morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2023-03-25
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Zero Day 3 Gatlinburg I did not sleep well last night¢¦.it was about 2 a.m. before I dropped off only to be surprised awake by the loudest thunder, I think, that I have ever heard. The wind howled and the rain came down and out of the rain spout outside our motel room as though from a fire hose. Kerry was worried about tornadoes¢¦.it was intense. This morning the sun is shining and we headed to the NOC to see if we could find better rain gear options, which we did¢¦we both got light weight rain pants and jackets, then later I had to replace the lightweight Polartec shirt I¢ve had for 20 years because the zipper broke. This is turning into a more expensive effort than I thought. That said, it¢s good to have options!We ran into "Good Vibe" who was waiting for the road to open to the park so he could return to the trail. He gave me the name and phone number of the fellow, "Tobasco Hiker," who was taking him (and who subsequently agreed to take Kerry, Jenn, Felix and I back at 7:30 AM back to New Found Gap tomorrow morning). Tobasco Hiker told me the road opened mid-afternoon and Good Vibe is back on trail.Most of the day we spent relaxing and eating too much, sort of like bears who gorge to keep them going through the winter sleep. In our case, it¢s in anticipation of the food shortage to come before we find another town and a good meal. It¢s always a balancing act. We don¢t want to carry too much because it¢s heavy, but if we don¢t carry enough we get hungry. I¢m not complaining, it seems to work out in the end.Everyone loves Felix, wherever we go, people stop and want to pet him. I think he¢s seen more people in Gatlinburg in the last day and a half than he has in his entire life. It¢ll be good to get back to the peace of the trail.¢In March the Earth remembers its own name.Everywhere the plates of snow are cracking.The rivers begin to sing. In the skythe winter stars are sliding away; new starsappear as, later, small blades of grainwill shine in the dark fields.And the name of every placeis joyful.¢--Mary Oliver, Worm MoonWe are on the other side of the equinox now and even though it¢s early days, I¢m hopeful that ¢joyful¢ is coming!
Date: 2023-03-26
From: New Found Gap

To: Tri Corner Knob Shelter 
Miles today: 15.7

March 26, 2023 Hiking Day 17, ending Elevation, 5,887 feet New Found Gap 207.7 to Tri-corner Knob Shelter 223.4 = 15.7 milesTobasco picked us up (Kerry, Felix, Jenn and I) at 7:30 this morning. He, Tobasco, started a thru hike in 2020 (I think) and had to stop due to a knee injury. He is still sorting through that but in the meantime, he drove 4 hours from Kentucky this weekend, just to help out hikers; creating his own hiking karma.Tobasco impressed us with his opinion that any Mexican restaurant encountered on any trail ¢is incredible.¢It was raining and gloomy and I was worried that we were walking into another deluge but Jenn assured me it would be short-lived. Apparently, the storms that have decimated parts south of us are moving west to east, not northward. In fact, once we were on the trail the weather improved and by afternoon we had sunshine and mostly blue skies.The walk today was beautiful, we gained almost 1000 feet in elevation but the guide says total ascent 3550 feet, descent 4455 feet; not sure about the math, but we definitely did the ascending and descending! It felt like a long staircase always going up and when we reached the ridge line we walked along it, up and down all day. The forest now is mostly evergreen and the forest floor is full of deep green mossy logs and low grassy undergrowth. Jenn walked with us until about 1 and after lunch she walked on ahead¢¦.she is faster than us so that made sense. We all ended up at the shelter, us quite a bit later, at 5:30 p.m.We decided to stay in the shelter as it might rain again tonight. There are a lot of people here. As I write this I¢m listening to several conversations at once¢¦.mostly 20 to 40 year olds who talked about a lot of things, a lot about endings and beginnings and strangely, to me, about redemption. I¢m here just to walk, so I¢m not sure what to make of it, something to think about. This is more of a social scene than I have experienced since I retired¢¦a bit disconcerting! Perhaps this will change when we leave the Smokies...we¢ll see.So many things running through my mind...mostly all the people talking. But I am going to sleep. Felix is passed-out at my feet and I plan to join him.Some people we met today:"Sink" and "Badger" whom we renamed "D¢Artagnan""Snail" showed up at the shelter wondering how we got behind her (1.5 days in Gatlinburg)"Lucky" whom we met before"Yoga""Good Vibe" is here too, thinking about going home due to a shoulder injury.I write the names down if I remember them!
Date: 2023-03-27
From: Tri Corner Knob Shelter 

To: Standing Bear Hostel
Miles today: 18.1

Hiking Day 18: Ending Elevation 1726 feetAnother long day¢¦.first in the fog and the conifers, a long upward climb, then more ridge line walking with potential views on both sides¢¦I say potential because the fog came and went with the clouds we walked through. The first half of the day stormy clouds threatened rain but Jenn assured us they would blow over and they did. We walked in sunshine down from the mountains and I¢m sure we won¢t be cold tonight. Fairly certain it won¢t rain either, but we¢ll see!We passed an old plane crash site just past Mt. Guyot, and saw some wreckage. I¢ll have to look that up. As we descended out of the evergreen trees, we started seeing the bare limbed deciduous trees and the ever present rhododendron forest once again. I found walking down from the mountain perhaps harder than walking up¢¦pounding on the old joints is no fun.At Davenport Gap where we left the Smokies, there were 3 trail angels, Ma Maw B, and Mad Hat and his wife Ewok, visiting from Minnesota. We each had a soda and Kerry had a really good homemade rice crispy treat, whilst I had a little snickers bar (craving chocolate, I am). This gave us much needed energy to walk the remaining 2 miles to Standing Bear Hostel. We¢re camping by a little creek after a nice hot shower and a shared beer to go with the sandwich we¢ve carried all the way from Gatlinburg¢¦.sheer luxury!Some people we saw/met today:Rosie and Hannah from New ZealandCurious George, a psychiatrist from SacramentoLuckyYogaSnailJenn off and on all dayAt the hostel we ran into Drive Thru and Frosty againPicky Eater and GrinchFitziSink and D¢Artagnon pulled in at dark
Date: 2023-03-28
From: Standing Bear Hostel

To: Roaring Fork Shelter
Miles today: 15.5

Hiking Day 19: Ending Elevation 3980 feetWe slept pretty well last night until cars started driving by at 6:30 a.m. or so. I was awake by then after having some strange dreams involving my mother who has been dead for more than 50 years!We each had a hot cup of coffee before we left, a nice treat to get us going.Skies started out with puffs of iron grey clouds that looked ominous and gradually morphed into a uniform grey ceiling that spat rain at us occasionally until it decided to settle into a steady soaking mist in the late afternoon. We decided to call it a day at this shelter, because we were wet and cold and having climbed straight up at least three substantial mountains, we were also tired.The scenery doesn¢t change, sill more of the dormant trees and rhododendron forests, against distant blue mountains. We summited one mountain with a windowless building atop and signs ominously warning that it was an FAA facility¢¦.but the views were wonderful on all sides. That was before the sun gave into the clouds. On the way down to the shelter, the valleys between the mountains were filled with rivers of white fluffy clouds.We have another privy, so we must be in North Carolina. The sky is clearing tonight so perhaps we¢ll walk into Hot Springs tomorrow.Kerry is behind on the photos, so check back later, please, they¢re coming!Some people we met today:Rosie and Hannah Curious George In the shelter (started raining)WillJennDave and Dave
Date: 2023-03-29
From: Roaring Fork Shelter

To: Laughing Heart Hostel
Miles today: 17.6

Hiking Day 20: Ending Elevation 1407Don¢t let that ending elevation calm you, we were over 5000 feet today and up and down a lot. But what a change a day makes! We awoke to deep blue skies and the usual accompanying freezing temperatures. It took a while to warm up but we we were only ever warm on those long slogs straight up the mountains.In the shelter again last night, Kerry and I are now firmly agreed, that except for rain (certified rain weenies that we are), we will be sleeping in our tent far from the madding crowd, so to speak. This includes the snorers (they can¢t help it) and the blow-up thermarest devotees who squeak and crunch all night long on their bed pads, keeping the rest of us awake listening to them. The weather being beautiful, kept our spirits high all day and we made good time. We notice the forest floor is turning green in places¢¦upon a close look, there are little green leaves peeking through the brown leaves,,,a hopeful sign?When we got to Hot Springs ,we happened in to the Laughing Heart Hostel. Someone cancelled a private room at the last minute, so we got it¢¦.after last night, Kerry did not want to sleep with the community, he wanted to enjoy his own snoring, unmolested.People we met today:Ike and Chris from the Carolina Mountain Club doing some trail clearingA mother and son on spring break from Wisconsin out for a day hikeAllgood, a female, not Whitney, southbound finishing the ATKaraoke, our age, hurt her back slipping on ice on Clingmans Dome, hope she heals.MoonCurious George we had dinner withLots of others too
Date: 2023-03-30
From: Laughing Heart Hostel, Hot Springs

To: Allen Gap
Miles today: 15.0

Hiking Day 21: Ending Elevation: 2257 feetWhat a glorious day! We¢ve had other days that hinted of spring, but today everything lined up: comfortably warm temperature for hiking in, perfectly blue sky with the accompanying cheerful sun and little spring flowers popping out all over the place! Little violets, bloodroots, dandelions, phlox and a host of others we don¢t have names for.Even though we got up early, it took us time to get organized and leave the hostel. We went to the Smoky Mountain Diner for a hearty breakfast (we sat with Curious George again), then walked down the street to the Post Office, where the postmistress, Angel (!!!) helped us mail home more stuff we didn¢t need, including Kerry¢s blood pressure medicine¢¦as usual, in spite of his best efforts, he finds it works against him, making him feel faint while doing this kind of exercise, so he gave it up for now.It was 10:30 a.m. before we got going and we expected to go to the first shelter 11 miles away, but when we got there the sun was still shining encouragingly and rain is in the forecast for some time tomorrow so we thought we should take advantage of the great hiking conditions, which is why we are camping by ourselves here at Allen Gap.Today we passed a group of kids with their teacher, Steve from JC Williams Montessori School, a secondary public school in Raleigh, NC. I didn¢t know Montessori had high schools, apparently, it¢s fairly new.Yesterday, we passed 2 grave markers for Eva and George Cragg, 1882-1940 and 1881-1966, respectively. Then today, we passed another grave marker for Rex R. Pulford, 1920-1983. I wonder who they were and how they got there¢¦probably, wouldn¢t be allowed now?At Mill Ridge Road, trail angels Monarch and Ron served us cheeseburgers, with all the fixings, carrots, fruit, chips and sodas. This accounts for our walking 15 miles and enjoying every minute of it. What¢s that saying? An army marches on its stomach?¢¦I can see there is truth in that. Monarch and Ron drove 4 plus hours from Little Rock, Arkansas to feed complete strangers walking down the trail! The silence tonight is lovely¢¦Kerry hung the food bag ingeniously from a high thick vine, and we hope the bears are still sleeping, although after today I think they¢ll be waking soon! Felix will undoubtedly let us know if anyone comes. Darkness has come and hiker midnight is upon us.Some other people we met todayCornelius from SeattleRosie and Hannah from NZ again (they will move ahead soon, I think)Jenn Two SticksSeveral day hikers
Date: 2023-03-31
From: Allen Gap

To: JerryÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Cabin Shelter
Miles today: 12.2

Hiking Day; 22 Ending Elevation: 4150 feetWe were forewarned the weather would change, but after perfect blue skies yesterday, it was still disappointing to awaken to cold grey skies threatening rain. It saps my spirits. By mid-morning a little rain leaked down on us for a couple of hours and then it just got cold, mostly windchill, I think. The forecast is for rain tonight and over the next few days so it may be slow going to Erwin.It¢s Kerry¢s 70th birthday today¢¦and I thought about the steak and lobster dinner we should be eating to celebrate it, accompanied by one of Kerry¢s excellent wines. Instead, we were on a high windy ridge clambering over rocks like a couple of old goats. We¢ll make up for it later I hope!We stopped at 3 p.m., staying in the shelter to avoid tonight¢s rain; we¢d rather start dry even if it isn¢t possible to stay so.Felix, apparently, didn¢t get enough exercise today. After 12 miles, he caught the scent of something that made him wild¢¦.had he not been leashed, I am sure he would have rounded it up! Oh well, tomorrow is another day. People in the shelterJokerProfessor SproutsTuffbabieJennUsAlso curious George showed upHannah and Rosie went on to the next shelterTwo Sticks is here also
Date: 2023-04-01
From: JerryÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Cabin Shelter

To: SamÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Gap, NatureÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Inn Hostel
Miles today: 17.9

Hiking Day 22: Ending Elevation 3719 feetThe wind blew hard all night. About 4 a.m thunder and lightning joined the cacophony and then the rain came crashing down¢¦.this kept up until about 7:30 a.m. we usually wake up about 6:15, but this morning there was no point, so we slept in. The rain lightened up and by 9 a.m. when we finally started walking, the rain had stopped, the skies started clearing and by afternoon, it was blue skies and sunshine once more. Why couldn¢t we have this for Kerry¢s birthday?The wind started picking up in the morning too; it started with leaves swirling gracefully, like fairies dancing, but by afternoon we had great stampedes of dead leaves rushing across the mountain sides, sometimes towards us sometimes in front of us but always fiercely. We heard trees cracking and even falling during the day. George Ferris told us one tree fell across the trail ahead of him¢¦a few seconds later and he would have been under it. Kerry read the wind got up to 65 miles per hour and it was scary!We passed another gravesite today¢¦it even had a plaque that directed us to the Shelton Graves in North Carolina There seems to be a bit of a mystery to this, but it involves Union soldiers returning home and being killed by Confederates. This is worth googling¢¦just more than I can include here.Later in the day, I sat down beside a stream whilst Kerry took a photo, but when I got up, Felix jumped up beside me, and I, tangled in his leash fell face first into the stream, Felix beside me. The water was cold and kept cool for a while.We thought we would stop at Hogback Ridge Shelter but when we got there, we found there were a lot of 20 something young men, who weren¢t friendly¢¦not on purpose, just into their own thing so we decided to head for this hostel: Nature¢s Inn. Unfortunately, they neglected to tell us that there was no power, so no showers or clean clothes. Apparently, the wind has caused widespread power outages in the area so I¢m writing this in the dark. At least we¢re sleeping in a bed in a room by ourselves¢¦a small luxury.Some people we met todayGeorge Ferris, recently retired intelligence officerDay DreamerMax
Date: 2023-04-03
From: No Business Knob Shelter

To: Erwin, Uncle JohnnyÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Hostel
Miles today: 6.2

Hiking Day 24, Ending Elevation 1679 feetShort hiking day today, but a busy one!We awoke to a brilliant rose colored sunrise, the best we¢ve seen so far. The sky began to fill with a high ceiling cloud cover but none of the promised early morning rain. In fact, the hiking weather was very pleasant and we didn¢t have far to go, just 6.2 miles to Erwin. We descended from the mountains with amazing views of the Nolachucky River, an impressive body of water and although I¢ve failed to mention it before, we have been surprised by the number of the large rivers we¢ve passed along the way. I¢m not sure what I expected but this is quite different from the west coast.At Uncle Johnny¢s, Drew and crew were very nice but they had no cabins available for us. So we walked another mile plus to the Mountain View Inn. There we finally met Mango (who contacted me through my journal guestbook) and his wife Jane. Mango knows our friend Shroomer from California and another friend, Ron, from Oregon but we had never met. They took us out to lunch at a local Mexican restaurant and then to Walmart to get some resupply. That was very helpful, but what made Kerry feel like a new man was going to a barber shop for a complete trim: hair, beard and mustache¢¦he feels like he can eat again unimpeded! In between all this, we heard about Mango¢s trail travels, sometimes supported by Jane. It¢s hard for me to describe how amazing and kind people can be to two complete strangers. We feel so fortunate.The dilemma for tomorrow is that we¢d like to take a day off but it looks like the only day of the week without a solid promise of rain. So, We reserved a cabin at Johnny¢s for tomorrow night, since they told us they have one available, and a ride through Steve (Unicoi Shuttle) to Iron Mountain for a 20 mile slack pack back to Uncle Johnny¢s. Tuffbabie had already arranged a shuttle, so we will join her.Now, time to add to our calorie load¢¦.dinner!
Date: 2023-04-04
From: Erwin, Uncle JohnnyÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Hostel

To: Iron Mountain Gap
Miles today: 20.3

Hiking Day 25, Ending Elevation 3703 feetAs planned, we slack packed the 20 plus miles from Iron Mountain Gap back to Uncle Johnny¢s. It was another lovely mostly sunny day when we set out. Same terrain, but we did go through some conifer forest with lots of moss on the trees, pine needles on the ground that were soft to walk on and smelled of old forest. We will soon leave the evergreens behind. Today is the first day of our fifth week on the trail. The scenery has been somewhat consistent with the tall naked trees stretched heavenward. I¢m not tired of it because I know it will soon be gone, giving way to the real leafy spring. Eventually, we climbed over Mt Unaka, which was treeless and grassy on top with views in every direction. We noticed trees at lower elevations are beginning to get leaves and some red buds are in bloom. The season is changing but we are told that this can change very quickly. We are not out of the woods, yet, so to speak. The rhododendron forests continue; I love the way the sunlight dapples the ground through the leaves¢¦I¢m hoping we will get to see them bloom before we leave them behind, with any luck we¢ll still be walking through them in Virginia.At Indian Grave Gap, we had trail magic from Brother Tom: lemonade for me and Arnold Palmer for Kerry and 1/2 slice of cranberry bread each!We got to Uncle Johnny¢s by 4 p.m. This was very good time for us; I chalked it up to no packs and fine weather. The weather outlook for tomorrow has improved, so we¢re hoping for another good day. We¢re sitting around a fire pit drinking beer and the light is fading. Felix is sleeping at my feet, with a full belly and happy to be still. I am too.The moon looks full.Some people from today:Tuffbabie and Jenn started at Iron Mountain Gap with us.Rosie and HannahElsa and her dog Piper aka ¢Goose¢Two SticksCurious GeorgeGeorge retired intelligence Bright side and Trail BobRound the fireCaboose from AlabamaConnor from NebraskaApplesauce from (living in) northern Virginia
Date: 2023-04-05
From: Iron Mountain Gap

To: Stan Murray Shelter
Miles today: 19.7

Hiking Day 26 Ending Elevation 5043 feetIt didn¢t rain (yet) today. G-man told us the weather forecast had changed and it was not supposed to rain. He drove Jenn, Tuffbabie and the three of us back to Iron Mountain Gap so we could continue our journey North. On the way, he stopped so we could buy coffee¢¦heaven.At the trailhead, we all separated fairly quickly, hiking at different paces and like yesterday, we were soon on our own. Naturally, like most of our days we started on a steep upward climb, followed at some point by a steep downhill plunge. This sequence was repeated multiple times during the day, just as it is every day!The sky was an ever changing swirl of clouds and sunlight; clouds of white and grey and every shade in between. Kerry has become quite good at smelling when the rain is coming, My very own rain meter, but he didn¢t smell rain today. He took a lovely photo of the swirling white clouds through the naked trees. I know he will try to post it but all his best photos get rejected because they are too big. We¢ve been noticing some interesting mushrooms attached to the trees. They look like barnacles attached to rocks, and they¢re hard/calcified like them too. I wonder how they got that way, they must have been mushrooms once.We had wonderful wildflowers today¢¦.little pink and white petaled flowers lined the path in many places and the sun lit their tiny faces. We just kept walking until about 5 p.m. when we arrived here and thought it was a good time to stop. We¢re getting stronger, but not faster and that¢s ok¢¦.the walking just is.There are three other people in the shelter tonight: Oz, whom we have met before, Catherine/Catorito, a young woman from Raleigh, NC and Solo Grandpa from Massachusetts who wants to complete the trail by July 15. He¢s going at a good pace so he might do it too! We¢re here because it might just rain.
Date: 2023-04-06
From: Stan Murray Shelter

To: Mountain Harbor Hostel
Miles today: 11.1

Hiking Day 27 Ending Elevation 2881 feetCatorito warned us last night that she gets up about 5 a.m. I wasn¢t paying enough attention, because I was a little surprised to hear her rustling around in the dark. Kerry and I like to get going early, but we¢re not big on hiking in the dark. We tried to pretend ourselves to sleep, but finally gave in and got up at 5:30. We were ready to move out at 6:25 (as was the other two hikers) but it was still dark. If we tried really hard, we could imagine daylight coming. Nothing for it but for Kerry to turn on his headlight and lead us up the trail. I followed him in the dark in the firm belief that I could sense, if not seethe gloaming coming. By 7 a.m., indeed we had day!We planned to come into this hostel tonight because the weather forecast a big storm but as G-man told us yesterday, the mountains create unpredictable weather. We didn¢t have rain yesterday and only a couple of splashes today. The big storm is supposed to come tomorrow. I¢m hoping that it won¢t prevent us from moving on.In the meantime, we signed up for the buffet breakfast this hostel is known for and we¢ve spent the afternoon trying to catch up with some things we couldn¢t pre-arrange before we left. It¢s a bizarre feeling, like being caught between worlds¢¦that other life goes on but it¢s hard for us to relate. Everything for us revolves around the scenery, the weather, food, water and where will we sleep.We only walked 11 miles today, naturally lots of up, followed by lots of down to get here. That means tomorrow, we¢ll be starting straight up again. Both today and yesterday, the high places included ¢balds.¢ These are relatively high mountains, five to six thousand feet that lack trees on top, and from a distance, they do look bald. The wind blows hard up there and if the sky is clear, the views are amazing. To be honest, I would like to have kept walking, but we¢ve walked 50 miles in the last 2 1/2 days, so a rest and refuel is probably best.