morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2009-10-29
From: Woody Gap

To: Neels Gap GA
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Access:South--Woodys Gap/GA Rt 60--From Blairsville, take US Rt 19 south to GA 180 at Vogel State Park. Follow 180 west for 12 miles to Suches. Go east on GA 60 2 miles to the AT parking area. Parking for 20 cars (on both sides of the road).North-- Neels Gap is located on US 19. From Blairsville head south on US 19 for about 13.5 miles to the AT crossing which is at Walasi Yi (outfitter/ hostel). Parking is north about 3/4 mile. There is parking for at least 20 cars.The Hike:We started out by going directly up Big Cedar Mt (500'). The next 7 miles were rolling and not too difficult. Early in the hike there were great vistas off of some rock slabs looking east. It was a beautiful day and the leaves here are at full peak! Halfway through we met a gaggle of ladies who were out on their first overnight hike... the 'Orlando 8'...we enjoyed talking to them and sharing some of our trail stories. One of them had a huge pistol strapped to her leg (the first gun we have seen in 20 years, although we are sure that others have been carrying concealed weapons based on trailjournals stories we have read). It seems these ladies had heard some bad stories about the trail and thus were also determined to not sleep at shelters. We hope that they enjoy their journey and grow more comfortable, as we have, with the AT community and the trail. It is unfortunate that a few bad apples can ruin such a nice thing and get the publicity that they do.We then met a trail maintainer from the GA trail club. We thanked him for his volunteer work and complimented him and the club on the GA trails. They are very well-graded and maintained and easy to hike.We trekked up to the top of Blood Mt and were greeted by a very old stone shelter. It reminded us of the shelter on the top of Roan Mt, VA.It was a neat setting and you could climb up on some tall rocks for an almost-360 degree view. By now the Orlando 8 had summitted along with two other ladies we had met earlier who were struggling along with heavy packs. They had been out for several days and were ready to bring their hike to an end.We left the summit and hiked down over some beautiful open rock slabs with views to the east. Then down into the woods and we came out onto Rt. 19 at Neels Gap and Walasi Yi, an outfitter, store, hostel and wilderness oasis. It was a great place and we enjoyed poking through the store. The entire front lawn was covered with pumpkins. This is one of the first places that NOBOS can stop, re-outfit themselves, buy more supplies, shower, etc.Burly Girl and Bugsy...doing the AT one day at a time...
Date: 2009-10-30
From: Hog Pen Gap GA

To: Neels Gap GA
Miles today: 6.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Access:North--Hog Pen Gap--See hike of 10/28South--Neels Gap--See hike of 10/29The Hike:Today was supposed to be fair weather, but it was misty and rainy all day. We got to the trailhead early and it was still dark so we sat in the car for a while. The woods were spooky dark when we started. We called this our Halloween hike!We had a 300' up to Wildcat Mt then a steep down over wet rocks and leaves to Tesnatee Gap. Then back up 800' to Cowrock Mt. It was a shame that the day was fogged in as the majority of this hike appeared to have good views.We thought that we had gotten off the trail coming down from Wolf Laurel Top as there were several trails at the top of the mountain and no white blazes that we could see. But 1/2 mi later, we found one...whew!We passed the Orlando 8 again trudging up the mountain and assured them that once they reached the top, the trail was mostly down to the lot where their cars were. Good luck ladies and keep hiking (and journaling!).Burly Girl and Bugsy...doing the AT one day at a time...
Date: 2009-10-30
From: Gooch Gap

To: Woody Gap/GA 16
Miles today: 3.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Access:South--Gooch Gap GA--From Blairsville go south on US 19 approx 10 miles to RT 180 at Vogel State Park. Go west on Rt 180 for 12 miles to Suches. Turn left on GA 60 for about 3/4 mi to Cooper Gap Rd. Turn right. Follow this road for 2.7 mi to Gooch Gap. It is paved for the first 2 miles and then turns to gravel at a brown forest sign for USFS 42. There is parking for about 5 cars.North--Woody Gap--see hike of 10/29The Hike--We did this hike this afternoon as tomorrow's weather does not sound good and we wanted to chip away at the trail today. However, today was not so good either, and we hiked this one in the rain (but warm).The hike had an upward bias and many ups and downs, but despite this we did the 3.6 miles in about 1.5 hours. It could have been because we kept moving due to the rain.We ran into Threshhold who is on her next to the last trail day. She will summit tomorrow. We are now 16.5 miles and 2 day hikes from Springer!!Burly Girl and Bugsy...doing the AT one day at a time...
Date: 2009-10-31
From: Hightower Gap GA

To: Gooch Gap GA
Miles today: 8.2
Weather: moderate rain

Access:South--USFS 42.North--USFS 42.USFS 42 roughly follows the AT from Woody Gap to Springer Mt. We are 'leapfrogging' our two vehicles. Each time we move a vehicle we drive south but we hike north back to the other vehicle. At the end of the day one of the vehicles 'sleeps' on USFS 42.The Hikes:We did 2 hikes today as it was pouring rain all day and we were not sure how far we could get.Hike #1--Cooper Gap to Gooch Gap. We did this 4.7 mile hike in 3 hr...not bad considering the rain. Although maybe it was because of the rain as we don't tend to stop much in bad weather. This could also be good for the diet, as we don't tend to eat much in the rain....hmmmm...'The Rainy Day Hikers Diet' by Bugsy and Burly Girl. We could get on Oprah with this one!We climbed straight up (500') to Justus Mt and met Thresshold again. She will stay in a shelter tonight and will summit Springer today. Go Thresshold!The trail was very nice (like all of the trails in GA) and we descended and crossed a roaring stream on stones. Shortly after this we met Poncho and Lefty (a very happy black lab). We knew they looked familiar...we had met them many months earlier near Chairback Mt in Maine. They will finish today. Congrats!We crossed another stream and stopped in Gooch Mt Shelter for a break. We were soaked! Then up another big hill, and down into a gap where our truck was parked. We blasted the heat in the truck, drove to our second trailhead at Hightower Gap, ate a lunch of leftovers and decided to do a second hike as we were already soaked and this would take mileage off of tomorrow, our last day on the trail.Hike #2--Hightower Gap to Cooper Gap. As we were sitting in the truck after eating, out of the woods came Poncho and Lefty. We talked to them some more, then they headed south towards their final destination. His parents and wife were meeting him at the Springer parking lot and were possibly hiking the final mile to the top with him.By now the rain had let up (to a drizzle) and we were semi-dry, so off we went on our second hike. It was up 400' and then about 2 miles of ups and downs. We took a breather at Horse Gap which is right next to USFS 42.It was good that we rested as we had a huge hike up to Sassafrass Mt--800'(for a northbounder this is the first big climb of their journey to Maine). On the way down Burly Girl took a tumble on the wet leaves. Nothing serious but we joked about how ironic it would be to break something on the next-to-last day. This was only her second fall on the entire trail compared to Bugsy's every-other-day mishaps!It is hard to believe that we will be done the entire AT tomorrow...stay tuned!
Date: 2009-01-25
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I've done a fair amount of hiking, but never the entire Appalachian Trail. I keep getting side tracked. Well, I figure this is my year! I want to thru hike it and complete one of my goals before I have kids and settle down .... something that's inching closer and closer, considering I just got married this October.I'll be leaving my new husband behind in Austin, TX with our two dogs and cute house. Thankfully Luke is extremely supportive (and a smidge bewildered). This past week I've been getting together all of my equipment, and buying new things online to fill in the gaps. We didn't give each other Christmas presents this year, because we both knew he wanted to buy a bicycle, and I wanted a few expensive backpacking items, like a Western Mountaineering sleeping bag. Luke just got his bicycle this week, so I felt relatively guilt free in finally buying a bag that had me drooling for years.A few things in my life came together in such a way to make this trip possible for me this year. One of them was loosing my job. I'm a carpenter by trade, something I've enjoyed since I was 16 and built a small cabin on the family homestead in Vermont. I've been a carpenter here in Austin, TX for a little over a year now. I work with a nifty little company that does large custom homes for very rich people. The next project we had lined up starting in February fell through. Considering the entire economy is slithering down the tubes, job prospects don't look too rosy. Taking time off to complete a dream of mine and letting the economy reach equilibrium seems fairly smart, or at least that's what I'm telling Luke. :-)I bought my plane ticket a few weeks ago. $127 and 6 hours travel time to get to Atlanta. I picked my departure date around the fact I'm sticking around for my cousin-in-law's wedding on the last weekend of March. I didn't plan on starting the trail on April Fools day, but it tickles my fancy.See y'all on April 1st 2009!Heather
Date: 2009-02-09
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Today I was feeling yucky, so I told work I wasn't coming in. It's been raining cats and dogs this morning, so I think I'll spend some time indoors, finally doing some trail prep.I'm going to do a few mail drops, mostly to sprinkle my regular diet with food that's harder to find on the trail, like weird Asian stuff.
Date: 2009-04-01
From: Springer Mountain

To: Hawk Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.8
Weather: overcast clouds

I kept waking up last night. Part of it was excitement about my first night and part of it was from being on the top bunk, above a voracious snorer. I forgot to pack earplugs (bring them if you're hiking the at!) so I popped in my earphones and listened to some Simon and garfunkel.After a Breakfast of tasty pancakes, oatmeal, eggs and grits, all of us hikers loaded our gear into the van and suburban for a bumpy ride up the dirt road to the springer mountain parking lot.A cloud of 18 of us squished, slid and schlepped our way the .9 miles up to the top. We were socked in without a view, but at least it had stopped raining!The first day of hiking was nice and graded. Nothing too steep, and for the most part it was all dirt, no rocks in the treadway. It was slow going from all of the mud built up over the past few rainy days. I averaged about 2mph.It was actually pretty toasty, with highs in the 60's. It brought out the bugs. Stupid gnats...they don't even taste good when they fly into your mouth!I'm camped at hawk mountain shelter, with a dozen or so in the shelter, another dozen tents, and one other hammocker.There's an army ranger facility near here, so every so often we get buzzed by low flying helicopters. The rangers might hike through here tonight with night vision goggles and machine guns.Time for bed. I'm actually past my usual bedtime. It's 8:40pm.
Date: 2009-04-02
From: Hawk Mountain Shelter

To: Gooch Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.3
Weather: light rain

Last night was pretty comfy, once I got situated. It poured most of the night, but I stayed dry. The rain slowed to a dense fog long enough to pack everything and have breakfast. I was one of the first people onto the trail, around 8am.There were a lot more ups, downs, and rocks than yesterday. I sloshed 7.6 miles in 4 hours.Got to the gooch Mtn shelter at noon, and haven't left. It started to pour again in the middle of my sesame noodle lunch, so I'm taking it easy here. Some guys from last night pressed on another 5 miles to get to woody gap by 5pm to catch the shuttle to the hiker hostel.The shelter has filled up pretty quickly.   I'm staying inside for a change of pace. It's a lot rowdier in here than my hammock.An older guy with an amish beard and an Irish accent showed up carrying a huge pack, wearing cotton, claiming he had hiked here from Florida, having started on march 5th. Hah! He's been talking almost nonstop since. I wonder what his real story is? My creep-0-meter is tingling.Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny. It will be a nice change of pace!
Date: 2009-04-03
From: Gooch Mountain Shelter

To: Neels Gap
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: overcast clouds

I got up and out by 7ish this morning, after tossing and turning on the hard shelter floor all night. My sleeping pad works pretty good in the hammock, but it's a bit thin for comfort on solid wood.It was cold and windy all day! I kept moving, and at a fairly good clip just to keep warm.When I got to the bad weather bypass for blood mountain, I took it. The mountain looked socked in, and I was in a hurry to get to the neels gap hostel before they filled up with hikers for the night. I just barely squeeked in - I got the very last bunk. Ahhhhhh, warmth!I bought my groceries for the next couple of days, a new guidebook, new stuff sack for my clothes, and a large toaster pizza for supper. I actually ate the whole thing.The weather is supposed to be halfway decent tomorrow, then possibly snowy the next. I'm considering pulling a couple of long days to get out of the weather. I just hope my knees are ok with that plan.
Date: 2009-04-04
From: Neels Gap

To: Blue Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I quietly gathered my things and snuck out of the bunk to the common room this morning to pack. Two of the hostel cats took turns playing mouse football, using my legs as the goal posts. It was a relief to finally hear the crunching of little mouse bones instead of squeeks.I took off into the cold windy yonder at 7am, after downing 3 packets of brown sugar oatmeal and a sprinkling of raisins. It was cold! I usually hike in just my dress, but this morning I intermitantly had on my long johns and puffy jacket. I wish I had bought gloves at neels gap! My hands were so cold I had to keep rubbing them together just to be able to feel them.I hit hogpen gap just before 11am. Smurf, turtle and special ed were parked there with a grill and a table full of goodies, giving out trail magic. I was their first hiker of the day, so they excitedly fired up the grill. I had a cheeseburger, baked beans, potato chips and a coke. They gave me a mini pound cake and an orange for the road. Yummy!Most of the miles today were nicely graded. It was just so nice to be hiking in the sun, on a non-muddy trail.I've been listening to my mp3 player a lot lately. I haven't been able to pick up a reliable NPR signal yet, although I spent a few minutes this morning listening to a splendid table program on macaroons.I loaded my player with a lot of luke's music, so there's a lot of stuff I haven't heard before. I never realized how sarcastic and funny peter, paul and Mary were until yesterday, when I listened to a live album by them. Puff the magic dragon made my a little teary eyed. I'd love to have my own dragon! Maybe I could get it to fly me over the steep ups and downs.Speaking of which, There's a hiker here at the shelter tonight who's actually calculated exactly how many standard helium filled party baloons it would take to get him aloft.There are a bunch of texans on the trail right now. I'm hiking within a pod of about 6 of them. Almost every person I've run across has been very sweet. Good bunch of thru hikers. Hope the awesomeness continues.
Date: 2009-04-05
From: Blue Mountain Shelter

To: Sassafras Gap
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: scattered clouds

I pulled my sleeping bag off over my head and blinked in surprise this morning. It was already light out! I slept in until almost 7:30. I was slow getting out, and took it easy the rest of the day with lots of long breaks.nothing terribly interesting happened today. It was just a nice sunny, breezy day for hiking.I stopped short of the shelter I thought I was going to stay at, and instead set up my hammock at a gap with a spring down the hill. Camped here with 5 other people. We had a cozy fire and traded stories before turning in to bed at 9pm, hiker midnight.
Date: 2009-04-06
From: Sassafras Gap

To: Blueberry Patch
Miles today: 6.2

I got my wakeup call from the neighbors at 6, when they brought me my food bag off the bear bag line. I had been awake off and on all night from the cold and the wind. It would have been fine, but the wind was just whipping all night through the gap we were camped in. It only sprinkled a little bit, which was nice. I could see my breath, think it was about 40ish. I quickly made breakfast and packed up, and was out of there by 6:45. it was just barely light enough to not need a headlamp.I passed the shelter at 8am, and was quickly caught up to by a hiker who had stayerd there last night. His name is Blessed. We hiked down to the gap together, sharing stories. Nice guy, fellow carpenter. There are like 4 other carpenters I've met so far. (One of whom is sitting next to me in the Hiawasse library as I type this) We made it off the mountain by 9:15 this morning and caught a ride in with the owner of the blueberry patch hostel. I'll probably take a zero day there tomorrow, considering how utterly gross and disgusting it is out there right now, and will be tomorrow.My knees are holding up great, and life is generally good. I had to buy a new set of headphones, because the apple ones already bit the dust somehow.... they got a kink in the wire and I tried to splice them back together, but it didn't work - I guess the wiring is more complicated because they have the microphone in there. Oops.I bought groceries, my first resupply in an actually grocery store! I'm going to saute up some bacon and turnip greens for dinner, and sprinkle on pecans and maybe an apple and cheese. Mmmmmm....and take the leftovers with me up the trail, or perhaps eat them tomorrow as well.There are a bunch of hikers here in town, everyone seems to be getting off the mountains for the upcoming storms. When we walked into the library, the librarian immediately knew we were hikers, and brought out the logbook for us to sign in. I was just at a chinese buffet with another hiker when I heard the rustle of rain gear behind me. More hiklers. You can hear (or smell) us coming. One lady stopped us in the grocery store aisle to tell us how brave we were for doing this. People in this town seem to be very nice, and understanding. I hope I'm not putting them off too much with my smell ... I can't really smell myself, but I haven't had a shower in 37 miles, and I haven't done my laundry since Austin, TX. Once I get back to the hostel, I'll take a shower and do the laundry.The Blueberry Patch is run by a former thru-hiker and his wife. They have pretty gardens out back, and a nifty little bunkhouse complete with woodstove for us hikers. Gary built the bunks, some of them are triple deckers! I quickly claimed one of the top ones. I hope it's nice and toasty up there tonight.
Date: 2009-04-07
From: Blueberry Patch

To: Blueberry Patch
Miles today: 0.0

Snow! Lots of it! There's only a light dusting on the ground here in Hiawassee, but the mountain tops look like they're frosted pretty good. A couple of hikers struck back out onto the trail today, but I'm sticking around to take a zero. Nobody left the Hiawassee Inn today, so they're still stuffed to capacity with hikers. I heard that about 125 hikers started within the 5 days when I did. There's going to be quite the hiker log jam on the trail tomorrow!This morning I didn't roll out of bed until 7:30. Breakfast was at 8:30, and was delicious. There was a mound of the most perfectly fluffy, light brown pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, cheese biscuits, coffee, orange juice, and a homemade blueberry syrup, with lots of tasty chunky blueberries from the patch out back. The 10 of us hikers sat out in the sunroom attached to the Poteat's house, and watched the fat snowflakes swirl around outside. One guy from Texas said this was the first time he had ever seen falling snow.A new jeep load of hikers was dropped off at 9:30, so we're up to 9 at a 10 person capacity place. I'm sure we'll be full by the time I get back later. I came into town for some lunch (bbq sandwich and salad bar, $3.65 at Ingles), some supper items (I'm going to make corn chowder with BACON at the hostel), and some pieces of fresh fruit. I've done my shopping and am now hanging out at the library. Some hikers are thinking of going the next town over to see a movie.The ride into town was fun. I'll be sending pictures home in the next week or so, so you'll get to see it then.... but we had 9 people stuffed into a standard jeep. I was one of the three squozen into the way back. We'll all squeeze back in for the ride to the hostel in a couple of hours.
Date: 2009-04-08
From: Dicks Creek Gap

To: Stream Right before Standing Indian Shelter
Miles today: 16.5
Weather: clear sky

After another scrumptious breakfast at the blueberry patch, Gary dropped 5 of us hikers back on the trail. Most of the hikers who had stayed in motels in town had already been dropped off, so I spent my morning running into fellow hikers I had never seen before. It's amazing how bunched up we all get in trail towns during bad weather!The trail was pretty snow free most of the day, until we hit North Carolina. There were quite a few rhododendron tunnels that cast so much shade, there was still a couple of inches of snow on the trail. The slush and mud made some sections into a giant slip and slide.If you're of the school of thought that it doesn't count as a fall unless your butt hits the ground, then I only fell once today. Everything else was a controlled slide.I ate dinner at muskrat creek shelter, then did another 4 miles or so to a pretty site along a creek, along with sassy sunshine, daddy long legs, and ancient ruins. I don't have a trail name yet, but one should come pretty soon.It's so nice to hear running water as background noise, instead of snoring. I'll have to hammock out in these sorts of spots more often.
Date: 2009-04-09
From: Stream Right before Standing Indian Shelter

To: Rock Gap Shelter
Miles today: 20.1
Weather: clear sky

Today was the first day I've been able to take snack breaks without putting on all my layers the second I stop. Yay! It was gorgeous all day, sunny with a light breeze.I was up and out of the campsite a little on the late side for me....8am. I made up for it by walking until almost 6pm. The three people I camped with last night (sassy sunshine, daddy long legs, and ancient ruins), all showed up here too. We're at rock gap shelter, 20.1 miles from where we started this morning. Whoooooooo first 20 mile day!The trail was nice and gradual, both up and down. Albert mountain was steep, though nice and short.I seem to be running pretty consistently on 1 liter of water per hiking hour. Thank goodness for an easy access dress!Luke will probably be horrified, but I've been drinking straight from a number of springs, straight. I figure if the spring is coming directly from a tree or a rock and I get it right at the source, how many cooties could really be in there? I've been very liberal with the hand sanitizer though. Most creeping crud comes from other hikers bad sanitation habits.I've already had a supper of tomato basil Cous Cous with a side of sockeye salmon, but I'm eyeing the oatmeal in the food bag for an encore.