morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2015-04-07
From: Icewater Spring Shelter

To: Tri-Corner Knob Shelter
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: light rain

It rained all night. It's was probably the best sleep I've gotten since I hit the Smokies. Tenting is way better. The rain stopped by the time we got up which was nice. We just had to pack up a wet tent again. The hike started out good. It seemed like the sun was going to come out. There were some amazing views that we saw. We could see the fog moving across the tips of the mountians. It was pretty epic. Around lunch time we started hearing thunder. It kept getting closer and closer. Then we saw some lightening. We were really hoping it wasn't going to rain. Eventually the storm caught up with us. We ended up not putting our rain pants on when it first started sprinkling. If it stayed like that it wasn't worth putting the pants on and sweating. By the time we decided, yes our rain pants should be on it was too late. Way too late. We walked in the rain for a few hours. It was such a mess. Everything was soaked. Even though I had my rain jacket on, I was still soaked. The trail was a raging river. My boots were over run and the waterproofing just couldn't keep up. By the end I didn't even try stepping around the stream in the middle of the trail. There was already a lake in my boots and that wasn't going to change anytime soon.We met up with a ridgerunner a few miles from the shelter. Giving us hope that it was close. And that there was still space available in the shelter. There was no way we were setting up tents in the rain.We got to the shelter mid afternoon. There were only 3 guys there. We changed out of our wet clothes quickly. No modesty on the AT. Just too difficult, especially with crappy weather. We grabbed our spots on the top bunk and settled in. Than fully it wasn't too cold otherwise we would have been miserable. The shelter filled up quick throughout the afternoon. We ended up stringing lines along the while inside of the shelter to hang wet clothes in the hopes they would be dry by morning. Hahaha, yeah right!! It turned out to be a pretty fun night in the shelter. Poofy was next to me and it turns out he's from Terryville, CT which is right next door to me. So that was pretty cool. Navigator was next to Poofy and he was telling funny frat stories. Moment, Seeker, Salmon and Hip were there as well. There were a group of 3 guys from Michigan on spring break there. We talked to them about the trail and hiking. It was fun, the kids were a hoot. We decided to try and do some big miles tomorrow to get the heck out of the smokies. We are just so ready to be done. Especially not looking forward to putting on wet boots in the morning.
Date: 2015-04-08
From: Tri-Corner Knob Shelter

To: Green Corner Road
Miles today: 18.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Not too bad of a night. It wasn't cold and I slept pretty decent. Everyone's clothes were still wet...of course. I had a dry t shirt to hike in and I put on my rain pants, wet socks and boots. I hung my hiking pants from the back of my pack hoping they would dry. My shoes still had a lake in them and it was ice cold. Such a nightmare. But with all the walking planned they should dry out.The morning started cool but it got pretty warm. Hiking in rain pants sucks. Eventually, my hiking pants were dry enough and I changed them out. So much better. It was a pretty decent hike all day. The weather turned very warm. Not too many climbs, a lot of down hill.We decided to head to the hostel at Standing Bear Farm instead of staying one more night in the Smokies. We passed by Davenport Gap Shelter and hustled down into the gap for the promise of trail magic. We lucked out and managed to get there before they left. We had some amazing beef stew, warm rolls, soda and some candy. It was great. I was hoping for some chili mac but they didn't have any of that left. Sad day. But the stew was good. We moved on to finish the last 3 miles. Good grief. We were not prepared for such a rough climb. Nothing in the books indicated such a climb. And it was so freaking hot and so freaking muggy. The trail comes out and follows the road for a bit...the entrance ramp to I40 and then underneath the highway. We finally made it to Standing Bear about 5ish. We met a man named Lumpy who gave us the nickel tour and set us up in a nice cabin. For an extra 5 bucks we got a cabin to ourselves. Totally worth it. The hostel was so awesome. They had a store to do a resupply and they had everything you could imagine. It was awesome. They had a nice fire pit to sit around and chat. A little kitchen area and a laundry area. We had to use a washboard to wash our clothes and then there was an electric dryer to dry the clothes. Poofy and Navigator were there along with some of the Warrior hikers. Fun to hang out. Sunny and I had a good time back at the cabin. We stayed up till 11 chatting and laughing. It was like being a kid at camp. It was great. Our cabin was also sitting over a creek so we got to listen to the water all night long. Amazing.
Date: 2015-04-09
From: Green Corner Road

To: Roaring Fork Shelter
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: overcast clouds

It was nice sleeping in a bed. But the bloody rooster started crowing at 530 and wouldn't shut the hell up. So irritating. We settled up with Lumpy and then pushed on out. We had a long hike with lots of climbs.It was a pretty warm day. Very sunny and muggy. The first climb that morning about killed me. It took us a long time to get through those first 4.7 miles. At the top was an FAA tower. We went to check it out. Had some nice views from there. Poofy and Navigator caught up and passed us. Sunny's head was really bothering her today. When we got down to the gap we stopped to have lunch with Poofy, Navigator, and some of the Warrior Hikers. Poofy and Navigator decided to stay at the gap and have a short day. The Warrior Hikers moved on. We did too eventually. It was a struggle. Our bodies were pretty exhausted from the large miles the day before. Eventually we came to our next big climb of the day. It was sometime in the afternoon. Max Patch was amazing!! It was the site of an old homestead and logging camp. The whole mountian top was cleared of trees and just grass as far as the eye could see. It was breathtaking. Worth the climb for sure but we were pretty drained by then. And we had a few more miles to go before we hit the shelter. We saw The Darkest Hour at the top of Max Patch, he was getting a ride into Hot Springs and was going to head home. I couldn't blame him. The past couple of days had been pretty rough. We moved on and made it to camp. It took us over 9 hours to go 15 miles. It was a struggle. We set up our tents and then went down to the creek for a sponge bath. So refreshing. It was a very hot day and I was filthy and sweaty. It was nice to clean up a little bit. We made dinner by our tents but then decided to be social and go up to the shelter to eat. There were pepole we hadn't met before. We chatted for a bit then went back to our tents. We had a pretty long day planned for tomorrow and we wanted an early start.
Date: 2015-04-10
From: Roaring Fork Shelter

To: Hot Springs, NC
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: mist

Early start today. Crappy night. We had some wind and I heard a tree snap and fall in the woods. I didn't hear any screaming so I figured it didn't land on anyone. There was also hunting dogs out last night and the were out barking through the woods till after 11pm. Super annoying. We left camp and had a pretty easy 3.5 mile start. Pretty level and even. Which was great because we were pretty worn out from the past couple of days. We made it to a road and there was some trail magic!!! Totally unexpected and desperately needed. They had pizza, scrambled eggs, bacon, homemade biscuits, homemade cookies, fresh fruit. It was pretty amazing. I had some biscuits with honey! So freaking good. It was perfect trail magic because it was right before a giant climb. It was a struggle. But we made some good time. We chatted a bunch today and it helped pass the time. The weather was beautiful. A lot of our hike was down hill so it made it a bit easier. We could make up some time on the down hill.It was a pretty hike as well, things are starting to bloom, everything is becoming greeb. So nice. We took a break at the shelter 3 miles from the road. Ugh, 3 more miles to go. Well, we finally made it to town about 5ish. Our hostel was right to left as we came out of the woods. We threw our packs down in our room then ran into town quick to see if my package arrived. It hadn't come yet but I was able to pick up a tank top and a sport bra to wear something while I did laundry. We went back to the hostel and showered. Then went to dinner. The laundromat was right next door so I did laundry while we ate. We went to the Tavern and the food was so freaking good. Sunny got fish and chips and I got a buffalo chicken sandwich. We also had a few drinks to celebrate!! We both ended up a bit tipsy which was freaking hilarious. We had a fun wall back to the hostel. The good thing about Hot Springs is its such a small little town. Everything is super close. We were trying to determine if we should go to dollar general one last time but decided to go back to the hostel instead.We had the giggles the whOle way back. It was pretty rediculous. And then we met some random guy named Gumby on the lawn of the hostel. I was hoping to see him in real life the next morning since all we saw was a dark shape. We got back to the room and chatted and laughed and enjoyed the night. My stomach was starting to hurt a bit. Probably shouldn't have drank as much as I did. But we planned a zero day for tomorrow so I wasn't too worried. All and all a good night.
Date: 2015-04-11
From: Hot Springs, NC

To: Hot Springs, NC
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Was awoken fairly early this morning from someone with stomping feet. Kind of annoying. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little hung over this morning. Haha. Sunny and I chilled for a bit in the room. Talked to some friends and family. We finally mosied on down to the Dollar General to exchange my sports bra for a different size and get some nail polish. We met a woman hiker named Warm N Toasty. She had a car here. She actually has 2 cars and she drives to one location, hikes back to her 2nd car and then hops that one forward a ways and then hikes back to her other car. Pretty interesting way to do it but having a car makes things easier. Anyways, she drove us back to the hostel in her car and drove us to the Hot Springs Spa where we had an appointment. We asked her to join us. It was great. The tubs are outside but fenced in for privacy. They pump in natural spring water into the hot tub and you get to soak for an hour. They're out next to the river so we got to listen to the water rush over the rocks the whole time. Nice and relaxing!Afterwards Sunny and I walked back to town and ran some errands. My box arrived at the outfitters, thank god. We also stopped at the Hillbilly Market where I got the most amazing chicken salad sandwich ever. I took it back to the hostel to eat and make pLans for the next leg of my journey. I talked with some more family and planned some more mail drops.Sunny and I relaxed for the rest of the afternoon at the hostel. It was so beautiful out. And now the reason for our mad dash into Hot Springs. Sunny had decided to go home. Her daughter was going home to visit her dad this weekend and was able to come pick Sunny up on her way. It was going to be a huge suprise for her husband and her family. They were expecting her gone for much longer. It's definitely bittersweet. I will miss Sunny very much as I continue my journey. I can not describe how much of a blessing it has been having her to hike with. The companionship during our hikes, at camp and in towns has been amazing. I will miss her so much. Before she left she wrote out a few of our sayings on one of her bandanas for me to take with me. Some of the sayings include "Holy Cannoli" "Oh Mylanta" and "is this the gap?" It was such a great gift to have. It will be like she's still here hiking with me. Her daughter arrived about 430. We took a few pictures and said our last goodbyes. Of course we both cried. Haha. I'm teary eyed a bit as I write this, lol.We experience some amazing things out here on the trail. The most amazing are the people we meet. You become so close to one another in such a short period of time. I've only know Sunny for 3 weeks but it feels like I've known her all my life. It's a friendship that will last forever. And while I miss her oh so very much, I'm interested in seeing who will enter my life next.
Date: 2015-04-12
From: Hot Springs, NC

To: Spring Mountian Shelter
Miles today: 11.0

Woke up with a bit of lung crud going on. I hope I'm not getting sick. I ran the air conditioner last night to block out all the noise at the hostel. I had the windows open for a while but it was just way to noisy. I'm hoping that running the air conditioner I'd the reason I have crud and once I'm back in the wild it will go away.Left the Hostel about 745am. Said goodbye to a few people out milling around. It was a nice cool morning. I walked through the town of Hot Springs one last time. It was such a cute little town. You could walk from one end to the other in 10 minutes. A train was going by so I had to wait a bit. I then had a lovely walk along the edge of the French Broad River. A lot of people camped along the river and I chatted with a few people that I recognized. The first climb this morning was a nightmare. I didn't think my legs would ever warm up. The one bad thing about zero days is the muscles get all tight frim nonuse. It was a struggle. Overall it wasn't too bad of a hike. I had one more big climb to the shelter but I made camp about 2ish. I stopped for a lunch break at the firetower. It was about .1 miles off the trail and I figured why not. There were 2 guys up there already on dirt bikes. They were both from CT! So that was cool, they were down here for some kind of bike rally.After my lunch break I saw a few people I knew slack packing. I feel like it's cheating but to each thier own. There was one person at the shelter when I got to camp. I chatted for a few minutes with him. It was Yogi and his dog BooBoo. I've seen thier names in the log books so it was nice to finally meet him. They eventually moved on and I set up my tent. So nice setting up a dry tent. The water source was a zillion miles down a deep ravine but I made it. I filled my bottles and took a sponge bath. I can't wait until it's warm enough and the water sources are big enough to go swimming in. More people finally came in around 4/5. I recognized some from the hostel. I hung out by the fire and we chatted. It's a big group and they are a hoot. The names I can remember are Shaggy, Second Star, Kingfisher, Backtrack, Patches and Jedi. There are few I can't remember. But it was nice hanging out with some people and being social. Still miss Sunny Smiles though.
Date: 2015-04-13
From: Spring Mountian Shelter

To: Jerry Cabin Shelter
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Not much sleep last night. Tons of wind. When I was breaking camp Shaggy came over and said we were due for a pretty bad thunderstorm about 1pm. That sucked. I had planned for 15 miles but the first shelter was about 8 miles. Plenty of time to get there before the storm hit. The first uphill climb about killed me. This lung crud just won't go away making much more difficult to breathe. It makes the uphill climbs a lot slower. I made it to the first shelter about lunch time. Papalou and I kept leapfrog ginger each other all morning but we made it to the shelter about the same time. We ate lunch there. Kingfisher was already there waiting on the rest of his group to determine if they were going to go on or not. I checked the weather and the severe storm changed to just chance of rain after 2. I decided to press on. I'm glad I did because the rain held off all day. The wind was pretty crazy and there would be sprinkles every once in a while. But no massive down pour. Toward the end of my hike I came across a fork in the trail. To the right you go up to the exposed ridheline. To the left was the bad weather trail. It was cloudy and windy so I decided to go up to the ridgeline. Probably not too smart with the storm hovering. It was basically a rock climb the whole way up, all along the Ridgeline and the whole way down. Crazy windy but the views were spectacular. I hurried on down.Finally the shelter came into view. I set up my tent then went to the stream to take a bath. Lovely. I made dinner and then crawled into my tent, i think it was around 630/7. It was a pretty exhausting day. Still not raining. Hopefully it doesnt...haha
Date: 2015-04-15
From: Hog back Ridge Shelter

To: Bald Mountian Shelter
Miles today: 10.1
Weather: clear sky

Rain, rain and more rain. Rained all night. Still raining when I got up. I waited around for a bit to see if it would let up. No go. So I packed up in the rain. Everything is so very wet. I left camp about 830.It was cold and rainy all day. I decided to do only 10 miles today because I just wanted to get out of my wet clothes and relax. Even though I was wearing rain gear, after a while it just doesn't work anymore. I got to camp a little before 2. I was pretty slow today. It was mostly an uphill climb and this cold is kicking my butt. Every other step I cough up a lung. Makes it much harder to breathe when going uphill. I set up my tent and tried to wipe it out as best as I could. Everything is damp. I changed into dry clothes. Not really sure what to do with the wet ones except throw in a pile. No way they are going to dry tonight. Been hanging out in my sleeping bag all afternoon trying to keep warm. Gonna push tomorrow and do 17 miles to get to Erwin. Hopefully I can find a room somewhere.Rain in the for cast for the next week. So excited.
Date: 2015-04-17
From: Erwin, TN

To: Deep Gap
Miles today: 12.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Good night in the hotel room. Watched tv until 11pm. Haha, way too late but I got sucked into it. First The Big Bang Theory and then Food Network. I slept in until about 830ish. I moseyed on down to breakfast about 9. I had some bagels with cream cheese and some donuts. Really tasty. I went back to my room and organized all my crap. I had every single item spread out around the room for it to dry. I felt bad leaving a mess of leaves and dirt residue. I called Tom the shuttle guy and he said he wouldn't be able to fit me in until about 2. Gah! I said ok, I only planned to.hike about 4 miles anyways and have what we call a nero day. He texted me a few minutes later saying he might be able to squeeze me in at about 1130. I said heck yeah. I went down to the lobby and checked out then waited. Sure enough, a little before 1130 Tom picked me up and dropped me back off at Uncle Johnnys.Uncle Johnnys is the Hostel and Outfitter right there the second you step of the trail into Erwin. So convenient. I started up the trail. It was a really nice hike. Fairly easy, the uphill climbs were decent today. I crossed the railroad tract and I crossed a ton of streams with little waterfalls. There is nothing I love more than waterfalls. I made it the 4 miles to the shelter at 130pm. I made pretty good time. I sat and ate some lunch and determined whether to stay or go. It was still fairly early in the day. The next stopping point was only 8 miles away, a mere 4 hours. I was feeling pretty grest actually. I still have a cough but it doesn't hurt. And I can breathe deeply! I was able to power up the uphills like nobodies business. It was great. At about 2pm I moved on out.It was a great hike. Some ups, some downs but I was making really good time. I got to Deep Gap at about 530. And there were other hikers here! I wasn't to sure if I was going to be camping alone or with randos or with other thru-hikers. Deep Gap is just a camping area and usually people congregate at shelters. I thought it was going to be like when Sunny and I camped at a gap one time by ourselves. So it was great to see other people.Buttons and Seamster made a fire. There are two others here but I can't remember thier names. We all made dinner and chatted around the fire for a while. We saw a beautiful sunset through the trees. It made the hills behind us turn orange, it was awesome!! When we went to bed, Seamster played his guitar for a little bit. It was nice to listen to while I was changing and getting ready for bed.Pretty awesome day today
Date: 2015-04-18
From: Deep Gap

To: Clyde Smith Shelter
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Pretty decent night. No rain. We were camped next to a dirt road so we heard 2 cars during the night. Hit the road and had a pretty lovely hike. I went over Unaka Mountian today. Beautiful!! I got to Iron Mountian Gap about 1130 am. It was a main road crossing. I was kind of hoping for some trail magic. As I was sitting some people in a van showed up. They started setting up a tent thing. I was hopefully but I didn't think this was going to turn out to be trail magic. Mainly because they completely ignored me. Trail magic people talk to hikers and are super excited to see us. Papillion showed up and we speculated for a bit while these people were setting up some awesome food and drinks. Then they put up signs and talked to us. It was a Cystic Fibrosis benefit hike. They dropped off 50 hikers early in the morning and they had to hike 30 miles. Lots of thru hikers were going to be disappointed when they got to the gap.Papillion moved on while I finished lunch. As I started packing up Button and Seamster came across. They were very disappointed in the no trail magic. Lol. I pushed on. I saw those poor Cystic fibrosis hikers all afternoon. They were getting more and more haggard looking as the day went on. I made camp fairly early. I set up my tent under some trees. A few people were already in the shelter. Weedeater, stormcloak, Forward, Doc and Clank. I relaxed at my tent for a bit and chatted with my family. The place was filling up quick. Clementine and her husband made a fire but it kept raining on and off sonic didn't work out too well. At least we got to roast a few marshmallows, courtesy of Clank, for a little bit. Button and Seamster showed up. As well as Chimney, Fireman, Koz, Heisenburg and a few others. Suppose to rain all day tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. :-(