morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-05-13
From: Black Bear Resort

To: Watauga Lake
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: overcast clouds

The first day hiking went surprisingly well. Even though my body is out of shape, I was fueled by pure excitement this first day--nothing could slow me down! Dad and I hiked by Lauerel Falls , which was beautiful. Then we started an upwards climb through rocks and dirt. While climbing I easily worked up a sweat and when we took a break I was cooled down by a soothing wind. We couldn't have asked for more! After Laurel Falls our next destination was a huge lake called Lake Watauga. The trail led down towards the beach and wraps around the shoreline; however, when we reached the shore we discovered the entire trail was flooded! Picnic tables, signs, and such had all been claimed by the lake. Luckily we found a detour route, otherwise we would have had to swim. Our goal was to get to the Watauga Shelter but it was getting late and just before the shelter ( about a mile away) we ran into a lively group at a campground. Everyone was lined up and sitting on this log eating dinner, drinking beer, and relaxing after a long day of hiking. Dad and I called it quits and set up our tent up the hill from the main party. It was a good and very welcoming first night with all of these friendly hikers.
Date: 2013-05-14
From: Watauga Lake

To: Bog Campsite
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: clear sky

The second day hiking I started out just as strong as the first day except for some sore leg muscles from the exercise the day before. Little did I know we were in for a big climb. We started climbing up switchback after switchback and I kept wondering when we'd make it to the top.( In reality the climb up might not have felt so hard if the weather outside wasn't so hot!) About 1 o' clock or so in the afternoon we reached the springs/ small stream where everyone from the campsite the night before had stopped to take a break and get food and water to gain energy for the rest of the climb up. By the time my dad and got to the spring, the sore ache in my thigh muscles had dissipated or at least was masked by a much more powerful pain in my right hip. I was a little worried but I figured that was to be expected; after all, the last time I backpacked was for one night when I was 11 and now at 23 starting this big adventure I can't say I was in the best of shape. So I said to myself "after a night's rest I will be at 100%". By the time we reached the "Bog" campsite the pain had spread all the way from my hip down to my ankle! I had to limp on flat land and especially going downhill; however, going uphill was just fine--it even felt good.
Date: 2013-05-15
From: Bog Campsite

To: Low Gap
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: light rain

The third day hiking the weather was hot. As dad and I climbed up the hills I could feel beads of sweat forming on my forehead preparing to roll down my face. My right leg was still sore as well as my left knee this time. We made 6 miles or so until we ran into a creek. We stopped to refill our water and to make some "Go Juice". "Go Juice" contains cappuccino and instant coffee, cocoa mix, protein powder, dried milk and is mixed with water. I took 3 vitamin i pills(ibuprofen) and then I downed the entire Gatorade bottle filled with the "Go Juice". All of the caffeine in the juice helped activate the vitamin i a lot faster than vitamin i taken only with water. Before I even finished drinking, I could feel the effect; with a massive burst of energy and my pain greatly alleviated I felt like I could sprint to the other end of the world and back! With me roaring to go, dad and I soon left the protection of the woods and entered a open meadow that ran into a farm. As we approached the farm we ran into a group of campers. Most of them were in town and some were on a run for supplies to bring back to camp and create some trail magic (trail magic refers to items[food, equipment, etc.] that are given to hikers. Those who do nice things for hikers are called trail angels). Dad and I stopped for a little to chat but we were not ready to call it a day. So we kept on going. We didn't get far until it was apparent that the trail was blocked by cattle. In the past I never thought of cattle as scary but all of the cows we went around had little horns and they almost looked like they wanted to charge at us! These cows did not want to be messed with, they were intimidating! Luckily we survived that little bit. We kept on going in hopes of reaching LowGap because of trail magic rumors but right before we reached it we ran into a campground of about 5 or so people. They told us that there wasn't any trail magic going in so some of their group went into town and picked up beer and pizza to create their own trail magic. Dad and spent the night at the same campground and stayed up listening to music and sitting around campfire. Also Rambles and Yoti who we met the first night and second night were there as well. Another exciting development was running into Greenlight. He was a hiker back in 2011 that my dad met. In 2011 my dad had fully sized guitar he named Hondo after the brand. My dad got attached to that guitar and began having people he liked sing Hondo. Greenlight was the very first person to sign Hondo. Who would have thought two years later the would encounter each other yet again on the AT?
Date: 2013-05-16
From: Low Gap

To: Damascus
Miles today: 1.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Well, we had about 15 miles to go until dad and I would reach Damascus; however, we decided to take it slow and see how my legs held up. If I began hurting we would stop halfway and walk to Damascus the next day. (Secretly I wanted to it make to Damascus that day along with all the other hikers.) There was so much buzz and excitement among the hikers everyone thought only one thought and that was Damascus, DAMASCUS, DAMASCUS!!! That very Thursday was the start of Trail Daze, the biggest hiker's festival in the world and runs for four days every year. So full of excitement dad and I took off from low gap destination: Damascus. We crossed over a paved road about 100 ft. to where the trail picked up again. As we approached the trailhead, a bunch of trail angels parked to the side of the road offered us some trail magic. I gratefully accepted a banana, then said my goodbyes. About a mile on the trail it was evident that I was in trouble! I walked down the hill and I hurt( no surprise ), I walked on flat and I hurt, and I walked uphill and I hurt! Dad got a bit ahead of me and I just trudged along behind with a very foul mood. It was hard for me having hiker after hiker blaze by me on fairly easy terrain. There I was hobbling down the path and with every step my mood worsened with the realization that I would not make it. Dad turned around and here I will admit I began to cry. I tried to stop myself but the tears just kept rolling on down my cheeks. It was not the pain though that made me cry but the thought of leaving the trail and passing by all the hikers who we camped with on the way back to the road. Dad kept me going and gave me strength to let go and to accept the complaints of my aching joints and limbs. As we trudged back we ran into one of the trail angels and she offered to give us a ride into Damascus, which we accepted, and she even took my pack.
Date: 2013-05-17
From: Damascus

To: Damascus
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Coral, the lady who carried my pack, drove us into the small town of Damascus. We chatted for a while, then said farewell outside of Tent City. Tent City was located on the outskirts of town and consisted of a grass field and a long section in the woods and went along a river. Tent City is where all of the hikers went to set up their tents for the famous Trail Daze party. Apparently that weekend about 15,000 hikers stayed in Tent City and a total of 22,000 people participated! Many people who came were hiking the trail this year, many of them were already past Damascus and got rides to bring them back down, while others were people who either already hiked the trail or were thinking of hiking the AT in the future. After dad and I found a good spot I stayed in the tent and laid on my dad's comfy air mattress to rest while dad went to do laundry and to get a shower which was offered for free. Then he went across the street and got free food to bring back to me as well. It was hard staying in my tent for so long! Everyone was out and about finding places to set their tents up and to chat with friends. One guy even stopped by and asked me, "Are you having fun staying in your tent all day?" Well, no I was not having fun, I could barely walk, and I was bored to death. I had a fun weekend though. The first night I took it easy. I just went across the street where a band was playing some nice music. The events in this building were run by One Way Ministry, a nondenominational church group. The main group that organized the events (laundry, shower, and medical services) was the 1st Baptist Church. Well dad and I talked to a couple who were in their 70's or so. We told them we were looking for a shuttle to take us about 400-600miles to an even smaller town called Montebello. We discovered there was no such shuttle so the woman, Susan from One Way Ministry, asked around. Shortly after she came back and told us her husband, John, would drive us all the way there. It was a 4 1/2 hr. drive!
Date: 2013-05-17
From: Damascus

To: Damascus
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Trail Daze was quite the experience. People ended up forming little camp groups with their own titles. Next to us were the Sun Cult and the Pound Hounds. The Sun Cult hailed to their bonfire and made sure to bless everyone they passed on behalf of the Sun God. The Pound Hounds started a howling contest with all of Tent City. On the other end was the Riff-Raff they were those who have completed the entire hike. On their side of Tent City a couple actually got married on the last day and invited all of Tent City. Dad and I chose to eat our dinner instead of going to the wedding but it would've been exciting. Those three nights I barely got any sleep because people partied until 4am and woke up at 6am. I don't know how so many people could work up so much energy considering that the hiker's midnight is around 8-9pm. During the day dad and I got down to business. At Tent City a bunch of venders (i.e. Osprey, ) were set up to give away free gear and do repairs. Dad had to get his tent fixed. (His tent was wounded by a broken beer bottle that tore through the bottom of the tent.) While I had to get my pack adjusted to hopefully relieve some of the pain caused by my IT Band. Getting out equipment was the main reason dad and I went to Trail Daze, but yet we ended up caught in the midst of all the wildness.
Date: 2013-05-18
From: Damascus

To: Damascus
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: moderate rain

On the trail many hikers tend to get strongly attached to various items. For some it is their hiking sticks, which they name, for dad it was his guitars named Hondo and BB, and for me it was a neon pink knitted hat (with no name) I received at Trail Daze. One night the 1st Baptist Church was giving out dinner and also other items hikers might need such as sunscreen and trail mix and such. They also had a couple of boxes full if knitted hats. These hats were made by people who lived at a senior assisted living community. Automatically I felt a connection to my work back home. I work as a server at Emeritus Senior Assisted Living. As I rumbled through the boxes my eyes caught sight of the neon pink hat and I knew this was the hat for me. Well Friday night when I went a little wild was the first time for me to lose this hat of mine. After the push-up contest I went back to the big canvas tent and danced to the bluegrass music. Then I took a bathroom break and noticed I was hatless! It was at this moment when I realized how attached I was to the hat. I found it soon after inside the tent trampled in the dirt. Dirty as it was it was in one piece and I was relieved. I thought that was enough excitement for the night and called it quits.
Date: 2013-05-18
From: Damascus

To: Damascus
Miles today: 0.0

Trail Daze turned into a wild party. When I came back from listening to the band across the street the first night it was around 10pm. In the day there was a low buzz of excitement radiating from everyone but after dark came 15 foot bonfires and wild drum circle dancing. I went to bed early the first night but decided to let go on Friday which was the biggest night if the party. We went into Miss Janet's (she's well known along trail and runs a hostel) tent, a giant white canvas tent with a wood stove inside, where everyone was rocking out to live bluegrass music. One guy must have been on drugs because he was sitting by himself making weird noises with his mouth. Dad must have been intrigued because he went behind this guy and took out his harmonica to jam with the guy. Soon after I went out to the giant bonfire with a guy named Outside Dog. He apparently was good at giving people trail names but he said he couldn't give me a name until I started a drum circle with him. So I accepted. The fire pit itself was 10-15ft. wide and the fire was pretty big but not as big as it was the night before because it had been raining all day. Outside Dig and I worked our way to the edge of the fire pit, got the drummers going, and began to dance wildly(my leg was feeling somewhat better either from rest or being drunk or both). Instead of getting a trail name, I somehow got involved in a macho contest between Outside Dog and some other guy. It started with a man sporting a suit, with the jacket wide open, bare skin underneath, except for a tie. He had brought his daughter who was 11 or so. Together the two of them started a game where whoever they heard dropping the F-bomb had to do ten push-ups. Well they caught Outside Dog in the act and so he did ten push-ups. Well some other guy saw Outside Dog doing push-ups and decided to outdo him. Outside Dog accepted the challenge and told me to get on his back while he did his push-ups! I was worried about my weight--I'm heavy! I did it anyways and of course as soon as Outside Dog finished the other guy had me get on his back. Long story short, Outside Dog won.
Date: 2013-05-19
From: Damascus

To: Damascus
Miles today: 0.0

Saturday was the last day of Trail Daze. I along with many others wasn't feeling quite so good. So dad and I took a slow day but we want to go see the hikers' parade consisting of the hikers themselves. The hikers in the parade were equipped with water guns to spray people with as they passed by. Dad and I got a late start and were planning in catching the end of it. Soon we realized that something somewhere must have gone wrong. As we were walking into town to see the parade we saw two ambulances and a lifeline helicopter land in the baseball field. When we did get into town we didn't see any signs of the parade and figured we had missed the parade. So we walked along a whole bunch of venders selling equipment and to a foot bridge that connected to a hiking trail that partly ran through town. There was a lot of people coming the other way but dad and I pushed through the crowd. We ended up running into Coral who drove us to Tent City. She asked us if we heard the bad news. She said that an old man drove his truck straight into the parade of hikers and pinned two girls under his car! The old man was a local and supposedly suffered a heart attack or some other medical ailment causing him to lose control of the car. As we walked along we saw at least eight more lifeline helicopters. As we got to the end of the bridge some other locals stopped us. The locals were close to tears and were telling us that there were 50-60 casualties and that half the city was closed off. They said one girl that was pinned under car broke her femur or pelvis. They had never had anything so terrible happen in their town and were terrified that everyone would now hate and despise Damascus. Damascus has been known as the friendliest town in the U.S. The next day dad and I packed our bags and went to a church service where we were to meet John and Susan who were to take us to Montebello. The preacher said a prayer for the hikers injured in the parade and began by stating Damascus was once the friendliest but was now the friendless. As an outsider I would say they were still the friendliest. In the end the girl who broke her femur or pelvis didn't actually break anything and the other girl who was pinned only broke a toe! In the end their were no casualties including the driver and only about four critical injuries. I am glad no one died and it was a lot less severe than the news stations reported.
Date: 2013-05-19
From: Montebello

To: Dutch Haus
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: light rain

On Sunday the 19th of May we got our ride from Damascus into Montebello. We met John, the driver, and his wife at a church service. As the service wound down a giant roar of thunder blasted nearby. Soon after a downpour started. I was glad we were in a car the whole way instead of hiking! We were taken to the Dutch Haus bed and breakfast where my dad had stayed before and loved it. The place was run by a woman named Louis and her husband Earl. Earl mainly drove hikers to and from the hostel while Louis did all of the rest. She did all of our laundry and cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I even had a queen-sized bed with fresh sheets all to myself. Monday morning Earl took us to the Tye River Gap where we hiked up Priest Mountain and to Spy Rock going South back to the Dutch Haus. In total we did about 10 miles. It felt good hiking up the 4 1/2 mile climb with a 3,000 ft. elevation gain but I was limping by the time we got back. Fortunately we got a ride in the back of a truck once we got back to the streets of Montebello; however, it started hailing pretty hard on the drive back. We made it in one piece! The next day I stayed out while dad went and finished the other 10 miles he missed. In total we stayed at Dutch Haus for three nights and four days. I got restless not hiking but I couldn't have picked a better place to hang out--I even had a cat to keep me company!
Date: 2013-05-23
From: Dutch Haus

To: Falls Church
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: moderate rain

On Thursday my aunt Elena drove down to the Dutch Haus with her dog Penny to bring us to Falls Church, Virginia. Falls Curch is about 35 min. From DC. It was her birthday so we surprised her with a funny birthday hat and a slice of homemade cake made especially by Louis. Then we went to see the Crabtree Falls in Montebello before we left. The falls were spectacular and had a trail that went up for about 2 miles but I only made it about a 1/2 mile before my legs started hurting. After that we headed to the natural bridge near Lexington. We took the scenic route and drove along the Blueridge Parkway partly to show my where she and my dad and the rest of the Brown family go on their annual bike ride and also for the spectacular views along the way. We got somewhat lost on the way to the natural bridge landmark even with the GPS and a map! We found it around 7 pm and bought tickets for a light show that was held at 9. We decided to go out to eat about 4 miles away at the Pink Diner. It sure was pink with a pink Volkswagen outside and was modeled after the 50's. Inside there were tons of pictures of Elvis Presley. The food wasn't that great but we survived the meal without getting sick! As we headed back to the car it was pouring outside! A huge river was sweeping through the parking lot and under the cars and lighting flashed in our eyes. So we rushed back to the natural bridge and discovered it was unlikely that they could perform the light show that told a story of how the earth was created. By this time it was about 9:45 and I realized that I had forgotten my hat that I was so attached to at the diner! So my aunt had to drive me all the way back while my dad waited to get his tickets for the show refunded. I found my hat after losing it a second time and we drove back to pick up dad. We saw a whole lot of beautiful views but I felt bad for my aunt who had to drive all the down from Falls Church (a several hour drive) and then drove several more hours trying to find the natural bridge to not be able to see it at all! Oh well, we just kept on driving through the rain until we reached the town of Luray. We stayed the night in Luray and did more sightseeing. We got to go to the Luray Caverns, an automobile museum, the outdoor outfitter store, had brunch, and went to an art exhibit. By the time we got to my aunt's house it was around 8:30 and I was tired. Nonetheless we stopped at a humongous grocery store and had dinner with wine. My aunt's ex-husband also had dinner with us and he brought over Penny the dog's sister Fiona.
Date: 2013-05-27
From: Falls Church

To: Falls Church
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

We stayed at my aunt's house for 4 1/2 days for Memorial Weekend. On Saturday my aunt had a dog frisbee demo with her dog Penny and Fiona(Fiona stood on the sideline), then we went over to a barbecue with all the other dog frisbee members. It was a farmhouse with horses and plenty of yard space for dogs to run around. Lucy, my 5 yr. old second cousin(I think that's right she is my cousin's daughter) loved watching all the dogs. Someone would throw a frisbee and the 20 or so dogs would all chase after it. At one point Lucy tried to give one dog a flower! She is shy around others but she warmed up to me eventually. It was an exciting weekend for her because she graduated from a crib to a big girl's bed with a princess theme. During our 4 1/2 days we visited Lucy and my aunt Anna and uncle Rick. I also went into DC and met my friend Catherine. Dad and I rode the metro and had lunch with her, then Catherine and I went sightseeing at a bunch of different museums while dad went off on his own. It was Memorial Day and an exciting time to be in DC. We even got to see the parade! Lastly, we had a lot if fun driving around dad's old neighborhood and took a trip down memory lane. On Tuesday dad and I did more sightseeing in DC, took a tour of my aunt's work, and hopped on an 1 1/2 hr. long train to Harper's Ferry.
Date: 2013-05-28
From: Falls Church

To: Harper's Ferry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Harper's Ferry was a very interesting and historical town. It is where John Brown built his fort and where he was hung. The town itself was built on a steep hill and has cool architecture. Dad and I stayed on the edge of town at a hostel called the Teahorse. They put up a sign with Chinese characters next to the English title. I was excited because I recognized the characters from my training in Japanese. It turns out that the lady who ran the hostel went to Hong Kong for awhile and stayed at a Teahorse Inn. So she came back and started the Teahorse hostel.