morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-03-23
From: Walnut mountain shelter

To: Hot Springs
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: few clouds

Well we woke up early this morning from the mice infests shelter with one thing on our mind, getting to Hot Springs! The uneventful 13 mile walk went by fairly quick, and we found ourselves in our first trail town around 1. We first got our chores done which entailed: food pickup at the Elmer sunny bank inn hostel ( thanks for sending our package dad!), then to the outfitter for canister fuel, and finally to the laundromat to clean our clothes. While the clothes were washing we played cards. We were very disappointed to find out the local barbeque place was closed so we went to the diner instead. David was treated to his first fried chicken. I don't think he liked it very much... We walked through town as the sun was going down, and decided to stealth camp less than a mile down the trail next to the river. Eli cowboy camped, which is where you just sleep on your pad without a tent ! We plan on doing 20 miles tomorrow !
Date: 2016-03-24
From: Hot Springs

To: Little Laurel shelter
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: broken clouds

Well, turns out the fried chicken was a bad idea.... David's stomach didn't feel good, and I ended up throwing up in the middle of the night. Throwing up in the cold in the middle of the woods was a lonely place, but after the devil chicken left my body I felt much better. I can't say I will want chicken anytime soon though. We broke camp around 7:30 and set out. Elevation wise it was a pretty easy day, and view wise it was very sub par. There was a lot of time to ourselves because we walked separately. We finished the 20 miles around 3:30, and quickly ate dinner and hung a bear bag just before the rain started. The 5 person shelter we are sleeping in now has 9 hikers so things are going to be cozy ! Hopefully the rain will be done by morning as we plan on doing another 20 mile day !
Date: 2016-03-25
From: Little Laurel shelter

To: hog back ridge shelter 
Miles today: 22.0
Weather: light rain

Left little laurel shelter today later than usual due to inclement weather. We set off at a brisk pace, with the thought of the 21.9 miles ahead looming in the back of our head. We went though some sections that had slick exposed ridge lines with what I assume would be good views, but unfortunately the clouds were dense all around us and we couldn't see a thing. When we made it six miles up the trail to Jerry's cabin the fog finally started to cook off. We ventured on and made it to the next shelter were we met our first sobo. We hiked another two miles where we separated, Atticus and spidey hiked on, and goose and I stayed and made some calls. The next section was a 3 miles uphill that we were determined to catch Atticus on. Goose and I cooked it it up a seemingly endless uphill until we finally caught Atticus. Then we had a little downhill, and one final uphill push until the shelter. At the end of 22 miles your legs are done, and so we crawled into camp around 5, then commenced to do a solid 20 minutes of just sitting with no will or muscular strength to do anything. Had a nice dinner of Mexican rice and then sat around a fire a couple of hours. Tomorrow we might do twenty again to have an easy day into Erwin. It seems crazy to think two days ago I had never done twenty and tomorrow might be my third.
Date: 2016-03-26
From: hog back ridge shelter 

To: no business knob 
Miles today: 20.0

Atticus woke us up at 6:30 on the dot this morning. Unfortunately, Goose and I had to go get water for our bladders so that added 15 minutes to our morning routine, once everything was said and done we rolled out around 7:45. We had a leisurely pace for the first two miles into Sam's gap. Here we waited for Chris (my friend) and Betsy (his mom) for around 30 minutes, at this point Atticus and Spidey continued on. Immediately after they left some hikers from the Charlotte hiking club showed up with a killer trail magic spread. We had hot dogs, muffins, Coke, and Gatorade. Then maybe 10 minutes later Chris and Betsy showed up with bacon, egg, and cheese melts and juice. Atticus and spidey missed out. We then hiked around 6 miles with Chris and Betsy. We hung out on the bald for a bit and then started our 11 miles to camp. It was a fairly monotonous section and after a third day of 20 miles my legs are over hiking. When we got into camp we found out spidey had been urinating blood. One of our fellow hikers recommend he eat an ounce of charcoal and flush it with a liter of water. Spidey without hesitation tried it. I was skeptical, but we'll see if it saves us a doctors visit tomorrow. Only 6.2 miles into Erwin tomorrow. It'll be our shortest day yet and a much needed recovery.
Date: 2016-03-27
From: no business knob 

To: Erwin 
Miles today: 6.0

We were all extremely excited that there was only a 6 mile walk into town this morning. We had heard stories of all you can eat buffets, phone charging, and showers in Erwin Tn, all of which were things we desperately desired. We woke up early and got into town around 10. My girlfriend Courtney (aka pinky) was the first to greet us. She drove us straight to PIZZA PLUS, an all you can eat buffet. We worried that the buffet would be closed since it was Easter Sunday, but luckily they were opening right as we pulled in. I didn't think it was possible for 4 humans to eat as much pizza as we did. After we couldn't eat anymore we headed to the laundromat to wash our clothes. My good friend Brandon Roy ( aka beaver) picked us up from the laundromat and took us back to his place for burgers on the grill ! First we all showered ! It was quite satisfying to get all the dirt off of my legs. We ate as many burgers as we could, watched tv, and enjoyed the use of the Internet all at once. At this point you would think we would be full right, but we had to top off the end of the day with ice cream. It was the best NERO day we could have asked for. We got all the food we could want, we got to shower, and we had great company with good friends ! Thank you so much to Brandon and Alexis for the hospitality and generosity, you guys are awesome and it was so good to see you ! Also special thanks to Courtney for coming out and helping us, and good luck on your med school interview ! Tomorrow we are headed towards Roane mountain. It might be hard to start walking again after we have seen the other side of life once more. P.s. Spidey's medical condition seems to have cleared up. Thanks for the input Quest, we really appreciate it !
Date: 2016-03-28
From: Erwin 

To: Cherry creek gap shelter
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: scattered clouds

We left Brandon's house around 8:15 for the Erwin post office. We picked up some breakfast from pals and then we were dropped off at the trailhead. We started hiking and the first couple of miles were nice and easy next to the Nolichucky and one of its tributaries, but then we had a brutal climb up and out of the gorge. About two miles later we came to a road gap and got some trail magic from brother Tom. He told us that the next few miles had a nice uphill to unaka mountain, but that once you got on top you were in this really dense spruce forest, they called the emerald forest.Two miles before unaka there was a big bald where you could get a nice view of Erwin, Johnson City, and unaka mountain. Luckily the push up to the top ended up being doable. On top of Unaka the forest was beautiful, and definitely lived up to its reputation. We got to Jerry creek shelter and decided to break for camp Zack and I slept in our tent for the first time in a few days. Tomorrow we are going to climb up roan mountain. I've heard the bald are nice up there so I'm excited.
Date: 2016-03-29
From: Cherry creek gap shelter

To: grassy bald Roan Mtn. 
Miles today: 21.7
Weather: clear sky

At about 4:30 this morning Brandon came over to our tent and asked if we could make room for one more, the cold had chilled him out of his hammock. After giving him a hard time, we squeezed in for the last few remaining hours of darkness. The plan was to walk about 19 miles to camp on the grassy bald of roan mountain. We had heard such good things about this area we had a lot of motivation to start hiking. The morning was fairly uneventful, and by 1 o'clock we had reached the base of the roan mountain climb. The climb spanned over 4 miles and proved to be very difficult. We were all tired, hungry, and out of water by the top. We had to stop and eat icicles near the top because we were so thirsty. Brandon gets the mvp award for hanging tough on such a brutal day. We descended into carver's gap, where we sent Brandon back to civilization. After a small break we headed up to the famous roan mountain balds around 5:30. The views truly lived up to all the hype! If you have never been to this area it is definitely worth checking out, it does not feel like you are in TN/NC. As we crested the second bald we could see a plume of smoke in the distance. As we got closer, we realized there was a small brush fire on the second bald. We met some hikers who had already called the authorities, who eventually came and put the fire out. The fire ran right up to the trail, so luckily we were able to make it through. We decided to cowboy camp ( no tent just sleeping bag on the grass) on the third bald. With 360 degree views, the sunset was truly amazing ! We watched until the star came out. It was beautiful ! Things got really cold that night but we were determined to stay in our bags because David had bet we would all end up crawling in his tent when we got cold. Thank goodness we made it through the night ! Haha it was truly amazing day because we felt like we had seen a little bit of everything, and we were truly challenged the whole way. Looking forward to an another day on the balds tomorrow! Check out some of the sunset pictures we posted !
Date: 2016-03-30
From: grassy bald Roan Mtn. 

To: Vango Abbey Hostel
Miles today: 27.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Today we woke up to a beautiful sunrise on top of the bald. We rolled out around 8, and quickly made it to the Overmountain shelter which is one of the coolest shelters we've seen yet. It's an old barn converted to a shelter, that overlooks a beautiful valley. We filled up with water and then left the shelter and did a brutal climb up to yellow mountain which had a big clearing on top then down and back up an even bigger bald called hump mountain. The roam highlands have been one of my favorite sections so far, huge 360 degree views on every mountaintop. After that we descended past doll flats and to the final NC TN border. Two states down 12 to go. It was at this point that we realized Goose and I's resupply at Vango Abbey Hostel was not at 393 and actually at 405. So we decided we'd get to the shelter at 401 and see if we wanted to keep going. That means we had at least 11 miles if not 15 to go. With that in mind we put down some serious miles. Along the Elk river I saw a mink which is about the coolest animal I've seen so far. We all made it to the shelter around 5 feeling pretty good. So we decided to try and do the last four miles; somehow justifying it with thoughts of pizza and wifi. As soon as we left the shelter I noticed my toes were blistering, but we kept on. Finally we got to laurel fork gap where the side trail for the hostel was, but we didn't see anything. So we figured it must be up the hill a ways. We hiked another .75 miles in the fading light when we realized it had to have been back at the gap. So we walked all the way back with raw feet and tired muscles. When we got back down there was a moment of despair when we still couldn't find the trail. Right when we were about to pitch the tent in the middle of the trail I spotted a blue blaze 100 yards up the laurel fork creek, and then a saw bushwacking trail leading up to it. We followed this micro trail for about a quarter mile and were greeted by the sight of a confederate flag. Atticus remarked, "Maybe it's the neighbors." It was not. We rolled up and met Trekkie the hostel owner. He was a really nice dude and gave us a room and a frozen pizza for ten bucks each. Unfortunately the oven in the bunk room didn't work so I ended up eating mine cold. This seemed like the better alternative to Goose's microwaved pizza. The hostel is also covered in lady bugs, hundreds of them are in the room. It's a little unsettling. In total we did 27.1 miles, and I can definitely say my feet hate me right now.
Date: 2016-03-31
From: Vango Abbey Hostel

To: Laurel Fork Shelter
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: overcast clouds

This morning I woke up to the pleasant surprise of not being covered in ladybugs. My feet were still pretty ravaged from yesterday, so the only solution was to cover them in the rest of our roll of medical tape. We didn't leave the hostel until ten. We knew there was rain in the forecast for 12 so we needed to hurry, but we quickly found out how difficult it was to go fast after 27 miles. Goose and I's feet were torn up, and Atticus had really sore muscles, spidey seemed to be the only one to escape without harm. We trudged on anyway, ignoring our ailments, for better or worse. The rain was fickle. Atticus said, "There are many frustrating things about America, guns, politics, but by far the worst of all is your weather forecasting." Rain was predicted almost the whole day and we maybe got rained on for 45 minutes. At this point I can't help but feel like we've had so little rain that it's all just going to be unleashed at once in a storm of biblical proportions, but until then I'm content to enjoy the sunshine and dry clothes. Anyways, we eventually made it to pond mountain wilderness, and what the rest of the day lacked in beauty the final two miles made up for. The beginning followed the laurel fork as it meandered through a cliffed out gorge, and then we made it to the falls which were equally amazing. If it hadn't been raining at this point I think we all might've hopped in for a swim. We made it to the shelter around 4, and had a leisurely night. On to Hampton tomorrow!
Date: 2016-04-01
From: Laurel Fork Shelter

To: watauga lake shelter 
Miles today: 7.2

We woke up at 6:30 so we could head into Hampton we had 2.5 miles up and then 2.5 miles down. The day started out cloudy but quickly cleared up, and we got some nice views of Hampton. Once we made it down we met Doug Klaris and he took us into Hampton. There we stopped at dollar general, Atticus and I made some much needed upgrades to our kitchen, purchasing a block of cheese, and a small bottle of sriracha. After our shopping Doug took us out to McDonald's, and I ate not one but two Big Macs. Thanks a ton Doug. We then put back on the trail and started walking around watauga lake. About two miles in Atticus let us know he was having problems with tightness which we later diagnosed as shin splints. We stopped pretty early at watauga lake shelter. From two until bed time all we did was eat, play spades, and rest Atticus's legs. We are gonna wake up tomorrow morning and see how his legs feel before we do anything.
Date: 2016-04-02
From: watauga lake shelter 

To: johnson city 
Miles today: 1.0

Well we decided this morning that David definitely needed a zero day for his shins, and day off for the rest of the group wouldn't be bad either. We toyed with the idea of staying in the woods all day but the idea of a shower and real food was too tempting. I contacted my friend Brandon Roy (yes we were at his house 3 days prior), who jumped out of bed and raced to our aid. We met at watauga dam, and went back to his house in Johnson City. We had a nice relaxed day full of rest, ice, stretching, and of course lots of food ! Alexis took us to dinner at the local Mexican restaurant, where spidey had the biggest burrito I have ever seen. David, never having had Mexican food, was thrown by the amount of cheese on everything, but seemed to like his meal nevertheless. Tomorrow our mom is meeting on at the trail with new shoes and lots food ! We are all hoping to wake up tomorrow and be freezing good and ready to start walking again!
Date: 2016-04-03
From: johnson city 

To: shelter 
Miles today: 7.0

It was so nice to wake up at 8:30 this morning ( that is majorly sleeping in for us) ! We made pancakes and chatted until our mom arrived ! Thanks again to trail angel Brandon, you made our zero day much more enjoyable! We really appreciate everything ! We headed back to the trail, reinvigorated after our day off. My mom and Eli's girlfriend Paxton must think we are starving out there cause they packed us a feast. We had subway sandwiches, ice cream, chocolate bars, jelly beans, beef jerky, and chips. Thanks so much guys for all the food, and the good company! We set out to hike an easy 6 miles to the next shelter. We started over the hill to get back to the AT. We quickly realized that the path we were on wasn't really a trail. We traversed and bushwhacked our way down the steep embankment. After a lot of sliding we made it to a road which led to the trail. Nothing like a little adventure! Haha about a mile down the trail we ran into some trail magic! We ate as many hot dogs as we could! Stuffed and happy we walked to remaining distance to camp. We had eaten so much today we didn't even bother making dinner. David says his leg is feeling better, and team moral is high as we are almost to the 500 mile mark (and Virginia). Looking forward to another day of walking tomorrow !
Date: 2016-04-04
From: shelter 

To: campsite 
Miles today: 21.0

Today we woke up at 6:30 to David's alarm and mouse noises. The Vandeventer shelter treated us well. We packed up at a fairly slow pace, and then hit the trail. We knocked out the first 6.7 pretty quickly. The first 7 miles followed a beautiful ridge line overlooking the country side, after iron ridge shelter the trail descended a little and wandered around in the woods for a while. We lucked out and had some trail magic around noon. We found a bear proof locker with Sierra Mist and medical supplies in it. We stopped refueled, and kept on walking. Then we got to a field about 12 miles in, after this I think motivation to hike was fairly low so the ice slowed down a bit. We took breaks more than usual, and just messed around a bit. We got to low gap and filled up our water because ironically double spring gap has no water. Today we upped our spades stakes a little bit. We are going to keep score of who wins more spades games throughout the whole trip, and if Atticus and I win Goose and spidey have to watch all three seasons of avatar: the last airbender, if they win we have to streak on Katahdin. We are going into Damascus tomorrow, but probably going to blow through town due to the days we missed.
Date: 2016-04-05
From: campsite 

To: Saunders Shelter
Miles today: 21.0
Weather: overcast clouds

We woke up this morning eager to get to Damascus, but as soon as we poked out heads out of our sleeping bags we realized it have to wait 30 minutes. It was brutally cold with a mean wind roaring through the gap. By the time we headed out it was around 8 o clock. We hammered out the thirteen miles to Damascus and got into town around 12. The first thing we did was grab some food. We picked up a delicious burrito from hey joes and then went and picked up our resupply box from Mount Rogers Outfitters. We had to stuff ourselves with any leftover food from the last few days because it was a 5 day resupply, our largest yet. We have food shoved in all the different pockets of the pack. It was funny walking around town, and seeing all these people that we'd past a while go. The best part though was that they all kept asking das machine if he was okay, he was of course annoyed by this. It's amazing how quickly word travels in the thru hiker circles. Anyways we left Damscus at 3 and had 8 miles to go till we hit the next shelter. About half way through we got to a trail reroute due to a washed out bridge. We decided to skip the reroute because we figured we could cross any creek with how little it had rained, but mostly we didn't want to leave the actual AT. When we got to the creek Atticus, Spidey, and I made it across fine, but on the last rock Goose slipped and fell in. Fortunately the inside of his bag had stayed dry but his shoes and shirt were soaked. We decided it be best if I went in front to start a fire for him when he got to the shelter, so I took off and left the group behind. It was a nice section paralleling the VA creeper trail, and then the trail turned up for the two mile climb to the shelter and things got rough. I ended up making it to the shelter around 6:20, rather luckily some other hikers had already started a fire so I just had to get water. Goose got here and dried off his stuff while I made dinner. Fortunately he was able to dry all of his clothes, and we ended up being okay. Tomorrow we are meeting dad 15 miles away at 1 so we are gonna get an early start. Should be interesting doing our first real climbing in a while.
Date: 2016-04-06
From: Saunders Shelter

To: thomas knob shelter
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: clear sky

Well we woke up at what seemed like the crack of dawn ( 6 am), and frantically scrambled to pack our stuff up. We had to make it to route 600 (15 miles away) by 1 o'clock to meet my dad and our friend Paul ! Around 10 we reached white oak mountain, which proved to be a difficult climb taking over an hour and a half. When we got to the top we found ourselves on top of a beautiful bald, but the wind was blowing at what seemed to be 60 miles an hour, it was hard to stand up. We quickly ran for the tree line to seek cover. We headed down the mountain and reached the gap around 1 just as we had planned. Our dad came bearing gifts of subway sandwiches, beef jerky, cold drinks, and cookies ! Special thanks to Kayla for the cookies ! After eating too much food we set out, with renewed vigor, for the Thomas knob shelter. We reached the top of the climb to find a nice shelter almost all to ourselves. While we filling up our water bottles we stumbled upon our first pack of wild ponies ! They looked cold in the wind. We left out packs in the shelter and walked the sort distance to the top of mount Rogers (the tallest point in Virginia). It was quite the disappointment when we reached the top because there was no view. There was a small plaque in the middle of a forest that said highest point.... Nevertheless it was good to cross that peak off the list. We headed back to shelter for a good nights rest, and dreams of what Grayson highlands would hold the next day ! Thanks to our dad and Paul for braving the elements to hike with us! Your company and support had been much needed !
Date: 2016-04-07
From: thomas knob shelter

To: hurricane creek shelter 
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: broken clouds

Today we woke up to the sight of ponies outside the shelter. I figure the wind was so bad last night they were using the shelter as a wind barrier. Once I got over the ponies I noticed a desolate frostbitten landscape. Luckily it was only 33 degrees so it wasn't too cold, but once we stepped out of the shelter you were almost immediately blown off balance by the wind. We guessed it was gusting to around 20 to maybe even 30 mph. Walking in the morning was sort of surreal because you could barely see 30 feet in front of you and the wind was so strong you had to lean into it to walk straight. There were also huge outcroppings of rocks and little to no vegetation. We walked about three miles and then made it to Grayson highlands. The best part about the highlands was even more wild ponies. I tried to pet one but it had other ideas and trotted off. As we trekked on I started to realize the scale of the highlands, by far the biggest balds we've seen yet. We made it to a fenced in coral called the scales that we found out used t be used for weighing livestock, but the major score was that it also had a trash can and bathroom. We made it into camp at hurricane shelter around 4, and were all in bed by 6:30. All in all a pretty good day, and tomorrow we get to partnership shelter where reportedly you can order pizza.