morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2011-05-18
From: Maupin Field Shelter

To: Paul C, Wolfe Shelter
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: moderate rain

Here Comes the Sun??After a night of rain, we woke to the mist and fog we have become accustomed to. Off we went, expecting another day of frequent rain. Imagine our surprise when we only had one brief episode of rain all day. However, all of the rain we had created some other hiking challenges. Although the ups and downs were relatively low key today, the path was very rocky and we often were making our way across stretches of rocks and boulders. A wet rock is a slippery rock--a very, very slippery rock. Relying heavily on our poles to remain upright, we picked our way through the rocks. When we weren't climbing over rocks, we were trying to avoid getting our boots even wetter, as the springs were flowing so vigorously, in many places they turned the trail into a stream. In these places, walking up the trail was like an extended stream crossing as we tried to find rocks and branches we could step on to keep our feet out of the water. It turned out to be a losing battle. By the time we got to the shelter, our boots and socks were utterly soaked. On the other hand, we were still dry, as the sun actually appeared later in the afternoon. We're told the weather should improve by Friday, with a string of sunny days predicted. We are happy to hike in any weather, but would be very happy to hike in the sun.
Date: 2011-05-19
From: Paul C, Wolfe Shelter

To: Waynesboro
Miles today: 5.0
Weather: broken clouds

Sweet AnticipationLast night's shelter was new, large and comfortable. It was only Clutch and me and a southbound section hiker staying there. We had an easy five mile hike into Waynesboro this morning, and have spent the day doing town chores and eating lots of food. Tomorrow, we enter Shenandoah National Park. Unlike the Smokies, which I looked forward to with some anxiety, I feel only pure excitement about these mountains. We have consistently been told that the hiking is easier in the Shenandoah. This is supposed to be a wonderfully beautiful section. Because the trail cross-crosses the Skyline Drive, we have regular opportunities to stop at little wayside restaurants and stores to eat and buy food, thus reducing what we have to carry. And best of all, when we leave the Shenandoah next week, we will be meeting Denise and Mary Ann, who are coming down to spend Memorial Day weekend with us. Sweet anticipation is a wonderful thing.
Date: 2011-05-20
From: Waynesboro

To: Blackrock Hut
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Unknown Territory Before we go to a store to resupply, Clutch and I look to see where the next resupply place will be and where the in between shelters are located. We then plan how many miles per day we will hike based on where we want to stay each night. We then know how much food to buy. But we weren't able to do that for this stretch in the Shenandoahs. There were just too many variables. We didn't know how far we would want to and be able to hike each day, given the easier terrain we had been hearing about. The shelters (which are called huts here) are further apart and we weren't sure (actually still aren't) how easy it would be to find good campsites away from the shelters. We also couldn't quite tell how to factor in the waysides and campground stores along the way. So we did something a bit unusual for both of us--we decided to go without a clear plan. We bought three days of food for a 5 to 6 day stretch and figured it will all work out. We left Waynesboro this morning not knowing where we would end up. One shelter was 7 miles away (too close) and the other was 20 (too far). We figured we would find a place to camp somewhere in between. Then we experienced the delight of Shenandoah hiking. There were plenty of ups and downs, but the grades were generally gentle and none lasted too long. We were both surprised at how fast the miles passed. It turned out 20 miles was just the right amount for today. We still don't know what we will do tomorrow. Once again, one shelter is too close and the other too far. We do know we will be having lunch at a wayside. Then we'll see where our legs--and our spirits-- take us.
Date: 2011-05-21
From: Blackrock Hut

To: Hightop Hut
Miles today: 21.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Bonus Miles: Bonus BurgersAny mile hiked or walked that is not on the AT is a bonus mile. A bonus mile is not a good thing. Going in and out of towns, we try and minimize bonus miles by hitching. However, sometimes it is necessary--or worth--taking a side trail to get to a desired destination. Today, we were lured off the AT to get lunch at a wayside. It was .6 miles each way, so 1.2 bonus miles. But there was a reward. Clutch had a regular burger and I had a veggie burger. We both had chocolate milk. I had fries; she had Doritos. She had fudge and Oreo cookies for dessert and I bad a chocolate sundae. We felt well fed. It was another great day of Shenandoah hiking with beautiful weather, some wonderful views and lots of wildflowers. Some of the uphills were longer and steeper than yesterday, but we still hiked 21.4 miles (plus the bonus miles). Tomorrow, we're looking at more food opportunities and more good hiking. It should be another fine day. (Once again, I want to thank all of you--those I know and those I've never met--for your entries in my guest book. Clutch and I love reading them and feel tremendously supported. Please do continue to write.)
Date: 2011-05-22
From: Hightop Hut

To: Big Meadows Lodge
Miles today: 20.4

It's OfficialAfter three days in a row of 20+ miles, we are now officially tired. We didn't start the Shenandoahs planning on all these 20's, but it was what made sense--and what we were able to do. But by the last miles of the day today, we both knew we would not be doing 20 miles tomorrow!We had planned to go Big Meadows and stay at the camp ground there. However, there is also a lodge on the site and, as we grew increasingly tired, the idea of pampering ourselves by staying in the lodge became increasingly compelling. Hiking with so many younger people who are on a tight budget, we are quite aware--and quite appreciative--of our ability to make a spontaneous decision to spend the money to stay indoors. A bathroom, a comfortable bed, a place to charge our cell phones--these are all luxuries we savor. Now our only plan is to sleep as late as possible. Without having shelter mates tonight who get up at six, that should be possible.
Date: 2011-05-23
From: Big Meadows Lodge

To: Byrd's Nest #3 Hut
Miles today: 14.4
Weather: few clouds

Outrunning the Rain--AlmostMost of the day was perfect hiking--slightly overcast with a cool breeze. Knowing we were hiking less than 15 miles today was so relaxing. Once again we spent much of time hiking through the woods and up and over small mountains. Then we would turn a corner and we would find ourselves looking at a fantastic view. I will certainly miss these mountains when we're through. A lunchtime, we found ourselves right by the Skyland Resort and Restaurant. We didn't really want another restaurant meal, but we both were interested in getting something to drink to go with our hiker lunch. Clutch wanted soda and I wanted chocolate milk. She found her soda in the gift shop, but there was no chocolate milk. There was, however, a little Starbucks kiosk. Instead of my usual at-home drink--decaf non-fat latte--I went for the decaf mocha with whipped cream. That more than compensated for the lack of chocolate milk!As we were hiking the last couple of miles to the shelter, the sky darkened and there was some distant thunder. We thought we might get to the shelter before the rain started, and we almost made it--but not quite.  We hung our wet rain gear on the shelter pegs to dry and, since the rain stopped and the sun came out, they did. The shelter faces west and I am watching the sun set in the valley below. Staying at the lodge yesterday was a wonderful treat--but out here in the woods is really something special.  Once again I am so aware of how lucky I am to be here.
Date: 2011-05-24
From: Byrd's Nest #3 Hut

To: Gravel Springs Hut
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: broken clouds

Bad BugsBefore I started my thruhike, I told my friends that I knew there would be times when I would be cold, wet, tired, hungry and bug-bitten. I have been all of the above but today, the bug-biting rose to a new level. I identified three simultaneous bug experiences. There are the little swarmers--they gather in a horde around your head, looking for the opportunity to fly into your mouth, ears, nose and eyes. Then there are the little biters. They may or may not be the same as the swarmers, but they look to bite you on any part of your body. Finally, there are the big biters--good sized flies that mostly bite legs and arms and really hurt. This is all before the mosquitoes kick in. I know I can generally find a silver lining in any cloud, but even I am being challenged to put any kind of positive spin on the bugs. So I think it is time. When I next get to an outfitter, I will be looking for bug repellent and maybe even a net head covering. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and today even I was feeling desperate.
Date: 2011-05-25
From: Gravel Springs Hut

To: Jim and Molly Denton
Miles today: 18.6

Good Food, Good Trails, Good TimesWe said goodbye to Shenandoah National Park today. We were in the park for five and a half days and definitely took advantage of all the park had to offer--at least in terms of the eating opportunities. Yesterday I had a blackberry milk shake at lunch at our last wayside. I would have loved another one today but, alas, no more waysides. Of course, the price we paid for all that good food was never being that far from Skyline Drive, with it's car and motorcycle noise. We crossed Skyline Drive 28 times while in the park.  And although they have signs telling you that you are entering the back country fifty feet from every road crossing, you know the country just is not that far back. As soon as we crossed the park boundary, we began a rocky descent into lower elevations. We will now be below 2000 feet for the rest of our time in Virginia. We can already feel how much warmer it is. Tomorrow we will hike about 15 miles, and then get picked up by a shuttle driver to go back to Front Royal. There we will meet Denise and Mary Ann, who are coming to spend Memorial Day weekend with us. We will be taking three days off--three zeroes. As we approach the half way point of our hike, I don't think anything could be more wonderful than seeing our girls, eating good food and having time to relax and enjoy.
Date: 2011-05-26
From: Jim and Molly Denton

To: Ashby Gap
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: overcast clouds

In and Out of the VoidPretty much every shelter has a trail register and most thruhikers sign them when they stop at the shelters, whether for a brief rest, a meal, or to spend the night. Sometimes it's just a brief note--Clutch and Glad Gal stopped for lunch--and sometimes the entry includes comments about one's hike or future plans or trail information. One of the reasons to use shelters as a place for a break during the day is to read the register and sign in. Through the registers, we can keep track of those ahead of us. We follow hikers we know who have passed us as well as some we have never met but who we have gotten to know through reading their register entries. Sometimes we even catch up with and pass some of those hikers we have been following. However, once we get ahead of a hiker, they enter what we call the void. It is very difficult to get information about those who are behind. They could be half a shelter behind us or a week behind us--we just don't know. There are many people we were hiking with for the first month or so who are in that void. Of course, when a hiker passes us, we then go into their void. We regularly have people pass us who know us through our entries--people we didn't know existed. Once they pass, we follow them and they know nothing about us. Today, we hiked just under 15 miles to a road crossing, where we were picked up by our shuttle driver and driven back to Front Royal--a distance we had walked in a day and a half and took about 30 minutes to drive. We will be here with Denise and Mary Ann until Monday, delighting in being with them--and not hiking. We expect some of the hikers in our void we have wondered about will pass us during this break, and we will be able to follow them again. As they pass us, we we will enter their void and become invisible to them--until or unless we catch up with them again. Such is the rhythm of life on the AT.
Date: 2011-05-27
From: Front Royal

To: Front Royal
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Front Royal Fun Three days to spend with Denise and Mary Ann--it has been so wonderful! I asked Denise to bring some clothes from home for me to wear, so I really felt like a vacationer and not a thruhiker for the weekend. Of course, eating was a central activity. Having a hot fudge sundae every day is pretty wonderful. We took advantage of having a car and drove to different towns. We went to the Luray Caverns and Garden Maze in Luray, and we went to a Civil War Calvary re-enactment in Middletown. We drove to Harpers Ferry to go to the outfitter, where I go a much-needed lighter summer sleeping bag--and where we ended up drinking beer with some other thruhikers, thus giving Denise and Mary Ann a taste of one aspect of thruhiker life!Tomorrow they will drop us off on the trail on their way back to the airport and home. The weather is hot, the elevations are lower and it feels like we are moving into another phase of the hike. Fortified by food, rest and, most importantly, connection with our partners, we are ready to move on.
Date: 2011-05-30
From: Ashby Gap

To: Bear Den Hostel
Miles today: 13.4
Weather: clear sky

Roll(er)ing AlongBack on the trail today, after a wonderful weekend with our girls. The first four miles were an easy re-entry to the trail. Then we came to what people have referred to as the dreaded Roller Coaster. It is 13.5 miles of tightly packed ascents and descents. It starts with a "Hiker Notice Warning", that ends with the words "We will see you at the Blackburn Trail (if you survive)".We suspected that was a bit dramatic and a bit of a put-on. We had also heard from some hikers that, for thruhikers, the roller coaster was no problem at all. As we went up and down bumps one, two, three and four, we were feeling pretty good and that perhaps it was just all a big hype. Then we hit bump five. Between the steepness, the rocks and the heat, we were more than ready to stop for lunch when we got to the other side.After lunch, we went on to bump six. Buoyed by a break and some food, we went over that without too much pain. But any boost we got from our lunch break was wiped away by the heat, and we sweated our way up bump seven. Bump eight was short and steep. By the time we got to the top, we were more than ready to stop at the Bear Den Hostel for the night.We got the hikers special here, which included our bunk, a shower, pizza and Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Tomorrow we finish the last couple of bumps of the roller coaster. We may sweat, but I'm pretty confident survival will not be an issue.
Date: 2011-05-31
From: Bear Den Hostel

To: Trail Campsite
Miles today: 16.4

Mystery and the HeatFinishing the roller coaster was much easier, doing it in the morning when it was cooler and we were fortified by the pizza and ice cream from the night before. We were also delighted by the many sections of the trail that went through forests of large, flowering shrubs. As usual, neither of us could identify what the flowers were (although I'm hoping maybe one of you reading this can). It's just one more of the many mysteries we encounter on the trail. After the roller coaster, the terrain got significantly flatter. However, it does seem as if summer has arrived on the trail.   We have moved into hot weather mode--carrying more water and dipping our bandanas in every stream we cross. Sadly, there were very few streams today. We are camping tonight at a site right on the trail. We got in our tents at seven to avoid the bugs--and to lie down, stretch out and let the sweat dry. I have been looking forward to this time when I didn't have to worry about being cold. Now I will see how I tolerate the heat. (I just heard from another hiker that it was 97 degrees today. So perhaps every day will no be quite this hot!)
Date: 2011-06-01
From: Trail Campsite

To: Crampton Gap Shelter
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Happiness at HarpersWe woke this morning to a fast four mile hike to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, arriving at 9 am. Although not the actual half way point, it is considered the symbolic half way mark, in part because it is the headquarters of the ATC-the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Walking into the ATC building is walking into hiker heaven. The ever so friendly volunteer greeted us--come in, come in. There's the bathroom with a scale, over there is the hiker's lounge with a computer and Internet. We'll take your picture when you're ready and do you have a mail drop I can get for you? They know everything that is on a thruhiker's mind. They take a picture of every thruhiker for their album. Clutch and I are hikers 250 and 251. We looked through the album to see who came through before us that we knew--and to put faces with names we have seen in the trail registers but never met. After an hour and a half at the ATC, we continued down the trail to the heart of the town, where we stopped for lunch and frozen custard. (We learned at the ATC scale that we have to keep up our eating efforts. Although we are losing weight more slowly, we still are not eating enough to keep it stable.)We finally got back on the trail at 12:30, and soon crossed the line from West Virginia to Maryland. We were in Virginia for just over five weeks. We were in West Virginia for just about five hours. We did love Virginia--the hiking there was varied, challenging at times, and generally magnificent. We are now out of the mountains for awhile. The trail will be lower and flatter, although we know that flat on the AT just means smaller ups and downs. As always, we don't really know what lies ahead. We just know we are lucky to be going there.
Date: 2011-06-02
From: Crampton Gap Shelter

To: Ensign Cowell Shelter
Miles today: 20.7
Weather: clear sky

Cruising MarylandToday is the only day we will start and finish in Maryland, as there are only about 40 AT miles in the state. We have totally enjoyed our day in the state. The trail was mostly wonderful--lots of flats with gentle ups and downs (there was one long rocky section that was, perhaps, a foreshadowing of what we will see in Pennsylvania). In some places, it was wide enough that we could even walk side by side--a real treat. The trail also went through a couple of state parks and historic sites. One was a civil war battlefield where many were killed and wounded, as happened so horribly and so often during that war. The weather cooled off some today, making for much improved hiking. Now we are in the shelter, listening to coyotes howling to each other or the moon--we really can't tell which. All in all, a very satisfying day.
Date: 2011-06-03
From: Ensign Cowell Shelter

To: Tumbling Run Shelter
Miles today: 18.1
Weather: clear sky

Learning to LingerAs we began our hike this morning, Clutch and I talked about lingering. She likes to linger; I get restless and like to keep moving. However, I know we can take some time to linger--and that still have plenty of time to finish the AT. So we decided to experiment with adding more lingering to our days. It turned out today was a great day to begin the experiment. There is a state park right at the Maryland/Pennsylvania border. As we got to PenMar Park, we saw a couple of delightful things--a soda machine and a table of thruhikers, some we knew and some we didn't. Clutch got her soda and we joined the group. A couple of them had gotten calzones from a nearby pizza place, and offered us each a piece--an appetizer prior to our usual peanut butter wrap. We spent a long time there, eating lunch and having thruhiker chat--which usually means talking about food and the whereabouts of other hikers. We finally left and almost immediately ran into trail magic--Gatorade, cheese and ginger snap cookies. A mile before this shelter, we walked through another state park, where we saw some thruhikers we hadn't seen since Damascus. They also had soda, pringles and Doritos they got from a Boy Scout troop that had just left. More eating and chatting. Even with all this lingering, we still hiked 18 miles and got to the shelter by six. As we got here, I said to Clutch, perhaps we can have it all! Food, fellowship and fun--another fabulous day on the trail.
Date: 2011-06-04
From: Tumbling Run Shelter

To: Trail Tentsite
Miles today: 17.2

A Thruhiker MomentAfter a cool night, we awoke to another day of cooler weather. After the heat earlier in the week, it is quite delightful. We had a quick and really pleasant nine mile hike to the road crossing where we easily hitched into Fayetteville PA. We first went to the market for resupply. The choices weren't great, but we could work with them. Then a short walk to the local pizza/ice cream restaurant for two of our favorite things!We lingered in town for almost three hours before we were back on the trail. We soon saw a couple of backpackers up ahead. We couldn't see who they were, but from the size of the sleeping bag strapped to the pack of one of them, we were pretty sure they were not thruhikers. They stopped to look at a stream and we quickly caught up with them--a father and son (maybe 12 or 13). We paused, and then all of us started to move on. The father quickly stepped in front of me and Clutch. I'm guessing he didn't want to take a chance of having two older women slow him and his son down. We were right behind them, going up a steepish hill, when Clutch used a great strategy. She said, hey, where did you guys start from? They answered the state park we had just hiked through. Then the father asked where we started. When we said Georgia, he immediately stopped. He turned to his son and said, I told you we might meet some real thruhikers on this trip. He asked a few questions and said he's always wanted to do a thruhike. As we talked about our experience, his son looked completely captivated. He then said, you should go on ahead. I'm sure you're faster than we are. As we strode up the hill on our strong hiker legs, I could here him telling his son more about thruhiking as his voice faded in the distance. It was a brief, sweet moment of thruhiker celebrity.