morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-05-04
From:  Clyde Smith Sheltet

To: Overmountain shelter
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: broken clouds

The cold weather this morning brought back memories of almost freezing to death two weeks ago. But I still managed to be the second one out of camp behind Bungie. A lot of hikers that passed me on the way up to Roan Mountain were wearing all their winter gear but I manage to stay warm by moving quickly over the first six miles. When I reached Roan Mountain shelter it was 39 degrees. At 6120 feet it is the highest shelter on the entire AT and the only one that has four sides and a door similar to a regular house. Snapped a few quick pictures and started moving down the mountain to warm up. Dropping a few thousand feet in elevation made all the difference in the world. It was entertaining to watch everyone take all their winter gear off once the Sun splashed through the clouds.   I always start to worry if they'll be room at my final destination of the day when I have a bunch of hikers pass me. Luckily today's shelter is the largest on the AT and Overlook Mountain shelter holds up to 30 people. The barn is now full and there are another 20 people tenting. Quite the crowd tonight. With all the rain we've had the past few days water sources are abundant. The downside of this is the trail is sometimes muddy or is actually two to three inches deep in running water. I still refuse to just run through the mud and water and do everything I can to go around it or rock hop. A big benefit of this is not only dry feet at the end of the day but my trail runner shoes seem to be holding up much better than most.   The weather forecast for late tonight and tomorrow morning is freezing rain and snow showers. But I have a roof over my head and it's a quick 9 miles tomorrow to a hostel in town. That decision will be made tomorrow afternoon when I find out if I've been hiking in freezing rain all day. I know I've mentioned this before but we crossed through three parking lots today with trail magic at 2 of them. Sometimes it happens too often to mention. I hope this good luck last's the entire Trail but it just seems too good to be true.   Another great day on the Appalachian Trail.
Date: 2016-05-05
From: Overmountain shelter

To: Mountain Harbor hostel
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: broken clouds

I still think I made the right decision by sending my winter gear home but today was the coldest day of hiking I have endured. Being the first one out of Over Mountain shelter out of 50 hikers proved to be a big disadvantage. Ten minutes into my hike I came out of the woods and for the next few hours I went over a long mountain ridge with no protection. 35 to 45 mile an hour winds and Rime ice accumulating on my entire left side of my body was very scary. Not to mention the visibility was about 10 feet. I had to focus and be sure that I would not take a wrong turn for it could be disastrous. There were many times when I was walking completely sideways at a snail's pace so the wind would be at my back and give me a break from the cold. If I haven't mentioned it before the cold is my kryptonite.   I reached deep down inside today and remembered my 4 years of high school as a cross country runner in New Hampshire. As long as I kept moving I would not freeze to death. I equated the day to your boss saying it's Friday and you only have to work until noon. So I pictured a half day of hiking with only having to do 10 miles and I could get out of work by 12 o'clock. That frame of mind got me to the road by 11:40. I felt bad for Bungie who was about a mile behind me. I talked her into leaving early also and she told me she literally cried for an hour getting over the top of the Mt. today. As usual dropping a few thousand feet in elevation and being on the down slope side of the mountain made it warm and comfortable for the second part of the hike. Everyone in this area is hiking through record cold and rain right now. I can't count how many times I've seen footprints sliding completely off the trail which to me spells sprained ankles or worse.   From lack of experience I realized quickly I'm not good at hitchhiking. It was only three tenths of a mile to the hostel and I would have been better off walking. We are now staying at the Shady Inn for $20 a person with all the fixin's.   So it's the perfect crew tonight Including Giggle Fritz, PBR, Bungie and Grizzly. These hikers are also part of a group that I have been leapfrogging for weeks.   I have just started reading through the last 3 weeks of my guest book. Got very emotional. Thank you everybody from back home. There are so many hikers out here who have nothing to go home too. It means a lot to me and I'm not exaggerating when I say this is probably the hardest thing I've ever done physically and mentally in my lifetime. This is not a 5K, it's not a marathon, it's a half a year of being awayfrom my wife and my family and friends. Not an easy task. 2180 miles of the Appalachian Trail.
Date: 2016-05-06
From: Mountain Harbor hostel

To: Rest Day @ Shady Lawn Lodge
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

After waking up this morning to cold damp conditions the five of us staying at the Shady Lawn Motel decided to take a well deserved zero-day.   I've been told that there will be a lot of time to think while hiking out here. Just didn't realize it would be that emotional. For some reason I focused on my grandfather and father in law today. I was mesmerised as a teenager listening to the escapades of my grandfather in World War II. I immediately realized there was no BS in his stories and that he was quite the sergeant of his platoon. Then there was Don V. I considered him one of my closest friends for the last 20 years as well as the best father-in-law on the planet. Thank you Frank Dubisz and Donald Vigneault. So many great memories and the sacrifices both of you made for our country. R.I.P. How could I even think of quitting because of a little bad weather, or a few aches and pains. When the going gets tough, the tough get going." One thing that I realized out here is that life is short. I think daily about how lucky I am to be able to fulfill a lifelong dream. It's just so hard to leave my family and friends behind. These are the things that weigh on my mind.,
Date: 2016-05-07
From: Rest Day @ Shady Lawn Lodge

To: Shelter 
Miles today: 18.4
Weather: broken clouds

Our shuttle driver arrived at 8 sharp this morning and we were soon back in the woods. The trail teased you for the first 5 miles this morning with the sound of water at every turn. You just couldn't see the river through the thick, lush, forest. Just before noon the trail crosses a 60 foot wide river. A hiker I'd never seen before decided to just walk across with his sneakers @ socks on. I really don't see the point in hiking 15 miles the rest of the day soaking wet like that. Not too smart. Anyway, time to jump in! After that I got very relaxed. I was so tired I could not keep my eyes open. So for the first time on the trail I laid out my ground cover and took a 30-minute nap. It lifted my energy level a bit but it was still a very long day. The sun is starting to set and I still have a half mile to go to the shelter. Going to sleep very well tonight.
Date: 2016-05-08
From:  Moreland Shelter 

To: Erwin Tennessee
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: light rain

I couldn't believe that there was still space in the shelter last night seeing how late it was. Seadog was one of only two hikers laying out his sleeping bag so there was plenty of room for me. As if it were planned as soon as I got settled it started to pour. Everybody that had set up their tents were getting soaked. Too tired to eat supper and fell asleep in a few minutes.   Woke up fresh this morning and got out of camp fast. The plan was to hike 6 miles to a small resupply store. This first section of trail had been burned pretty bad. Didn't even hear about this fire. As usual morning miles seem to fly by and I was out to the road in no time. Then I spotted a sign on a tree. Yes! Trail Magic ahead. It was biskets and gravy for breakfast with tons of snacks and drinks. I am now at the country store buying food, charging my phone and doing a little wash. Trying to make this a very fast and productive stop.   So the fast and productive stop idea went completely out the window. I said before I started this trail that I would not get sucked into town or staying at Trail Magic locations. But when I walked back from the Country Store the three hikers I had been eating with turned into 23. There was so much to catch up on with people I haven't seen in weeks. Every hour the family that was putting on the picnic came out with new dishes. So there I sat in a lawn chair eating and socializing all afternoon.   By nightfall the hiker crowd swelled to around 40. Had a great time tenting with everybody down the street and the family that put on the trail magic made a beer run to the store for everybody. Lots of fun and now lots of miles to do tomorrow.
Date: 2016-05-09
From: Erwin Tennessee

To: Vandeventer shelter
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: overcast clouds

All you Survivor fans back home will get this next reference. It's day 39 so where's my 1 million dollars!!! I wish it was that easy out here. The longevity of this trip is the single most difficult aspect of the entire thru-hike. Now I have to do another 39 days and then another 39 days. Oh yeah, and then another 39 days. Long time. The trail has changed so much the last few days. After worrying daily about your next water source there is now water everywhere. Large rivers, streams and today our first Lake. As I was walking this morning I felt a little guilty about only doing 8 miles yesterday. Must keep reminding myself that there is no schedule and take everyday as it comes. Everybody was joking today that whenever they make plans the day usually changes them. I am no exception. A one-hour stop at the lake turned into 4 hours but we all have the same problem today. Everybody must hike another eight miles this afternoon for there is Extreme bear activity at the shelter two miles ahead and no one is allowed to stay. I have to say the anticipation of being able to do this the entire summer is very exciting.   So after jumping in the lake three times once with all my clothes on (free wash) and eating 3 times I now have to get moving and do another 8 miles before sunset to the next shelter. Goodnight!
Date: 2016-05-10
From: Vandeventer shelter

To:  Double springs shelter
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: broken clouds

Once again things got very interesting right after I signed off for the night. Bird seed, a 19 year old thru hiker from Michigan walked by me and said she was going to continue to night hike to the next shelter. 10 minutes later a young couple now in total darkness stated that they also we're going to try to hike 3 more miles to the next shelter. Shortly after they left my campsite with my fire still going I saw two headlights approaching at a rapid pace. They were jogging back and I listend to them repeat this story four times before going to bed. That about a hundred yards down the trail two black bears had a standoff with them and one actually bluff charged him and his fiance. They immediately woke me up and asked if they could stay with me at my tent site. They were genuinely scared and had a hard time sleeping that night.This is the reason I will never Night Hike.Very Scary.   The next 10 miles today flew by as I ended up moving along with an older woman from Florida. We had the same exact pace and she seemed fascinated by the history makings of the fire department. Needless to say the 10 miles flew by. Most people on the trail are now focused on getting to a big hiker bash today. There's 9 past through-hikers that plan this giant event prior to Damascus every year. They donate thousands of dollars towards this gathering. As I walked thru the event and got a standing ovation from everybody I got the chills. Realized I've made so many friends on the trail and regularly run into random hikers who request my terodactyle call.   Today's picture is of myself and everybody else is from Massachusetts. They take a lot of criticism out here as not many people around the United States like the New England Patriots. So much fun going on but I'm pulling myself out of here now at 6 o'clock so I can make three more miles to the next shelter.   Another really good day on the Appalachian Trail
Date: 2016-05-11
From:  Double springs shelter

To: Damascus Virginia
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: clear sky

Left the Riff Raff party last night with just enough time to make it to the shelter 3 miles away. The first obstacle was getting through the two hundred head of cattle. I was very uneasy as I literally had to walk around some of these animals on the trail while they stared at me with those big cow-eyes. Well I guess that was enough to throw me off for I didn't see the white blaze after closing the gate and did a one mile circle around the perimeter of the farm following the fence. In a half an hour I was back in the same exact spot where I started. Not good. So I could see the party and hear everybody whooping it up. Time to make a decision, just go back to the party or try to make it to the shelter. Long story short I ended up doing my first night hike. It wasn't that bad knowing that I didn't have too far to go. To my surprise when I arrived there were only two hikers sleeping in the shelter. Perfect. I threw down my ground cloth, blew up my sleeping pad and was in my sleeping bag in 2 minutes.   Once again this turned out to be a very good decision. Around 4 in the morning the skies opened up and it rained hard for 2 hours. It was just so nice to be under in a shelter while the rain pounded on the metal roof. Everyone's Pace Quicken today as we are headed into Damascus Virginia. A few old hiking buddies caught up to me and the time flew by as I talked with them for hours while hiking. Damascus is the friendliest Trail town on the entire At and I'll explain tomorrow what trail days is all about. I have just secured three nights at the woodchuck hostel with two of the hikers from Massachusetts. At $45 apiece for three nights and all you can eat breakfast every morning I am very happy because this town is completely sold out and everyone is scrambling to try to find a place to stay this weekend. Some are paying close to $200 for a bed and breakfast.   Most of the plans I've made so far on this trip never turn out. But this one is important. I am getting shuttled 31 miles past Damascus tomorrow with many other hikers. I will still be carrying my full pack and then take the next one and a half days to hike back to Damascus by Friday noon for the weekend festivities. This way when Trail Days ends Sunday and thousands of hikers go back to the trail I will not be in a massive bubble but thirty miles ahead of the pack. It's getting late and I have a long 20 mile day that I must do tomorrow.
Date: 2016-05-12
From: Damascus Virginia

To: Saunders shelter
Miles today: 22.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Our shuttle driver turned out to be more than a little bit interesting. After two unplanned stops and getting lost for 10 miles he ended up dropping us off at the wrong place. After pointing out his mistake it took us another half hour to finally get to our destination..   The first four miles of the hike was spectacular. Hiking through the Graceland Highlands with the wild ponies was a change of scenery from your regular trail. At different times throughout the day I stated out loud that I was concerned about making the 22 miles before dark. As usual just when I think I'm making progress and I will get to the shelter, something changes. So I spent the last hour of my hike in the pouring rain in pitch darkness. Not fun. When I arrived as soon as I asked if there was room in the shelter a few people spoke up and said no. There was obviously room for two more hikers if you slept perpendicular at the edge of the shelter. I later found out that before my arrival one of my friends had just made a woman take down her tent that she had set up inside the shelter. She was reluctant to do so until he explained to her 3 times that this is an 8-person shelter and she was taking up 4 spots. Once I learned of this I no longer asked if there was available space and around 10 o'clock just put down my sleeping bag and went to bed in the shelter. No one objected. Obviously all these people in the shelter were not thru hikers and had no idea of the rules and etiquette of the shelter process. I was very pleased because again it rained hard throughout the night and I stayed dry.
Date: 2016-05-13
From: Saunders shelter

To: Damascus Virginia
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: overcast clouds

No one wasted any time packing up this morning. When I woke up it was raining . I waited out the rain and that gave everybody an even start out of the gate. A disadvantage for me. But the eight miles into town flew by with the anticipation of the large event coming up. As expected I was the last one to arrive in town and before saying hi to anyone immediately went to a D'Angelo's and ordered a footlong grinder loaded.    Thousands of thru-hikers from past, present, and future are descending on this small trail town. All the locals are sitting on their porches watching us like animals in a zoo walking up and down main street. The rest of the afternoon went as follows. Eat, laundry, shower, eat, shower . The best way to spend an afternoon in town.   The evening was crazy and I was surprised at my self discipline by being in bed by 10 p.m. . I literally ran into hundreds of hikers, some of whom I haven't seen since the first or second week of this journey. It truly is one huge family out here and it sometimes gets emotional when you suddenly see someone that you spent 9 hours with one day pop out of nowhere. The town had obviously been stockpiling wood for tonight's bonfire for some time. It would put my fires at home to shame. People danced around what was called a drum circle until the wee hours of the morning. Another unique experience on the Appalachian Trail.
Date: 2016-05-14
From: Damascus Virginia

To: Zero Day. Trail Days.
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Woke up early and wasted no time preparing for a long day. I spent the first few hours just b-bopping around town seeing all the hikers from the past month. Ran into more than a few strangers who said they have heard of me on the trail. I always say hi to everybody and my high energy seems to be a good trait on the trail. Today more than ever I feel part of this community, with the young as well as the older hikers. Being in my element I must have talked to over a hundred hikers.   Today's picture is of myself and three thru-hikers from last year that I gave Trail magic to in the White Mountains of NH. Today a total of 6 different thru-hikers approached me by yelling out my trail name and telling me how they loved the trail magic I gave them last year. This was so unexpected and definitely one of the many highlights throughout my day   Next on the agenda was the hiker parade. Originally I wasn't planning to participate but I'm so glad a bunch of the the thrus talked me into it. The streets were lined with a few thousand people and every child under 15 had large squirt guns with them. Whenever I saw these children I would march in their direction and then open my mouth wide while they all squirted the guns at my face. I definitely had to be one of the wettest hikers by the end of the parade. So much fun. The bands were great all afternoon and evening and the fire was even larger than the night before. Again surprising myself with a lot of restraint I went to bed early for tomorrow it's back in the woods. Party over!
Date: 2016-05-15
From: Zero Day. Trail Days.

To: Hurricane Mountain shelter
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: broken clouds

It was not an easy task this morning but the three of us managed to get out of town before noon. With another great breakfast, a quick shower and a complete pack check. PBR, Grizzly and I were ready to go. Luckily the terrain was pretty easy today so we covered the 12 miles fairly quickly.   I have decided to sleep in an open Shelter tonight. This could be interesting because the temperature is dropping very rapidly and I did send a lot of my winter gear home weeks ago. It would be a little warmer in my tent but I'm just too lazy to set it up.   There doesn't seem to be much on the calendar as far as I can see in the next two weeks. It will be nice to just hike and get some miles in. A healthy 19 Mile day tomorrow should drop me at partnership shelter which is the only one on the Appalachian Trail that you can have a pizza delivered. Getting cold and the sun's not down yet so I'm going to curl up and try to get some sleep. Very tired.
Date: 2016-05-16
From: Hurricane Mountain shelter

To: Partnership shelter
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: clear sky

The first thing that came to mind this morning as I was quickly packing up and trying not to freeze to death was a woman I had talked to at Woodchucks the day before. She was saying how she had been jealous all these years reading journals of all the hikers on the trail. After staying at the hostel through Trail Days and observing everybody in their hiking life style she said with a big grin, I am no longer jealous of you. She saw how dirty, how hungry, how skinny and how much work this really is.   Today was different than most days in the sense that it truly was going to be a race 2 partnership shelter 19 miles away. This is what I came out here to avoid but with at least 30 people and an aggressive group of young British hikers all going to the same shelter, I really wanted a spot. So I was on the trail hiking at 6:30 a.m. going as fast as I could on the straightaways and actually doing a slow jog on down hills if the terrain allowed.   Nobody should judge how much hiking you've done in a day by how many miles you've gone out here. Today's 19 miles was probably the equivalent of 12 hard miles. It was the loveliest terrain we've seen and I had 11 plus miles in by noon. It was funny to think just a short time ago 11 miles was a full day of hiking. Now it's just the morning warm-up. Everyone I've talked to says the same thing. We have our hiker legs and are now ready to start 20-plus miles a day. To my surprise and for the first time ever on the trail nobody passed me all day and I arrived at partnership shelter alone with 16 spots to choose from. I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself as I have never been at a shelter this early. So after setting up shop I spent the next hour gathering firewood and prepping for what would be a really fun night. The only snag at the shelter tonight was a big strong looking crazy local who systematically tried to bum money, food and drugs off of every single hiker here. The women were very afraid of but as I explained, " we do outnumber him about 20 to 1". Some people still slept uneasy. After all the shelter was very close to a road. But the pizza was great and the fire was the biggest we've had yet on the trail.   For the record the score now stands.    Mice 3.   Terodactyle 0I mistakenly left a factory sealed granola bar in one of my side pockets on my backpack. Not only did the little guy eat through the side pocket but went through my pack cover before he found the peanut butter bar. I really hate those guys. Goodnight.