morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-05-13
From: Campsite at Mile 484.1

To: Thomas Knob Shelter
Miles today: 10.8
Weather: broken clouds

I¢m glad I did shorter miles today. Climbing Mt. Rogers wore me out! On the way up, Snafu and I had a wild experience with one of the wild ponies. It was the first one we encountered. It was all alone in a big field on a hill just after VA 601. This thing was extremely aggressive. Snafu was the first one to enter the field. When he did, the pony came straight up to him, so he offered it a couple of cashews. When the cashews dropped to the ground, the pony started biting at Snafu¢s arms and also the back of his pack. Then it started jumping up on him. Snafu was successfully fending off this little beast, but the pony wouldn¢t stop. I thought if there were two of us together, maybe the pony would be a little less bold. WRONG! I entered through the gate, and immediately demanded that Snafu not leave me alone with this thing. As we began to climb the steep hill, the pony would get behind us, act like it was eating grass, then suddenly charge at us from behind. I started yelling at it in my biggest voice -- ¢Yaahh!¢ ¢ while clacking my poles together in the direction of the pony. It would momentarily back off, then charge again. It followed us this way, all the way over the top of a big hill, until we reached the tree line on the other side. Double Dare came along shortly behind us, so we waited to see if the pony would attack him too. It was only mildly aggressive by then, and did not follow him into the woods. Up here at Thomas Knob Shelter, there is a mother and foal. They are well-behaved.
Date: 2013-05-14
From: Thomas Knob Shelter

To: Mile 509.4
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: clear sky

This was one of the best days yet. The sun was shining, the ponies were out, there were spectacular views and the trail terrain wasn¢t too difficult. I did spend a lot of time today thinking about my family and about how much I miss them. When I hiked in 2006, I never had one thought of quitting short of a complete thru-hike. This time, I get these sneaky little thoughts that seem to want to sabotage my hike. I think, ¢Well, I¢ve already done this before.   I could take this same time and money and spend it with the kids.¢ Or, sometimes I think: ¢Why don¢t I use this time to go do another trail?¢ There are many others I¢d like to see. Then, I snap out of it. I remember why I¢m here. The A.T. will help me to become more physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually fit. I don¢t want to cheat myself out of that.
Date: 2013-05-15
From: Mile 509.4

To: Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 21.2
Weather: clear sky

Happy Birthday, Bobby! Luckily, I got a signal up on a high sunny ridge today, so I could call to wish my son a very happy birthday. Wish he was here.I surprised myself with the mileage today. I was only going to do 14.5. Thanks to some great trail magic, I was able to crank out my biggest mileage day yet! I finally ¢broke a twenty!¢ Admittedly, the lack of steep ascents and descents does help. But as I came to a road crossing today, I saw Hollywood, Class of 2011, in her car. She has been slack-packing her husband, ¢Sno,¢ and also hiking sections with their baby girl, Fawn, on her back ¢ amazing! Anyway, she offered to slack-pack me from Dickey Gap to Partnership. I really appreciated the offer, but I told her I wasn¢t going to make it that far today. ¢However, I could really use a cheeseburger,¢ I said. My breakfast of a granola bar and dried fruit was not cutting it for me. An hour after breakfast, I was starving! She said, ¢I know where you can get a cheeseburger ¢ come on, I¢ll give you a ride.¢ Oh happy, happy, joy, joy! She took me into Sugar Grove, where there was a little convenience store/deli. I ordered a cheeseburger with the works, plus fries, and also picked up an apple and a container of chocolate milk. I wolfed everything down in true hungry hiker-fashion, thanked my trail angel Hollywood, then hit the trail with a full belly and energy to spare. I hiked over 14 miles after that lunch. For me, that¢s amazing!
Date: 2013-05-16
From: Damascus

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

There were five of us at the shelter last night. We all took the 50-cent shuttle into Merian this morning. After eating breakfast at Hardee¢s, I went over to the library in order to get some photos posted. No such luck. They wouldn¢t let me do it. I did purchase three paperbacks at the library¢s book sale though. They were only 25-cents each ¢ you can¢t beat that! One of the hikers with me today was a young man named ¢Blue.¢ His parents and grandparents drove down from PA in order to take Blue to Trail Days. Since I am going to Trail Days too, Blue offered to share his ride with me. I am very grateful to him and his parents for helping me out. I suppose I could have hitched a ride, but this was much better. I enjoyed the conversation with his dad and his mom, Karen. They were staying in Bristol, TN because that was the nearest place they could find to get a room.Tonight I¢ve already seen some faces from the recent past.   Brownie Brittle is one of the first people I encountered as I was setting up my tent at The Place. Luckily for me, she gave me a ticket to the hiker feed at the Methodist Church next door. Otherwise, I would have had to walk 1-1/2 miles to the registration booth at Tent City to get my ticket and the dinner started 30 minutes after I arrived. Boy, it was a good dinner too! I had fried chicken, mac & cheese, beans, salad, fruit, and cake for dessert. This was all free, put on by the Methodist Church. They were very friendly and welcoming. I can tell this is going to be a good time.
Date: 2013-05-17
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

TRAIL DAYSI don¢t remember the last time I had this much fun. Other than walking at least six miles back and forth around town, I had the best time ever today. Across from Tent City, One Way Ministries provided refreshments all day long. Their facility was great too. I won a pair of Vasque boots in a drawing! I wear Vasque Breeze, so that¢s perfect for me! I always say I never win anything ¢ well, I can¢t say that any more.The Ancient Men, a band that has been together since 1976, was playing at the One Way Ministries building. They are an excellent band and played tunes from the ¢60s and ¢70s. There was such a positive vibe amongst everyone there. Hikers of all ages were dancing together to the music. Even people who wouldn¢t normally dance were getting into it. The band and dancers were all feeling the same good vibes together. When the band played ¢Stand by Me,¢ the hikers all formed a circle with arms wrapped around each other¢s shoulders, and we sang along with the band at the top of our lungs. No one wanted the night to end. From there, we went over to the Drum Circle, where there was a giant bonfire. I danced around the circle until almost midnight. Caboosy, a woman from Asheville who I met in Hot Springs, was there. We hung out together for a while and promised to stay in touch.At midnight, I walked a mile alone down a dark road to get back into town. I am exhausted from the day, but so glad I¢m here.
Date: 2013-05-18
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

TRAIL DAYSI managed to connect with three others from 2006 for the hiker parade, so I walked with them near the front of the parade. All was going well, everyone was having fun, and the townspeople were soaking the hikers with water guns as we walked by. Then we heard screaming from behind, followed by emergency vehicles streaming past us in the opposite direction. There have been many conflicting stories going around, but from what I understand, six hikers were hit by a car during the parade. Apparently, it was an accident. Rumor has it that the driver was an elderly man who passed out at the wheel. Two hikers were medi-vaced out. One of the first responders announced this evening that four out of the six have been released from the hospital. I hope everyone recovers from their injuries. So the parade ended right there, and that put a damper on an already damp day.I went over to the talent show, which I thought was very good. I met Summit Sister ¢Blue Tortoise¢ at her booth, where she was selling soaps and lotions. It was good to finally connect with another Summit Sister. I¢m turning in early tonight because I lucked out with a 6:30 a.m. ride back to the trail with Tye-Dye and her husband. Red Specs and Jolly will also ride with us.I am very glad I came to Trail Days ¢ but I¢m ready to move on.
Date: 2013-03-16
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

It's all coming together right now. The wait has been too long. I start my journey south and to springer in 2 days. I feel like a mess and I feel scared and I cry all the time! The stress of waiting is horrible! I'm getting a cold. I'm having nightmares. They all seem to be about failure. I've been in this holding pattern for far too long. Because of a few disappointing setbacks and one disappointing jump forward I have been waiting, just waiting and thinking, with little else to fill my time for almost three weeks. That's okay. I only have 38 hours left until the journey to the start of the adventure begins. 38 hours. That's nothing!
Date: 2013-03-18
From: bangor maine 

To: boston mass
Miles today: 0.0

Today I start my journey south to Georgia. Since my original ride fell through I have been scrambling to find cheap transportation. The first leg, today, will be by bus to Boston where I will have a 10 hour layover until I can catch my train tomorrow morning. A friend is letting me crash in his guest room for which I am extremely grateful. He is also an avid hiker and outdoors enthusiast so I don't think he will mind my constant almost mindless chatter about pack weight and fear of shinsplints and blisters and knocking all my teeth out or hypothermia. I don't really know my way around the Boston T system very well at all so that might be a tiny adventure just getting to his house with a 35lb pack. Speaking of 35lbs¢¦My pack is too heavy! I'm about to take it all apart and repack it to see where I can lose some weight. Food is the heaviest but I may have too many medical supplies. I don't know. I'm only 3 lbs up on what I was hoping for at full weight with 4.5 days of food and 2 liters of water. How often am I going to carry 4 days of food? Damn. How heavy will 8 days through the 100 mile wilderness be? I need to get on the trail already and stop obsessing about things months down the road. Time to repack.
Date: 2013-03-19
To: on the train
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: snow

I've been traveling down to Georgia since yesterday at 330pm. I won't be done traveling and on the trail until tomorrow morning at 830am. I'm hungry and tired and uncomfortable. Guess I should get used to it. A day will come when I will miss the warmth of recycled heat and the diversity of disgusting microwaveable food and the sounds of humans being human. Probably. I just had a three hour conversation with a Jamaican minister about the universe and god and the meaning of it all. He was nice and promised me that I gave him food for thought. That's a nice feeling. Helping someone to see outside of the box that is their normal thought patterns. He definaty has me pondering things. He was such a good guy and helped me take my mind off my pending adventure for a bit. Now the urge to take my pack apart and lay everything out to obsess over is seeping back. Too much time waiting is the sinister side of all this travel. I have a headache and fear I won't get enough sleep tonight to power me through my first day on the trail which I expect to be very emotional. And cold. There is a freeze warning for my first night out. Lows in the 20s. Guess we'll see how well that sleep system of mine works. Dear universe, please don't let me get hypothermia my first night out. Please please please. Tomorrow I start!!! Heck yeah! 14 months of preparation and planning are all about to come into sharp focus. I'm dizzy with anticipation. And hunger. Probably.
Date: 2013-03-20
From: AFSP

To: stover creek shelter
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: overcast clouds

First day on the trail!! I'm 2.8 miles down the trail at stover creek shelter. I hiked 11.6 miles today in order to get 2.8 miles into the trail. I guess that's not really all that bad for not hiking in 6 months. The approach trail is kinda brutal. I wish I had done it in two parts like so many of these other hikers had. That seems the way to do it. Those 600+ steps are killer. There are signs that say "strenuous" on the way up and they aren't kidding. Even without a 34lb pack I can see them causing a heart attack or two. At the shelter tonight there are 17 people. 2 of us are girls. It certainly is a boys club out here. I'm definitely engaging but...boys will be boys. Especially in a group. Wowzers. I can't believe I'm here!! 14 months of planning and preparation have finally come to fruition. Dream come true! It's supposed to get down into the teens tonight. Cold! I hope I get some sleep. I definitely didn't eat or drink enough today. Must do better tomorrow. It would suck to get sick this early on from something preventable like poor nutrition.Someone started a fire. I need to warm up and zone out. I wonder what my trail name is going to be?
Date: 2013-03-21
From: stover creek shelter

To: gooch mountain shelter
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 2: Holy smokes was it cold last night. They are saying it was down to about 15 degrees. I just woke up and started hiking. No breakfast. Way too cold. I saw bear tracks and a tree scratch in the trail today about half a mile from the shelter. That's neat and sorta scary. Today was a long day. I walked 13 miles today to gooch mountain shelter. I found out what a gooch is. The more you know¢¦ Sassafras and Justus mountains kicked my butt. They don't look like anything on paper but holy smokes. Sassafras kicked my ass. Got my first trail magic in cooper gap today. Nutty buddies and water bottles. Hell yeah! Those nutty buddies were amazing! The best thing is that we are walking in forests of rhododendrons and mountain laurels. Damn beautiful.
Date: 2013-03-22
From: gooch mountain shelter

To: suches ga
Miles today: 5.3

Day 3: First Nero day to suches ga. Only 5.3 miles from gooch mountain to woody gap. We stayed at the hostel at wolfpen gap store. There were 19 of trying to stay warm and dry sleeping on plywood bunkbeds and curled up in corners. Spartan and spencer and Ian and I hiked that 5.3 in two hours. Nothing like a highly trained army man to light a fire under your ass. I'm going to miss that giant man. The food was terrific! That lady can cook! I highly recommend stopping by for some BBQ for dinner and biscuits with gravy for breakfast. I ate soo much. I think I needed all that protein. For some reason I was totally dumb and walked into the woods without much protein. So silly. Also, the dragon dogs are amazing. Amazing.
Date: 2013-03-23
From: suches ga

To: neels gap
Miles today: 10.7

Day 4:Got a ride from the hostel up to woody gap this morning with Ian and spencer and cater. Cater and I seem to be hiking buddies now. We hiked 10.5 miles to neels gap. We went through bear country without incident. Although it was so misty and foggy that a bear could have been right in front of us and we never would have known. Blood mountain was beautiful. I don't know if it was all the protein that I consumed the day before I felt great and hiked like a champ. Maybe I've finally got my trail legs under me? I sure hope so because it looks 11.5 mile day tomorrow. In the rain, no less.
Date: 2013-03-24
From: neels gap

To: low gap 
Miles today: 11.5

Day 5:Todays hike was the very definition of a trudge. I certainly earned my name today. I was so tired and weepy and ready to throw a little kid fit. The trail was so wet I has to change my socks 3 times and every time I did my old socks would freeze within the hour. I don't think I ran into any other hikers besides Cater who was giggling behind me as I was freaking out. We pushed to low gap shelter to find not only the shelter full but the residents not very kind. We set up our tents up the hill from the shelter and didn't try to interact with them for the rest of the night. Rain and wind and crappy attitudes were the name of the game today.
Date: 2013-03-25
From: low gap 

To: unicoi gap 
Miles today: 9.7

Day 6:Low gap to unicoi gapWoke up with snow on my tent. Terribly cold. We could hear the wind but down in the gap we couldn't really feel it. Packed up and started walking within 15 minutes. Breakfast on the go. Cater and I thought that we were going to stay at blue mountain shelter tonight so that we could nero into haiawassee tomorrow but when we got there it was so cold we couldn't get warm. I made oatmeal and tea for us while she curled up in her sleeping bag shivering. We had to leave. I'm pretty sure that death would have been a possibility if we had stayed. I have never been so cold in my life. After about an hour we quickly packed everything up again and basically ran off that mountain. By the time we got to unicoi gap we were sort of warm again and fell into some trail magic in the form of one very nice man and his very adorable dog feeding us cookies and then driving us 15 miles into town. It didn't end there! He drive us to a few different motels until we found a place with vacancy. The holiday inn express in haiawassee is amazing. Totally worth the money and those folks were so nice. By this point the town had doubled in population because of all the thru hikers but nobody was frustrated with us and we were so happy to be warm we were running around giggling like little kids. We all set up an impromptu hiker box in the lobby, soaked in the hot tub in our underwear, and sat around the lobby talking shop all night. I highly recommend it if you want to spend the night in haiawassee. There was an all you could eat next to the hotel and I have no idea how they broke even with all those hungry hikers eating multiple plates of food. There was no joking around. Food piled high and then back for seconds, and then thirds, then two desserts. The weather is supposed to be even worse tomorrow and we are talking about taking a zero. Our first zero! Sort of disappointing that it is happening so soon but I really don't want to go back out into that. At least everyone else seems to be taking a zero as well. Met a weird little dude from Tennessee tonight. He hikes barefoot. We called him leatherfoot. This is his second attempt at going thru. He can't weigh more than 100 lbs. How has he been hiking barefoot in this weather and not dying? It makes me uncomfortable.
Date: 2013-03-26
From: unicoi gap 

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light snow

Day 7:Zero day in haiawassee gaFound Cleveland today and hung out with the gator boys and luscious rob. Ate so much food. Too much food really. Wandered around haiawassee doing the resupply thing and sorta just hung out being a bum. Good times but I wish the weather would clear up so I could get some miles under me. Something I was not informed of was the wondrous nature of superfeet insoles. Or liner socks. I picked both of them up in neels gap and my feet have been so much better. That's todays piece of advice for any prospective thru hikers. Liner socks. Superfeet. You can thank me later.
Date: 2013-03-27
From: unicoi gap 

To: deep gap 
Miles today: 13.1

Day 8:Unicoi gap to deep gap shelter. Woke up and had so many pancakes this morning that I emptied the machine of batter. Was made fun of for the rest of the day. All those hikers were just jealous. Left the hotel at 8 am in the bed of a pickup truck. So cold going 15 miles up into the mountains to get dropped off. Hiked through snow and ice all day. Slipping and falling on the peaks of mountains is not fun. On top of trey mountain I just kept thinking what if we are all lost and just following some poor lost hikers trail through the snow. We didn't see a blaze for hours. Down in the gaps the snow had melted but we were all still bundled against the never ending wind. The last hike of the day was up Kelly's knob. There was a train of about 12 thru hikers huffing and puffing up this stupid little mountain. No switchbacks at all. Just straight up. Cater sorta lost it for a quick second. Hiker meltdown. We were all feeling it. Awful little knob. I shall never seal well of it! I hiked all day with luscious and cater. She picked up the trail name rainbow bright because of all her super bright colored clothes. Deep gap shelter is super full because everyone jumped back on at the same time after the great Georgia blizzard of 2013. One lady brought up a Hardee's burger from town. That's the single best idea ever. When am I going to get a burger again? Not soon enough, that's for sure.
Date: 2013-03-28
From: deep gap 

To: bly gap
Miles today: 12.6

Day 9Deep gap shelter to Bly gap. 12.6Woke up freezing. Will it ever warm up? I thought it was supposed to be warm in the south. It's not! Didn't get on the trail until about 10am. Cleveland and rainbow bright and I hiked 3.5 miles down to dicks creek gap and jumped into the back of a pickup headed for hiawassee to get lunch. The guy charged us $5 each way and waited for us while we ate. Bacon cheese burgers with lots of pickles and fries! Heck yeah. Essentially we paid $18 for a burger but I think it was totally worth it! After lunch we were determined to make it to the north carolina boarder. It honestly wasn't that bad of a hike. I sorta blacked out though. I have almost no memory of my day after burgers. I know I hiked 9 miles and pulled into tent city at dark with no decent place left to put up my tent. I laughed until I cried at the boarder and went to sleep tired and fulfilled. So tired. Oh yeah! It's the first day I got to hike in a t-shirt! That's worth mentioning.
Date: 2013-03-29
From: bly gap

To: beech gap 
Miles today: 12.1

Day 10Bly gap to beech gap. 12.1 milesNothing happened today. Nothing of note. I met a man who works with my father. That was cool. His accent warmed my heart. I also met an older couple from maine who have retired in North Carolina and do trail maintenance. They had a 13 week old puppy that I played with for 20 minutes. His name was buddy. He was awesome. We set up camp in a bear sanctuary. I didn't know it until late at night. It snowed GIANT flakes on us for about half an hour. It was beautiful. We met wales. He camped with us. He is very tall and very quiet and thought our little group was very strange. We've started calling ourselves team misfits. We start late in the day and end late at night and are the last ones awake in the evenings. We only stay up until 10 but everyone else goes to sleep around 8. See, nothing special. Just a day walking. A good day. Living the dream.
Date: 2013-03-30
From: beech gap 

To: long branch shelter
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 11Beech gap to long branch shelter. 11.8 milesHit the 100 mile mark today!! Heck yeah! We are so AT. (That means badass.) That was the biggest and best thing to happen today. We also climbed Albert mountain. It was our first rock scramble. Reminded me of hiking in Vermont. It was also our first fire tower. The views were spectacular. From there we had a 2.5 mile hike to a brand new shelter. I can't even explain how exciting it is to sleep in a shelter that hasn't been trashed and use a privy that isn't disgusting. There were Boy Scouts there tonight. 14 and 15 year olds. There scout leaders were very generous with their dried veggies but also a little crass and forward when it came to the 3 girls in the shelter. The weirdest/creepiest part of what they were saying was that they were saying it in front of these young boys. Wales was there again and that lucky boy got to sleep next to me while I had sorta nightmares about vampires. Buffy was protecting me. No joke. I was kicking at the vampires and ended up kicking at wales and waking myself up. Dreams out here are very intense and vivid and sorta lucid. I also met a masshole and we definitely had a standoff about New England. He told everyone who would listen about how Mainers and Vermonters were inbred. I don't care to meet up with him again. Oh well. Another day, another dollar¢¦or mile.