morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2007-12-05
From: Damascus VA

To: Damascus VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

mi. 0sleep hosteldest. Damascus, VA day 146 Today was a great zero day. I woke up just before 7am to hear Skipper walking around in the hallway. From what I can take it he is an early riser. All of us got up and headed to the Dairy King (yet another variation in the whole ice cream name thing) for breakfest. They make a great breakfest. The funny thing is there is a window you go up to for your food and place your order. The thing is not to stand close to the window. He you do you get recruited into handing out food. So of course I laid low. I loaded up on a great pancake and fried pig part meal. Than it was to town chores. I had a laundry list to do. First stop the Sundog outfitters. The is the other outfitter in town. He cut me a great deal of 25% off everything I bought. For $122 I got a big Angus inflatable pad, seal skin socks, OR neck gaiter, and new foodbag. Then it was off to laundry. I split mine with Deluxe and Oblivious, 2 of the other southbounders. The laundry mat has a great arcade machine. I played a couple games of ms pacman and space invaders. I would have done better at space invaders, but I had a Rush song in my head the whole time. Then it was to the library and internet. I was a couple days behind in the journal and wanted to use the PC to type them on. Then back to the hostel for a resupply. Just down from the hostel is a family dollar. This one has a great resuppply option. I loaded up on a ton of food. Then back to the hostel for a shower. I still hadn't showered at this point. After which it was to the post office. I hate to say it but I sent the hammock ahead a week. I am going to sleep in the shelters on my pad using both my sleeping bag and quilt. I still have my tarp and picked up a groundsheet so I can tarp it if I need to. Then it was off to the pizza place for dinner than later on second dinner. Later that night Missinglink and john rolled in. So now I went from being alone or with 1 other person for forever to being around 6 other southbounders. Kind of crazy, but like it. Sorry for the short entry. I am behind and want to give a full gear rundown. Gear update. I added: Big agnus primaloft inflatable pad, OR neck gaiter, seal skin socks (waterproof really warm), a granite gear 28 liter compression bag for a foodbag (definitly not playing around here), a waterproof packliner, a plastic ground cloth, and an eye dropper with bleach for backup water treatment. I sent ahead my hammock, hammock sock, VA is for lovers book, maps, and Z rest foam pad. Total weight change should be about the same or just a little more. I should be warm and toaty though.
Date: 2007-12-06
From: Damascus VA

To: Abington Gap Shelter
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: clear sky

mi. 10sleep shelterdest. Abington Gap Shelter day 147 Well I hate to say it, but I have a couple updates. Skipper is getting of the trail and headed home. He has some family issues that he needs to go home and attend to. It is the right thing to do. He plans on coming back and finishing in a month or 2. The other is Jason who I hiked with in Maine got off at Pearisburg. I think Woodward put it best in the register. Maybe hiking 27 miles a day and eating 10,000 calories in town isn't the best thing for your health. Apparently in town he started vomiting bad and the called an ambalance. He went to the hospital, than back home. The doctor told him that he had a heart attack. At 30 years old. I hope everything turns out ok for him. Today was a planned easy day. I think if I keep hiking with this group it will be the norm. Since we are shelter bound it was 10 or 18. Nedless to say a 10 out of town sounded better. We got up around the usual time. Then it was off for breakfest. After everyone packed up we said our goodbye's to Skipper. I have to give him a lot of credit. Someone in his 60's whose dream since he was young was to hike the AT, and he made it to 460 to go before taking some time off for family. Nothing at all wrong with that. One thing that is funny is he gave Deluxe his travel alarm clock. It is one of those great annoying alarm clock that talks. Every hour it gives the time and temp. Very annoying, and very funny. I have to get one of those when I get back for all future trips. A great way to annoy other people in the shelters. She was even given a name, The B (well I'll let everyone fill in the rest). It was really chill going to the shelter. 3+ miles in we crossed over into TN. Finally out of VA. It took 41 days, but that is pretty good figuring 6 zeros and a lot of screwing around. We got to the shelter to see Roy's friend Wolf waiting. He lives in Damascus. He came out to camp with us for the night. The hiked back in the day together and had a lot of crazy stories. We sat up forever talking and enjoying a nice campfire. I have been missing this part. A late night around the fire filled with great stories and lots of laughs. Tonight all of us have improved our warmth. I am on my new pad, in my sleeping bag, with my quilt stuffed inside to add loft. Deluxe and Oblivious both are using 2 sleeping bags after buying one in town. Roy added a huge fleece blanket. I think our total spent at the outfitter in town was over a grand. Well needed though. Now off to a warm nights rest.
Date: 2007-12-07
From: Abington Gap Shelter

To: Iron Mtn Shelter
Miles today: 15.9

mi. 15.9sleep shelterdest. Iron Mtn Shelter day 148 Ahh another great easy day on the trail. Catz found yesterday right out of town that the stay in this pck broke after only 1700 miles. He went into town with Wolf to get it replaced. I joked around that after our last parting it wouldn't surprise me if I don't see him until next year sometime. Yesterday and today have been the first of the hike with snow. Not a lot but an inch or so in places. It got into the 20's last night but I was toasty warm in my bag/quilt combo. Today we came across 2 different groups of bear hunters. I feel less threatened from them than deer hunters. Bear hunters use dogs to tree a bear before the shoot it. Deer are on the ground. But hey, barking dogs running around the woods with radio collors. We got to the shelter really early. Right around 2:30pm. That was great. Plenty of time to relax. We had a great campfire to sit around. I also got a great amount of sleep. It felt good to get a little up on my sleep. Gear Update. My jetboil mod works great. Incase you or I missed it. I drilled 2 holes in my jetboil pot, on opposite sides just below the top. From the with the outfitters help I bent an old tent stake to from a bailer/handle. I put that on the end of a long stick and can cook over a fire. Not as fast as using it normally. But if I am having a fire anyways and I have a lot of time, why not. It saves on fuel. I also feel more like I'm camping than using it as a stove. I'll have to post picks when I get back.
Date: 2007-12-09
From: Watauga Lake Shelter

To: Kincora Hostel
Miles today: 10.7

mi. 10.7sleep hosteldest. Kincora Hostel day 150 Somehow I always manage to fall behind on keeping up with my journal. I am still amazed by how much time it takes to keep up with it. I think if I didn't do one online just hand written, I would end up reading twice the books. I'll keep today kind of short. I'm iching to get back to reading "On The Road". Today we were setting out on the hostel challenge. The guide lists 3 hostels in 24 trail miles after today. All really cheap, totaling $24 for all 3. No way to pass it up. The hike into Kincora went really quick. The highlight had to be Laurell falls. A spectacular waterfall right off the trail. Funny how you go from having no water to tons. We definitly took a long break there. Of course there looks to be great swimming and hammocking spots. But none of that for me. From there it was an easy 1+ to the hostel. Which of course went really quick. It is another good example of there being either no place to stay or 2. If you turn left for .2 at the road you go to the Kincora hostel. If you turn left .3 you go to another really cheap hostel. Well with all the great things I heard about Kincora, no way I was going to pass it up. We got right around 2pm. Of course we ordered pizza. I had next to no food left and was starving. Bob Peoples, more on him and the hostel tomorrow, came home later and drove us into town. In talking with him we learn the next hostel is closed. We decide to stay here a second night and slack pack. So we picked up a crazy amount of trail food and 2 town dinners. Dinner tonight was burgers on the grill. I can't seem to get enough red meat of dairy in town. I spent a good part of the evening going through the color copy of Yogi's PCT handbook he has. Definitly a good read.
Date: 2007-12-10
From: Kincora Hostel

To: Kincora Hostel
Miles today: 23.8

mi. 23.8sleep hosteldest. Kincora Hostel day 151 Another great slackpacking day. I distintly remember saying I didn't want to do much slackpacking. That holds true for solo hiking. But split 3 ways it isn't bad. Bob is only going to charge us $30 for the slack and $8 for 2 nights. Basically $20 for the slack and 2 nights. Hard to beat. The hiking went 90% great, 10% not so much. We started out at just after 7am sometime. I saw Deluxe for about a minute. He only had a 5 lbs day pack. I saw Oblivious a little longer. Within the second mile, he was gone too. I wasn't in a hurry at all. I was also able to hike hard core (shirtless) again. It was close to 70 out. I was lovin it. A couple miles in I saw a side trail for Jones Falls. No way I was going to miss it, especially at only 100 yards away. It was awesome. A great waterfall. It is supposed to be the highest in elevation above sea level for the south or the whole AT, I can't remember what Bob said. I am writing this a couple days later. I can't remember too much about it detail wise. I do remember really enjoying the walk. The part I do remember is the last 5 miles, which sucked. My shoes and insoles are trashed. They were killing my feet. I kept stopping and trying moving the insoles, socks, adding duct tape to the insoles, and even hiking sans insoles. Nothing really worked. I finally walked into the hostel right around 5. My feet were hurting pretty bad. Deluxe was there since 2 or so. He wanted to see what he could do. Oblivious was ther for a couple hours. I was taking my time. Torque was also sitting there. He got in earlier. He said he jumped a little around Damascus in the cold. I wasn't expecting to see him so soon. One thing that he did tell me was the 2 people from New Zealand behind me were ripping out my VA is for lovers entries in the registers. Apparently they felt the need to elect themselves censors of the AT. Instead of saying their opinion and letting everyone makeup their own mind. Everyone I read them to thought they were hilarous. Apparently they felt the need to take that way from the people behind. Is it coming across I'm a little bitter? I talked with Bob and he drove all of us into town. We hit up a sporting goods store. They had new balance shoes. But get this, only the $125 pair comes in wide. I'm happy with the $45 or less ones. They were also street shoes and didn't have much tread. So I went for a new pair of insoles. Back at the hostel we fixed the lazaona we bought last night. I love those things, but they take 2 hrs to cook. By that time all of us were snacking all night. I called home and talked with my dad. They are going to mail my shoes to Erwin. Hopefully they get there in time. I think I just need to limit each pair to 500 miles. After that I'm pushing my luck.
Date: 2007-12-12
From: Roan High Knob Shelter

To: Cherry Gap Shelter
Miles today: 15.6
Weather: broken clouds

mi. 15.6sleep shelterdest. Cherry Gap shelter day 152 Last nights shelter was really cool. I was glad it was an old cabin and enclosed. The wind definitly picked up overnight. Probibly a good thing we didn't stay at the overmountain shelter. It is also the highest shelter at 6,275 feet. It is actually only 3 or 4 feet lower than mt. Washington in the whites. A few minutes into the day I came up on a clearing just off the trail. It was the site of the old Cloudland Hotel. Long since torn down. It is the site of another former hotel on top of a mountain. It would be cool if any of them still existed. I did catch the end of a great sunrise. If I known this clearing was there I would have left earlier and made it there for the whole sunrise. Roan mtn was very reministant of Maine. With the Birch trees and pine trees. Not above tree line. Nothing in the south naturally is anymore. You can tell it is getting close. If only it was 500 feet higher or so. The hike today wasn't bad at all. Since we are shelter bound that pretty much limits our choices. It was either the 15 or a 24. I'm glad for the 15. We stopped for a break at the shelter in the middle. I really wasn't feeling it today. All the food I ate at the hostel was getting to my weak stomach. It also started to rain. Not too bad, but enough. Funny thing is again we are hiking in the rain with not much places for water. Luckily 3 miles before the shelter there was a water cache. We took a short break there and drank up in the rain. I packed out 3 liters for the evening. Once again just before the I hit the wall. I had to stop and eat something. I need to start eating a better lunch. I am going to pack out salami and chz sandwiches out of Erwin. That seemed to be working well for me before. With the relatively short day we got to the shelter nice and early. By 5pm I already setup and eat dinner. I also got the chance to catch up on my journal. Now on to relaxing and some reading.
Date: 2007-12-14
From: Cherry Gap Shelter

To: No Business Knob Shelter
Miles today: 6.3
Weather: scattered clouds

mi. 6.3sleep shelterdest. No Business Knob Shelter day 154 First of all, Deluxe is a real person and not a figment of my active imagination. He read my journal a little and he said I made it seem like he wasn't real. I just thought I should clear that up for him. Second, we got an email from Catz. He is calling it a trip in Damascus. That is were he flipped from. I think the cold weather got to him. He also doesn't like to hike in groups, and I think that was getting to him. All of us slept in this morning. Checkout was at 11am, and we were not planning on going very far. We got up just in time for McDonalds breakfest. Where I had a Deluxe breakfest, Sausage/egg/chz McGriddle, sausage/egg/chz biscuit, and coffee (of course). I eat way too much McDonalds the last 2 days. I also called and the hostel after Hot Springs is open. I called an online shoe place and was able to order the right size. It should be waiting on me when we get there. Now the Super 8 in Erwin does not get a good review from me. The guide says they have laundry, nope not working. It also lists shuttles. We asked last night and the manager said he couldn't he had someone coming to do work this morning and he probibly could not. This morning we asked again. He said he looked for us earlier. I chimed in and said that last night he said he could not first thing, he might be able to later. After a couple minutes back and forth he said he would take us for $5. We said screw it. Lets just say I can't recommend this place. I wanted to stay in the hostel in town, but Ms Janet had to close after northbound season. He drove us to the trailhead and stopped right in front of uncle Johnny's hostel. He let us out and we took off up the hill. He had problems starting his car. We didn't want any part of it. He finally got it started. We were hoping karma would come back and get him and he would have to get a tow. In retrospect we probibly should have stayed at Uncle Johnny's. A lot of people talked good about the place in the register after it. It was a great sunny 6 mile walk to the shelter. We got there at the early hour of 3pm. Definitly enough time for a good fire. As Wolf puts it we were being trolls in the shelter that evening. In the dark shelter in our bags early. Well at 7pm anyways. When I saw 2 headlamps walking up. We thought we would have company for the evening. But they were moving on. It was a guy by the name of Second Hand and someone else. Funny how trailnames are easier to remember. They got on at a random road crossing and walked 2 miles in the wrong direction. They had a schedule to keep for hot springs and walked back the way they came. I would have just said screw it and stayed there.
Date: 2007-12-16
From: Hogback Ridge Shelter

To: Flint Mtn Shelter
Miles today: 8.9
Weather: overcast clouds

mi. 8.9sleep shelterdest. Flint Mtn Shelter day 156 Last night was crazy. Right after the sectioners left it kept raining. It got heavy at times. I learned an important leson with collecting rain water. Let it rain for awhile before you collect your water off the roof. I didn't at first and the water was full of floaties. I waited a few more minutes and it was clear. I treated it anyways. We tarped off the front of the shelter last night. Definitly a good move. It helps to cut the wind and trap in a little heat. Although I kept feeling mositure hitting my face while sleeping. It turns out there is a small gap from the walls to the roof. It keeps out rain, but not all of the snow. We awoke to a winter wonder land. It was snowing hard, not to mention blowing. None of us wanted to go out in that. So it was back to sleep. Later on we were debating our options. It was zero here, then 2 20's into town or short day today and 2 medium days in. Well we decided to push on. It makes a huge difference to make some miles. It opens up more options later should you need to wait it out then. So around 10:30am we got started. Deluxe started just before me and seemed to take off. I must have been puttering around again, later he said he was going really slow. I stopped to take a ton of pics. I love the way everything looks in the snow. Oblivious caught me about half way through and we walked most of the way back together. It actually wasn't that bad hiking. After the first 30 minutes my body warmed up and I was fine. Luckily there was only 1 exposed to the wind part. It was freakin cold. The rest seemed pretty protected. I stopped just before the shelter and loaded up on water. It was still snowing and I didn't want to go back out. I am glad the first part of this storm was rain. There was only under 2 inches of snow in most places. I think it would be closer a foot if it was all snow. We made a good decision moving on. This shelter is a good 700 feet lower and a lot more protected from the wind. We tarped off the front again. We were back in the troll position by 4:30pm. It was so cold that I definitly just cooked and laid in the bag. No journaling or reading tonight. I did listen to the radio a lot. I can't see not hiking with a radio in the future.
Date: 2007-12-20
From: Elmer's

To: Walnut Mtn. Shelter
Miles today: 13.1

mi. 13.1sleep shelterdest. Walnut mtn Shelter day 160 Once again I stayed up crazy late last night. I actually gave in and went to sleep before the movie is over. Back home I make it a point not to fall asleep during a movie and make it to the end. But I seen the movie a few times. This morning I slept in but was still able to make it downstairs before breakfest. Breakfest was once again great. Waffles with strawberries, juice, coffee, and homemade granola cerole. Definitly a great place to stay. The house itself is a normal bed and breakfest. A cool old Victorain manison. It can sleep maxed out at 18 hikers. We were cozy in our room with a space heater going. We said our goodbyes to Elmer and headed out around 10am. We were only planning a 13. We could make it farther but our packs were all rediculous. I am carrying about 10 dehydrated dinners. They are only 2 or 3 oz each, but that adds up in bulk. When I packed up my pack I couldn't even put my down jacket in it. I had to put it under the lid part of the pack. I have a crazy amount of food. Funny thing is I will end up eating most of it by the town stop before the Smokies. All Good left after us and caught us by the first shelter 3 miles out of town. Hot Springs is pretty cool with the AT going straight thru town. But it is only a matter of time before it gets routed out of town. We took a small break with him and he pushed on. He is planning on staying at the shelter with us tonight. The climb out of town is crazy fun. We went from town at 1,326 to 4,686 in 13 miles. Not a steep climb over Bluff mtn, just a long gradual climb. I can honestly say it kicked my butt just as hard as I kicked it's butt. We got to the shelter in plenty of time before dark. All Good left a note in the dirt, there was no register, that he was pushing on to the next shelter. I would have done the same thing if I gotten there an hour earlier. The shelter is on top of a ridge. Without the tree cover it is really exposed. Fortunatly for us the wind was coming straight into the shelter. We definitly tarped off the from of the shelter. It was good to go to sleep at a decent time tonight. I still can't seem to get enough sleep. Last night we got water info from the northbounder. He said we are fine until the end of the smokies. Rumor has it the last 23 miles of the park is dry. We'll take that as it comes.
Date: 2007-12-22
From: Standing Bear Farm Hostel

To: Cosby Knob Shelter
Miles today: 7.6
Weather: overcast clouds

mi. 7.6sleep shelterdest. Cosby Knob Shelter day 162 Another great late night hostel night. I think it was after 12am when I finally went to bed. Curtas the hostel owner sat around and talked with us forever. He was cracking us up with stories. This morning we parted ways with All Good. He was planning on being in Fontana Dam, which is the first place after the Smokies for Christmas. The climb up was not half was bad as we thought it would be. It was a good 4000ft up over a few miles. But national park trail. Very reminisant of the SNP. Nicely graded. The first side trip of the smokies was the Mt Camerer Fire lookout. It is only .6 off and well worth it. It had a little sketch part to it. Just a couple rocks to walk over. Probibly the worst part of the whole AT through the park. It is considered a lookout since it is a 2 story structure and not a tower. Great 360 views all around. An awesome 6 sided building. Completly glassed in. We almost stayed the night there. But a shelter with a fireplace was calling. The tower was rocking in the wind. We got to the shelter nice and early. We got there to 2 other people. Really cool guys in their 40's that do a lot of hiking in the smokies over winter. They had some great stories to share. The shelters in the smokies are great. They are tarped off in the front. The first one we pasted today wasn't. It still had the chain link fences on it. They all used to. The theory was to keep the bears out. But people were feading the bears through them. Now they are taking them all down. Good thing. The shelters also all have fireplaces. It took some searching for firewood, but we found enough. It was crazy easy to start. The guys staying here brought up 2 5lbs duralogs. That is great for firestarters.