morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2010-03-28
From: Approach trail

To: Stover Creek Shelter
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: moderate rain

1st Day! Pat picked us up in the white subaru. Her name was Purple Pokey. Rain! It rained hard but we were warm. Packed up stuff in the privy before leaving. Ate there too! Amicalola Falls absolutely beautiful! Hiked all day in rain on approach trail, well until 2pm. We pondered our mindset out here. Working with the mountain. Enjoy each day. Enjoy the rain! And sunshine more! Approach trail not so bad! We met the GATC guy Many Sleeps at the summit of Springer and he signed Brian in as Skippy. We ate lunch in the springer shelter with a few other folks. Got super duper cold standing still, so we did jumping jacks to get warm. Rain stopped till we got to shelter. Gloves are kinda cold when wet. Thermals are warm! Dinners were grrrreat! Learning how to cook with alcohol stove. Decided to skip the wet tent and are trying out first shelter. Nice and dry...maybe. Some early snoring going on. Brian is still the best hiking buddy out there. Especially in the rain. I'll miss you! Patches (Lish)
Date: 2010-03-29
From: Stover Creek Shelter

To: Justus Creek
Miles today: 12.3
Weather: light rain

Woke up before sunrise. Old guy and grandson making racket in shelter. You decide your reaction to something. Whether you get angry or happy depends on how you chose to feel about it. Tent was still damp this AM. Lish made it into a very impressive sail using the bear cables. Met guy with Aussie Dog carrying pack. He would draw lots of comments from people ahead. Infamous, negative comments about the dogs behavior. I thought he was nice...the dog...people just gotta relax! Oh, met Puma at Stover creek shelter. He quit because he started going to music festivals. Quit in VA that is. He was the first fellow thru-hiker. No, Laura was the first thru-hiker I met. Fell on slippery log trying to hang a bear bag from the bear cable. Fiasco! I busted my tail right in front of the old guy. He didn't laugh. I would have. Hilarious! Especially when I lowered my oh so niffty PCT bear bag hanging method...it ended up at eye level. Smirk. So I took it down and Lish taught me how to use those things. Saw a giant tree with a huge hollow hole in it. Took awesome photo but didn't get in. Too scared. Lunch at Hawks Mountain shelter. Met former Thru-hiker "Fog". Fat...old...guy! Haha. Puma and co. showed up before leaving. Couldn't figure out where Cooper Gap was. Thought we crossed it a coupla times. Wasn't it. Saw Army hummer idling and stinking the place up. Cold & windy so lots of wardrobe changes. Sassafras would still be a sweaty climb if you were naked in the winter. Not bad but challenging. Concerned about feet a little. Keeping close watch. Got mooned by a lady at Cooper Gap when we actually found it. She didn't seem to be enjoying it...hiking that is. Not showing her tail to us. Somehow there were to suppose to be two "blips"...elevation changes...but turned out to be only one before Justus Creek. Set up tent. Ate a silica gel pack when I was shoveling food into my mouth. Unpleasant! Didn't have a taste but felt like dental pumis...gritty. Couldn't get it out of my teeth for days. Slept with our food...duhhh duhhh duh duuuuuhhhhh! Sleeping bag now referred to as "The Shit!" Camping with Old guy and Grandson again. Moonie & Co. Rod and Cecilia. They were really nice...offered the next morning to come hike and assist later in the Asheville area.
Date: 2010-03-30
From: Justus Creek

To: Woody Gap/Dockery Lake Trail campsite
Miles today: 9.5
Weather: few clouds

Sitting here at next campsite after Dockery Lake Trail. View on top of Granny Top mountain really nice. Wish Lish coulda saw it. Kinda hard leaving her behind back at Woody Gap. Really hard. I wanted to hug the first tree with a white blaze on it. Wilson comforting my soul. I was so scared without her. Like she was still out in front keeping pace. She's my soul out here...she's such a wonderful person. She has "pace". She keeps things in perspective and gives it just enough. Always encouraging. Positive. Never complains! Such an inspiration to me. I'm going to do this for her, for us! I love you Lish. The woods sure turned an awful shade of brown without Patches in front! Saw moonie at Woody gap again. Still pissed off at the world. Provided our first trail magic with my future fellow campers. Lish's wonderful brownies! Marley (black chow & corgie mix) sharing my roast beef sandwiches while leaning on a tree. Fellow campers making campfire. Jill (boogie), Laura, Steven (indiana), Fin, Sam (sandman), Chad (mcgruber), Cristina. Random...Jill knows the guy who was singing that creepy "John the Revelator" at Shakori hills last year. Slept in my tent for the 1st time on trail. Saaaweet! Cool, mossy soft, level spot between two streams. Hard laying there. Falling asleep was tough. Missing Lish. Felt like Beatrix Kiddo (Kill Bill) laying there in my self dubbed "Stealth Coffin". I feel like these white blazes are leading me somewhere beyond Katahdin. We'll see. Nice campfire and good company for first solo night. They were using wet wood...large logs...gringos, haha. Lish taught me well! Excited about early AM start. Go slow and steady!
Date: 2010-03-31
From: Woody Gap/Dockery Lake Trail campsite

To: Cowrock
Miles today: 9.7

Awesome sunrise this morning. Hiked straight into it! The ridge line was beautiful! Sunlight glistening off the limbs and branches like they were covered in ice! Wow! Blood Mtn. easy! Whaha! Windy up here! Got sweet message from Lish up there. Got all emotional. I'm gonna miss her! Hiking for Damascus when a skinny, bearded man emerges from the forest. It'll be classic! Steripen causing problems. Got water from stream by camp. Poured that out at the first reliable water spring coming from rocks in mountain. Marley barked at me leaving...woke up the fellow campers. Journal starting to come apart already! Feet feel good & spirits high! Sittin at Walasi Yi now. Ate some awesome burgers, and cookies provided by a church group. Wow, what a wonderful thing to do as a christian. Fantastic people! Got my mail drop. Gave away food. Shared chocolate. Got accused of buying friends. Haha, cool looking grizzly adams guy told me to share it with the hikers when I asked if he wanted some choco. I want a beard like that! Speaking of...it's about 3/8ths now! Booyah! Met Lowkey. Met Shakey Pants...haha. He got his name because his legs were vibrating incessantly beneath his legs while taking the browns to the superbowl at the privy. Sweet name! Bravo! Waited on a hillbilly to use this computer before typing all this. The "U" button is missing from this computer. You wouldn't believe how hard it's been to type this without it there. Why did I choose so many words with U right there?! Weird. Well, there's no tellin where I'm going from here. Probably Rock Spring Top...i dunno. See ya at Blue Berry Patch.
Date: 2010-04-04
From: Dick's Creek Gap 

To: Standing Indian Shelter
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: clear sky

Man, I love this silence! It's so calm and soothing! It's like being in a cathedral all alone. The Church of the Earth! The chorus ~ woodpeckers and songbirds. The stained glass windows ~ flowers. It's so quiet out here that my ears ring a little. Maybe it's the elevation. I love the stories people tell of their past hiking adventures. The way their eyes glaze over when they tell them. That thousand yard stare! It's the same look people have when they look into the news camera and tell the story of how, one minute...they were in their mobile home watching Jeopardy and the next minute...they were ripped out of comfort of their aluminum walls and sent sailing through tornado force winds in a cast iron tub! It's great...they're salty dogs! They've been there. That's what I'm here for...for that look, that gaze!Gary at Blue Berry is my idea of what a christian should be. Love thy neighbor! Those pancakes and blue berry syrup were medicinal to my soul! I'm healed! Those yellow flowers behind their house and the blue berry bushes...like a Bob Ross painting...happy little berrys! Tortuga, John and Shovel were great company. Met "Corsican" randomly. He drove up to shoot the crap. His name, "Corsican" came from where he was born. But it sounds like "Of course I can!" I already feel some form of a brotherhood forming around me, enveloping me out here. It feels like a family. If I don't make it another mile, I know, I'm already inspired! Sitting at the Standing Indian Shelter after 14.5 miles. Met Roman Goat at Deep Gap. He told me all about his Thru-hike in 1981. He told me that Duke had made it to the Finals. Hiked up to the shelter racing the sunset. The shadow stayed one switchback below me the whole way up. Beautiful!I just couldn't stay at Muskrat Shelter. The crowd their gave me a bad vibe. So, I hauled buggy. Made me regret leaving that place though. There was a wonderful sunset view overlooking Hiawassee. I could see the lake shining in the sun. It looked like a giant white chocolate gingerbread man. God, all I think about is food. Saw that old crooked tree before climbing up to Muskrat. Chilled in the shade right at the North Carolina ~ Georgia border! Happy Easter!It's so nice hiking alone! Deafening! These hikers are amazing...they can be so talkative, lively and then the next second they sit, completely silent in perfect comfort. Saw a red tick looking thing. I named him, Count Redicula. Get it? Red-ick-ula? Met Breathless and Convinced from Rodchester, NY.I've noticed more Berch and Pine trees since crossing the border. Georgia had more maples and oaks. Saw some Tulip Populars in GA also. So great looking back into GA! What a feeling!
Date: 2010-04-09
From: Nantahala Outdoor Center

To: Brown Fork Shelter
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: clear sky

Left the NOC kind of late. There wasn't a window in the bunk room to shine light into my eyes! I ate breakfast and coffee with Fog. Some weird unsociable guy that hikes only at night was sleeping in the dining room. I don't think he paid to stay there.My stomach was acting up. I think it was the chili. I started feeling better by the time I got to Sassafras gap. I hiked most of the morning with Fog! Yeah, with his sprained ankle! Wow! He's the toughest SOB out here. I could barely keep up with him even when he was injured. I kept an eye on him until he passed me at a nice overlook around lunch. It was pretty cold today and I ended up putting on my rain pants for warmth. Drying your feet in hot weather is smart, but not a good idea in cold weather and windy.The climb to Cheowah Bald is difficult! I took a break in the sunshine on top looking down at Wesser. The trail was confusing and I had to be careful because the Bartram trail intersected the AT. Few white blazes, and the one's there were really faded. I met Moose and Casual up there on Cheowah.Awesome views of the Smokey's today! They're so huge and intimidating!When I got to the 143 road crossing, I took a break at the picnic tables. I was being all introspective about all the blooming flowers. About Spring! Dandelions, Daffodils, Fiddle heads and Maple leaf buds. I was feeling warm and fuzzy! Felt like hugging a tree! Just then a butterfly flew overhead. I watched it floating on the breeze. This way and that. Then it started flying ever so close to the 8% graded highway. BAM! It splattered on a semi-truck!Out of the corner of my eye I could see a fat kid on a moped coming uphill towards me. Holding traffic back. It's an 8% grade incline! Haha! He pulled off the highway right at the picnic area. Took his helmet off. And introduced himself as "Jon, from Robbinsville". He then pulled out a bag of chocolate covered donuts from the seat in his moped. I felt like doing dog tricks. Begging! Soooo hungry! I had to contain myself. Had to contain my excitement. He sat down and broke the seal on the bag. I made sure I heard the seal break...worried about tampering. Don't want to end up strapped to the back of his moped and hauled away as his love slave. We ate donuts. Well, I ate his donuts! I ate 3/4 of the donuts as he told me about his recent approval for disability, iron working jobs and life in Robbinsville. Perfect timing! Trail magic! I was so hungry, I was contemplating eating tomorrows lunch.Afterwards followed 2.4 miles of the hardest inclines yet! I stayed at Brown Fork Shelter with Fog, Matt, Casual, Moose, Conan, Backwards, To Late, and To Soon. So hungry! Smoked summer sausage gooood! Fog has a 30 degree bag. It's suppose to be 20 degrees tonight and windy! I joked with him saying, "You're going to be spooning whoever you're sleeping beside tonight". Not long after it got quiet in the shelter...he jostled again and started complaining that his air mattress had a hole in it! Haha, he's going to have a rough night!
Date: 2010-04-11
From: Fontana Dam

To: Spence Field Shelter
Miles today: 16.7
Weather: clear sky

Woke up feeling fine! Took all my stuff out of the shelter to sort without disturbing my mates. Gave away a little more food. Made horrible instant coffee, instant milk, and Blue Berry Granola! Umm! I thought Matt would want to hike with me so I didn't do my usual 4 miles before breakfast. I went straight to the good stuff. Walked to the visitor center to use the bathroom. I was very concerned about the stability of my stomach. Kept thinking that I'd get halfway across the Dam before it'd hit me and I'd have no where to turn. Nope did fine! Been great all day!Climbed the rickety fire tower at Shuckshack. We finally got a decent photo of the Dam. Spring Kat and Moose by-passed the fire tower. I'm trying to smell the roses as much as possible! Glad I saw that view. Best vista yet! Spring Beauties littered the ground everywhere on Doe Knob. Matt and I noticed at the same time. We both smiled at each other without a word. We knew what the other was thinking. They looked like snow on the ground everywhere. Water is scarce until Ekaneetlee Gap. Took an early dinner break at Russell Field shelter. Met Birdie. He gave me chocolate covered Blue Berries! Ummm! My Goya rice was under cooked. I hope I got some nutrients from eating them...maybe I digested some of it. McCampbell Gap had Birch trees with the wildest colored bark! Very splotchy color patterns. We walked the last 3 miles quicker than ever before. Matt and I were talking about concerts, music and parties in our past. Shared some good time memories!We arrived at Spence Field shelter with Moose, Spring Kat, Birdie, Matt, Amy and her family. I ate more sausage, zucchini and squash! With my new spoon! My "Light My Fire" spoon just broke and Lish sent me a new one just in time! Thanks again Lish! On another note, most everyone I know's "Light My Fire" spoon has broken. Yeah, I broke my spoon. I was that hungry! Flip flops ROCK! Almost broke my toe on a stump though. Lucky the flops are a size to big! Knees tired today, but I already recovered before dark. Feeling good!
Date: 2010-04-12
From: Spence Field Shelter

To: Double Spring Gap Shelter
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: clear sky

Spring Kat was the first up this morning. Ate the rest of the Blue Berry granola, milk and coffee. Rocky Top was AWESOME! There was a nice bald right before Thunderhead that you could look south from and see Fontana Lake. Hiked fast behind Spring Kat and Moose. Moose kicked over a cairn! He uttered some explicit racial words, he's a MADMAN! Took a break at Derrick knob and ate cookies and mixed nuts. Hot today with little breeze. Had to take another break around Miry Ridge Trail. Hiking was hard, and straight up the inclines. No switchbacks here. Had to take another break at Siler Bald. Drank the rest of my instant milk and at my last snickers bar! Talked about Grizzly Man and Wolfman documentaries with Matt and Spring Kat. Spring Kat doctored his foot. Matt and Spring Kat are experiencing foot pain. I guess all that running really helped me.The way the Birch trees up here look reminds me of a parade. It's like Spring has scheduled a celebration just for me! The leaves are all dried horizontal, perfectly frozen like a still framed picture. It's like everything has been waiting for this moment to start over completely anew! It's like the leaves are confetti! The way I walk through ankle deep leaves reminds me of a celebration parade! Like that picture of the sailor kissing the girl, confetti floating all around, post-war, welcome home!!! I'm so excited! The Birch trees look like bushes up here it's so high up! We walked through huge populations of Red Spruce and Fraser Firs. I was rubbing the cedar in my hands and smelling them, thinking of home! We walked 13.5 miles to Double Springs Shelter. The Professor, City Slicker, Super Max, Conan, Backwards, Spring Kat, and Matt are here.Matt, Spring Kat and I talked about an early start in the morning. We're excited to see the highest point on the AT. We're thinking it'd be great to see the sunrise on Clingman's Dome! We saw 3 deer at the shelter tonight!
Date: 2010-04-14
From: Ice Water Spring Shelter

To: Tri-Corner Knob Shelter
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: clear sky

This morning had the best sunrise yet! I keep saying that! Haha. It was perfectly framed. I should have taken a picture. It really wouldn't have done it any justice at all. It was like that scene in "City of Angels" where all the angels watched the sunrise from the beach in California. How they all watched from the shore. There was complete silence before and after it. Perfect and any explanation of what we'd seen wouldn't be adequate. Absolutely the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen. I felt like all those angels, but I just wanted to enjoy the moment like a human. I just wanted to jump and enjoy the few seconds that it afforded us to relish it's beauty!Anyways, we hiked to Charlie's Bunyon thereafter. The Smokey's are beautiful! It was completely different from Double Springs Shelter onward. A whole lot of brown with little vegetation leading up to that point. Small flowers started blooming south of Mollie's Ridge. When you reach Clingman's Dome lots of Spruce and Fraser's appear. There's a lot more moss and more shade from Double Springs onward. "Fun Dip" wanted to make a snowman! We left him to give hikers a some smiles! The trail crosses ridges overlooking huge valleys, all knife edge cliffs. A few scary drop offs here and there. Didn't get water before leaving the Double Springs Shelter. Big mistake! Water sources are scarce here at high altitudes. Pecks Corner Shelter is 0.4 miles off the trail. That's the only water source between shelters. I thought I could get water from the spring at Eagle Rocks. The 2009 handbook has water available there, but the 2010 book doesn't. That's what I get for being outdated. Mt. Sequoyah had some of the largest Red Spruce I've ever seen. They were like a green subway station.I ate a hand full of snow! Awesome! Spring Kat cooled his feet in the ice. I'm staying at Tri-Corner knob shelter tonight. There were lots of warnings about Bears taking backpacks here. The people here are the same as the last shelter. Conan and Backwards, Flying Squirrel (the ATC ridge runner), Red Hawk, Guy, Green Abe, Safari, etc. They were talking about some weird guy they'd been warned about. Apparently he's hiking in pink crocs.We're trying for Standing Bear tomorrow. I'm low on food, but I've got enough for another night. Spring Kat might take it easy tomorrow, he's having foot problems.
Date: 2010-04-18
From: Roaring Fork Shelter

To: Hot Springs, NC
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: clear sky

Almost got lost early on this morning on a side trail. Discovered the error early and corrected it. Anthony and Heete both ended up on Max Patch Rd and walked to Lemon Gap. Lots of streams here south of Roaring Fork Shelter. Creeks on the verge of rivers. Very cold this morning. Hard to regulate without thermal layers. Going to try sleeping in them. It's easier to stay warm than to get warm. There was a nice bald spot with thorns that would have been a nice warm place to take a lunch break but we bypassed it. Stopped to chat with Heete at Walnut Shelter. Anthony slept there in his hammock last night. The shelter floor there looked like some type of creature had been chewing on the floor, exposing the nails!? Took a lunch break on top of Bluff Mtn. with Fun Dip. We compared his store bought dehydrated bananas to my homemade dehydrated bananas. No comparison! Ate the Powerbar that Lish sent me! Ummmmm! For the last four miles I've been working on writing a tune. A song. My first song that is that I'd ever came up with. I recorded the sound into my camera so I'd remember it. It's my hope and highest goal out here to write my first song and to play it at trail days. They have a hiker talent contest and I want to play it with Lish on her fiddle. Discussed plans to move on to Hot Springs tonight with Fun Dip. Loved on McKinley and hiked a little further than Deer Park Shelter. I really was excited to see what was in my mail drop at Elmers Hostel. I was most excited to get the next letter from Lish! So I rushed to town. The sound of cars and the ringing of a bat hitting a softball in a nearby game made me giddy! The AT is marked by special diamonds in the sideway as it leads through Hot Springs. There was a Jesus statue beside a 1989 Toyota with the rear bumper, tail gate completely rusted off.Honeysuckles everywhere! There's lots of ivy reaching out to grab me. I met a crazy town loony on a bike. He asked, "Do you smoke?" I replied, "No sir!" Then the old homeless guy said, "Good, because I do" then he lit a cigarette and rode off. Quirky! Elmers hostel had my mail drop on the door step. They really didn't strick me as that friendly or accomodating. They were rather rude and unhelpful to me. I ate my homemade cookies from Lish! I went to the camping area and they're charging $10 for a tent site. Rip off! I wouldn't have came to town had I known. Chef camped beside me. Abe, Guy, Boss, Ice, Dutchess, iSlack, Not Bad, Cricket, etc are here camped by the river in a cabin. I took a shower without realizing that I didn't have a towel to dry off with. I had to walk back to my tent, shirtless to dry off. Tonight was the "Wolfpack's" birthday. The guy...in the Wolfpack. They're kind of refered to as one. Whatever.Great sleeping spot tonight. Way to go Brian. Right beside the train tracks! AHHHH!