morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2012-03-08
From: Neel's Gap

To: Low Gap Shelter
Miles today: 10.9
Weather: overcast clouds

Woke up around 6:45t when all the other early risers got up. Pirate made us a pancake breakfast. Score. I didn'tget around until 9 as I ripped a hole in my spandex on a nail and wantedto do some repairs to my sleping bag so I had a little sewing session. Weighed my pack and with 3 liters of water and 4 to 5 days food it came in at 38 pounds owww. Nate and I left roundthe same time and hiked together today. He has some massive blisters on his heel so decided to move sloer today. I once again set the pace for the injured! HA. Today felt like 2 miles too far. We are all feeling the weight of the extra food supply. I was past tired and heading into injury zone with my left leg burning and my right foot twanging. The new insoles are making themselves know and have a lot less padding than my old ones. But they will better support and protect my arches. Got my first tral magic today from King Tut, a trail angel who had godiesset up for us. We had a really interesting discussion. He is devoted to organizing and participating in a lot of good works, food drives, and other wonderfully giving endevors. He had reached this point through finding faith in christ and asked us both about our beliefs. Nate answering to being a good old christian boy got a head nod and pat on the back but my answer got me a 45 minute talk about accepting christ in my life. Let me be clear that this guy was totally cool and really nice. His religous belief had ledhim to so much satisfaction that he believes it will do the same for everyone so was out preacjing. I'm very happy for him but find fullnes in other ways. All in all a good break in the day and I'm very thankfull to him. Climbing up the massive hill out of the gap nate and I had a goof time discussing the cha. Not to put too much time into it but there are a lot of trail angels who really push the eligion aspect, so long as they are still respectful of me and my beliefs and don't get too pushy I don't mind engaging in discussions like this. Even if they're not my favorite topic. So late in the day I limped into the shelter and itwas so endearing and heartwarming that so many people I've know for such a short amount of time were so happy to see me. They warmly greeted me, sai they were worried, had a space in the shelter ready for me whe they saw me coming down the hill. It was such a pleasure to see Sweet and Low ad the trio from Maine. We fit 8 people in the shelter and had a good laugh as we hung all our packs up in therafters as a hopeful deterent against mice. All told there were 6 girls and 9 boys at camp. I've really not felt the normal disroportion of males to females so many peple talk about. So Jimmy waws the one to pioneer the pack hanging so we were all giving him a joking time about it and I think he endex up with a trail name from stories he told us. Dig It? I'll have to check next time I see him. It started raining pretty hard tat night but we were warm and dr in the shelter. Having two bundled. Up people on eiter side of me, I had no problems with warmth.
Date: 2012-03-10
From: Rocky Mountain

To: Sassafras Gap
Miles today: 9.1
Weather: clear sky

Today was a weird sort of enjoyable misery. I really enjoyed being out, the sky was blue, the views incredible, the sun warm. And the grade would have been wonderful except that my rght quad tightened up and got so stiff and sore that it eventually buckled under me. I was esentially a tripodtoday using only my left legand hiking polls to slowly shuffle along down the trail. Toward the end of the day my leg was swollen and going numb and I could barely lift it to stretch it. I managed to catch up. With leebob and we made camp earlier than we had planned becaue I was in so much pain. Hopefully tonight will be my last cold night as I hope to pick up my extra warmth in Hiawassee.
Date: 2012-03-12
From: Dick's Creek Gap

To: Muskrat Creek Shelter
Miles today: 11.7
Weather: overcast clouds

I woke up and called the post office in the morning to see if they still had my extreme cold, oh my gosh i'm freezing, please send more gear package, and if I could just walk down and pick it up rather than wait for it to come to the hotel. they were so nice and did and pulled it out for me. Yay now I'll be able to leave on the morning shuttle. Thank you for the thin mints too! My pack feels soooooo heavy now, never go resupply shopping when you are hungry! Got back to the trail around noon just as the rain started to drizzle. weather forcast was for rain and occaisonal t storms all day. All of us hikers went through the same motions of putting on pack covers. looking at one another and then turning toward the trail. The first shelter was only 3 miles in and I think everyone else, some 16 plus people all went there. But I love hiking in the rain and I was feeling so good and was so happy to be back on the trail that when I hit 3 miles I kept walking. I just kept thinking to myself, "I can't believe I ever thought about quitting". As the only operson moving and being surrounded by the fog, I felt a glourious wonder of being alone in the woods, enjoying the beauty of the rain hitting the leaves and the silence of all the birds and animals tucked away somewhere warm. another 2 miles in it started to really rain and I found that at every campsite I passed I either felt strong and wanted to push on or would look at my guidebook and think, well the next one may be better. Until finally I found myself crossing the GA NC border. Yee HAW! It's a federal matter now boys. Physically I was wiped by then and it was raining so hard I decided I would just push myself and try to get to the next shelter. Of course NC's greeting is "welcome to North Carolinia, here's a mile of steep ass stairs. climb bitch!" sorry for the lanugage but those stairs totally deserve it. muddy slippery stairs I might add. And this was after doing some 8 1/2 miles uphill. whew, my legs were so tired they had given up protesting. So just as I get to the top of the stairs and have a large uphill and down and up before the shelter I hear the thunder in the distance. Oh great I could just kick myself for being so stupid. here I am on an exposed ridgeline with thunder ponetially minutes from rolling in and I have metal sticks in my hands....Darwin awards here I come. Adrenalin certainly gives you a kick in the pants and I near ran the next 2 1/2 miles to the shelter making it there in under and hours. I can already tell that my legs will pay me back for this tomorrow. So I get top the shelter soaked, bone weary, and coming down off a flight response. Shelter's full so I camp change into my dry clothing and cook dinner in the dark. Avetar is here though and it was nioce to see him as I hadn't run into him since Gooch Shelter. First night with all my new cold sleep gear. If I need it to work any night tonight would be it.
Date: 2012-03-13
From: Muskrat Creek Shelter

To: Standing Indian Shelter
Miles today: 4.9
Weather: light rain

Last night was my ten't first chance to show what it could do in a rainstorm. which was fail miserably. With no wind to keep condensation from forming and rain causing it to mist through the silnylon, i was pretty much wet, with big rain drops falling on my face. BUT all that warm weather sleep gear meant I was finally, beautifully, oh so happily truely warm! success! so bad tent good sleepgear. can't have it all. I had some serious hammock envy as a result though. sigh. so wiped down the tent and with the rain still coming and the fog all around and the distant noise of thunder I pretty much crawled back into my bag and stayed there a few hours writing in my journakl. Ran in the LeeBob on his way out. there are conflicting weather forcasts with some saying that it was suppose to rain heavily all day and others saying it was suppose to clear up. I had talked myself into just staying put and not moving today but around 9 I just had this urge to get up to go, figuring I'm already wet and with nothing to lose I packed up and headed out. oooo ahhhh eee. Legs are so trashed from yesterday and every step hurts so much. but it started to clear and the sun started coming out. I only wnet about 5 miles today but got to the next shelter early hung all my gear on a line to dry it oout and decided to give my legs and feet a break. No point in pushing on up Standing Indian Mountain which looked so large if every step would just equal misery. Bookworm came in later as did the 4 fast boys (some are calling them the Jersy Boys but they hate that so I won't) these 4 boys 18-19 year olds do like 15-16 miles a day, smoke like chimneys, and run down hills. they are also a riot and constantly remind me of just how old I am.   Turns out that a lot of the noise I thought was thunder yesterday was actuallty jet liners flying over head. a lot of them. It is so hard to distinguish the roar of wind, these planes and thunder that I feel like a lightning bolt is going to come down on me at any moment. So all my clothing is dry from the sun and I had a good long rest with good company before heading to bed. Staying in a shelter tonight and hoping mice are a non issue.
Date: 2012-03-14
From: Standing Indian Shelter

To: Approx Mile 100
Miles today: 15.5

Today was an intense day. Slept super well and actually overheated slightly1 a welcome change. Standing Indian Mountain turned out to be a breeze as it had such nice switchbacks. Ran into Bookworm at the top[ and hiked with her for awhile. We're planning to get a room together in Franklin either tomorrow or Friday so I'm going to try to keep miles with her. She's a much stronger hiker than I and has taken a lot more town and zero days with longer mile days between them. we made tentitive plans to see how we felt at the first shelter around 7 miles and see if we'd continue to the next which would be 14 miles for me and my biggest day so far. first few miles were easy downhill and flat with great views and nice weather to accompany it. I stopped for a bathroom break and didn't see her again for the rest of the day.by the first shelter my legs were trashed but I pushed on anyway. By then I felt I had been walking with a vollyball squeezed between my legs and both quads were in a bad way. at one point there was this beautiful view of a mountain across the vally with these steep cliffs. I sat there a little while admiring them before I got back to the walking part of this while thing. I figured i'd stop and camp before the next big climb but when I got there I was only 3 miles away from the far shelter so said okay girl man up. turns out that beautiful view of the steep cliffs was what I was now slowly climbing up. I was stretxching my quads every half mile by this point buyt they were still really really unhappy with me. After one point of slowly plodding along I looked down and realized the trail was just two feet wide with a steep cliff drop off below slightly hidden my some trees growing out of the side of the mountain and rock above. wheter gripped by delirium or quirkiness, I opulled out my ipod and put the last of the mochicans soundtrack on for the rest of the climb. Very fitting. i could here a lot of truck activity just to the left of the trail and as I started to climb albert mountain (and i do mean climb, this part of the trail required all fours and some rock wall climbing moves. fill in the soundtrack for this part of the trail yourself $#@^$$) this truck pulls right below me and just sits there watching me for like 5 minutes. oh great, I'm one mile form the shelter. this is the longest I've ever hiked and now I can't stay there because you had to go and creep me out. thanks, just thanks. albert mountain firetower had amazing views but I'm afraid I was too tired to truely appreciate them. walked another .7 miles to the shelter which was deserted and had all these cotten blankets all over the place. My creep meter was off the charts by now so I pushed on even further to get distance between me and the road. I only had about a cup of emergency water and eventually had to make camp without finding another water source as it was getting dark. I think I'm camping just around the 100 mile mark. Town tomorrow!
Date: 2012-03-15
From: Approx Mile 100

To: Wallace Gap/ Franklin NC
Miles today: 4.5

So coolest bit of news is tha for the past few nights we have been listening to coyotes and owls but last night I woke up ad roled over in my sleep. I heard a sort of yelp and bark as an animal ran away from the tent so I'm prety sure I was surrounded by coyotes last night which was just plain cool. So woke up got packed up and headed down the trail where I almost got lost when I missed the sarp turn in the trail instead following the well walked path leading to the construction sight of a new shelter. Little stressful for a little bit untl I back tracked and found the turn of. Got into franklin after being picked up by Ron Haven who owns all these hotels in town. He's a really sweet man and I'm so thankful he runs all these free shuttles for the hikers. Got my laundry done while wrapped in an army poncho and my jacket. Shower! Bookworm and I split a room and enjoyed our tv ad resting our feet.
Date: 2012-03-16
From: Wallace Gap/ Franklin NC

To: Franklin NC
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Zero Day! Bookworm and I decided to give our feet a rest and bodies time to heal up. Nothing but 12 hours of watching SVU marathons, bakery and pizza, yogurt and fresh food. I felt like a slug. My body may have needed it but I can't wait to get back to the trail.
Date: 2012-03-17
From: Franklin NC

To: Siler Bald Shelter
Miles today: 6.9
Weather: overcast clouds

I left Franklin on the 11am shuttle. It was so pretty out, my body felt great and I literally hiked the first 3 miles with a huge smile on my face. So hapy to be back on the trail. Scatered thunderstorms and light rain today. Climbed down to winding stair gap where there was trail magic! Man I feel so spoiled and guilty for all the wonderful food people keep giving us, especially coming right out of town. But they insisted and seemeed t have so much fun just feding me and the 5 other hikers there. BBQ sandwiches and hamburgers, snickers and bananas. It was awesome. And it's really nice t meet all these different people and hear why they do this and talk to them about the local area.I decided to not do that many miles today as I got a late start and my legs were a little tender stillwith a few creaky ankle moments. My pack feels so heavy coming out of twn even though I didn't really resupply as I still have too much food from Hiawassee. I think I might have way too much clothing as I picked up a pair of fleece pants in Franklin mostly because they were an incredible 80% off. Hey I got this trailname for a reason, it's just harder to collect and hoard things when moving them all around on your back. But I will say that I am WARM!!!Bookworm washere reading and the three people I had trail magic with, spoon chese, and motown. Also boxhead and runoff.
Date: 2012-03-18
From: Siler Bald Shelter

To: Cold Spring Sheter
Miles today: 12.1
Weather: clear sky

Today was just an exceptionally pleasent day. Last night around 4:00am it rained. Hard. Like monsoon constant roar oh my gosh so glad I have a roof over my head, can't distinguish indivdual raindrops hard. I had just gotten back from the privy less than a moment befre the sky opened up. Man good timing. Woke up to find that runoff and spoon had retreated rom their tent and hammock to the shelter. Well, spoon had smartly grabed his hammock and had it strung up in the covered eating area. Even though I woke up early all the others were snoozing so I roled back over deciding I didn't want to be the one t wake everyone up. First climb brought us to my first bald which is a large grasy field on top of mountains that give 360 views. Okay well the actual top of the bald was another half mile up from he trail. I totally walked ten stes past it back into the woods before hitting myself and saying, "wha are you doing? You love views like this. Don't be lazy."so I took the extra miles and slogged up the hill, ditching my pack halfway. So worth it. As I was waking out of camp I saw the fog roling up the mountains and it looked like waves hitting the shore. From on top of the bald the mountain tops looked like they were popping out of the sea. There was a engraved stone up top showing north and south. For as far south as I could see, I knew I had hiked. I could see Albert mountain fire tower on the furthest peak. It's so stunning to see how far you can walk in a few days. Turning north I new that all those mountains were to come. Inspiring. Almost had a sound of music moment but recoveredx my wits just in time. Als resisted rolling down the hill, but only because the ground was soaked. Walked down the mountain to find early mornin breakfast rail magic provided by Ear Bag and Hover who hiked last year. I love chatting these guys up. This was folowed by a massive hill that would not end. Another hill ad we were at Wayah Bald stne tower. From there they had all these pictures mimicing the views with mountains labeled. In the far distance loomed clingman's dome, highest point on the trail that I would be hiking to within a week or two. Hiked 12 miles today and besides general exhaustion there was no pain in my legs, ankles, or feet. Exciting. Weather is also nicegetting into the 80s. I'm so happy to be out here cntinuing on the trail. Tentng tonight so I hope it doesn't rain like last night. I'm debating whether or not to sty at NOC tomorrow or the shelter a mile before it and come through just fo ashower and laundry..
Date: 2012-03-19
From: Cold Spring Sheter

To: Nantahala Outdoor Center
Miles today: 11.7
Weather: clear sky

Whew, I wanted to send a special thanks to everyone who has been signing my trailjournal. I don't have time to thank everyone individually but it really does lift my spirits to read all your supporting words and gives me the drive to head back out to the trail for another week. A special shout out to my Frenchboro School kids. In the next few days I will hopefully be posting some pictures of different flowers that are now blooming. Your mission should you choose to accept it is to identify them. Cause I certainly have no idea. Good luck!Okay onto the trail journal:Started out early today and really fended off most of the pack for awhile. today I really felt like my pack is just too heavy as it really did a number on my joints, especially my knees and ankles, so I am anxious to get to NOC to weigh it and see what the damage is. Once again I am still carrying too much food and have another drop expected there so yeah, the hoarding is still going strong. today was mostly suppose to be down hill with just one big climb., what my profile map didn't show was that those were some steep trails down. there's this one place label the Jump Off point which apparently indicates when the trail ceases to be a trail and instead becomes the steps of mordor. OMG was that harsh on my knees and there were points where I was simply sliding down on my behind going ooof ahhh eek. so I limped down into the NOC and what a lovely site it was right next to the river. as always happens when there is the lure of a shower, i completely loose all sense of wanting to get moving and usually will pay any sum to be clean. Got a room in the bunkhouse which they were dividing by gender so ended up being just me and another hiker lady, Ma'am Ma who has been hiking with Mad Hat. These two are a trip,. I love meeting everyone on the trail. They were out of towels but did that stop me heck no, I'll stand naked in the sun as long as I can be clean! okay not really, i put on my town clothes while i was soaking wet and then let the sun do it's work. A bunch of us ate at the riverside cafe which was amazing! A lot of the boys had a lot of beers and partied into the night, something tells me they won't be hitting the trail tomorrow as a result. So good to be clean and have warm dry freshly laundered clothing to change into. There was a lot of time today for chatting and socializing with a lot of hikers i've been running into on and off. Awesome day even if I'm limping and it's all swelling. wahaha
Date: 2012-03-21
From: Sassafras Gap Shelter

To: Cody Gap
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: few clouds

As I walked back from the privy this morning, the sun looked so beautiful in the red orange sky. Mostly it was this ball of flame peeking out from behind baby blue clouds. I was lulled by this sight into cooking breakfast, which I rarely do, and watch the sun come up. A relaxing way to start the day. And as I climbed my first hill of the day I realized that something about today was different than all the others that came before. Today for the first time, that every single aspect of this hiking routine was pure enjoyment. From sleeping on my pad, to privy stops in the morning, collecting water, putting on the boots. All just amazingly easy, fun even, peaceful. I am finally joyful and happy to be out here. Before there had always been just enough misery to remind me that this was hard. But this morning I was literally beaming as I started off. It was amazing to suddenly feel how strong I have become in the last three weeks. I tackled 7 miles in 3 1/2 hours and while eventually my feet were tired and joints a little achy. It just feels good to hike. Can you spot the theme of today's entry? We went up Jacobs Ladder today which is a 578ft gain in elevation over .3 miles. Bascialy just a brutal straight uphill that's never even heard of a switchback. All I have to say is Jacob is one mean SOB. I had planned to hit the second shelter today at 15.2 miles but at cody gap it was pretty late in the day. I ran into Huff and Puff there and decided to camp with them. This way today and tomorrow will be more even miles rather than a long and a short day. I did have two close calls with rolled ankles today as my feet got tired and figured pushing on could risk an injury that sent me off the trail. worse part of those is when they roll these days, I tend to fall, l;ess fun on those steep cliff like ridge lines. Beautiful thing of the day: A ridge line where all the bushes were covered in icy moss so it looked like a seafoam vista all around. Funny moments to share that I forget to write about: All of us hikers talking about bears, hillbillies and other "dangers" of the trail. Runoff going, "bears, sheesh, I'm scared of all these girls, every one of them carries a huge knife and they sleep with it in their hand, I scared to snore or roll over in my sleep, one of them's going to stab me" hehehe.