morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-03-01
From: Springer

To: Gooch Gap
Miles today: 15.1
Weather: clear sky

Headed up to Amicalola Falls park and headed to the ranger station where I signed in, weighed my pack @ 29 lbs, and saw Kirby and a few other hikers. Jim and Cheryl drove me to the top of the mountain where we walked to Springer and I registered up there as well. Along the way I met another hiker by the name of Lee Sanders who later got the trail name Brer Rabbit. Brer harassed me for slack packing the mile to Springer. (The only time I slack packed during my trip) Lee and I had similar paces and goals from the start but later in the day I developed blisters on both heels, but they didn't slow me down too much. Brer and I ran all day together and crashed at the Gooch Gap Shelter. The shelter was pretty full that night and I chose to sleep in my hammock and Brer slept in the shelter with a few other hikers. Brer and I made an agreement to get up early the next day and head out together. I met Indy Girl at 2:18 and she got the name because she worked for the Indy car league for a few decades.The adrenaline was pumping today and didn't eat as much food as I should have. I eat a lot of protein bars and should have been eating more carbs.
Date: 2008-03-02
From: Neels Gap

To: Neels Gap
Miles today: 15.6
Weather: clear sky

Brer Came over a little after 6am and I wasn't quite ready to take off yet. I was packed and hiking about 10-15 minutes after Brer left. Goal for the day was Blood Mountain Shelter. The feet continued to develope blisters so I decided to stop at Neels Gap and see what they have to say about my blisters. Turns out they wanted me to stay the night after popping my blisters. Today I was passing people all day long and got tired of asking if people were thruhiking or just day hiking. I ran into a young lady that was kind enough to give me her name and we chatted for a couple minutes until we ran into her friends. When we met her friends she introduced me to the three young ladies and I was immediately shunned from the group. The girls had a pretty good self defense mechanism built in and that was great to see. Later on in the day I ran into a couple up on Blood Mtn that gave me an orange and some chocolate.
Date: 2008-03-03
From: Neels Gap

To: Blue Mountain
Miles today: 18.7
Weather: broken clouds

Started out at Neels but before I got out on the trail I needed to talk about shoes with Winton to resolve the blister issue that have been going on. After a lengthy discussion about shoes I ended up purchasing a pear of Keen boots. (Never buy another pair again. They were ripping out 5 days later) At the time the Keen boots felt great and loved the wide toe box. Weather was mid to upper 40's and a little windy. It felt great to get my fist shower and laundry on the trail. I was kind enough to share my laundry with another guy at the shelter and I did the washer part and he was going to put the cloths in the dryer so that I could relax and let the blisters heal. When the dryer was done he went over and got the cloths and brought them back to the hostel where we divided up the cloths. I was missing a sock so the hunt started. We both looked in the washer, dryer, and through the cloths and couldn't find the sock. About a 1/2 hour later he had found my sock stuck to a piece of velcro on his clothing.Saw Butch and Sundance who were comedians, Piddler who walked a total of four miles in the last two days and had the Spot program that his brother game him so that he could keep track of his progress, and a few other people. (I would like to know where Piddler is today) Snowbird 04, Catfish and UseTaCoulda were at Blue Mtn Shelter with me. Snowbird 04 was a corporate pilot and keeps his license current just in case. Part of the trail was an old road that was shut down so the hiking was really easy for part of the day. Had a couple big mountains to climb today and it's suppose to rain tonight.Condition of the feet for the day: Balls of the feet are numb as usual and the blisters are not feeling too bad. Having the extra room in the boot has helped out.
Date: 2008-03-04
From: Blue Mtn Shelter

To: Dick's Creek Gap
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: moderate rain

9:30am headed out on a rainy morning. Had my rain gear on,was heading North to catch Catfish and UseTaCoulda. I figured if I hiked with them for the day they could keep a governor on me so that the blisters can heal up.2:30 Tray Mtn Stover, Catfish, and UseTaCoulda made it to Tray Mountain for lunch but the wind was blowing the rain right into the shelter. The guys wanted to stay in that shelter for the rest of the day. I didn't want to stay there so I decided to push on to Cloud 9 Hostel at Dick's Creek Gap. There were posters stating that you needed to call from a certain location because that is the only place where you will get cell coverage. Well you might remember that my phone is dead at the moment so it really doesn't matter where I can call from. I tried using UseTaCoulda's phone from Tray Mtn Shelter but it didn't work. I decided to roll the dice and see what happens when I get to Dick's Creek Gap. I rolled into Dick's creek just before sunset and I didn't have any gas in the tank to walk the 1.5 miles to Cloud 9 so I decided to put the hammock up in the parking lot. It was a rough nights sleep but thankfully there weren't many cars on the road that night.3:50 God showed me today that the reason he doesn't show you where your life will end up is because if you saw where you were going you would panic or think that there is no way you could accomplish what he has in store for your life. So what God does for you is he will reveal a little of the path at a time, maybe 100 yards, so that you can see a direction in which you are to head. This way the journey doesn't seem to overwhelming. Today the trail seemed very overwhelming. The mountains were very very large and you could see the top WAY up there. With the rain today I had my rain coat on and a hat with a brim. The brim allowed me to only see 30 yrds in front of me and I could just keep climbing but the moment that I lifted my head and saw the BIG picture I got tired and lethargic. Once I focused on taking one step at a time I was back in business of climbing the big mountain and before I knew it I was at the top and headed down the back side.
Date: 2008-03-05
From: Hiawassee, GA

To: Hiawassee, GA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Things are going well thus far. I amsitting at http://www.upperhightowertrout.com/hikers.html on Wed 3-5-08. I pushed pretty hard yesterday to get here for a hot meal and roof over my head. Turned out my cell died and couldn't call when I needed to so when I got to the road I didn't have it in me to walk 1.5 miles to the hostel. I was pushing to call Johnna and the kids and to get a hot shower after all day yesterday and doing huge climbs and high winds and rain all day. Crutch said he wished he knew because he would have drove up to get me. I stayed in the parking lot 1.5 miles and today sunny and warm and I'm taking a 0 mile day. I am letting blisters heal up but they are not that bad. Do not hurt but Crutch the owner of the establishment said that once they heal they will caluse and I wont have any issues down the trail,blisters in other areas maybe. Johnna if you haven't sent out a package yet you might want to include the cable for the camera. I can download pics and send them at the hostels. Love you so much. Thanks for letting me do this trip. Sitting here watching the Comedy channel. Should have some more hikers rolling to later today. Stover popped in he was at Tray Mountain with catfish and should of could of. Nate is also at the hostel with me. Kids, I haven't seen much for wildlife than birds. They are cherping but the wind today is very brisk. My cloths are in the washer so I'm sitting in my frogg togs. I hope that you are doing your homework and not giving your mom a hard time. I will try to get some pictures of some animals for you guys as I hike along. love trailfoot
Date: 2008-03-06
From: Cloud 9

To: Beech Gap
Miles today: 21.0
Weather: few clouds

7:24am Headed out with temps @ 27 headed up to 65. First Zero day on the trail. Taken so that my blisters can heal up. Really didn't need the day off to rest any muscles just to heal up the blisters.8:42 rolled my left ankle and definitely stretched out some of the tendons. 9:09 made it to Plum Orchard ShelterMet a father son team with heavy packs and they each lost around 25-30 lbs from ea. of their packs. The two are pretty beat up. One has a knee issue and the other has a back issue. But neither will do any stretching and the son is a physical therapist. Blister treatment: soak in hot, hot, hot water with epson salt and then dry and put alcohol on them to dry them out. Repeat as much as possible during the day.Highpoint -- Made it to North Carolina !!!!Met Long Skirt during the middle part of the day, Lady and the Tramp are in a gap with me. Couldn't quite make it to the shelter and found Lady and the Tramp camping out under some Rhododendron bushes. I set the hammock up, eat, brushed the teeth, hung the bear bag, and then went off to bed. Lady and the trap were both nurses and have traveled the globe helping others in need and decided it was time to have a little adventure in their life and are out hiking the AT.
Date: 2008-03-07
From: Beech Gap

To: Franklin
Miles today: 18.1
Weather: heavy intensity rain

Day started in the rain and finished in the rain. Most exciting thing that happened during the day was a branch had fallen from a tree not three feet in front of me and the branch stuck in the ground. I'm glad that I wasn't hit by this enormous branch.I wasn't sure if I could make it to Franklin today but I persevered and plodded through the miles to get to the road where Ron Haven the mayor of Franklin will pick you up if you call him. Well Ron was busy with some other hikers at the time I had called so he didn't want me to be out there in the rain waiting too long so he sent one of his employees to pick me up and take me to the hotel. While I was in the hotel Ron made a personal visit to make sure I was comfortable and ask if I needed to go anywhere like the grocery store. I was fine, I just needed to dry out and take a shower and that is exactly what I did. I called Johnna and the kids and enjoyed a little TV and ate a pizza with a 2 liter of Mt Dew. Ron was great and treated me like a king. Thanks Ron!!
Date: 2008-03-08
From: Franklin

To: Burning Town Gap - Apples Tent
Miles today: 14.6

Ron took 8 of us to breakfast and while we were eating breakfast it started snowing. Ron commented that it would be snowing pretty good up in the mountains. Sure enough the ground was covered in a white powder. I started the pack of people charging up the mountain and Dr small pot was behind me. I thought he might keep up with me but I was the only one, of the eight that left, that ended up at Burning Town Gap that night. During the hike the snow really came down and the wind was blowing causing drifts of snow to accumulate on the trail. The drifts were as deep as 18 inches. My goal was to reach Cold Springs shelter but when I came around the corner and saw this yellow and blue tent with a sign that said Trail Magic I put the brakes on and stopped in. Apple greeted me with open arms and fed me hot dogs, hot chocolate, pop corn, and various other food items which I was happy to relieve him of. While I was there I met a surgeon and his son. The five of us talked for quite some time about the healthcare system. Apple offered his tent as a shelter for the night and the four of us took him up on it since he had his dome tent heated with a wood burning stove and it was a four sided shelter better than the one up on the TOP of the mountain.Thanks Apple!!
Date: 2008-03-09
From: Burning Town Gap

To: NOC
Miles today: 12.7
Weather: clear sky

Sunny day12:34 headed out of Apples tent to the NOC and stayed in one of the cabins with Dr Small Pot. The reason I started so late is I have a package that will not be arrive until after 4pm tomorrow. I was debating on whether to stay and 0 with Apple or hike a little today and stay over night at the NOC and wait for the package to arrive around 4pm. Dr Small Pot and I decided we wanted some ice cream and so we walked a mile and a 1/2 to a convenience store to get some. Now there is always a story when you get off trail and this is no different. The road that we needed to walk down didn't have any shoulders and at some points the road was right next to a mountain. This didn't leave a pedestrian much room to walk or get out of the way if a vehicle came along. We were constantly dodging cars and switching sides of the road. We did make it to the convenience store and got our ice cream then we stopped by a gem mining place (tourist trap). You see Dr small pot is an Archaeologist and couldn't pass up looking for gems. We did make it back to our room that night in one piece without any incidents. Of course the NOC puts the hikers at the top of the hill away from its ritzy customers. You see the NOC is a kayaking meca. Everyone comes to the NOC to kayak and canoe on the river and a lot of money is spent here. Roses and her husband were leap frogging with me for a couple miles and then I finally passed them and they didn't show up at the NOC like I thought they would.A little foot issue on the left foot the top of the foot was a little sore for some reason. Didn't really do anything to aggravate the foot but it sure does hurt. I sent up a quick prayer and the pain subsided very quickly. The down into the NOC was so much fun. The down was very steep and long. Lets just say I was very happy to reach the NOC because the knees sure were hurting after that climb down.
Date: 2008-03-10
From: NOC

To: Sassafrass Gap
Miles today: 7.9

Frustrating day I spent the day waiting for the big brown rolling turd a.k.a. the UPS truck. The day started off a little rough for Dr small pot. He was looking at all the pics that he had taken since Springer when he hit a button that formatted the card in his camera which meant that all his pictures were wiped clean. Dr small pot is on his second AT trip. He had done the southern version but started in Canada or the International version of the AT. Dr small pot stopped in Damascus and decided this time he wanted to start at Springer and walk north and if he felt good he would do the Canadian section again.While I was waiting for my package to arrive Bad Hummus and a few others arrived and we had lunch at the diner. The hamburgers at the diner were really good and filling. Since I had time to kill I watched some of the locals kayak in the river. The one local kid was really good and was practicing a move that he wasn't quite getting and he would say in the current and keep trying to perfect the move. He must of been trying for over a 1/2 hour. I will have to say that he is very determined.The UPS truck finally arrived a little after 4pm and I immediately torn into the box grabbed the camera card and digital voice recorder out and put them in my pack. I then proceeded to say good by to Bad Hummus and the gang in case anyone wanted to head north with me. No one did so I started hiking north by myself. The hike out of the NOC was brutal. It was a 6 mile hike that went straight up. It took me the rest of the day to finish those 6 miles. I had passed a few groups of people as I climbed up. I remember passing a group of 3 girls and one guy who gave up on the climb and started setup camp right on the trail. I have gotten to know how long it takes me to do mileage and I couldn't find the Sassafras shelter so I just pulled over to sleep in my hammock. I setup camp, hung my food bags, and then snuggled into the hammock when I hear Trailfoot...Trailfoot is that you? I asked who it was and it turned out to be Bear. Bear caught up to me because he needed to get to the next town to get a package. He asked me where the shelter was and I said it should have been around here but I didn't want to hike in the dark so I just setup camp. So Bear started to setup his tarp tent that he hadn't setup before. He was struggling so I got out of the hammock to assist when I looked over my left shoulder to see a sign. We walked over to the sign to see that the Sassafras shelter was to our left and down in a gap just a few tenths of a mile away. We grabbed our stuff and proceeded down the trail to the shelter where we met a couple that have been out since the fist part of Feb.
Date: 2008-03-11
From: Sassafras Gap

To: Fontana Dam
Miles today: 21.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Weather 55ish, cloudy and snow on the ground Lesson learned do what you want vs doing what others would like you to do. I was suppose to meet another hiker at the Brown Fork Gap Shelter for lunch and he didn't show up. The shelter was .2 miles off trail and I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't for the person I was hiking with suggested it. The reason I went and he didn't was because I was hiking in front of him and we made that our meeting location and when he saw that it was .2 miles off the trail he bailed.3:54 Walker Gap5:30 Fontana "Hilton" DamI thought that the Fontana would have a way to get pizza if there was a phone, but there wasn't. I did get involved with some hotdogs on the open fire. Willy boy, Jake, and Dr Small Pot, and a few others were at the shelter. I was hoping to find a place to charge up the cell but the light pole that had the electrical outlet was not turned on yet so there wasn't any electricity. I did find a soda machine at the welcome center that I was able to unplug to charge up the phone. Also at the welcome center was a HOT shower. I wasn't expecting that so I didn't have any clean cloths or soap with me at the time I took my shower. You see the welcome center was .3 miles from the shelter next to the dam. The Hilton was a really nice shelter but it would be nice to have a few outlets to charge up the cell.
Date: 2008-03-12
From: Fontana 

To: Derrick Knob (Smokies)
Miles today: 22.7

Left the Fontana Dam on a cool foggy morning headed into the smokies. Had breakfast at the welcome center, outside, while my phone charged up. I tried multiple times to call Johnna but the the just didn't have any coverage. Heard that Brer Rabbit is about 4 days ahead of me. I don't image that I'll have much of a chance to catch up with him. I started out over the dam when the workers showed up to work on the dam. There were quite a few orange barrels from one end of the dam to the other. These barrels were full of water and a few guys were scooping water out of them with buckets. Not sure why, but I did comment that it was a rough way to fill up the lake again since it's down about 30 feet or so from last years drought.Climbed my first fire tower today. The view of the dam is pretty spectacular. One of the goals for the trip is to overcome my fear of heights so I wanted to climb to the top of the tower but I stopped just short. The tower was a little rickety and where I stopped was above the tree line and I could see everything just fine.Birds were a chirping on this nice sunny bird chirping day. Temps in the low 50's I'd guess. Met Tommy3horse@aol.com, he is a pastor that travels the Smokies on mule back spreading the "word" to the hikers. He told me that he died 8 times and then was revived one last time and after that experience he started spreading the word by mule back. It's amazing how the terrain changes out here. One minute you are hiking in hard woods and then you turn a corner you may hit a rhododendron tunnel or a pine forest. This section of the trail changed into a grassy section with some sort of short tree up by Rocky Top. It was different and I really enjoyed that section. 6:30 Sugar tree gap. One more mile to the Derrick Knob shelter. I had 4 college kids and a father daughter team that I met a little up the trail where they filtered some water for me. Shortly after that I had lost my camo bandanna. One of the college kids was 38 and had done 4 tours in Iraq and was just about to get out of the Army as his contract is just about up.Today I realized that I needed to get some carbs into the diet and less of the protein bars.
Date: 2008-03-14
From: Gatlinburg

To: Cosby Knob
Miles today: 23.3
Weather: light rain

There is a transit that will take hikers to NFG New Found GAp, but as my luck has it the transit doesn't start running until tomorrow and there isn't any acception. I then had to scramble to find a ride to NFG. I went to the front desk at the hotel and they were of no help at all. They couldn't even supply me with a phone book. Later I came down and the lady said she found a phone book so I looked up the cab companies and got all answering machines. I left messages and finally a guy called me back. He took me to NFG and I thought he told me it was $20 and when we got to NFG he said it was $40. All in all Gatlinburg cost me something like $130-150.8:32 I was off and hiking. Weather is calling for rain today.10am Charles Bunion. I took some pics and video and one thing I noticed how fast you can hike without a back pack on. I passed the Dr's again today, 3 day hikers, and one solo hiker.Noticed that town food really gives you a boost when you return to the trail. You sure do fly up the trail for most of the day after getting some fast food into your system.11:44 A cold front is moving in and it's starting to sprinkle. Decided to take a break and get some food down when I started choking on my bagel. I mean choke where I really lost my breath and was wishing I had someone there to do the Heimlich maneuver. Yes it was that serious!! Thankfully the piece of bagel was dislodged and all is good. 12:26 Pecks Corner and at 2:30 Tri-Corner shelter where I met some college kids that were prepping for a Kenya mission trip. They had quite a few questions for me and I rather enjoyed talking with them. 5:34 Reached Cosby Knob Shelter where I analyzed possibly moving on another 7 miles to the next shelter. When I took my shoes off I noticed my big toe has turned black (will remain that way the rest of the trip) so I decided to stay for the night. I couldn't possibly make it 7 more miles by dark and the Rangers will not allow hikers to stay outside the shelters in the Smokies due to the bears. Gripe...no one talks about the rocks in the Smokies but they sure do exist.Itinerary for the next couple days is Ground Hog Shelter and Deerpark Mtn Shelter8:30 it's pouring out. It's great how the Lord will bless you and keep you dry.