morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2019-04-13
From: Silar Bald Shelter

To: Wayah Bald Shelter
Miles today: 6.5
Weather: clear sky

April 13 ( Day 21): We left the Silar Bald shelter and came to a large field with a path up to the top. We left our packs and hiked up to the top. The view was 360 degrees and stunning! Mountain ridges as far as you could see! A Bald is an interesting thing. It had no trees or tall bushes on it. Just beautiful grasses and some flowers. It was really a serene thing to experience.The hiking was tough with some killer climbs. On the descent we would walk through masses of spring flowers with them up the mountain to your right and down the mountain to your left. It was just beautiful. We also got to hike through lots of streams.We finally made it to the Wayah Bald Tower. It was made of stone and beautifully done. You could walk up and see for miles. The AT blaze is actually painted on the tower!There was a group there preparing for a wedding. It was very simple but beautiful. The bride and bridesmaids and flower girls were up in the top of the tower. We just snuck up and took some pictures and then disappeared. They had a barrel decorated with flowers and covered with cupcakes. Boy, they looked good! I thought about saying "Oh, trail magic! How nice of you!" But I behaved myself. :)The trail continued on the other side of the tower. We got down to the Wayah Bald shelter and set up camp. The tramily was already there and setup in the shelter. Diesel has noro! She had just finished setting up her hammock when she threw up. It just got worse from there. Poor girl! Been there, done that.Went to the shelter and the girls were saying that we are famous. Talk was up and down the trail about the group with norovirus at Bly Gap. Gee!Today was a 6.5 mile day.
Date: 2019-04-14
From: Wayah Bald Shelter

To: Wayah Bald Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

April 14 (Day 22): I had worried about hiking on and leaving Diesel at Wayah Bald sick. The girls insisted that they were going to take a zero and stay with her, but I still felt guilty. Well, the good Lord took care of the decision for me. That night a storm blew in. Pouring rain and extremely high winds. We woke to the same. T-Rex stopped by our tent and said that we were the only tent there but the rain and high winds would continue so hunkering down was probably the best thing to do. That night the weather was going to be worse with 60 MPH wind gusts and lows in the 30's. Then tomorrow was supposed to be nice.Both our phones were low on charge. My iPod was dead, so no music or audio books. We just dozed and slept all day. It was too stormy to even get out of the tent to go up to the shelter and talk. (I had gone to the privy in the early morning and my clothes and raincoat were soaked.)There was a break in the storm for about 2 hours (sun!) and David made us something to eat. But it was late in the afternoon, too late to pack up and get anywhere dryer, so we stayed put. (We found out later that 2 of the hikers that had packed up and left had realized that they were getting close to hyperthermia. They stopped at the next shelter (Cold Spring) and stayed there. They said the temp in the shelter was 32 degrees.)
Date: 2019-04-15
From: Wayah Bald Shelter

To: Wesser Bald Shelter
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: light rain

April 15 (Day 23): Today was definitely an interesting day. After tornado winds and pelting rain all night, we woke up to frozen temps. The water bottles we had left out were filled with ice. The rain tarp over the tent was coated in ice. Even our tent poles were frozen and we couldn't get them to collapse. The winds were still about 40 MPH. We were told later that the temperature on Wayah Bald was 25 degrees, not count the wind chill.We finally got the tent down and camp packed up. We decided last night to just eat a Clif bar and stop later to heat up a hot breakfast, maybe at the next shelter. Our hands were so cold we couldn't feel our fingertips. I would carry my poles in one hand and put the other under my armpit to try and warm it.The trail was extremely muddy. The sun finally came out about 10am, but the wind was relentless! It just froze you to the bone.About noon, the sun won out and it began to warm up. Yay!The folks that maintain the trails will sometimes put logs or large stones in the trail to direct water down the mountain during storms instead of it washing down the trail. Unless it has been dry for a while, the logs can be very slick. You should step over them. Am I a daredevil? Or a thrillseeker? Or an idiot? Probably the latter because I stepped on the log, my boot slid and I went down on my right knee and my knee grazed a big rock in the trail as I fell. I laid there for a minute and cried, had a small pity party and then had David help me up and we kept hiking. We stopped in Tellico Gap and pulled out the tent, rain tarp, footprint, and our rain gear to dry it out. I held up the tent and then tarp and the wind would blow it like a flag. I had them both dry in about 15 minutes. David laid the footprint out (it's Tyvek that serves as a moisture barrier between the tent and the ground) and let the sun do its job. In about 30 minutes our stuff was all dry.We continued on and came to the Wesser Observation Tower. Once again I climbed to the top. It was a big flat wooden platform that gave views for miles. Someone had been wonderful enough to leave 2 chairs up there. And they looked new. We sat in the sun and enjoyed the view. Liz and Cindy joined us a few minutes later.We continued down to Wesser Bald shelter in hopes of catching up with the girls, but they had decided to go on to A. Rufus Morgan shelter. There was no way my knee was letting me do another 5.5 miles so we camped there for the night.T-Rex had decided not to go on with the girls either. Liz and the 2 Cindys, Lifer, Tiger, and later, Phantom, were also there. One of the Cindy's had packed this huge bag of food and it was so heavy. For dinner she had a pita bread with fresh avacado and chicken salad. We commented how delicious that looked and she gave us a baggie with a pkg of chicken and an avacado! She also gave away sandwich bags of olives to anyone who would take them. Boy, did we tease her about all the heavy food she brought. We did 10.6 miles today.
Date: 2019-04-16
From: Wesser Bald Shelter

To: Nantahala Outdoor Center
Miles today: 6.9

April 16 (Day 24): We were up at 6:40 to get to the NOC (Nantahala Outdoor Center). During the night I woke up and my right wrist was really bothering me. I'm wondering if I hurt it too when I fell. It didn't seem to bother me when I held my poles. I was glad for that. From Wesser Bald shelter to NOC was only 6.9 miles and we got there about 12:30. We noticed that the trees in Nantahala had leaves and buds, but from the high elevation that we hiked down from, the trees were still just sticks with no leaves or buds yet.It's supposed to be a resupply for hikers but the general store there sucked. How can you claim to be a resupply place and not have toilet paper? You had a choice of only 3 different oatmeal flavors. The gear center was pretty well equipped and there were outlets everywhere so you could charge electronics and phones. There was also a hiker box (which you find in almost every hiker place you stop) and I found a single boot lace. Ta da! Instant new belt for me! Now I don't have to keep pulling my pants up every half mile. ?I went into the Riverside restaurant and the girls were there. They had gotten there much earlier so they were just about done with lunch. They told me the food was really good. I went and got David and we had lunch with Liz and the 2 Cindys. I had the Sherpa Rice with chicken. It was delicious! David had a big burger and fries. The conversation was wonderful too. We talked about food, of course, and what healthy food we could eat on the trail that wasn't too heavy.The NOC is right on the Nantahala River so we sat and soaked our feet in the river and watched the kayakers. There were Adarondick chairs so you could enjoy the sun. There's a bridge that crosses the river (called the Founder's Bridge) and you could stand on the bridge and watch the rapids. It also said it was on the "Trail of Tears". I'll have to Google that sometime. The tramily was there so it was lots of fun. David got Hostess cupcakes and ate them both.We had planned to hike a few more miles and then stealth camp. I happened to mention it to a worker in the NOC gear store and he said that the climb up was 7 miles to the Sassafras shelter and it was a killer hike. He also said that there were no campsites because it was all uphill. I told this to David and he was bummed. We did hear of a discreet little campsite nearby. David checked it out and then told the girls where it was. There was a beautiful waterfall as we walked to the campsite. We all camped there and fell asleep listening to the river.
Date: 2019-04-17
From: Nantahala Outdoor Center

To: Locust Cove Gap
Miles today: 10.6

April 17 (Day 25): It was a beautiful day when we woke up. Slept great, listening to the river rush by. It was wonderful.Got back on the trail and headed up. It is 6.9 miles to the first shelter (Sassafras Gap) and everyone said it is straight up and a killer hike. We didn't think it was that bad for the first 5 miles. After that it got pretty tough. We finally made it to the shelter and we were really feeling strong, stronger than we've felt yet, so we kept going!The climb up to Cheoah Bald was tough but the view was beautiful. We sat there for a bit enjoying the view and the cooling breeze. It's strange to be hiking along and the breeze is blowing and then it will stop and get hot and humid. And you start perspiring like crazy. Then you get up to a summit and the breeze is great and cools you down.After that we hiked down to Locust Cove Gap and made camp. There were already several hikers set up. We found a fairly flat site (Always a challenge. One or the other of us is usually rolling down hill in the tent all night. ?). After we got the camp set, I hiked down to the stream and soaked and washed my feet. Boy that feels great after walking all day. We put in 10.6 miles today! Woo hoo!
Date: 2019-04-18
From: Stecoah Gap

To: Brown Fork Gap
Miles today: 5.5

April 18 (Day 26): Woke up at Locust Cove Gap and it was a nice day. A little cool but nice.We hiked downhill to Stecoah Gap (NC 143). There was a picnic table and trash can, so we were able to throw away the trash we had been carrying.We wanted to go into Robbinsville to resuppy and met another couple (Trevor and Rhea from Johannesburg in South Africa) who were also looking to go into town. I tried hitchhiking for the first time! I put my thumb out and the first truck that came along pulled over! My first thought was "Are we all going to fit in the back seat?" Then when I saw everyone loading into the bed of the truth, I realized "Oh yeah, they don't want stinky hikers inside their truck!" ? The 5 mile ride into town was breezy but exhilarating! Trevor made the comment that they couldn't get used to how spread out the towns and homes were. At home, everything was very close together.We were dropped off at the Walgreens and waked across the the Ingles grocery store. As always, we bought a little too much. We wanted to have 7 meals to get us through the Smokies. While sorting through and packing, a couple came over to us to ask about hiking the AT. She said that this was her 40th birthday trip and she wanted to go along the trail and talk to people actually hiking it. We talked for several minutes and told her how great it was and life changing too. Then she asked to take our picture with her.We loaded up and, boy, were our packs heavy! We headed out to the road and I turned to put my thumb out and a woman, named Suzie, pulled up and asked if we needed a ride back to the trail. (David said I had the magic when it came to hitchhiking.) Suzie was very nice and she asked where we were from. We told her outside of Waynesboro. She laughed and said that her daughter worked at the Ski Barn by Wintergreen! We told her we would stop by and say hi to her when we got home.Suzie dropped us off at Stecoah Gap and we started up. Short up the trail was the betgit of Jacob's Ladder. You hike 600 feet up in .6 of a mile. That might not sound bad when you read it but it's killer when you're hiking it with loaded packs! It would have been killer without loaded packs!We finally made it to Brown Fork Gap shelter. Really bad weather was due in that night and we wanted to stay in a shelter. We considered just getting water and hiking to the next shelter but knew there would definitely be no room by the time we got there. I told David that I would not be able to carry a wet tent tomorrow, in addition to the extra food I had.The folks already in the shelter voluntarily squished together and fit us both in. (We ended up fitting 9 people into a 6 man shelter!) We couldn't inflate both air pads because there wasn't room, but we actually slept pretty warm that night.We hiked 5.5 miles.
Date: 2019-04-19
From: Brown Fork Gap Shelter

To: Robbinsville, NC
Miles today: 5.2

April 19 (Day 27): The bad weather began about 1am with torrential rain and thunder. It was pretty warm in the shelter, with all the bodies lined up like little sardines. We stayed dry too.The younger group was up early and on the trail around 8. It was pouring rain. We got onto the trail about 9:30. The rain was still coming down hard. We had on our rain coats, rain skirts, and Neoprene gloves.The trail was basically just a river. We walked along the side where possible, but most of the time we were in the water. It wasn't long before our boots were squishing with water, soaked through. I had the Velcro around my wrists closed tight but the rain still ran down my gloves and into my sleeve. It would pool at my elbows and if I lifted my arms to reach up, the water ran down my sleeve and soaked my shirt. David was soaked through too.At one point we were crossing some large boulders. I planted my pole but when I tried to pull myself up the pole slid and I went down on my face. I'm not a screamer but this really scared me and I did scream when I hit the rock. David came rushing back and I shook my head to clear it. I figured I would have a bruise but I was ok. We walked on and I took the lead this time. I would glance back occasionally to make sure David was there. Then I heard him grunt and turned to see his arms flailing and then him cartwheeling down the mountain! I threw down my poles and slid down the mountain after him. Luckily he only went down about 10 or 15 feet, but his pack had him pinned down and he couldn't get his arms free. I had to shift his pack and he was able to climb back up to the trail.We decided we were done for the day.We finished hiking the 5.2 miles to the road and then tried to call a local hostel for s ride. We had no coverage so we started hitchhiking. I didn't think we would have any luck since we were soaking wet. Suddenly a blue VW station wagon pulled over and I saw Diesel's face! Diesel, Funshine, and Suzanne were going in to Robbinsville to resupply. They were staying at the Creekside Paradise Inn. There was only one more seat so David sat there and I had to cram in the back with the packs but it was dry so I didn't care. Cynthia drove us to the Hiker Inn but it was full so she took us to the Quality Inn and we got a room there. I immediately got into a hot shower. David was next then we spent the next several hours trying to dry things. We walked across to the laundromat to wash clothes but only had change for the washer, no detergent. So the clothes were just rinsed really well. Lol.While they were washing, we walked for to the Subway and had a sandwich with real vegetables! As we were eating it rained again. I am so done with rain right now! It was a quick rain though and I ran down and put the clothes in the dryer while David ran to the drugstore. Then back to the hotel where we crashed for the night.
Date: 2019-04-20
From: Robbinsville, NC

To: Fontana Lodge
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

April 20 (Day 28): We stayed at the Quality Inn in Robbinsville. They had a nice breakfast with make-your-own waffle, cereal, and assortt pastries and bagels. We called Cynthia at Creekside Paradise and she was bringing some hikers into town for a resupply so she would pick us up about 12:15.She pulled in and we sat in the car and talked while the hikers (Kidney and Driftwood) shopped. She was so interesting to talk to. After the girls came out of the store, Cynthia said she would drop them off at the inn and then take us to Fontana Lodge. Funshine and Pebbles slack-packed to the Fontana Hilton shelter so she was going to pick them up there.We drove to the Fontana Hilton shelter (It's called that because it has showers and is a really nice shelter.) and there were several tents set up with MAJOR trail magic! Hamburgers, donuts, salads, candy, you name it! It was over the top! Cynthia pulled over so we could partake in the magic. They also gave us a cool bandana that says "Trail Hard". It was awesome. We saw Pebbles and Funshine and they said that they had no problem waiting while Cynthia dropped us at the lodge.The Fontana Lodge was really beautiful. It's actually a resort but alot of the things weren't open yet (pool, water area for kids, volleyball, etc.). We checked in and then saw the 2 Cindys. They were talking to a sweet older woman who introduced herself as a "Dam Kid". She was one of many of the children whose fathers helped build the Fontana dam. They get together for a reunion every year in October. She was a real pistol to talk to.We eventually made our way over to the computer to print out our permits for going through the Smokies. I got mine to be print pretty easily. David's was another matter. We must have worked on it for an hour before we got it. At one point he said that he would just take the risk of not having a printed copy. (He would later be glad that he finally got it printed.)We walked around the resort a bit and then met the 2 Cindys for dinner at the Wildwood Grill. We both ordered the vegetarian pizza. It was delicious!We went back to our room and relaxed and watched TV. Today was a zero day.
Date: 2019-04-21
From: Fontana Dam

To: Mollies Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: overcast clouds

April 21 (Day 29): Happy Easter! We caught the 8:30am shuttle from the lodge over to Fontana Dam to begin our hike through the Smokey Mountains. The day was beautiful with dark blue skies and temps in the 60s. We took our time crossing the dam and taking pictures. Then we had to walk up the road to the entrance into the Smokies via the AT. We took a picture as we put our permits into the box, then off we went.We came up to a split in the trail. Off to the right was a steep path up to the fire tower. We left our packs at the bottom and hiked up to the tower. We used our hiking poles and it felt so odd using them without having a pack on your back. I felt like a newborn colt struggling to stand on wobbly legs.We got up to the fire tower. It had wooden steps and a few of the handrails were missing. The top was enclosed and the view was so amazing! Again I battled my fear of heights and climbed to the top! Yay me! We continued on to the Mollies Ridge Shelter. The shelter and the area was really beautiful and there was a cool breeze blowing. The shelter was stone on 3 sides and the open side had a large tarp covering it. There was also a fireplace inside! It had 2 levels and could sleep 12 people. There was a long wooden table out front with a bench. No privy but there was one side of the trail that was a "designated privy". What's also nice is that the trail goes right through the campsite. You don't have to walk out of the campsite to get back to the trail.After dinner we were relaxing in our tent when I got a message from a good frit that he was in the Smokies for the three day weekend and wondered if we needed or wanted anything. I kiddingly replied "How about some Ben & Jerry's?" He started making plans to get it to us when I told him I was only kidding, but thanked him so much for the offer. He ended his message with "You are a rock star." ?I had sent texts to family and friends wishing them a happy Easter. One dear friend responded with "Happy Easter to each one of you dear chicks. We are so blessed to have our hardy one climbing closer to God (and having each one of us in her heart). Thank you Kitty--for sharing it all with us..." I am so blessed to have such special friends.We hiked 11.4 miles today.
Date: 2019-04-22
From: Mollies Ridge Shelter

To: Derrick Knob Shelter
Miles today: 12.1
Weather: clear sky

April 22 (Day 30): Today was one of the most brutal days of hiking. We left the Mollies Ridge Shelter and there was a large stretch of downhill and then uphill. We passed the Russell Field and Spence Field shelters then started up to Rocky Top. We passed a couple day hikers who told us we were near a beautiful view. We thought we were at the top so we stopped there for lunch and could see the fire tower that we had climbed the day before!After lunch the climb continued up. This mountain certainly earned its name! The path was covered in rocks! Big rocks, small rocks, flat rocks, ankle-rollers! It was a killer. THEN we got to the top of Rocky Top! Downhill was more rocks!While hiking down I kept repeating, like a mantra, what my friends had said to me "You are a rock star." and "Our hardy one climbing closer to God". It gave me encouragement when my stamina and morale was flagging. Thank you.The last mile to the shelter was straight uphill! When I staggered into the Derrick Knob shelter, folks said that every hiker that came in looked exactly like I did. Completely drained! It took us until 7pm to get to camp.We hiked 12.1 miles today.