morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2006-11-27
To: An update
Miles today: 0.0

Yes, I'm still alive. I haven't updated in a while but I do see the hit counter has gone up since I last checked.Right now I'm still living in Ellington. I'm wrapping up the fall season of football shooting and thinking of doing minimal sports photography during the winter and starting a few new ventures.My plans include - working on the house I live in. I've been doing work for stay for over a year now. I've learned to put up sheetrock and it looks like I'll be learning plumbing soon. Working on this house is really exciting for me. When I was growing up I never worked with my hands. I was always a thought-worker and that lended to my previous career as a computer programmer.Now I get to play with power tools, hammers, and scaffolding. It's fun stuff.I am also learning to play guitar. I'm self-teaching but I will probably visit a friend of mine in Mass who is an instructor when I get past the awkward phase I am in now. I like metal and blues. And I will be starting a personal development blog. Ya, that sounds kinds dry. It's actually a spiritual one which expands on everything I talked about in my trailjournal and more. I'm going to be talking on how to manifest anything you want. Remember trail magic? What was the state I was in that made it work so easily on the trail to only have it just glimmer a little off-trail? Writing about this will keep me honest in practicing what I'm teaching. I know what I need to do... I just need to do it, consciously, and do it daily.The information will be especially good for post-thru hikers who have that "what now?" feeling. I know you don't want to go back to the normal life again, but how do you live in a society that's based on money and full-time jobs? I'll get to that.I'd like to wish all my peeps a happy and healthy holiday! I will post the address to the blog here when I get it online (sometime in December).Much love to you all -
Date: 2011-02-08
To: Albuquerque Update
Miles today: 0.0

I've been living in New Mexico for the last 2.5 years, working at REI. It is a totally different landscape than the east and I remember it took me a long time to not see 'lack' when I'd look at the landscape, much of it devoid of trees and water.Whenever it rains here I step outside and outstretch my arms and point my face to the sky. Since the AT, rain has been a love of mine. I miss her so much here.Albuquerque has great weather, no bugs, and ample mountains and canyons nearby to pull you back into the backcountry. I have met a few thru hikers from 04 here in the store (REI). It's great to get a surprise like that. Any other thru I've met is only 1 degree separated from me. The Trail family tree is a circle.Currently I'm looking for a management position within REI. Most openings will take me east: NY, VA, PA.... so you may see me running around on the trail soon enough.Just thought I'd check in.
Date: 2003-04-29
To: New York City
Miles today: 0.0

That¢s all there is. There isn¢t any more.¢ Signature curtain line added by Ethel Barrymoreto the play Sunday by Thomas RacewardNew York CityIt's beautiful here on West 20th Street. Morning was sunny and beautiful, mid-day was cloudy and rainy, but blue sky has blown in from the west and this afternoon is sunny again. Temperatures have been just about perfect. No haze or smog means I can see forever from the roof deck.The freshness of spring is in the air. Dogwoods across 7th Avenue are in bloom. Leaves on the gingko trees in front have sprouted in the last few days. Flowers in window boxes and sidewalk planters are starting to bloom. So are the people. Girls are in their hiphuggers with their bellies showing in front and their tattoos showing in back. Lots of t-shirts and shirt sleeves are in evidence. Sidewalk cafes are bustling. My building is busy with May move-ins and -outs. Spring in New York!I gotta get outta here and go hiking! I quit my publishing tech job 25 months ago because I couldn't take the situation any longer. After 11 years, I was just burned out and I wanted and needed to take some time off. I had the money to do it, too. But, I couldn't have picked a worse time to be out of work in New York. Recession has meant that good tech jobs have dried up and now I've taken more time off than I planned to. I don't have the money to do it any longer. Reluctance to continue on my previous career path, even if I could find a good job, has meant that it's time to leave New York. The things I want to do with my life mean that I can't live here. That means I have to sell my apartment to raise some cash. That will clear my debts, but I should have more than enough left to buy a car, relocate and find work elsewhere.I hate to dwell on the things I will miss about New York because I will miss them so much. So I won't, at least not today. I really hate to dwell on the things I will not miss about New York, because I won't miss them at all. I won't do that either, even though they provide some justification for leaving. I have lived in this city for 25 years, longer than I have ever lived anywhere. I love it and occasionally hate it. It was very difficult to even begin to think of leaving, let alone actually start planning for life after. I have listed my apartment with a realtor. I hope to have it sold around the end of July and I'll leave New York then. Then, what I'll do is this. Go down to North Carolina for six months or so and do an apprenticeship at a timber frame builder. Then, late next winter or early spring, start a northbound Appalachian Trail thru-hike. After completing it, look for work in timber framing with a view to starting my own business at some point. If I am lucky, I will be able to find work in the northeast, so I can stay near my friends.A simple plan.
Date: 2003-10-20
To: Cowee Mountain
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

The story so far¢¦I give up my New York City apartment to move to a bunkroom in a shared cabin with a common kitchen and learn a new trade in the land of the southern draaawwwwwl ¢ just up the road from Poverty Branch Lane.Cowee Mountain Timber Framers is way back in the middle of nowhere. After getting off the Interstate, you drive on a four lane divided highway, past Nut Case Road, Dog Gone Drive, Memory Lane, and Phil and Lori's Drive, then get on a two lane highway, then a two lane country road, then a smaller two lane road, then a lane-and-a-half dirt and gravel road, then onto a gravel driveway that goes over a hill before it branches several times onto dirt tracks (ignore ¢em!) before finally arriving at a shared cabin with a bunkroom and a common kitchen in the (very thin) shadow of the high tension power lines from Fontana Dam.Boy, what a change. Some good changes ¢ beautiful, crisp, clear fall days; mountain views just about wherever I look; golden sunsets almost every night; too many stars in the night sky to count; not too many things to distract me from learning timberframing; no delis or pizza places or falafel places or restaurants just steps from my front door; and lots of physical activity and hard work. Good things.Some changes take some getting used to. The nearest big(?) city is an hour-and-a-half (and half a tank of gas, round-trip) away and even then it¢s only Asheville. What did Thomas Wolfe say about Asheville? I can¢t remember, but it wasn¢t kind. As the nearest oasis of culture, good food, and drink around I may have to learn to like it. I went up with another guy from here last Sunday for the Southern Highland Craft Guild Show. There¢s a little area about 4 square blocks that pretty much squeezes in all the urbanity Asheville has to offer. And they don¢t have to squeeze hard. They do have some sidewalk cafes. But bear in mind that it was Sunday in the South. The sidewalks got rolled up at about 2 in the afternoon in a couple of cases ¢ on a really beautiful Sunday. Locally, Franklin is almost half-an-hour away so I only go in two or three times a week for shopping, PO box checking, and web browsing in the internet cafe I finally found last weekend. I also got my very own library card which means I won¢t be spending any more money at Barnes & Noble. I couldn¢t anyway: the nearest one is half a state away.
Date: 2003-11-11
To: Cowee Mountain
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Not much has changed. The timber frame workshop is over. I am in the shop this week, laying out and not cutting, again. I spent the day doing several things, all involving 8x10 oak timbers in lengths from 8 to 18 feet. I swear to god, some of them must have weighed 250 pounds. I helped move some from the truck to the outside stacks. I helped moved some from the stacks to the workshop. I laid out some so someone else could cut them. I turned them over and over and over as I laid them out. If I survive, I will have some new muscles when I leave here. My back feels pretty good so far. It¢s stronger than it was when I showed up. It gets achy after days like this, though. I will need aspirin when I get up tomorrow.My glasses broke. No LensCrafters closer than Asheville. I have to wait two weeks for my new ones to get here. Culture shock.
Date: 2004-04-07
To: Cowee Mountain
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Begin at the beginning...and go on till you come to the end: then stop.¢ Lewis Carroll, Alice¢s Adventures in WonderlandI start walking to Maine tomorrow. My Uncle Jim and Aunt Darlene are coming down from Sevierville, Tennessee, picking me up on the fly at the Cowee Convenience Store and Gas Station here near Franklin, NC, and dropping me at the top of Springer Mountain, Georgia. Considering how much I'm carrying and my overall physical condition, starting the Appalachian Trail at the top of the mountain and going downhill will be a blessing.When I was younger, backpacking was something I never wanted to do. I have always enjoyed camping, but adding long hikes to a camping trip wasn't appealing. Several things changed my mind. I lived in New York City for twenty-five years, walking everywhere. Then I discovered custom orthotics and SuperFeet and all of a sudden my legs weren't as tired after walking for a while. After quitting my job several years ago, I traveled to British Columbia, stayed at Mountain Trek (just named by Outside magazine as one of the 10 best spas, or something, in North America) and day hiked in the mountains around Kootenay Lake for six weeks. When I got back from British Columbia, I started reading Trailjournals.com. People were writing strange things about backpacking. Things like: you don't have to do the trail with fifty or sixty or seventy pounds of gear; sleeping bags are getting lighter and warmer; manufacturers are making lightweight cooking gear, you don't have to carry your whole closet on your back; if you go lighter, you don't have to wear heavy hiking boots; you don't have to sleep on the ground. Holy cow! I can do this! I can go lighter (but not ultralight), sleep in a hammock, stay warm and dry, eat reasonably well, smell a little more and walk 2000 miles from Georgia to Maine in six months. So that's what I'm going to do. I could succeed, I may fail. We'll see what happens (words to live by).If you don't know anything about the Appalachian Trail, I'm not going to explain it to you. You can go to these web sites for that: The Appalachian Trail Conference, Appalachian Long Distance Hiker's Association, this article in Outside magazine, this site with maps, and, for good measure, the International Appalachian Trail. For that matter, to see something of what I have been doing for the last six months, see Cowee Mountain Timber Framers School. I created this web site. If you pay attention, there are several surprises in it.I want to say how much I have enjoyed reading the journals on this web site over the last several years. I particularly enjoyed the following people's journals: Yogi ¢99, Ramkitten ¢00, Spur ¢00 & ¢01, Poetry in Motion ¢02, Trainwreck ¢02, Werewolf ¢02, Bono ¢03 (whatever happened there?), Flying Scotsman ¢03, Goldberry ¢03, Hopeful ¢03, Liteshoe ¢03, Rocket ¢03, Skeemer ¢03. Boy, have I read a lot of journals! Thanks also to Colin Fletcher for the list of quotes in the back of The Complete Walker IV. Many, but not nearly all, of the quotes I will use in my journals are found in that book.
Date: 2004-04-08
From: Cowee Mountain

To: Springer Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 0.2
Weather: light rain

In the shelter tonight: Heesu, Slow Train, and me. Camping nearby: Dave and Susan. My Uncle Jim picked me up this morning outside of Franklin and we made our way slowly, haltingly, with stops for food and directions, compensating for badly marked roads and wrong turns, down to Amicalola. We checked at the visitor center and picked up driving instructions to the top of Springer. 45 minutes later we were at the forest service parking lot near the top of the mountain. Since it was late and Jim had to drive back to Sevierville, Tennessee that night, he dropped me at the trail and headed home. I hiked the mile to the marker at the top of Springer, enjoyed the view and headed to the Springer Mountain Shelter, a timber frame structure. Ironic! The walk up to the summit felt good. My pack was heavy, but not unmanageable. Once I got started walking up, I felt OK. I can do this!David was wearing a White Sox hat. We talked about Gary Peters vs. Dean Chance. Sox always second in the 60s, Peters pinch-hitting a home run in the second game of a doubleheaded after winning the first. How frustrating last year was. Just the usual depressing White Sox stuff.
Date: 2004-04-09
From: Springer Mountain Shelter

To: Hawk Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Tonight in shelter: Heesu (spelling?), Slow Train, Victor and me. Tenting nearby: Dan, Adam, Dave, Susan, Bob, Brian. (Not many trail names yet.)I forgot yesterday -- thank you to my Uncle Jim for the ride down. It was very appreciated and I enjoyed it.I made decent time today -- about 2 mph -- as good as I could ask for. The miles took about 6 hours with one long and several short stops along the way. I was really tired when I got in and I just dropped my pack and rested for several hours.The trail started out rocky on the downhill from Springer. When it crossed the forest service road it got nicer. I mostly went along the side of forested hills, a little up and a little down. Then it turned into a wide, pine needle carpeted trail along a stream for several miles, ultimately crossing the stream and proceeding up another stream to a waterfall. I cooked lunch, couscous, next to the stream, took off my shoes and soaked my feet, was greeted again by a dog belonging to some section hikers. It was a nice long break. It was a beautiful day, about 60 degrees, sunny. What a way to start the hike. The waterfall marked my first real uphill and (surprise! surprise!) I decided my pack was too heavy. I gotta ditch some stuff the first chance I get. I ran out of water before my last couple of miles and, since I sweat like several pigs, cramped up and got a dehydration headache. No excuse for not having enough water. I should have filtered when I had the chance at lunch. By the time I got in, my feet were killing me. They weren't blistered, just sore. I expected to have sore feet given my recent foot problems. They're not terrible. My shoes are doing their job (review later).The Hawk Mountain Shelter is, by gosh, another timber frame but with a different design from last night's. Both shelters have cables nearby for hanging food bags. What a great convenience. This shelter is in the middle of a US Army training area so interesting things can happen at night. One of the people camping here tonight has buddies at the base here and he says they don't have anything scheduled, but who knows?Didn't have much of an appetite tonight. Just had some Wheat Thins, pepperoni and cheese for dinner and didn't eat nearly as much of it as I had expected to
Date: 2004-04-10
From: Hawk Mountain Shelter

To: Gooch Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.1
Weather: broken clouds

In the shelter tonight: Me, Slow Train, Brian, Charley, Bob. Camping nearby: Dave and the dogs, Jaws, and two father and son pairs. Visiting from out of town: Do It.The toughest day of the hike yet. The climb up Sassafras Mountain was the longest so far. My legs got tired fast on the uphill and my quads were shaky on the downhills. I managed my water better today, refilling at a creek several miles before the shelter. The last miles to the shelter were nice ones. Mostly level, through rhododendron thickets and forest along the side of the mountain.It was a slightly shorter day than I thought it would be because my maps are old. The latest maps for the sections in Georgia came off the press two weeks ago -- six weeks after I ordered my maps. The trail has so many relocations over the years that the maps are out of date within a couple of years of their printing. My map had a Gooch Gap shelter a mile further on. It was replaced by the Gooch Mountain shelter several years ago. The maps also have an elevation profile which shows the ups and downs of the trail in a straight line profile. These have been out of date on my maps about a third of the time. There are several data books published and updated every year that act as supplements to or even replacements for the maps. But I like maps. I like to mark them, keep track of things on them, notate them. I'll hold on to mine and get a data book for up-to-date information.I was thinking about summoning up my appetite for dinner when Do It! hiked into the shelter. He does this (I think) most nights. He helps hikers lighten their loads, offers showers at his home, drives injured hikers to the doctor or to where they can rest, and regales them with thru-hiking stories. No takers tonight, so after a while he hiked back out.Last night at the Hawk Mountain shelter, the army was out playing. About 11 pm, owls started hooting in the woods, first on one side then the other, moving closer to the shelter, growing in number. Either it was the army or there was an orgy of owls right in front of the shelter. It continued off and on all night. There was soldier who works as a recruiter camped out with us. He knows some people at the base and he was coy about whether they were owls or not.Could'a been owls, I guess.
Date: 2004-04-11
From: Gooch Mountain Shelter

To: Woody Gap
Miles today: 5.3
Weather: light rain

Hiked out of the shelter about 8:30. That's usually when I manage to get out. Ran into Do It! at Gooch Gap and talked for a while. He was looking for Victor, who had been at Hawk mountain with me two night ago. Victor was having shoe and equipment problems and Do It! thought he would offer him a ride to where he could sit down and deal with his problems.No legs on my hike today. Man, going up was a problem, going down was a problem: level ground might have been easy, if it weren't for the rocks. I had decided the night before to hike only as far as Woody Gap, just over 5 miles and I asked Do It! if he would pick me up and take me to the Hiker Hostel north of Dahlonega for a shower, bed and zoro, er, zero day. He said he would.On the way to Woody I passed the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club's ridge runner, whose name I forget, and talked to him for a little bit. The weather was foggy and drizzly and he said the forecast was for more of the same with thunderstorms for that night and rain tomorrow. Great day for a zero. Just after I left him I passed a couple of tents set up at the top of the mountain. No one was around so I just walked on. About a mile before Woody, I saw a woman hiking toward me. She had no pack, no staff, no raingear. As we approched each other she asked if I had seen two tents earlier. I had and I told her I had. She then told me she had just walked her hiking companion out to Woody Gap to meet an ambulance because he had an attack of kidney stones. Luckily she had a cell phone and reception and managed to get an emergency call through. We then walked on. Brian caught up with me, we got to Woody Gap and settled down to wait for Do It! Two hours later, Amy, the kidney stone's helper, hiked out with both their gear. I helped her carry it across the road. Her phone was then used for the second emergency of the day when she let us call the Hiker Hostel for a pickup. Just as Leigh, from the Hiker Hostel, arrived, Do It!showed up with Victor. "Gang aft agley" and all that. Anyway we got to the hostel and settled in, Leigh shuttled Amy to the hospital, picked up the kidney stone, Allan, and they spent the night at the hostel too. Allan is now Stones. Of such things are trail names made.I almost forgot. I was just lying (laying?) in the grass waiting and talking to Brian when he looked up the trail behind me and exclaimed, "The Easter Bunny." Something of a non sequitur. "What?" "The Easter Bunny. Look" I turned around and a Buster Keatonesque figure walked out of the woods towards us, wearing hiking boots, a GATC tee shirt and floppy pink-and-white bunny ears, carrying a pink Easter basket. He offered us homemade Easter Bunny sugar cookies, chocolate Easter eggs and Snickers. That's right, Snickers not snickers. He walked across the road, offered his basket to those there and hiked off down the highway. We then looked at each other and snickered. That's right, we snickered as we Snickered.What would Easter Sunday be without the Easter Bunny?
Date: 2004-04-12
From: Hiker Hostel

To: Hiker Hostel
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Zero day at the Hiker Hostel. Resting, recuperating, weeding out weight, transferred 12 pounds from my pack to a box bound for Franklin. Doing journal entries. Paying bills. Wally World. Movies watched: Eight Legged Freaks, The Mambo Kings. Dinner in Dahlonega (Duh-lon-uh-guh, accent on the second syllable) at Caruso's.
Date: 2004-04-13
From: Woody Gap

To: Neel's Gap
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: overcast clouds

I started hiking today from Woody Gap, where I left off on Sunday. Stones and I immediately passed a tent pitched in a depression off the trail. Since it had rained heavily the night before, we yelled out to ask if they were OK. We got an answering OK and a laugh. OK.Easy hiking up toward Blood Mountain. Mama Bear and Spider (from the tent) caught up later and the four of us had lunch at Woods Hole shelter. I had decided to stop there for the night, but it seemed that it wasn't far enough for one day, so on I hiked. Besides, it was getting colder and the wind shifted so it was blowing into the shelter. All the way up to Blood Mountain, the trail was fairly easy, but getting down from the top was a bi... hard. Longest day yet. Really tired at the end. Zero day tomorrow. Foggy in the AM, foggy in the PM with clouds in between. After the fog cleared in the morning it left remnant tendrils twisting down into the valleys. Many small flowers have started to bloom. The trees are getting greener by the day -- by the hour it seems sometimes. Sometimes the trail is a path with about a six inch wide swath of green grass on each side, almost as if it has been landscaped.