morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-07-10
From: Pine Grove Furnace State Park

To: Backpackers Campsite
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: light rain

I heard last night that the weather was supposed to be lousy today but instead it was perfect for backpacking. I don¢t think the temperature got too far above 70o and it didn¢t rain until after I was in my tent for the night. I walked on and off with Andy, Backtrack and Aftershock in the afternoon after I stopped at the Green Mountain General for a $3 hot ham and cheese sub and some Utz chips, all washed down with the greatest soda flavor ever, Sprite Tropical Remix. Damn good all around meal. Now I¢m in my tent camped in the only legal spot in Cumberland Valley along the AT that happens to be right next to a railroad track. There¢s no water here either, it¢s .5 mile away at the ATC office in Boiling Springs. Other than the train thing and the lack of water this site is great, it¢s the first one I¢ve seen with a porta-potty and the ground has plenty of nice, soft grass. There are corn, and I think soybean fields all around us in a big valley. It was my first time walking through a cornfield that wasn¢t part of a corn maze during Halloween. I seem to have recovered after the half gallon of ice cream, other people haven¢t had it so easy though. I heard this dude ask for some toilet paper today and watched him hurriedly run off into the woods with a ¢I hope I don¢t shit my pants¢ look on his face. I feel his pain, I¢ve been there before.The hostel stay sucked. I got bit by either fleas or noseeums all night and the worst snorer in the world stayed in the same room. He was backpacking but not thru hiking so thankfully I won¢t hear it again. It sounded like he was choking or something. That must be a hard way to sleep. Speaking of sleep-I¢m out.
Date: 2003-07-11
From: Backpackers Campsite

To: Riverfront Campground, Duncannon
Miles today: 26.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I got started hiking today at around 1030am after some sightseeing in Boiling Springs. There are some cool old houses in town dating back to the 1800¢s and a big spring-fed pond with ducks and swans near the town center that made a good family-style tourist destination. When I walked by the pond I saw a lot of bluegill and I think some carp under a bridge in the crystal clear water. I walked all day with Aftershock, 13 miles of it was completely flat farmland walking. The humidity wasn¢t that high, the sun was out all day with a few clouds here and there. At one point it looked like we were going to get hit with a thunderstorm but the dark clouds just blew over and the rest of the day was wonderful. What was truly wonderful was all the fresh fruit we ate while walking in the valley. We gorged ourselves like pre-hibernation bears on mulberries, red raspberries, black raspberries and my personal favorite, cherries. It took us a long time getting through the valley but I haven¢t eaten so much fresh fruit in such a short amount of time in my life, it was soo good. Aftershock is from Chattanooga, TN, he started the trail on April 17th and got his name because early along he felt an earthquake in the Nantahala National Forest that was centered in northern Alabama. We showed up in Duncannon at around 11pm and went straight to the Hotel Doyle. The Doyle is one of the must see, must do things on the AT and I wasn¢t about to miss it. We ordered a beer then the bartender told us that the Doyle grill was closed so she kindly called the pizza joint down the street to find out that it was open until midnight. It was about 1130pm so we asked the bartender to put our drinks in the fridge and we headed out to the pizza place. Once we got there we bought all of the slices they had left (6 of them) and ordered a beer to wash it all down. This day marked the first time I have ever had not only two tabs open in two different bars but two open beers in two different bars ¢ another milestone on the AT.The last 4 miles of the trip probably shouldn¢t have been done after dark. There were rockslides to walk through and when the path didn¢t move beneath my feet there were sharp rocks to make the trail walking difficult even if it was during the day. I reckon I got a taste of the famous Pennsylvania rocks today but they weren¢t as bad as I¢ve heard.We¢re camped in the nastiest campground I¢ve ever seen. This place is literally like a junkyard, there are cars, semi-trucks, run down trailers and beat up boats all over the place. $3.50 per night is probably too much but the Doyle was full so we don¢t have any other option. I leave for Baltimore tomorrow and then on to California for a week on Tuesday. I already miss the trail.
Date: 2003-07-15
From: Baltimore, MD

To: San Jose, CA
Miles today: 0.0

I figured I¢d write one more entry for the day I got picked up from Duncannon. I got up at around 8am and Aftershock, Backtrack, Thoreau and I walked to the Doyle for breakfast and immediately after we started with the $2 Yuengling 22oz¢ers. Those guys decided to get a room for a zero day so I got the opportunity to check out the Doyle¢s accommodations. They aren¢t four star or anything but they are worth the $15+$7 per person to stay there for sure. The hotel has a bunch of rooms on 4 floors, some people are even living there it looks like. My dad showed up at around 2pm so I ordered up another round of drinks and we got menus for lunch. My dad, the trail magician that he is, bought lunch for everyone at the table which included Aftershock, Lumberjack, Andy and I. The Doyle has it going on for food as well as drink. The burgers were big and tasty and my Cajun omelet in the morning was delicious. The prices weren¢t that bad either, all 5 burgers and fries that my dad bought came out to only $32. Thanks Dad! After a couple more cold ones we were primed up to go home, good times for sure.Now I¢m on the plane to California; my legs are cramped up in this way-too-small seat with some 5 foot tall biatch in front of me reclined comfortably. My legs really want me to walk right now but I still have an hour to go before they¢ll get to. I put up a bunch more pictures, I¢ll write again in about 10 days. Lata.
Date: 2003-09-23
From: Stealth Camp

To: Rangeley, ME
Miles today: 5.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I'm still on the trail and I've walked to Maine. I haven't done a journal entry in a long time so with the rain falling in Rangeley I'm more than happy to catch up here in the library. I haven't written since Connecticut so here's a short summary. CT was pretty lame but I got to see a covered bridge and met some great people. Massachusetts wasn't much better but the trail magic came my way quite often. Thanks much to the Ducloses and Tom Levardi. I slackpacked for the first time in Mass, between Chesire and Dalton. I was able to meet up with Julie's daycare kids in Williamstown, the town before Vermont. I found $20 in an ATM and things have just got better ever since. Mount Greylock in Mass and the mountains of Vermont were exactly what I needed after the Mid-Atlantic lull. I was able to see Granite and go back to Manchester with him and have some good food and meet some of his friends, thanks man! I've hiked with lots of people along the way but have gone most of the way with Aftershock and Tuff. I walked through Vermont and some of New Hampshire with Sunkist and Double Dare too. The Whites were amazing, the weather was perfect. The weather report when we were on top of Mt Washington said we had 130 miles of visibility. So nice. The southern Maine mountains were a bitch and the rain keeps on drenching us but this trip has been amazing. I love every day. I don't know if I'll write again before Katahdin, I'll add more pictures when I finish.
Date: 2003-10-11
To: Katahdin
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: clear sky

I finished the trail today with my dad, my mom met us at the parking lot when we finished. I'm so lucky to have great, supportive parents to share this momentus occasion with me. Thank you and I love you both.The entire trip, from GA to ME was simply amazing, I can't come up with the words to describe what the last six months have done for me and my outlook on life. If you're thinking about a thru hike, stop thinking about it and just do it, you'll have the time of your life.I walked the entire wilderness with Aftershock & Tuff and walked on and off with Jason, Iron Chef, TTT, Chicken Legs, CC, Feral, Backdraft, Moo and 42. The weather was perfect, I couldn't have asked for a better day to finish. I'll put up some pics when I can. Shout out to my trail friends Granite, Llama, Konkopot, Cuss, Snackattack, Sherpa, Otter, Apple Chillin, Cakalaki, Indiana Slim, Bingo, Trucker, Sunkist and Double Dare, you guys should call me when you can. I'll be back in California by mid-November to start the next chapter in this thing called LIFE. If you are planning a future thru hike and have any questions, send me an email.Peace.
Date: 2003-03-09
To: Gainesville, GA
Miles today: 0.0

I'm currently very, very scared. And excited. And apprehensive. And a little homesick I suppose. It's almost two and a half years since the concept of hiking the Appalachian Trail started evolving in my mind, and all of a sudden D-Day (departure day) is arriving! Six months in the woods. With my Dad. This could be interesting...My first contact with the AT was in summer 2000, when I was vacationing with my parents in Virginia. My Dad and I tried one or two half-day hikes in Shenandoah National Park, and along the way bumped into a bearded guy complete with rucksack, wooden stick and smile headed towards Georgia. I'd been aware of the AT's existence since reading Bill Bryson's book, but it was only when we got chatting to this lad that I started wondering just what it would be like to hike the trail. It seemed a lot more realistically possible while we were standing on the trail itself, conversing with a thru-hiker, and within an hour Dad and I had made a verbal agreement to attempt this one day.One day came a lot sooner than anticipated! I finished High School in Scotland in June 2002, and began what's known as a "GAP" year, to take a time out from studying until I start my university course in September this year. I travelled a little, worked a little, but my main reason for taking the Gap was for the opportunity to hike the AT. I'd been discussing this at home for a long time, and once it became clear I was going to try my parents decided they weren't going to send their 18-year-old daughter into the woods alone! Dad hadn't forgotten our agreement, so he set about arranging a career break. So, here we are in Gainesville after two years of planning, with six months of walking ahead of us. We had some problems arranging visas, took a great deal of time sorting out equipment and got some strange looks while arranging flights (when you book a flight into Atlanta and the return from New York JFK, not many people take you seriously when you claim to be walking from one to the other!). We arrived in the country in the end, on March 7th, and we've spent the weekend tying up loose ends in Atlanta. Now there's nothing left to do but summon up that necessary bit of will power to get us up to the trail and start putting one foot in front of the other. Let's see how long we can last!
Date: 2003-03-10
From: Amicalola Falls State Park

To: Springer Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 0.2
Weather: clear sky

With the risk of sounding slightly pessimistic, this was the worst day's hiking I've ever had in my life! I've known for a long time that every hiker, especially those who don't have much experience or training (i.e. me), finds the Appalachian Approach Trail incredibly difficult. Whether it's because the entire Approach Trail is steeply uphill, or because your body isn't used to the walking or the weight of your pack, or because it's just so darn irritating to walk 8.8 miles that don't even count towards the final tally (well, for me it was all of the above), this day is one that just has to be endured instead of enjoyed. There is a certain amount of excitement involved though, and standing at the visitors' center of Amicalola Falls State Park both my Dad and I were sharing it (plus nervousness, plus a small amount of dread...). We both weighed our packs before we started, which turned out to be a big mistake since there are some things it's better not to know!Feeling slightly daunted by the sheer enormity of what we were about to attempt, we set off up our first mountain, wheezing and puffing after a minute or so, and going through a mental checklist of everything in our packs that can be sent home at the first possible opportunity. Our first rest stop of many came when we reached a parking lot complete with restrooms and a soda machine (for the rest of the day I was harbouring hopes that this was similar to a shelter privy but it wasn't to be!).By the time we reached Springer Mountain we were exhausted and irritable, each blaming the other for deciding to do the trail in the first place, so I don't think our Springer photos are quite as smiley as they should be! Several people had passed us on our way up, so we automatically assumed the shelter was full and set up our tent nearby. On further inspection we realised there were only two people inside, both named Jeff, one from Florida and one from Washington State, but we were too tired to move and just cooked our first trail dinner as it got dark. I think we're going to need (and get) a lot of practice at this whole camping thing - we're quite slow at getting everything done, but it's mainly because we're not familiar with all our equipment yet. I'm sure as we get further into our hike we'll get the hang of it.Looking on the bright side, what everyone names as the hardest day on the AT is over, and things can only get better. It'll take a while to adapt, both physically and psychologically, to trail life, but I think it's going to be worth the wait!
Date: 2003-03-11
From: Springer Mountain Shelter

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

It's not every day you get to wake up at the top of Springer Mountain. For a few enlightened moments this morning I realised just how special this was, before every muscle in my body realised I was awake and started making their complaints about yesterday's exertions!We took a lot of time to break camp this morning (close to three hours I think!), before we got underway. It felt a lot better to be following those little white blazes today, rather than blue ones yesterday, and in a way it lifted the spirits to know we were on the AT itself. Physically, it was still very difficult, and I trailed behind Dad for most of the day (he was, after all, sensible enough to do more than one afternoon's training before we started!). I've heard many people talk about "trail legs", which I'll hopefully get soon but until then I'll have to make do with stopping every time I feel asphyixiation is a risk. We've been lucky enough to have had lovely weather for three days in a row, and although it'll be a while before the trees are in leaf and the forest looses it's very dead look, there were still some lovely spots we stopped to sit at. The most memorable was when we crossed Stover Creek, not far from Springer, and enjoyed a rest among the leaves with the small stream as the only background noise.Somehow I managed to haul my pack all 7 miles to Hawk Mountain Shelter before dark, and we were among the first to arrive. We decided to try the shelter for the night, so it was just as well we'd arrived early since there was soon a full shelter and a tent city surrounding it - at dusk we counted 13 tents and the number was continuing to grow! I suppose in a couple of weeks time that number will start to deplete, and I just hope we're still around. But, it's only our first AT day so I'm not going to talk about quitting just yet!
Date: 2003-03-12
From: Hawk Mountain Shelter

To: Gooch Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.1
Weather: clear sky

Had a fairly sleepless night - I woke several times thoroughly convinced there was a bear in the shelter, but it turned out to be one or more of the guys snoring! Seems this was an unforeseen aspect of trail life I'll have to adapt to!It was definitely a lot easier getting up in a shelter than a tent. For starters, it was a much earlier start today than yesterday since outside noise is muffled by a tent, and also there's no tent to put away. Somehow it still took a good two hours to get ready though. Hmmm.I was quite surprised today to find I'm already developing trail legs! Maybe my age has something to do with it, but there was a very obvious difference from yesterday's walking - I wasn't so exhausted at the top of a mountain, and I was also outstripping Dad which I didn't expect to happen. Don't get me wrong, the walking was still a nightmare, but it was just less of a nightmare! I'm starting to get the feeling though that my main struggle is going to be psychological. We've been told the first month is the worst, but after that it's good fun, and I think for me the challenge for this month is severing my connection to home. I've been feeling very homesick and the thought of six months away is unbelievably difficult to cope with. Plus, there's not much else to think about when I'm hiking on my own. The only event that interupted my homeward thoughts was when I heard something rustling among the dead leaves behind me - I couldn't see anything but I'm not used to this wilderness thing so I quickened my step (I figured it would be just my luck if I was the one person on the trail mugged by a racoon).I got to Gooch Mountain in one piece though, after a lovely stop sitting on the bridge over Justus Creek, and again we managed to secure places in the shelter. Quite a few people slept upstairs tonight, so there were less tents around. It was pretty much the same bunch of people who were at last night's shelter, although tonight we were joined by Spur, a guy who's hiked the AT on more than one previous occasion. It was quite humbling to sit with such an experienced hiker while we were all complaining about sore feet on our third night out, but he was very encouraging. Being so early in our journey, finishing seems such an impossible dream, but sitting with someone who's already tried and succeeded was fairly inspirational. Maybe I won't be returning home with my tail between my legs within a week after all!
Date: 2003-04-23
From: Hot Springs, NC

To: Hot Springs, NC
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Brilliantly relaxing zero day! We had to be up for the 8.30 breakfast at the Duckett, but after that I was free to do as I pleased and took a trip "downtown". After a visit to the post office I sat outside the outfitters, which tends to become Hiker Central throughout the day (whether passing through or taking a zero, everyone is magnetically drawn there).When Dad arrived we hit the grocery store, one of our two main zero day tasks, then I spent a very stressful afternoon in the sun sharing a pint of Ben & Jerry's Choc Chip Cookie Dough with Sniper, Wrong Way, Dimple Rock, Two Speeds, and Ben and Tyler (2 lads from Ohio). Moo and 42 were hanging about town as well, all packed up but they couldn't quite pull themselves away. Dad and I had lunch with them at Paddlers, and I think after some time in the outfitters they eventually took off for the hills about 5.30pm!We checked emails and called home, then got our second essential task, laundry, started. We went in search of the other 4 around dinner time, and began a town-wide search for pizza. As it turned out, no one had any left, so we settled for hot dogs at the Smoky Mountain Diner.Then came the best part of the day - after dark, Two Speeds, Ben, Tyler and I took an hour-long soak in the Hot Springs Spa. We had a great time sitting and joking in the steaming hot water, although it did leave us with a chilly and soggy walk home. Definitely worth it though - my tired muscles are very thankful for the pampering!
Date: 2003-04-24
From: Hot Springs, NC

To: Rich Mountain Fire Tower
Miles today: 8.3

Oddly enough, we succeeded in leaving today - we escaped the hiker vortex of Hot Springs! It was a pretty slow start since we still had things to do (Dad replaced our water filter and cookpot with lighter versions; he also had some things to send home; plus he wanted to call some relatives in Indiana - so basically I spent the entire morning sitting outside Bluff Mountain Outfitters, waiting and chatting with various hikers milling about). I got quite a shock when I weighed my pack - fully loaded for 6 days it's 45 lb!! I'd rather not have known!It was after 1pm when we left, at the same time as Dimple Rock, Wrong Way, Two Speeds and Chafe. Despite thunderstorm warnings it was a decent day, mainly sunny for the most part. We had a tough climb out of town, but got some great views of the French Broad River in the process. For most of the day Chafe was ahead of us, and the other three were behind (this was one day where Dad and I actually hiked together). We stopped for an extended break to wait for them, and it just so happened we stopped near a parking lot where a guy was sitting by his car playing the banjo (presumably to scare the hell out of anyone who's ever seen "Deliverance"!).By the time we got to the Rich Mountain Fire Tower trail we were too tired for the next three miles to the shelter, so we found a great campsite nearby. Tents went up while Two Speeds collected firewood (he has a habit of sorting it into piles of varying size and keeps apologising for being so anal retentive!).After dinner round the campfire, Dimple Rock "borrowed" Two Speeds' much-loved titanium spork, which resulted in him spending a good 2 hours hunting until she sneaked it into his tent. He still hasn't figured out who it was (he knows it was either me or her), but it's driving him crazy so we're not planning to reveal any time soon! Maybe we'll tell him at Katahdin.
Date: 2003-05-10
From: Low Gap

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 14.9
Weather: overcast clouds

Well, today was a fairly special day - we reached one of our first major milestones when we arrived in Damascus, VA! According to the companion, a large percentage (more than half, I think) of those who start out at Springer have dropped out by this little trail town, so there was an enormous sense of achievement when we sauntered into town this afternoon. For the most part it was a beautiful day - there was one small rain shower just after noon, which I think was Tennessee just trying to piss us off one last time. The walking today was great, since the terrain from Kincora to here has all been the flatest we've come across so far (obviously not exactly flat, but very small and gradual slopes which are much easier to cover quickly). We had an extended break for second breakfast and first lunch at Abingdon Gap Shelter before we took off to walk our last stretch of trail in Tennessee. 6 miles on, I came across the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area sign, signifying our arrival in Virginia, so I stepped over the little stone line on the ground and sat to wait for Dad.