morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2012-03-23
From: neels gap

To: Unicoi gap
Miles today: 21.2
Weather: light rain

3/22/12 From Neels Gap to Low Gap Shelter. We woke to a foggy morning with misting rain. We left at 10:15 and the temp was 66 degrees. A young boy from Maryland had warned us of a 600lb bear that had stolen his food. But we didn't see it. We climbed up to 3825 ft to levelland mtn from there we ridge walked in the fog for a couple of miles until we reached tesnatee gap. There we received trail magic sodas, debbies food cakes and chips. The weather cleared so we hiked to sheep rock top at 3600 ft and then made our way down to low gap shelter. We arrived there at 5 pm. There we set up our tent and talked to red hat for a while and then retired to our tent. It rained and stormed all night. However the owls were right above our heads hooting back and forth to each other. That was a total of 11.5 miles. 3/23/12 From Low gap to unicoi gap. We awoke to the sound of rain on our tent yet again. We used the privy which is a ways up the hill where we camped, however ratman said it was well worth the extra steps. We packed our wet tent and supplies and headed out at 9am. the degrees was 63.2. It was a 2 mile steady climb to popular stamp gap at 3500 ft. Then we made our way up blue mtn in the cold rain with the wind blowing and the fog so thick you could only see a few feet in front of you. That was a 4025 ft climb. We were so wet and cold that we decided to hitch into Helen, Ga from unicoi gap which was 1.5 more miles down from blue mtn. We hitched a ride along with 2 hikers from germany. Helen reminds us of a town in Switzerland or germany. It is a real cute town and the folks are real nice. I want to appoligize for my first couple of journals due to the fact that we were using our phone and we had bad signal. I really wanted to throw it over the hill. Also I will download pics as soon as I possible can. Sorry that I told you before that pics were posted and they weren't. I haven't had a pc to download yet. Hopefully in 2 days I will be able to. God Bless and thank you for your prayers and following our journey. We will get better with our journals. This is all new to us."Walk with Jesus"
Date: 2012-03-24
From: Unicoi gap

To: Sassafras gap
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: broken clouds

Unicoi Gap to Sassafras Gap. Hiked 10.4 miles. Had hot dogs and chips at tray mtn. Trail magic is great before a climb. Got to sassafras as it started to rain.Set up tent at 4:30 and stayed n tent for the night.
Date: 2012-03-25
From: Sassafras gap

To: Dicks Creek
Miles today: 6.3
Weather: few clouds

Sassafras Gap to Dicks Creek gap. 6.3 miles. Temp was 42 degrees. Left camp at 7:50.Got to Dicks Creek at 11am. Caught a ride to blueberry patch. Went to town for chinese buffet and to resupply.
Date: 2012-03-26
From: Dicks Creek

To: Muskrat Creek Shelter
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: clear sky

Woke up to a beautiful sunny morning. Had a great breakfast at blueberry patch. Got to the trail at 9:45 and hiked from Dicks Creek Gap to Muskrat Creek Shelter. Got there at 5pm. Hiked a total of 11.8 miles. Finally hit the NC line.
Date: 2012-03-28
From: Muskrat Creek Shelter

To: Franklin
Miles today: 54.9
Weather: clear sky

3/27/12 Temp. 57 degrees. Left camp at 8:45. Today was our biggest day yet. We hiked a total of 19.3 miles into Big Spring Shelter. We got there at 6:30pm. We had to summit Standing Indian Mtn at 5500 ft and then over Albert Mtn at 5250 ft. We met a family from Indiana that are thru-hiking. It was a very beautiful and peaceful hike. We had lunch at Beech Gap. We spent several minutes on top of Albert. There is a fire tower there and you can see for miles. It is very beautiful up there. Then we hike .6 to the shelter and set up camp and had supper of ramens and chili beans. We then sat around the shelter and socialized. The hit the ground for a not so good nights sleep. 3/28/12 Woke up to another beautiful day. It was cold last night even though the temp said 52 degrees. We slept close to the water so I'm sure that made a big difference. We left camp at 8:10 and hiked 9.1 miles to Winding Stairs Gap. We arrived there around 11:45. Along the way we ran into trail magic hanging in a tree. It contained chocolate cake and homemade sponge cake from Whipper snapper. She was a 2011 thru-hiker. It helped to get us on up the trail and into franklin. At the gap we hitched a ride and within 5 mins a truck pulled in and offered us a ride. Here is a total of progress: trail magic 7money found on the trail 2.09extra miles walked 7.5 wildlife 5 snakes and 1 grouse. Surprisingly no falls for either of us. But we are sure they are to come. God Bless!"Walk with Jesus"
Date: 2012-03-29
From: Franklin

To: Franklin
Miles today: 2.0
Weather: clear sky

Just wanted to update our milage. We realized that we were 2 miles off..lol. I want to thank Josh, Justin, Kayla and Holly for dropping us off at Springer. Also a special thanks to our good friend Troll who has been helping us update our journals till we can get into town. We love ya buddy. A special thanks to Lisa at Main St Pizzaria in Franklin who is also one of our bingo buddies. If you want a great pizza visit Lisa at Main St Pizzaria in Franklin it's the best in town. We also want to thank everyone who follows us. Thank you for your prayers and support. God Bless each and everyone of you.
Date: 2012-03-30
From: Franklin

To: NOC
Miles today: 27.5
Weather: broken clouds

3/29/12 Winding Stair Gap to Loglick Gap. We ate breakfast at the Baptist Church before we headed to the trail head. We arrived at 11:45. We climbed 1300 ft over a 5 miles stretch to Siler Bald then down to wayah gap at 4180 ft. We then started a long drawn out climb to Wayah Bald at 5350ft. Then hiked 2.2 to licklog gap and threw up our tent. We were both tired from the last climb plus we got a late start and we both do so much better in the morning hours. I think we were both out before dark. It was a beautiful day. Hiked a total of 12.3 miles.3/30/12 Licklog gap to NOC. Woke to a sunny morning. Temp was 51.2. Left camp at 8:00. We climbed to rocky bald at 5030ft and back down to tellico gap at 3850. We then hiked back up wesser bald at 4627ft. We climbed up the fire tower the view was beautiful. As we were coming down we met a hiker from scotland. From there we made our way down to NOC in 6.7 miles at 1746ft. It was a very long hike down the mtn. I didn't think we were ever gonna get there. About 2 miles out thunder started rumbling behind us. So we picked up the pace and made it in by the time the rain hit. We ate a huge burger and fries while we waited on his son and wife to pick us up. We then made it back to franklin and stayed at the sapphire inn one more night. We saw 2 snakes and a grouse on our hike to the NOC. We are headed back to NOC today. God Bless!!!"Walk With Jesus"
Date: 2012-04-01
From: Sasafrass Gap Shelter

To: Brown Fork Gap Shelter
Miles today: 9.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Sasafrass gap shelter to Brown Fork Gap Shelter. 9.1 miles. Our friend Connie met us a stecoah gap with trail magic of bbq sandwiches, sodas, and chips and cookies. She then took us into town for a couple of hrs. Had a great time. Thank u Connie Tomorrow into Fontana. Will post pics soon.
Date: 2012-04-03
From: Brown Fork Gap Shelter

To: fontana dam
Miles today: 11.5
Weather: light rain

4/2/12 brown fork gap shelter to fontana dam 11.5 miles. Temp 63. Left camp at 8am. Got to fontana dam 1:30. The first six miles were up and down. Uphill to walker gap 3450ft. Ate lunch at cable gap shelter. Then headed for fontana. Got trail magic from a father and son who were section hiking into fontana. Checked into fontana village Had pizza and salad for dinner and then watched ncaa finals. The weather was beautiful. Headed into the smokies tomorrow. Thank you connie for all you did for us and also thank you troll for helping us out. We love you guys. God Bless!"Walk With Jesus"
Date: 2012-04-04
From: fontana dam

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

4/3/12 fontana dam to doe knob.9.1 miles. Hiked 2000ft to shuckstack firepower. Beautiful view. Went to the top to take pics. Made our way to doe knob where 2 storms met onto of us. We pitched our tent just in time. It started hailing nickel size hail. Lightening was sticking very close. But God kept us safe.      4/4/12 doe knob to derrick knob shelter.15.1 miles. Woke to a beautiful morning after the storms last night. Made our up 5500ft to thundered mtn. Then up and down to derrick knob shelter. There was several hikers there planning to make their way to new found gap in 2 days. We sat and talked for a while then hit the sack after a long day.      4/5/12 derrick knob to mt Collins shelter.13.5 miles. Again it rained last night. Left camp at 8. Which seems to be a set time for us to leave. Made our way to clingmans dome at 6643ft. It started raining on us and it turned cold. The clouds rolled in and it started storming but when we got to the dome the clouds parted and perfect views all around. There were a lot of people there. They asked questions about what we were doing. In a matter of minutes the clouds were back so we headed to the shelter. We were a mile from the shelter and it started storming and raining again. We got to camp put up our tent andof course it rained all night.
Date: 2012-04-07
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

4/6/12 from mt Collins shelter to new found gap.4.5 miles. Temp 41. Left camp at 7:30. Got to new found gap at 9:45. We were starving. We had ate the last of our food for dinner. We knew we were going into town. We had friends coming to pick us up to take us to Cherokee. They hadn't made it yet so we were talking to other hikers and a guy came over and asked if we wanted something to eat. So of course we all headed to his truck. We had bologna sandwiches cookies chips and sodas. Al and doris got there it was so good to see them. We ate ayce pizza...yummy!! We then went to wash clothes and play bingo. We also got to see Roy and Linda. We will hike out from new found gap Sunday. Thank you doris and al for you did for us. We love you guys.
Date: 2012-04-09
From: Pigeon River

To: New Found Gap
Miles today: 33.2
Weather: clear sky

4/8/12 After breakfast at Hardees Doris and Jerry dropped us off at New Found Gap. After saying our goodbyes we headed to Pecks Corner. It was beautiful day even though the wind was cool it was still nice. We hiked 10.4 miles. We got to camp had noodles for dinner. Thank you Doris and Big Al for all you did. We love you guys.4/9/12 First of all I want to say hello to Rayola and a big hello to our bingo buddies from bingo. We left camp at 9am. temp was 41. We had a snack at tri corner. After lunch we called some friends form bingo who offered some trail magic a year ago. So we decided to hike 22.8 miles to pigeon river. It was an easy hike but by the time we got to the river our feet and legs were feeling the milege. He picked us up around 8 and took us back to their house for the night. We will hike around 15 miles tomorrow and be in hot springs thursday. A special thank you to all our friends and followers. God Bless! "Walk With Jesus"
Date: 2012-04-13
From: I40 underpass

To: Hot Springs
Miles today: 33.9
Weather: scattered clouds

4/10/12 I40 underpass to brown gap. 10.6 miles. Before heading back to the trail roger fed us biscuits and oj from bojangels. We hiked passed standing bear and headed up snowbird mtn. We went from 1500 to 4263ft. It was a cool windy day. The temp is to be below freezing so we hiked to brown gap at 3500ft and set up our tent around 4:30. The wind was blowing really hard so we put it up against a log to block some of the wind. We look forward to the hike over Max Patch tomorrow.4/11/12 Brown Fork Gap to Lemon Gap. 8.9 miles. Temp was 29 this morning. It was so cold we didnt even want to get out of our tent. We finally left camp 9:30 and headed for max patch. As we crossed over the bald the wind was blowing like 50 miles per hr. As I was walking I had to walk sideways to keep the wind from blowing me over. All I could do was laugh. We stopped at roaring fork shelter for a short snack. It was so cold we had to keep moving. We made our way to lemon gap and ratman yogied us a ride half way to hot springs where skippy and lish picked us up for the remainder of the day. We had dinner at the diner and set up camp next to the river. It was so great to see them again. Thank you guys for all you did for us. Good luck on the PCT we will be praying for you. 4/12/12 Lemon Gap to hot springs. 14.4 miles. Skippy and lish took us back to lemon gap so that we could slack pack back to hot springs. That is we got to hike without our packs for the day. That was great not having to carry 35lb packs. Skippy and Lish went back to max patch to do trail magic for the other hikers. When we got back to hot springs we ran into Fog now Daypak. We split a room with him and then we went to the diner for pizza and a sub. The last couple of days have been alot warmer. We are staying here 2 more nights and ratmans family will be here tomorrow for his b-day. Will head out sunday."Walk With Jesus"
Date: 2012-04-14
From: Hot Springs

To: Devil Fork Gap
Miles today: 35.0

3/15/12 Hot Springs to Spring Mtn Shelter. After a day of celebration for ratmans b-day we hiked 11 miles to the shelter. The first 5 miles to the pond flew by. On our way up the mtn we received trail magic from some day hikers. They gave us granola bars and well wishes. While sitting at the pond eating our bars we heard a russtling in the leaves and turned to find a wolf/dog coming from the mtn for a drink of water. I'm still not sure that it didn't have coyote in its blood. It's paws were huge. We know it was not a domestic dog. We climbed up to rich mtn lookout tower at 3600ft and then made our way to the shelter. We built a huge fire and just relaxed and enjoyed the peace of the woods.3/16/12 Spring Mtn Shelter to Jerry Cabin Shelter. 15.4 miles. We left camp at 8:30. We made our way down to Allen Gap where we saw a sign for trail magic. It was 350 yds up the road, but of course we went. There we were greeted by former 1999 thru-hikers Hercules and his wife Fal. The meal consisted of belgian waffels, pork stew and a choice from 5 desserts. Plus all the drinks you wanted. It was great because we had a climb of 2500ft in front of us in the next 6 miles. Ratman decided to lay in the hammock for a few minutes to let his food digest before the climb. We took a short break at Little Laural Shelter before climbing 900ft 1.3 miles to the camp creek bald lookout tower. We then had to climb over a rocky edge for about 1.5 miles. It was so worth it because the view was spectacular. We finally made it to the shelter where there was about 10 in the shelter and about 15-20 tents. We were worn out from the rock climbing so we put up the tent and had noodles for dinner and then hit the bag. 3/17/12 Jerry Cabin Shelter to Devil Fork Gap. 8.6 miles. We left camp at 9am. Had to climb 600ft up Big Butt Mtn. Yeah thats the real name of it. We then came to the Shelton Grave site. There was 4 stones but one was a thirteen yr old boy who was lookout and the confederates ambushed him and killed him and his family. That happened in 1863. There really is alot of history on the AT if you ever decide to research it. We then stopped at Flint Mtn Shelter for water, very cold water out of a pipe in the mtn. It was very refeshing. We then made our way down to Devil Fork Gap at 3100ft where 2 section hikers gave us a ride into Erwin to recharge some batteries. Tomorrow we will get a ride from Ms. Janet back to the trailhead. Pics are posted.Totals: trail magic 27money found on the trail: $4.01extra miles walked: 22wildlife: snakes- 12grouse-3 deer-2 wolfdog-1bear scat-2 but no bear in sightFalls: 1 eachWe have met people from 24 states and 7 countries
Date: 2012-04-18
From: Devil Fork Gap

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I just want to thank everyone for following us and also for signing our journal. Several have asked about why ratman was in the hospital and I realized we didn't explain. I'm so sorry for that. We were sitting in the motel room and his face turned real red and he checked his pulse and it was like 90 and kept rising, so we went to the hospital and they decided that it dehydration and possible heat stroke. They said that his body was starting to shut down and feed on itself. So they kept him overnight and gave him 6 bags of fluids and several different kinds of meds. The next day they discharged him and we hiked 3 miles. We took it easy for the next several days until he regained his strength. I give God thanks for taking care of him and putting people in our path to see that we were in the room and not on the trail. Again thank you for your prayers. May God Bless you!"Walk With Jesus"
Date: 2012-04-18
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

We took a zero today in Erwin Tn. The rain helped us to make the final decision. We spent the day talking to other hikers who were staying at the same place. We split a room with Silver who is doing a thru-hike with his son, however his son had to get off the trail for a while due to a blown knee. Silver was gonna go home as well but he decided to hike on with us. He and his wife had southbound in 2010. They are from Atlanta. For dinner Ms. Janet came to get all of the hikers and took us to eat Mexican. We had a lot of fun swapping stories and having a good meal instead of ramen and mashed potatoes. If anyone has any ideas for a switch for food please let us know..lol. We will head out tomorrow. God Bless!!"Walk With Jesus"
Date: 2012-04-19
From: Devil Fork Gap

To: Big Bald
Miles today: 15.0

4/19/12 Ms. Janet picked us up at 11am and we headed back to Devil Fork Gap. Ms. Janet offered to slack pack us to Sam's Gap. 8.5 miles without our packs, how could we refuse. It was a nice day for hiking. It was so peaceful walking and listening to the sounds of the woods. Birds singing, leaves rustling in the breeze. Just a great day. We decided to check hogback shelter to see if Dtunes had signed in because we knew he should be close to us. As we started down to the shelter I looked up and guess who was coming toward us? It was Dtunes! It was so good to see him again. We had not seen him since Franklin. We hiked 2.4 miles down to Sam's Gap where we Ms. Janet was waiting with our packs. Before we headed back out she took some of us hikers to the store down the road. I bought us and ice cream..yummy! That helped us with the next 6.5 miles. It was pretty much all up hill to Big Bald. We had planned to hike a couple of miles past big bald but we decided to camp on top for the sunrise. We got to the top 7pm and the wind was blowing pretty hard, so we decided to pitch our tent on the south side of the bald in hopes to stay out of the wind, but it didn't matter much. It still blew. We camped with Dtunes. We all had dinner and retired to our tents in hopes to stay warm. The fog had started rolling in so we figured we would not be watching a sunrise.
Date: 2012-04-20
From: Big Bald

To: Erwin
Miles today: 17.6
Weather: broken clouds

Last night was the worst night for sleeping on the trail yet. We were on a little slope so everytime we rolled I ended up at the bottom. Remember we are sharing one sleeping bag. The wind blew all night and it was cold. We left camp around 8:45. Due to the fact that we had not had much sleep and that it was foggy out we did not want to get up. We got everything packed and made our way to the top. The fog was so thick that you couldn't see hardly anything. The trees looked like something you would see in a horror film with the fog around them. We stopped at Spivy Gap for a break and a snack. Dtunes caught us there. We sat there 30 minutes and then started the 600ft climb in 1.2 miles. As we were hiking down the trail we seen a 4ft black snake beside the trail. We stopped at no business shelter for another break before making the 5.8 miles down to uncle johnny's in erwin. We set our tent up under the bridge across from the hostel. We went back to the hostel and sat around and talked to silver and tyvek until after dark. God Bless!!"Walk With Jesus"
Date: 2012-04-21
From: Erwin

To: Beauty Spot
Miles today: 0.0

Waited until around noon to head out. We hitched into town to resupply. The first truck that passed gave us a ride to dollar general. After we got our supplies we saw that we were next door to pizza plus. Hhmmmm..buffet for lunch before we head out. Yeah thats what we did. Ratmans best man had made plans to come and hike a few days with us. He was suppose to meet us at the hostel. I told him that we were at pizza plus having lunch. In just a few minutes he surprised us and walked in the door. We had not seen him since the wedding so that was a great reunion. We got back to the hostel and put our food in our packs and headed out. The trail was pretty level and smooth to start out and then all of a sudden we started straight up. About .03 from the shelter it started to rain. We put our rain covers on and headed on to the shelter. We took a short break and headed out after the rain. We had gotten about half mile from the shelter and it started raining again. That meant we had 6.5 miles to hike in the rain before we got to beauty spot. The rain actually wasn't too cold or maybe it was just because we were hiking so fast. It rained on us all the way up the mountain. We finally reached our destination. The were 3 huge tents set up with probably 20 hikers standing around. The trail angels had fixed hamburgers and tacos. That was very satisfying after hiking in the rain. We hiked 12.2 miles in 4 1/2 hours. We decided to pitch our tent on beauty spot with everyone else. In for a long wet and rainy night. "Walk With Jesus"
Date: 2012-04-22
From: Beauty Spot

To: Beauty Spot
Miles today: 0.0

Ok just to let you know we are back in erwin waiting out the rain and snow. Last night was a blast. We all enjoyed hanging out and talking even tho it was raining. Tyvek built a fire and grits had brought some firewood. Several of us sat on huge rocks next to the fire. There was a rock behind another rock so several decided to try and move it closer to the fire so someone could sit on it. That was so funny watching them trying to move that bolder, and of course ratman was right there in the middle. They finally got it closer to the fire. Several attempts I really thought it was gonna roll into the truck parked next to us or at least on someones foot. We headed to the tent around 9. It rained all night and it was so cold. This morning we decided to come back to town and wait out the rain and snow. We would have been hiking over Roan Mtn at 6200ft if we had kept hiking. So without a doubt we would have been hiking in inches of snow. We split a room with dtunes, nanner and tyvek. We will have to hike like 20 miles a day for several days when we head back out."Walk With Jesus"
Date: 2012-04-23
From: Beauty Spot

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Last night we went to dinner with Ms.Janet and several other hikers who are avoiding the weather. We had a good time making new friends and socializing. We are taking a zero again today. We have been told that there is like 5+ inches of snow on Roan Mtn. That is where we would be today..yuck! However we will head out tomorrow no matter what the weather. We have to. We are planning to hike at least 19 miles per day. That will put us in Damascus on Sunday. Here is a list of new mail drops in case anyone wants to send a mail drop, card, word of encouragement, ETC. If you send something make sure you put in bold letters "HOLD FOR AT THRU-HIKER" on the package/card/letter.Winston Terry Relax Inn7253 Lee HwyRural Retreat, VA 24368Winston TerryGeneral DeliveryParisburg, VA 24134Winston TerryGeneral DeliveryCatawba, VA 24070Winston TerryDutch Haus B&B655 Fork Mtn LaneMontebello, VA 24464Winston TerryGeneral DeliveryWaynesboro, VA 22980Winston Terry Bears Den Hostel18393 Blue Ridge Mtn RdBluemont, VA 20135