviously I am not a physian and my explaination is in my terms not the doctors. Received treatment and was instructed to come back at 2:00 for an additional adjustment and treatment. Looked around town and checked out the library to see if they have computers available. They do. Got a voice mail from Mt. Crossings that they had a problem when they ran the credit card. Called credit card company first to see what the problem was. Expiration date was mis copied and I called back the store and gave them updated information. Also I was told that they didn't have the low cut would mid height be ok. I thought that was fine. While looking at trail journals I noticed that Tagless and Tagalong were coming back on trail at Marion after Tagless recovered from his hernia surgary, and I hoped I would be able to see them. Called and they were booked at the same motel, but not getting in until late Tuesday night. I will meet them for breakfast on Wednesday.Went back for more therapy at 2:00. Walked back to motel about 3:00. Met Debbie, aka Trail Maiden, aka Mad Bat her new trail name. I had not seen her since Hot Springs. We spoke a while but she had to go rescue her laundry. I was sent back to the motel with an ice pack and instructions to put it on for 20 minutes several times during the afternoon and evening. I was able to get it just cold enough by putting it in the ice bucket with a load of ice. I had other uses for the ice as well.I changed rooms because the heater had not been fixed in my room and I needed some heat to counter the ice pack I was putting on. It was chilly overnight anyway.Have a 9:00 appointment tomorrow so another early night. Hiking doesn't promote late night parties even off the trail. When the sun goes down I'm looking for the bed.See you on the trail.Nice Lenses
Date: 2009-05-12
From: Marion, Virginia

To: Marion, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Another overcast day with rain in the forecast. Ate breakfast in the lobby and walked to the Dr's office. This was familiar territory now and I had a good idea how long it takes to get there. The Dr. I am seeing is Dr. Truhlik and she has a caring feeling about her in addition to her doctoring skills. I was seen as soon as I arrived and was out in an hour. I went to the library and sent Flash all my pictures, and updated my journal. Had lunch and went back for my 2:00 session with the Dr. At the end of the session she asked to borrow my handbook so she could see where the trail went. She kept it over night. I got the ice pack in exchange.Boots didn't show up as expected. I was going to hike tomorrow after seeing Dr. Truhlik. Have to think about putting on the new old shoes again. Decided to hike one more day with the Montrails. Shhhh. don't say anything. My feet don't suspect a thing. The weather was good today and forecast good for tomorrow as well. Rain returns for several days after that.Ben has finally got here and moved in with me to help cut costs for both of us. He got held up on the trail a little due to the weather.Went to bed wondering about whether I should hike tomorrow. I hate to waste the nice days in town.See you on the trail.Nice Lenses
Date: 2009-05-14
From: Marion, VA

To: Pearisburg
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Hi All,I am still hiking and doing ok. Got to Pearisburg Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Library closed until Tuesday. One old slow model computer in motel that has seen constant use.It is Monday Memorial Day and I am heading out to hike. I will do proper updates when I can, possibly in Troutville/Daleville when I get there.Please Bear with me until then. Thanks.See you on the trail.Nice Lenses
Date: 2009-05-15
From: Pearisburg

To: Virginia House
Miles today: 0.0

This is sort of a generic entry for May 14, and May 15 since the update is essentially the same. Received two treatment sessions each day and tried to take it easy the rest of the day. Got a chest xray on Friday to see if there was a problem with my ribs that I did't know about. It didn't show a break so it must be in the cartledge or in the muscles between my ribs. All I know is that it hurts. Iced several times both days. Bed early. I plan on hiking tomorrow after I get one more session with the Doctor.See you on the trailNice Lenses
Date: 2009-05-16
From: Virginia House

To: Knot Maul Branch Shelter
Miles today: 13.9
Weather: clear sky

Dr. Truhlik picked me up at the motel at 9:00. Ben was still with me and she took him along too. One last session and she drove us to the trailhead in Atkins.It threatened rain all day and finally began to rain just before we got to the shelter at dusk. This was way later than I want to get to the resting place for the day. The Shelter was full and there were many tents around the shelter. This was the first night that I was unable to stay in the shelter on the whole trip so far. Set my tent and threw my gear inside just as the sprinkles began turning into full rain. Actually, I got the tent set very quickly for not having used it at all on the trip. Yay for practicing in the back yard repeatedly over the fall and winter months.I just didn't feel like cooking and it was already dark. I sat in the rain outside Ben's tent and ate pepperoni and a power bar. It was raining but I still did not want to eat inside my sleeping area, even if it was the tent. I didn't need a visit from some friendly, curious, hungary animals inside the tent tonight. It was fairly warm so had full use of hands and wasn't shivering.Layed in bed and checked the tent regularly for the first hour. I had tested the tent at home but we hadn't had any rain so I had to rest my doubts about staying dry overnight. No problem with leaks but did notice a potential problem with drainage on one side of the tent. Made a small trench at the base of one side of the tent so water coming off the tent would go around the edge and not through my tent. I know, leave no trace. This was only a quarter of an inch deep and 4 feet long. You couldn't even see where it was when I broke camp. Once I felt sure that I would not get my sleeping bag wet, I got it out of its dry bag and used it like a quilt. That's right, it was warm enough for me to lay in the tent for an hour in a pair of long johns and a t shirt before I got out my sleeping bag.I had a difficult time hiking today. My chest hurt all day and I couldn't draw a full breath because of it. I had to stop once and reapply my blister bandages and my feet were hurting as well. This was the first day in a long time that I really wondered about continuing on with the hike and it had nothing to do with the weather. I did not have fun today, my first rule for hiking. Have fun or what's the point of being out here.See you on the trail.Nice Lenses
Date: 2009-05-18
From: Chestnut Knob Shelter

To: Camp site
Miles today: 15.9

I think the water would have frozen if it were outside the shelter over night. It was cold. The wind kept its frenetic pace all night.Left the shelter dressed in shorts and t shirt even though it was cold and I could see my breath. The forecast was for warm, we were going to lose elevation, and I normally warm up within a half hour of starting out. It took an hour today as I stayed on the windy side of the ridge for the first part of the morning.This was a bit of a different ridge as it dropped off quite steeply on both sides for quite a while. Saw a lot of turkey vulchers overhead and sitting on the rock outcroppings. They looked hungarily at me as I took their picture sitting on the rocks. I explained to them that I only smelled dead but was still quite alive. They left without a reply. I always wanted to see the world from buzzard places so went out onto the rocks and had lunch where the vulchers had been sitting. The view was quite nice. I knew the birds sat there a lot because the outer portion of the ledge was stained white. The trail was very rocky most of the day and there were several places where the trail was on large flat slabs of rock. I was grateful that the rocks were dry as the slabs were angled down toward the side of the mountain. I thought they must be quite slippery when they were wet. I got to the shelter at 2:30 and Ben arrived at 3:30. I hadn't unpacked because we had discussed the possibility of continuing on to get closer to Bland our destination for tomorrow night, and we in fact decided to camp along the trail. We set out for a listed campsite six miles away at 4:30 after eating an early dinner. The trail was primarily downhill and well groomed and I got to the campsight at 6:30, three miles per hour for this section. It was getting dark and Ben had not yet showed up so I grabbed my coat, a bottle of water, and my headlamp to begin backtracking to find him. His headlight batteries had died a few days ago and I knew if it got dark he could get in trouble. I had told him that if it gets dark to sit in the middle of the trail so I could find him. The last part of our hike for the day was along a river and on a road for a half mile. It was while I was walking along the road I finally heard him yelling for me and answered. He had crossed the river prematurely and was on the far hillside. We kept yelling to one another until I could see him and got back together. We went to camp and got his tent set up just before dark. There was trail magic at the campsite a cooler with ice and Gatoraide. Bed came shortly after getting back to the campsite. Could hear a bat flying around outside the tent as I went to sleep.See you on the trail.Nice Lenses
Date: 2009-05-20
From: Bland, VA Big Walker Motel

To: Jenny Knob Shelter
Miles today: 12.1
Weather: clear sky

Dairy Queen for early breakfast and back to the motel to see Debbie off to the bus station. She was at ease with her decision to leave the trail. More so than most I have watched go through the same process. I am happy for her for that. We were getting a ride from the same fellow that was driving Debbie so we waited the hour for him to get back and set out for the trailhead. There was a narrow spine of land between the steep drop off to the highway and the exit ramp and the trail went along that spine for a couple hundred yards. Road walked a mile and finally got into the forest and immediately began a good long climb to the ridge where we were for most of the rest of the day. There were some more ladies slippers and lots of grape vines along this section. We had a most entertaining lunch where we witnessed a lot of black butterflies doing some kind of aerial butterfly show. Many would come in from different directions and all would ascend in a blurry, fluttering, circle dance until they all went in different directions. Repeat numerous times. I wondered if it had anything to do with their mating cycles, non the less it was a beautiful display, and I watched it for an hour before pressing on with the hike. The trail on top was fairly even with rolling ups and downs. We made pretty good time on this easy walking section. Along the way a turkey went up amidst squawking and running and eventuall made it off the ground. It startled me quite a bit as I got fairly close before it took off. Saw some deer shortly after that and they let me get close before raising the white flags and running off.We were the only two at the shelter, and I like it with fewer people around.See you on the trail.Nice Lenses
Date: 2009-05-21
From: Jenny Knob Shelter

To: Wapiti Shelter
Miles today: 14.2
Weather: clear sky

This was a beautiful day weather wise. Cool, dry air, sunny most of the day, until late afternoon. Hiking was comfortable in this regard. I don't like being the first on the trail. There are always lots of cobwebs first thing in the morning. Today I felt like I had walked through the cotton candy machine at the carnival. I repeatedly had to stop and get the webs off my face, head, legs, and arms. Nothing serious just annoying. The morning hike had more poison ivy along, and on, the trail than I had seen. The trail wasn't wide enough to avoid it, as much as I tried. I often carried my poles to avoid planting them in the ivy. I didn't have much to combat the oils that make you break out so I rubbed myself down with my purell sanitizer when I finally got out of that section.After crossing a river on a pretty suspension bridge, we came out on a road. that had a small diner (Trent"s Diner) a half mile away. You know that we had to hike that to eat something besides trail food. A philly chesse steak (no resemblance to the real kind) fries, and a cheese burger later we hiked the half mile back down the road and got back to hiking. There was a waterfall listed in the handbook two miles up the trail and .3 mile off the trail. I took the time to follow the side trail and went to the falls. It was Dismal Falls. That was its name, Dismal Falls on the Dismal River. It was a pretty falls but not as much of a drop as some of the other falls we had seen. On the plus side, there was a lot of water flowing and it was loud. I was glad I went because I am a sucker for a good waterfall and it was worth the extra half mile round trip.Saw a lot of deer between the falls and the shelter. There we no distant views along the trail today and not just because the leaves had come out and covered them. It was still a pretty walk though. I was the first to the shelter followed by Ben a short while later. We thought we would be the only people at the site again tonight but just before dusk more showed up although they all tented so we had the shelter to our selves again. I washed all exposed areas with my Dr. Bronners Pepperment Soap as another precaution against getting a poison ivy rash. Hope it works. I was still sort of full from lunch so I didn't cook tonight. Just some snack food. Got the food hung and was just about to crawl into my bag when I noticed some color behind the shelter. I found a small clearing and watched the first sunset I had seen in quite a while. Grey Squirrel would have liked to have seen it, and maybe she did back on our deck in Colorado. I hope so.See you on the trail.Nice Lenses
Date: 2009-05-22
From: Wapiti Shelter

To: Woods Hole Hostel
Miles today: 6.2
Weather: clear sky

It was warmer overnight and when we awoke this morning. We had heard a lot of good things about the Woods Hole Hostel and wanted to stay there for the night. Up at 6:30 and on the trail by 7:30. Hiked uphill most of the morning until I left the trail at the road and hiked downhill to the hostel. Got there at 11:45. Got a tour from Neville and had pizza for lunch. I signed up for the community supper, which tonight was spaghetti and homemade garlic bread with a big tossed salad, which I made as part of the community theme. I also got on the list for the breakfast tomorrow morning. Both Neville and Michael, our hosts were massage therapists so I signed up for a massage too. The homestead was interesting and they were working hard to make upgrades.There was a solar shower outside and I have always enjoyed an outdoor shower. Shower, massage, homemade dinner, now thats good hiking. Everything on the honor system. They don't have credit card capability yet so they bill you and you send them the money from the next town if you don't have enough cash with you.The ladder to the bunk area above the barn was narrow and you had to take off your pack and pass it up to get it to the bunkhouse. There were several mattresses on the floor all with plastic standard coverings.The massage from Neville was wonderful and she did a remarkable job of staying away from my ribs.House policy was lights out at 10:00 as a courtesy to other guests. You could go to the common area below the loft if you wanted to read or needed lights for something else.See you on the trail.Nice Lenses