morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-05-14
To: Last day
Miles today: 0.0

Well we wake up and have the continental breakfast. I had forgotten that the Trans continental bike trail comes through this way and the Virginia Creeper Trail draws a lot of bikers around here. There was people that had there bikes in the lobby of the hotel and in there spandex just rolling their bikes around like it was nothing.   We got to trail days early before the rush and got a good parking spot. Started looking at all the booths and I was quickly thinking of buying some new gear. My parents were genorous and bought me a Hammock, It is really comfortable and I am taking that verses my tent cause of the weight and space it takes in my pack. Plus it will be better to sleep in the air than on the hard ground some times. My back does bother me sometimes. Then I bought a new sleeping bag, mine was a 20 degree bag and a lot of people said that I should switch to about a 40 degree bag so I did. My mom bought a Acteryx pullover fleece, it is really nice. she said that if it turns out she doesn't like it she will give it to me, we can only hope. I bought a pair of rubber shoes called croc's or something like that. EVERYONE was wearing them and I saw them in the columbus outfitter I always went to but they had a very selected inventory on them. My mom bought a wood trash can thing, its kinda cool made out of all kinds of different wood. We watched the hiker parade down the center of Damascus, prolly about 300 hikers in it. I saw one guy that I hiked with a month ago here. He has hiked to Harpers Ferry WV which is 530 miles north of here. He got a ride back to trail days with a friend somehow. there was so many hikers here today, tents everywhere and RVS. They had a Homemade gear contest, It was interesting. One guy made a camera, like took his 35mm camera apart and mounted it in a wood box or something and machined some new parts for it or something like that, another guy made a Ham Radio about the size half of a Big Mac box. It was really neat how it worked, he could hear the people talking but he would talk to them in morse code and he had a 30 wire antenna that he would throw up in a tree for reception, it was powered buy a battery. another guy made his own clothing out of sil nylon which is really lite weight stuff and made his own sleeping bag too and put down material into it. I really had a good day with my parents and I just can't thank them enough for all that they have done for me. The hotel here has a computer for everyone to use so thats nice. Its 930 and I am gonna go finish packing and getting ready.   next 4 day plans are as follows. sunday night Lost mnt shelter. monday night Wise shelter. tuesday I need to hike into troutdale to pick up a package at the post office, dont know where im staying that night, might try to get into town and out kinda quick if I can get a ride, then go to trimpi shelter. wednesday to partnership shelter to have pizza delivered to the shelter Todd
Date: 2005-05-15
From: Damascus

To: Lost mountain shelter
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: moderate rain

hiking hours 10:30-4:30 Woke up in the nice warm bed at the quality Inn in Abingdon VA. Ate breakfast and got ready and headed for Damascus. We went to the Baptist Church at 9:00, where there was only 12 people there, was kinda weird only being 12 there. I think everyone there thanked my parents and me 3 times each for coming and asked us if we were going to come back. So after church it was raining, I still decided to wear my sandels with socks, put on my raincoat and pack cover over my pack, hugged my parents goodbye and left them for my 6 month adventure through the Appalachain Mountains. The trail followed the virginia Creeper trail for a couple hundred yards then split off into the wild woods. I met sleevless a 60 yr old and is a thru hiker. Her feet hurt and was debating wether to go back to town for another day off the trail or not. I convinced her to keep going. I quickly passes her with my stupid high pace I like to keep. I passed a lot of hikers, then one guy passed me. So I followed him for awhile. I followed him for a few miles. I passed a couple section hikers going slow up some switchbacks( switchbacks are trails that go zig zag up the hill instead of straight up the hill. I caught up to a older gentleman called buzz. I hiked with him till we got to the shelter, he seems to be a wealthy man cause he took a 4 day seminar taught by warren doyle who has thru hiked 12 times. It cost buzz $400 for the class. i got to the shelter and there were 2 guys there. Hammer and Tiny Dancer About 9 of us here tonight, I set my hammock up and one guy started a fire. Gonna go to sleep now, feel pretty good today, shoulders hurt a little from the pack and feet feel pretty good.
Date: 2005-05-16
From: Lost mountain shelter

To: Wise Shelter
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Hiked from 650 to 350 Hammock was very comfortable, but my feet were cold last night. I think I will sleep in socks tonight. started hiking by myself, listened to my mp3 player a little bit. It felt good getting out early by myself. I hiked with Hammer a good bit today about 4 hrs. then we stopped at Thomas Knob Shelter for a long lunch. Six 2 and RAJ came up and all 4 of us hiked till we got to wise shelter. during this time we hiked through the grayson highlands, where there are wild ponies and just absolutly beautiful views of the mountains. We fed the ponies some trail mix and raj tried to put his pack on one of the ponies and use it as a pack pony. Saw a lot of hikers today, 6 of us in the shelter tonight. about 10 people passed the shelter to camp out a little bit out of the state park. me and six 2 might stay in troutdale tommorrow night at the hostel there. its 20 miles to trimpi shelter and I don't know if I can make it or not I do not want to push myself too much. I soaked my feet in the river for about 10 mins tonight, the water was soooo cold. going to sleep now.   I miss everyone so much.
Date: 2005-05-17
From: Wise Shelter

To: Dickey Gap (troutdale) 
Miles today: 16.1

I left the shelter first about 6:50 and soon Hammer passed me, then six 2 and I walked together the rest of the day. we caught up with hammer, he had to stop to dig a cathole. took a break at old orchard shelter. feet started hurting more, just from the wear and tear on them. Met up with RAJ and hammer and six 2 at hurricane shelter for lunch. RAJ had bad sinus problems so he snorted some cayenne pepper, he had read somewwhere that it helps?.... I wouldnt do it. Hammer and RAJ took off and me and six 2 hiked to dickey gap to hitch a ride into troutdale, 20 mins later we got a ride so we didnt have to walk the extra 3 miles into town. got dropped off by the pastor of the baptist church where we were planning on staying tonight at the Troutdale trading post. six 2 had a huge appetite and ate 2 huge fish sandwiches and fries. I had a 1/2 lb cheeseburger and we both drank DR. Pepper till it was coming out of our ears. that was about 2 pm when we ate our late lunch. we went up to the baptist church took showers and did laundry, I called my parents and rachel. phone laundry and showers were free so that was very nice. they only took donations, The trans american bike path goes right through town, so there was about 8 bikers there staying the night, and like 6 of us hikers staying the night. we went down to eat again at like 8, six 2 ate another 2 sandwiches, fried pickles, and more fries. I had the cheeseburger again. I called my parents and rachel again. I tended to my sore feet and went to bed.
Date: 2005-05-18
From: Dickey Gap (troutdale) 

To: Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: broken clouds

Feet hurt so bad when we started hiking this morning, walking very very slow. hurts really bad when we walk downhill, Six 2 explained shin splints to me, I had never had them before. Hopefully they will be gone within a couple of days. Passed GRUMP a thruhiker hes older and doesnt talk much and has a hug pack prolly weighing about 70 lbs. I always pass him sitting down. Wasnt too bad hiking today the trail was pretty level and the day seemed to fly by. Got to Partnership shelter, Hammer and RAJ were already there eating pizza and wings. this shelter is very nice, shower, phone, pizza. me six 2 and this other guy oredered pizza,. this shelter is one of a kind, there are no other shelters like this one. about 15 people in the shelter tonight men and women. six 2 gave me my trail name tonight, LIVESTRONG he is calling me cause I have two of the lance armstrong wristbands on. pretty uneventful night, just sitting around talking with everyone. called rachel and talked with my dad a little bit. trying to make arrangments for when rachel can come see me.
Date: 2005-05-19
From: Partnership Shelter

To: Relax Inn 
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: broken clouds

Woke up in Partnership shelter, got a early start of about 7:30. Hiking was not very difficult today. there was just a couple steep ups and downs. we got to the I-81 intersection and we ran into a couple trail angels. they were going to wyethville to look for socks so we asked if we could go and look for shoes. So we went to the outfitter there and they did not have many shoes so we went to a sporting goods store. I bought a pair of new balance shoes, we got back to the hotel and me and six 2 decided to stay the night so we could rest and relax for the night. We ordered pizza and got some beer, just sat around all night talking. talked on the phone a lot tonight, kind feel like I wasted a day but ohh well I will hopefully be doing better next week. Rachel and her mother are coming down for the weekend, I am looking forward to seeing them.
Date: 2005-05-20
From: Relax Inn 

To: knot maul shelter
Miles today: 13.9
Weather: light rain

Slept in today at the hotel, Ate left over pizza for breakfast. Just messed around in the hotel till 10, got packed up and left by 11. It's hard leaving town, especially when you pass a dairy queen and two gas stations. started hiking and passed the davis path shelter. Hiked about 14 miles today. shins felt really good going uphill about the first 4 miles. then 4 miles of downhill killed me. being out of ibuprofen isnt a good thing either, rained pretty much all day. my soap leaked today and got some stuff all soapy. 8 of us atthe shelter made for 6. 7 guys 1 girl, all of us are 20-30 yrs old besides one guy called G.R.U.M.P. which stands for great retired united methodist preacher. He is 65 and has a 60 lb pack. He lost a boot the other day and someone found it and gave it back. had the zatarina beans and rice for supper and added some chicken and some olive oil for calories, then salt and papper and creole. bought some tortillas in town so made some awesome burritos. didnt bring hot sauce casuse I think I need to slow down on the hot sauce. Lot of nice Hikers out here, Tommorrow is the last day I will see six 2 on his section hike I will prolly see him further up the trail doing trail magic hopefully.Sorry for typographical errors, misspelled words, and puncuation mistakes. there are waiting lists for the computers so my time is very limited that I can be on the computer.
Date: 2005-05-21
From: knot maul shelter

To: bland
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

woke up at 7 and hiked 2 miles back down to us 42. so I actually lost miles for the day. started hitching to get to bland cause rachel and her mom paula were coming to see me. some trail maintainers drove by and offered me a ride 3 miles up the road so I could get passed this big dog who almost ate me. so now I am 15 miles from bland and start walking down the road. In 30 mins only 4 cars passed me. the 4th person was a 85 yr old retired military man who told me who lived in all the 100's of houses we passed on the way to bland. got to bland and met dirty hairy from chicago who actually knew me from talking to some other people. he has been hiking with hammer and raj. who are now about 40 miles ahead of me. went to breakfast with him and then I hiked back to where rachel was going to meet me they arrived and they were hungry so we went and ate again. checked into the hotel dropped my gear and started driving to white top mnt. got to white top and started hiking .7 miles to buzzard rock. rachel and paula got mad at me cause they thought it was .7 total instead of both ways. beautiful view once again and they were happy they came, and were soon not upset. drove to partnership shelter to show them a shelter. about 30 people there . some trail angels had keg's there and were cooking burgers and dogs. went back to the hotel, then rachel and I went to ruby tuesdays where I had 4 plates of the salad bar and a 1 lb cheseburger that was literally too big to even take a bite of. then we split 1/4 gallon of ice cream and cake. went to wally world (wal mart) and picked up a couple things I neeed went back to the hotel and talked till about 1 in the morning then went to bedNo miles today but got to see my beautiful girl
Date: 2005-05-22
From: bland

To: jenkins shelter
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: clear sky

woke up in the hotel, It felt good to get a shower and clean clothes. rachel and I went to subway for breakfast. subway omelets are horrible I think. Went back to the hotel and packed everything up. left at 9:30 for the 30 min ride to the trail. took a few last pics, turned away and started hiking. I stopped out of their sight and felt like running to them and saying wait stop take me with you, but I didnt took about a 30 min break at knot maul shelter. started hiking , missing hiking with six 2 which I had done for the last 5 days. trugged up the 5 mile hill of no downhills at all, got to chestnut knob shelter. I wanted to do more than 9 miles today so I kept walking. plus It was really cold on top of that mnt. ran out of water, the streams were all dry. got to jenkins shelter about 8 , set up my hammock, cooked and went to bed. rained tonight so gonna have a wet hammock to carry, did 21 miles today even though 19 only counts cause of the backtracking I did to go see rachel. sign in the shelter said free breakfast 5 miles up the trail at a road crossing at 9:30, earlier in the day i was walking by myself and i was thinking about why I havnt seen a snake. just then I saw a 5 foot snake skin, It scared me and I jumped back.
Date: 2005-05-23
From: jenkins shelter

To: unnamed ridge
Miles today: 17.8

woke up at 6 left at 6:30 for the 5 mile trek to the free breakfast. got to the road crossing at 8:30 waited with masa - a japaneese kid who came here from japan to hike the rail. about 6 of us were waiting when the shuttle came. ladies from 3 churches combined and made pancakes, biscuits+gravy, omelet caserol, pineapple caserol, and they had OJ milk coffee and tea. Doughnuts and sausage too,. all you can eat for free it was very nice. got back to the trail and started hiking in front of masa I was 5 mins in front of him and i came around a corner, there was a 150-200 lb black bear on the trail. It ran ran up the hill about 30 yards and stopped. so I walked back down the trail and masa started blowing his whistle i showed the bear to masa and we just kept walking had to follow a road about 2 miles and cross over I-77. we stopped and watched as people would wave and i thought about how those people think their lives are so busy and how I am so happy to be out here in the woods. got to helveys mill shelter at 3, cooked supper then packed up and headed up the trail again. hiked about 4 miles and stopped and got my hammock out that was still wet from the night before. there was a rainstorm coming in so I hun my backpack in the tree and then highspped joe came and joined me in my campsite, rained for a good 2 hours poured.   I got wet cause I set my hammmock up wrong. slept horrible
Date: 2005-05-24
From: unnamed ridge

To: wapiti shelter
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: light rain

woke up at 5:30 and started packing didnt wake joe up. started hiking at 6:30 got to jenny knob shelter, proffesor and low bridge were still there so I talked with them. then stayed there about 1 1/2 hr updating my journal. rained almost all day, went over this really cool suspension bridge, no picture cause of the rain. listened to my mp3 player all day, hiked alone all day. stopped at dismal falls, small waterfall took 30 min break. feet wet all day long. got to wapiti shelter, cooked and straight to bed.
Date: 2005-05-25
From: wapiti shelter

To: pearisburg
Miles today: 16.2
Weather: overcast clouds

woke up late got hiking at about 7:45 passed peas and cheeks who were at the shelter last night . saw some nice views. stopped at docs knob shelter for lunch hiked with papa ratzi for about 7 miles, passed a coule nice views along the way. had a horrible 2 mile downhill of about 2000 feet. got into town and low bridge caught up to us. we started walking to the hotel and got picked up by a lady in a minivan even though it was only 1 mile from the hotel. we didnt wanna walk that far. got the room took showers and went to the sports bar in the hotel. went back to the room and gathered laundry up and went to the laundrymat was there till 9:30 also we watched jeopordy and saw ken jennings loose. LOL I thought it was funny he got crushed. went to bed about 11
Date: 2005-05-27
From: pearisburg

To: pine swamp branch shelter
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: overcast clouds

woke up at 7:30 at the hostel, started packing up. some hikers downstairs was cooking biscuits and gravy and eggs. It smelled so good. talked to rachel for a little bit. got a ride to the post office to mail some postcards out. then walked to the trail head about a mile down the road. started hiking with snowyman, o'conner, thumper and vapors. we stopped for a break and thumpper had sat her pack on a huge red ant hill. then a copperhead about 2 feet long came out of trhe rock that tumper had sat her pack on. got to the first shelter , didnt know if i was going to go on or not stayed at the shelter for 2 hrs then started hiking again passed a army guy wearing long pants and a long sleeve camo shirt. he kinda freaked me and grateful out so I hiked with her for awhile so I made sure she was safe got to the shelter and cooked then thumper and o'conner came looking for snowyman us 4 went to this house about .3 miles away this guy mike had a hot tub and all kinds of food he showed me how to set up my hammock better didnt gegt in the hot tub just went to bed after watching the news on t.v.   long day but worth it.   trail magic is when somone goes out of there way to do nice things for hikers , like give them rides into town, free drinks or food,
Date: 2005-05-28
From: pine swamp branch shelter

To: warspur shelter
Miles today: 12.7
Weather: light rain

woke up at 9:00 LOL. slept great in my hammock, thumper, o'conner, snowyman and vapors left about 9:30 gratful, section hiker and turbo joe came into the house about 10. mike martha and naoni started cooking hamburgers, hotdogs we had all the condiments, chips beer, pop, cookies, we had a wonderful lunch , took off about 12 hiked about 2 mile then a bridge was out so we had to ford across it (about the size of hocking river). hiked uphill about 2 mile to the next shelter stopped to take a break, grateful and turbo joe showed up. we pushed onto the next shelter. 5 mile b4 the shelter there was a road crossing and somoone was doing trail magic there pop candy suckers brownies almond joys and reese cups. then hiked 5 mile to the shelter a father and son was here. the son gave me a can of cooked chicken which ill eat for supper tommoorrow, ate supper and the father son started a fire. they gave me some summer sausage we sat around and talked for a cple hours before I go to bed every night I always think about what everone I know was doing. I think about my parents my bro and sisters. rachel comes across my mind a lot thoughout the day I always wonder what I would do if she was leaving for 6 months. going to go to bed now I hope my journals are entertaining for you all sitting in your nice warm beds and warmhouses. LOL bye bye
Date: 2005-05-29
From: warspur shelter

To: niday shelter
Miles today: 18.2
Weather: overcast clouds

day 15   got up about 7 and started hiking with insanely grateful hiked about 2 1/2 mile and there was trail magic just soda's but still we had just walked 2 mile uphill so it was nice to get a nice cold drink. got to laurel creek shelter and took a break within the next 3-4 miles we had to cross hike 7 stiles. came upon rte 42 and there was a 123 pk of cherry coke on the other side of the road at there with grateful and turbo joe and drank more pop.   there was a bike race going down rte 42 so that was pretty cool.   got to the keffer oak tree it is a large white oak tree that is 18 ft around its said that the tree is 300 yrs old passed a couple old out of shape section hikers that asked me twice how far it was to the road where their car was. I had 7 miles to go to the next shelter and was out of water so I walked .3 miles to a shelter down a steep hill on a side trail. once I got down there some day hiers were there they offered me a glass of wine and I accepted made small talk with them, filled my water and headed on to the next shelter my left thigh started hurting really bad, I arrived at niday shelter there was a lot of people there about 15 of us. I met cricket and lismat cricket had a guitar. professor starteed playing and turbojoe was playing the harmonica. professor reminds me a lot of my roommate jason because he likes a lot of older music. to bed by 10
Date: 2005-05-30
From: niday shelter

To: dragons tooth
Miles today: 14.1

started hiking with professor and papa razzi hiked about 3 mile gained about 1500 ft elevation. a very tough climb for me. on top of this hill there was a memorial. the Audie Murphy memorial, Audie was in WW2 and he was the most decorated betern ever. he died in a plane crash where the memorial was in 1971. called rachel before I came down off the big hill, came to a road crossing and there was a creek that I soaked my feet in. we had to get water here because we were hiking 5 miles to dragons tooth and there was no water between the two. so I carried about 7 lbs of water 5 miles. professor has done this section b4 and he said it was a gradual uphill but this was steep. got to dragons tooth. dragons tooth is a big hill where there are big rocks about 150' tall that kinda look like dragon teeth. you can climb all the way up which I did, only about 2 feet space to walk with 150' dropoffs on both sides is kina scary went down and set up camp cooked cleaned up and was going to watch the sunset but couldnt see it cause clouds were in the way. professor played some phish on the guitar along with some other good bands.
Date: 2005-05-31
From: dragons tooth

To: lamberts meadow shelter
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: scattered clouds

woke up at 5:40 limbed up the rocks to watch the sunrise , beautiful sunrise, pics soon!!!   broke down camp and left at 6:30 walked 2 mile to a road crossing and there was a gas station .4 miles down the road. went there got some breakfast sandwiches and milk. then got a couple last min items for supper that night. today was going to be a great day saw the sunrise and saw mcafee knob. mcafee knob is the #1 most pic taken spot on the whole AT. left the gas station and started the 6 mile climb to mcafee knob. we passed 3 shelters within like 3.5 miles apart. got to mcafee knob and took about a 2 hr break   could see roanoke from up there and tinker cliffs aired out our feet and had snacks left mcafee knob and hiked with papa razzi   passed the last water source for 7 mile I had half a liter. I should have filled up but I am stubborn so I didnt. got to tinker cliffs which is a cliff that runs along a ridge line didnt stop there kept going onto lamberts shelter . got there got water cooked. had a 1/2 lb extra pasta and half can of spaghetti sauce so lowbridge cooked it up and ate it went to bed early like 9:30