morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-09-16
From: Campbell shelter

To: Woods hole hostel
Miles today: 297.0

We made it to Wood Hole Hostel, which was one of the highlights we were looking forward to on this adventure. The setting was perfect and Noodle and I were able to get a room in the house instead of the bunkhouse. The brothers, The Jesus and Stream Walker...AKA Waldo...got a bed in the bunk house. One of the first things that we noticed was the incredible list of rules. The wife was out of town but we were greeted by a very nice hiker that was doing work for stay. She showed us around and got us settled. The husband came up from feeding the animals and immediately started barking rules at us. One being don't walk on the straw...they were trying to grow grass...and i'll just say it went down hill from there. We were happy to be inside, however, because it rained all day. Noodle played cards with the brothers and I just chilled. Noodle and I had planned to stay another night but quickly decided to hike on out with the The Jesus and Waldo the next morning, keeping our trail family together. We were very disappointed with our stay. In spite of everything we still made it fun. Counting down the days to the TN line. We are motivated to get there and Noodle and I are going to step up our miles to make it there quicker.
Date: 2013-09-17
From: Woods hole hostel

To: Kimberling Creek suspension bridge
Miles today: 15.0

We were so happy to get on the trail again this morning. I only slept about 2 hours but we were committed to get to Trents Grocery Store in time for a cheeseburger. I had my eyes on a candy bar...any kind, it didn't matter. Our trail family made it for dinner and man was that the best burger ever. I got my candy bar...well two and two to go. Did I mention that I am down to a size 8 and still loosing? The best part is that I can eat anything I want and it doesn't matter. After pigging out we waddled back to the trail head, crossed the suspension bridge and set up our tents. The Jesus got a fire going and we were able to get warm. The younger trail family sat out by the fire while the old lady went to bed. Great day on the trail! On to Bland tomorrow and only 120 miles to Damascus and then the TN line. I get excited just thinking about it.
Date: 2013-09-18
From: Kimberling Creek suspension bridge

To: Partnership shelter, Marion VA
Miles today: 0.0

Sorry it took me so long to post this...but here goes. I called home from the top of a mountain on Thursday the 27th of September to discuss with my husband how bad I was feeling the last two previous days...just really tired and no energy...but what I realized was that he needed me home. The bank that he works for had been purchased by another bank during our time on the trail, and the calls from the trail were just not enough to calm the storms...he needed to see me tell him eye to eye that everything would be fine.   Sometimes you have to be a wife first and a hiker second.   Sadly, we got on a bus the next day and headed home. Fast forward...he was hired by the new bank and all is well. The original crew of 3 of 4, minus the crazy boyfriend, returned to the Smokies, a week later, to provide some trail magic to our trail family. Noodle even hiked with them on the first half of the GSM, doing a 23 mile day! She was very proud of herself. (Don't expect Flash to ever do that). Oh, and yes they hiked while the park was closed during the government shutdown. REBELS! The pull of the trail is great and it tugged at us for weeks.. We knew we left some unfinished business in those mountains, however, and started planning. After begging New World to return to the trail with us over and over, we finally came to the realization that he does not share the same love for the trail as us. ( 30 days of rain in Maine ruined him). We have decided to start a new journal under Flash and Noodle, since we were no longer 3 of 4. It will be a day or two before it comes up due to the three post thing.Come on over to our Journal under Flash and Noodle. See ya there!
Date: 2014-03-04
To: Getting Ready
Miles today: 0.0

I feel as though I¢ve unwittingly been preparing most of my life to hike the Appalachian Trail. When I was five, my dad took my older brother and me on a late-fall overnight trip to the White Mountains. We had planned to stay at the recently-opened Mizpah Hut, which lies on the AT not far from Mt. Washington, but found it closed for the season (back then you didn¢t need reservations). So we were forced to slog a mile in the fading light through rain and shin-deep mud, which threatened to snatch a boot with every step. When we finally arrived at Nauman Shelter, we climbed straight into our sleeping bags, too tired to eat. The next morning, my dad, insisting we save our back-up clothes for an emergency, forced us to wear our damp, half-frozen jeans. They say Mahoosuc Notch in Southern Maine is the toughest mile on AT. I¢m not sure I agree. Most people would be cured from hiking for life after such a trip; for me, it had the opposite effect. After knocking off the 4000-footers in the Whites in my early 20s, I took up winter hiking for added adventure. On the last night of a four-day winter hike that included climbing Mt. Washington, my friend, Jeff, and I were pushed to our limits when the temperature dropped to 30 below where we camped on a ridge near Mt. Isolation.Along with the mental and physical preparation, there¢s the daunting task of equipping yourself for a half-year journey. No amount of Googling provides adequate answers as to exactly what to bring and what to leave at home. Since my goal is to hike the trail in five months, I figured I need to travel as light as possible, and thus upgraded to a high-tech pack, stove, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and tent. Together, they weigh about 12 pounds. Clothes and other miscellaneous items will push me up to 20 pounds, and with food and water I should be just under my 35-pound goal.And finally, there¢s the dozens of loose ends to tie up before leaving home so my wife will find it easier to cope while I¢m away: getting the cars serviced, hiring someone to mow the lawn, doing the taxes, etc. And, of course, setting up this journal so you can follow along from home.
Date: 2014-03-15
To: Opportunity
Miles today: 0.0

Last week, my wife, Tor, learned of the sudden death of a close friend of 30 years. It came as a shock to us, not only because Valerie, an immensely talented illustrator, photographer, and artist, was happy and seemingly healthy, but also because she was our contemporary. At 58, she had become an integral member of the artist enclave in Stonington, CT in the year since she¢d moved east from California.Valerie¢s passing reinforced the idea for me that life is fleeting, so you need to grasp opportunities when they¢re available. If you continue to find excuses for not following your dream, eventually the opportunity to do so will pass you by.This year is the right time for me to hike the AT. Tor finished nursing school a year ago and now has two part-time per-diem jobs. My boys, Justin and Anders, are away at college, and my daughter, Sonja, is finishing her junior year in high school. Although I¢ll miss my family terribly while on the trail, at least Tor and Sonja will have each other while I¢m away. There are no graduations or family reunions to attend this summer. Now is the time.Henry David Thoreau captures my feelings perfectly:¢I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.¢
Date: 2014-04-03
To: Getting There
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

This will be my last post before hitting the trail next week. Right now, I'm in a hotel room in Buffalo, NY, where Sonja's hockey team is playing at Nationals. Were it not for this tournament, I would have started my hike in mid-March. But since watching my daughter play sports is one of the great pleasures in my life, I'm happy to delay my departure a few weeks.The logistics for getting to the trailhead had initially concerned me until I found out about the Hiker Hostel in Northern Georgia. If Atlanta is the Kathmandu of the Appalachian Trail, then the Hostel is its base camp. With a reservation here, a hiker is shuttled from a metro station north of the city, given a bunk for the night and breakfast in the morning, and driven to the trailhead at Amicalola Falls State Park. The AT doesn't actually start at the Park. Instead, an 8.8-mile approach hike is required to reach the summit of Springer Mountain and the southern terminus of the AT.I reserved a window seat on the right side of the plane. I don't expect to be able to spot the trail itself, but I'm hoping to identify the Appalachian Range, through which I'll be winding my way northeast in the coming months.With less than a week to go, my excitement is palpable. I wake at night revisiting mental checklists of food and equipment. It's time to get there.
Date: 2014-04-09
From: Amicolola Falls State Park

To: Stover Creek Shelter
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: scattered clouds

So much has happened in the last 48 hours. As thrilling as the hockey was in Buffalo, saying bye to Sonja when she left for school and to Tor at the airport was equally sad.The flight to Atlanta was uneventful until the pilot attempted to drill the plane into the runway when landing. Shannon from the Hiker Hostel picked up me and 10 fellow hikers from the North Springs metro station north of the city and brought us to a Wallmart for last-minute supplies. That's where I got my first taste of the Georgian accent. Having lost my glasses case on the trip down, I asked an employee where I could find a replacement. She pointed down the aisle and replied, "Beijing section." Confused, I asked again and got the same response. Finally, I realized she was telling me "vision section."Today, after a great breakfast, Derek from the Hostel drove 13 of us up narrow, winding, unpaved mountain roads to the AT crossing just north of Springer Mountain, where all but two of us started their journey by hiking one mile south to the southern terminus before heading north. Tim, a hiker from Germany, and I stayed on the van to be driven to the start of the 9-mile approach trail at Amicolola Falls State Park, the site of the highest Waterfall on the East Coast, where a staircase with 600 steps brought us to the top of the falls. I hiked the first few miles with Tim before moving ahead, as my pace was a bit faster.It was an awesome day on the trail -- sunny and cool with a bit of breeze, reminding me of an early fall day in New England. I stopped for the night at Stover Creek Shelter and am currently enjoying a sunset over the far ridge. The shelter and surrounding area is as nice as any I've been to before.I've decided to sleep in my tent tonight because the weather is perfect and I'll avoid the snoring that kept me up in the Hostel last night.It looks like I'll have to wait to post this entry, as there's no signal in the hollow where the shelter is situated.
Date: 2014-04-10
From: Stover Creek Shelter

To: Gooch Gap
Miles today: 14.4
Weather: clear sky

The AT through Northern Georgia is a hiker's paradise. The mountains are round on top and have steep sides, but the trail runs diagonally across them, providing gentle grades, both up and down. After a cold start, the temperature rose into the 60s with no clouds -- perfect hiking weather. Today I received my first trail magic. Half way through a 6-mile section with no water, I arrived at Cooper Gap and found three gallon cartons of spring water. I wasn't sure if was magic until I saw the citation written on each: Romans 5:8.Tonight I'm camping alone in Gooch Gap. Tor asked me before I left if I would be lonely on the hike, and while cooking dinner I was for the first time. Hanging my food bag was an adventure. At shelters, steel cables have been installed for this purpose. But since I'm tenting several miles from the nearest shelter, I had to hang my bag from a tree limb with the 50-foot line in my pack. The first attempt resulted in the rock coming loose from the line, and the now-rockless end over the limb but we'll out of reach. When I finally succeeded in getting the line over the limb, rock and all, I untied the rock, tied my food bag and began pulling absentmindedly, waiting for the tug from the weight of the food bag, which never came. Turns out I was pulling on the wrong end of the line but didn't notice until the rock-less, food bag-less end was, once again, well out of reach! Oh we'll. Chalk it up to rookie mistakes on the AT.There's no service again tonight, so I'll have to post this entry tomorrow from a Northern Georgia summit, as I did earlier today with "yesterday's" post.
Date: 2014-04-11
From: Gooch Gap

To: Neels Gap
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Happy Birthday, Dad! I was thinking of our hike together on the Franconia Ridge two summers ago while traversing ridges here in Georgia today. Although we weren't hiking together, I felt your spirit in me.When I discovered my first blister, on the heel of foot, my immediate concern was whether this would jeopardize my trip. But I soon came to my senses: oh, like you expected to hike from Georgia to Maine without any blisters?There's a 5-mile section of trail just before Neels Gap that requires bear canisters for camping. As a result, hikers must decide whether to do the 16-mile stretch from the Gooch Mountain Shelter in a single day or stop just short of the restricted area, the equivalent of laying up in golf. At Stover Creek Shelter, two days ago, I decided to pull out the big dog and go for it! So when I got to Gooch Mountain Shelter late yesterday afternoon and found the few remaining tent sites sloping so much I envisioned spending the night sliding to the end of my tent, it was a no-brainer to push on the mile and a half to Gooch Gap, from which the distance to Neels was more manageable.I spent the day hiking to, up, and over Blood Mountain, the first 4000-foot peak on the trail. Ace, a 67-year-old thru-hiker from Columbus, Ohio, who hikes like he's 30 and has also done the PCT, traded places with me on the trail several times on the run-up to Blood Mountain before hiking down together to Neels Gap, where more trail magic awaited.Staying at Mountain Crossings Hostel in Neels Gap, which the AT literally passes through, was another no-brainer. For 17 bucks you get a bunk for the night, a shower, and, best of all, a charge for the phone. Then, just after wolfing down two hot dogs, I found out the local Baptist Church was putting out a spread for us thru-hikers: hamburgers, hot dogs, chile, baked beans, and dessert. I partook in everything but the hot dogs!Question for the phone geeks out there: to conserve battery life on my iPhone 5s, is it better to completely power it down, or just put it in airplane mode and shut it off? The former is a pain when you want to take pictures occasionally, and I'm wondering whether it's doing me any good. And one more thing: why does my iPhone want to sometimes take a picture of me instead of what I'm pointing it at? (I just got the phone for this trip two weeks ago and am still working out the kinks.) Feel free to reply on my guest book or mail me directly at jimklumpp@gmail.com. Thanks!
Date: 2014-04-12
From: Neels Gap

To: Low Gap Shelter
Miles today: 11.5
Weather: clear sky

I don't recall ever eating a hamburger for breakfast; this morning I had two -- leftovers from last night's spread. Kind of like a sausage, egg, and cheese without the egg and cheese. And I must say, they beat the pants off the oatmeal I'd been having so far on the trail. And topping it off with a coffee for the first time in four days really hit the spot.Shelters and hostels have so-called hiker boxes, in which hikers discard unwanted food and equipment and take what they need from them. Today I swapped my peanut butter and pita bread for a small bag of dried mangos. I also left my Nalgine water bottles in the box in favor of narrower ones I scrounged from the recycle bin that fit better in my pack's side pockets.One thing I forgot to mention in yesterday's post. Feel free to skip ahead if you're easily grossed out. On the way to Blood Mountain, someone took a dump on the trail. We'll, not exactly right on the trail, but close enough that a misplaced step would have left an unfortunate hiker scraping his boot on the ground for the next mile or so. How do I know it was a person? We'll, when was the last time you heard of an animal using toilet paper? I hope it was an emergency, because whoever was responsible did a great disservice to his fellow hikers. Sorry for crediting a guy with this act, but I have a hard time imagining a female hiker being so disgusting!Each year, approximately 20% of would-be thru-hikers drop out by Neels Gap, where I left from this morning. If 25% of all hikers make it to Katahdin, I suppose that, since I'm still on the trail, my chances are now above 30%. I'll let my brother, Tom, who knows a thing or two about statistics, correct my faulty logic, if necessary.It was another fantastic day on the trail today. The pattern of gentle grades was broken with the short but steep climb out of Testnatee Gap and back down to Hogpen Gap, where a couple of cyclists were resting after what looked like a awesome hill climb. A pair of female day hikers took interest in my thru-hike and offered me chocolate chip cookies and Swiss cheese, which I used in my noodle dinner tonight. Thank you to all you trail angels out there for all your wonderful trail magic!I pulled into Low Gap Shelter at around 4:00 after a relatively short day on the trail, which was good because me feet needed a break. There I met up with Kimpossible, a feisty Oklahoman via Denver, whom I'd previously met at the Hiker Hostel and who cranked out a 15-miler on her first day off of Springer; Kate from Atlanta, who got the confidence to do the trail while working on her Master's degree in India; Ben, who is just shy of two degrees from schools in his home state of Arkansas; and Radio, a guitar-wielding Red Wings fan from Detroit, who is looking to break into, well, radio. We sat together for our evening meal and traded stories about what brought us to the trail and the adventures we'd had on it so far. And despite being a generation older than the others, I felt like I was at a dinner party with long-time friends.
Date: 2014-04-13
From: Low Gap Shelter

To: Tray Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: clear sky

I put in 15 miles today for the first time on what was easily the most difficult day so far. The trail climbed over three 4000-foot peaks by noon and had two arduous climbs just before reaching Tray Mountain Shelter, where I'm tenting tonight. Julie, I met your son, Cooper, at the shelter tonight. The AT community is certainly a small one.The highlight of the day was the large gathering at Unicoi Gap, where Sherpa Mama and her husband, George, handed out sodas and Snickers bars. Sherpa Mama, seated in the center of today's picture, is thru-hiking, while George, to her right in orange, is supporting her from an RV. Thanks, George and Sherpa Mama!I passed an interesting character on the trail the past two days. Rocky, who wears a kilt and has pigtails, is using two cars to slack-pack by hiking south each day to the trailing car, which he then drives north to the start of the next southbound segment. I'm not sure if that makes him a NOBO or SOBO, but his overall direction of travel will eventually bring him to Katahdin. By opposing the flow of northbound traffic, Rocky helps speed the delivery of critical information along the trail, like where the next trail magic will appear.After five perfect days, the weather is supposed to change late tonight or tomorrow. The forecast is for rain and possible thunderstorms Monday and Tuesday. With a low of 30 degrees predicted, we might even see some snow. I've been looking forward to a break from the sun and heat; looks like I'm getting my wish. Hope I don't regret it.
Date: 2014-04-14
From: Tray Mountain Shelter

To: Dicks Creek Gap
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: light rain

I spent last night in my tent at Tray Mountain Shelter, which is perched just below its 4400-foot summit. There was apprehension among the 20 or so of us camped there about the storm due to arrive during the night. Around midnight, the wind picked up, with occasional gusts strong enough to wake even the heaviest sleeper, and at 5:00, rain drops began to pelt our tents. So as soon as there was enough light, everyone broke camp and headed out of Dodge. Needless to say, no one at Tray slept much last night.The 11-mile hike to Dicks Creek Gap was smooth and mostly down hill. I joined up with Kimpossible and Just Kate, who hike about my pace. Two miles short of the Gap, just as Kimpossible finished securing a reservation for us at a cheap motel in town, a cold, heavy rain began to fall. So there we were, at the Gap, 11 miles from Hiawassee, thumbs out. After 10 minutes of vehicles whizzing by with no intention of stopping (I blame it on the two women with me), we began walking toward town. Shortly thereafter, a pick-up pulled over, and who should be behind the wheel but the southbound-hiking NOBO Rocky, kilt, pigtails and all! We piled our soaking packs into his truck's cab area, soaking his bed in the process, squeezed four across in front, and drove down out of the mountains into town. Trail magic from a thru-hiker today. Thanks, Rocky!Having eaten almost nothing all day, and seeing a Hardee's across the street, everything else would have to wait. After lunch, Just Kate showered for the first time in a week, while Kimpossible and I set out to do laundry. On the way back we spotted Ben, who'd parted ways with us in Unicoi Gap yesterday and zero'ed in town today. He joined us for a few beers in our motel room, where we talked and laughed the afternoon away before the four of us went for a Mexican dinner in town.