morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-05-25
From: Wood's Hole Hostel

To: Floyd's Country Store Fiddlin Dance
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

I zeroed today at WHH but took several hikers into Pearisburg to resupply and hangout to pick up Patchouli, Dorothy (Wizard of Oz) and Acorn who slack packed from WHH to Pearisburg, about 10 miles. I also dropped off Wolf¢s shoes to him at the hotel he was staying at - he left them at WHH yesterday. Upon our return to WHH, Redspecs was just getting finished with his massage and it was my turn. (I put my name on the list yesterday). I actually returned late for my massage and Redspecs took my slot. OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! I had the most amazing massage by Neville (she is also a licensed massage therapist). She found and worked out kinks and knots I didn¢t even know I had. It was FABULOUS!!! She worked parts most important to a hiker ¢ shoulders, hips, neck, back and legs. Really deep muscle...Yeah I died and went to heaven just after my limp body slid off the table and puddled into the floor. I couldn¢t think for several hours after that. Patchouli had her massage right after me. There wasn¢t enough time for Tie Dye to have her massage today as dinner preparation had to begin¢¦ which is led by Neville. She will get her massage in the morning.Honey B and Vitamin C left WHH today and hiked then met up with some old friends of Honey B. We would all meet up later in Floyd at Floyd¢s Country Store for a night of fiddling music and dancing. Her friend is a fiddler and would be playing tonight. Sideshow, Dorothy, Patchouli and I would make the trek to Floyd. It was a general store that had seating, a dance floor and a stage. It was packed. Of course we all look like hikers. Honey B and Vitamin C stopped at the local goodwill and picked up some overalls etc. It was fun.When we returned to the hostel, Patchouli and I shared a room with David in the main house. David arrived to the hostel after we had left for the dance but was kind enough to leave the light on so we wouldn't have to fumble in the dark to find our beds and prepare for sleep. David is a section hiker and will be hiking for 2 weeks. He is chipping away at completing the AT.I gave KowaBunga¢s / Earth Balance's hat to SideShow.
Date: 2013-03-05
To: 2013 Training / Planning has commenced
Miles today: 0.0

Plans for the 2013 AT Section Hike are starting to take some form. All stars are lining up for this year's section to happen in June. Mouse Hunter and I have sent in our 2013 CPE Nationals Agility Premium for Springfield, OH. The draw for that is March 22nd. Once we've determined our entry status for that trial we'll be able to narrow down a start date in June. Erroring in the positive light, should we make the draw, we will first be leaving for the CPE Nationals, spending 5 days at the Nationals and then heading directly to Marion, VA to begin our Section Hike. Without missing a beat, we will be leaving from the exact spot at Partnership Shelter that we exited the trail last year. Plans are, if the trail Gods are with us, that we'll be able to put in 250 miles this year. If that is true, it would be awesome as I'd make up some of the miles I should have done at the end of last year.This past week, I pulled out all my maps and determined that we won't be hiking over 4400' the entire section. There are several 2000' up/down sections, but most should be smaller ascents/drops and all within Virginia. I've been working really hard on my mental game this past year, gearing up for a lot of solo hiking. That is where my game crumbled last year as I was not prepared mentally for the solitude of hiking behind the Thru-hiker bolus.My Agility training with Mouse Hunter and my young dog Jackson has led me to the world of jogging as I've had to do something serious about my inability to 'run' with my dogs on the Agility course. I've been teaching myself the art of running and now daily do sprinting exercises. It has done wonders for my form and breathing strength. The dogs and I daily hike either 1 or 2 miles in preparation for our AT hike, but I am not carrying any weight as I sprint several times during those hikes. I need to start mixing up my hikes now and everyother time start carrying weight alternating it with sprinting. Dave and I have been doing a lot of hiking on the Ice Age Trail this winter. We've had a lot of snow as well and so snowshoeing has become part of that hiking routine as well.In addition to the sprinting for improving my running, I now weekly go to Yoga, daily do my sittups and pushups, and various sprinting exercises. I also have a personal goal to loose 12 pounds but that effort has unfortunately plateaued. This later personal goal would be outstanding to accomplish as it would help both my AT hiking AND Agility goals to greatly improve. I will have to redouble my efforts in that department.It appears that Fat Grandma will be joining me straight out of the starting block at Partnership Shelter. We plan to hike together for two weeks. He and I'd like return in late Summer to have him slack pack the sections he missed during last year's Section due to him getting the hiker flu. Given enough time, maybe he could hit the extra miles I put in on this year's section at the same time.I'm thrilled with the planning so far. Time now to go back and get my 2011 / 2009 / 2010 Journal entries / pictures online.
Date: 2013-03-30
To: Training Status
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Today, husband, two bouncy labradors, and I went for a 6 mile, 2 hour hike on the Ice Age trail. It was a wonderful day, temps in the high 40's with the trail covered in fading snow that was mostly ice. We had to wear our ice cleats. Bandit carried his pack with about 4 lbs of pack & water. I carried my pack of about 8 lbs. Even husband carried a pack. Turned out there was quite an exciting event happening in the Southern Kettle Moraine State forest during our hike. The Wisconsin Adventure Racing Society was hosting a Rogaine event. We'd never seen such a thing, all kinds of two person teams bushwacking at great speed through the forest, compass and maps in hand. We were to learn later that the teams were to track down various ¢controls¢ (little flag contraptions, where competitors punch their cards to score points) as quickly as possible. I believe there were 18 different control stations that they needed to locate. NO GPSs allowed! How cool is that!!! Certainly made our 6 mile hike go fast.I am now up to daily doing 60 situps, 12 pushups, 60 squats, 60 lunges, along with numerous sprinting drills like grape vines, etc. followed by 2 or 3 good long sprints. I follow this up with a good stiff walk of 1-3 miles carrying that 8 lb backpack. I now once a week go to Yoga and have three Agility lessons with the dogs. Finally, we practice Agility at home which encourages me to sprint around the yard while doing it. Feeling pretty good about my conditioning so far compared to previous years.Still having trouble loosing that 12 lbs though. Grr.....
Date: 2013-04-13
To: CPE Agility Nationals Sets our Start Date
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

So all dogs who qualified and entered the CPE Agility Nationals have been accepted into the trial. Yippeee!!! Bandit and I will be spending 5 days of June in Springfield, OH at the Nationals and then we will head directly to Marion, VA to continue our AT Adventure. With that element resolved, I can now re-pullout all my maps and figure out our trip in more detail, where mail drops are needed, where transport might be required, and where hotel/hostel reservations might be required. Unfortunately, I haven't heard back from Fat Grandma in a while about his possibility of hiking with us. That will be the last major puzzle piece to our plans.Other finalized trip details: Sadly, my son Matt has decided NOT to join me this year. My SPOT annual subscription was successfully activated. I purchased a REI Joule goose down sleeping bag that should keep me comfortable down to 22 degrees. It is a full 1.5 lbs lighter than my synthetic 20 degree bag. It is really sweet!!!This past week I have been very bad with my practice hiking for multiple reasons: husband was gone on his annual week-long ATV trip, this year to West Virginia's Hatfield & McCoy trail system, making work a nightmare; I was sick Tuesday/Wednesday; crappy weather all week, it rained everyday for the entire past week; our Foster dog Willy arrived on Sunday; taxes had to be done; and I had a three day dog agility trial. Wow! Things should be back to normal a little bit now this week.And speaking of our Foster dog Willy. We have been out of the dog Fostering business now for the past year. Once our baby dog Jackson arrived, four Labradors in the house was just too much. Sadly, we had fostered Willy back three years ago and his owner's had to return him to our rescue for many reason all of which were family related and NOT Willy related. He is such a good boy and his family was extremely sad to have to let him go. I felt very obligated to take the boy back in, he's been bounced around enough in his life. He is 30+ lbs overweight and will do well with tagging along with our practice hiking.Now where are those maps!
Date: 2013-05-22
To: Itinerary Firmed Up
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

After spending some quality time with my AT Guide book, maps, and notes, I have been able to determine that this year's Section Hike is doable from Partnership Shelter / Mt. Roger's Headquarters (just south of Marion, VA) to Glasgow, VA. That is good for 250 miles of the AT in the 19 days that I have available to hike. I estimate one complete zero day (no miles hiked), and one nero day (very few miles hiked). I have no slack pack days identified (where you ditch the heavy pack, carry a light pack, and spend another night in town using transport to/from the trailheads). I expect to spend time in two hostels and go into four different trail towns. It is always a relief to get the plan roughed out. I will have to work on the details and some transportation plans over the weekend.I forgot to mention in my previous post about my iPhone 3GS woes. My iPhone also decided in April to take a swim in a toilet . I was able to bring it back to life but the HOME button wouldn't work making it essentially useless. AT&T suggested I get a cheap junk phone to use for a few months until my upgrade period in August arrived. I agreed and later regretted it going back to the store to actually buy an iPhone 5. Long story short, between my kids and I, 4 trips had been made to the AT&T store about iPhones not working and NEVER did anyone at AT&T mention that all our iPhones had AppleCare (i.e. insurance) on them. I basically could get a new iPhone for only $50 by going to the Apple Store which I promptly did. There problem solved. I really need the iPhone for my hike... I use it for journaling, picture taking, phone calls, texting, weather radar, maps, music, and entertainment. But don't get me wrong, a cell phone on the AT should never be used as your only source of information because a dead battery means NO information. I always carry a very good map and my AT Guide.This past weekend, I turned my SPOT on (my personal GPS tracking device), left it on my dash while I travelled to/from a dog Agility trial, and later confirmed by going on-line that it is once again properly tracking my whereabouts. Love this little device! It ALWAYS works!
Date: 2013-05-24
To: Dehydrated Spagetti Sauce
Miles today: 0.0

I've always wanted to take pasta and sauce with me on my Section Hikes so this year I decided to do something about that. I didn't want to use the powdered sauces that you find in little packets in the baking isle at the market but I'd heard that you could dehydrate a full sauce. Sounded reasonable to I decided to give it a whirl. You can see all 7 steps in my photo section.So here's how my spaghetti sauce dehydration experiment went down.... First I put a wax type paper over 1/2 of each of four of the dehydrator trays and spread 1/4 of the can of sauce on each piece of paper. I dehydrated for 12 hours.Then I removed the paper.... And put the now brittle sauce directly on the tray and dehydrated for 12 more hours. This produced a fruit roll up type texture to the sauce. Which I rolled up and put in individual zip lock bags. Rehydrating required 4 oz of very hot water in which I put the roll up and let stand for several minutes. That reproduced my very tasty spaghetti sauce. So now I can make 5 ozs of spaghetti sauce for dinner but only carry 1 oz of sauce! Yeah!I have also been advised that taking spaghetti as the pasta of choice is best as it does not have holes in it and it takes up the least amount of space. I am to just break it in 1/2 and put in a zip lock.
Date: 2013-05-25
To: Water Bottles
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Bought a new water bottle at REI today. The one I used last year was broken at Thomas Knob Shelter in Grayson Highlands. In reviewing my options, I found a pretty sweet little bottle that weighs essentially nothing.In summary, I used the blue bottle on the left for my 2011 hike. It weights 4.6 oz without water. The white bottle is similar to my bottle for 2012 and weighed in at 2.0 oz without water. My new bottle is laying down and is a Platypus. It weights only 0.5 oz!!!! Once full of 17 oz of water it looks just like a bottle. I put a picture of it fully under the photo section. Pretty Sweet!Water bottle update: I have since practice hiked with this new bottle and am very impressed so far. I just love the fact that as you drink water, it self collapses taking up only as much room in my pack as there is water in the bottle.
Date: 2013-05-26
To: More Practice Hiking
Miles today: 0.0

Sadly, I had to make the choice and stay home and continue to get ready for my trip instead of heading north with husband to our lake home. So much needs to get done up there and lots of his family is going up for the full weekend. I'm going to be missing a great time, but there is too much to finish in preparation for my trip. So behind we stay. Rats!!!To start off our four day weekend, we went for a hike on the Ice Age Trail. First we grabbed dinner from the local sub shop and then headed to Emma Carlton. We hiked to the Palmyra Horse park, had dinner, and hiked back. There were lots of horse trailer camping rigs at the park as many had come to spend the Memorial Day weekend riding the trails. I hit the pain wall at 2.5 hours into our 3 hour hike carrying 20 lbs.Saturday I kicked my pack weight up to 23 lbs, backed off distance to just two hours and never hit the pain wall!!! Yipppeee..... Our hike started at the Palmyra Horse park and continued south on the Ice Age Trail to the Stone Elephant and back.So, today, we took the same 23 lb pack and went for a three hour hike. I never hit the pain wall but now after sitting for an hour, neither Bandit nor I can walk very well. Babydog Jackson on the other hand is still begging to play more fetch.... (sigh) We hiked from Bald Bluff just south of Palmyra back past Stone Elephant almost all the way to the Palmyra Horse Park. We stopped for lunch where the horse, mountain bike, and Ice Age Trails all cross a road at the same point. It was very entertaining to watch all the horses and bicycles while we ate. I think we may have entertained all the horsemen and bicyclist as well as we were the only hiker / dogs there.Today's hike also included a lovely soft rain that wasn't forecasted. Imagine that! So we had the pleasure of making sure our rain gear, both for myself and my pack, was all in perfect and functional condition.Last night I was able to solidify our itinerary down to what shelters I think we might be staying at, which hotels/hostels are dog friendly, and sending out requests for possible transport. I very ecstatic that this miserable preparation task is done. Not my favorite part of the planning phase but I most certainly am getting quite speedy at it, relatively speaking.Also, last night, I reviewed who the 10 people are that receive my GOOD day/BAD day SPOT messages when I daily push the button. I updated a few e-mail/text addresses and then did a test run sending out one of each kind of message. I was quickly reminded that the SPOT also sends a message to Facebook. LOL I'd forgotten it did THAT!!! Ok, test complete and successful. Everyone got their test messages so the SPOT is officially ready to go!!!
Date: 2013-06-02
To: Wisconsin Hiking Practice Wrapped Up
Miles today: 0.0

With the plumbing business being wicked crazy, it had been hard the past few days trying to find enough time to teach my son the office bookwork he was going to need to know how to do in my absence. We squeezed in every available second for him to both learn the books and help his father with doing plumbing. Today however was the LAST day of the month making bookwork in the office a bit more hairy and complicated. I scrambled all day. After work, my son headed out for the night and my husband had some paperwork he wanted to finish. Since I hadn't hiked in the past three days, I crammed 29 lbs in my backpack, topped Bandit's out at 10 lbs and we headed for the closest hard part of the Ice Age Trail to our home, Scuppernog. We took out a route that wouldn't be the toughest but was a good 1-1/2 hour workout after all we'd just upped the weight a bunch. During our hike, Dave had also run to Home Depot for weekend supplies and had brought home Culver's for dinner. Super nice of him!!! The rest of the night I spent working and getting my office and PC in order for my absence.Saturday morning was spent organizing all my gear and filling all five of my drop boxes. One box was to be used immediatetly for the first leg of my hike, the second I was going to drop off at Bland, VA on my was into Pearisburg, the third I would leave at the hotel in Pearisburg for when I hiked back into that town and the other two Sue K. was to mail for me to other venues down the trail. With that done, I headed to the yard. My son got the yard mowed and I finished flower bed weeding. I still had three flats of flowers to plant and rather than stress over it, I gave them all to the neighbor. Boy was she thrilled and funny so was I. I squeezed in what was to be my last practice hike in Wisconsin before we had brauts for dinner. I also threw on the grill 6 chicken breasts for Bandit treats for our trial. A little more computer work and it was off to bed.Sunday morning, Dave and I went over everything that was needed to be done in my absence. This of course left me with a much longer list of plumbing paperwork to do than I'd planned. So I had to trim something from my timeline. Sadly one of those was to cancel Agility practice with Jessica. Bandit and I were going to just have to go to Nationals and fly as we were. My day was basically a blur of final yard work, house work, and shopping for a new hiking shirt with Dave. By bedtime I was starting to feel pretty good about things.
Date: 2013-06-04
To: Plumbing Office Work and Packing
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Monday was the first work day of June so there was plenty of plumbing paperwork to be done including all those monthly statements to be sent to open accounts. I'd reserved today completely for office work. Started out with placing a huge plumbing supply order to our local supply house then doing all the customer invoicing. There was to be no hiking, no packing, and no Agility practice today Tuesday got a bit intense, I had a full month of bills that all needed to be tackled and put in order in addition to all the normal paperwork. It's a blessing that the phone doesn't quit ringing but it makes it hard to stay focused on getting tasks at hand done. With all the plumbing supplies ordered yesterday checked in and put away, I attempted to once again clear paperwork from my desk. I really needed to be ready to depart at 9 am on Wednesday. My husband and son managed dinner while I broke from paperwork to tackle packing. I needed to pack a suitcase capable of handling a 5 day dog trial, followed by a night in Peaisburg, VA, and finally a final night in town once our hike was done. A bit complicated but done!Then I had to pack the truck. First to go in would be all my Agility gear up front. All the hiking boxes, 8 in total, along with two backpacks, boots, hiking poles, etc followed finally by my suitcase. I stuffed all kinds of things in the cab including an electic cooler. Just enough room left for me and Bandit. I crammed the rest of the evening until midnight with paperwork. Sadly, it was clear that a 9 am departure wasn't going to happen. And I simply wasn't go into be able to leave town until it was done.
Date: 2013-06-05
To: Departure for Sprinfield, OH
Miles today: 0.0

Rose really early, finished a laundry load of shop towels, and did my normal help out in the shop routine. By 8:30 I was back in the office. I spent the next 4 hours very carefully assembling a financial puzzle including all of June's payroll that was quite impressive.We were FINALLY on the road by 12:45. Saying good-bye to a very confused Jackson was tough. The drive to Springfield, OH was uneventful and direct. We arrived safely at the host hotel and unpacked ALL that stuff into our room. Sue and I got ourselves some adult beverages and I FINALLY collapsed into a chair. It was time time to simply enjoy the ride from here on out!!!!
Date: 2013-06-06
To: Day #1 at CPE Nationals
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: moderate rain

Sue had us up early and on the road to the Fairgrounds by 5:45 a.m. First stop was breakfast pickup at McDonald's. We arrived at the Fairgrounds by 6:00 a.m. and found our horse stall that were to serve as our crating area for the trial. We setup crates and organized the space. Then it was off to find the two rings for our two morning practice runs. We ran under the canopy at 9:00 a.m. and on the grass at 11:00 a.m. We had an hour of volunteer time from 10-11:00 a.m. Runs went very smooth and I was pleased with Bandit's performance on both types of footings.The afternoon was spent shopping at all the cool vendors. Registration and check in for the trial was at 2:00 p.m. Bandit and I headed out to Buck Creek State Park for an hour practice hike followed by Dinner at the hotel restaurant with friends. Then off to bed early.
Date: 2013-06-07
To: Day #2 at CPE Nationals
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: moderate rain

Same morning drill as yesterday putting us at the Fairgrounds by 6:00 a.m. Course map pick up was at 7:00 a.m. Followed by the opening ceremony. Bandit ran three runs, Wildcard, Standard, and Fullhouse Q'ing in all three. His Standard run was for his C-ATCH 3 title and was the highlight of our entire Nationals experience. Following pictures with the photographer, I ran to Wal-Mart for a celebration cake for Saturday, we got Subway for dinner, and it was back to the rooms. I stayed up until midnight organizing all my hiking drop boxes and collapsed into bed... Again.
Date: 2013-06-08
To: Day #3 at CPE Nationals
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Same morning drill yet again putting us at the Fairgrounds by 6:00 a.m. Course map pick up was also again at 7:00 a.m. Today's runs included Standard, Jackpot, and Jumpers. We Q'ed in Standard, failed miserably at Jackpot, and the heat did Bandit in for the Jumpers run. Rats! Not his fault really and I really wasn't surprised as he's historically had trouble running when its warm. The Jumpers run was our outside-on-the-grass-in-full-sun run. We set out Bandit's cake, got his trophy bar signed by friends, did more shopping at vendors and then it was off back to Wal-Mart to buy my perishables for our hiking part of this adventure. We had dinner in the hotel lounge with many new friends. Once back at the room, I did final organization on gear and drop boxes until midnight. I managed to get it all packed up but ran out of time to get it in the truck. That would just have to wait for the morning.