morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2010-02-23
To: Snow camping got me sick as hell
Miles today: 0.0

Well, David and I thought it would be a good idea to do an overnight trip before we left for the AT with all of our gear. It is hard for me to get weekends off of work since I work for Starbucks. Turns out that the weekend I took off turned out to be the nicest weekend we've seen out here since last August. So we threw the AT camping trip out the window and opted for a snow camping trip up to Artist Point near the Canadian Border. Problem was, the night before we left, i started coming down with a cold. So being the stubborn outdoor enthusiast that i am, I drank a ton of tea, water & broth and downed a ton of cold meds and off I went anyways. I made it up to the ridge and on a short day hike from there after setting up camp, but then immediately felt like I got hit by a truck. I was in the tent early that night. I had with me my new sleeping bag, the Montbell Spiral Hugger #3 which is a 30 degree bag and I used my Sea to Summit liner which is supposed to add 10 degrees of warmth. Let me tell you, I was pushing the limit of my bag that night. With tempts near 20 degrees overnight, I was warm enough to not be in trouble, but not warm enough to not be cold. I sure hope tempts on the AT don't get below 30. The next day my voice was barely audible and I stayed in the tent until the first bit of sunlight crept over Mt Shuksan and lit up Mt Baker. it was a glorious sunrise and i wished I had more energy to take photos. There were 6 in our group and four of them took off that morning to try for the Mt Ann summit while my friend Lauren stayed with me in camp while I rested. Despite being sick, it was a great day to be in the mountains. Blue bird skies, lots of sunlight and a couch molded out of snow to lounge in all day while gazing over Mt Shuksan. Better than being laid up at home. I drifted in and out of sleep while sitting there for seven hours before breaking camp and meeting the rest of our crew at the car at 4:30p. I paid for that little stunt yesterday and today by spending over 36 hours in bed. d'oh! I'm out of bed today and trying to catch up on email and trying to muster enough energy for my 8 hours shift at starbucks tonight. On the boot front, I've decided to go with a pair of Keen Targhee or Voyaguer to start the trail with. I think that I will regret bringing my heavy weight boots on this trail no matter how cold or rainy it gets. So here goes nothing. Well, that's it for now. -b
Date: 2010-03-22
To: Farwell Seattle
Miles today: 0.0

Here I go.   I just finished my last day of work five days ago. Then yesterday I finished moving out the last of my things, cleaning my apartment and turned in my keys. It was kind of sad. I have really enjoyed the last five years of my life here in Seattle through the good, bad and tough. It is a bitter sweet parting. To all of my friends, I will sincerely miss you all dearly. I hope to hear from you all as to what you are doing in your lives. I have gotten to know so many great people and it is hard to be so far away in the next 7 months. Tomorrow I leave from Seattle (my home) to Dallas/Fort Worth for a week to see my sister Katy and my high school best friend Sarah. It will be a visit long over-due before I embark on my grand adventure.I¢ll write more as to my happening in the last couple weeks when I arrive in DFW and before I start the trail in a week.To my friends here in Seattle, THANK YOU for making me feel so cared for and seeing me off in style! ?Cheers!-Beth
Date: 2010-03-30
To: Springboard
Miles today: 0.0

Well here I am, nearly a week after leaving Seattle, sitting in the Hiker Hostel in Dahlonega, GA. David flew into Dallas/Fort Worth last night at about 6pm to meet up with me. I spent last week in Texas visiting friends & family. The week flew by and successfully deterred me from thinking about the Appalachian Trail, but now reality has set back in. I didn't start to feel excited until I was sitting on my plane earlier today bound for Atlanta, GA. This feeling of excitement was followed immediately by butterflies in my stomach about what I'm about to do. It all seems VERY real now.Our plane arrived in Atlanta shortly after 2pm. We then navigated all of the craziness that is ATL airport and grabbed our bags. I made a few last minute phone calls about the apartment I got rid of in Seattle and then we were off on the MARTA train north bound to North Springs train station to be picked up by Leigh and Josh from the Hiker Hostel. But we had nearly three hours to kill before the shuttle arrived since we were waiting for 6 other hikers to arrive. So we jumped off of the MARTA at Sandy Springs Station, one stop before North Springs, to grab some food and a couple of beers.The shuttle took about two hours due to excessive stops, but should usually take only one hour. Once we arrived at the hostel, we spent an hour packing and repacking our bags and loading up on fuel and water. It's about eleven and lights out. Breakfast is at 7:30am sharp and the shuttle leaves at 8:30am. Tomorrow we do the .9 mile approach trail and then onward ho! We'll see what mileage looks like tomorrow.
Date: 2010-03-31
From: Springer Mountain

To: Hawk Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.8
Weather: scattered clouds

Got up at 7am today at the Hiker Hostel. We ate a quick breakfast, packed up our gear and were in the shuttle van by 8:30am. Our bunkmates at the Hiker Hostel were Christina & Stacy from up north. They are very nice and seem pretty self-sufficient. The shuttle from Dahlonega to the Springer Mountain trailhead took about an hour up a deeply grooved road. People who get car sick, BEWARE! In the parking lot of Springer, Josh from the Hiker Hostel pointed out a blue Pontiac Grand Prix that had been abandoned with a note saying ¢FREE! Title and keys inside!¢ I just imagined that some guy or gal told his/her both to stuff it one day, packed up their car and ditched if to hike the Appalachian Trail. The general disregard of societal norms made me smile and think of my brother, Nicholas.         It was .9 miles up to Springer Mountain on easy trail. We signed the register and took a couple of pictures. The feeling of being there was surreal. I just couldn¢t believe that I am finally here. We took off from Springer at 10:45am and ran into Mountain Squid and Mini Sleeps who were taking down thru-hiker names, ages and states for some kind of statistical reason. The first four miles of the trail were easy and gave me a false sense of accomplishment and skill. The last 3.8 miles to Hawk Mountain Shelter were a bit harder and yielded a few hot spots on my feet and sore knees. We had thought originally that we would press on, but 7.8 miles seemed long enough for a break-in day. We cruised into camp at 2:45pm, just four hours later yielding a 2 mph pace.        Now we are in camp with over 20 other people! This year there are a lot of people on the trail. People we have come across so far are:        -Matt (Maine)        -Andrew (Maine)        -Christina (New York)?        -Stacy (Massachusetts)?        -Charlie        -Tin Man (California)        -Henry (New York)        -Tom (New York)        -Mountain Squid        -Mini Sleeps        Well, onto cooking dinner, playing some cards and hitting the sack.Weather: Beautiful! Sunny, breezy and warm! Perfect day to start a thru-hike on the AT!
Date: 2010-04-01
From: Hawk Mountain Shelter

To: Woody Gap
Miles today: 12.3
Weather: clear sky

Got down to 40 degrees last night. Nothing near how cold I was planning for with my 15-degree sleeping bag. I slept like a rock last night with eleven hours of sleep. Went to bed at 8pm last night and woke up about 7am this morning.        David and I didn¢t manage to get out of camp until 9:15am after everyone else. But throughout the day we were passing people left and right with our 2 mph pace. One big climb over Sassafrass Mountain today and the rest was relatively easy. Only hard part was pulling a 12-mile day in 80-degree heat. It definitely wore on us as the day went on. We got into Woody Gap at about 5pm and rejoined with Tin Man, Andrew, Matt & Charlie and met a new face¢¦Lawdog.        Had a big dinner and I¢m still hungry. We are on to Neels Gap tomorrow for a hot shower and a warm bed. Hopefully there will be beer and hot food as well.         More people we met:        -Dan (New Hampshire)        -Lawdog (Georgia)        -T-square        -Stogie        -Jim (Washington)        -Dune        -Randy        -JaimieWeather: Hot and sunny! Drank a ton of water today. Dunking my head in Justus Creek was awesome!P.S. Saw a couple of vultures today too. That was cool. Oh! And some white flowers. Spring is on its way!
Date: 2010-04-02
From: Woody Gap

To: Neels Gap
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: clear sky

Woke up at about 7am today & finally rolled out of bed at about 7:30am. Spent the night by a highway so it wasn¢t the classic image you have when thinking about the wilderness, but I slept hard like usual. Everyone but Lawdog left out of camp before us, like usual, and we hit the trail by 9:05am. Just before we left though, Leigh from Hiker Hostel pulled up and informed us that Stacy and Christina had left the trail because Stacy had something resembling heat stroke. The paramedics had to carry her out of Gooch Mountain Shelter and she¢s in some hospital in Atlanta. It was really humbling information and I really hope she¢s okay. I¢m now the only girl left of the crew. There are about 16 hikers here at Neels Gap and I¢m the only girl. Little weird. I was hoping I¢d see more women here.        Well, as for happenings today¢¦Just a mile into the trail today we came across a woman carrying her African Grey Parrot in front of her in a cage. The shortly after we saw our first snake, a couple foot long garter snake. Also saw a few more flowers in bloom.        We made pretty quick time for the first part of our hike; making Woods Hole Shelter, which is about 7 miles, in about 3 hours. We had a nice lunch there and thought the 3 miles up and over Blood Mountain and down to Neels Gap would be a cinch since we both hike mountains larger than this one back home in Seattle. Boy was I wrong! I now called that mountain ¢Blood Mountain, Ya Bastard!¢ Blood Mountain would have been easy had it not been at the tail end of the three long and hot hiking days. I was moving slow. I was rewarded at the top though with gorgeous views and a message written in the shelter journal from Mike & Laura, the two thru-hikers we met in Seattle. They are about five days ahead of us, but we hope to catch up with them.        We pulled in at Neels Gap just after 4pm and checked ourselves in at the Hostel. We took showers and chatted with other hikers for a bit. The bunkroom seemed a bit cramped and stuffy and such a beautiful day as today, so David and I opted to pitch our tent up trail and donated our bunks to the next hikers coming through. Trail Angel, Janet, cooked up a big spaghetti dinner for all of us with salad and bread. It was so good! I don¢t think I¢ve ever enjoyed a meal so much. Janet then regaled us with thru-hike lore and general trail comedy. It was a great night.        I was going to try to take it easy tomorrow since I feel sore and tired and sustained a pretty bad sunburn today, but it looks as though we¢re going to try for Low Gap Shelter tomorrow about 11 miles up the trail. We just have to re-supply tomorrow for four more days and leave by noon. I¢m hoping to fit in one more shower as well.Weather: Sunny, not as hot as yesterday, maybe high of only 75-degrees today with blue skies and a slight breeze.People we¢ve met:        -Steve        -Bill        -Bimbo        -Greg
Date: 2010-04-03
From: Neels Gap

To: Low Gap Shelter
Miles today: 10.8
Weather: broken clouds

Slept well up on the hill from the hostel with the rain fly off and a blanket of stars above us. It was very beautiful and peaceful. Heard from other hikers this morning that the bunkroom in the hostel was hard to sleep in due to snoring and farting all night. Glad we slept outside. I took another shower this morning b/c I could and then grabbed some hiker grub that Trail Angel Janet left for us¢¦cold milk, fresh fruit, donuts and bagels, hmmmm.        We re-supplied for the next three days at the store at Neels Gap. The shakedown that they do at Neels Gap yielded a few happy hikers that were previously carrying 60-pound packs that are now 30 pounds. We have lost half of our starting crew behind us and we are running into the few who over-packed from the crew ahead of us. It¢s really interesting and refreshing how diverse the people out here are. All walks of life from all over the world representing many different age groups.        We finally left Neels Gap at 10:30am thanks to me dragging my feet. Or rather, taping the hell out of my feet to ward off future blisters. It was a slow 10.8 miles into Low Gap Shelter since my muscles were so tender. It will probably be a couple more slow, ten-mile days into the town of Hiawassee, GA. We are going to take a day off there to re-coop a little. I¢m looking forward to that.        Water was scarce from Neels Gap to Low Gap Shelter so I advise future hikers to load up at Neels Gap. We found one source on the side of the road at Hogpen Gap, but it was slightly shady. It was also creepily quiet after Hogpen Gap. Strange area and not a good place to camp. Stay at Whitley Gap or carry on the 4.4 miles to Low Gap Shelter.        We arrived at Low Gap Shelter at 5:30pm to a full house of hikers cooking supper. Tent sites were before the shelter towards the trail. The only people left of our crew were Tin Man and Charlie. Matt and Andrew (the thin runner types) kept on to the next campsite. Seems that David and I are keeping pace with the slow and steady crowd that averages 11 miles daily. Cool with me¢¦for now. I sure hope I can tack on higher mileage days after we hit the Smokey Mountains in 2 weeks.People we¢ve met:        -Melissa        -Itchy        -Marty        -Coach and crew        -EvanWeather: Windy and sunny with a rain storm scare midday, but it just blew over and it became sunny again near the end of the day. Beautiful sunset with red sunlight stretching its arms through the knarled trees toward our tent. Tempts: 75-degrees high, 50-degrees low.
Date: 2010-04-04
From: Low Gap Shelter

To: Rocky Mountain Campsite
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: scattered clouds

Heard a coyote last night or something like it. It was spooky and cool at the same time. It was really close to our tent, too. It got a little cold last night compared with the heat wave we have had since we started trail 5 days ago. We had condensation on our sleeping bags this morning. Slept well though and didn¢t want to get out of my sleeping bag yet again today. Once again, we were the last to get out of camp with a 9am start.        I listened to my I-pod for the first time today and just flew down the trail. We made really good time to Blue Mountain Shelter for lunch. We cruised in at 12:15pm after 7.2 miles. We caught up with Tin Man, Charlie, Melissa and Evan, but they took off about 15 minutes into our hour lunch break. David and I joke that we are Union hikers. We take snack breaks an hour and a half into the day; and an hour lunch about 3 and a half hours into the day; and another snack break 6 hours into the day; and call it quits at 8 hours. Not a bad day at the office! We are figuring that we will have to pull longer days next week though, to get re-aligned with my schedule.        Right as we were leaving the shelter about 20 people from Korea showed up to take over. I was drooling over the beer they had. There wasn¢t any beer at Neels Gap because it is in a dry county. I talk so much about beer while hiking that I¢ve now been dubbed with the trail name ¢Cervesa¢.        The rest of the hike to Rocky Mountain was pretty uneventful. We keep hearing a type of Warbler near here that sounds like it¢s saying ¢Who Me?¢ when it sings. It¢s so cute and I thoroughly enjoy hearing it. We also passed a beautiful stream where we could wash off before hitting camp.        We pulled into camp at about 4:15pm and had the place to ourselves. Most of our crew either stayed at Blue Mountain, hitched at Unicoi Gap or pressed on to the campsite at Cheese Factory Site. We decided on Rocky Mountain for the sunset/sunrise views and wind to keep the biting gnats away. A family showed up at about 7pm and is sharing the summit with us. They are from Atlanta and nice folks.        David and I enjoyed some down time before cooking dinner. We then played a couple more hands of Jen Rummy. We are tallying the score of seven weeks worth of games while David is on trail. I am in the lead so far. Stay tuned¢¦Weather: Sunny, 80ish w/ a light breeze. Have the tent fly off tonight to take in a sky full of stars. JOh, PS: We heard that a bunch of food bags got snatched from Blood Mountain a couple of nights ago. BEWARE hikers! Hang your bags high and out from the tree trunk. Try the ¢PCT Method¢ (Google it). Bears are abounding at Blood Mountain.
Date: 2010-04-05
From: Rocky Mountain Campsite

To: Deep Gap Shelter
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: broken clouds

Sleep last night was good but the wind started blowing about an hour before sunrise. That¢s when David and I heard a loud ¢screech!¢ We looked straight up through the netting of our tent and realized that we had pitched our tent under a tree that was holding up a falling tree. The ¢screech¢ was the two trees rubbing together in the wind. We both immediately got up and broke camp since the falling tree was aimed right at us. It may never fall or it could have fallen last night. We didn¢t care; we just didn¢t want to take the chance.        Well, we finally got an early start though. We left out of camp at 7:10am. We stopped for sunrise at about 7:25am and then continued on 3 more miles to our next water source since we were both out. We filtered 3 liters apiece and headed up 1300ft to the top of Tray Mountain. It was a steep climb, but it was still cool and breezy. It wasn¢t until the end of the day when we climbed Kelly Knob that we were punished by the rising heat. It was HOT today! No breeze with heat lines coming off of the trail. On top of doing nearly 12 miles in the heat, we also gained nearly 4300ft of elevation today. We were thoroughly spent by the time we hit our camp at Deep Gap Shelter.        We arrived at 3:45pm and were joined shortly thereafter by the same family we camped with last night as well as T-square and Stogie. There is another couple and an older guy here too, but I didn¢t catch their names. We never caught up with our crew. The road to Hiawassee, GA is just 3.5 miles from here, so we figured they continued on into town.        We are headed into town tomorrow. Our shuttle will pick us up at 9am and bring us to the Inn where we will be staying tomorrow night. We are both looking forward to a break. We also need to find an outfitter since the water filter broke. Hopefully there is one in town.Weather: Dang HOT! Sunny as hell! No breeze.New people we¢ve met:        -Alex
Date: 2010-04-06
From: Deep Gap Shelter

To: Hiawassee Inn
Miles today: 3.5
Weather: few clouds

Had a hard time sleeping last night. It must have been a really long day yesterday. Got up at 6am this morning and started hiking at dawn (7am), in order to make Dicks Creek Gap, 3.5 miles away, by 8:30am. We got into the town of Hiawassee, GA at 9:30am. We checked into the Hiawassee Inn and took much-needed showers. The Inn was chock-full of thru hikers and we got to catch up with fellow hikers. We got a bit of trail magic by finding two beers in the hiker box. Score!        We spent the day re-supplying at the Family Dollar (which is the best place to re-supply, by the way) and at Ingles Grocery. We stopped in a small store called Buckhead and miraculously found a replacement filter for our broken one. It was the last one in the store. It was a really weird twist of fate. We also found out that Hiawassee is pretty dry when it comes to canister fuel. We happened to snag one of the last two that the Hiawassee Inn tracked down for hikers.        I also sent all of my winter gear up the trail and sent some stuff in my pack home. The items I sent home include:        -Gaiters        -One pair of socks        -One map        -A navigation book        -Gloves and liners        -Camp towelAll of this amounted to about three pounds.        After chores were done, David and I hung around the Inn watching TV and eating ice cream. It was another scorcher today and we were thankful for the air conditioning.        We catch the 8:30am shuttle back to the trail in the morning. We have five days to the next stop at the Nantahala Outdoor Center at mile 135. We will also be crossing into North Carolina tomorrow. One state down! Whoo-hoo!Weather: 90 degrees with cloudless sky. No breeze. HOT!
Date: 2010-04-07
From: Hiawassee Inn

To: Muskrat Creek Shelter
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Slept okay in the Hotel last night. Is it possible I have already adjusted to sleeping on the ground in my tent? I woke up at 6am and had to get up. And when I¢m in my tent, I have to drag myself out of bed. Weird.        Took yet another shower and then finished packing my pack up. Everything fit much nicer since I sent home a bunch of stuff. Although the four days of food we packed took up a nice portion. I kind of think we are over packing on the food even though we eat it all. Our packs always seem to slow us down more than the rest of the crowd we are with.        I finished all my morning chores with 45 minutes to spare before the shuttle left out of Hiawassee at 8:30am. So I sat in a lawn chair out front eating fresh fruit and drinking a hot cup of Joe. It was blissful.NOTE: David is now OPUS¢¦not Gourmet.Ron Haven himself showed up in a short, yellow school bus to take us back to the trail. He is a very charismatic guy who does a lot for us hikers between Hiawassee, GA and Franklin, NC. He was liked instantly by all of us.        We hit the trail at 9am and I just flew up trail. Opus was having a bit of a hard time as his pack weighs more than mine now and he is also more sensitive to the heat than I am. We still managed to make good time though and hit Bly Gap by 2pm (9 miles). Bly Gap also marked our entrance into North Carolina and our exit from Georgia. One state down! It will be nearly 300 more miles before we cross another state off of the list.        The last 2.8 miles of the day were brutal uphills that zapped all of my energy. When we got into camp, I stayed in the tent for a couple of hours, resting.        Oh, I almost forgot, so we replaced the broken water filter, right? Well, just an hour down the trail my water bladder breaks inside my pack spilling water everywhere! We just started a four-day hike before next re-supply and I don¢t want to loose the time it takes to go into town. So now I¢m using a Nalgene bottle and a Gatorade bottle for water. It makes it really hard to cover miles in this heat without getting dehydrated. I¢m going to tough it out though since cool weather is on its way.        Thunderstorms are forecasted for tomorrow followed by cooler weather. We are hoping to do 16 miles tomorrow, but we¢ll see. I hope there isn¢t hail.New people we¢ve met:        -Emily Maple        -Chainsaw        -Laurel & ChrisWeather: Not as hot as the last week, but still warm. Some high clouds and occasional breezes. Getting cool tonight.