morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-04-26
From: Tom Floyd Wayside

To: Front Royal, VA.
Miles today: 2.9
Weather: overcast clouds

The intense Army guy hikes out early into the fog. I have already decided to do 3 miles to the road and get a room in Front Royal, VA. tonite. I'm in no hurry, but the fog stays and makes everything damp and clammy. By noon I've had enough and 30 minutes hiking gets me out of the layer of fog that bedeviled Tom Floyd Hut while I was there. "Spike" hikes in looking for Bono (he's 5 days ahead by now). She should be called the "hiking carrot" because her pack cover is orange and huge. From the back, she looks like a walking carrot. I catch a ride pretty easy on US522 into Front Royal and soon have a room, a shower, 8 cheeseburgers, a 40 oz. bottle of beer, and giant fries. I settle in to call folks and find out how the war against Iraq is going.
Date: 2003-04-27
From: Front Royal, VA.

To: Jim & Molly Denton Shelter
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: clear sky

In the a.m. I do laundry. Stuff was getting sticky. A few coffees and I'm resupplied at K-Mart and get another ride bact to the A.T. from a man who rehabilitates wildlife locally, name of Robert L. Bolt. Thanks, Guy. It's rained during the nite and 1/4 mile of the A.T. is a quagmire, but once you're up to your ankles in slop, what does it matter. Meet "Poppa Bear" coming southbound. He's even older 'n slower than me! We exchange info on water and shelters and I'm on to Jim & Molly Denton Shelter. "Leg Brace" and "Sherpa Dude" are laid up taking a break, and I get a pic. Sherpa Dude is a paid employee of Leg Brace and they are trying to do this section on candy bars only. No stove, no carbohydrates. Leg Brace wonders why he's so flat every afternoon about 1:00? I give 'em a quick primer on the importance of good nutrition while hiking. Also, a thumbnail on Texas Jack's view of the world and they waste no time in waving bye-bye. They both have huge packs and I guess Leg Brace is paying Sherpa Dude 24 hrs. a day to schlep stuff for him. The last employee quit the job after the "Rollercoaster" and Leg Brace's wife brought him a replacement. The Sherpa Dude says that hiking the A.T. for $$ sure beats working his regular factory job, but he's only been out for a couple of days. They really need to get a stove and some noodles and mashed potatoes (according to me, of course). I wander around and dig up some white daffodils to bring back to Texas with me. Take a pic of the flowers and what I deem to be the "Worlds most perfect Adirondac Chair" and will look at the pic and make one when I get home. It's almost dark when a group of 3 hauls in. A husband and wife (whose names I can't remember) and '03 Snakecharmer. They've come northbound from Springer doing 20's and 25's. They are all lean and muscle and in their 40's. (She's probably a distance runner). Just a bit later "The Girls" and a couple of guys come in and begin to cook in the dark by headlamp. Someone's built a fire and we sit about and tell hiker stories about who's ahead, who's behind, and who's off the trail. They are all sad to hear about See Blue getting off to go see Roxy, but everyone knows he's mad in love. I Yogi a couple bites of fudge brownie mixed with peanut butter (yuummm...good!) and we're down for the nite.
Date: 2003-04-28
From: Jim & Molly Denton Shelter

To: Manassas Gap Shelter
Miles today: 5.5
Weather: clear sky

Everyone is up at lst light (except me). I peek out from under the cover and watch them all slam Pop Tarts and simultaneously run off into the fog. Amazing. Dangerous things those Pop Tarts! Only have to do five + miles today and I take my sweet time and am on the Trail by 9:00 a.m. It's fairly easy hiking, but I'm glad to finally be at Manassas Gap Shelter where I find some Rice-A-Roni Trail Magic someone left. (Also, lots of beer bottles and other trash which I also leave). It's nice weather and I enjoy the nite by myself.
Date: 2003-04-29
From: Manassas Gap Shelter

To: Rod Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 13.4
Weather: light rain

I wake up to find "Motel Guy" hiking in. Every morning his wife drops him off at a road and he hikes 6 or 7 hours and she picks him up at the next road. Then they go to a restaurant for a good meal and a motel for the nite. In the morning, they do it again. He started hiking in 2002 from Springer and damaged his knees to the point where his Dr. told him he couldn't hike anymore. So this is his solution. Hike with only a day pack and spend every nite in a motel. (Everyone gots to hike their own hike, I guess). I'm not quite ready and Motel Guy strolls off ahead of me. I take an extra 5-10 min. then try to catch up, but to no avail. He's hiking faster than I am, knees or no. It's mostly downhill and I'm glad because I have to do 13 + miles today to get me to Rod Hollow Shelter. I'm just coming into Ashby Gap when I catch up to Motel Guy and I mooch a ride to Doc's BBQ at the bottom of the hill. "Good Food, Cheap" is the $elling point. I have a cheeseburger with fries, a BBQ beef and a couple of beers and take a load off my knees for an hour or so. Oh, one happy note. See Blue hiked out of the woods as I was getting in the car. Guess Roxy was OK. It's too early for him to stop and I'm sure he wants to catch up to The Girls and Sugar Buzz and Snakecharmer as he had spent several weeks hiking with them from Springer. (Just a traveling Social Club, don't 'cha know?) Guess I'll see him down the Trail. After the restaurant, I have to walk a mile back to the A.T. and then a long, slow hump up the Mtn. to Rod Hollow Shelter. (If I hadn't gone to eat, I could have done the mythical "20" today). There's a couple of guys there already. A Canuk and a Brit. The Canadian is headed north and has hiked with the Springer Social Club, but has fallen behind. The Brit is doing a 200 mile section from Harpers Ferry and has been planning and training for this for at least a year. They are both nice guys and there's good natured banter and agitation amongst the 3 of us. It's times like this when I really enjoy being out here. I lull the Brit to sleep with tales of bears and poisonous snakes attacking sleeping hikers (heh, heh), neither of which, I am sure, he knows anything about!
Date: 2003-04-30
From: Rod Hollow Shelter

To: Bear's Den Hostel
Miles today: 9.9
Weather: broken clouds

Bright and early, everyone is gone and I have to deal with "The Roller Coaster" in order to get to Bear's Den Hostel (where I am now). I only have to do 1/2 of it, but I'm told it's the hardest 1/2. It's a series of l7 ups and downs totaling about 5,000 ft. elevation, but the Hostel is worth it. The lst hill takes me from the swampy creek, where I see bear tracks, to the top of the Skyline Drive. The place is fantastic! Grampie told me not to miss it. Everyone said not to miss it. So here I am. I slammed down 3 soda pops and a pint of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream when I first got here. Then laundry. Everything was soaked in sweat and salt!
Date: 2003-05-01
From: Bear's Den Hostel

To: Bear's Den Hostel
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

A good nite between sheets and a couple of pots of coffee & I'm watching the fog drift by outside the windows of this "Crystal Palace" converted to a hiker hostel. Got to get some pics of this. More later...inertia gets the best of me. I take a zero day and listen to tales of the A.T. told by a couple of resident "mossback" thru hikers, one of whom, John Killum, has forotten more A.T. stories than I could ever tell. He's been a volunteer for years and is in all the work pictures of the PATC cabin renovations from what seems like forever. I meet a Texas lady on her way out to hike the Pacific Crest Trail with her husband. Everyone in the place is invited to s spread laid out and cooked by an incoming hiking group and we all fill up on food that would make a fire station cook proud! Rice-A-Roni and chicken breast baked in peaches and more rice and a great green salad with sweet tea. The new group has gotten together to hike The Roller Coaster, a series of vexing little ridges between the Rod Hollow Shelter and the Blackburn A.T. Center. They are abuzz with chit-chat bit I tell a story or two when needed. I go to sleep full & happy, ready to get going again.
Date: 2003-05-02
From: Bear's Den Hostel

To: Blackburn A.T. Center
Miles today: 7.9
Weather: overcast clouds

Got to go, but first, the hikers from the nite before insist on making everyone breakfast and I'm invited. Who could say no? So, I load up one more time and head out to face about 8 miles of misery, baked in an A.T. oven. Later, I meet Jack, the Trail boss for the ATC who, according to him, is single handedly responsible for the creation of this piece of torture mascarading as fun. I've sucked up all my water in the first 2 miles and there's 6 more to do before I finally stumble into the Blackburn A.T. Center You would have thought I was the "prodigal son" returning home. The caretakers currently for the Blackburn A.T. are Bill (an '84 thru hiker), his wife Sarah and their precocious daughter Kai, who is about l8 months (maybe a bit less). They practically adopted me on the spot. In less time than it takes to tell, Bill and I were on our way over to meet the world's #1 Trail Angel, Betty, and she has a T-shirt to prove it! This lady is a caregiver and a nurse from way back and these days she mostly bakes up homemade goodies to give away to passing hikers, and she liked big 'uns. After I hugged her and told her a few hiker stories, she was reconsidering whether she just might like to have a man around the house. I escaped from that place with a sack full of 2 ham & cheese sandwiches, another Amish Bread (they gave me the first one over at Bear's Den) and 3 different kinds of homemade cookies. She didn't give Bill that much, but he hadn't hugged her with the same enthusiasm that I had shown her. She was an absolute sweetie, broken hip and all. Her only concession to the hip was that she now carried around only 25 lb. sacks of flour instead of her earlier 50 lb. sacks. I'm telling you, this woman used up 50 lbs. of flour a week making goodies to give away to such as me. She's #1 Trail Angel in my book! Later on, back at the A.T. Center, Bill suggests that I stay another day and help with some work around the place. How can I refuse? Especially since Sarah has just whipped up a great garlic bread and spaghetti dinner, also free gratis for thru hikers. I don't seem to be losing as much weight this year as I did in '01. I wonder why? Me and another guy spend the nite in the hiker bunkhouse and listen to it rain...again.
Date: 2003-05-03
From: Blackburn A.T. Center

To: Blackburn A.T. Center
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

I can't believe it. Bill brings us coffee in bed. Absolutely priceless! Does everyone rate this kind of treatment? Myself and the other guy join the ranks of 4 or 5 other volunteers who are cleaning out and renovating a combination garage, shop, bunkhouse there at the Center. We all put in a good day's work and the Trail boss Jack's girlfriend arrives to help Sarah put together a vegetarian eggplant parmesan lasagna that was so good you couldn't have bought it in a restaurant. After the meal, me and the other guy do dishes and listen to the discussion of the current state of A.T. affairs and stories of a volunteer trail maintainer who had dropped dead while working on a work detail a few miles away (more on that later). Once more, we sack out in the bunkhouse for a good nite's rest. Thank you Lord, for days like this one.
Date: 2003-05-04
From: Blackburn A.T. Center

To: Harper's Ferry
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: overcast clouds

No more 'Mr. Nice Guy'. I have to get to Harper's Ferry. Bill offers to slack pack me (that's where you actually hike your miles without a pack and someone brings it to you, or you to it, later.) I've hiked 1,100 miles, but never slack-packed an inch. I said sure. Sounds good to me. (People who do this a lot just love it.) Bill told me to give him a call wherever I was going to stay and he would bring my pack to me. When I took off to do 12 miles into Harper's well, for the 1st 4 miles I thought I was flying! No one told me it could be this easy. It was all downhill and the wind was in my hair! I could fall in love with hiking without a 40 lb. pack. I did 12 miles in 5 hours and spent 2 hrs. wandering around looking for anything like a 7-11 or a McDonalds. Sure enough, the books are right. There is no civilization in Harper's Ferry, only historical sites. I liked to have died before I found a Mountain Dew. Then I found the Hilltop Hotel, and things got better. A southbound section hiker had mentioned that the Hilltop had a buffet that, tho pricey, was the only convenient place to eat anywhere around. It was true. Well, I had gotten a hiker rate on the room, so I paid too much for the buffet and tried to get my $$ worth. The coffee was good and I wandered around this run-down old "House of mirrors" hotel where every corridor looked exactly like every other. I didn't care. A norther blew in and rain & wind made me glad for the clean sheets. Bill brought me my pack and we sat together in the dining room and reckoned as how things were pretty good for the two of us in this part of the world. Bill, Sarah, and Kai, they're 1st class folks, who I'd like to see again sometime. Maybe I will. I hope. I can't help but think that Bill and I could be friends. Maybe we already are.
Date: 2003-05-05
From: Harper's Ferry

To: Harper's Ferry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Well, I meant well, but I have to go to the A.T. Center in town and I finally join up and get my pic taken as an official '03 ATC hiker for "The Book" and who should I meet in the ATC Center but friends from my '01 hike, namely Sleepy Jean and Ankle Bear! I was surprised, but glad to see 'em and they had their daughters bring 'em down so they could hike Maryland together as they had stayed in touch and hiked sections of the Trail together since they had met up in '01. I mentioned the Hilltop as being a place you could get something to eat in this God forsaken archeological preserve called Harper's Ferry and then I was off to the outfitters to see if I could get a new pair of shoes (old ones are shot), a new air mattress and some rain gear that worked instead of that junky old poncho I had been making do with. Wonder of Wonders, they had it all! I was tickled pink, but I wasn't through with everything until about 3 or 4 p.m., too late to start hiking, so I pull another zero day and pay the hotel for another nite. Sure enough, there's Sleepy Jean and Ankle Bear. The daughters have left them at the hotel and driven away in the rainstorm. We're all stuck till in the a.m., and that's the last I've seen of them. I don't have any idea where they went after that. Never saw their names in any of the shelter logs or anything. Guess I must have gotten out ahead of 'em
Date: 2003-05-06
From: Harper's Ferry

To: Ed Garvey Shelter
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Another good nite. I've called Grampie to get the plan for Trail Days. I will hold up in a motel and call him on the 12th and he will pick me up on the 13th as he drives down to Damascus. Sounds like a plan. Originally, we were going to meet up at the Doyle, a flea-bag hotel of legendary hiker fame, but I've taken way too many zero days to be able to get that far. Maybe I can get into Pennsylvania tho...maybe. I stop by the outfitters once more for some food supplies as there is absolutely no place to buy groceries in the whole town. It's unbelievable. Zoning run amuck. The Historical Society should be proud. (Sarcasm...) Everyone in the whole place spends all their money somewhere else. On the way out of town, I see a couple of old geezers looking at a map of the A.T. "Run," I tell them. "Don't walk, run to get yourselves a lobotomy this afternoon! You'll be happier in the long run and just as smart as anyone who, like me, hikes this Demon Trail!" We all laugh and I'm off down the C and O Barge Towpath, engineered by George Washington, I believe. It's an easy stroll and I am glad to finally be out of Virginia, which there has been a-plenty of and has taken me 3 yrs. to escape from. I'm headed for the Ed Garvey Shelter, which is supposed to be quite nice, but a 0.4 miles down a steep slope to the water. It's an easy 7 miles to the shelter, and it is every bit as nice as reported. The water is also way far, far away. Fortunately, I brought plenty, so someone else younger and spryer than me went down to get more. Ok by me. I'm settled into the shelter by 2:30 p.m. and I play my harmonica and watch the sun go down. Earlier, I tried to get a pic of some Canada geese along the barge towpath and I get a pic of the shelter, too.
Date: 2003-05-07
From: Ed Garvey Shelter

To: Dahlgren Back Pack Campground
Miles today: 10.9
Weather: overcast clouds

Am up and hiking by 8 a.m. and need to do almost 11 miles today. The Trail in Maryland is nice, I mean Nice! Nothing too strenuous, nice wide paths, easy to pick your way thru the ankly twisters. Smooth hiking, so I do. Gathland State Park (Crampton Gap) was a tribute to War Correspondents everywhere, tho he was a correspondent in the Civil War. Everywhere it seems, there are plaques to the triumphs and the stupidity of both sides' Generals. Mr. Lincoln, it seems, was much vexed by the ineptness of Generals on the side of the North. Lee seemed to strike with impunity throughout the lst half of the war. At Lamb's Knoll, yet another plaque shows us the field where the "Stonewall Regiment" got it's "Trail" name. This is sacred ground. I've been to the Alamo in Texas and the feeling of reverence and sacrifice on both sides reminds me that the little streams I pass ran red with blood. At Dahlgren Back Pack Campground the attraction is free hot showers and a level tenting site. I pick one that looks like it will drain, as yet another storm is brewing. By the time the sweat is gone, there are 3 more tents up at the site. Dinner tonite is 2 pks. of Lipton Noodles and a can of tuna. The harp comes out and I do my best on both "Dixie" and "John Brown's Body". It's the same music heard here long ago before the battles. Am flattered by the attention my harp playing attracts, so I give 'em my best shot with a few choruses of "Oh Susanna". It brings down the house so I quit while I'm ahead and crawl into the tent ahead of the splatter of raindrops. It rains intermittently all nite.
Date: 2003-05-09
From: Pogo Memorial Campsite

To: Pogo Memorial Campsite
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: mist

During the nite, all that garbage I shoved in my face at Dogpatch has come back to haunt me. And it's still raining. Even tho I can't afford to, I take another zero day and wait for the Trail to dry out (and me, too.) I hope for a bear to come along and put me out of my misery, but no such luck. A few hikers pass during the afternoon, but I stay in the tent. Will hike tomorrow for sure. Grampie is depending on me to get to a phone...will have to hike, but not today. The privy is as far as I can get.
Date: 2003-05-10
From: Pogo Memorial Campsite

To: Devils Racecourse Shelter
Miles today: 9.3

Overcast and threatening, but no rain. Joy! Joy! Am hiking by 8 a.m. Not bad for me. One last good shower, and I fall down outside of the Ensign Cowall Shelter. I'm being careful, but the rock itself slides out from under me. More embarassed than hurt, I take shelter and wash the mud off at the Ensign Cowall. God bless the caretaker. Someone has left some Trail Magic tea bags and pkts. of hot chocolate at the shelter. That'll fix me right up. As if on cue, the clouds finally break, and the sun makes everything fine again. It's good to be alive, and I do a 10ish mile day to Devil's Racecourse Shelter. What a scum hole that turns out to be It's certainly down near the bottom of the list of "nicest places on the AT". Never before have I seen a shelter built directly above a flowing spring. The ants and the no-see-ums are fierce and to add to the enjoyment, a couple of retired military types show up, both ragging the other and re-fighting old battles and old screw-ups, the way longtime friends do with impunity. They have a new tale to add to their list as, it seems, one of their hiking buddies needed to call for rescue outside of the Rocky Run shelter some 20 odd miles back. "The Major" had a cell phone and finally got thru to the Hwy. Patrol who connected him with the Forret Service who sent a "little girlie Ranger" out to pick up the "little girlie-man hiker" whose feet hurt. I could tell that this guy (the rescued one) was gonna have to find himself some new friends or get used to "How he needed to be rescued" stories for the rest of his life. We all giggled about that and I filled 'em in on how the Trail Maintainer volunteer had dropped dead on April 26 outside of that same shelter their friend had needed to be rescued from (you thought I had forgot about that, didn't you?) I read in the logbook at the Rocky Run shelter what Butterfinger and Crazy Crockett had written when they, and many others, had come upon a Maintainer Crew doing CPR on one of the volunteers. The Park Rangers had come out for real that day, but 1 1/2 hrs. of CPR couldn't help. This 72 yr. old man had picked that day and that place to pass on over to the other side. At least he died doing something he loved. He and so many untold others had died over the years so that we could do this AT experience thing which had so come to rule our lives. The Major and his D.I. were suitable impressed and we all commiserated about the futility of life and having to ford the swollen stream earlier that day. We all hiked in wet boots, and the blisters and bugs were the topic of conversation as it grew dark. Thank you Lord, for letting me be here today. It's been wonderful, bugs and all.