morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-04-13
From: Nolichucky River

To: Erwin, TN (Miss Janet's House)
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I'm sure glad that we were under a solid roof last night because a couple of good sized storms rolled through last night. There was enough thunder and lightening to even wake me up! When we woke up and saw the weather it sealed the deal, today was going to be a 0 day. I figure our bodies needed it seeing that it is our first one sine Fontana Damn. The weather cleared up later in the morning but that would have been tough to start out in the rain. I didn't do a whole lot today. This morning I helped out with breakfast by mashing bananas and cracking eggs. Man that has to be a tough to cook breakfast for 12+ people each morning. The only other productive thing we did to day was to go to Walmart in Johnson City to re-supply for our push to Dumascus, VA that we will start tomorrow. For diner we hit up the dollar menu at McDonalds. The interesting thing about this trip was that we got stopped by 2 different trains while walking back to the house in the rain! What are the odds of that?
Date: 2004-04-14
From: Erwin, TN (Miss Janet's House)

To: Cherry Gap Shelter
Miles today: 16.3
Weather: light snow

I'm not really sure if today much better than yesterday to start off because instead of starting off in the rain we got to hike in the snow. The local school kids even got a snow day today! It wasn't really that bad but it was bad enough for schools down here to close. Well one good thing was that we were able to see the evolution of snow on the trail again. It started off as rain in town, then as we went up it changed more to steady snow, next as you go up the snow starts to stick to the trees, after that the snow starts to cover the ground but not the trail, then as you get higher snow covers just about everything. Man I'm glad to see the snow again, NOT! (Sorry for the old out of day reference but I couldn¢t resist.) There was probably about 6-8 inches with drifts up over a foot. I am glad however that someone else had been out on the trail before us so that we had footprints to follow because the visibility was so poor at times that we couldn't really follow the white blazes on the trees. The really hard part was going over Beauty Bald because the wind had covered the footprints so we just had to wonder head until we found the trail again. But hey, at least I got to learn what post holing is. Tonight it will be pretty tight in the shelter because we are squeezing 8 people into a 6 person space but hey at least it will be warmer that way. We just won't be able to roll over or move for that matter. The cool thing is that we are sharing the shelter with Flyin' Brian and his partner Silver Girl. Flyin' Brian is as close as you come to a famous hiker because he is the only one to hike all three long distance trails (AT, Continental Divide Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trial) in one year!
Date: 2004-04-15
From: Cherry Gap Shelter

To: Overmountain Shelter
Miles today: 21.7
Weather: clear sky

Well let¢s see, where to start. Let¢s just say that today was not one of my best days on the trail. It wasn't really that bad, I just had a tough time. For starters I fell 3 times today! Here I go 355 mi on my feet and then I fall 3 times in one day. Sam even threw out his head band for the hat trick. I guess that the conditions were just right. Once the snow started to melt the trail became real sloppy. Add a bunch of wet snow on top of a lot of mud and old leaves to some steep downhills and you are just asking for trouble. Luckily there were no serious injuries; I just got pretty dirty and wet. Other then that, today was another day that my SealSkin socks really saved my butt because we were sloshing through cold wet snow and water just about all day long. My feet did get cold and a little wet but they were bearable. Stuff really got nasty when we started to climb Roan Mtn (at 6285' it is our last in the 6000' range for a long time). Here we were going through rivers on the trail and it seemed like it was raining because of all of the snow melting from the trees above us. We spent the day playing leap frog with Flyin' Brain and Silver Girl, they are actually the first people to pass us who started after us. We actually passed them twice (we just won¢t mention that once they were taking off layers and once they were stopping for trail magic that we didn't know about). So I guess that the day wasn't all bad, we had some really nice weather going over Round and Jane Balds which provided a lot of great views which is something that I¢ll never get tired of.
Date: 2004-04-16
From: Overmountain Shelter

To: Moreland Gap Shelter
Miles today: 26.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Today started off 100% better than yesterday. For starters I stayed on my feet all day long, even up and over Hump Mtn (5587'). Speaking of a big mountain, what a way to start the day. It was still early in the morning so it wasn't that hot and since The Humps are bald we had amazing views on all sides of us for the first couple of hours of the hike. It was really great, things like that remind me of why I fell in love with hiking in the first place. I hope that the pictures come out because it would be nice if everyone could see stuff like that. The bad part was that Humps were probably the last balds that we will go over and the 2nd to last 5000' until we get back up north. It is kind of sad. I know that they are a pain in the butt but I am going to miss them. However, things didn't stay that good. When we got down from the mountains we had a long 18 mile stretch to get to the next shelter. The really sad part is that there was trash all over the trail at just about every road crossing after that and there were a good number of them. Here you spend all of this time in the beautiful out doors and then you see people who have no respect for it what so ever. Besides that it was just a long hot afternoon just wondering through the woods. I guess that I should get use to it because I am sure that there is plenty more of that to come. But hey, we did complete our 4th century today. 4 down and only 17 to go.
Date: 2004-04-17
From: Moreland Gap Shelter

To: Campsite past Vandeventer Sh.
Miles today: 27.7

Well it was another long hot day today, but there were some refreshments along the way. It started off with a good 6 mi walk to Dennis Cove. We were moving pretty fast so we got there in just about 2 hours. At Dennis Cove we dropped our packs and walked .5 mi to the Laurel Fork Campgrounds where I had one of the best breakfasts possible; 2 big cheese burgers, baked beans, a Mountain Dew, pretzels (which the owner went into his own pantry to get for me) and a cookie. Not bad for 10:30 in the morning. That really gave me a big boost for the afternoon. After that we climbed down to the Laurel Falls which were pretty impressive. The bad part about climbing down is that it usually means that you have to climb up in the near future. Maybe it was the heat but it seemed like one of the hardest climbs of the trip. We shot from 1900' to 3700' in a hurry. The strange part was that we were climbing up to a place called the Pond Flats. Not only was not flat but there weren¢t any ponds around either. I don¢t get it! On the down side of the climb we caught back up to Flyin' Brian and Silver Girl at Watauga Lake. We even found a local rope swing to play on for a bit. The water was a lot colder then I thought water got down here it the south. But it felt refreshing after a few days without a shower. We hiked the rest of the afternoon to the campsite with Silver Girl and Flyin' Brian. We pushed our comfort level a little today with the heat and the distance but hey, every step we took today is one less step we have to take tomorrow to get to Damascus, VA. I made up for it at diner though by having 2 Lipton diners and that didn't even fill me up. We also passed another milestone today. 434.8 mi marked 20% done.
Date: 2004-04-18
From: Campsite past Vandeventer Sh.

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 29.0
Weather: clear sky

Welcome to Virginia! We can now officially say goodbye to 2 more states. 3 states down, and only 11 more to go! It actually felt like we were out of the big mountains today so the pace was pretty quick. Even though my legs were pretty much jello, the terrain was such that just putting foot in front of the other we were able to go pretty quick. From what I hear this is typical VA terrain so we may be seeing more of the same for about the next 525 mi or so until we get out of VA. It really made it easier to finish our push from Erwin to Dumascus. We came on this trip to push ourselves and we really did that with 3 days of marathon lengths or longer in a row. The only thing that could have made it easier today would have been cooler temps. It must have been in the 80's this afternoon. Man it is hard to believe that there was snow on the ground just a couple of days ago. We came in to the trip knowing that the weather was unpredictable but man it has just been crazy this first month. Oh well, I guess that we will have to just roll with what we get dealt. When we got to Damascus we got spots at "The Place" and then I took a nice, long, hot shower. Boy did that feel good. For diner we went to an Italian place with Silver Girl and Flyin' Brain. Sam and I split a family sized thick crust pizza. That really hit the spot. That was a good ending to a pretty good day on the trail.
Date: 2004-04-19
From: Damascus, VA

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Time for another 0 day. I think that we need one. After going 120 miles in 5 days my legs are feeling it. So we are just going to relax here in Damascus since they advertise being the friendliest town on the trail. The downside to it is that we had to say goodbye to Flyin' Brian and Silver Girl. It was nice to have some hiking partners for the last 5 days or so. Before they left we exchanged contact info and websites so we can keep track of what everyone is doing. If you would like to you can check out Flyin' Brians Site and Silver Girls Site.
Date: 2004-04-20
From: Damascus, VA

To: Lost Mtn Shelter
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Still took it a bit easy today. This is one of our shortest full days since we started and this is the earliest we have stopped yet. It feels kind of strange not to be hiking with so much day light left since it is only 3:40. But it was starting to rain when we got here so we decided to stay. It was a pretty easy walk for the most part today. We had a pretty steep hike to get out of town but that was about it. It goes to show you how weak bikers can be since we were following the VA Creeper bike path for a while. I am starting to figure out why VA has so many miles of trail. For starters we took 2 mi of switchbacks to get up and over this small mountain that we would have gone up and over in 1/2 mi in NC. But the change of pace is nice. So far the shelter situation is much improved over those in TN. For starters, they all have privies, which is a big plus. Oh, I have to get to diner, the brownies, and Easter candy left from Mom's package that I got in Damascus.
Date: 2004-04-21
From: Lost Mtn Shelter

To: Old Orchard Shelter
Miles today: 23.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Well hiking wise this might have been one of my favorite days if I was feeling better. I'm not sure what it was but I felt horrible today. There was someone sick in Damascus so maybe I caught something from him but by the end of the day all my joints ached, I had a headache, my eyes burned, and my stomach hurt. I tried to take a page from Dad's medicine book so I just went to bed as soon as we got the tent set up to try to sleep it off. I woke up a few hours later to have some candy bars and gummy fruit rings for diner (at least it would taste good if it came back up) and then I went back to bed. But like I said it was a nice hike today. It started with a climb up Whitetop Mtn where we got up to 5400'. The whole side of it was bald so we got some great views. Next came Mt. Rogers, which is the highest point in VA at around 5900'. It wasn't actually on the trail but it was only a .5 mi side trail so we took it. After that came a real rocky section which included a natural rock tunnel called Fatmans Squeeze. This took us into Grayson Highland State Park which as herds of wild feral ponies. I'm not sure how 'wild' they are though because they sure knew the sound of plastic when I took out a bag of peanuts and they had no trouble eating them out of my hand. The only problem with the ponies was that we had to go on a 10 mi detour because at the end of the day we came across a sign that said Mt. Rogers 2 mi. That wasn't cool seeing that we had left Mt. Rogers several hours earlier. Another reason why VA has so many mi of trail I guess.
Date: 2004-04-22
From: Old Orchard Shelter

To: Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 24.7
Weather: scattered clouds

Today completed our 1st month on the trail! We also completed our 5th century today, only 16 to go. Today I felt slightly better, my stomach didn't hurt as much but I was still pretty achy. I guess that Dad is the only one who can sleep off a cold overnight. It sort of helped that Sam was in a slow mood today because that meant that I didn't have to push it to keep up. The hike was fairly uneventful. Since we got out of the higher mountains the highest we hit today was Iron Mountain at 4320'. Other then that we were just going up and over some smaller mountains. The best part of today was getting to the Partnership Shelter. This has to be one of the best shelters on the trail. As far as I know it is the only one that has a shower and the only one that you can get pizza delivered to. It helps to be right next to the Mt. Rogers NRA Headquarters. I wish every shelter were like this. Then again I guess that we really wouldn't be roughing it if they were.
Date: 2004-04-23
From: Partnership Shelter

To: Relax Inn
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: clear sky

We opted to take a short day today to try to recover from what ever was making us so slow yesterday. So all we had were a short 11 mi. downhill to get into town. The strange thing about the hike is that we went up and over a lot of ¢A frame¢ like ladders. We have hit a bunch of them before but what was strange about this is that they didn't go over anything. Nothing at all. They were just ladders in the middle of the trail! It was strange but since they were on the trail we had to go over them. When we got to town I sent home some of my winter stuff to lose some weight. I got rid of a pair of SealSkin Socks, long underwear, a thermo shirt, a hat, and gloves. My bet is that it is going to snow tomorrow. Oh well I guess that I will have to deal with whatever gets thrown my way. At least the pack will be lighter, or there will be more room in it for food.
Date: 2004-04-24
From: Relax Inn

To: Chestnut Knob Shelter
Miles today: 22.9
Weather: clear sky

First off, if any of you would like to keep a warm and fuzzy idea of the AT I would recommend that you skip this entry and move on to the next one. But if you want the down and dirty then read on. Well let¢s see, they say that you have good days and bad days on the trail. Then you could have days where you wish that you just hadn't gotten out of bed. But if you are really lucky you can have a day like I had today. This was by far my worst day on the trail so far. It started off bad and just kept getting worse. First I couldn't find my box of pop tarts this morning. I'm not sure if I forgot to buy them or what but they were not in the room. So now I have to figure out how to go the next 4 days with out enough pop tarts. As we started to hike it got really hot and humid and I had no energy at all and my stomach was starting to hurt again. By 10:30 I was exhausted and feeling like crap. I could only manage 1/2 a snickers for snack. Yet we pushed on and I got more tired, started to push out some nasty gas, and it got hotter out. I had to let Sam leads because I am sure his eyes were starting water being behind me. We finally got to lunch around 2:30 and I could only get down 1/2 an apple but I did enjoy a nice long sit it the shade of the privy. In the afternoon the sun was just blazing down on us so I put on my hat and bandana, bad idea. Well the hat limited my vision in front of me enough to allow me to run into a tree hanging across the trail going while going up a hill with my head down. The thing flattened me on my back and gave me a nice bump on the top of my head. Awhile later I had to stop a dig a whole to pop-a-squat which is one of my least favorite things to do. It is only the 2nd time I have done that the whole trip! The last bit was an exhausting 5 mi uphill climb that just took every bit of energy that I had. The only thought keeping me going was, 'get to the privy'. I guess with all of this (plus the bug I swallowed and the one that go in my eye) there were a few good things about today. We passed the 1/4 of the way done marker and the walk up Chestnut Ridge at the end of the day provided some great views with the sun setting. I got to camp just in time to watch a beautiful sun set from the privy and go to bed.
Date: 2004-04-25
From: Chestnut Knob Shelter

To: Helveys Mill Shelter
Miles today: 23.8
Weather: light rain

Right off the bat, much better day today then yesterday. Although I suppose it would be hard not to be better then yesterday. My stomach was much better today thanks to the Imodium that Mom made me take along. In addition my appetite was much better, still not 100% but much better. The only lasting effect was that I just felt drained from step one. It must have been from not eating a lot yesterday. Aside from that the day started off with some bad decisions. First I got up early and had a Liptons for breakfast. Once we started walking that provided some nasty tasting burps and some heartburn, but it was extra calories so I am glad I ate it. Next we failed to check how much water we had and how long before the next water source. Well the answers incase you were wondering were not a lot and 7 mi. To make it worse the water source was .5 mi downhill off of the trail. I'm really glad it wasn't as hot today as it was yesterday. Besides the water situation the first 7 mi was a really nice ridge line walk. It would have been better if the sky had cleared to provide us with some views but it didn't clear until later. The 14 mi after lunch went by faster then expected but then again I always tend to hike faster when I hear thunder. Yep, we hiked through our first thunder storm. It was really that bad but it was bad enough for me to want to get off of the mountain that we were on in a hurry. I was glad though when we got to the shelter and The Green One, Squish, and Rockhound were the only ones there so there was room for us in the shelter. I appreciated that even more when I woke up at night and hear how hard it was raining.
Date: 2004-04-26
From: Helveys Mill Shelter

To: Wapiti Shelter
Miles today: 24.0
Weather: moderate rain

Today¢s mood covered a wide range. It started off wet, ugly, and nasty and it ended pretty pleasant. It was raining pretty hard this morning when we started and it kept raining until about 1:30. The good thing is that the weather pushed us really fast to the first shelter 10 mi away. It seemed like a nice section that would have provided a lot of nice views but the weather obscured them all. Got to love those SealSkin sock though because my feet would have been toast with out them seeing that the trail was a nice river. We took a nice long 3 1/2 hour lunch break at the shelter with the same 3 from the shelter last night. That really helped because we had a hot meal and got into our sleeping bags and waited for the rain to stop. The rain finally stopped at 1:30 and we back were on the trail at 2:15 for another 14 mi. Even with out the rain to push us we still went pretty quickly. It helped that the last 6 mi or so was really flat. But it was a nice walk through a long pine forest. I'm really glad that we pushed on because the woods have a really nice feel to them just after it rains even if you have to slush through some swollen streams. We even went through a field of some kind of trees that were all starting to bloom. It really smelled great. The signs of spring are starting to show!
Date: 2004-04-27
From: Wapiti Shelter

To: Pearisburg, VA
Miles today: 16.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Here comes another town. You know what that means, food, a shower, food, fruit, veggies, a roof, and more food. I'm sure glade my appetite is back or else getting to a town just wouldn't be as much fun. Today¢s hike provided views from a couple different ridge line walks. It was nice to be able to see Pearisburg an hour before we got there. It was actually kind of cold this morning. I'm really glad that I didn't send home my thin gloves too (thank Tricia and Seth they are working great). It stayed pretty cool and windy until we started to really drop in elevation to get to town. Not only did it get warmer but it also got greener. Man the forest just exploded with color was we came down the mountain. Both the ground bellow was green and the trees above were green. And there are flowers all over the place. This was the first time that it actually looked like spring. It was a great feeling. When we got to town we got a hitch to the hostel. We didn't even have to try a guy just pulled over and as we walked up he gave us his keys and told us to get put our backs in the trunk. After that we headed to Wendy¢s and Walmart.
Date: 2004-04-28
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: Pearisburg, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Another 0 day to rest and recover from my stomach bug. The stomach feels better and my appetite is definitely back, I just needed to rest a bit to get some energy and strength back. It was a great day here in Pearisburg today. We got on the internet at the library, then we did wash, and then we pigged out at the AYCE Pizza Hut buffet for lunch. Then it was back to the hostel for a nap before heading to Wendy's for diner and then to Walmart to re-supply for the next 4 days.
Date: 2004-04-29
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: Bailey Gap Shelter
Miles today: 23.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Today was all around a very enjoyable day. Bill picked us up at 7:20 and we were walking by 7:40. That's earlier then we usually get out of a town which allowed us to hike a few more miles then we originally planned. The weather was perfect for hiking just about all day long except for some warmer temps in the afternoon. Aside from that the trail was really nice. We had a good climb out of town and then hopped along a ridge line for most of the day. This seems to be pretty typical of VA so far. We had some great views from of the valley bellow from Rice Field which was a big grassy field at 3370' with some rock out croppings on the side. It was really a neat place. We got some strange conditions in the late afternoon. For the first time we actually had switchbacks that went up and down a mountain instead of across! We kept on going straight up these hills and them came straight back down to the same river at the same elevation that we started. I guess that they just wanted us to work harder before we could get to diner. All in all today was a great. The weather was great and it made the day go by too fast. Oh yeah, I forgot about my new lunch choice. We have been looking for something other then begals and I just found soft taco shells. Today I took a couple and covered them with peanut butter and honey and then roll them up and eat them. Man was that good. I think that this will stay with me for a while.