morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-03-16
From: Dick's Creek Gap; Hiawasee, GA

To: Hiawase, GA
Miles today: 0.0

lots of chores to do today. had to put pictures on a cd at a very hiker-friendly rite aid, spent 2 hours checking email etc at the library, went to the "outfitters" to see about some new shoes, but it turned out to be nothing but hunting stuff. carharts everywhere. it was like a waxed canvas truck exploded inside the store. ingles sold us about $100 worth of food, which we rationed between our packs and a shipment to fontana dam. ross sent his tent to my mom, so he can carry half of my tent now. melissa and her family showed up as i was wandering around looking for a washing machine, and they were nice enough to bring me along on their quest for internet, since the public library was already closed. we stopped at another "outfitter", but, not only was it for fly fishing, it was also closed tuesdays. we were able to sneak into the library on the young harris campus and use their internet for a while. i wrote 3 entries there.back at the hotel, ross was heavy into the laundry and it was just too late to go out for dinner. we got full on pepperoni and cheese popcorn and watched gone in 60 seconds one and a half times. meeting melissa and fam for breakfast and a ride in the am, so bedtime.
Date: 2004-03-17
From: Dick's Creek Gap; Hiawasee, GA

To: Plumorchard Gap
Miles today: 4.3
Weather: few clouds

paul treated us to the breakfast buffet at shoney's and then jonathan, a family friend from canada, drove us back to the trail. jonathan and melissa's parents joined us until bull gap. Melissa, ross and i carried on alone from there. we had originally planned to go farther but plumorchard gap has such a cool shelter. it's so damn cool, it had to be flown in by a helicachopter! 3 stories, awesome water source, privy. bogie and bacall were there when we arrived, and we were later joined by camel, footloose, jason, and dogg. ross and i tented and kept each other up arguing about the tao. good times. lots of stars.
Date: 2004-03-18
From: Plumorchard Gap

To: muskrat creek shelter
Miles today: 7.3
Weather: light rain

woke up late enough for melissa to be the only one awake down at the shelter. pretty easy hike until the nc/ga border. we stopped there for lunch with melissa just as it started to rain, then decided to stay there and wait for a lull. the lull came, we left, the lull ended. we hiked the bastard first climbs of north carolina in the rain and fog, mud everywhere, soaked gear. my glasses were so foggy and wet that i could just barely see where i was walking. bah. we had a nice connect four tourny with the boys from last night before setting up tent and freezing to death. well, almost.
Date: 2004-03-19
From: muskratcreek shelter

To: Beech Gap
Miles today: 9.3
Weather: clear sky

shortly after waking up this morning, we heard a loud crash from across the trail. turned out to be a tree randomly falling down. never been around for that before. good thing it didn't fall on the tent, i guess.excellent hike today. easy trails, good views, perfect company. the trail coming down off of standing indian was particularly gorgeous. i was still feeling a little tired, but was able to keep up with no problem. my knee's been bothering me a bit on downhills. well, a lot actually. but i refuse to let it piss me off long enough to do anything about it. right after a dinner of cheesy potatoes, i sat down and took my socks off to realize that my toenail has actually fallen off and is only attached by the dead blister skin, which i'm hoping will turn into leather. it actually looks like i dipped my toe in wax and the wax is slowly peeling off. back to the nail. i'm not sure how long it's been detached. it's been completely white as opposed to white and pink since blue mt. shelter. that tells me something's been amuck for quite some time. i could rip it off, but i'm not sure if that's the best idea. ross is completely grossed out by it, but i think it's kinda cool. something besides raised skin to show for my pain!
Date: 2004-03-20
From: Beech Gap

To: Big Spring Shelter
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: scattered clouds

cold morning and we were out by 8:45, met by curious george at the water source. he wanted to know if we'd been able to answer yesterday's million dollar "oh christ, what was..." question, but alas, nobody in our hiking circle knew who did the theme song for ghost busters. if you have any leads, please contact my guestbook immediately. thank you.today's hike was awesome despite my mood, which was typical premenstrual. wish i could help it, but there's just no way around being a complete basket case for the next few days.poor ross has to listen to me yell at tree bark and cry over twisted cinch straps. i'm just a wreck. oh well. albert mountain reminded me of the whites for about 10 minutes there. incredible views from the top. best so far. and there was a privy! not a 5 star, but celestial nonetheless. easy hike down to the shelter, which we shared with ben, a fellow umaine product. we worked it out and found that we actually lived within a 10 minute walk of each other back in orono. insanity.major electrical storm tonight; listened to it from under a tin roof. pretty damn awesome.
Date: 2004-03-21
From: Big Spring Shelter

To: Wallace Gap, Rainbow Springs Campground
Miles today: 5.8

we woke up and left around 8am, made great time with great chilly weather to the road, walked a mile from there, and were at the campground by 11:30. melissa, camel, and footloose had stayed at the shelter near the road and were settling in when we arrived. we ate some junk, reserved a cabin, did some laundry, made some calls, and checked the pocketmail account. speaking of, i'd just like to take this opporunity to say to bearbait: i know i'm supposed to respect you or some crap, but if you're going to publicly insult me, my journal, and my hike, then screw that. i write about what i see, which happened to be my own puke for a few days. if you want to catch things you missed on your first two hikes, i'd suggest taking a third, cuz i'm not your goddamn secretary. i only take shorthand for my own future reference. ok so anyway...ross bought an awesome new pack at the outfitters here since he's carrying a little more weight than his golite can handle. granite gear. he earned himself a trail name, too. "cheers". pretty self-explanatory i think.camel organized a shuttle into franklin for the 5 of us, and we really busted our gut buttons at the chinese buffet between walmart and ingles, and split a bottle of cheap wine to celebrate our 100 mile mark. kinda funny: ross's fortune said, "haste does not bring success," and mine said, "the secret of getting ahead is getting started". i guess ross should smell some roses and i should get my ass out of the bag earlier every morning. resupplied after dinner, then bed.
Date: 2004-03-22
From: Wallace Gap, Rainbow Springs Campground

To: Siler Bald Shelter
Miles today: 6.8
Weather: clear sky

left the campground after a reeeally cold night ~9:30. melissa, camel, syracuse, ross, and myself were in the same shuttle and pretty much stayed together in the day's hike. ross and camel had guy talk up ahead, mj and i had girl talk in the back, and syracuse kinda mingled. there was some trail magic before winding stair gap--some diet coke. thanks, whoever you are! we split the one that wasn't frozen and moved on. we got to the siler bald loop trail around one, pretty quick considering my temporary anemia (love being a girl) and chatted with unfinished for a bit before heading down to the shelter. rumbles was there and sundance and misty showed up before long. we set up for another cold night, camel made a great fire, and over roasted marshmallows c/o misty, syracuse and i annoyed the crap out of everybody with obnoxious homestarrunner.com quotes. anyone who's ever been to the site, and then hiked 100+ miles without anyone with whom to share the humor would understand. ross went to bed while i stayed up almost til dark (woohoo!) with mj (aka slowmo and marzipan), sundance, syracuse, rumbles, misty, and camel. good to have a laugh.
Date: 2004-03-23
From: Siler Bald Shelter

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

honestly the only article of my clothing which didn't get blood all over it last night was my left sock. well, close. i'd love to be able to tell you a knuckle-whitening story about bear claws and opossum jaws, but boring old me, i'm just talking about my regular bodily functions again. yup, my uterus bled all over everything. this happens quite a bit out here on the trail. about every month or so for the more experienced red blazers. yeah. so that kinda sucked.a lot.especially because it caused us our day's hike. instead of braving the freezing cold, cramped and anemic with no hope of any sort of "pace", i found it better to stay in my little cocoon and wait for it all to go away. late morning made me realize that it wasn't going to go away at all, but at least the increasing warmth coaxed me out for some fresh air. we spent another day fixing another fire pit, then shared stories over a blaze with rob and robin, two jeffersonians (jefferson, maine). robin works at my bank and knows my mom, which in some ways freaked me out and in some ways was incredibly comforting. not that i'm in any way homesick; i've accepted the notion that home is where my pack is for these next months, but sometimes i'd just like to be able to breathe from a mile or two off the maine coast. i could even be satisfied with the smell from the wiscasset bridge. not at low tide, though. that's just sick.
Date: 2004-03-24
From: Siler Bald Shelter

To: Wayah Bald, Franklin, NC
Miles today: 6.4
Weather: few clouds

we left the shelter late this morning for a tough hike in parts. i thought the climb to the top of wayah would never end; we must have crossed the service road five times. i wish i had been less tired so as to enjoy the weather. it really was perfect. we stopped for a late lunch on the tower atop wayah bald with only a few hours to go til the next shelter. within ten minutes, though, all of our views had been swallowed up by what we thought was fog. few minutes later and our eyes had begun to sting and ash was falling from the sky. a faint orange glow appeared along the trail to the north, and by then we had already begun to frantically pack up, planning to wait by that car we saw back in the lot. on our way from the tower, we met beatbox, who had already met the owners of the car. we were introduced to a young woman named anna i think, and her boyfriend (?) daniel. after taking note of all the smoke from the top of the tower, they offered to take us all into franklin, an offer we anxiously accepted. i remembered the name of the motel owned by our rainbow springs shuttle driver, ronnie, and we headed down the mountain. the smoke thinned as we lost altitude, and the drive turned out to be a good time in itself. anna(?) and daniel were obviously really great people, and beatbox turned out to be a riot. he's a diehard protestant and anna's catholic. there was a good talk about that stuff, and you'll be shocked to know that i managed to keep my mouth firmly clamped.anna stopped at the mcdonald's drive through so beatbox could get a milkshake and i could settle my nuggets and ranch dressing craving, then we were dropped off in front of the office at the haven motel. i don't know what we would have done without such incredibly nice people. thanks, guys. really.we got ourselves a great double room for $35, said hi to ronnie, took our showers, and walked over to the western sizzlin with beatbox. for just $10 we were able to down all we could of the most revolting piles of crap i've ever tried to ingest. i ate mostly salad, because it was really the only safe way to go. i mean, this was the kind of food you'll find embedded in the beard and mullet of the most local yugo mechanic. the horror could only be forgiven with the aid of beer, so we set off to the gas station and loaded up on yeungling and some sort of ipa. back at the motel, we had a few in beatbox's room while he tried to teach us five hand draw. then i kicked his ass at connect four. then he and ross made a giant chess board out of empties and lip balm. that was my chance to go to bed, but i hear ross won a pretty good game.
Date: 2004-03-25
From: Wayah Bald, Franklin, C

To: Cold Spring Shelter
Miles today: 5.7
Weather: broken clouds

late start today after a long breakfast at shoney's. ronny and his wife were nice enough to drop us off, then pick us up, then drop us off again way back up on wayah bald. the fire from yesterday, we found out, was a prescribed burn. but it was a pretty damn big prescribed burn, and we would have been stupid to take the chance of hiking into the smoke. beatbox took off right away from the parking lot, but ross and i had to take a moment for the car sickness to wear off. franklin to wayah is a long way to ride in the back of a bouncy van. and i'm delicate, damnit. eventually, ross peeled me from the grass and pushed me up the trail. we made pretty good time to the shelter, found a flat spot on the ridge, pitched tent, filtered some water, made some potatoes (i love idahoan), listened to some live guitar, and stared down at franklin as it turned on its street lights. it was a hot day, but the temperature dropped with the sun. should be good for sleep.in other news, trailforums doesn't know crap about trail menstruation. "oh, bring ob, bring the keeper, you'll be fine..." screw that. my shorts aren't fine, damnit. ladies, for the love of sanity, bring pads.
Date: 2004-03-26
From: Cold Spring Shelter

To: Nantahala Outdoor Center
Miles today: 11.4
Weather: broken clouds

conversation of the day:me: i think i must have lost weight already because these shorts were tight last summerross: you musta been a fat bitch last summer, ey?it was pretty warm this morning, so getting up wasn't as hard as it's been. we paced at about three miles an hour until we hit the wesser bald fire tower, where i had to sunbathe for a good hour. we took lunch there, fed the juncos, and were just stupified by the view. best yet. when two other hikers showed up, red and his girlfriend (?), we headed off at about the same pace, but slowed down once we got to the downhill scrambling part. very narrow trail. just before the a. rufus morgan shelter, a baby king snake crossed the trail right in front of my foot. it was only about five inches in length and skinnier than an earthworm. i think it was a king snake, anyway. ross says it was a king snake and i'm not up on my southeastern herpetology. all black, with a little orange stripe right behind the head, and we paused to watch it bury itself under the leaves. i probably gave the poor thing a heart attack with all my squeaks, but that was the first snake i've seen so far. i get a little excited. half an hour later we saw another first. budding trillium erectum along the descent to the noc. the petal color hadn't yet shown through the casing, but i'm sure it was erectum as grandiflorum would have had much bigger foliage. uh, nerd?we crossed the road at the bottom of the hill only to realize that the outfitters, the room office, and the restaurant were closed. damnitall, why can't businesses just stay open for hikers? don't they know we'd sell our liver for a steak? jeez louise. well, i scanned wingfoot's guide and made a phonecall to the sleep inn. as i was preparing to hitch into bryson city, ross more thoroughly read wingfoot's wesser blurb and made a phonecall to the cottages at wesser creek. we were picked up in ten minutes by a woman who first drove us to the gas station store (which she also owned) and then to a clean two bedroom cottage with a full kitchen and bath. $50 total. the tv had no signal, so we were given two free video rentals from the gas station. i chose oh brother where art thou and ross chose road trip. we watched mine, then took showers, then ross broke the toilet. again. for about the 4th time. i swear, the boy's atomic.
Date: 2004-03-27
From: Nantahala Outdoor Center

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

conversation of the day:me: i smell your feet.ross: is it turning you on?me: noso last night, we set up a time to be picked up from our cabin and driven to the trail. that time was 10am. around noonthirtyish, we decided to go looking for our ride. three scary dogs chased us on our way to the gas station. one was a boxer, one was a black lab, and one was a badass chihuahua. and by badass, i mean the thing wanted to eat my eyeballs. we made it to the gas station, eyeballs intact, and it turned out that the woman forgot about us. no problem, i guess. we bought some food and got in the car, and when we got back to the noc around 1:30, decided that it just wasn't worth hiking the mile we'd be able to hike before dark after washing our clothes, showering, hitting the outfitters, etc. so we asked for a room. $15 each for bunk beds in a little cell. i felt like i was back in summer camp. it was awesome. ross washed our clothes in the men's room cuz the laundry in the women's room was busted. showers, clothes, then we headed for the outfitters. crossing the bridge, we saw a familiar face coming from the other end. guess who it was. no, dumbass, it was melissa! slowmo! marzipan! we thought she'd be days ahead, but she got stranded in bryson city for a few days with syracuse and sundance. she had lots of horror stories to tell us about that, one particularly horrific story involved jason's and dogg's coinciding drinking escapades. anyway, we decided to meet for dinner around 4:30, and ross and i continued to the outfitters. he bought some stuff sacks and a thermarest (traitor's switching to air) and i bought some amazingly comfortable montrails. these shoes can probably fabricate the toenail which was so rudely destroyed by the lowa boots. well, maybe not. and the toenail wasn't completely destroyed--it's in a mini ziplock in my pack. i bought some crocs as well (camp shoes) and look like a retarded dutch girl in them. a happy retarded dutch girl, though.dinner was great. i had a philly cheese steak and fried okra and we all split a plate of chilli fries. up the hill we went, and planted ourselves in the common building for the night. an alabaman church group was being awfully loud. insanely loud, really. by coincidence, there was also an alabaman boy scout troup present, two members of which joined ross, melissa, and i for a long series of "shithead", a card game not too far removed from "asshole". yes, we thoroughly corrupted the poor kids. they held their own though. especially towards 10pm when we hikers started playing in our sleep.breakfast with marzipan in the morning, but for now, i'll just listen to the fat guy next door's swollen nasal passages.
Date: 2004-03-28
From: NOC

To: Tyre Top
Miles today: 2.6

woke up early this morning and stayed in bed until about 7:30, when there came a knock at the door. we didn't answer at first; ross thought it was for next door. i thought it might have been melissa, but ross said, "nah, at this hour? melissa?" the knock came again, and ross called, "hello?""it's me," melissa half asked. "wanna go to breakfast?" we accepted and tried to fix our somnia look. out the door and over the river and through the woods... uh, to breakfast we went. the noc makes really great sausage patties. fyi. after breakfast, melissa took off up the trail and ross and i walked over to the outfitters to see about shipping my old boots. they gave us a box and we took it back to the room to pack up. when we were done we'd crammed in my boots, ross's old pack, 3 stuff sacks, and 3 sets of sunglass lenses. we made some phonecalls up at the common building and headed off across the river.back at the store we gave in the box and tried for some internet. the public machine absolutely sucked for 20c a minute, but ross was able to update his journal and i checked my mail. amazingly enough, the thing wouldn't let ross check his mail or me update my journal. whatever, i'll just stick to the old fashioned method.when we finished with the internet fiasco, we found some ice cream and a bench. while we were eating, rick bayley showed up. he's another brit from bristol if you don't already know, and i began to feel more american than hot wings at a titty bar. that's pretty american if you don't already know. we talked for ages about all sorts of things, casey horrigan's feet, peakaboo's feet, british stuff i didn't quite understand completely. by the time rick went off for a burger it was three, and by the time i finished updating my entries it was four. we swiped some tp and hit the trail by 4:30, were caught by rick around five, and we all hiked and talked up that mother of a hill before stopping at the last water source for five miles around six. nice fire, mexican rice, some travel talk, and i'm ready for bed. sleeping without the fly tonight in this heat. should be comfy.
Date: 2004-03-29
From: Tyre Top

To: Cheoah Bald
Miles today: 5.6

conversation of the day:me: what are you doing?ross: letting the air out of my sleeping pad. what's that?me: what?ross: that smell...did you blow this up last night?!me: @!%#$&! ...i'm never breathing again.woke up this morning and it was already hot. 7amish i guess. ross is getting all nervous about these new conversations of the day. rick says it's ruining his sweet image. ross says i'm trying to even out the hate mail in his direction. either way, i just tell it like it is. and i'd like to take this section to tell more of ross. like he is.-he thinks my armpits smell like liver and onions. but he likes liver and onions, so "it's alright."-he wiggles around like shaft when he hears funk.-he has this v-shaped birthmark on his forehead that turns pink when i make fun of him too much.-he doesn't tan very well.-he calls my crocs "lunatic clogs".-he sucks at connect four.-he's absolutely terrified of bees.-he's bent on teaching to me the art that is cockney rhyming slang.-he loves cats. you know what i mean.-he talks about his "mates" more often than not.-he really has never experienced anything better than peanut butter and chocolate combination foods.-sitting still is not an option.-he announces every cigarette he smells.-he pitches a little limey fit if mello yello is not present in the motel's vending machine.-he uses the word, "neckerchief".-he's short, but charming. or something like that.and that concludes today's lesson on the rossian ethic.we packed up and left at a somewhat reasonable hour, however well after rick. beast passed us while i was trying to pee. strange to see him since he passed us the first week. he took a couple days off and went to asheville i think. we took a rest at the jumpup and had a snack. the scholar stopped briefly to introduce herself before following beast. i really can't get over the fact that his name's beast. he's this skinny little vegan who barely ever speaks, much less growls and drools. maybe it's ironic like mine. or maybe he likes cheap beer. or cheap movies. or...i think that's all the possibilities i care to suggest. this is, after all, a family site. no need to be crass. moving on, we stopped at sassafras gap shelter to eat dinner and were joined by three women of names unknown, the adventurer (he's a little crazy), some guy who looked like santa, and a young couple. left there planning on hiking til dark, but we couldn't bring ourselves to pass up cheoah bald's views. there's a lookout on one side to the southeast, where we set up camp, and one to the northwest, where we watched the sunset. we're sharing the bald with two girls and a guy and their dog, millie, who fell back a few times today to greet us and make sure we still weren't eating any bacon. mmm bacon... made me miss my baileydog. maybe she'll come hike with us when we get closer to home.