morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-03-27
From: Hog Pen Gap

To: Unicoi Gap
Miles today: 14.3

When our alarm clock went off at 4:45 am, we checked out the window and were relieved to see that the outside deck was dry. The overnight rain didn¢t materialize. Ranger pulled together a great breakfast for us, eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, coffee and a protein shake. We stayed with Gay and Ranger for a week and now it¢s time to move on and give them some breathing room. They have been incredibly hospitable and we¢ll miss them, their dogs, cat, chickens and deer, but not the rooster (who decided I was an adversary and threatened to attack me). They have regular visits from a family of deer, but they think the bear has moved on.We had our gear packed and left on schedule before sunrise, and just about that time the rain started. In the beginning it wasn¢t heavy, just a drizzle. We had about an hour and a half drive from Blue Ridge through Blairsville and Hiawassee and then up to the AT crossing at Unicoi Gap. Today we picked up the section that we skipped yesterday, thinking that today¢s section would not be as difficult in the expected rain. Today we did a key swap with Princess going SoBo from Unicoi Gap to Hog Pen Gap, while I did the same section NoBo. Ultimately, switching the two sections was probably the best for us, but we expected the rain to be intermittent. It wasn¢t. We were in a cloud for virtually the entire hike and we ended up thoroughly soaked. Princess started out with a Z-packs hooded jacket, but eventually stowed it and hiked without any rain gear. I used my Z-packs poncho and it kept me dry for maybe half of the hike. At least I had good thermal management, the poncho is well ventilated. Princess said she got caught in a downpour not too far from the end of her hike. Princess had a really tough 1 1/2 mile uphill climb (1,000 ft) at the beginning of her hike, a lot of rocks, roots and it was turning to mud. The remainder of her hike was relatively level. I had the opposite. About a 13-mile walk, then the steep downhill over the rocks and roots. Only now, it was a lot of slippery mud - really slow going.Today, after Princess picked me up at the trailhead, we had a full agenda for the rest of the day. Our new base for 2 days will be in Hiawassee, GA. We checked in to the Holiday Express and then spent about 2 hours getting our gear inside and cleaned up, showering, and washing clothes. We ate dinner next door and then decided to drive out to tomorrow¢s trailhead to be sure we could get there. It was a long drive, partly over a forest service road. We¢re glad we did, it gives us a lot more confidence in tomorrow¢s schedule. Plus we decided that we need a different map of NC, and we had to search around town to find what we needed. Then a trip to Ingles for some supplies and back to the room to prep for tomorrow. I¢ve also developed a blister that takes time to treat. Princess has turned into a blister expert and has it under control. So all of a sudden, it¢s 10:30 - well past hiker midnight. The weather gurus say the rain will end around 7 or 8 in the morning, and it will clear up by mid-morning for the rest of the day. Hope so.
Date: 2016-03-28
From: Dicks Creek Gap

To: Deep Gap
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: overcast clouds

I really felt exhiliarated today. Perhaps because yesterday was pretty miserable weather, and today was the exact opposite? It just felt really good to be out on the trail.We key swapped again today and the trailheads at each end of our day¢s hike were pretty far apart, so an early start was critical. I didn¢t feel like I had enough sleep since I got to bed so late, I need to improve on that. We were ready early and I drove Princess to the northern end of our hike. I got her there just at daybreak and she set out from Deep Gap with just enough light to see. The Deep Gap parking lot is at the end of a narrow, twisty 8 mile gravel mountain road and it was well over an hour before I managed to get to the other end of the hike at Dick¢s Creek Gap. The trailhead was pretty quiet, one hiker was there and a few minutes later a van dropped off several others. The weather forecast said it would start out chilly and then warm mid-morning, so I dressed for the warmer temps. When I finished lacing my boots and strapping on my gaitors, I followed the other hikers up the trail. It was an uphill start and I caught up quickly as they were all stuffing their heavier coats into their backpacks. I didn¢t see them again, and in fact I didn¢t see nearly as many other hikers today as on previous days. Over the course of the hike, I passed perhaps 6 NoBo¢s and about the same number of SoBo¢s. And I usually see a number of tents still set up early in the morning, but not so many today. Hiawassee is relatively close to the trailhead and maybe some hikers decided to take a zero in Hiawassee and were sleeping in this morning?As the morning progressed, the temp did rise, but I never got overheated. The skies were clear, a beautiful deep blue and the sun cast strong shadows since the mountain trees don¢t yet have any leaves. I was by myself for hours and thoroughly enjoyed listening to the sounds of the forest. I thought I heard a hiker approaching, then realized it was a grouse drumming. The windward sides of the mountains were cool and refreshing and the lee sides were toasty and warm. It was a great day to be outside.A few details on the hiking profile: I had an elevation gain of about 1,700 ft from start to finish and there were several mountains to cross, Buzzard Knob at 3,679, Courthouse Bald at 4,708, and we skirted near the tops of Yellow Mtn around 4,500 and Brushy Mtn perhaps 200 ft lower. So I did a lot of climbing. A couple of the climbs were strenuous with long steep slopes. When I passed Princess a couple of hours after I started she said the hardest climbs were still ahead of me. And she also warned that the northern sides of the mountains were still wet, muddy, rocky and slick, so beware. And she was right. A noteworthy event today - we crossed the state border between Georgia and North Carolina. So we officially have state #1 under our belts. The border is simply a small wooden sign nailed to a tree on a narrow hillside trail. I¢ve been there 3 times now and each time there is someone there taking pics.
Date: 2016-04-09
From: Hot Springs, NC

To: Hot Springs, NC
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

We finally decided to take a zero here in Hot Springs today. Yesterday we were concerned about today¢s weather, the forecast was colder than yesterday, with snow at higher elevations and windy. Dan, our driver from Bluff Mountain Outfitters, gave us his text # and said that if it looked bad at 5:30 in the AM he would not go and let us know. We were up at 5:00, watching the weather and the forecast had changed. It was still relatively warm outside, 37 deg, and there had been rain. But the news called for very high winds at higher elevations. Like 25 sustained and gusts to 40 mph. Plus, we had over 10 miles at 4,000+ feet and the lapse rate would drop the temp up there into the 20¢s. We have cold weather gear, but hiking 10 miles into strong winds at sub-freezing temps was just not appealing. We haven¢t taken a zero yet and we decided that today was a good zero day and that Hot Springs is a good zero town. So we texted Dan and postponed the shuttle until tomorrow. The forecast is actually colder at the start tomorrow, but predicted to climb quickly and with much less wind. It¢s our first hike over 20 miles, so we want an early start and it will likely take us much of the day.We slept in late and it felt really good. Then we had one more lunch at the Smoky Mountain Diner. Thanks to William from NC for his suggestions on ¢don¢t miss items¢ in Hot Springs. I hope to use the afternoon to respond to some folks in the guest book. And to catch up on some chores from back home. We still expect to head back to Norfolk on Thursday (after a short hike), handle a few commitments on Friday, Saturday & Sunday, drive to DC on Monday, then up to Harpers Ferry on Tuesday where we¢ll begin hiking again. This will put us about 3 weeks ahead of where we were last year at this time, so we should be able to finish Mt. Katahdin before the end of July. That will leave us about 6 weeks of hiking after we finish the JMT to complete the AT sections that we skip.The photo that I¢ve included is from a couple of days ago. It¢s Princess inside the Spring Creek Tavern & Inn where we¢ve spent about 6 evenings this week. The images painted on the window are Amanda and Tim, the owners of the tavern. Tim¢s favorite beer is an IPA and he has a large stock of local IPAs on tap and in cans. I¢ve been slowly working my way through them and may be able to finish today.
Date: 2016-04-23
From: PA 16

To: PA 233
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: scattered clouds

Today was our second day of hiking together (Princess & I both hiking in the same direction at the same time - no key swap). Margaret & David are real troupers, virtually the only B&B that¢s willing to have breakfast ready for us at 6:00 AM. Afterward, we followed David in our car out to the AT trailhead on PA 16 where we parked our car, and then we joined him and he drove us around to another trailhead almost 11 miles north on the AT and we hiked SoBo back to our car. We saw quite a few people on the trail today. Most were day-hikers or weekenders, and the rest were flip-floppers who started this week at Harpers Ferry. It rained all night and the trail was wet to start, but it drained well with very little mud. We came prepared with our rain-gear and we never used it. Except for a few sprinkles at the start, it was just damp and humid most of the way and near the end the sun broke out and it started to warm up.Except for a longer, steep slope up to Chimney Rocks, the rest of the trail was unremarkable. This section is well-maintained and there are several flat ridge walks, so we made pretty good time. However, the PA rocks are starting to show up, so beware feet!After we finished the hike, we decided to scope out the trailheads for tomorrow. We have a couple of gravel roads to traverse, but they¢re in good condition and don¢t present a problem. One positive aspect of this end of the state is that there are quite a few road crossings where the AT is accessible by car and most of them have parking areas. We¢re actually starting to think about a more rugged vehicle than our Prius. It hasn¢t been a problem yet, but we did like the Ram truck that Spartacus brought along several times last year, and our current host, David has the same thing. Good mileage with 4WD, higher clearance and tougher suspension. Maybe something to think about. We may try a triple key-swap tomorrow, which confuses me just thinking about it, so I won¢t try to describe it. We did see our first red-spotted newt today (first for us on this hike). They¢re interesting little creatures. They¢re a little sluggish, so you¢d think they would get gobbled up by other predators in the woods. But they seem to be prolific in certain damp spots. I¢ve learned that they have 3 stages, the first and the third are aquatic and the second is the newt stage that we see crawling across the trail. Last year we saw them from southern VA all the way into New England. Often when we spot one, we¢ll see one or two dozen in the next couple hundred yards. And yesterday, I forgot to mention that I saw a mouse on the trail. I don¢t know what it¢s problem was, but it was running in circles, essentially chasing it¢s tail, totally impervious to our presence. It really seemed unnatural to me, so I walked around it and went on.
Date: 2016-04-25
From: Shippensburg Road

To: Hunters Run Road
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: broken clouds

Another key swap day for us. Today was less complicated than yesterday since we only had 2 subsections. We checked out of the Burgundy Lane B&B after breakfast and headed for Shippensburg Road where we stopped yesterday, and I dropped Princess off there to start hiking NoBo. Then I took the car on to Pine Grove State Park where I parked the car and headed SoBo. Neither of us remembered much about this subsection of the hike, most of the trees are still bare here and the vegetation on the ridge is mostly laurel and scrub pine. There were several substantially long road walks, so we kept a pretty good pace. I am starting to recognize some of the hikers I¢m meeting when I¢m going SoBo. Many of them are flip floppers who started last week heading NoBo from Harpers Ferry. And they¢re a little confused about us since sometimes they see one of us alone going SoBo and sometimes they see us together, sometimes we¢re headed NoBo and we don¢t look like typical thru-hikers since we have light-weight packs. So we take a few minutes and explain ourselves, and most of them say ¢what a great idea, I¢d like to do that!¢ Today I met Lost & Found, Keebler, Swiss Miss, Coolacs, Romani and Sniffles. And I saw Tailhook in both of the subsections that I did. Plus I encountered a large group of at least 2 dozen folks who were our for a few hours excursion and having a great time. A major landmark today was the actual 2016 mid-point of the AT. This year it¢s at mile marker 1094.5. Each year the actual mileage of the AT changes a bit as the trail clubs introduce some rerouting of the trail. Over the last 3 years, the cumulative changes have increased the length of the trail each year by a few miles. So the actual mid-point changes a bit also and they move the marker accordingly. I¢ve included an ego-selfie at the mid-point, since Princess wasn¢t with me when I went past it.Another memorable landmark is Pine Grove State Park, a beautiful park facility that includes Fuller Lake. Also, the Appalachian Trail Museum and the Ironmasters Inn are co-located at the park. In previous years we¢ve stayed at the Ironmasters, but this year we decided to move our base to Boiling Springs where we¢ll stay 2 days. The Ironmasters is a very nice place to stay and the AT Museum is especially fun for AT hikers, but I had to pass it by so that Princess didn¢t have to wait a long time at my pickup point.   We¢re staying at Gelinas B&B in Boiling Springs for two nights as we walk into and through town and then on toward Duncannon. We had a good Italian dinner at Aniles this evening, but town is pretty quiet on Monday and several other restaurants & pubs were closed. Maybe things will liven up a bit tomorrow?
Date: 2016-04-27
From: Trindle Road 

To: PA 850
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: broken clouds

For me this is a tough time of the year to write journal entries. The Stanley Cup hockey finals are moving into the second round and I can¢t watch a game and write at the same time. So this will be fairly brief. We had an easy hike today. Virtually all of the hike was through rolling farmland, and the only climb was up to the Darlington Shelter. It was a pretty hike as a change of pace from the woods and I actually saw more wildlife (deer, rabbits, geese). We broke the total distance in half and did two key swaps. Most of the roads that crossed the AT had parking areas, so we had a lot of options. The midway point that we selected was at Scott Farm, adjacent to Conodoguinet Creek. The ATC manages the facility as a Crew HQ and provides some hiker facilities - parking, water, privy. The weather today was a lot different from yesterday. Instead of mid-80¢s, we woke up to 40¢s and it barely made it into the 50¢s, and it was overcast all day.There weren¢t many noteworthy sights today. I included a shot that I told from a stile of a curious cow in the middle of the trail, and another of the countryside that is typical of much of our hike today. In one section we passed through a grove of bushes that were incredibly fragrant and I took a photo of the blossoms, but I have no idea what kind of bush it is. The fragrance was intense and almost intoxicating.After the hike we drove into Harrisburg, we were only about 20 minutes from there and we¢re staying at a Comfort Inn close to downtown Harrisburg. We¢ve stayed here for 3 years in a row and we¢re familiar with the area. We like to visit the restaurant row along 2nd street, and we had a great lunch at McGrath¢s Pub. This evening we ate next door at Passage to India. It gets good reviews on Yelp and we had a great dinner. We don¢t visit Indian restaurants often and we had to solicit advice on what to order from our friend Alan back in Norfolk. We¢re staying here for 2 nights. They say that tomorrow it¢s going to rain and it feels like it¢s ready to start now. We have a short hike into Duncannon, but we remember that it¢s very rocky and there¢s a long downhill into Duncannon over a lot of slippery loose shale. It won¢t be fun if it¢s really raining, and it looks like rain is in the forecast for the next week. The long-range forecasts are usually wrong.
Date: 2016-04-29
From: Duncannon, north end of Susquehanna Bridge

To: PA 325
Miles today: 15.9
Weather: light rain

We¢re moving right along. We decamped from Harrisburg early this morning and drove up to Duncannon to hook up with Trail Angel Mary who shuttled us again today. She followed us to the parking lot at the end of the Susquehanna bridge and then she drove us up to the AT trailhead at PA 325. We each took photos, it turns out to be exactly the same spot where we took photos last year. We exchanged hugs and wished her the best with her medical challenges. Given our propensity to hike this trail, there is a reasonable probability that we will do it again, and we will call on her again if we do. She is a super lady and a true trail angel.We had almost a 16 mile hike SoBo today and the weather was not cooperating very well. It was raining lightly when we started and that continued as we climbed up the Peters Mountain ridge. It¢s not a very high ridge, around 1300 ft., but it¢s very long and we spent the next 5 hours hiking in a more or less straight line along the ridge. The rain was variable, most of the time it was light or just tree rain. A few times it really rained hard, so we got wet. The temp hovered in the mid-40s with a chilly breeze, so it was not pleasant. And of course, we¢re in PA, so there were rocks of all sizes. We finished hours ago and my feet still hurt. Often the trail was just below the crest of the ridge, but periodically it moved yup to the top and gave us a chance to dance through some serious rocks. I¢ve only included three photos, one with Mary, one of another hiker and one of the rocks. I know that rock photos are pretty boring and the raindrops on the camera lens blurs, so one is enough. We made pretty good time in the first two-thirds of the hike, until we got closer to Duncannon and we spent most of the time on the rock strewn crest line. Other than the weather, today was fun. We had a chance to hike together and we went SoBo, so we saw more hikers since most are heading northbound. I can¢t remember all the trail names, but I met Tow Sack, Has Been, Orange Crush (photo included), Stumbling Joe and Marshall (NTN). Everyone was upbeat about the hike, can¢t do much about the weather.We also learned today that Bean Dip and Mama Bean are back on the trail. They started at Harpers Ferry and are moving north. We¢re probably about a week ahead of them. Plus we heard from Hudson and Big Lu at Bearded Woods and we hope to be there in the near future. My only real complaint about the trail today is the proliferation of poison ivy. We¢re several weeks ahead of when we hiked through this area the last 2 years, and the ivy is just emerging. But it¢s clear to see that it¢s getting worse. I saw some vines that were nearly 2 in. thick. We¢ve talked to maintainers about the ivy and they say there¢s nothing they can do since it¢s not an invasive species. But Princess and I both had problems with it last year even though we took precautions to avoid it. We wash our boots and poles with Dawn. So, a warning to those who will be hiking through here soon - be very careful and do your best to avoid the plants.
Date: 2016-05-01
From: Swatara Gap, PA 72

To: PA 645
Miles today: 10.8
Weather: light rain

The rain started last evening and continued all night. By daybreak it was 45 deg with a light drizzle and there were lots of puddles. Not a pleasant day for hiking, but we were prepared and had everything in Ziplocs. FYI, my iPhone will respond to touch even when it¢s inside 2 Ziploc bags - but not when I¢m wearing gloves. That¢s helpful when it¢s wet and I don¢t want to unseal the Ziplocs (except I do have a pair of light glove liners with special fingertip material that enables iPhone touch - don¢t wear them often).Today¢s section didn¢t have any intermediate road crossings, so we did one end-to-end key swap. I dropped Princess off at the north end and she hiked SoBo, then I drove around to the other end and set out NoBo. After a small up and down, I started a fairly sharp climb, so I warmed up quickly. I met 2 hikers as I climbed, and except for Princess they were the only other people I saw on the trail today. The elevation profile in AWOL¢s AT Guide showed only little wiggles after my first climb and that was accurate, no more serious climbing.As usual, Princess had a head start so she met me before I reached the midpoint. It was raining a bit and the wind had picked up. She really tried to convince me to turn around and go back with her. She said there was a really nasty section of tough rocks that was wet and mossy and very slippery. She said it was uphill for her, so downhill for me and she was convinced that I would slip and break something. Strangely, I couldn¢t remember any nasty rocks on this section, so I overrode her veto and pushed on (much to her irritation). After about a mile or so, I ran into the rocks and finally remembered it. It wasn¢t a long section, but it was quite a jumble and it was slippery. I took it very slowly and fortunately it wasn¢t too long. Sometimes, when I get into the middle of a rock field I have a hard time finding the next blaze, and when the rock field is extensive there may be several potential paths. That wasn¢t the case today, it was well marked. Also, the rocks today were angular and it wasn¢t too hard to find places to brace my foot against another rock so that it wouldn¢t slip. I¢ve included a photo. Some of the PA rock fields have a lot of large rounded boulders and you need to step up on top of them - I just hope it¢s a dry day when I get to those. There were a few more annoying rocks in the trail, but eventually it merged into an old roadbed and I was able to keep a really good pace for the remainder. Later, Princess said that she saw a lot of familiar hikers after she passed me. They probably stayed at Rausch Gap last night. Today our ponchos worked well. The rain was light and intermittent, but there was always a mist in the air so there was continuous tree rain. As of now, the forecast shows rain every day for the next week. But the temps don¢t go below the high-40s, so it should be manageable. We¢re here in Pine Grove through tomorrow, then on to Hamburg.