morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2014-06-07
To: An AT mile without white blazes
Miles today: 0.0

Loft Mountain Campground to Pinefield HutWe get a late start this morning, and are not back on the AT until 9:15. We have a short day ahead of us, 5.9 miles to Pinefield Hut. Soon after we start, we find a large, recently killed snake on the trail. Beetles are already swarming over one end of it as we hurry by. The trail leading away from Loft Mountain is crossed by many side trails. When we realize we have walked for quite a while without seeing a white blaze, we wonder if we have missed a turn and are off the AT. Despite assurances from a group of passing hikers, we continue for more than a mile with no blaze in sight. The long grass encroaching on the narrow unmarked trail raises our doubts. Suuz is about to verify our location by GPS with the AT Hiker app on her phone when we finally see a blaze on a tree ahead.When we arrive at Pinefield Hut, several folks are gathered around the table in front of the shelter. As we set up the tent and collect water, other hikers arrive, and the shelter and surrounding tent sites fill up. Just when we think all available campsites around us have been taken, a couple strings two tent hammocks between trees nearby and are asleep well before hiker midnight.We meet Sunshine and her husband Cowanesque (named for their small Pennsylvania hometown) who have pitched a tent just downhill from ours. Late in the day, Sunshine calls us over to peek at a young fawn lying quietly among bushes a few feet from their tent. It is well camouflaged, but Cowanesque spied it when it flapped its ears. Later in the afternoon, we join others around the picnic table and compare notes from our hikes. We are surprised to learn that the dead snake we saw on the trail this morning had been reduced by the beetles to a perfect model skeleton by the time other hikers passed it a few hours later. Frankie the Sleeper shows off a 13-section rattle he found close by the snake¢s remains. While saddened by any snake¢s demise, we are glad we didn¢t encounter a live rattlesnake this large in the middle of the trail. The water source for Pinefield Hut is a spring-fed stream shallow enough to make collecting more difficult than from the piped springs at previous shelters. The flow is good when Suuz collects the first four liters of water but has slowed by the time she returns to refill the Sawyer bags. Despite the slow flow, X manages to fill our collapsible bucket with enough water for bathing and after-dinner cleanup. We feast on Scampi Pasta Sides prepared with added tuna and Mountain House freeze-dried green peas plus a packet of olive oil for flavor and extra calories. During the night, X hears loud snorting and movement in the brush around the tent sites. Other campers report the same thing, and there is some debate the next morning about whether it was a bear rooting around the camp or a doe snorting to reclaim her fawn. Suuz could add nothing to the discussion, however, as she had slept soundly through the night after another great day on the AT.-Dr. Suuz and X
Date: 2014-06-08
To: 35 campers tonight: we meet old friends and new
Miles today: 0.0

Pinefield Hut to Hightop HutWe are back on the AT this morning by 7:35, take a mid-morning snack break and don¢t stop for lunch until we reach our destination for the day. We have only 8.2 miles to cover today, making two rather steep 500-foot descents and ascents before a 900-foot climb to Hightop Hut.We are fortunate to have arrived early enough to find a decent tent site. Later in the day a crowd of through and section hikers arrive, taking every available site and filling the hut. We hear later that there are 35 camping in and around the hut tonight. Both bear poles are packed, with two bags of food hanging from many of the hooks.Several hikers who we first met at our trail magic buffet are here tonight: Bandana Bill, Duff, CJ and Puddleduck. There are many new faces, including Dragonborn and Baird, high school friends from West Chester, Pennsylvania, near the town where X grew up. We also spot Bluejay5, a section hiker we first met at Pinefield hut. He hikes in a kilt and tells the group gathered near the shelter he wears underwear beneath the kilt except when it's raining. Suuz responds to this revelation with a loud, "TMI!"We chat with Timber from the UK, who is hiking his third long section of the AT. When he reaches Harper¢s Ferry later in June, he will have hiked the entire length of the trail. Hiking with him is a friend from Indiana, Beer Hunter, who through hiked in 2011. The two met during Timber¢s first section hike and since then have been trekking partners whenever Timber is in country.We meet Ovenbird, a retired Maryland teacher, who through hiked in 2007. He often takes the train out from D.C. to hike in this area. He is an avid bird watcher, who answers our questions about birds we¢ve seen or heard. He tells us about the tiny olive-colored ovenbird, the source of his trail name. The warbler stays close to the forest floor where it builds a dome-shaped, leaf-covered nest resembling an old fashioned outdoor oven.Before drifting off to sleep, we recall a phrase Timber quoted earlier. He had spied it on a passing T-shirt, and his proper British accent gives it some authority: "Old pros: seldom right, never in doubt."-Dr. Suuz and X
Date: 2014-06-09
To: More old friends and new
Miles today: 0.0

Hightop Hut to Lewis Mountain CampgroundOnce again we hit the trail by 7:35 this morning. We have 11.7 miles to hike today and have established a routine that works well for us. We hike for two hours or so, then take our packs off and sit down on a log or rock for a 15-20-minute snack break. In another two hours, we stop for lunch. Depending on how far we're hiking for the day, we may take another mid-afternoon snack break with packs off.On the trail today, we meet and hike with Mew Mew, a section hiker from Colorado with whom we¢ve been leap-frogging for several days. She started at Rockfish Gap and is hiking during the month of June toward Pennsylvania where she has relatives. The mother of four grown children, she hiked a section of the AT from Pennsylvania to Vermont 35 years ago, long before women solo hikers were common on the trail. She has interesting trekking tales, including some from her through hike of the Pennine Way, which runs north from near Manchester, UK, through the Yorkshire Dales and into Scotland.Alongside the trail this morning, we spy an old friend of X¢s, a neon orange eft. She remembers seeing them in every state during their AT through hike two years ago. These ¢red efts,¢ which seem to appear after a rain, are juvenile, land-dwelling forms of eastern or red-spotted newts. We reach Lewis Mountain Campground by late afternoon. Mew Mew goes on to the camp store to check on the small cabin she has reserved for two nights, planning to take a zero here tomorrow. X and Suuz peruse the campground downhill from the store and find a tent site with a latched bear box nearby where we can secure our food. The site is also near the restroom, an added bonus. With piped potable water, there will be no filtering duties tonight.We are hungry by the time we set up camp and stow our food in the bear box. We hurry to the camp store where we buy tonight's dinner--pastrami hero sandwiches, Cheetos and cold adult beverages. We sit on the store¢s stoop and enjoy our meal with a trio of hikers who plan to hike farther and cowboy camp in the woods tonight.Mew Mew invites us to use the shower at her cabin, an invitation we accept gladly. The cabin has a shampoo/body wash dispenser in the shower and extra towels, luxuries for hikers who¢ve been washing with Dr. Bonner¢s and drying with 12X22 microfiber camp towels. Full and clean again, X and Suuz feel like new women as they head back to their tent for the night. An older couple greets us from chairs by their camper across the road. A young couple with a toddler are car camping with a small tent set up on the site next to ours. It¢s good to see multiple generations enjoying nature tonight in Shenandoah.-Dr. Suuz and X
Date: 2014-06-10
To: @ Big Meadows Lodge
Miles today: 0.0

Last year on her initial AT section hike, Dr. Suuz got to meet the one and only AWOL in Hot Springs, NC. Today, she makes it two for two as who do we run into at the Big Meadows Lodge, but Guthook, whose map app we found so useful last year on the JMT.This is Day #7 of our section hike, and other than my having difficulty trying to explain what a Trovert is when you are the only one of them on the trail (as opposed to a pair of Troverts), everything is going well! An Indoor Shower (as opposed to showers of the rain variety) two days in a row. Is life on the trail good or what?!?!?-X
Date: 2014-06-10
To: A day that starts in the mist ends with a rainbow
Miles today: 0.0

Lewis Mountain Campground to Big Meadows LodgeWe have a visitor before breaking camp this morning. Gun Runner (GA>ME 2012), having heard from other hikers that X Trovert is on the trail, seeks her out to say, "Hello," and reminisce a bit about their 2012 hikes.At the restroom after breakfast, X strikes up a conversation with Good Vibrations, wife of MadJac, a through hiker we met on the trail yesterday. Good Vibrations provides support and hikes occasional sections with her husband. She impresses Suuz with her driving skills as she maneuvers their dually pickup and a big airstream camper in the campground parking lot.We start our second week on the AT hiking in the mist this morning thanks to last night¢s light rain. We tread cautiously on rocky sections made slick by the precipitation. During the 8.7-mile hike to Big Meadows, we pass Jingle, whose Dirty Girl gaiters are the same bright pattern as X¢s. Later we meet Brace, who wears two knee braces and, in honor of hiking in a national park, a purple necktie. Nearing the turnoff for the lodge, we encounter a trekker with no legs, a black racer sunning in the grass beside the trail. This confirms Suuz¢s earlier suspicion that she should be more concerned about the proverbial snake in the grass than the ones in the trail she¢s been warned about.We arrive at Big Meadows Lodge early in the afternoon and are waiting out front with our packs off when we strike up a conversation with Guthook, as X mentioned earlier in a brief journal post from the trail. He is hiking through Shenandoah National Park to update and add pictures to his AT Hiker app, the one Suuz has loaded on her phone along with his JMT app from last year¢s California hike.We have a great view of mountains and the valley below from our second floor room in the rustic lodge. We unpack the resupply boxes we mailed to Big Meadows, begin recharging electronics and enjoy lovely showers. We start a washer load in the campground laundromat, where we meet up with a father and daughter we¢ve been leap-frogging with for the past several days. Diana and Diana¢s Dad flew from California and Florida to spend time together hiking the Shenandoah section of the AT. Moving our clean clothes to the dryer later, we are distressed to discover that several pages of AWOL stowed in a pocket have been washed and are disintegrated beyond salvage. Frankie the Sleeper, who is also staying at the lodge tonight, comes to our rescue. He¢s carrying the entire AWOL A.T. Guide, and the obliging front desk staff photocopies the pages we need for the hike ahead.After liquid refreshments and a cheese plate in the lodge pub, we eat a filling but unremarkable prime rib dinner in the Spottswood Dining Room. A brief rain shower during dinner provides a rainbow extending over the end of the lodge roof down into the Shenandoah Valley. It is a good omen at the end of the day, and we hope it portends another great day on the AT tomorrow.-Dr. Suuz and X
Date: 2014-06-11
To: A short day and a stormy night
Miles today: 0.0

Big Meadows Lodge to Rock Spring HutX gets a text from Mew Mew saying she¢s going to try to hitch a ride from Lewis Mountain Campground to catch up with us at Big Meadows this morning. We are just finishing breakfast in the dining room when she arrives. After X and Suuz check out, the three of us leave our packs in the lodge¢s lobby and head out to explore. First stop is the gift shop where Suuz buys the book ¢Who Pooped in the Park?¢ which she thinks her grandchildren will enjoy. We trek down to the Harry F. Bird, Sr. Visitor Center and tour the exhibit with fascinating old photos showing the creation and history of the AT. We treat ourselves to Shenandoah¢s famous blackberry milkshakes at the Wayside before returning to the lodge to collect our packs and hiking poles.We have plenty of time to linger at Big Meadows this morning as we are only hiking 3.5 miles to the next shelter today. We arrive at Rock Spring Hut early in the afternoon after 90 or so minutes on the trail. Near the turnoff for the hut we pass a family carrying a cooler, trash bags and an odd assortment of gear not usually seen on the AT. We learn they were renting the cabin at the hut site and have thoroughly enjoyed their stay.The most level tent site is too close to the privy for us, so we opt for one with a slight slope farther away. A doe paces around our site and the shelter below. She has a full udder so we suspect she has a fawn hidden nearby. While Suuz is sponge bathing in a nearby thicket later, she is surprised when the doe comes close and lingers in the surrounding field of thick ferns.We have the rest of the afternoon to lounge on the rock outcropping in front of the cabin, which is downhill from the shelter. The view is splendid, and we visit with arriving hikers. We meet City Slicka, a three-time through hiker who is going GA>ME again this year but walking on roadways as well as some sections of the AT. He¢s making great time hiking the Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park.Suuz has 4G and 5 bars on her phone. (AT&T beats Verizon hands down along the Shenandoah section of the AT.) We see an ugly weather forecast for tonight. The predictions are accurate. A storm with heavy rains and lots of lightening moves in soon after we are in our sleeping bags. Water pours downhill through our tent site and splashes under the tent and onto the net of the fly near our heads. Shortly before 8PM, we text N Trovert at home that water is oozing in. We get a little damp before the storm passes but are thankful not to be soaked by the deluge.Prayers are answered when the thunderstorms subside before midnight (true midninght, not hiker midnight). We hope to see the sun shining in the morning.-Dr. Suuz and X
Date: 2014-06-12
To: A late breakfast at Skyland
Miles today: 0.0

Rock Spring Hut to Byrds Nest #3 HutMew Mew is a good influence. Despite getting to sleep late due to last night¢s thunderstorms, we are up early. The three of us are back on the trail 7:15 this morning. We are 4.5 miles from Skyland Resort and Restaurant which we hope to reach before they stop serving breakfast. We are at Skyland with plenty of time to spare though light rain has left us as soggy as the tents we stowed this morning. During breakfast we meet a German couple, Trail Snail and Wild Boar. They tented near us last night but we do not exchange names until now. The breakfast does not disappoint, and we linger an hour and a half at Skyland, savoring more fresh brewed coffee before heading out into the gray day.The drizzle subsides by midday, but the sky remains overcast. We step cautiously when there are wet rocks underfoot. By early afternoon we reach Pinnacles Picnic Area with a picnic pavilion and plumbed restrooms. We hang our tents under the pavilion roof to dry in the light breeze. Still full from our late breakfast at Skyland, we nibble on snacks before repacking the tents and hiking the last couple of miles to Byrd¢s Nest #3. Nearing the hut, we see a young bear in the underbrush along the trail. Later we spot the same bear or its cousin as we start down the long steep trail to the camp¢s piped spring. At the end of a 10.9-mile day, hiking another 0.8 mile roundtrip to the spring takes a lot of effort. Some south-bounders, who passed the spring on their way to the hut, groan when they realize they will have to trek back down and up the trail they have just climbed to collect water.There are new faces in camp tonight. C4 and Hot Dog, a father and son, have been hiking AT sections every summer for nine years. After this year¢s section, they will have completed Springer Mountain to Stratton, Vermont. We are pleased to meet a fellow Mississippian: Boucher, a young man from Pascagoula, says we may be the first hikers from his home state he¢s met since starting his through hike.We turn in well before hiker midnight. We are too tired to worry about the chance of more storms tonight or about a bear who may be hanging around the camp. We sleep soundly and are not disturbed by weather or critters all night. It¢s another good night on the AT.-Dr. Suuz and X
Date: 2014-06-15
To: A birthday celebration at a shelter with a shower
Miles today: 0.0

Compton Gap/Front Royal Terrapin Hostel to Jim & Molly Denton ShelterGabby and Coop are getting ready to leave when we tiptoe through the bunk room to the dining space at the back of the hostel. Their planned early departure has been delayed by Coop¢s concern that his talkative grandson might wake hikers who want to sleep later. The two of them went back to sleep for a bit after waking earlier at dark-thirty. Gabby checks out the hiker box and is pleased to discover the Snickers Bar X donated last night after sorting through her resupply. He pronounces it much better than the average hiker box fare.We head down the Compton Gap Trail and are back on the AT by 9 this morning with 9.9 miles ahead of us today. Within a few minutes we reach the SNP self-registration permit station for southbounders, marking the end of the Shenandoah National Park section of our northbound hike. It¢s Suuz¢s birthday and a beautiful clear day for hiking, though hotter than yesterday. We take a mid-morning snack break and midday lunch and arrive at the Jim & Molly Denton Shelter by mid-afternoon. The shelter is relatively new with a separate covered pavilion for cooking and eating.There¢s also a shower on a tree-lined path near the shelter. Billed as a solar shower, it¢s a spring-fed plastic tank heated by what little filtered sun reaches it amongst the trees. We are happy to have the gravity fed shower hose to clean up with regardless of how cool the water is.Beyond the shower house, there¢s a small spring where we chill the boxed wine briefly. Hikers who arrived before us say the spring we passed less than a tenth of mile south of the shelter is better for water collection. Suuz makes two trips to collect a total of eight liters of water in her two Sawyer bags. Eight liters has become the norm for collecting each night, though the amount that gets filtered for drinking and cooking depends on the length of the next day¢s hike and how much will be used for the evening meal and the next morning's breakfast.When we¢re clean, we head to the cooking pavilion to start dinner. We raise a glass (or rather a plastic camp cup) of the Cab and toast Suuz¢s birthday. Not bad for a box wine, we agree. Others gathered around the picnic table tonight are through hiker Mocha Pot and section hiker Greenland as well as a grandmother and granddaughter, Winkle and Smiley, who are hiking a section to celebrate Smiley's high school graduation. Big Hammer, another section hiker, arrives and shares a 1-pound bag of peanut butter M&M¢s with all of us. Suuz thinks it¢s been a grand birthday. The M&M¢s are the icing on the cake at the end of a perfect day on the AT. -Dr. Suuz and X
Date: 2015-05-15
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

"You can put a piece of the trail in your backyard, but that doesn't mean it's going to thrive there." -Old AT Trail Wisdom. Raising Mountain Laurels in Corinth, Mississippi, is a lot like hiking the Appalachian Trail. No matter how much reading you've done before hand or how much experience you have accumulated, once you get started, you can't take anything for granted, and nothing is for sure. But when it all comes together, it's an amazing thing!The Spring of 2015 looks like one of those times. After nursing our three surviving Kalmia latifolia bushes through a tough summer last year, we must have had just the right moisture/ temperature conditions in March/ April this year, for we have been rewarded with gorgeous blooms on all three!Now, as we contemplate bee keeping as our next great adventure, we learn moutain laurels are very poisonous and can produce a terrible tasting honey that eaten in large quantities can be deadly. Well, nobody's perfect...
Date: 2015-06-09
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

"What is so rare as a day in June?/Then, if ever, come perfect days;/Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,/And over it softly her warm ear lays..."I have seen beautiful weather on top on Mt. Washington, both ahead and behind, but always from a distance. Up close and personal, it's been a different story, as I am 0 for 2 when actually hiking the peak, with nothing encountered there but clouds, cold, rain, fog, and sleet.So when Dr. Suuz suggested a start of summer section hike in the Whites to get this difficult stretch of the AT out of her way while she is young enough to still enjoy it, I was all about it!With no similar terrain in northern Mississippi on which to gain our trail legs, we've decided on the "roughin' it deluxe" low mileage, hut to hut AMC $$$ edition. Goodbye southern heat and humidity. Hello New Hampshie and Maine... Let's just hope we don't get passed by Scott Jurek...
Date: 2015-06-09
To: Back to the Whites
Miles today: 0.0

"What is so rare as a day in June?/Then, if ever, come perfect days;/Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,/And over it softly her warm ear lays..."I have seen beautiful weather on top on Mt. Washington, both ahead and behind, but always from a distance. Up close and personal, it's been a different story, as I am 0 for 2 when actually hiking the peak, with nothing encountered there but clouds, cold, rain, fog, and sleet.So when Dr. Suuz suggested a start of summer section hike in the Whites to get this difficult stretch of the AT out of her way while she is young enough to still enjoy it, I was all about it!With no similar terrain in northern Mississippi on which to gain our trail legs, we've decided on the "roughin' it deluxe" low mileage, hut to hut AMC $$$ edition. Goodbye southern heat and humidity. Hello New Hampshie and Maine...Let's just hope we don't get passed by Scott Jurek...-X
Date: 2015-06-12
To: Greenleaf Hut to Galehead Hut
Miles today: 0.0

Slow getting started this morning, in spite of (maybe because of) a great night's sleep.Very tough hike over Mt. Garfield (4,500'), with a 1500' climb in less than a mile. We felt satisfied with our 1 mph pace. As if we had a choice...-X
Date: 2015-06-16
To: Crawford Notch to Mizpah Springs Hut
Miles today: 0.0

Left Crawford Notch at 7:30am. Got up and over Webster Cliffs without incident.Ate lunch by 1:15pm, after which the heavens opened up at 1:30. This signaled a rather damp rest of the day. Arrived Mispah at 4:09pm. Shared the hut with 21 kids and their leaders, who are also going on to Lakes tomorrow. We're so excited. Well, they don't call it "Lakes of the Crowds" for nothing...-X
Date: 2015-06-17
To: Mispah Springs Hut to Lakes of the Crowds
Miles today: 0.0

Just a short five mile hop, skip, and a jump today over to Lakes of the Clouds, and our second time this trip up over 5,000' elevation. We arrived about 2:00pm, and as pretty a day as it was for hiking, I briefly considered pushing on up Mt. Washington to take in the view, but I was afraid I'd rush too much on the way back, and might risk doing something foolish...When we came through in 2012, we stayed here in the dungeon, and on a very rainy, windy, miserable night we were just glad to have a roof over our heads, even if it came with the strong oder of fuel oil. Sticking my head in to check out our old digs, I was glad to be scheduled up with the paying customers this evening, as this early in the season, the dungeon is not exactly offering a warm welcome...-X