morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-05-06
From: Feathercamp Branch campsites, VA

To: Campsites at Whitetop Mtn. Road, VA
Miles today: 15.7

Hiked out in the morning and by the time we got to the turnoff for the Saunders Shelter there were signs of sunshine clearly calling for a break. The shelter itself was a massive 0.2 miles off the trail, so I collapsed right on the trail itself for what turned into a three hour break. The boys went on and I hiked the afternoon alone with a little John Donne for company.It was late-ish by the time I reached Lost Mountain Shelter and ate dinner, but Ranger and Shera were there and amenable to the though of pushing on and it wasn¢t quite dark yet and I knew the boys and Cuppa and Free and Serenity and Poet and Scholar would be at the Whitetop campsites about five miles farther north so the three of us pushed on and up Whitetop. We passed the Bruces and Piker and Mileage on the way and thought about stoppng there, but eventually decided to keep on going. The sun was setting as I climbed Whitetop, and all the side of the mountain glowed brilliant red. Lovely. I thought about camping up on Buzzard Rock so I could see the sunrise in the morning, but then I realized it was oriented all wrong. Visibility to the east was nil. So I kept going. The last stretch of trail I did in the dark, and I stumbled a couple of times, but I reached the campsites by 9:30 and was delighted to find a large group of people and a campfire.Answer to yesterday¢s question: a day and a half.
Date: 2005-05-07
From: Washington, DC

To: Wise Shelter, VA
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: clear sky

Nick and Dave went ahead this morning -Nick couldn't quite stomach the Slow Train trajectory. I think the thought of spending a week walking ten-mile days made him feel literally ill. But I'll see them again at Trail Days.I walked with Linux and we took many long sunshine breaks and wandered past ponies who tried to eat my camera and out over the fields of the Grayson Highlands. The conversation meandered through drugs and cultural frameworks and happiness and anthropology and ontology, and yet again my inability to multitask reared its ubiquitous head: when we arrived at the shelter, everyone wanted to know if we'd enjoyed hiking through Fatman Squeeze, and I was embarrassed and also a little boggled to admit I had - evidently - passed by it without so much as batting an eye. They thought I was kidding. They thought I couldn't possibly have missed it. In Break a Leg all things are possible.Cuppa, Serenity, Linux, Free, Poet, Snowman and I sat around the campfire and drank hot chocolate laced with a little bit of kahlua. Serenity had packed out a cheap Harlequin-style paperback she'd found at the library in Damascus - it featured a heroine named Serenity, so she could not resist buying it - and I in turn could not resist reading the better parts out loud. I¢ve never heard the word ¢beaver¢ used that way before. I accidentally melted Serenity¢s baggie of powdered soymilk and was contrite. But at least the Lipton shells I had for dinner were ¢ better than they could have been. My obliviousness to the Fatman Squeeze notwithstanding, this is a gorgeous section of trail along which to be taking a slow week ¢ it's the best way to appreciate the Highlands, and I told Cuppa he's fully reinstated as a GLGE-er for planning the Slow Train week (he'd been on probation for pulling a few crazy days). I think I remember reading something from Muir once about him taking all day to walk ten miles. I heartily approve.
Date: 2005-05-08
From: Wise Shelter, VA

To: Hurricane Mtn. Shelter, VA
Miles today: 9.8
Weather: clear sky

As part of a Sunday-morning relaxation scheme-cum- sociological experiment (and considering that the Slow Train trajectory only called for ten miles today anyway), Cuppa was forbidden to leave the shelter before 10 AM. As he's generally up and raring to go at the crack of down, deliberate sloth took considerable effort on his part. Free wanted to restrict him not only to the shelter area but expressly to his tent until the appointed hour; I seconded the motion but Cuppa vetoed it vehemently. I think he was relieved not to have been overruled. He sprinted north at precisely ten AM, and the rest of followed soon after.The first few miles of the morning were over grassy patchy windy balds, and as we came down to "The Scales," a rail-fence livestock corral, we dropped packs for a short while and Poet, Free, and Scholar taught me to play Euchre while CJ and Serenity watched and Linux took a nap. After a little while we each wandered on at our own pace, and stopped for lunch at Old Orchard Shelter. I sprawled in the sunshine reading afterwards, and left last, just in time to see and say hello to Piker and Mileage and Wiggi as they trickled in.I caught up with the others at Fox Creek, and the others celebrating having crossed the 500-mile mark with waterfights and a rousing game of I'll-float-my-Croc-downstream-and-you-catch-it.Serenity wanted to dunk her hair without wetting her clothes, so she sat on a fallen tree and had Poet and Free grasp her arms and lower her backwards towards the creek, as she tipped her head back to meet it. The whole affair looked like nothing so much as an old-time baptism. I, meanwhile, was busy singing a hosanna to my shorts, having joined the celebrations by peeling off the bionic knees, zipping the legs off my convertible pants (something I don't often have the chance to do given all the hardware I've normally got strapped to my appendages), and traipsing up- and downstream with gospelworthy appreciation. Inspired by Serenity's ritual immersion, I decided to dunk my own head, but I made the fatal mistake of failing to recruit a support team. So I slipped and shrieked and fell and soaked not only my head but the rest of me as well.I sloshed out of the water and sat down on the bank. "We were having a bet while you were under there," Serenity told me. "We were like, Is she going to come out looking like clean Break a Leg, or like dirty Break a Leg with wet hair?" I wrung out my hair. "What's the verdict?""Dirty Break a Leg with wet hair," she said. "Definitely dirty." Eventually, that evening, the seven of us reached the brand-new Hurricane Mtn. Shelter, greeted Lowgear and Jake Break, who were camped nearby, made dinner, and read a little bedtime David Sedaris aloud to each other.And Happy Mother¢s Day, Mom ¢ though I won¢t speak to you today, being as I am in the woods and stuff, I'll call you when I next get to a phone. And I hope the Damascus card will have reached you by now.
Date: 2005-05-10
From: Trimpi Shelter, VA

To: Partnership Shelter, VA
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: light rain

Today¢s walk was a short one ¢ only ten miles ¢ and since I knew it would end up at a shelter where I could, allegedly, both take a shower and have pizza, I left early. The three points of note during today¢s hike:1. Magic Schoolbus Land. Out in a field in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by cow shit, a dilapidated schoolbus gutted of its seats, that clearly used to be someone¢s home. Odd, odd, odd.2. The Evil Death Calves. (Who unnerved Linux.) In a pasture just past Magic Schoolbus Land, black calves tottering around with white heads. I¢ve never actually seen Bergman¢s Seventh Seal, so their resemblance to Death didn¢t hit me quite as hard as it might have, but they were definitely eerie-looking.3. Ascent #1 of Brushy Mountain. Unremarkable in and of itself, but according to Wingfoot we will ascend Brushy Mountain FIVE TIMES in the next eighty miles. I think a complaint ought to be lodged. How many Deep Gaps can one person bear? At Partnership I reveled in a hot shower while a group of others hitched into town on a beer run. The whole Slow Train contingent trickled in the afternoon, along with Patch and Silent Bob and Fireball and Nu-B and the Troll family. We ordered pizzas from a place down the road and waited for mountains of food to arrive. I was so verklempt by pizza and Mike¢s and the joy of having showered that when Serenity arrived I flung my arms around her neck in greeting. She patted me on the back and told me it was very nice to see me, too. Fireball, similarly overwhelmed, climbed a thirty-foot pine tree barefoot.And tonight Pacman showed up! He¢d pulled several twenties in a row to catch us all and was ready for pizza (and to show off his newly ultralite pack). The two of us conducted an informal experiment in which it was determined that for every five steps he takes, I have to take eight steps to travel the same distance. Heh.Parternership is a lovely shelter, but I didn¢t get much rest. SO. MUCH. SNORING. Silent Bob accused me of being the guilty party, but only because I was next to Troll. I couldn¢t snore that loud if I tried. Besides, I was up all night.
Date: 2005-06-01
From: Brown Mtn. Creek Shelter, VA

To: North Forks of Piney River Campsites, VA
Miles today: 13.9

Happy June! Beautiful and sunny today, but my pulled arch is continuing to bother me. Nick and Dave were planning to do 21 miles to The Priest Shelter; I told them I¢d be taking it slow on account of my foot, and if I didn¢t make it as far as they did I¢d see them in Waynesboro. It¢s actually been lovely to take such a slow day ¢ wandering in no real rush, taking plenty of breaks. The laurels and rhododendrons are blooming full and blanketing the hillsides and at one vista someone¢d stretched a string of Tibetan prayer flags between the trees, which I¢d normally find a little pretentious but which was oddly lovely in the landscape. Eaglefoot and I walked together off and on most of the morning ¢ he¢s a fellow slow-walker ¢ and later we ran into Patch, who was busy searching for four-leaf clovers by the turnoff to Cow Camp Gap Shelter, and gave me one when he found it. I took a long lunch break out on top of the balds on Cold Mountain, lying in the sunshine and reading ¢The Man Who Walked Through Time,¢ a mediocre book about a 1963 foot journey through the Grand Canyon. (Someone had left it in a shelter and, desperate for reading material, I picked it up.) The only downside to my extended break was that I was out of water by the end of it, and it was a thirsty couple of miles to the spring at Hog Camp Gap, which was a fair distance off trail. I ran into Clockwork Orange there. I¢d been planning to go to Seeley-Woodworth Shelter ¢ a couple of miles from the road into Montebello ¢ and spend the night there before heading to the legendary Montebello B&B the next morning, but I never quite made it. I¢d taken so many breaks during the day that it was nearly 8 o¢clock when I reached the campsites before the shelter, and Dark Helmet and Lobster were there with a fire going and music playing, and the temptation to stay was too strong. So I stayed.My arch is still sore, but noticeably glad to have taken a slower day. Unfortunately, about a mile back from the campsites, I rolled my ankle and sprained a muscle on top of the same foot. It¢s a little cranky now.It was exactly a year ago yesterday that I finally graduated college, and a year ago today that I enlisted my dad¢s help in frantically moving out of my Providence apartment. Very strange, to look back at the span of a year. What have I done with it?
Date: 2005-06-02
From: North Forks of Piney River Campsites, VA

To: Dutch Haus, Montebello, VA 
Miles today: 4.2

Woke up early this morning to the sound of rain coming down hard, and the only thing that got me up and out of the tent was the thought that though I¢d get wet, I was under five miles from the road and a dry place to stay. So I charged into the rain, made pretty good time out to Fish Hatchery Road, and was marginally nonplussed to discover that in lieu of the paved thru-way I¢d been envisioning was an abandoned dirt road a mile from town. Shrugged and headed down it; happily, Lois from the Dutch Haus happened to be at the fish hatchery in her truck exactly as I walked down there, and she picked me up ¢ and Eaglefoot and Patch too ¢ and took us all down to the B&B, where I was promptly handed a bathrobe and a laundry basket and pushed into the shower. Delightful. Clean and wrapped in terry cloth, I was plied with coffee and lunch; later Eaglefoot and I watched ¢Quiz Show¢ and I took a nap before dinner. As I told Slaphappy when she arrived later, it takes about thirty seconds to develop a deep and abiding love for this place. It poured all day. I was delighted to be in a dry place.
Date: 2005-06-03
From: Dutch Haus, Montebello, VA

To: Dutch Haus, Montebello, VA
Miles today: 0.0

Not all who wander are lost... an email from Jess sends this update: She is just south of Waynesboro, VA, about 800 miles along the trail and still going strong. She promises updates to come soon, so hang in there! Still raining and cold this morning, and my foot a little better but still sore. An unplanned zero? Oh, twist my arm. I rolled out of bed; drank coffee; ate French toast; went back to bed for a post-breakfast nap; rolled back out of bad; drank some more coffee; read a book all about ¢The Waltons,¢ a television show I have never in fact seen; ate chili in a bread bowl; took a shower; walked down the road with Eaglefoot to Montebello¢s one store; where I bought Snickers bars; walked back; checked my email; ate veggie lasagna; and lounged in the living room attempting to catch up on journal entries. You see the pattern. I have, incidentally, consumed enough calories in the past 36 hours to get me at least to Front Royal.I¢m not sure how far I¢ll go tomorrow. I don¢t want to push my foot farther than it wants to go, but I would like to be able to catch Nick and Dave before Dave goes home to Chicago in Harper¢s Ferry. Gah. Miss my storytime buddy. I love the trail, but sometimes having super-speedy friends blows. However: New shoes in Waynesboro!
Date: 2005-06-04
From: Dutch Haus, Montebello, VA

To: The Priest Shelter, VA
Miles today: 4.6

Me: Ox, you¢re in my journal entry for today.Ox: Did you write about my facial hair?Me: Not yet¢¦Ox: My debonair ways? My devastating wit? My raunchy feet?Finally roused myself to leave the Dutch Haus today, but not before another enormous breakfast and lunch. Lois gave Eaglefoot and me a ride back to the gate at Fish Hatchery Road, and while we were walking up to the trailhead, some guy in a pickup truck rolled past and yelled out, ¢You got a long way to go!¢ Thanks for the news flash, Captain Obvious. A short walk out to the shelter, passing Spy Rock on the way, which we (naturally) went and investigated. I¢d have felt very Bond-esque, except it was just a big pile of rocks. Decided to stay here since I know there¢s a steep descent first thing in the morning, followed by a steep climb right after, and I¢m unwilling to screw up my foot again, but I¢m a little grumpy right now anyway ¢ after these rest days it seems impossible that I¢ll be able to catch the boys in time to say goodbye, unless I pull long strings of crazy high mileage days, which seems guaranteed to reinjure my foot, which is also not an acceptable option. Is this Virginia blues? I don¢t think so ¢ it¢s beautiful out here, and I feel lucky to be hiking. I¢m simply frustrated that my brain and body want different things. I¢d say something about a rock and a hard place, but rocks are far too literal these days. But I¢ll admit that as I write this, with an afternoon thunderstorm pouring down, I¢m pleased to be snug and dry.Also, Ox tells me I have scary chimpanzee toes and that if I want to slow anyone down, I should reach my feet out, wrap my toes around the people in question, and pull back. This is a technique I have not previously considered.Later: Ox says he can tell I am going to smack him. I say he is not worth smacking. Ox says I might change my mind about this. I say at the present moment the required energy output outstrips the potential satisfaction of smackery. Ox says he will keep trying, but first he has to finish reading ¢Space Cadet.¢
Date: 2005-06-05
From: The Priest Shelter, VA

To: Reed's Gap, VA
Miles today: 15.3

A lovely day. Sunny and warm and my foot feels a little funny but not too bad. A slow easy five miles down The Priest to the Tye River, where I ate an early lunch, dozed in the sun, and started reading ¢Space Cadet¢ (Ox finished it last night, and I, having finished ¢The Man Who Walked Through Time,¢ seized the opportunity to trade in one mediocre book for another). Ox and his father (who¢s been visiting for several days) showed up shortly thereafter, and Ox¢s mother arrived in a van to pick up the elder Ox. My lucky day, as she not only gave me food but also offered to slackpack the two of us the next ten miles, up and over Three Ridges. Since Three Ridges turned out to be the nastiest climb we¢d had in a while, I was delighted to be going over it packless ¢ my foot was even more delighted. And we were pretty stoked about how fast we were traveling sans packs (¢We are totally booking it!¢)¢ or at least, we were stoked until we actually got to Reed¢s Gap and discovered that even without packs, we¢d STILL only managed to go barely faster than our usual 2mph pace. (¢7:45? You¢re kidding me. How is it 7:45? No way is it 7:45! Break, how is it 7:45?¢) I suppose some of us are just born slow. (But I FELT a lot better than I would have if I¢d gone over that beast with a full pack.) So: Thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Ox!We thought about pushing on a few miles farther, just to shorten the distance into Waynesboro tomorrow ¢ but it was getting late, and we weren¢t sure we¢d be able to find decent campsites, and there was a huge lovely field right where we were ¢ so it didn¢t take much mutual suggestion to convince us to camp right there. And then, as if to cement the rightness of our decision, a weekender in a trailer brought us some Natty Light. So there you are.
Date: 2005-06-06
From: Reed's Gap, VA

To: Paul C. Wolfe Shelter, VA
Miles today: 14.4
Weather: clear sky

Today started beautifully and ended not-so-beautifully, but I suppose that¢s inevitable from time to time. The morning was sunny and clear, and my foot felt pretty good, and the five miles out to the Dripping Rocks road crossing were gentle. Ox and I congratulated ourselves for having camped at the gap last night ¢ there were NO campsites anywhere in that stretch, and if we¢d gone on, we¢d have been walking a long way. And when we got to the road, Beach Party ( a just-finished section hiker I¢d met at the Dairy Queen in Atkins) was there with her mother and sister and a mind-boggling array of food and drink ¢ cookies, brownies, cinnamon rolls, sandwiches, chips, fruit tart, deviled eggs, potato salad, fondue, drinks. Our eyes bugged out. It was 10:30 AM. I decided I did not care what time it was. Lunch was, clearly, served. Peanut and Che, Biscuit and Gravy, and a handful of other hikers walked in later and eyed the two of us, passed out on the roadside, mumbling and chewing.Two hours later, and babbling incoherent thanks, we staggered away from the road crossing, pushing our stomachs in front of us. Unbelievable. I headed up the hill, fully intending to still walk the remaining 15 miles into Waynesboro. Unfortunately, after about 6 miles my foot suddenly began to hurt again, badly ¢ and then it began to thunder, and then the rain came sheeting down. By the time I reached the shelter, 5 miles away from town, the rain had stopped, but I looked like a drowned rat and my foot was telling me flatly that it had had enough for the day. Ox and almost everyone else went on to town and a dry place; reluctantly ¢ and damply ¢ I stayed behind. The shelter¢s nearly empty ¢ Biscuit and Gravy are here, and a Japanese hiker I don¢t know ¢ and I¢ve got my foot propped up with a cold water bag on it, but it hurts, and I¢m frustrated. I don¢t want to be anywhere but out here, able to walk, without (debilitating) pain. Injury¢s screwing with my plan, and it pisses me off. Not that my being pissed off will accomplish anything. All I can do is rest, and I know that. But still.
Date: 2005-06-07
From: Paul C. Wolfe Shelter, VA

To: Waynesboro, VA
Miles today: 5.0
Weather: overcast clouds

So the original plan was to try and get in and out of Waynesboro in one day. The revised plan, implemented the second I woke up with a still-throbbing foot, was to get into Waynesboro and rest, period. So I packed up and headed out slowly and carefully. The morning¢s one unexpected and pleasant surprise came a mile or two later, when I stopped for a water break and who should walk up behind me but Cuppa Joe? I¢d heard rumors he wasn¢t far behind, and it was lovely to see him again ¢ but the nutcase had gotten up at 4AM that morning and started hiking! He¢d already done 15 miles by the time he ran into me, which could not have been much later than 9AM. We headed into town together and hit the post office. My bounce box was, as usual, totally out of control, as were the two delightful packages from my mom and Jaime, both of which I was happy to receive but rather stymied as to how to carry, so it was divine luck that first CJ and then a compassionate Waynesboro driver helped me transport everything to the Y. I took a shower and then sat on the floor amidst a sea of cereal and dried fruit and maps, trying to consolidate a little. Enter 8-lb. Bag Of Gorp, Second Edition. (¢Cuppa, what was I thinking?!¢) As usual, my food bag is ridiculous. I¢m an incurable hunger weenie.I dropped my stuff off at the campground, ran the usual errands ¢ grocery store, library, phone ¢ and realized that I was starting to feel kind of crappy. Sore throat, sinus headache, the works. I drank lots of water and read and napped for the rest of the afternoon (I finished ¢Space Cadet¢ and was extremely grateful to have a new novel to read, courtesy of Jaime¢s spectacular package). Went to bed early and woke up at 2AM with a raging headache.
Date: 2005-06-08
From: Waynesboro, VA

To: Waynesboro, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Woke up feeling slightly more like a human being ¢ the sore throat¢s getting better, the headache¢s receding, and the foot is noticeably improved. Water, ibuprofen, sleep, ice, Sudafed: these are marvelous curatives. Spent the morning reading and napping ¢ in other words, doing nothing ¢ and eventually headed to the library, where I was excited to run into Scholar. Camel and his mother gave me a ride to the outfitter¢s to get new shoes, and I said a satisfied farewell to the old Garmonts ¢ which served me well, but after 800 miles, were done with their term of service. Kaput. (By ¢said a satisfied farewell,¢ I mean ¢put in a grocery bag of trash along with watermelon rinds and some old potato salad.¢ I felt a minor compunction about doing this, mostly recalling Dave¢s advice that I could likely get at least fifty bucks for those nasty things if I sold them on Naughty Bids. But it didn¢t seem worth the effort.) Thanks, Camel and Mama Camel! Now I have snazzy new blue Vasques. With midsoles. Ooh, midsoles. Eat your heart out.Cuppa Joe and Treetrunks barbecued tonight, and Slaphappy, Scholar, Brownie, Souleman, and I consumed gluttonous quantities of food. A very lazy day, and probably exactly what my foot needed. I¢m not sure yet what I¢ll do tomorrow.