morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-04-13
From: Icewater Spring Shelter, NC

To: Newfound Gap
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Well, this kind of sucks, but I guess it's alright. We woke up to a cold, cold morning with a dusting of snow and flurries. The forecast was for even colder weather and almost certain snow accumulation, so we made the tough decision to hike 3 miles back down to Newfound Gap to catch a ride to Gatlinburg. Mustang Sally, Tracer, and Strider had left to continue north before we woke up, so only Crabby, New Song, and I went south. I felt a little wimpy bailing, but it was the right decision. The updated forecast is for 3-5" of snow tomorrow. One of the trail angels at Indian Gap yesterday showed us the remnants of frostbite he suffered at the end of February. He had been at the same shelter we were at last night and went into hypothermia, suffered pretty severe frostbite on two fingers, and had to receive medical attention from the rangers. After hearing his story and seeing his hand, my inclination this morning was to be safe rather than sorry. I was cold in my tent from probably 3:00 this morning and everyone was frozen when we were all packing up today.On the way down to the gap, Crabby met a day hiker from Ottawa named Dave and talked to him for a while as they hiked down. Dave offered to drive us to Gatlinburg in his rental car and he even gave us a bunch of bananas he had bought. Really nice guy.Gatlinburg is a beautiful town...if you like fake old-time family photos, airbrushed t-shirts, and refrigerator magnets that announce to your guests that you visited a super crappy town on your vacation. Man this place is tourist junk heaven. There's nothing of real substance in this entire downtown area. Although, the pizza place we went to for dinner made a pretty good pie. We went to Blaine's Grill and Bar (notice that "Grille" comes before "Bar" here in the Bible belt) for lunch and the burger I had was actually very good. Question to the waitress: "What do you have on tap?" Answer: "Bud Light". Nice.So we're zeroing here tomorrow and hopefully we'll be on the trail on Tuesday. I'm not very excited about it, but at least we're warm and comfortable. I hope everyone up in the mountains is doing okay and that the other 3 in our group have heard through the grapevine that we headed for Gatlinburg. We're staying at the Microtel in town, which is reasonably priced and clean. Good enough. Tomorrow I'll do laundry, hit the local outfitter to show them my boots that are starting to fall apart, and look for internet access. There's a trolley here that will take you around town for 50 cents. Not bad.I'm pretty sure Ripley's owns this town. There's a Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum, Ripley's Guinness World Records Museum, Ripley's Moving Theater, Ripley's Mirror Maze, Ripley's Candy Factory, Ripley's Haunted Adventure, Ripley's Mini Golf, and even a full-scale Ripley's Aquarium. Wow.I got to talk to Tara for a good while today because I didn't have to worry about my phone battery. I'm thinking of buying a second battery to make things easier. I had 5 bars on my cell signal today...haven't seen that in about a month!
Date: 2008-04-14
From: Newfound Gap, NC

To: none (zero day)
Miles today: 0.0

The forecast hasn't gotten any better, so we decided to stay in Gatlinburg again tonight. I got a bunch of errands done, so that's good. I went to the library and used their computer to update my journal, but there's a time limit on computer use. I'll have to finish in the morning if there's time before we leave. I also did laundry and went to The Happy Hiker (the outfitter) to get help with my boots. Barrett gave me the phone number for Montrail's customer service and said he'd help however he could if the company wasn't helpful. He seemed to think Montrail would send me a new pair of boots under warranty. I'm hoping he's right.I went to Ace Hardware to get some silicone to seal my jacket more. It was a pretty long ordeal on the trolley. I might have to give in and admit that this jacket is a piece of crap, but I'm not giving up on it just yet. I still dig the concept.I've been thinking about Chinese food for a while and there's a Chinese restaurant in town, so I had some sweet and sour chicken for dinner. Not the best I've ever had, but it served its purpose.I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for better weather tomorrow so we can get back on the trail. We're expecting pretty cold weather tonight and the hotel we're at even covered their shrubs to protect them from the cold.
Date: 2008-04-15
From: none (zero day)

To: none (zero day)
Miles today: 0.0

Well, it snowed quite a bit in the mountains last night...enough that they closed the road to Newfound Gap this morning. It reopened in late morning and a couple of other hikers were going to try to get up there today. We're heading out first thing in the morning tomorrow and we're planning on our first 15+ mile day. CAN'T WAIT to get out of here. Wish us luck.
Date: 2008-04-17
From: Pecks Corner Shelter, NC

To: Cosby Knob Shelter, NC
Miles today: 12.9
Weather: clear sky

New Song showed up last night! She got to the shelter around 8:30, just as the last bit of daylight was fading away. Our suspicions were correct...she had gone down the Boulevard Trail toward Le Conte. She actually made it 5.2 miles on that trail before turning around. Then she waked all the way to Pecks Corner Shelter to catch up with us. She did a total of 21.2 miles yesterday!!! She was grateful that I had gone looking for her and felt bad that we ended up doing less miles than we had planned. I'm just glad she's okay.Today was a tough-ish but great day of hiking. The sun was out all day and the temperature was perfect. Of course, the sun melted the snow again and created more slush, mud, and wet boots, but it was still a beautiful day.We did 12.9 miles today, the most official trail we've done so far. I felt pretty good today so I'm hoping to start creeping into higher mileage after leaving the Smokies.I found out today that rangers had come around trying to get people off the mountains when the snow was coming down a couple days ago. Glad again that we were in Gatlinburg.We dropped a bit in elevation this afternoon and it was a nice change. There are more green plants and a lot less snow down here. We'll be dropping over 2700' tomorrow by the time we leave the park. We're planning on taking a short side trip on the Mt. Cammerer Trail tomorrow morning. The 360 degree view is supposed to be spectacular. Can't wait to be done with the Smokies tomorrow. I'm as excited to finish them as I was to start them...probably even more so.I tried calling Tara again tonight...still no cell signal. Hopefully I can call her from the hostel near Davenport Gap tomorrow night.Wildlife Sightings: There was a rabbit hanging out next to the shelter tonight. He was just eating greens near the shelter and didn't seem to mind us. People were getting pretty close to take pictures. It's funny how guys turn into little girls when they see a rabbit..."Aw, it's a bunny."
Date: 2008-04-18
From: Cosby Knob Shelter, NC

To: Green Corner Rd., TN
Miles today: 10.0

Another beautiful day today. It was pretty hazy, though, so we decided not to do the Mt. Cammerer side trail we had planned on doing. It's supposed to be an amazing view, but the haze that gives the Smokies their name was really heavy and we didn't think it would be worth the extra mileage.As we descended out of the Smokies, the temperature steadily rose. By the time we finished for the day I was fairly soaked with sweat.We saw 5 horses carrying tourists through the park today. As they passed us, I couldn't help but feel bad for the horses...especially the one transporting a teenage girl who was texting on her cell phone and obviously having no fun whatsoever. After the horses passed us we had to stay alert and dodge horse poop until we left the park.When we arrived at the Standing Bear hostel, it seemed like a utopia...green grass, a stream running through the property, and lots of sunshine, all in a backwoods Tennessee kind of setting. This place is awesome. The washing machine isn't a machine at all...it's one of those old roller type jobs with a a washboard. Good stuff. I took a shower but didn't bother doing laundry. I'll take care of that in Hot Springs on Monday. It felt funny to put smelly clothes on after a shower, but I still feel better after the shower. It's warm tonight and there's soft-looking grass for me to sleep on, so I'll be tenting.I forgot to mention on Thursday that we met up with Strider and Tracer at Cosby Knob Shelter! It turns out that after heading north for a couple hours from Icewater Spring Shelter last week, they decided to turn around and head back to Newfound Gap. They actually spent 2 nights in Gatlinburg at the same time we were there.Strider and Tracer are both at Standing Bear with us. The caretaker asked if they were legally wed before he'd give them a queen bed in a cabin. Strider slipped in a big pile of German Shepherd poop near my tent and made me laugh like crazy. Poor guy had to go rinse dog poop off his foot...he was wearing sandals.There's a HUGE spider hangin' out near my tent. I was trying to move him away before getting in my tent and he's so big that I could see the reflection from my headlamp in his eyes...wicked creepy.The guy who owns this place is a trip. He uses words like "kinfolk", "big uns", and "lil uns". Don't tell me that isn't good stuff. He was getting ready to give us a ride to a convenience store when a friend pulled up in a buggy pulled by 2 horses. He came back from talking to them and trying their moonshine and said, "Man, that's some good shine! Okay, let's go." We piled in the minivan and headed for the store.A group of people went out for Mexican for dinner. It sounded good, but I felt like relaxing tonight, so Crabby and I stuck around the hostel and heated up a pizza instead. It's not delivery, it's DiGiorno.Tara headed down to Memphis with her mom today. She texted me and said they were eating BBQ in Memphis. I'm totally jealous. My cell signal is crap today, so I only got to text back and forth with Tara a little...didn't get to talk to her. Maybe tomorrow night.
Date: 2008-04-19
From: Green Corner Rd., TN

To: Groundhog Creek Shelter, NC
Miles today: 7.2
Weather: light rain

Tomorrow is New Song's birthday, so Crabby and I bought a chocolate muffin (we called it cake) and a candle before leaving Standing Bear. We all surprised New Song with it and sang happy birthday to her after dinner tonight. It seemed to make her really happy.Today started with a long 4 mile incline up Snowbird Mt. that made me sweat so much that I had to wring out my shirt when we reached the summit. We had planned to do more miles today, but we ended up with 7.2. It had started raining during the night last night and then sort of drizzled through the day today. When we got to Groundhog Creek Shelter it looked like bad rain was a comin', so we decided to stay here...with the promise that we'll still make it to Hot Springs in 3 days. We have 26 miles left to Hot Springs, so we'll break that up over 2 days.We met a day hiker at the shelter who served in Iraq and has some pretty strong theories on 9/11 being an inside job. I guess there's a bunch of videos and things that support his theories floating around the Internet, so I'll have to check them out when I get home. He was pretty passionate about it.It looks like we'll be able to split the 26 miles to Hot Springs into two 13 mile days but we'll have to stay at Walnut Mt. Shelter tomorrow, where a bear has been stealing food bags from hikers. Sweet.
Date: 2008-04-21
From: Walnut Mt. Shelter, TN

To: Hot Springs, NC
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: broken clouds

Well, we made it through the night with no bear visits. We collected a ton of firewood and had a pretty good fire going before we went to sleep. Crabby got up a couple times to keep the fire going. We thought it might be a deterrent for the bear (hey, it worked against the snakes in the snake pit in Indiana Jones). Even if that's total nonsense, it at least made us feel better.My mom's not gonna like this, but that's the way it goes. I won't be censored...This morning we met the people who had stayed at Roaring Fork Shelter last night...and dealt with the marauding bear. They had put all their food on the roof of the shelter (seems kind of silly), so the bear came right up to the front of the shelter. Every time they yelled, the bear would retreat but, so I guess it's still scared enough of humans. It came back a few times, though. The shelter was full and one person was tenting, but he moved to the floor of the shelter as soon as they saw the bear. Since no one was in the tent to yell at the bear, it shredded his tent looking for food. They eventually chased it away with camera flashes and lots of shouting. Scary stuff, but it could've been a lot worse.Today's 13.1 miles wasn't bad, but the last couple miles of downhill into Hot Springs really took a toll on my feet. I think that's what bothers me the most physically...the downhills just kill my feet. I was glad to get here. The trail goes right through town on the sidewalk, so it was a strange feeling when we first arrived. Usually we have to get a ride to town. We stopped at Elmer's Sunnybank Inn, which is a pretty popular stop for thru-hikers. They only had one bed, a couch, and a bed on the porch available, so we moved on to the Alpine Court Motel. Hot Springs is a tiny little town as far as I can tell, but it's pretty and the people are very nice.We showered and did our laundry and I called Tara from the pay phone at Ramsey's Amusements and Laundromat (really just a convenience store with 3 video games, a pool table, and laundry) while the clothes were drying. There's no AT&T cell signal here. Tara's back from Memphis and it sounds like she and her mom had a good time there.We treated New Song to her last dinner with us at the Paddler's Pub. I ate 6 pieces of a large pizza and now I'm stuffed. I'm so thirsty from hiking that I keep drinking tons of water, and now I'm so full I don't know if I'll even be able to get to sleep tonight. We'll go to breakfast in the morning, then I'll hit the outfitter for my new boots and resupply at the Hillbilly Market (the only grocery-type store in town...I'm just glad there's no Wal-Mart here!) before continuing on the trail for probably 11 miles.
Date: 2008-04-23
From: Hot Springs, NC

To: Spring Mt. Shelter, TN
Miles today: 11.0

We hit the Hillbilly Market for some groceries and breakfast and tried to check out of our motel around 9:30 this morning. I say we tried because when we went into the motel office (which is really a counter in the owner's living room) to pay for our room, the owner was nowhere to be found. We waited for an hour before the cleaning person arrived and we flagged her down. We told her we'd been looking for the owner and she said, "Aw, there's no tellin' where he could be. The manager lives up the hill. I'll go get him." The guidebook that Strider and Tracer have says to look for him at the pub if he isn't at the motel. Seriously.We said good by to New Song early this morning when her ride to Erwin, TN picked her up at the hotel. The shuttle driver is the same guy who gave her a massage at the spa yesterday. New Song's headed to Erwin to pick up a rental car to drive home to Virginia. She gave us her address and phone number so that we can spend a night at her place when the AT gets close to her town. That'll be fun.We also said good bye to Strider and Tracer while we were waiting to check out of our motel. Sucks.Crabby's knee is feeling better, so I guess the zero was worthwhile. Yesterday was pretty restful for both of us. Today was rough, though. We only did 11 miles to the first shelter after Hot Springs, but the combination of a lot of uphill, a heavy pack full of 6 days of food, sun, and temperatures in the 70s made it a hard day. We also didn't get to leave town until 11:00 this morning because of the checkout delay, so the day seemed long. The first mile or so zigzagged up a mountain next to the French Broad River, which was pretty. I'm pushing for a 15 mile day tomorrow if we can handle it. I'm feeling ambitious and I think we might be able to make it to Erwin in 5 days if we push ourselves. We might even be able to get to Damascus (or at least near it) for when Crabby needs to get off the trail. That would feel like a pretty good accomplishment. I'd like to start getting more miles under my belt. My feet still take a beating on the longer downhills, but I think I can do more miles than I've been doing as long as I take enough breaks to let my feet recover.Someone left some snacks for us in a plastic bin on the Route 70 overpass today. I love trail magic. I can see myself driving to Western Massachusetts to make lunch or something for thru-hikers someday. I think that would be fun.Still no AT&T cell signal. Verizon seems to have better coverage around here. Dang.
Date: 2008-04-25
From: Lick Log Gap, TN

To: Flint Mt. Shelter, NC
Miles today: 6.9

We got a decent start today and came to Jerry Cabin Shelter early in the morning. We stopped for a few minutes to get water and moved on. We started to get really tired after 4 or 5 miles. Crabby didn't sleep much last night and we were both tired from 2 tough days of hiking in heat. We pushed on to Flint Mt. Shelter for lunch. When we came to the shelter the whole gang was there eating lunch and lounging/napping in the shelter. I guess they were just as tired as us. I went to the nearby stream, rinsed the dried sweat from my face, arms, and legs, and came back feeling refreshed but still tired.While I was eating lunch a hiker arrived and yelled "Who's Chewy?" When I turned and said that I was Chewy, he gave me a big sweaty hug. It turns out he's been looking for me since yesterday. His name's Chewbacca and he had thought we shared a namesake. He was pretty excited.I have extra food in my pack after yesterday's trail magic, so I just kept eating and eating at lunchtime trying to get rid of it. My food bag's still pretty heavy...gotta eat that jambalaya tomorrow. I hadn't realized when I bought it that it serves 6, and it's the heaviest thing in my food bag now.After my big lunch I laid down in the shelter. When I woke up from my inevitable nap, Crabby gave me a look as if to say "We're not goin' anywhere." He was right. Almost everyone else is staying here, too. We'll make it to Erwin on Monday instead of Sunday, but that was our original plan anyway. I needed some rest, so I'm happy.Once we decided we were staying, I brought my socks, shirt, and shoes to the stream to rinse the sweat from them. The sunshine's been replaced by clouds and now it's drizzling, so hopefully my clothes will dry by morning. The forecast has changed a bit, so the real rain is supposed to hold off until tomorrow. We'll see.Wildlife sightings: There was a 5' rat snake in the shelter this afternoon. He just appeared out of nowhere and captivated us all for a while. They don't really bother humans, so he was just looking for a mouse to eat. He eventually slithered out of the shelter after all the attention we gave him. I think they're kind of common in the shelters, but it was our first one and we all got kind of excited. I also saw a tick today...pinched in tweezers after Crabby pulled it out of the back of my head. Nasty.
Date: 2008-04-26
From: Flint Mt. Shelter, NC

To: Sams Gap, NC
Miles today: 12.0

Last night was my first night in a shelter with the group we've been keeping pace with...Muffin Paste, Bert, Holler, Pixie, Happy, Long Shot, and Free Fall. The only two missing were Brahma Bull and Sweet Potato, who pushed on yesterday so they could make it to Erwin on Sunday for some R&R. It was a good time. We took turns asking random questions like "What's your favorite memory?" and crap like that. They have a Mark Twain book they've all been reading as a group. Since it was my initiation night, I was nominated to read a chapter. Sounds like odd stuff, I'm sure, but I had a good time. They're all more aggressive hikers than I am, so I'm sure they'll be pulling ahead of me soon. They're staying a couple miles ahead of us tonight at a campsite on the trail. We had originally planned to stay there, but with all of them camping there we weren't sure there would be enough tent space available. A lot of the smaller water sources have been dried up lately, so we also didn't completely trust that the small spring that's supposed to be there would really be there.I put the shirt I washed (rinsed) yesterday on this morning and it smelled like Fritos.Today was a mostly overcast day, but it never really rained. It just sprinkled a few times. We had a pretty brutal uphill climb today, so I was glad to be without the sun. Most of the trees at these higher elevations haven't sprouted leaves yet, so when it's sunny the sunlight just beats on you as you hike and 75 degrees can seem like 90 degrees. It was humid even without the sun, though, so I was soaked with sweat as usual.Crabby and I stopped at Hogback Ridge Shelter for lunch and the group we were with last night was there relaxing and napping in the shelter. I almost got sucked into the vortex again, but I resisted. I did lay down after they left, but I got up the second I felt a doze coming on. I was determined to make more progress today.When we found a campsite with water I set up my tent and then took a shower...the coldest shower ever. I'm talkin' ice cold spring water. It was so cold that when I dumped it from my water bag to rinse the soap out of my hair it was giving me a headache. It feels REALLY good to be clean, though, so it was worth it.After my shower I got to talk to Tara for a while before we lit a good fire and I made some sweet Zatarain's Jambalaya with chicken and Spam in my Jetboil. Crabby made some mashed potatoes with cheese in them and we split it all up between us. Good dinner.We realized at lunch today that we had passed the 300 mile mark yesterday! We have 24 miles left between here and Erwin, TN, so we shouldn't have a problem getting there on Monday (2 days).