morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-03-07
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Well, we leave in 3 days! We are cramming wildly in preparation. In my next journal entry I will answer the questions from those people who are wondering what we could possibly doing that takes us so long. For now, an account of last night's test camp. (It was SUPPOSED to be a test HIKE, but we found Shenandoah National Park closed so we turned around, came back to Ned's in time to see his family sit down to a lovely lasagne dinner, and walked straight up to the "plateau" behind his house. On the plateau we pitched our tarptent, found that the floor cloth we cut from tyvek was not quite big enough to reach the sides of the tent, shrugged our shoulders and resolved to find some more tyvek by bug season. I set up the "beds" while ned set up the stove. During this time Ned managed to chase off the kitty, Olive, who had followed us. (Very sweet kitty, but when you've just spent weeks waterproofing all your gear and tent, sweet kitty's and claws become much less sweet.) Anyway, we cooked spaghetti alfredo using the cat stove Ned just made (from catfood cans) and the "pot cozy" he made using reflective insulation. I was afraid the pasta wouldn't cook all the way since we only barely got it to a boil before we took it off the stove and put it in the cozy, but after nine minutes of sitting it was actually kind of soggy. Then we went to bed. I froze all night long alternating between smothering myself under the sleeping bag and freezing my face when I couldn't breathe anymore. Ned, however, slept quite peacefully with only his nose sticking out of his nice puffy Marmot 15*(3 times as puffy as my REI Sub Kilo 20*). He wouldn't trade bags with me (he won't fit in mine), but he did give me another pair of socks. This morning I discovered that my bag has a drawstring pull around the face so on tonight's test I should be warmer!bye bye for now!
Date: 2003-03-07
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

What could we possibly be doing that we would be so worried about being ready in time?Here's an abridged list...-Cooking, dehydrating, vacuum packing food for mail drop meals-Putting together mail drops (This means weighing every little package, copying directions off boxes, and arguing about how much of which thing should go where...We started doing this about a week ago and we are only just finishing up today - over 90 pounds of little packages that weigh between 1 and 10 ounces each!)-Sewing stuff sacks for food, clothing, sleeping bags, and miscellaneous items, then waterproofing these bags (this means painting every seam very carefully with sealant)-Sewing mesh pockets onto our pocketless (except for one little one) GoLite packs (this took me FOREVER (well, 2 full days) and it was really hard. I am quite proud of myself and if we have time and I remember I will post pictures of them.)-Sewing clothing - For example, ned sewed himself a lightweight T-Shirt out of silkweight capilene. Would have cost him $32 to buy one, but he made it for $6 (plus 2 straight days of kicking, stomping, yelling and other expressions of frustration. (It was his first project with hems and sleeves and the material was difficult to sews.))-Constructing our outdoor kitchen - Ned is making and testing two stoves - the cat stove, made from cat food cans, and the pepsi stove, made from (you guessed wrong) beer cans, of course! He has also made a very groovy pot support and pot cozy.-Going shopping 3 times a week because you never manage to get everything you need on one trip (dental floss, cotton balls, watchband, oil filter, refried beans, fishing line, velcro, more refried beans, etc.)-Practice hiking and conditioning!!!! We've not done enoughAnd now, the list of necessary tasks that don't really have much to do with actually hiking the trail...-getting health insurance-doing taxes-changing car registrations-changing bank accounts-dealing with retirement funds from our old jobs-filing change of address forms with the entire world-cost analysis of keeping cell phones vs. cancelling cell phones (actually cheaper to keep paying the monthly bill even though we're not using them than to pay the cancellation fee!)-grad school applications-changing the oil on the cars-writing these damn journal entriesgots to now!!
Date: 2003-03-11
To: Coming to Atlanta
Miles today: 0.0

Ned's parents brought us to the train last night. It was delayed an hour and 15 minutes so they took us and bought us books to read. Ned is reading _The Dharma Buns_ and I am reading Carson McCullers short stories. We arrived this morning and were greeted by Doria and Jamin, Georgia Tech students who co-opped at Ned's work in MA. We got showered, started some laundry, Doria went to class, we went to pick up our laundry and all was going juuust fine and dandy until...We got back to Doria's suite with an armload of laundry to find that she had left us the wrong key! With no money, no phone cards, no nothing, we became bums for the next 1.5 hours. We tied up our laundry in a bandana, hooked it to a stick we found outside and walked around in true bum fashion. I wish I could attach a picture. That's all for now!
Date: 2003-03-13
From: Approach 

To: Justus Creek
Miles today: 13.6
Weather: overcast clouds

From Lydia: Well, the 8.5 mile approach trail we hiked yesterday sure does make the 7.6 miles we did this morning look like an easy day in the park! Yesterday we were so beat we didn't do a journal entry; so I'll cover yesterday now before I move on to today.   Doria and Jamin drove us to Amicalola State Park. We weighed our packs- 21 pounds for me and 30 for Ned (Perfect for our weight ratios- see kids- math IS important for real life!) We fielded a bunch of questions from hikers at the visitor¢s center (How did we get our packs so light? Did we wear Gortex boots? etc...) We set off at 2:15 up the 8.5 mile approach. 84°F! These miles don¢t count as AT miles, unfortunately. We made it to camp at dark cooked horrible, horrible salty ¢beef flavored vegetable soup¢ and dissatisfied, preceded to scorch our pots making biscuits. Slept in the shelter next a very nice ¢I¢m hiking the for crippled son¢ gentleman. Unfortunately, being very nice does not prevent ear-piercing snoring! Snoring, however is a small price to pay for our dryness during the last night¢s down-pour.         This morning has been lovely! We ate surprisingly yummy ¢hash browns¢ and set off in beautiful weather to hike beautiful trail in which has only been steep in a few sections. We solved my problem with blisters (from my knee brace) by cutting off a toe of Ned¢s sock liner and putting it under my brace. We took 2 small stones from Springer which we will carry to Katahdin as part of a recent tradition. Also, we will have declares today ¢Alan Jackson Day¢ thanks to the ¢Tall Tall Trees¢ and the fact that we are in CHATAHOOCHEE. It¢s not quite ¢hotter than a hoochee coochee¢ yet though. Singing Alan Jackson songs is fun. It helps you forget how much your feet hurt. Now it is time to eat humus. Bye.
Date: 2003-03-14
From: Justus Creek

To: Dockery Lake
Miles today: 9.3

From Ned:       It¢s Lyd¢s birthday!! We left Hawk. Mtn. Shelter around 2:30 yesterday, so we didn¢t get to camp until late. We passed ¢the rangers¢ (the military has mock battles up in the woods). There were lots of loud machine guns. We narrowly missed a thunderstorm, a few sprinkles, but it cleared up. The hiking turned out to be much harder during the second half of the day. Over Sassafras Mtn. and Justus Mtn. We camped at Justus Creek, after a gut and a half full of rehydrated refried beans, cheese, and Taco Bell Fire sauce. We hiked a big 13 and a half miles of AT on our first day.         It was rough mornings at Justus Creek. We decided to do laundry even though it was cloudy. I also tried to warm the water on a wood fire to conserve alcohol. I managed to slide down the bank and into the creek (just up to one shin) trying to get water. The wash water was warm after our brand new pot was covered in soot and the pot support was nearly ruined. Justus Creek was the first Agua Mira¢d water (chemical treatment). I decided to wear the t-shirt I just washed. It stunk before it dried.        Our lightweight buddy, Linden, passed us in the morning. The trail was fun and easy, but the winds were whipping like a cold front ready to dump some rain. I decided to put my slightly damp, new-laundered clothes back on and keep the dry clothes dry; Lyd hiked on until she was afraid I¢d been blown off the mountain, where she sat and waited for me. We met a ridge runner, ¢Big Stick¢ who gave us some insight for the upcoming miles and wished us luck. We were the 10th and 11th thru-hikers he¢d met today. We¢re slowly catching the crowds a day ahead of us. We set up camp at a stream new Dockery Lake, after a few miles of rain. I love my umbrella!! Unfortunately, Lyd can¢t really use hers because she needs both hands for her poles. After over 9 miles more, we¢re sitting, cozily, under the pitter-patter fixing to cook dinner soon. Total= 22.9 miles. From Lydia: I am 24 today. Yuck for middle twenties early twenties sounds much better. Ned carried over a pound of candy (Robins eggs and Reese eyes) from Atlanta as a birthday present. YUM YUM! My other not so sweet birthday presents he gave me were bear nightmares. I had four different ¢bear eating my head off¢ nightmares in the wee hours of my birthday because last night he made a big deal over my keeping the chapstick in the tent. We threw the chapstick out of the tent, so in my nightmares the bear was after peanuts in my teeth. Also, we met a guy from Bumpass, VA (my birthplace) today. Hopefully we will get to know him better soon.
Date: 2003-03-15
From: Dockery Lake

To: Rock Spring Top
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: clear sky

From Lydia:   ¢What a great day¢ Ned says as I flick a spider out of our ¢tent¢. (Our tent has a floor which is separate from the top). But he is right it has been a great day. It rained this morning when we were breaking down camp and it kept raining off and on all morning (fog was so bad all day that we couldn¢t see any of the views). So far, I realize it doesn¢t sound so great, but it was. After hearing rumors like, ¢It¢s called BLOOD MOUNTAIN. for a Reason.¢ We conquered Blood Mountain with no sweat. We had previously calculated that it would take us so long to climb that we would camp there and continue to Neels Gap (our first laundry and shower) the next day. Instead, we got into Neels Gap, showered, stocked up, did laundry, made phone calls, and managed another 3 miles back into the woods, avoiding $17 each hostel fee but also passing up pizza and beer with some other hikers, unfortunately. Anyway, we¢re a day ahead of schedule now. Ned has much to add, so I¢ll let him write now.From Ned:   Since it was raining when we woke up, we decided to eat breakfast at the next shelter. Packing up in the rain is much easier with a tarp!! We ate breakfast (we¢re finally building up our appetites by the way; we ate a lot of chicken, potatoes, and pesto last night) at Woods Hole Shelter, a whole 0.3 miles off trail (which is a lot to us since it isn¢t part of our 2,100+), where we met three very cool thru-hikers, Thorn, Fubar, and Sleeping Beauty. While we did our laundry (which didn¢t include our packs or bags, which are developing a ¢funk¢ of their own, which Lyd described earlier as ¢dog¢) we met lots of hikers at Walas: Ti Center aka. Neels Gap. We spoke with the guy from Bumpass; his name is Old Tom. He¢s our favorite thru-hiker so far. He¢s an older guy with a white beard, and he¢s going fairly light, but he¢s only averaging 6 or 7 miles so we may not see him any more, very disappointing. On a side note, Lydia has developed ¢sudden urges¢ lately. At one point our pace was doubled and her every other word was- ¢privy.¢ And at another point she couldn¢t make it past the nearest log, a mere 5 feet from the trail, and she was seconds shy of getting ¢busted¢ by an oncoming park ranger. HA!!- goodnight.
Date: 2003-03-17
From: Rock Spring Top

To: Tray Mtn. Shelter
Miles today: 7.7

From Ned:   Well, we ended up having a huge day yesterday; around 15 miles. At 5:30 AM Lydia told me about the mouse that seconds later joined us in the tarp. We chased him around the perimeter 2 or 3 times, and when he finally departed, we decided we couldn¢t go back to sleep. It was eerily misty when we got up, another rainy night. We had a warm breakfast of grits since we had to wait for light to walk. We passed 5 parties of hikers before we caught up to our friends the Tennessee snails (that¢s what we call them at least). The father of the family of three had just found 3 beers in the spring. We ate lunch at Low Gap Shelter and the sun came out long enough for us to dry out our gear. Since it was still early, we decided to try the 7 relatively easy miles to Blue Mountain Shelter. We made it, but boy were we tired. Luckily, there were still a few spots in the shelter. The mice weren¢t even that bad!                The shelter was a good choice because it rained again during the night. It has rained at some point during the day for every day we¢ve been out. Out spirits are still as high as ever, though. We only had 8 miles today to Tray Mountain Shelter. They were rough though. We are still sore from out big day yesterday. It rained almost the whole hike. We made it to the shelter just after noon. We¢re calling it a day. It¢s a little cold, and the shelter is jammed full. Lydia is playing euchre with David, Suzanne, and Euchre. We¢re getting psyched for tomorrow- 10 miles and then we¢ll hitch to Hiawassee. We¢re a little antsy about our first hitch. We¢ve already made arrangements to share a hotel room in town. Also, we can¢t stop talking about Daniel¢s steakhouse- All You Can Eat (AYCE) for $6.50. The rumor is bad weather (well, not necessarily bad, just rainy) through Friday, at least we can dry out in town for a while. I have to go find a spot in the shelter to start some dinner. Gotta stay warm!!
Date: 2003-03-19
From: Tray Mtn. Shelter

To: Hiawasse
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: light rain

Yesterday we walked nearly 11 miles in mist and rain to get to Dick¢s Creek Gap where we hitched a ride with Tunnel to Hiawassee. The guys that picked us up were on a canoe trip and had a covered truck full of gear, but they managed to squeeze the three of us in the back. We stayed in the Holiday Inn with Brother and Sister and Tunnel where we watched weather reports of rain to come with nearly no sunshine (we might get some sun Friday or Saturday) and news reports of the impending war. We ate at Daniel¢s Steakhouse across the street ¢ AYCE for $6.50. We left so full we were almost sick, but somehow we managed to get hungry again 3 hours later for ice cream. We are always hungry now it seems.        Anyway, now we are in Plumorehead Shelter, a beautiful 3 level shelter built in 1992 and flown in by helicopter. In fact, the man that gave us a ride back to the trail helped build it.                                                                    Lydia
Date: 2003-03-21
From: Standing Indian Shelter

To: Betty Creek
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: broken clouds

Is this the first day of spring? Whether it was or not, it was certainly the best weather we¢ve had since the first two days. We actually viewed the views at the lookouts, instead of gazing into dreary dense for. We walked 11.5 lovely easy north Carolina miles today and are camping at Betty¢s Creek. Ned is breaking and bending all of our needles trying to stitch a hole in his boots. Speaking of boots, I cannot WAIT to trade mine in for some nice springy shoes. I have never felt anything comparable to the pain in my feet.        Anyway, enough about pain. Yesterday (when I was too worn out from North Carolina¢s hearty welcome to write anything more than ¢slog¢) we watched a beautiful sunset through parting clouds. It was the first time the sun had shown itself nearly all week so everyone in the shelter came out to watch.        Also, everywhere the trail is lined with rhododendrons budding. We can¢t wait until they bloom!        Oh, and today we climbed above 5000 ft. for the first time so far ¢ standing Indian Mt.. ¢ 5398 ft.                                                                Lydia
Date: 2003-03-22
From: Betty Creek

To: Noname Stream
Miles today: 13.1

Today was a marvelous day. To top it all off, around mid-day we found out from some personable section hiker that the dreaded storm that was pounding Louisiana a few days ago had miraculously disintegrated. So, we should have a few more beautiful days until a chance of rain on Tuesday. We got away form Betty Creek around 8 this morning. Our first big mountain was Albert Mountain (5220¢). We spent almost an hour up in the fire tower gazing over terrain we¢d just covered and the stuff we were about to get. Down off of Albert we bumped into our Israeli buddy, Tunnel. It was a pretty easy 6 more miles to Rock Gap Shelter where we are lunch. We had our first trail angelic experience minutes later at Rock Gap, where trail angels, Mom and Dad hatter gave us fruit. We decided to push on the Rainbow Springs Campground for resupply. It was a mile long hide along the old US 64. We bought our overpriced food and had a hot pizza and some root beer (delicious!) at a picnic table in the sun. We bumped into Crazy Al again. He¢d had a mixup with his bank, and he¢d run out of money. So he was working there for food. Lyd took a $5 shower because she smelled worse than I did, but was right back where she started, smelly. We pushed on strongly to finish at a campsite by an unnamed stream. It was slightly crowded so we may be in for a long and uncomfortable night. Brother and Sister (David and Suzanne) are here. We did around 13 AT miles and 15 total counting the miles to the Rainbow Spring Campground. We¢re a little sore, so we¢ll see how tomorrow goes. We crossed the 100 mile mark, though! Hooray! Also, we keep forgetting to mention, we finally got trail names! I¢m ¢Flanders¢ (pretty obvious where that came from) and Lyd is ¢Chicken Feet¢ (a story for another day).                                        Ned aka Flanders
Date: 2003-03-23
From: Noname Stream

To: Licklog Gap
Miles today: 11.4

Just as we thought it would be, last night was terribly uncomfortable. We both flipped back and forth, but no matter which way we laid we either had throbbing heads or throbbing feet. We woke up unrefreshed, but it turned out to be our best day yet. We hit our first bald today, Silver Bald. The balds are mountains with grassy summits and few trees yielding great views. After eating an orange on the summit of Siler, we continued on for a couple miles where we met Trail Angle Apple, an official, uniformed, volunteer trail angel. He had portable hostel setup, complete with a wood stove. Shortly after we arrived, Brother, Sister, and Tennessee Snail and Tortoise (Jerry and his son Carl Burgess, formerly the Tennessee Snails) showed up. Apple cooked up hot dogs and cinnamon buns, and we all sat around and ate and drank sodas and listened to Jerry tell one story after another. His funniest stories revolved around an insane character, ¢Hayburner,¢ but others involved dog tails, fishing, and whacking policemen. When Jerry finished his stories, we all hit the trail again. Wehn we passed a local family digging in the mountain side, I asked ¢Whatcha huntin¢ fer?¢ And the girl responded, ¢Ramps.¢ Ramps are wild onions, and we¢d been hoping to find some. She showed us what they looked like, so we dug some of our own. Then we climbed Wayah bald and saw the stone observation tower. We made it a couple more miles to a dry campsite where we enjoyed our ramps with potatoes. Yum!! We made our first campfire of the trip and enjoyed dinner with Tibidy Pete. We supplemented our potatoes with fire-cooked sausage and oreos. All in all it was a great day; now it¢s time for bed.                                                        Ned aka Flanders
Date: 2003-03-25
From: Licklog Gap

To: A.Rufus Morgan Shelter 
Miles today: 14.2
Weather: clear sky

We started out kind of late on the 24th, 8:30. We were originally planning to go 9 miles to the Wesser Bald Shelther and then another 6 to the Nantahala Outdoor Center, where there are bunk rooms and resupply. We wanted to save the 6 miles for a separate day because the last 3 before the NOC were a brutal downhill from 4000 to 1750. Instead, we decided to hike 14.2 miles to A. Rufus Morgan Shelter so we¢d only have to pay for one night of lodging and we¢d still get a day and a half of rest. We ate lunch at the Wesser Bald firtower where we met Roni from Israel. He was a southbounder that started on June 22, 9 months!!! Needless to say he was a little crazy. He was making fun of the northbounders he¢d run into, how they¢re all our of shape, and barely have beards, and how they like to run down hills. He said the ones that run down hill won¢t make it to Maine because their knees will give our after the Smokies. We gave him some of our extra food (he was mighty grateful!)and he gave us great information on places ahead of us. We took the downhill to the shelter slowly, and we still had enough daylight to cook dinner. Also, one of our buddies, Euchre, finally caught up to us. We¢d been leaving him notes in the shelter registers, so he pushed hard to catch up to us.                                        Ned (Flanders)
Date: 2003-03-26
From: A.Rufus Morgan Shelter 

To: NOC bunk room
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

We treated this like a ¢zero day¢ (no AT miles) even though we really had to walk 0.7 miles to get to the NOC. We made our reservations for a bunk room with Euchre and another thru-hiker ¢aka.¢ Lydia got her new shoes, Vasque Velocities!! She is very happy. Hopefully, they will work better than her heavy boots. We waited for the one restaurant to open at 11 and we ordered two enormous cheeseburgers- ah... real food. Also, Euchre got a big maildrop of food but he already had 7 days' worth, so there was a huge frenzy of thru-hikers all grabbing his unwanted food. We managed to get enough to get up to Fontana Dan!! Since we didn¢t have to buy any food, we bought Euchre¢s lunch. Then we took a long shower and did laundry. The lone restaurant at the NOC wasn¢t open for dinner, so four of us got a $20 ride with a lady that works at the NOC. We had great pizza and beer, which can only be sold inside the city limits, in Bryson City about 12 miles away. Then she took us all to a grocery store for odds and ends. We came back to the lounge and drank a few beers and played euchre (surprise!)with a couple of old guys, Tibrody Pete and Strap pack. It was a great day of rest! The weather is still beautiful! The woman from the NOC gave us some updates on the war- which sounded very disappointing.                                                         Flanders... aka Ned
Date: 2003-03-27
From: NOC bunk room

To: Brown Fork Gap Shelter
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Yesterday we left the NOC in the afternoon. We intended to hike 7 miles to the next shelter to meet Euchre, but we ended up staying at the first spring campsite ¢ about 2.6 miles in. I mended my shorts and Ned mended his pack. We read some, ate, and roasted marshmallows. I am addicted to marshmallows.        Today we had to make up for quitting early and left at 7:00. We hiked 13.5 miles today and it seemed to always be uphill. Truly, today was the hardest day yet in terms of steep uphill. Ned was annoyed with me because I kept stopping to look at (and sometimes photograph) precious new spring flowers and in so doing so destroyed his rhythm. Anyway, after many wildflowers and ridiculously steep unnamed mountains, we arrived at Brown Fork Gap Shelter where we received loud heckling from Euchre as we trotted down the path to the shelter. We cooked a mixture of Lipton stroganoff and Lipton Teriyaki noodles. The Three Wise Men started rolling in and we played euchre until 10 p.m.                                Chicken Feet