morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-04-12
From: fontana dam shelter

To: derrick knob shelter
Miles today: 23.0
Weather: few clouds

I couldn't fall asleep last night because I was ready to be back on the trail hiking. I woke up early this morning and I left the shelter by 7:00. The rain stopped just before I left. The first mile or two of the day was down a road to the Fontana dam and then up a paved road to the backcountry entrance of the smokies. The morning was great and the Fontana dam was really cool and had great views. Once I made it into the smokies I had to start climbing and the farther I went up the more the sun disappeared. For most of the morning I walked in a misting cloud until noon when the sun finally broke through. I really enjoyed hiking in the fog and not being able to see very far. The afternoon was completely different I was crossing balds and climbing up to several different mountain peaks. With clear skies I was able to see very far and it was incredible! I love it out here and how vast everything is. I met a couple from Ontario Canada and I mentioned to them that I have been fishing in Nestor Falls Ontario and that is right by where they are from. It was really good to talk to them and reflect on some of my trips to Canada where I was first introduced to the wilderness. The highlight of my day was the view from rocky top mountain it was amazing and I sat up there for 30 minutes just soaking it all in. After that it was a pretty tough up and down all the way to Derrick knob shelter. Once I got to the shelter I cooked a mountain house meal that was given to me and it was delicious. Also I successfully doubled my caloric intake today and felt a lot better. Tomorrow I am going to be on top of clingmans dome the highest point on the entire AT. I'm going to enjoy my time up there and I'm only planning to do 13 miles but who knows I planned to do 16.7 today and ended up at 23. When it is a beautiful day with great views it is super hard to make myself stop at a shelter early in the day and waste the rest of it sitting around.
Date: 2013-04-13
From: derrick knob shelter

To: Mt. collins shelter
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: few clouds

Two posted today go backEasy day today. I got a later start than what I like. I left camp around 8:30 and really took it easy until noon or so. It was another great morning with a good bit of climbing up to clingmans dome. It was super cool to see the forest change as I got higher in elevation. Most of the hike was in evergreen trees and it smelled like Christmas. It was a super cool change of scenery. The weather has been an incredible blessing and I have had great views all through the smokies. Clingmans dome had great views and it was nice to be on top of the highest point of the AT. After that the trail descended and require me to take my time. It was quite steep, wet, and rocky. I hiked another three miles to Mount Collins shelter. Trying to decide if I'm going to do two big days to be out of the smokies or stretch it out for one more day.
Date: 2013-04-14
From: Mt. collins shelter

To: Tricorner shelter
Miles today: 20.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Last night was an annoying one.....I woke up at 5 having to go to the bathroom really bad but I didn't want to get out of my warm sleeping bag. So I took my ear plugs out and I heard something crawling around in my trash bag ( I use it for organizing a bunch of random zip locks). I grabbed my headlamp and shined in the direction of it to she a mouse going to town on a zip lock full of my trash. This is about a foot and half from my face. So my first thought was to get a picture of him when he came back. As I was getting ready to snap a picture of him another mouse ran across my head....I was super annoyed but I got the picture! So I knew I had to get the bag out of the shelter so I took it outside, used the restroom and slept soundly for the rest of the night.Great day today. Today had the most consistent and best views all day long. It was incredibly beautiful!Left mtn Collins shelter at 7:15. It was a great morning. I really enjoy being the first out from the shelter because I am all by myself in the woods for most of the morning and it is super quiet. After the first five or so miles I got to Newfound gap and took a break to call home and update my journal. I was also able to refill my hand sanitizer in the bathroom!! After that I began the hike up and out of the gap. Now time for the awkward story of the day: (take this loosely but day hikers aren't the smartest of people) anyway I was climbing up a pretty steep section of the trail and when I climb I put my head down and try to go up as fast as possible. So I'm looking at the ground watching my steps through the rocks and I here a noise ahead if me....so I look up and there was an old woman peeing in the middle of the trail. She tried to get decent really fast but it was to late I was already past her. I said hello and walked faster. Moral of the story get far off the trail if you have to use the restroom. Ok back to hiking. As The climbing finally ended I was on a ridge approaching Charlie's Bunion. It is a rock formation that sticks out pretty far. It was really cool and I decided to sit out on it and have lunch. While I was out there it was a really cool perspective and really reminded me of how big the mountains really are. I have been out here a bit over 16 days and I am still in awe of the beauty but I do forget the size of the mountains sometimes. After the bunion it was an incredible stretch of trail for miles along a ridge with incredible views. If anyone is looking for a great day hike or overnight in the smokies go to newfound gap and go north on the AT for a 10 miles. I got to the side trail for pecks corner shelter where I was planning on stopping but I didn't realize it was .4 off the trail. It really annoyed me the have to hike off the AT, so I decided to hike another 5.2 to the next shelter that is right on the trail. Ha thru hiker logic. The shelter is really crowded tonight hoping to not have any mice encounters tonight.
Date: 2013-04-15
From: Tricorner shelter

To: Standing Bear Hostel
Miles today: 18.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Slept well last night and enjoyed the people that I met at the shelter. I left camp around 7:45 and began my hike out of the smokies. There was a light rain this morning for about five minutes and then the clouds lifted off of the mountains and reveal another great day of blue skies. The trail continued to have some great views for the first five miles of the day and then the decent began to davenport gap and the exit of the smokies. I dropped several thousand feet over the next 8 miles. About halfway down I saw some deer running away from me, they spotted me before I saw them. For the rest of the time it was just a slow decent with a lot of rocks so I had to take my time. I got to davenport gap around two for lunch and continued on for two more miles to standing bear hostel. I was not planning on staying here but after a nice shower and a pizza I decided I was through for the day. Tomorrow I will hike to max patch which I am super excited to see and then on to hot springs the next day....but for now I am soaking my ankles in a stream and about to crawl into my sleeping bag!
Date: 2013-04-16
From: Standing Bear Hostel

To: no name gap
Miles today: 22.1
Weather: broken clouds

Really great to be out of the smokies and to camp wherever I want to. Last night I stayed at Standing Bear farm, it was a cool place and had a resupply. After I showered and resupplied I figured I would setup my tent and stay there for the night. Before I was leaving I was reading through my guidebook and saw that it was $15 to tent on that guys property......I wish I would've read that before I setup last night because I could've walked down the road 100 yards and slept in my tent for free. Oh well I payed the guy and started hiking. We had great weather again today and I was feeling well rested and ready to go. The part of the day was climbing 2000 feet up snowbird mountain. It wasn't to bad of a climb and it was a good way to warm up. From the summit I looked south and I could see a lot of the Smoky mountains that I had been on the day before. After snowbird I descended for a few miles to the gap before I began the climb up Max patch. At this point of the day it was pretty hot with some tough climbs. When I was about a mile from the summit of max patch I ran into a guy doing trail magic in a random place. I had two hotdogs and a coke. It was delicious. Then on to the summit of max patch. It was really really cool. Max patch is basically a grass mountain with great views. It was really unique and a cool place to be. After that I was still feeling good and decided to go farther than I initially planned just so I can be close to hot springs, nc and I can knock out all the things I need to do tomorrow. Oh and today was my first day of being in lower elevation since the smokies and I noticed that there are a lot of things blooming. Cool to see how the elevation will effect that. I plan to be in hot springs in the morning. I think I'm only 10 or so miles from there.Saw a guy with a Saints hat today as well, who dat!
Date: 2013-04-17
From: no name gap

To: mile 274.8
Miles today: 11.9
Weather: scattered clouds

We had a bit of rain last night but it wasn't anything to bad. I left camp around 7:30 and began the short hike into Hot Springs. It was mostly an easy down hill into town. Once in town I went to the laughing heart lodge to take my first hot shower in 200 miles. It was amazing!! So amazing that once I finished I said I gotta do that again, so I jumped back in and took another one. Ha it was AMAZING! After that I went down to the smokie mountain diner and ate a huge meal and hung around there for a while and drank my weight in sweet tea. Then I got to do laundry with an actual washer and dryer with detergent! All the other times since hiawassee when i did my laundry it was just rinsing my clothes out with water and drying them. Today was a day of indulging and it was fantastic! Smiling over the little things. The rest of the day was just hanging out and relaxing around town with rocky, crasher, and NBC. I am also saying bye to NBC today. I'm not sure if I have mentioned him but he is from Germany and is taking a ear to travel around the world. He just came from Patagonia, now the AT, going back to Peru after the AT, and then to New Zealand. I am a dreamer when it comes to adventures so talking to him has been a lot of fun. He is taking a few days off in hot springs for the hiker festival. I hope to run into him again on the trail. I am resupply to get me to Irwin in a few days. Also I pulled a muscle in my leg five days ago and it is finally all healed up! Feeling good and ready to go north. My beard has a shadow.....that's something to be proud of in my book.I'm going to hike out of town a mile or two tonight not sure of my destination.
Date: 2013-04-18
From: mile 274.8

To: Jones Meadow
Miles today: 21.8

Last night rocky, crasher, and I hiked out of town and went a mile down the trail to a campsite by the river. We just relaxed by the river and got to know each other a bit more. I left camp by 7:30 and really cruised through the day. About 5 miles in I saw a sign on the trail talking about a rainbow gathering and that they had food about 3 miles down the trail. I didn't think anything of it and I figured I'd check it out when I got there. So a mile or so before I met two other hikers and they asked me if I was planning on going to the "gathering" and they asked me if I was into that stuff.....I quickly figured out it wasn't trail magic, so I decided to skip out on the party. I've heard stories from other people that camped in the same area....weird stuff (basically a bunch of homeless hippies that do a lot of drugs and run through the woods acting crazy) oh and they had some really good brownies...kidding. Anyway after I was passed that it was a great day and fairly quiet in the mountains. I got to see a four foot long rat snake that was in the trail. He slithered off once I got close. After that the highlight of my day was running into two day hikers that had a golden retriever named Charlie. He was a lot of fun to play with, made me miss my dog and wish I had one to hike with especially if it would carry my pack! I have been going a bit faster than everyone so I catch new people every day. Tonight I met several cool people all from the New England area. Tomorrow Rocky Crasher and I are going to hike out to Sams gap to meet their friend who is taking us to Asheville. We are going to zero there Saturday and be back on the trail Sunday. It will be good for my body to be off. I've been heathy but I have pushed some bigger miles than my body is used to the last few days. I also tried and experiment with liner toe socks today under my wool socks. Reason being to have another layer to decrease the friction on my foot even more....failed experiment. They held in a lot of moisture and made my feet a bit worse. So tomorrow I'm going to go with just the liner socks and see what happens. My feet are doing well but I want to see if there is something I can do to make them even better.Supposed to rain all tonight and tomorrow. First long day in the rain tomorrow I guess it's about time. I've had it really easy out here compared to most.
Date: 2013-04-19
From: Jones Meadow

To: Sams Gap
Miles today: 21.8

The storm held off last night. I woke up to strong winds and I packed everything up as fast as possible before the rain started. After leaving camp I got to a section that is called "strenuous" because it climbs a narrow ridge line and has some decent size rocks. It was a lot of fun and kinda sketchy with the weather blowing in. I took a few pictures from the top and then determined I needed to descend pretty quick to get out of the weather. The big climb of the morning was over big butt mountain. It was to bad. The rain was kinda light and the winds were high but the climb seemed to pass pretty quick. After that we had about 3 miles of relatively flat hiking and it was amazing!! A nice change of pace and it was the first flat section of trail. Around lunch it start to rain really hard and I found a tiny rock overhang to have lunch under. After lunch the rain continued to pour until 2:30 and the trail quickly turned into a stream. It was fun and a new experience on the AT. I got to SAMs gap around 5:00 and waited for rocky and crasher to get there. While I was there I sat under an overpass and tried to cook some Mac n cheese but I knocked it over. Anyway sitting under an overpass cooking a meal made me feel homeless ha. It was a unique experience. Once there friend arrived to pick us up we headed to downtown Asheville to get some pizza. The food was great and it is good to be off of the trail for a bit. I am zeroing tomorrow and ill be back on the trail Sunday.
Date: 2013-04-20
From: Sams Gap

To: zero day
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

The zero day was nice. I got a good night of sleep and stayed off of my feet for most of the morning. We went to downtown that afternoon and walked around for a while. It was nice for a while but I'm ready to be back on the trail...to many people. After we went to the grocery store we went back to their apartment and relaxed for the rest of the evening. Only bad part of the day was puking around 11 tonight...it wasn't fun. I'm 99% sure that it isn't a virus. i think it was just an allergic reaction....keeping my fingers crossed. I really hope it passes or has already passed we will see. Goodnight
Date: 2013-04-21
From: zero day

To: zero day
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

I had a rough night last night and I didn't get much sleep. I was trying to decide if I was going to hike in 2 miles or so and setup camp or stay in a hotel close to the trail. I'm pretty dehydrated and there weren't any water sources for awhile into the trail. So I decided to zero again today and try to get over this bug. I hope to be back on the trail in the morning. Until then in going to rest and recover.
Date: 2013-04-22
From: zero day

To: stealth camp mile 333.2
Miles today: 16.2
Weather: clear sky

Slept from 7 pm to 8 am and woke up feeling a lot better. I decided to take it slow and head to the trail. After enjoying the continental breakfast I showered and walk to the interstate to get a ride. It took me an hour to get someone to pick me but I finally made it to the trail around 11. I decided to slow my pace down a lot and just take it easy all day. After the first 6 miles I was on top of big bald mtn and took a lunch break. I hung out up there for a while and really enjoyed being back on the trail. The rest of the day was great and I was just feeling super blessed to be back on the trail so soon. The last few days were pretty tough mentally speaking mainly because I didn't know how long I was going to be sick. It is never fun to be sick and really not fun when you are away from home. Anyway it is feet to be back and great to be heading north again!While I'm hiking I try to take one day at a time and I look no further than my next resupply point...but I am really looking forward to Virginia and especially Grayson Highlands. I cannot wait to see wild ponies haha. It is going to be great. I'm pretty sure I'm going to pack some carrots to feed them!That's all for now. I'm pretty tired. Goodnight!
Date: 2013-04-23
From: stealth camp mile 333.2

To: campsites past beauty spot
Miles today: 21.0
Weather: clear sky

Great great day! I woke up at 7:00 this morning and decide to sleep in so I pulled my sleeping bag over my head and slept until 8:30. It was great. I left camp a bit after 9 but it was worth it. I cruised 8 miles down to Erwin, Tn and I was there a bit before noon. All I needed while I was there was to charge my phone. So I stopped by uncle Johnny's hostel to plug in my phone and relax. While I was there I was sitting at a picnic table having lunch with 3 older people that I passed on the trail earlier that morning. As we were sitting there one of the lady's was telling a story about a boy that wears red shorts (me) but she didn't realize that it was me as we sat there. After her story I said you know you are talking about me right? We had a good time relaxing and I hope to see them up the trail. After bumming around for two hours I decided it was time to leave if I wanted to make my goal of 13 more miles. The trail followed a creek that had pretty deep pools if water....it was so tempting to jump in, but I kept on hiking. Once I got to the top of the climb I reached a shelter and ran into 3 people that I knew. We all hung out and they told me that they heard I had the Norro virus....I don't think i did. At this particular shelter there is a timed challenge that some people do, it is as follows: town is 5 miles down hill and then 5 miles back up, the challenge is to run to town get two large pizzas and run them back up to the shelter as fast as possible. So a few minutes later this hiker showed up who is known for his ego....we tried to convince him that there is no way he could run down to town and back with pizzas under 3 hours. He argued he could, but when we told him to do it he backed down. I really wish I could've seen him run back to town. Notta chance I would've done it. Give me a challenge that puts me closer to Maine and I'll try it. I cringe every time I walk south even if it is 5 feet. Anyway, I left the shelter around 4:30 and headed another 8 miles to my goal for the day. It was a great last section even though it had thousands of roots. I got to camp a lot faster than I thought I would. It is good to be here relaxing. Tomorrow is going to be a tough one. I'm going to do my best to put away the miles quick. I have 20 or so miles to the summit of Roan mtn. There is a shelter on top that I plan on staying in. I hope to get up there before the weather hits. If I get there early and the weather is still clear I'm going to go a good bit farther. The shelter on roan is close to 6200 feet and it is the highest shelter on the AT. I would prefer to be off of the mountain for the storm. Oh and roan is the last time I will see 6000 feet until Vermont. Getting pretty used to being dirty....I don't even notice it anymore...kinda nice
Date: 2013-04-24
From: campsites past beauty spot

To: roan mountain shelter
Miles today: 21.6
Weather: light rain

I slept really well last night and got an average start this morning. I left camp around 7:45 to begin the first mountain of the day. Unaka mountain was a pretty big climb but it was worth it. The top was a spruce forest and it was really cool to see. So far I like a spruce forest is my favorite to walk in. It is just so much different than any other tree types that I go through. I have developed a rhythm of walking by myself during the day and I really enjoy it that way. I rarely see anyone unless someone is going south. The only times recently that I see people are at campsites where I will cook dinner. I like to cook dinner early and then hike a few more miles after. So when I get to the place I decide to camp all I have to do is setup my tent and go to sleep. Today was a lot of climbing. I was hoping to get to roan mountain shelter by 5 to cook dinner and then leave enough time to go 7 more miles to over mountain shelter. Once I summited roan it began to rain and the temperature dropped pretty quick. I was only in the rain for 20 minutes so it wasn't that bad. Once I got to the shelter, cooked, and warmed up I decided that I was done for the day. I am camped at 6200 feet tonight and the next stretch of trail is supposed to be beautiful with great views. So I figured ill let the rain pass tonight and enjoy the views in the morning.I will leave NC for the last time tomorrow completing my 2nd state. I plan on going into roan mountain, tn tomorrow for a resupply that will get me to Damascus, Va.Oh and there is still a few patches of snow on top of roan mountain. Cool to see. Goodnight
Date: 2013-04-25
From: roan mountain shelter

To: Ridge at 394.5
Miles today: 17.7
Weather: few clouds

Seems like this morning was a week ago....it was a very cold night last night. In shelters people usually wake up early but it was so cold this morning nobody was getting out of their sleeping bags. I was the first one to crawl out and begin packing up. I didn't change into my hiking clothes, I just wore my warm sleeping clothes for the first few miles. At 8:30 this morning it was 28 degrees in the shelter....so not sure what it was outside. Once I got moving and down roan mountain the temperature began to rise and I was able to change out of my thermals and down jacket. The mission for today was to get into town to resupply. The only obstacles were 4 balds that I had to go up and over. It was a pretty easy day for the most part none of the climbs wore me out and I was able to begin the decent into town pretty quick. I also left NC for the last time, making that two states down! When I finally got to the highway it didn't take long to get a hitch into town. Hitch hiking is pretty interesting....I was picked up by some sketchy people today but they got me to town... The feeling of standing on the side of the road with your thumb up and the whole time I'm thinking who in the world is about to pick me up. Town was a success and I was able to grab a late dinner while there too. I got a quick hitch out and I hiked a few more miles to a really cool part of the trail. My fingers are cold so I'm cutting this one short. Goodnight! Two journals posted today