morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-03-19
From: Fontana Lodge

To: Fontana Lodge
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

"I have never smelled anything that bad...maybe I will on this trip." - DumbledoreI sleep well, and wake rested. I join Dumbledore and Dozer for breakfast, where I get a tremendous breakfast burrito with a side of French toast. After breakfast we do laundry. Laundry turns into a mad scramble for quarters - we don't have enough change do to laundry, the vending machine nearby doesn't return change if you put in dollars, the general store refuses to make change, and the post office is closed. Eventually we get together enough quarters to get the laundry started.During this process we are introduced to a very energetic retriever puppy. It is Heading Home's dog, and here with the dog right now is Anna, Heading Home's wife. Pets are not allowed in the Smokies, so Anna is here to take care of the dog until Heading Home gets through the Smokies. Anna also offers to bring some of us to the nearby Ingle's supermarket in Robbinsville. We will go after lunch. Everyone breaks to accomplish their own tasks while Dozer lounges outside waiting on the laundry.I head back to the room to get my camera and take care of some photo processing. I sit in the lounge where the wifi is strongest to tackle this chore. Here I see Robbie has come in from the Trail. He is just passing through and picking up a mail drop. In the afternoon Anna brings her car up to do the resupply run. Dozer had a mail drop here too, so he doesn't need anything. I go on the food run along with Dumbledore and Dan. I have encountered Dan a few times on the Trail so far, but not up close and without us wearing our packs. He is even taller than I am at 6' 4"!This resupply also includes plenty of food to eat before leaving the lodge. The restaurant there is great, but very expensive. Anticipating the long climb into the Smokies, I get a full loaf of garlic bread and a half gallon of chocolate milk to give me a boost before tomorrow's walk. I have jettisoned my leaky honey and jelly, and my almost-empty peanut butter. That is all replaced with one jar of combination peanut butter and strawberry jelly. I also stock up on pepperoni and cheese, and take Portrait's 2011 trail journal recommendation to get a large can of Pringles.We return to the lodge and perpetrate some feasting. Sole Sister and Grasshopper join us in sharing the room. I spend much of the remaining time processing and uploading photos, trying to get caught up but running out of time. Tomorrow, we will begin walking through the Smokies.Peace,
Date: 2013-03-30
From: Johnson City, TN residence

To: Johnson City, TN residence
Miles today: 0.0

(In which I continue dancing and take a break to check out a waterfall)Sleep is wildly successful, and I wake up rested at 1030. I start getting packed but there is need to get moving immediately. I leave most of my things at Brad's, taking only my clothing, food, and camera. There is an afternoon dance running until 1700 with pretty low attendance, but it is still a fun time. I alternate between dancing, resting, and eating for the afternoon. I realize my money is back in my backpack at Brad's house, so I cannot visit any local eateries for lunch. Few people are staying on the premises for me to tag along with for food, anyways.There is a two hour break between the afternoon and evening dances. I join the younger folks to see if anyone is considering food. They brought pasta with them but are considering a visit to a waterfall nearby. I grab my camera and hiking shoes and tag along. It is a short drive to Elk Falls - not on the Appalachian Trail, but my first real waterfall of the trip. These falls are a regular hangout for locals, and there are a few there when we arrive. I shoot plenty of photos above and below the falls before we have to return for the evening dance.The evening dance has much greater attendance, reaching two sets in the long hall. I realize during the evening that I may have trouble with my accommodation tonight. The folks that were at Brad's house last night are not going there tonight, and half of my things are there. Through a convoluted process I find a way to get back anyways. Someone else here lives in that area, but they did not drive here. She carpooled with someone else, who does not have a seat for me in his car. Someone else can get me to where she parked her car, since they are going the same direction.The dance trickles to the night's ending and all the carpooling is carried out. Christi and I both get separate rides back to her car and she gets me back to Brad's house. I get settled back in the front room, trying not to wake anyone.Peace,
Date: 2013-04-04
From: Mother Miriam's Hostel

To: Mother Miriam's Hostel
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

(In which I zero again to recover)My body really enjoys all the extra sleep. I sleep in late, knowing I will zero again today to try recovering my energy. Woodrow is also zeroing today. We split a shuttle to the nearby Ingle's grocery store. I still have plenty of food but am interested in finding some things I will be able to tolerate eating. The food I had been eating shortly before getting sick has lost its appeal to me. In time it may start to look appetizing, but for now I need something else to get me by. I decide to try making nachos later, but the hostel owner's son offers to do that.Nobody else shows up at the hostel today. I am able to eat some of the nachos and some pasta for dinner, but not as much as I had hoped. However, I decide I will get back to walking tomorrow, even if I wind up doing a nero and coming back to the hostel. When I find out how much it has cost so far, I know I have to get moving. I stay up late uploading photos before retiring to sleep.Peace,
Date: 2013-04-14
From: Richmond, VA residence

To: Car bound for Damascus, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

(In which the Richmond dance weekend concludes and I go to a Greenwood dance on the return toward the Trail)I get as much sleep as possible but I also get a refreshing shower first thing in the morning. There is a waffle breakfast at the dance this morning but our host feeds us here. I enjoy a breakfast of bread, butter, and grapes - all things I get only rarely nowadays. The host is one of the Richmond dance organizers and he talks long with Warren about how to improve their dance. This continues until we must leave to make it to the dance in time for the dancing to begin. I reverse yesterday's directions and get us back to the dance hall.We arrive at the tail end of breakfast so I pick at some more food here before the dancing begins. The dance today only runs until the early afternoon, but I stay a bit afterward and help with breaking down the event setup. The dancing is not done yet today though - there is a dance in Greenwood on the return toward Damascus. That dance is not for a few hours though. In the meantime, we find some food on the way to the next dance. Warren is specialized in cheap sustenance, especially in his advising of future hikers that will doubtless spend plenty of money on calories. He gets four hot dogs for two dollars. I splurge on nachos because I haven't had nachos in a while.There is still some time to kill before the dance so Warren finds a McDonalds on the way to use their wifi. I take advantage of the free data to get a couple more audiobooks downloaded. The Greenwood dance is at an unusual time, running starting at 1830. Most evening dances start at 2000, and Sunday dances are usually in the afternoon. When we arrive there we discover the remains of a potluck dinner, and everyone is encouraged to finish off the leftovers. I give them some help with the bread and pasta.This dance is refreshing after the Richmond dancing where I was alone in my age group. There are some young folks here and I get a chance to dance with most of them before the night is through. A couple folks here were also at the Richmond dance. After the last waltz, we do not spend much time idling here. There is still a long overnight drive from Greenwood back to Damascus before the day is really over. I will probably rest and get cleaned up in the morning before another northbound slackpack.Peace,
Date: 2013-04-19
From: Virginia Route 42

To: Lick Creek
Miles today: 5.7

(In which I am tricked and beaten by the rain)The night is dry and the morning also shows no hint of rain. Once I break camp, I decide I will try hitchhiking out of town and taking a down day to take care of other things while it rains. I haven't done laundry in a while and I have plenty of writing to do if I am going to get caught up with that. There are probably other things I can think of that I would rather be doing than getting soaked and burning up all my energy walking in the rain. I set up on the roadside in front of the pavilion and try hitching, with a remarkable lack of success. For the first time, I give up on hitchhiking without getting a ride and start up the Trail.The next shelter is a couple miles up the Trail, over the next Brushy Mountain. As I depart the campsite a pickup pulls up and the driver restocks the trail magic. It is a steep climb away from the road, but not long until I reach the Knot Maul Branch Shelter on the far side. I set up inside against the coming rain, rigging my rain fly over half the entrance to catch the rain. The rain never really comes though, which is frustrating because I wanted to use my rain fly to catch the water and fill my bottles. Instead I have to use the stream far downhill.While I wait here all the rain I get is a few drops. I decide it is not going to rain and pack up to keep moving. This was a bad idea. As I reach the bottom of the mountain it begins to rain. While I climb Lynn Camp Mountain the weather becomes more severe, and before I reach the mountaintop I am soaked and the rain is coming down torrentially. I am frustrated with myself for having left the shelter, and knowing I left a dry and empty shelter to immediately walk into this does not improve my mood.After crossing Lynn Camp Mountain and reaching the bottom, I do not feel like I have the energy to make the next climb. The next shelter is about four miles away but it is almost all uphill, with over 2000 feet of elevation gain on the way. In my current state I am not motivated to press on, and I find a place to pitch my hammock next to the Trail. Fortunately my hammock comes out of the bag with the rain fly on top, and my first time making camp in the rain is mostly successful. I don't have a dry spot to put my backpack under my hammock, but putting my rain jacket under it and the rain cover on top should keep it mostly dry.I wish I had a larger rain fly for occasions like this. I strip off my wet clothes and cower under my hammock to let myself dry out somewhat before changing into dry camp clothes. It isn't even 1600 and I am retiring to sleep, lacking enough charge on my phone to spend an extended period writing or doing anything else. At least I am now somewhat dry and can see about getting plenty of rest.Peace,
Date: 2013-06-30
From: Hamilton, NJ home

To: Hamilton, NJ home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Hey folks, I figure I will put up an entry other than a simple 'placeholder' for now - I am continuing on the Trail, but putting off the writing for some later time. In the meantime I am keeping notes and letting my photos replace my words to some extent. Writing as much as I have written was a hard thing to keep up with, and once I really fell behind for the first time I realized I wouldn't catch up again. Instead of writing journal entries a couple weeks late while I'm on the Trail, I will just sort this all out when I'm done with this walk.Peace,
Date: 2013-04-02
To: Australia (Canberra)

 To my way of thinking, preparation for a journey of this nature is about mental wellbeing, physical fitness and extraction from current life.Luckily I am in good spirits but I have been reading the usual list of AT books on how to keep of sane mind (eg listing why it is that you are doing the hike when times get tough).I walk and cycle to work and get out in the wilderness at least once a week.Getting leave from work and making sure the household continues to function, however, is taking much more time than I expected! Looking forward to hitting the trail next week!
Date: 2013-04-03
To: Australia (Snowy mountains)

My wife and I did a four day hike out to the Snowy Mountains over the Easter weekend. It was a good opportunity to shake down my gear in cold, windy and foggy weather (pretty similar to Springer Mountain at this time of year I believe!). My biggest concern is that my gear is still too heavy for most of the AT but I have decided to wait and observe what other hikers use before I lash out and buy more stuff...
Date: 2013-04-08
To: Atlanta
Weather: scattered clouds

When I was leaving the house today to go to the airport, I woke up in our little cottage in an established Canberra suburb shaded by old growth trees and mused that it felt like a scene from HG Well's movie 'The Time Machine' when the lead character was about to go on his journey and talking to his two friends about it. Last night I had a quick bike ride with my two neighbours and friends across the road followed by a home cooked meal and flop on the couch with the cat and the wife as the temperature dropped to around 10 degrees Celcius or so. Yep, remind me again why I am leaving this cosy secure little environment to do battle with the elements???
Date: 2013-04-09
From: Atlanta

To: Hikers Hostel

Flew in to Atlanta city last night and sat next to Tony a horse trainer from Florida. Tony has just got back from seeing his part-time girlfriend in New Zealand but they don't want to get married (again) ' because you know what that means...' He offered to help me if I needed to get off the trail. He alsolikes hiking and scuba diving - warned of risk of allergies this time of year and thought Hillary would have made a better President.After a breakfast of mashed and hashed browns and slivers of greasy bacon (followed by a muffin), i learnt of a risk of Severe Weather with damaging winds, large hail and a few strong tornadoes are possible from Thursday - the day after I propose to set off on the trail!
Date: 2013-03-02
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light snow

So, I've just about had enough of the snow for one winter, but it will be another month and a half before I can head south. Last night I went snowshoeing by the light of the full moon, about a 3.5 mile round trip to a place called "look out ledge". Got back home about 1 AM. The valley and Mt Jefferson, Adams and Madison across the way were lit up nicely, dispite the high overcast clouds harolding the latest snow storm to head our way. That's one of the nice things about living in the White Mountains of NH. I can just go out and start hiking in the middle of the night
Date: 2013-03-03
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

This is a view all you wantabe thru-hikers will hopefully see when you get to Maine in the Fall. I just wish the trail wasn't so dang hard up there. Although, its probably a good thing it is, or we'd be over run with tourists. So, I'm heading back to Springer for like the 5th time (or maybe 6th, I've lost count. Why so many times? That's the only place to go if you want to hike in the spring. Plus it's fun to meet all the newbie thru-hikers and wonder which ones I'll get to see again up in my part of the woods. Besides, North Carloina is one of my favorate AT states and have to keep going back. I'm starting a little later then usual this year. Primarly because my Dad's 90th birthday is April 14th and I have to be there for that. My folks live in Florida, so it's not too bad to go down there and visit, then head back up to Georgia. With a mid April start, I'll also be able to have my pack weigh a few pounds less then normal too. I really should be heading back home about the 1st of June, as I promised I'd help a friend with a major remodeling job he took on. But I maybe able to push that a week or two. I'm thinking of seeing how far I can get with $1,000 worth of spending money for the trail. That would not include transportation, just on the trail costs. People keep thinking they can go the whole way on that or a little more, which is of course silly, but it would be fun to see how far a grand would go being reasonably frugal on the trail. We'll see. I do like my creature comforts in my old age, so it could be a challenge.
Date: 2013-03-31
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I decided to go shopping for new boots today. I thought maybe I could get away with my boots from last season, but after carefull consideration, I doubt they would go another 500 miles. Plus they never did fit all that well. I suffered with them just because I paid so damn much for them in the first place. Why do boots cost so dang much anyway? These things cost almost as much as my new tent and my tent will last years while I'll be lucky to get a season out of the boots. Just doesn't seem right. Oh well, that's my rant for the day. While many people have trouble finding boots for thier short and fat feet, I have the same problem finding boots to fit my long and skinny feet. And to make it even more of a challenge, my feet differ in length by almost a full shoe size! So, I went off to the local EMS store, some 35 miles away, to see what they might have. What I found was a locked up store, cuz it's Easter sunday and they didn't want all the skier buisness going on around the area today. Bummer. But Ragged Mountain was open, so they got my buisness, even though they don't have quite as good a selection. Which was compermised by the fact they don't really stock up on summer boots for another month or so. Hell, it's still winter up here! After trying on a couple of different brands, I finally settled on a pair of Lowa leather boots. I typicaly go for Gor-Tex lined boots as they keep my feet dry. I hope I didn't make a mistake with these boots ss they cost way more then I wanted to pay, but they fit pretty good. In other news, I lost part of a tooth recently, while eating a bowl of cerial no less. I was able to beg an emergency appointment with my dentist who took one look at it and pronounced it "a gonner". And gone it is, yanked out a couple of days ago. Now it just has to heal, which it is slowly doing. This is one of those bad situations with a silver lining. The bad thing is I had to loose another tooth, the good thing is it happend while I was still at home and not 2 weeks into the trail. Just over a week before I head to Florida for a short visit with my folks, then its off for Springer Mountain!! By then I hope all the snow, cold and assorted nasty weather will be history. See you there!
Date: 2013-04-19
From: Springer

To: Neels gap
Miles today: 32.0
Weather: few clouds

Drove my friend Steve's Subaru up Winding stars gap road to the Springer parking lot. Turned out to be a white knuckle ride along little more then a jeep trail along the side of a mountain. Thankfully, the car didn't loose any parts on the way up. We did find out there was a better, more car friendly way to get there. Too late. A short walk to the Springer shelter and a wonderful star full night to start the trip. Only a half dozen other hikers up there starting their thru hike. Day 2, 15 mile hike to Gooch shelter. Warm, sunny day. Day 3, 12 mile day to Lance creek campground, last place to stay before the "forbidden zone" where you need a bear vault to camp. Lots of use there. Day 4. Rain started early in the morning. Let up just enough to pack up and get going, then heavy rain for the rest of the day. New boots don't seem to be water proof. Had to stop and drain a cup of water out of them every so often. Finally got to Neels gap and the hostel. Dried out and resupply for the next leg. Church group will apparently come feed up later. Thank you for your generosity. Next up date in a few days at Hiawassie.
Date: 2013-04-23
From: Neels gap

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

The rain stopped over night, but the wind picked up and it was cold. So cold I had to buy gloves at the store, having neglected to bring any from home. It was supost to be warm, right? However, it was a nice crisp morning and a great day to hike. Went all the way to Low gap, which turned out to be a tent city with two boy scout troupes and a lot of weekenders seeing as it was Saturday night. Very cold over night, my 50 degree comfort bag was a bit marginal even with the liner. Very easy hike for a few miles out of Low gap on old woods road, then the usual AT up and downs started. Got to Tray Mt shelter about noon and took a long beak. Then onto the "Cheese factory " to camp over night. We lost a few companion hikers, who apparently decided to stay at Tray.Who had been paced with me since the second day.It was another Chilly night. And brisk morning. An uneventful hike to the next destination, Deep gap, where a whole new crowd of people assembled.
Date: 2013-04-24
To: continue
Miles today: 0.0

This kindle has it's quirks that I'm still learning, like it likes to change words on me and not show all that I'm typing. So, today was a short hike out to the road and a wait for the shuttle to the motel. We were here on the early ride and the place slowly filled up. Some of the groups we lost the other day are here taking a "zero". Did grocery shopping and a good meal at the "Georgia Mountain restaurant ", which was recommend by some locals at the supermarket parking lot we asked for where to eat. Looks like a sizable crowd heading out in the morning. Chance of afternoon thunderstorm. Still on the chilly side for next few days according to the forecast.At least I got my tent seam sealed today. It didn't leak in the first rain storm, butwith some ware it might have started. Next stop should be Franklin, NC in a few days. My solar garden light has been a big hit on the trail. Everyone gets a kick out of it. My new trail name is now "NIGHTLIGHT", since I have a nightlight out side my tent every night.My pack is now way too heavy with too much food, it's always a problem of not over doing it. We'll be getting into NC today and its a big climb out of Georgia. Almost time to hit the trail, hope the afternoon Tstorm hold off.