morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2015-07-09
From: Russell Field Shelter

To: Derrick Knob Shelter
Miles today: 9.2
Weather: scattered clouds

She-Who-Does-Not-Wake-Easily had a really rough day today. She didn't get any sleep and the heat and pack weight were really affecting her. We were originally going to skip Derrick Knob shelter, since it had only recently been re-opened after being closed to bear activity. We'd also heard from a Southbounder on the trail that the shelter was trashed. But with two members of the group flagging , we knew it wasn't safe to push on. But it turned out to be a great shelter!When we got there, we met Moose and his nephew Sore Feet, who were on the first night of their trip. (as his trail name suggests, Sore Feet's feet were looking pretty tore up already)Moose is a coffee afficinado. He got real excited when he heard I had a French press! I was out of grounds but Optima had some, so I made him a strong cup. He and Sore Feet used her hatchet to cut wood for the glorious fire in the shelter fireplace that night.(Shelters in the Smokies are made out of stone, different from the earlier ones which were almost all wood)We ended our day on the coziest way possible: me lying on the top bunk writing in the firelight, Sore Feet and Moose teaching Optima Prima Texas Hold 'Em, and the other two nestled in their tent, down for the count. Everyone was rested, fed, warm...we even had multiple bear defenses! (Cherry bombs to scare off bears, plus a shovel, a hatchet, and bear spray). Finally, everyone was going to get much-needed sleep! It's so old timey...we get our news from strangers we meet on the trail, we all bunk down together like a family... It's just hard to describe the camaraderie that happens out here, the way that people take care of each other. And the views we shared today! When we went up Thunder Mountain and hit all of those grassy balds...wide open with views of all the surrounding mountains, best views I've had so far . And sunshine! And long soft grass blown back like green hair.When I passed overturned stumps, dozens of tiny moths would burst forth. Enchanting.This shelter, strangely enough, is full of chipmunks. I will take chipmunks over mice (or bears, for that matter) any day.
Date: 2015-07-10
From: Derrick Knob Shelter

To: Double Spring Shelter
Miles today: 7.5
Weather: few clouds

It's been so nice hiking with Optima and Co! We had some surprisingly personal and meaningful conversations while flexing our calves and dragging obscene amounts of weight over stupid, stupid log "stairs." I feel so honored to have become part of their crew.Today was so different. Much easier hiking than the previous day and everyone was in better spirits because they'd had enough sleep. We heard there was no water for 7+ miles, so I filled up am extra 3 liters for the group...meaning I was carrying 6 liters total. That's 13 pounds of water! I'm definitely stronger than I was three weeks ago. (And still happy when I could unload the water into the others' Nalgenes!)As we climbed higher, the surrounding landscape changed dramatically. Suddenly a new sight: evergreens! But the real surprise was still in store.I was hiking in front, with a Optima behind me. She suddenly announced, "deer!"And sure enough, just ahead on the path...a small doe nibbling berries. And she wasn't at all scared of us. She actually walked towards us. It was amazing. We were all silently freaking out. And shortly after, we hit the shelter.Funny side story : we stopped at Siler's Bald shelter for lunch, and then all four of us went up to the second level to lie on our backs with our bare feet up on the slanted roof...and then we all fell asleep! The four of us in a row on the bare wood, just OUT.We were asleep for about an hour. What a siesta!
Date: 2015-07-12
From: Clingman's Dome / Gatlinburg

To: Icewater Spring Shelter
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: overcast clouds

I woke up in Gatlinburg, gorged on the comp breakfast, and called REI to get a replacement sternum buckle mailed out to me (feeling a little Cheryl Strayed now).I seriously considered getting an AT symbol henna tattoo, but didn't have enough time. :-) A Walk in The Woods shuttled me back to the trail at Clingman's.Today while hiking I began to think of the AT shelter name generator. Pick any two of the following words and add "shelter ":DoubleLowHighColdSpringGapBaldKnobAt Newfound Gap today, I officially crossed back into North Carolina. The trail straddles both states, so you move back and forth a lot without knowing. The hiker hunger is in full swing now. When I arrived at the shelter, a family had leftover pasta with cheese and mushrooms. They'd have to pack out anything they had left, so they asked if I wanted any. I cleaned the pot. I don't even like mushrooms! I have become an eating machine.The shelter was crowded with overnight hikers....really loud. They were all drinking beer when I arrived and thought it strange when I was in bed by "hiker midnight" (dark, 9 pm ).It made me think of the "Mary Ellen" portion of A Walk in the Woods. I've been so fortunate in the people I've met on this trip...but let's just say, this night was my Mary Ellen experience.
Date: 2015-07-13
From: Icewater Spring Shelter

To: Tricorner Knob Shelter
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: broken clouds

Finally!!!!!So each shelter on the AT has a little log book where people sign in, write about the mice or weather, share poems, leave notes for people behind them, etc. I *love* reading them. You can see how they'd appeal to the writer in me. Anyway, way back when, when I stayed at Top of Georgia and met Zen and Faith, they mentioned these two guys they had met, Pilgrim and UFC Guy.I started to notice Pilgrim and UFC Guy's names in the logs of the shelters where I was staying, always just a day ahead of me.There aren't many long distance folks out there right now, and they were also going Northbound. I started to hope I'd run into them.This must have been going on for two weeks...I'd land in a shelter for the night, check the log, and sure enough, they were the two most recent. I knew they were doing two nights in Gatlinburg to catch the UFC fight...and I was only doing one night there. Maybe I had a shot at catching up???Last night when I arrived at Icewater Spring, I saw two guys who came in together. I got my hopes up...but no, it was their first night. Then I checked the log...Pilgrim had signed in TWO days prior! I'd never catch up with them!(Turns out, he got the date wrong)So tonight I rolled into Tricorner, since Cosby was still closed due to bears. There were four guys inside, so I didn't realize at first who was with who. The one guy chatting with me mentioned having just returned from two days in Gatlinburg. Oh my god...I started getting excited. Then...he mentioned the UFC fights."Are you UFC Guy?!? Pilgrim?!" I shrieked.When they confirmed they were, I yelled, "I've been trailing you for days!!!!"Turns out, they started from Springer the morning after I arrived!It was so much fun to compare notes - we'd met all the same people, had the same crappy weather, just a day apart. They knew Camo and of course Faith and Zen...even Captain Obvious and Flem and Company!UFC Guy is from Lancaster, so naturally we commiserated over longing for Turkey Hill ice cream and ice tea on the trail.Pilgrim is an English major, so we geeked out over books.We made plans to hike together for the long haul out of the Smokies in the morning.
Date: 2015-07-14
From: Tricorner Knob Shelter

To: Green Corner / Standing Bear Farm
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: light rain

I am so blissed out right now! I don't even know where to start. I'm in a little 6x6 room, like a playhouse, with windows on all sides and a porch and a little trapdoor in the floor to climb down to the ground...where a stream is flowing by! I have views of trees on all sides...I can hear a frog croaking. And I'm CLEAN! And dry! And fed!I feel like a little girl in her playhouse. When I saw that Standing Bear offered a treehouse, I knew that was the place for me. And boy did I earn it...When we got up at 6 am this morning, it was still raining from the night before. But the real deluge, complete with my favorites, lightning and thunder, didn't hit until we were maybe an hour out. This time Pilgrim was the one who was closest to the lightning. Once that started, we were all running.I came out here with trail runners. I ran in them a lot today.There's something liberating about the moment when you're finally soaked through - shoes, socks, feet. There's nothing to lose. You can now run with abandon wherever you want instead of trying to pick your way through the path, trying to keep your shoes dry. Eff it. You're soaked anyway.The trail...can you even call it that? It was a flowing river.I ran by the plane wreckage site, stopping only briefly for some GoPro footage. It got the first episode of LOST stuck in my head for most of the day.We stopped in the Cosby Knob and Davenport shelters for food breaks.Pilgrim and UFC are faster than me on the uphills, but I can keep up with them going down. We had a lot of downhill today.Things started clearing up around the time we got to the Mt Cammerer side trail. Sir Packs A Lot has a picture of the fire tower there on his hostel wall and uses it as an example of what people miss when they get too focused on miles. He said many people skip the side trip...and miss one of the best views of the trail.We didn't skip it. And we hit it during the perfect break in weather. And it was truly stunning. 360 views...by far the best views of the trip. I took a million pics, but photos don't do it justice. WOW.And then we were back on the trail, and the rain came back, and we had to ford through several streams. It was a muddy, slippery, knees-turning-into-jelly kind of day.We popped up on a fairly major road, and it was surreal to see a white blaze on a concrete underpass. And as you can see from the mileage today...another personal record.Now we're all in for the night. We met two others (including another comp professor) also here, also northbound. My pace seems to be between the two groups, so we'll see where I end up tomorrow.
Date: 2015-07-15
From: Green Corner / Standing Bear Farm

To: Max Patch Summit
Miles today: 13.3

Two nights in a row of spectacular and unusual sleeping accommodations! The Southbounders at Top of Georgia raved about Max Patch, said I *had* to camp here. But I was nervous...it's so wide open, unprotected, empty. No trees. And we'd just had all that lightning last night! But I got here and it was so beautiful...how could I pass up the opportunity to spend more time here?There was no one out here...but one guy at the top of the hill with a tent. We started a conversation, me hollering up from the trail. I asked if he'd been here through the storm. He had , but once lightning started, he packed up everything and headed down to his car.So he was back tonight, and so far, the weather was good.I wavered for a long time. Trenchfoot and Pacemaker were miles behind me at a shelter. UFC and Pilgrim were two miles ahead at a different shelter. But why sleep in a crummy shelter when you've got this?But I was worried about lightning, animals (no trees to hang food), and people..you just never know.On the trail, you trust your gut a lot. My gut told me this guy was good people. I'd feel safer tenting with someone else. So I finally asked...would he mind if I came up and tented near him? And he said sure!His name is Joseph, and I am so grateful for him letting me crash on his solitude. :-) we had an amazing time!We both sat in the wildflowers in front of our respective tents, taking in the views, waiting for sunset, and shooting the breeze. The fog rolled in, completely surrounding us, making everything so disorienting and mysterious.Joseph shared his blue corn chips (Trader Joe's!) and after dark, we hiked down to his car to store our food. We stopped multiple times, keeping our head lamps off so our eyes would adjust and we could watch the stars and lightning bugs come out. It was my first real walk in the night since I began the AT - truly magical. After so many nights in shelters...I was going to sleep in my tent on the top of a peak at 4629 feet (I climbed up from 1776 this morning), on a bed of soft grass and wildflowers. This is exactly the kind of experience I came for.
Date: 2015-07-16
From: Max Patch Summit

To: Deer Park Mountain shelter
Miles today: 18.6
Weather: clear sky

I woke up at 6:30 (slept in!), looked out, and saw a mountain wonderland.The peaks of the mountains showing above the mist/ fog / clouds look like islands in a frothy ocean.There's such beauty everywhere, and it changes from moment to moment.The wildflowers are wet with dew.The bees are humming.I saw Joseph coming down the hillside, grinning from watching the sunrise.We made breakfast out of Joseph's ridiculous provisions - Armenian string cheese and turkey on rice bread. Then he'd brought artisanal local chocolate (Olive and Sinclair) and we paired it with hot coffee I made out of the Jetboil (my meager offering!). It was hands down the best breakfast!We were the only two people on the whole summit! Best of both worlds....solitude plus company. Joseph is also a writer, so we were both happy as clams to be up there reading and writing.Max Patch was so lovely I never wanted to leave. I lingered, let my clothes and tent dry in the sun...had a late and languorous morning. Thank you so much for this experience, Joseph!The rest of the day, unfortunately, was downhill...literally and figuratively. It was super hot and humid. I dropped my cell phone and realized it over a mile later and had to backtrack to get it. Bluff Mountain NEVER ENDED. I was hoping to make the hostel at 20 miles...even with all the setbacks. I ran as much as I could on the downhills to save time . But the outsides of my feet were starting to hurt. I was dehydrated and out of water. "Everybody Hurts" was playing in my head. It was time to give up on the hostel and find a shelter. This was the most tired and sore I've been so far. But at least I knew I would make Hot Springs in the morning.
Date: 2015-07-17
From: Deer Park Mountain shelter

To: Hot Springs
Miles today: 3.2
Weather: scattered clouds

I keep a dress and flip flops in my bounce box, which I mail to myself every two weeks. It's so I have something to wear when I'm in town and doing laundry, so I can walk around town and look like a normal person. Except...There's a scene in Gone With the Wind where Scarlett O'Hara is trying to hide the reality of the harshness of her living conditions, so she fashions this new ball gown out of drapes. But what ultimately gives her away is the roughness of her hands, which shows she's been doing manual labor.I feel like when you see me in a dress, my legs do the same thing.They immediately signal " something is not right with this picture."Right now they are muscled, covered in a fine layer of down from me not shaving for a month. They're scratched, mosquito-bitten, bee-stung. I feel a little like a centaur - the top half of me is human, and the bottom half is horse!My stop in Hot Springs helped me feel more human. When I arrived, Pilgrim and UFC were already here, and Pacemaker and Trenchfoot arrived in the evening. We all went to dinner and ate way too much.I showered. I ate. I soaked for an hour in a hot mineral bath by the river. I had a half hour massage. I wore clean clothes. It's amazing how fast you can reset. Tomorrow I'll pack up the bounce box again and mail it ahead to myself before returning to the trail.Many thanks to Mia for the letter in one resupply box - I am saving it as a treat for the trail!
Date: 2015-07-18
From: Hot Springs

To: Spring Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: broken clouds

It took me a long time in the morning to pack up my stuff and repack the bounce box, but the guys decided to wait for me to go to breakfast. So sweet! Tie, the woman who runs the Laughing Heart in Hot Springs, chatted with us for a while while we had coffee. That place rocks.We stuffed ourselves at breakfast again(grilled apple butter sandwich -what!). Pilgrim a little less so, since he got sick from basically eating his body weight the day before.Trenchfoot and Pacemaker were finishing their stretch, pilgrim, UFC and I did the long, hot climb out of Hot Springs. It hasn't been this hot and humid since Georgia! The shower-fresh zen state didn't last long.
Date: 2015-07-19
From: Spring Mountain Shelter

To: Jerry Cabin shelter
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: few clouds

Wow, another day of some tough climbing! I left camp first but knew the guys would pass me shortly. At my lunch, Sean (who we met at the shelter last night, and who the guys had seen back at Clingman's Dome) caught up to me. So we hiked together for the day. We talked about Star Wars, the Turing Test, the Avengers, Jurassic World, Batman Vs Superman...you know, the important stuff.One of the coolest things was unexpected. There is a spot where there is a parallel bypass trail for bad weather conditions, since this stretch is "rocky and strenuous." It was already such a hard day...I was sweating buckets due to the humidity and all the climbing. I was thinking about taking the bypass just to make life easier.But Sean mentioned if we took the ridge, there would probably be good views...so what the hell, let's do it.And we got up there....and it was gorgeous. And covered in blueberry bushes.I had seen one bush before, but was too cautious to try a berry. At the top of the ridge, Sean just started going for them, so I did too. We had a field day up there picking and earring blueberries in front of these jaw-dropping views. We must have spent a good hour up there, just gorging on blueberries. It was lovely.Then we met up with Pilgrim and UFC at the shelter and we all set up our little tent village for the night.
Date: 2015-07-20
From: Jerry Cabin shelter

To: Hogback Ridge shelter
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Today we started off with our victory pic for the 300 miles we hit the day before. The trail had a lot of diversity today...blackberry bushes (I put some in my morning oatmeal!), another big field of wildflowers, a portion that went out along a paved road, grave sites.At the end, Pilgrim and I feared rain, so we slept in the shelter. Unfortunately, the bear cables here make a horrible sound in the wind...something between a screeching violin in a horror movie and a swinging door. I like to call them Satan's Wind Chimes.They kept us up for most of the night.
Date: 2015-07-21
From: Hogback Ridge shelter

To: Whistling Gap campsite
Miles today: 13.6
Weather: clear sky

Right now I am sitting in a low squat on a rock in front of the fire Sean and I built...over many hours.it rained today and parts of yesterday, so all of the wood was wet. And yet, here we are!Sean said he'd never successfully gotten a fire going from scratch, but I have, so I offered to start it. I started with a cotton ball doused in Neosporin and a little twig teepee. Then I used a lighter. Sean has much better lung capacity than I do so he did all the blowing...a human bellows, he is. Making an elaborate structure with gradually increasing stick size was a joint effort. He tried burning old trail pages, but they didn't burn well. Know what did? Pages of Seven Steps to Midnight, the kind-of-terrible horror novel I found a few shelters back and have been reading every night since. :-)We had so much fun taking the fire from "level one" to "level six" (Sean's terms).Sean kept it going while I peeled wet bark off logs like they were bananas.And now here we are, both with head lamps, writing by the fire.Last night a guy staying at the shelter with us was reading the second Harry Potter while Pilgrim was finishing Eragorn and I was reading Seven Steps to Midnight. A reading party in the woods!The hike today had fun surprises. At one point the trail led out of the woods along a highway right by a "Welcome to Tennessee" sign and a ton of blackberry bushes. I had a grand old time eating them, using my poles to pull down branches heavy with ripe berries.There were also lovely balds again, filled with dissipating mist and wildflowers. UFC and Pilgrim stopped at the shelter at 10 miles, planning on doing the last 17 tomorrow to get into Erwin. Sean and I preferred not to do 10/17, so we decided to hike a bit further to do 13/14. Random hiking thoughts:- Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" is the follow up to Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach."- In "The Sound of Music" they really dropped the ball with "la" (..a note to follow so....)Pilgrim told me he spent a portion of his hike thinking of foods he wanted to eat that started with the letter P.Sean seemed more productive with his mental wanderings...he's written two songs already!
Date: 2015-07-22
From: Whistling Gap campsite

To: Erwin / Uncle Johnny's Nolichucky Hostel
Miles today: 13.3

We woke, we breakfasted around the remnants of the previous night's fire (still glowing embers!), and started walking.A LOT of ups and downs. I was out of food so I didn't stop for lunch. I ran/jogged most of the way down to the hostel, singing the theme to Tetris - fast for when I jogged,(Like when the music speeds up in the game), and then regular when I slowed back down to a walk. I was so excited for a shower! Clean clothes!UFC, Pilgrim, and I decided to split a cabin. Due partly to the heat, partly to how tiny the cabin was, and partly to how much our stuff stinks, the cabin started reeking pretty much right away. The hostel...wasn't great. We decided we'd go somewhere else for our zero day .We did know what we wanted for dinner, as we'd been fantasizing about it for days ever since reading about it in a shelter log: Chinese food. China Kitchen, here we come!We ate. And ate. And ate.And then we went back to the cabin and worked on chocolate donuts, Swedish fish, Swiss rolls, Pringles, twizzlers, and popcorn while watching Forrest Gump.I am seriously afraid that I am eating like a 19 year old boy.On a sad note...UFC found out on the trail today that his grandfather passed away last night. We talked about what kind of man his grandfather was...and how much he'll be missed. UFC's brother will be driving out to pick him up for the funeral. I'm glad we got to spend some time with UFC before he left the trail...and to help him a bit during such a hard time.Hug up your family members. Our time here is so short.
Date: 2015-07-23
From: Erwin / Uncle Johnny's Nolichucky Hostel

To: Erwin / Cantarosso Farm
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Romeo and Julia....or Sean the Bard and Julia - were kind enough to drive UFC, Pilgrim, and I to Cantarosso Farm, a hostel / AirBNB / aviary right on the Nolichucky river.We had several hours to kill before UFC was getting picked up and before Pilgrim and I could check in, so we spent them as any sensible person would: cannonballing into the river. :-)Seriously, how can I capture it all? The tiny fish nibbling at your legs when you first step in...the rush of the current below the rapids where people go whitewater rafting...the fun of just floating and diving and playing in the water. We hung out on the hammock and chairs by the river, reading the local newspaper and eating leftover snacks from our movie night. We watched Canadian geese floating and fishing in the middle of the river. We laughed and stretched and rested.And when it was time, we said goodbye to UFC and promised to leave log notes for him.Then Pilgrim and I met our hosts, Peggy and Mike, and their three lovable dogs. Mike drove us through the town, giving us history, and then to the Food Lion where we bought ingredients for an epic dinner and breakfast. We cooked in Peggy's kitchen and ate with the family, sharing stories.Their home is more beautiful than I know how to describe and I'm deliriously happy and sleepy, so I will sign off for now!