morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-06-21
From: Jenny Knob Shelter

To: Campsite
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: light rain

Happy summer solstice! Otherwise known to hikers as Hike Naked Day! "Hike Naked Day" is a long(ish) tradition where hikers go in just the essentials- boots and packs. We started off the day chilly, but these humid Virginia days warmed us up right quick. It wasn't long before we passed some day hikers, a group of blond highschool girls with a couple of adults. They shooed the girls past us, saying "Hurry girls! There are some, um, Hikers we are holding up!" One girl looked at Jonathon, and fanned herself. "So hot!" she declared. We hiked to a nearby gas station which offered the burger and pizza type fare, and properly stuffed ourselves. Then, we were back on the trail.   Jonathon was a bit ahead of me when I passed some more day hikers, this time men in their 60's. They said, "Your boyfriend told us there would be a pretty lady coming through here!" I giggled.Oh, by the way, in case you were wondering, we did not participate in hike naked day. I didn't see or know of anyone who did, and I couldn't imagine inflicting my nakedness on any of these people I passed today! Does anyone actually do this?We did a whole lotta miles today, and we also saw many deer. Six, to be exact. Seems to be tons in Virginia. They seem to be just a little scared, not enough to bolt but not comfortable to stick around. Our goal (made early in the day) was to make Woodshole hostel. With our two-hour lunch, however, we set ourselves back against the clock. We kept hiking into the evening, past dusk and then past dark. I was getting a little too tired to continue, and the trail had turned into rocks, which were getting quite difficult to manage with a dinky little headlamp. For me at least, Whoa was a trooper. I dug in my heels, and we camped on an overgrown forest service road, hoping no service would need to be done in the middle of the night. (In the morning, we found the road to the hostel to be just 8 hiking minutes away!) It was sweet sleep, though, and well earned. A good day, and hopefully lots more 20's to come!moxie
Date: 2004-06-22
From: Campsite

To: Pearisburg
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: scattered clouds

On the 22nd of June, 2004, on an unused, grassy backroad high up on a Virginian mountain, Jonathon Olenick woke up. He peered around the interior of the MSR Missing Link tent trying to fathom where Moxie had gone. The early morning light, though poor, was still ample enough to reveal to him that she was not present."Moxie!" he cried out in fear.Needless to say, he was worried that a Chupacabra had come during the night and taken her away."Hi, I'm right here!" he heard her answer, from the side of the tent.And then she poked her head around the front of the tent and grinned.She had just made coffee for them both. Jonathon could not believe his luck.------When you are hiking on the Appalachian Trail, and you know that the day's hike is going to take you into town, sometimes the miles just melt away -- like that bad dude's face did at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. You'll hike like mad, and the energy reserves will be on Full, because you're so looking forward to the pleasures offered by town. The upcoming showers. The clean cloths. The cold sodas. And tasty, fatty foods that *others make for you*. And you'll be thinking of all this, and before you know it, you find yourself bouncing onto Main Street, Trail Town, USA.And sometimes, it's not like that at all.No - every step is a toil, and you can't believe the clock and the miles are dragging so slowly and when are you going to make it to town?The day started off being a Type 1 Town Day for me, even though Moxie was leaning early on towards a Type 2 Town Day. Then there was a merciless ascent around noon - this continual 25% grade that didn't have the courtesy to cease in any polite time frame.Then it was a type 2 town day for me as well.----------Highlights:-"Angel's Rest" - a panoramic view on a clifftop high up above pretty much everything. It was nice to take a long break there and just look...-The house-sized boulders that were on the mountaintop. If it hadn't been a town day (specially a type 2er then), I'da loved to've crawled around them for a while.-The three butterflies who kept landing on our heads, hands and arms at our first break at the shelter. I think they were trying to lick the salt off of us. Have you ever had a butterfly try to lick salt off of you?Dude.It's weird.-----------So, pained and battered, we made it down the mountain, and stumbled into town.At a gas station we saw Stephan, Stephanie and Dan. It was shocking, cuz we thought they were a couple hundred miles ahead of us. It just turned out that they had taken some days off too.Then there was motel checkings-into, and a journey to the sports bar associated with the motel.The food was heavenly, plentiful and delicious.And that's the end of my story of what happened on June 22nd.Take care y'all.- Jonathon
Date: 2004-06-30
From: US220

To: Wilson Creek Shelter
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: overcast clouds

It's not our fault that we stayed up too late. HBO insists on playing Six Feet Under at midnight. Funny that we haven't watched TV in a year, but we do out here. I guess it's a good thing to do while you eat ice cream and chips. So, we stayed up late and woke up groggy. We did a bit of shopping, got a cup of coffee and made our way down the first couple of trail miles. Once we had those out of the way, we took our last opportunity for town lunch- You see, in this area, the trail crosses through town in a semi circle, and one could reach the restaurants from either side. And so we did. I continued to verify the theory that I don't hike well when I completely stuff myself. We got a quick ride back to the trail with a local couple, who told us about a crazy woman who was living in the next shelter out of town. I'm sure this must happen often, but this is the first I've actually seen it. We weren't planning to stay there, but later I wished we would have at least met her. In the shelter register, she apparently introduced herself as the Queen of England. Butterfingers met her and said she was very nice. And, I blew past Slow Barbara and didn't get to meet her, because I suspected that she might have been the aforementioned crazy woman. Since when am I so sane-elitist?The hike was a-ok, not to hard. We made the shelter later in the day, and found Butterfingers, Wide Load and Blackfoot Dan. This is a first! We have actually caught up with someone! We had a good night, lots of laughs. Sometime during the night, a suspected bear came around the camp. We all had hung our food properly this time, unlike others, luckily. Everyone but me woke up and got ready to sound the alarm, but the bear decided to take off at the sound of voices. I miss everything bear-related. Darn.Moxie
Date: 2004-07-01
From: Wilson Creek Shelter

To: Bryant Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: broken clouds

Though we had set the alarm to go off at 6:30, our bodies didn't actually agree to wake up til 8:30 AM. The new french press did its magic and we were soon awake.And once again hiking.With us wanting to reach Glasgow in time to hit the post office before it closed on Saturday (if we didn't make it, we'd have to wait til Tuesday [hush, hush] to pick up our maildrop from my folks on account of the long 4th of July weekend), our hiking work was cut out for us. We had close to 50 miles to cover in two days.So, we hustled. There was the usual stuff. Sweat, hills, trees, deer running in crashing leaps to get out of our way. Fatigue. Inspiration. Ascents. Insects. Wildflowers. Muscles & feet accepting the burden, or sometimes making little whiny noises of complaint.I got ahead of everyone in the mid afternoon, and had run out of water. I came across no streams or springs. I was quite thirsty when I made it to Jenkins Creek.There were a couple locals there, so I went over to ask about a near-by campground I'd heard about. I figured I could get a coke at the rumoured campground. When he discovered that I was thirsty, one of the guys offered me a bunch of koolaid drink pouches he had in his truck that he'd just picked up at the dollar store for his kids. What a nice guy! When he insisted, I confess that I went ahead and drank nearly a liter of the glorious sweet nectar.After that, there was some swimming in the creek. It was deep, cool and refreshing.After my swim, Bert - the nice local guy - told me he was going to head to the store at the campground and asked if I wanted to go.I sure did.We were back before Moxie got off the mountain. And when she did, there was cold beer and soda waiting for her.So, us and Stephan, Stephanie and Dan all lounged for a while.And then, sufficiently relaxed, we headed back into the woods.Four miles later we arrived at a magnificent shelter alongside a creek. Multileveled. A wrap-around porch. Windows. And big enough for 20. It looked like a great place to spend the night.- How wrong that assumption was.
Date: 2004-07-02
From: Bryant Ridge Shelter

To: Bryant Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: broken clouds

Like Whoa was saying from last entry, the shelter was a palace. The nicest shelter we have been in yet. But, it had a fatal flaw, as we weren't the only occupants. In the night, we found the shelter contained thousands of our new nemeses-The dreaded NO-SEE-UM!!!NSU's are tiny (hence the no see) little flying, biting terrors that love to bite you while you sleep. They are so small, you wonder how their bites can hurt so much. It was a hot night, so as we were thrashing about trying to sleep, these guys were devouring us one bite at a time. We woke up with thousands of bites. Literally. Jonathon has 115 on his right arm alone. Morning came after a sleepless night, and now we had at least 22 miles to hike. I was feeling a little dejected, to say the least!I grumbled around and packed up, and left before anyone else, though I was not early. I walked though some impressive spiderwebs, ones that made me much more aware of where I was walking. Whoa caught up after about four miles, and we took a break at 5. My energy had taken a nose dive, and I found myself stumbling around, feeling like my feet were heavy weights. The reality of the situation was hitting, and I felt like crap. I had reached my breaking point at about 7 miles, and with 15 more to do? Oh no. To add insult to injury, the shin splints that have been setting in for the last few days decided to go full-blown today. So, we sat there and faced facts. We would have to get to Glasgow by Saturday morning, or spend three days waiting for the post office. Either we had to hike like mad, or get off at the Blue Ridge Parkway and hope for the best. We decided to get off the trail and try to hitch into Glasgow. We found few cars driving by, and those who did, did not stop. We decided to walk a while, and try as we went. No luck. A forest service guy stopped and told us he couldn't pick us up, but that he would call a ranger. We waited, none came. We just kept walking, pleading with passing cars, for hours. I thought we were going to have to walk into town, further than we would have walked on the trail. I was really at my wit's end.A ranger finally drove by six or seven miles into our road walk, and I flailed about. She stopped, and I told her of our plight. She told me it was illegal to hitchhike on the blue ridge parkway, and I asked how we could get down. "Walk!" she said, and I burst into tears again. I wasn't trying to get sympathy, it just came out. I felt like a sad sack. She said, oh, don't cry, I can take you. Once she determined I was the girl with the shin splints from earlier, she called in and arranged to take us into Glasgow. She gave us bottles of water and she and Jonathon chatted as I sat in the back seat, feeling like a sorry little whimp but ever so grateful for the ride. Thanks, Officer Kathryn, I will never try to hitchhike the Blue Ridge again, and I hope you know how much I appreciated that ride.Today was not what you would call a good day on the AT, but maybe it built my character? The day off in town will certainly restore it. I think so.moxie
Date: 2004-07-06
From: Calf Mountain Shelter

To: Campsite
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: scattered clouds

What a day for wildlife viewing! As I am writing, a deer is triangulating our tent site. He's been with us all evening. I am thinking of naming him. But let me go back to the beginning.We had a great night in the shelter last night, great company with a couple of brits, Mag-lite and Ratty, and a young guy Whistler. We woke up late and well rested for once, and had a nice leisurely breakfast of coffee and omelettes! What delight. We started out, and after a couple of miles we caught up with Maglite and Ratty who had just seen a bear with two cubs. Moments later we also saw a small bear, 50 feet away. My first bear sighting! The trail was so well manicured, so flat and flawless, that we could actually look around and still walk fast. The deer outside just tripped over a branch, so Jonathon said, "You clumsy buck!"Early in the afternoon, Jonathon surprised a bear not ten feet from the trail. He took off, while Whoa yelled, and I quote, "You better run!"The bear scared him almost as much. We pulled into the Blackrock Hut (Shenandoah shelters are called Huts to make them sound more fancy-schmancy) and found Gaul, Mountain Goat, and Val, a southbounder. Our British friends came along soon. We had a chat and a Gatorade, and moved on for a few more miles. The evening walk was so nice, with the coolness setting in and the soft light. We ate a wonderful meal courtesy of the Olenicks, a treat of real freeze-dried camp food. Whoa says, "We've acquired a horned electron."We found a flat spot to camp, near enough to get to a short-order counter and place to get blackberry milkshakes tomorrow morning. And soon after, we met our clumsy buck. He isn't the least bit afraid of us, and I wouldn't be surprised if I found him curled up outside the tent in the morning. We are definitely in his turf- and there is another animal approaching. Oh man. I'm beginning to get a little worried- will they finally realize they can totally kick our puny hiker asses?I've gotta see what's going on out there.moxie
Date: 2004-07-08
From: Hightop Hut

To: Big Meadows
Miles today: 20.4
Weather: light rain

We woke. We hiked.Our destination called for us with sweet songs of restaurant food and beer to be enjoyed, should we be able to do the miles.It was a great day. Virginia was in rare form, with sunny skies and nice breezes all throughout the day.We hauled butt, and made our destination with enough time to have showers before going to the fancy restaurant! Up there, we met Gaul, Sardine, Britanny, Britanny's friend (memory of sieve, yo) and Wipeout. Good conversation for a while, til food comas wiped us out one by one. I think the others had been in "The Taproom" for a while before we showed up, this challenging their longevity that night.But me, Moxie and Wipeout went there afterwards and enjoyed the styling of the old self-professed hillbilly who was playing guitar in the bar. Soon we all were admitting defeat, and having to go cash in for the night too.It was a good day.And the speaker is still playing "Let's Misbehave", so I'm getting out of here, and am gonna go see if Moxie's feeling better after her nap.Take care, gentle readers.And if you haven't already, pop a note off to us in the guestbook.It's inspiring to hear from you.Peace,Your Favourite Evil Dr.: - Whoa
Date: 2004-07-09
From: Big Meadows

To: Skyland
Miles today: 8.1

We woke up to the sounds of Harleys driving off to do the Skyline Drive rounds- if anything, the shenandoas seem to be for driving around. Most people slow their cars down for the overlooks. They drive back and forth from the bathroom. I saw someone honking repeatedly at a deer for a photo op. I'm glad to be on foot. I think the drivers are missing all the good stuff.Jonathon did laundry and we hiked out mid morning, pretty languidly. I was feeling really tired, so we hiked to the first shelter and took a break. Then we realized, we were taking so long that we were going to miss lunch at Skyland. We did the next five miles like we were in a race. Nothing like lunch to get you motivated. We arrived at Skyland to find Knuckles, JP, and Swedish all sitting outside!! I could hardly believe we had finally caught them. We chatted for a while, then went inside lest we missed lunch. We ate enough for several normal people, then I started to feel a little chilled and sickly. I could have gone on, but there were cabins right here, and it was just too easy to stay and lie down and rest. It seems like I am needing a good rest every five days or so, and perhaps I'll just have to start planning for it. So we found our long lost tribe, and immediately lost them again. Dang. Well, we know they are just up there a teeny bit, so we should be able to catch them in the next few days. We're on schedule to get to Harper's Ferry. I can almost smell it, it's so close now.Moxie
Date: 2004-07-10
From: Skyland

To: Pass Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 10.7

We had a nice relaxing sleep, and were loath to get out of bed. But, breakfast called! We had a good breakfast, and lolled back to the cabin for one last shower and lie-down before the hiking was to start. We cleared out around noon, but we couldn't leave the land of convenience yet- it was now lunchtime! Two big meals in the space of three hours. It's fun to amaze waiters and waitresses with our eating prowess. The deciding factor on what to order is often, 'Well, how big is it?' We lolled a little more. We caught up with Mickey and Mallory over coffee sprawled out in front of the restaurant. We act like we own the place sometimes, but no one harasses us and tells us to move our smelly selves. It's kind of like we are tame wildlife, to be possibly gawked at but usually left to ourselves.And sometimes fed!We hiked through fog and drizzle for a while, then took a long break in a picnic area. I FINALLY won at Gin Rummy. Whoa has been beating me for weeks. We met a trail maintainer named Steiger (something like German for social climber, but in his meaning it's mountainclimber) who gave us lots of treats. What a nice guy. Trail maintenance is a thankless job, unnoticed sometimes, but here in the Shenandoahs, it is phenomenal. If there were a showpiece of the AT, this would be it.We hiked on a few more minutes, and found more trail magic! Twofiddie left a cooler of sodas and snacks. woo-hoo!So, rematch of gin rummy leaves me the loser, but I'll go on to win another day. Off to sleep now...By the way, we forgot to mention we found a family of wild turkeys before the shelter the other night- Six or seven chicks and a mom. More than one hiker mentioned what a good meal they would have made. It would take quite a speedy person to catch one of those birds. I'm thinking Rocky I.Love to all!Moxie
Date: 2004-07-11
From: Shelter

To: Front Royal
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: overcast clouds

We blazed through the first eight miles, and made it in for an early lunch at Elkwallow Gap. We ate some heavenly food, and wallowed a while ourselves. We were greeted by a man in a tie who shuffled anti-gay propaganda on us under the premise of support of the marriage amendment- In a national park, no less. I was seething as he handed them out, but couldn't think of a way to disarm him without using violence or loud insults, so I didn't do anything. To my dismay, no one else did anything either.We drank down the last shake of the shenandoahs, sadly, but happy to complete another milestone. We arrived in Front Royal, checked into the Pioneer Motel, room 14. We were off to the local bar and restaurant in two shakes- of a tail, not blackberry- and who do we see pull up but Knuckles, JP, Swedish, Magnet, and Swedish's brother Odie. We cheered like sportsfans. Ah, reunions! We had so much to catch up on- mostly gossip. We shared trails from our travels, discussed minor and major trail lore, laughed and snorted. We stayed past closing time, without noticing we had gone past our welcome. Simply having too much fun.We made it back for a Simpson's episode, and then crashed like lead balloons. Joviality can be exhausting sometimes.moxie
Date: 2004-07-12
From: Front Royal

To: Jim and Molly Denton Shelter
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: moderate rain

Town, town, town. Oh, the pleasures, distractions & opportunities of town. We started off at Fox Diner, a pleasant little establishment where an overworked lady made us some standard breakfast fare. When finished, I actually offered to help her out by doing some dishes in the back room. My heart went out to her: I know what it's like to be under too much pressure in a hot, greasy kitchen. But reinforcements - the next two generations of our diner lady - soon showed up to help out. The youngest generation helped by making cute & absurd little baby faces.Any large sized urban area you go to in the US and you're not likely to encounter diaper-clad cook's progeny sitting on the serving counter.But we're hikers.We just laughed.Then there was laundry, and food poichasings, a trip to the bookstore, and a stop in at a choice custard merchant, and then we had no other choice but to head back into the woods - where we belong. Ah.Some nice fella who works for FEMA gave us a ride up to the trailhead.He cautioned us to look out for snakes: copperheads & rattlers have harassed hikers along the upcoming section of trail, he said. Then we were marching in the woods.There were spider webs galore, and the humidity was so high, I'm amazed we weren't swimming up the trail.Then we were at the shelter, and all was good.Leisurely ate some food, and chatted with the other folks there.I read some of Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic, Dune, and then it was time to sleep.- Juanathon
Date: 2004-07-13
From: Jim and Molly Denton Shelter

To: Rod Hollow Shelter 
Miles today: 18.9
Weather: scattered clouds

We ate a leisurely and fun breakfast today, and still made it out of camp by 8:30. We hiked quickly down to Manassas gap, and found trail magic colas in Goose Creek. So nice to drink a couple of calories you didn't have to carry. Crossing over the gap, we ran into a construction crew who watched us walking up the road as if we were mysterious famous people, possibly out-of-date rock stars. We were barraged with questions, about the hike and stuff. I then realized by their reactions they just thought us completely out of our minds.We arrived at Manassas Gap shelter, and pulled out the lunch gear. We had heard there were some Copperhead snakes living in the shelter, and found they were still there! One coiled lazily by the roof while another lurked in the grass. We studied them carefully, since we hadn't yet seen them. And wondered about their deadliness, and how long we would have to get to town before we were in real trouble. You know, nice lunch conversation.Whoa and I decided to hit the trail, and lit out in a hurry. It began to rain, and Jonathon realized he was missing his rain cover. And his thermarest. It was back at the shelter. He turned back, and I walked on a little further. I thought happily, oh, my pack is so light, how I love it.Then I thought again, is my pack ever light. Too light!I had left my food bag! So after we walked those two extra miles, we started up the trail with properly weighted packs. We walked a gentle four miles to Dick's Dome shelter, and gleefully missed a rainstorm. We waited too long, perhaps... We still had nine miles to do, and it was already 5pm! We started again, and got slogged by another passing rain. I felt the steam whooshing out, but kept pushing and made Ashby Gap in good time. We vacillated on if we should try to get to the local bbq restaurant, like crazy people. (I swear, the brainpower I put toward my next meal. I could be solving bigger problems, I think.)Deciding against it, we (the proverbial we, Jonathon was cheering me on like a trooper) slogged to the shelter. It was seconds from total darkness when we arrived, and we crashed before you could say "I'm a banana!"Moxie