morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2012-11-26
From: Seeley woodworth shelter

To: punch bowl 
Miles today: 25.4

it wasn't to cold last night. i actually woke up sweating and had to get out of my bag for a little bit. the moon was bright last night you didn't even need a head lamp at all. it was like daylight except with a silvery shadow. for some reason i decided to dry my socks by the fire last night. i never do this. they just dry hanging and its fine. but for some reason i put them by the fire. it baked and hardened the salt encrusted mud on 3 of my normal socks and when i put them on this morning they kinda shattered like clay. luckily i have an extra pair. but i just bought one of these. this morning was extremely pretty. great big grassy fields on top of the mountains. i just sat at one for a while. it wad beautiful . great view in all directions. oddly enough the mountain bald knob was not actually a bald. there was long 3000 ft down hill that just kept going. after that i think the book was wrong bout the mileage. it said 4 and a half miles but it took me the amount of time to do 5 and a half miles. my pace is usually pretty consistent. o well. i got to the shelter at dusk. there's a small pond and a nice field. its a really pretty place for a shelter. short day tomorrow. i'm starting to feel the miles recently. hope it passes. but i think our bodies are kinda breaking down. all of us seem more stiff and hurt more at the end of the day. time for the mind to work harder than the body.
Date: 2012-11-27
From: punch bowl 

To: Lexington
Miles today: 10.4

It rained last night. i guess it had to happen eventually. luckily i was already in the shelter. scarecrow did get a little wet but not to bad. this morning it couldn't decide, it would spit and sprinkle and quite a few minutes later. we all hung around. i ate two breakfasts and made a double pot of coffee. anything to just keep from going back in the possible rain. we are all sick of it. at nearly 9 we all hiked out together. first time we've all 3 hiked. it was cool. lots of talking back and forth. we had a strong pace but nothing to pushing. i took alot of pictures with all the low lying clouds in the valleys or clinging to mountain tops. it made for a beautiful view. we came to a marker where a 5 year old was found back in the late 1800s. there was saw toys and coins and candy on the marker. there was a piece of candy on the alter and no one even attempted a move for it. bad juju. we laughed about that but i think we all totally believe in trail karma. i do. some things you just don't do. when we got to the road we had a little trouble. 3 of us on a non busy road. eventually a hunter stopped and we got in the back for a very long very cold ride to town. we got to glasco which is nothing. there is a grocery store that was very pricey. i got two days worth of food for what normally costs me 4 days. then we found out there is no hot food in town. or in other words there is no restaurant. no place to eat. not even a deli. what kinda town literally has no where to eat? i still cant wrap my head around this. why would you live somewhere where you have to drive 20 minutes to find any food? even in the summer when i'm living on burton 30 miles from a town in any direction, there is still laprads or Cherokee landing. well anyway we decided to hitch to buena vista a few miles further. a lady picked us up a she worked at a BBQ joint. she dropped us there and i got a great bit of pulled pork and alot of sweet tea. after a really late lunch we headed to a comfort in. on the way we passed the uncorked wine shop. in the book it says they are developing a trail angle network so we stopped in. two guys in sweater vests stared at us as we crossed the road. one guy thru'd back in the 70s. he was a really cool guy and said we'd call ken for us. ken owns a bed and breakfast and for the same price as the comfort inn we could stay there. that sounded awesome cause it also included laundry and breakfast. ken came and got us and we went back to Lexington where we stayed with scarecrows family. the bed and breakfast was insanely nice. i think 200 plus a night per person and we got it for a steal between the 3 of us. it was a huge place and the nicest bather room i've ever seen. a fireplace in the room and a view that is amazing. we stayed up a long time just hanging out and enjoying this insanely nice bit of trail magic. and there is breakfast in the morning.
Date: 2012-11-28
From: Lexington

To: matts creek shelter
Miles today: 1.9
Weather: clear sky

slept great with a fire going all night. woke up and made coffee in this crazy single shot coffee maker that uses pouches. we all went up to breakfast where ken brought out peach soup in fancy glasses and dainty spoons. i was amazed at the spoon. it was like a tiny ladle. very deep with an intense angle to it. the peach soup was amazing. had it been appropriate i would of licked my bowl. after that was puffed eggs and sausage. both were amazing and with fresh blue berry muffins to finish! a 3 course breakfast! what is this? i thought it was just nice to have 2 showers in the same week. this is something else. after that we had ken drop of off in town where we went to a really cool book store. got a book and friend recommended. we also went to he outfitter where i found a deal on smart wool socks. buy one get one free. sweet cause they are usually 20 bucks a piece. we went to the blue sky cafe where they gave us free bagels, cookies and brownies! each of us got a big bag of goodies. i got trail journals done at the library. ken got us from there and took us to a real grocery store. we got hot dogs, beer and a pie since we only had 2 miles out to the shelter. he dropped us off and we thanked him a ton. on trail by 5, my latest start yet i think. but we made super time on amazing trail. 15 minute miles without even trying . we got fire wood and cooked our hot dogs and ate. a cold front is coming supposedly. somewhere round 25 degrees tonight, but i'm warm in my bag and full of pie.
Date: 2012-11-29
From: matts creek shelter

To: cornelious creek shelter
Miles today: 13.7
Weather: clear sky

it did get cold last night. i was totally zipped up. this morning when i mae coffee i drank most of it, but he last sip froze in my pot. boiling to ice in 10 minutes. it did warm up into a nice sunny day though. i didn't see anyone till hobo showed up at camp. there was the highest mountain in a while at 4200 feet, but i think we are about to go back down fo a while. we had a short day today. its nice to get in camp at 315 and there is a ton of firewood everywhere. i don't think there is anyway we'll burn through all i broke up unless we stay up till 10. i'm glad there is wood though, we are pretty high up and its cold already. not much to say today.
Date: 2012-11-30
From: cornelious creek shelter

To: bobblets gap shelter
Miles today: 18.4
Weather: overcast clouds

woke up with a headache today. it sucked and would not go away. normally when i have a headache out here i just eat something or drink some water and it'll go away. but this one just stuck around. i was making no progress and stopped for an early lunch. i fell asleep in a pile of leaves with my pack as a pillow. i was out for a while. woke up about one and it was still there. i broke down and took some ibuprofen. i've not taken any in a while. it still took a few hours to go away. i had a guy give me a banana, that was nice. for the first time i was not the first one in camp. hobo said the water was pitiful and he couldn't of been more right. i dug it out as best i could but it still took 20 minutes to fill my bottles. scarecrow actually made it befor dark today. i can't think of a time he didn't night hike in. tomorrow we are meeting hobos's parent in town. looks like another shower for me.
Date: 2012-12-01
From: bobblets gap shelter

To: Daleville
Miles today: 18.5
Weather: clear sky

woke up this morning expecting a 15 mile day into town, turns out hobo read the mileage wrong and it was closer to 20 miles. o well. we all hiked out. i've been feeling really tired lately. all uphill just seems to be difficult. the water yesterday was super small trickle so i shared my water with scarecrow and hobo. so we all had a tiny amount of water for the first 10 miles. we got to a spring and filled up. it was a relatively boring day. the only views were at the road crossings. after that the final up just seemed to go on forever. we ate lunch at the last shelter. finally some down hill after. five miles of gentle nice down. we got to town and met hobo's parents. they got us a hotel room and we got showers and went to Mexican after. i drove a car, it's just weird feeling. i was only going 20 miles, but that felt like i was flying. the speed limit was 55 but just going 40 seemed horrifying. i watched the SEC champion ship and georgia just barely lost. what a killer last 40 seconds.
Date: 2012-12-02
From: Daleville

To: daleville 
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

took a zero day with hobo's parents. it was nice, movies and food and resupply. they are gonna slack us for a little bit. i'm excited about that. easy miles for a little bit. i didn't really do much today. just watched movies. i climbed a tree pretty high up. that was about the highlight. caught up on phone calls. with the multiple small days, my town chores haven't built up like normal. i liked traveling with a group but its easy to get stuck in towns.
Date: 2012-12-03
From: daleville 

To: North mountain trail head
Miles today: 25.9

Woke up and went to the breakfast buffet. there is an indian girl who works there that has tried to talk to me the past two mornings and for the life of me i cant understand a word she is saying. i just smile and nod. we left out on a slack pack about 930. it was a really cool ridge line with a great view of a lake. me made a ridiculous trek around the lake. instead of just going to the left and hitting the mountains over there we walked almost a complete circle around the lake. i did want to see every side of the lake. tinker cliffs was really cool. a bunch of large boulders with gaps and caves to play around in. it had a great view to. we all met up on macafy knob , one of the famous places on the AT. we took some silly pictures. i had one where i was holding my pack like simba on pride rock. the down hill was fun, we were running pretty much the whole way. with out a pack my knees didn't hurt at all. we had a small camper we are in right now. it kinda feels wrong not being in a shelter. no fire and there are chairs. but the huge mile days with no pain i can't complain. and this burger is pretty amazing as well.
Date: 2012-12-04
From: North mountain trail head

To: sinking creek valley
Miles today: 26.8

Everything that could of gone wrong with a slack pack shuttle went wrong today. to start we got a late start, then we couldn't find the trail head. once we finally got on the trail we decided to go the wrong way. me and scarecrow started heading south while hobo was also going south. he'd get to the car and not have a key, and we'd just wind up in the middle of a road with no car at all. we finally realized we were way off track. we hitched a ride back a ways and got going the right way. Started trying to talk with hobo, turns out he also got lost and was off trail a ways before he finally caught a ride back to a trail head. i have no far how far we went with all the screw ups, but it was way past dark by the time we were all squared away. it was three large climbs today plus the dragons tooth which i didn't really see for the dark. o well. after an exhausting day we made it out. i didn't even care about dinner. i just wanted sleep. i think all of us pulled over 30 miles.
Date: 2012-12-05
From: sinking creek valley

To: stony creek valley
Miles today: 20.6

Today the shuttling worked great. the trail itself didn't want to cooperate though. there were so many down trees it was to the point ridiculousness. you couldn't go a hundred feet without having to navigate some form of blow down. they finally slacked off in time for the rocks to start. super rocky. there was one good view and we met scarecrow coming the other way right at lunch time. i finally met carry on, who i could of sworn was a guy based on their hand writing. turns out "she" was quite nice. she finishes in 4 days and invited us to a party. one thing with trail names is you can never really know if its a guy or girl, young or old. rainbow eyes and blue berry to my disappointment were both dudes. we went ahead and came to peirsburg so we could get food we'll hike into peirsburg tomorrow this car shuttling thing is confusing. but having real food makes it all worth it.
Date: 2012-12-06
From: stony creek valley

To: Peirsburg 
Miles today: 20.1

it was cold this morning. another cold front came in. i never realized how much the temperature fluctuates until i'm outside for all of it. once we got started it wasn't to cold. but as soon as we got on the ridge line it was nonstop biting wind. emphases on the I and the N in bIte'N. it just went straight through my clothes. it never slacked off either. just constantly blowing from the west. i didn't stop until i hit a shelter 18 miles in. just having a wind break was amazing. there was even an electrical outlet in the shelter. it wasn't connected to anything, but it was very convincing. i was in piersburg by 230. got a blizzard and did laundry and then hit a china buffet. one of hobo's friend kate is hanging out for a few days with us. she brought a ton of good book for us. one book i've been looking for too! i'm super excited to start this one.
Date: 2012-12-07
From: Peirsburg 

To: Va 606
Miles today: 23.8

I think i got the giant green tunnel experience today. there was alot of rhododendron thickets where it was just green and round. its so claustrophobic. other than that there was some really open large pine woods. i just sat down and listened to the quiet a while. its something about the thick carpet of pine needles that just muffle all the sound and make it such a piercing quiet. we've been moving really well lately. 24 miles in under 8 hours. scare crow left his head lamp somewhere and had to hike the last two miles in the dark. it was a cloudy day with no moon or stars to help. we made chicken fajitas for dinner. that's the best thing about a car, a cooler full of real food. i'm no longer eating rice for every dinner and breakfast is yogurt and fruit instead of pop tarts. heavy, easily spoil-able food. i feel way better than i have for weeks. my feet and knees don't hurt as much and i feel healthier. i called a few friends today. i may have some friends come up to hike the smokies with me. i haven't seen anyone i know since mass. it'll be great to have a reminder of home.
Date: 2012-12-08
From: Va 606

To: whythville 
Miles today: 18.6

I was in no mood to move this morning. Louie, kates dog had me up before 5. i stumbled for coffee and ate a bagel. hobo some how got really sick. we were supposed to meet in the middle and trade keys but we never saw them. we got to the car and found a note saying they were going to the hospital and to call kate. soon after they left hobo started violently throwing up. we got the spare key and drove to whythville where they had a hotel room. hobo looked like death and was just curled up in bed. he got up every now and then to go throw up. he seems to be doing better now, but i promised kate we'd go back to the doctor if it continues. he said he would shuttle us tomorrow but i don't think we are going to push him even to do that at the moment.
Date: 2012-12-09
From: whythville 

To: VA 623 Garden Mountain
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: overcast clouds

since hobo is sick he's only going to shuttle us for a day to two. for some reason we got a super late start. i originally wanted to take a zero day but me an scarecrow opted for a shorter mile day than we originally planned. hobo dropped us off nearly at lunch. my boss leon had arranged a bit of trail magic with his old friends from work who lived in the area. i gave him a call and said i'd be there around 5 or 530. the trail was very smooth and for once didn't follow the ridge line the entire time. i happily walked the side of the mountain on non rocky non useless ups and downs. it was so nice. i met a super cool guy named swamy. he started july 2, 2012 and has hiked over 15000 miles in the year and a half. he started the AT after the close date of katahdin. he is one of my new hero. i got out fof the woods and hobo was waiting. i should have had him just drop me off at the friend lee's house. but i decided to wait for scarecrow thinking he can't be to far behind me. we started at the same time right. an hour and a half later he rolls out. as soon as i got service, i called lee and apologized. he's wife said it was alright and to come on. they made us an amazing dinner and gave us a tn of home made bread. i also got some stores from people at work
Date: 2012-12-10
From: VA 623 Garden Mountain

To: VA 42
Miles today: 17.4

I realized this morning that i left my shoes at the road we got out on yesterday. and it was pouring down rain last night. luckily i can hike in my camp shoes. hobo and scare crow took the car around and i started from camp. it was an uneventful day. we did another smaller mile day cause hobo still isn't 100 percent. i met them in the middle, got the keys and hied a freakishly long uphill. 4400 feet at the top, the highest we've been since the whites. i stopped off and got my soaking wet shoes. lucky for me they are so gross no one would ever think to take them. on my right shoe i can stick 4 fingers out of holes at the same time. i picked up the guys and we got subway. i called mom and made plans for Christmas. they are coming up for a few days. i think i should finish somewhere around the 5 or 10 of january. i'm sick of this car camping thing. after Damascus i think i'm gonna jump out. i miss fires and making dinner and reading a book by the fire. this makes the days grueling cause there is no actual stop to look forward to. at the car i have to drive and get the others. then we have to set up for tomorrow or find a place we can safely park. the end of the hiking day is no longer then end of the day. my knees feel better now and it was a nice break but i'm ready to get back to back packing.
Date: 2012-12-11
From: VA 42

To: Mt rogers head quarters
Miles today: 23.3

SNOW! i couldn't decide if it was demoralizing or encouraging to see big flakes of snow fall while i was eating breakfast. once i started walking in a large open field it realized it was a good thing. to run through a pasture as the snow is just starting to collect is a feeling like no other. i felt good today and the thoughts about this hike took a long needed turn for the good. i'll be in TENN in 4 days. right on schedule to finish Virginia in 1 month. today was really nice and quick hiking. i started at 8 and by 1230 had done 15 miles. i don't know where they went either. in the book i've been reading it talks about foot placement so i was focused on my footing all day. i think it works cause my feet and knees feel pretty good. we were at the car by 3. i finished my book and i'm debating reading it again. "born to run" is a great book and to anyone doubting the human form and spirit of endurance its a great book to look into.
Date: 2012-12-12
From: Mt rogers head quarters

To: Marion
Miles today: 23.7
Weather: clear sky

Holy crap it was cold last night. my socks were frozen solid. i could pick it up and smack it like a piece of leather on the ground. when i went to tie my shoes the laces were frozen straight out. i ate a bagel and headed out quick. i met a crazy old guy who was so funny. i greeted him in the "didn't some one tell you it was cold out here" he starts telling about frozen shoes and tents. after that i ran into hobo, he looked like death. he said he was just going to hitch back to the car. i never saw scarecrow. he made it about two miles and turned back. hobo went home today and scarecrow is going home with his friend mat in a few days. i've hiked all of Virginia with them. i'm not really sad to hear the car is going though. i got a hotel with scarecrow and his friend mat. i'll hang out with them tomorrow and then move on. back to being by myself again. i'm kinda ready for it. i miss not having to worry about other people. my family comes out in a week for christmas. can't wait and then Katherine is gonna come out after that. and soon i'll be done. i hit the 500 mile mark to go tomorrow!
Date: 2012-12-13
From: Marion

To: Thomas Knob shelter "woo a shelter again"
Miles today: 12.7
Weather: clear sky

today was not what i was expecting at all. it was supposed to be cold and really high. over 5000 feet. we started up as i was expecting. first thing i noticed was i missed my back pack. no more slacking. and i'm ok with that . we got to the first shelter. we are so high that its above tree line. its just like walking thru the dessert with all the huge rock out crops. shades of read and amazing views. we saw the ponies today. there are so friendly. they come up and lick you for your salt. you could just walk right up to them. today was absolutely gorgeous. i have no words to describe it. it was warm, with no wind and amazing. one of my new favorite days on the trail by far. i wish i had a tent. there were so many amazing places to camp. i'll come back to this section and just hang out. maybe next year after trail days in Damascus. we are camped at 5400 feet and its supposed to be 22 degrees in the valley. it's gonna be cold tonight. but today was just so amazing. being above tree line, i wish the whole trail was like that. you could see so much.
Date: 2012-12-14
From: Thomas Knob shelter 

To: Saunder shelter
Miles today: 18.6
Weather: clear sky

It was pretty cold last night. we couldn't get the frozen wood to really do anything in the fire. it was burning, just not putting off heat. luckily there was a loft to the shelter. three of us up there and it was nice and toasty. the wind picked up a ton halfway through the night. you could hear it howling all night. this morning was nice with more amazing views. i got lost in a field. just before lunch. we had some bear dogs follow us for a few miles. they were super friendly and stuck with us till we stopped for lunch and a guy tracking their gps found them. we talked for a while . we walked by some major views. i found a ton of wood on the trail to water. its way warmer than it was yesterday. can't focus to right with all the talking. one of these guys talks alot. ... to much...
Date: 2012-12-15
From: Saunder shelter

To: Abingdon gap shelter
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: clear sky

last night was pretty warm. i've been wearing the mice out lately. for some reason they got ballsy again. i am a little sad though. i killed a mole on accident. a mole has never harmed me and i have nothing against it. i said goodbye to scarecrow. he got off today. he was only staying out till his friend came to hike a little. i've got a shelter to myself for the first time in a month. i'm also in tennessee now. virginia took one month and a day to complete. i made really good time with hiking today. almost 20 miles and i stopped for 2 1/2 hours in damascus. talked alot with the guy who owns the mt rogers outfitter. i got groceries and charged my phone. i realized today i' going to wind up past where i told my parents i would be by the 21. thats alright though. i'm gonna take at least 3 full zeros so i need to get as far ahead as possible to start after christmas. i'm getting close now. not even another month to go.