morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-05-03
From: Damascus, VA

To: Zero day in Damascus
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

5/3: Finally updating the journal today! Added text entries starting on 4/11 until 4/27. Will continue updating as I have time during zero days. I also deleted several mail drops - I've been going faster than expected, and appetite has definitely changed! If you've sent me something somewhere, please let me know as I don't want to miss it! Thanks for all the well wishes and emails, I love reading every one of them!!5/6/13 update: the unexpected weather zero has allowed me to continue updating the journal for your reading pleasure! Good morning dear readers,It's almost noon, and I have more than a bit of "buyers remorse" for zeroing today. Granted, I talked with my allergist's office and they just confirmed for me that I should start the antibiotics, so for that one today off the trail was worth it. I can't deny I need the rest, but today is a beautiful day, the temps perfect for hiking, and I'm not out there. With each step, OB and Headbones are getting further ahead of me. *sigh*, I'm just royally bummed out. I'm still staying at the great Victorian Inn B&B, and the owners are so nice and concerned about me. Their neighbor across the street was also so wonderful - she gave OB and I a tour of their RV when OB asked a question, and lent me some packing tape later....just genuinely nice folks so willing and happy to help other people out. Thanks again, Cissy! In the evening -- I was seriously anti-social today. I went to the Dairy King for an ice cream after my fruit and veggie lunch, and then again for dinner - had an awesome hamburger, fries, and aReal milkshake! Only talked with one other hiker who was there and chatted briefly with the locals, but avoided the hiker hang-outs as I just needed some time to myself. I think my head is in a better place because of this, but I'm happy to get back on the trail tomorrow, despite the forecast for lots of rain the next few days. It's May now, as long as it stays somewhat warm, I'll be fine! No rain, no pain, no Maine! It's funny, I've had my hair down since washing it yesterday, and other hikers do double takes - most have no idea I have such a lot of hair since I always have it pulled back! Some people haven't even recognized me, or go "Pathfinder??" in a confused voice, just hilarious!
Date: 2013-05-04
From: Zero day in Damascus

To: Lost Mountain Shelter area
Miles today: 15.6
Weather: clear sky

Good evening dear readers, On the road again! I was happy to leave town, but while refreshed almost wishedI had arranged to stay for a second zero, just to nap and read a good book. Alas, the trail calls me ever more north! No picture today, primarily because I forgot to get my phone out. While I love how my Osprey pack fits (though I'm still fiddling around with the straps and where I'm putting everything) what I don't like are the worthless hip-belt pockets, they are TINY, oddly shaped, and get half covered by the rest of the hip-belt on my year's model....Big Ole Blue definitely was the winner there - I could fit my phone, camera, and wallet in 1 hip-belt pocket, and all my snacks and pepper spray bottle (yes, I'm still carrying the 4 ounces Steve!) in the other. So, I feel all discombobulated - I don't know instinctually where everything is! Well, no piece of gear is absolutely perfect. I was sad and lonely without the guys today, but enjoyed getting to know some folks better and not making anyone wait for me.   I know some hike the Virginia Creeper Trail out of Damascus because it has prettier views, and I considered it, but a quick FB conversation with some of the WW&B ladies quickly convinced me to follow the white blazes on my thru hike. I don't regret it, I saw some of the Creeper trail, and walked on it a bit where it combined briefly with the AT and it was so....flat. Definitely an awesome bike trail, but where are the roots and stones? LOL, not a hiking trail. The Luther Hassinger Memorial Bridge was really impressive - much larger than I thought a bridge out in the woods would be! I did get some camera photos of that, but will have to wait untilI'm home to take them off the card. Here at the shelter area, a massive tent city in addition to the folks staying in the shelter. Guess I should have expected that on a Saturday night. Still a bit disconcerting, I had gotten used to only having a handful of other people about. Well, very nice flat tent sites! I got here early, didn't want to overdue it today, as I wasn't sure if taking the antibiotics might affect me somehow. Plus, mentally I was done when I got here at 5pm. Normally I'd hike another hour or 2 to get some more miles in, but today this was the right decision, if only to affirm how much I love the smaller camp sites and get some extra sleep.
Date: 2013-05-18
From: Wapiti Shelter

To: Pearisburg, VA
Miles today: 17.2

Note written on 5/19: And....I'm behind on updating my journal online again. Don't get too excited, I only got the mileage listed for each day from 5/6 until now. I'll continue to transcribe the text and add photos from my phone as I have time. Just wanted my dear readers to know I'm still out here and loving hiking in Virginia despite a bout with GI illness this week.I didn't go to Damascus for Trail Days and am so concerned for everyone in the car accident during the parade, so sad.
Date: 2013-06-11
From: Zero day in Pearisburg

To: Waynesboro,VA
Miles today: 227.0

Good evening dear readers,Mea culpa, I am well aware I haven't updated the substance of this journal for well over a month now. As I lived vicariously through many journals when I was in the "dreaming" stage, I've been feeling a bit guilty about this. I just spent a week at home in Ohio, my planned vacation from my huge vacation, and spent part of the 8 hour drive back to the mountains pondering the reasons why transcribing my journal entries has not been more of a priority for me. Rest assured, I treasure my nightly ritual of writing in my little journals, I simply haven't been sharing my thoughts and experiences with y'all recently. I had dinner tonight with Whirled Peas, wonderful lady that she is who has kept up with her journal, and she helped me put it in perspective. I feel I needed a break from technology and the modern world for a bit, but this journal remains important to me, not only to record my journey for myself, but also to give back to the hiking community which has given me so much. So, deep breath, I will begin again!   I plan to go back and transcribe the missing entries after my hike is over this autumn, but you'll have to live with a missing month for now. And what a month it was! I have adored Virginia despite some ridiculous moments and stories, and am eager to get back on the trail in the Shennies tomorrow. My jaw about dropped when I saw my ride at Enterprise car rental last week - my 3 months of having a minimal carbon footprint - poof!! Just me and my pack in a 8 passenger monstrosity (including a very generous amount of cargo space) that I promptly named "Behemoth". Gotta love it For those who are interested in seeing some photos, I have kept up better with that in real time than transcribing my journal entries! Here's the link: https://picasaweb.google.com/101250921933865172527/AppalachianTrail?authkey=Gv1sRgCIrCoYuhwIrRpgE&feat=directlink
Date: 2013-06-18
From: Waynesboro,VA

To: Front Royal, VA
Miles today: 107.5
Weather: moderate rain

Good evening dear readers,I'm here in Front Royal after a simply lovely week in Shenandoah National Park. Despite the weather forecasts predicting gloom and doom, it only sprinkled until the last day, when we drowned. So very spoiled after all of the waysides (think burger and hotdog stands in the middle of the woods) and camp stores. It's going to be hard going back to normal backpacking! The trails through the park were fantastic - so nicely graded, weed-whacked, the whole 9 yards! It was incredibly apparent after we crossed the park boundary, and the trail immediately went down a rock scramble. Oy. It's so hard to convey the "prettiness" of the park, wildness but not necessarily wilderness. I enjoyed all of the contact with the day hikers and weekenders, though felt rather like a specimen in a zoo when in popular areas like Skyland Lodge and the various campgrounds. It probably wasn't my brightest decision, but my first day back on the trail I went 20.5 miles in new shoes. I staggered into camp after 8pm, but was so excited to see Blackhawk after 2 weeks apart. We chatted like magpies, catching up. The rest of the days in the park we went 15 miles on average, and it was a lesson in perseverance for me with my feet hurting from the new shoes. I finally saw a black bear yesterday, I think I was the last thru hiker to see any bears, most of whom saw multiple. A highlight of the week was my gasp of horror when my pack rolled down a cliff, thankfully without me attached. Silly me, I set it on a low stone wall at an overlook and took my hands off of it for I swear only a second or two. It's a rather terrible feeling to watch all of your current worldly possessions, what you need to survive, roll down a cliff away from you. Thankfully, it came to a halt about 20 feet down, so over the wall I went with one of my trekking poles. As I climbed back up and hauled myself over the wall, I could only think what a site I would have made to any tourists! Alas for their amusement, the overlook was deserted. This week brings the awesome milestones of 1,000 miles and Harper's Ferry, WV, the psychological halfway point of the trail. I can't wait! .
Date: 2013-08-09
From: Kent, CT

To: Great Barrington, MA
Miles today: 54.8
Weather: light rain

Hello dear readers,Another state down and 4 more to go! Blackhawk and I hiked in to Great Barrington, MA, on Weds Aug 7th and are taking a double zero - yesterday because we needed it and I desperately needed new shoes, and today because it is simply raining cats and dogs outside, no one is leaving town on a day like today! It's a great rest before our push to the end, so I can't regret the necessity. I realize I'm totally slacking on putting in actual content for hiking entries since mid July. Still loving life out here, and at some point I will update, but it may be after I'm done as there are always many chores to do in town. Regardless, I'll keep you updated where I'm at! I continue to upload pictures with some comments to Picasa, if you want to see some experiences from the AT.Happy trails
Date: 2013-08-20
From: Great Barrington, MA

To: Manchester Center, VT
Miles today: 138.3
Weather: scattered clouds

Good afternoon dear readers,Here I sit at Palmer House hotel in Manchester Center on a lovely zero day - it's lovely out, a great day to hike, but also a great day not to hike! An absolutely sublime setting, surrounded by the Green Mountains towering around the valley, the cool mountain breeze, and laid back atmosphere, just what I needed. The end of Mass went well, except for falling on slick mossy rock literally a mile or so before the border - and here I thought I wouldn't have a fall in MA! Needless to say, the rock won, my left knee this time was the loser. Certainly not a catastrophic injury by any means, which it would need to be at this point to take me off the trail. My fellow hikers and I have been talking a lot the past few days about being tired, this trek of ours evolving into a death march, etc, but then there are days like today, to revitalize the spirit and body. I have about 540 miles to go, which seems short, sad as that is. I'm happy to see the tall peaks again
Date: 2013-10-01
From: Manchester Center, VT

To: Katahdin, ME!
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Good morning dear readers, if anyone is still looking at this journal, that is. Having realized that making entries kept getting to the bottom of the list during every town stop, it's rather glaringly obvious I gave up posting. Regardless, posting a final entry kept bothering me, so here it is! I had a beautiful day on the top of Katahdin, and was very happy to make it down the boulder scramble despite my fear of heights. I've fallen in love with long distance hiking, and am unabashedly putting off returning to being a "responsible" adult again, so on to planning for the PCT in 2014! Happy Trails!!
Date: 2013-04-16
From: Bull Gap

To: Blue Mountain Shelter, GA
Miles today: 17.7
Weather: overcast clouds

On my third day of hiking north, I encountered a roller-coaster of mountains and gaps, which remained below 4,000-ft elevation. It was a damp, foggy morning. I left camp about 7:30am along with a few others that camped at Bull Gap. By about 9am, I made it to Tesnatee Gap, where the AT climbed steeply to Whitley Gap Shelter. From the top of this ridge, I could hear traffic in the distance coming from Hogpen Gap, where GA 348 cut across. The trail followed old road grade for numerous miles north of Low Gap Shelter at mile 43.2, intersecting springs along the way. I stopped at a small cascade intersecting this old road base at mile 46.6, where I hiked down the steep slope to wash clothes and enjoy a sponge bath. The early damp fog had transformed to warm and humid conditions by late morning. Refreshed, I continued northward towards Blue Mountain Shelter. The AT traversed rugged terrain resulting from paleo-landslides, over the last few miles ascending Blue Mountain. The hiker can be most certain they are hiking over landslide, when the smooth path they once were hiking becomes scrambled with angular blocks of rock, making it difficult to traverse without spraining an ankle. I made it to the shelter again by dusk, watching the golden sun set through the trees after I set up my tent and cooked dinner. The shelter was loaded, as were the tent pads surrounding the shelter. I managed to find one of the last descent spots in between the other tents and set my door for a view towards Unicoi Gap. As the late afternoon soon began to fall below the distant ridges, I gazed at the ridges ahead and pondered on what terrain lied ahead. I had spoken to a few of the shelter's tenants about my ambitious miles planned for the days ahead, and they replied with great skepticism, describing the many long steep drops and climbs down and up ridges. Anyone who has even glanced at the watermarked topographic profile in AWOL's AT Guidbook, can anticipate this, so what they were telling me did not deter me, nor intimidate me. Tru and Paul, whom I met earlier in the day north of Tesnatee Gap, had hiked ahead of me earlier in the day and set up camp perhaps 100 yards away from the shelter, just off the edge of the AT. I stopped by and greeted them again as they were relaxing at the side of their tent.
Date: 2013-04-18
From: Cheese Factory Site

To: Bly Gap, NC
Miles today: 21.9

After a NERO-day in Helen, GA and a short day of mostly wet, late afternoon hiking though fierce thunderstorms to the Cheese Factory Site, I decided to push my mileage up a bit. The day looked promising weather-wise in the early morning, as I packed up damp gear at 5:30am. In the early morning, I made a significant steep ascent to the summit of Tray Mountain (EL 4,430-ft) before descending to a broad "swag" or gap, which stretched from Wolfpen Gap to Addis Gap (Swag of the Blue Ridge), before ascending Kelly Knob (EL 4,171). By early noon, I made it to the picnic tables at Dicks Creek Gap, where I rehydrated and enjoyed some lunch. The AT continued with a relatively gradual ascent out of Dicks Creek, followed by a steep one out of Cowart Gap to Buzzard Knob (EL 3,750). In the late afternoon, I had discovered the first significant change in flora over the four days of hiking through dormant-deciduous hardwood forest and rhododendron understory, a pine grove in the vicinity of Blue Ridge Gap (mi 75.3). I climbed out of the gap, making the long ascent toward the summit of Courthouse Bald. I stopped at Bly Gap by dusk to set camp (just a few tenths of a mile over the GA-NC border) in a cirque like depression below a sharp ridge. The state border was marked by a small plank of wood with GA/NC engraved in it. The gnarled tree also had a significant chunk of iron pipe hammered into it. The tree had partly encapsulated it. In a parabolic depression shortly after the state border, and below a sharp ridge, two other women hikers had set camp on the other side of a torpid spring running through the center of the depression. They had hung their food over a tree leaning at about 45 degrees, like a pi±ata and were preparing to settle into their tents early. After great effort of swinging a small rock tied to the end of a chord, I managed to get the limb I was aiming for. There were woody vines dangling everywhere, obstructing my "shot path". I finally hung a line for food, set up the tent, and cooked supper. I hiked up the short, steep hill to the crest of the ridge at the cusp of darkness out of curiosity. A wide path led in the opposite direction of the AT (away from the popular-well photographed "twisted tree") to an astounding view of distant valleys and ridges which faded into darkness. When I returned from the ridge, I settled into my tent for the night, writing an entry in my journal before turning in.
Date: 2013-04-22
From: Grassy Gap

To: Cable Gap Shelter, NC
Miles today: 19.5
Weather: clear sky

from Grassy Gap, where I camped the night before, the AT continues climbing steeply up the northern side of the Nantahala River Gorge, following it upstream westward before turning northward past the summit of Cheoah Bald. The climb back out of the gorge was brutal, climbing some 3,300 vertical feet (excluding the small losses of elevation along the way) between the river channel of NOC to the summit of Cheoah Bald. I continued my long ascent out of the Nantahala River Gorge in the early morning, along with the entire group I had camped with the night before. It was about 3.5 miles of steep climbing from Grassy Gap to the first summit, Swim Bald. Along the way, there were occasional views of Nantahala Gorge to the south. There was also the occasional, peculiar crescendo beating sound, like the rapid dribbling of a basketball, in the dense forest. By mid morning, the group, including myself, had made it to the summit of Cheoah Bald (EL 5,062-ft), where a couple of large trees served as benches around a large fire pit at the top of a large, sloping grass bald. We rested while enjoying a snack and rehydrating. Sprouts and Shanks did not join us but continued on at their own pace. I discovered Sprouts liked to hike a relatively fast pace, finishing her hiking early in the day so she could enjoy the afternoon to rest...made good sense. The entire group made it to the Cable Gap Shelter by dusk (mi 159.2). There were numerous tent pads down slope of the shelter and along the stream. The shelter and the tent sites surrounding the shelter were loaded. Chuckles and Little Spoon set up their Double Rainbow Tarp Tent at the very bottom of the slope next to the small creek, along with Shanks. I hung a line over a limb perhaps a good 30-feet above the ground, which I shared with Sprouts. I believe it was here, that Shanks introduced the PCT method of hanging food, which was intuitive and easy to remember. I recall trying to research this method online before departing on the hike and could not find any instructive videos. It was remarkably simple and far more sound than fastening the chord to the trunk of the tree you're hanging in or an adjacent one. Ironically I learned a method developed on, and named after a trail that traverses 1700 miles of my home state (the remaining 950 miles split between Oregon and Washington) on the east coast. It would be very useful in the upcoming months.
Date: 2013-04-29
From: Standing Bear Hostel

To: Campsite in unnamed gap
Miles today: 22.1
Weather: light rain

I left Standing Bear Hostel early Monday morning without my food cache, and realized after hiking about a mile on the AT from the gravel Green Corner Rd., that I forgot to leave a note with personnel to bounce the cache 100-miles north to Uncle Jonny's Hostel in Erwin, Tennessee. Amazingly, given how poor reception had been thus far, I had enough reception to call Standing Bear Hostel. I spoke with someone to confirm that the package would be bounced north. It was clear today. A couple that had left with their dog in the late afternoon had camped about two miles north of the hostel along the Painter Creek campsites. Camp looked soggy. I passed through around 8am. Four miles north of Green Corner Rd., I summited a broad grassy bald named Snowbird Mountain, marked by a prominent colossal nose-like FAA radar structure. I hiked about 100 yards off the side trail to take in the panoramic vistas of distant ridges and took a few photos. By the time I reached Groundhog Shelter about 6.5 miles north of the hostel, the last of the hikers from the "Marathon Monday" team the day before were starting their long hike north. I made the long ascent to the grassy bald of Max Patch by early noon, resting on the clumpy grass for a bite to eat. Sprouts and Arrow appeared at the edge of the fields from the steep-stepped south side about a half hour later and continued onward to the actual summit a couple hundred yards up the open grassy slope. They cut left at this point back down the hill towards a white EZ-up tents set in the parking area below by trail angels who through hiked the AT in 2010. They had posted a tiny sign on the AT - "TRAIL ANGELS -2010" supported by survey stake. I decided to continue north, following the AT a short distance more along the grassy ridge, back into the woods, reaching the dilapidated Walnut Mountain Shelter by late noon. The shelter was temporarily occupied by three male hikers, two of them being "cheese steak" and an older man named "Dr. Who". The third younger man whom I don't recall the name of, was hiking with Cheese Steak as part of the Marathon Monday team. With darkness setting in and 13 miles of their hike remaining, it was unlikely they'd complete their goal. I descended Walnut Mountain and began ascending Bluff Mountain, until I reached an unnamed gap, where a couple more hikers had set camp. I set up camp and cooked dinner before darkness set in. I was in my tent by dark fall, about ready to pass out, when I heard the voices of a couple hikers passing by camp with headlamps. It was Cheese Steak and his marathon Monday partner, still hoping to make 26 miles for the day. I thought to myself¢¦good luck! I glanced a few moments at the AT guide, recapping the day and what I'd try to accomplish for the next day, then fell asleep in quietness.