morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2012-05-18
From: Compton Gap Trailhead - Front Royal Terripan Hoste

To: Rod Hollow Shelter - tent pads full sheltered
Miles today: 27.4
Weather: few clouds

Day 54 - Friday, May 18thHiking Days 40 / Nero Days 10 /  Zero Days 4Start Location: Compton Gap Trailhead - Front Royal Terripan HostelMile Marker: 959.6Ending Location: Rod Hollow Shelter - tent pads full shelteredMile Marker: 987.0Time: 11h 10min Miles: 27.4 Weather: Great, cool in the morning.  Remained on the cool side.  High of 72. Great hiking day.Slept ok.  Stayed up later then normal talking to Mike and a couple of other hikers.  There was some activity around 200am but I'm just not sure what all the fuss was about.  Up at 6:00.  Tried to be quiet for a bit.  Started to pack.  Bought coffee yesterday so I was motivated to finding a mug to boil water in.  I did and made my coffee.  I'm not sure why hikers take showers in the morning.  There are all the other hikes getting up and wanting to use it but a shower takes a bit of time to complete.  The morning shower people seem to be oblivious to this fact.  Or perhaps just plain rude.  Said goodbye to the dog.  Great little dog.  Climbed up the 0.5 miles back up the hill to the trail.  7:18.  Nice start.  The plan is to go about 27.  That would leave a very short day into Bears Den Hostel.  Run by the ATC it sports a pizza and ice cream as part if the fee.  Then a 20 into Harpers Ferry.  I can't believe that Harpers is just around the corner. Well the hiking day was very uneventful.  Just a wonderful day and a smooth hike.  I passed Stinger again. He stop at Dicks Dome shelter about 8 miles back.  There were several hikers that intended on getting here but I am the only one that did the miles.  There were three hikers that hot offered a ride to a restaurant so they took it.  3 thru's and two section hikers here.  Tent pads are taken so I'm in the shelter.  A bear rustled in the thicket.  Water has been ok.  Hiking time included about 1h 15min in stops. The weather has been outstanding.  Should be for the next few days.
Date: 2012-05-20
From: Bears Den Rocks - Bears Den Hostel

To: Potomac River - WV/MD
Miles today: 20.6

Day 56 - Sunday, May 20thHiking Days 41 / Nero Days 11 /  Zero Days 4Start Location: Bears Den Rocks - Bears Den HostelMile Marker: 996.9Ending Location: Potomac River - WV/MD Mile Marker: 1017.5Time: 8h 14min Miles: 20.6Weather: Great, cool in the morning.  Remained on the cool side.  High of 80. Great hiking day.  Even though it is a bit warmer today, there was a nice breeze.  The day turned warmer around noon.  Slept like a baby.  Nice night. The group of guys I've been with for the last few days have been a lot of fun.  A combination of section hikers and AT hikers.  A fun group of guys to be with.  We watched the movie "The Way" last night until about 10:00.  It was a good movie that I want to see again. The trail that they are hiking is the trail I want to hike next year.  It's odd that it came up as I have became interested in that trail. More to be added.
Date: 2012-06-04
From: Potomac River - WV/MD

To: Potomac River - WV/MD
Miles today: 0.0

Off Trail Day 15: Day 71 Monday, June 4 - the return trip to Harpers Ferry.  Hiking Days 41 / Nero Days 11 /  Zero Days 4 / Off Trail Days 15 Start Location: Potomac River - WV/MD - Harpers Ferry - Tea House HostelMile Marker: 1017.5Ending Location: N/AMile Marker: N/ATime: 0h 0min Miles: 0.0WeatherWell here it is June 4th.  I've gained 4 pounds since my Harpers Ferry stopping date 15 days ago,  I'm looking at a full moon through thr large windows in the lounge car as I travel back to Harpers Ferry on the Amtrak.  In just acshort period of time, my Aunt has died, injuries still have taken the consciousness of some, the people making bad bisiness decisions are still making them, my dog is still my baby and still gets her upset stomach with me there or not, injuries still require medications, relationships still mend and part,  dementia has still taken a loved one away from me, in short .... Life still goes on ... no matter what you do ... As mich as you try to pit your life on hold for four plus months, it marches on.  Some would say uou should not hike because of these life challenges.  I say you cant stop them so why not go hike.  What I realize each time that I go on a long hike is that life still goes on. Both good and bad.  You need to be prepared for that. Being gone for two more months just won't matter.  So why not try to finish number 3.  So that's what I decided to do.  At least start the process again. The group I've hike with is so far ahead of me at this point that I'll never catch them.  It was because of them that this hike has been the best so-far.  There are some hikers that I previously met that I will cross paths with again. The actual group that I will sync up with is still to be determined.  Even with as much time as Mouse took off because of her ankle she is even far enough ahead of me that chances are I'll never give her a jokingly hard time again.  I should catch Gumpy and Peeper in a week or two.  Oh well.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Date: 2011-08-15
To: Prep 1
Miles today: 0.0

Well this is my first journal entry with many more to come while I am on my thru hike of the Appalachian Trail. For all of you that have put up with my obsession and constant talk about the Appalachian Trail, I am sorry for boring you over the past three years. For those that were lucky enough to not have to listen to all my spiels let me give a brief explanation of what the Appalation Trail is, what a thru hike is and what the purpose of this journal is.         The Appalachian Trail(AT) is a continuous hiking trail that is about 2,181 miles long and travels through 14 states. It is a linear trail meaning it has two ends and runs north and south. The southern terminus of the AT is on Springer Mountain in Georgia, which is where I will be starting and the northern terminus is on Mount Katahdin in Maine. The AT is located mostly along ridge tops and in the forests and passes through a few towns like Duncannon, PA. The trail and most of the land surrounding the trail is part of the National Park Service(NPS), only a few places along the trail go through private land. The AT is managed by a the NPS and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy(ATC) which is a non-profit organization. Maintenance and trail relocations are done by 30 different volunteer trail clubs. I am a member of one of the local maintaining trail clubs, the Susquhanna Appalachian Trail Club(SATC). All 30 trail clubs follow a strict set of guidelines put in place by the ATC so that the trail is maintained and marked the same way from end to end, the trail is in excellent shape and is easily followed because of those guidlines.      I am doing this journal entry with my phone because that is what I will be using on the trail. I found out that my phone does not like large amounts of text and I had to redo this entry. So I will do the first journal entry in multiple entrys so please read onto Prep Number 2 to learn about what a thru hiker is and how one would accomplish a thru hike.
Date: 2011-08-15
To: Prep 2
Miles today: 0.0

Prep Number 2:      Someone that has hiked the entire trail is considered a "2000 miler", this can be obtained two ways "thru hike" or "section hike". A "thru hike" is when the hiker hikes the entire trail end to end, either by going northbound(NOBO) or southbound(SOBO). I will be going NOBO starting at Springer Mountain. A "section hike" is when a hiker hikes all parts of the trail in different sections over a course of time. The ATC keeps records of all the hikers that have accomplished either of the two, and to this day more than 11,000 people have done the whole trail. The first to complete a thru hike was Earl Shaffer from York,PA in 1948.      As for questions you might have I will try to answer as many as I can, I have been asked them hundreds of times. The most common question is where will you sleep? There are many shelters along the trail that are maintained by the clubs that I will be using and I also will be taking along a lightweight one person tent for backup. What do you do about food? The trail is actually closer to civilization than most think. On average I can get to a town every 4 to 5 days to resupply my food and other supplies I might need. What about wild animals? Most people ask about bears and mountain lions but the animal you have to watch out most for are mice. They can get to your food if you do not hang your food properly in a tree or somplace they can't get to it. They can ruin hundreds of dollars of equipment if they smell food inside gear and chew their way to it. They can carry disease as well. So usually the smaller the animal the worse.....unless it is a moose, got to watch out for them at times! What about bathrooms and showers? Thru hikers become somwhat part of the woods and with that comes being animal like and animals "go" in the woods and don't shower.   Well ok... we do shower when we go into town to resupply. You can pick out (smell out?) a thru hiker in a croud. How many miles do you do in a day? On average 15 to 20 miles a day, it all depends on what the terrain is like and what I feel like doing for that day. How much does your pack weigh? The begining and the end of the hike is when my pack will be the heaviest due to winter clothes and gear. It will weigh around 40lbs.       Those are the most common questions I get, if you have any more you can ask me via my trail journal and I will try and answer them. If you read onto the next journal entry Prep Number 3 I will explain how this journal works.
Date: 2011-08-15
To: Prep 3
Miles today: 0.0

Prep Number 3:      This journal is considered my trail journal, I will be updating it as I go along the trail. I will be using my phone to send emails to my sister Sarah daily or as my phone allows. Surprisingly Verizon has coverage over most of the trail so I should be able to update my progress daily. I can also put photos on this page that you can look at to get a idea of what I am seeing and experiencing. You can also sign my guest book to ask questions or just send me whatever. I will be able to view them along the way and will help me heading north on the trail.      As of today I have 200 days till my planed launch date Monday March 5th 2012. That also means it is time to buckle down and start conditioning because I need it. So once again if you have any questions or words of inspiration or encouragement just put them on my guest book and I will try and answer them as soon as I can.       Thank you all and see you on the trail                              DieselP.S. please forgive my grammar I have not written anything in 5 or so years plus the letters on my phone are too little for my fat fingers.
Date: 2011-11-24
To: Prep 4
Miles today: 0.0

It¢s been awhile since my last entry, not much has changed until now. It¢s down to 98 days till I hit the trail and everything is in full swing. I am hiking almost every morning before work up to Hawk Rocks above Duncannon. By the way, I'd like to thank the volunteers who helped the Mid Atlantic Appalachian Trail Crew put in over 100 steps and other trail repairs, it needed it after all the rain we had this year. I have my first few mail drops planned and am starting to gather all the food for them. I am going over my gear again and again. I am waiting for it to get cold so I can test my tent and sleeping system. I will to stay warm in the mountain tops in March.   I am starting to get really excited about it and just want to start now, but I picked March 5th as my launch date two years ago and am sticking with it. As each day passes I am thinking more and more about it. The thing I think most about is why. Why am I doing this? Why am I leaving my friends and family for six months? It¢s now setting in just how long six months is, I am going to miss birthdays, Easter, July 4th, and a lot more. That's just another sacrifice of being a thru hiker....Is it worth it?..... Yes. Why?? I don't know. It¢s like the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. They were drawn to Devils Tower, they did not know why or what they were looking for but nothing was going to stop them in figuring it out. No, I am not expecting to find any ufos or aliens along the trail but that movie is the closest thing I can think of to try and explain how I feel. There is a reason I am doing this thru hike, I may not know now why but I will find out. And the more I plan and condition the better I feel about it. The drive and passion to complete my thru hike gets stronger.....it¢s just right.      That's it for now; I vented my thoughts and once again tried to explain how I feel and why I am doing this. But once again many will never understand, I guess it¢s a hiker thing. But most importantly even if my friends and family don't understand, they still support me and what I am doing. I thank them very much. That's another thing that's hard to explain, just how much their support and encouragement help me now in my preparations. They are going to help me every day, every mile and every step I take along the way. So I thank you all out there reading my journal and sending me messages on my guestbook on my journal, it is truly appreciated.Ok now that's it, no more venting.Diesel
Date: 2012-01-10
To: Prep 5
Miles today: 0.0

Well for those of you that don't know I am now starting the trail on the 10th instead of the 5th. I met two other people (Joe from Pittsburgh and Montana from Columbus OH) that were both going the 10th so we decided to go togeather. We will be leaving out of Harrisburg Pa on the Amtrak on the 9th and arriving early in the morning on the 10th in Gainesville Ga. We will then be picked up at the train station by Survivor Dave a hiker who lives in Ga and drives hikers to the trail. And by the end of that day I will be standing on the top of Springer Mountain!!!! As of today I have two months to go!!! I have all my gear and have been testing it all out. I tested my new NorthFace Cats Meow 20° sleeping bag that I got for Christmas the other night. It was around 12° with the wind chill in the single digits and I was nice and cozy. I also got my new tent in the mail, it'd a Lightheart Gear SoLong6 tent and I love it...thanks Judy. It is considered a one person tent but could fit two people in it, it is designed to use only my two hiking poles to Support it so I don't have to carry any tent poles with me. It also has a optional awning I can put up and down depending on the weather conditions. Unfortunately the new tent is for the warmer weather so I will not be using it at the start of the trail. I will be using one of my other tents that is warmer till the temperature gets warm enough to ship my cold weather gear home and receive my warm weather gear in the mail; I will post pictures of the tent then for you all to see. I only have a few more things to do here at home before I leave on the 9th and almost every morning before work I hike up the mountain behind my house to get me ready for the REAL mountains down south. I am almost at the starting line of my great adventure, the gear is bought and tested, the train and shuttles are booked and I am counting down the days till that cold winter morning when I leave the civilisation as I know it and enter the woods and live the life of a thru hiker.
Date: 2012-02-27
To: Prep 6
Miles today: 0.0

Its down to under 14 days till I start my thru hike on March 10th. It is now just setting in that after all my planning and testing of gear for the last two and a half years that I only have two weeks to go. I have all my food resuply drops that I am mailing myself along the trail done and ready to ship. I have six mail drops planned to get me into Damascus VA and from there I will resuply as I go in towns. I have my reservations made at hiker hostels I will be spending the night off the trail and now all I have to do is wait. Now that all the planning is done I kind of miss it, I am at the point where I can plan no more and just do and hope it all works out. Not that I am doubting my plans its just one day at a time and even if I hit a few glitches along the path there are plenty of other people out there that will help me out in any way they can. I want to thank everyone for signing my guest book so far and greatly appreciate the good words and encouragements. I have read time and time again that the trail is only 20% physical and 80% mental, it will be very hard to leave my family and friends behind and miss all the good times that will be had. This adventure of a lifetime will wear me down to the point that I just want to give up and go home, I will have to put up with rainy, cold, hot, windy and just all out miserable days but I will push thru because I know in the end it will be all worth it. And as I go along the way as you sing my book I will be able to read them and they will keep me going till the end.Once again I thank all of you for your support and words of encouragement so far, I can not put into words what they mean to me and how they get me thru that miserable day or over that mountain.
Date: 2012-03-09
From: Harrisburg, PA

To: Springer Mountain - Gainsville, GA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Well I thought I would make an entry while I am on my 18 hour train ride to Gainesville GA. From the get go things started out a little shaky on Friday morning. I was to pick up Joe at the bus station but he never showed, I guess he decided not to go but we will see if he shows up at some point along the trail. So now it is just the four of us starting togeather now. But other than that so far so good.I got on the Amtrak in Harrisburg at noon and said my last tearful good-byes to mom and dad and was on my way. I then arived in Philadelphia and got off that train to board then next that would take me to Gainesville. I had to wait in the bus station at Philly for two and a half hours so I checked my bags in and took a stroll around the city. While I was looking at all the people, buses, taxi's and high rises I realized that in less than 24 hours I would be leaving that all behind and tradeing it in for hikers, trees, shelters and wildlife for six months, that's quite to change.Back to my trip, I boarded the train heading south at around 4pm for the remanding 15 hours of my ride. I decided to go against what everyone told me and scheduled a spot to eat on the dining car for supper and boy was I glad I did! I was seated with a great couple and we talked and laughed about just about everything you can think of! Thank you both for an unexpected great start to my hike. I got the half roasted chicken with rice, green beans, a salad and a roll. It was delicious, a little pricy but I figured it would be my last cooked meal for two weeks so I ate every last bite.Once it got dark, there was nothing to see out the windows so I attempted to get some sleep...and so far that is failing. I am getting some here and there but its like trying to sleep on a dining room chair through an earthquake. They did give us a pillow to use but its small and scratchy and there is no way to really use it so I am now sitting on it to make the chair a little more comfortable. So I should have no problem falling asleep Saturday night - the first night on the trail.Ok its now 3 am and I am get off in about 4 hours so I guess I better try and find a position that I can sleep in without cramping up. On the bright side the next entry I do, I will be nice and cozy in my tent somewhere in the woods!!! Good night all.
Date: 2012-03-10
From: Day 1

To: Hawk Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 8.1
Weather: clear sky

Today was finally day one! I never really did get much sleep on the train but got enough. I arrived in Gainesville GA at 6:50am and got a shuttle to Amilacola Falls from survivor Dave. Once we got to the park we took some pictures and got the rundown about the park and then I was ready to go. The park was full of hikers as they also were starting today. I signed the registration and was number 235 to sign it.Once the other three hikers that I was planning on meeting up with (Montana, Haley and Kody) arrived we decided that since we were running late to skip the approach trail. We got a ride up to the start of the trail at Springer Mt instead. Finally I was at the start and saw white blaze number one. We all got pictures and we were finally heading north.We decided to change our schedule a little. Since we skipped doing the approach trail, we were ahead of schedule. The mountains are bigger here than in PA but we did not have any super long climbs yet so that was good. We talked to a lot of thru hikers through out the day including a older couple in their sixties and they beat us the shelter! We arived at the shelter at about 5pm and found three flat spots among the many other tents; Haley uses a hammock so she found two trees beside our tents to hang in. Once we all got settled in and ate our supper we made a fire and sat around it along with a few other hikers nearby.But all in all it was a great first day, we are all a little sore and very tired so its time to hit the sack!
Date: 2012-03-11
From: Hawk Mountain Shelter

To: Gooch Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.7
Weather: scattered clouds

Last night at Hawk Mountain Shelter was perfect, it was clear, the stars were bright, we had a campfire with a bunch of other hikers and all night there was a breeze the was blowing through the pine trees and it put me right to sleep.We sleep in until 8 because we did not have a lot of miles to do today and we were not the only ones. I got to use my homemade stove to make coffee and it hit the spot. Unfortunately, Haley was very cold all night and got very little sleep so she decided to take a break and find warmer gear so she got a ride home but plans on meeting back up with us at some point. We did not get going until 10 and headed up and over Sassafras Mountain. It was a good climb but the views from the top made it worth it. Once we got down off of Sassafras Mt we had to go right up another one. We were feeling it prerty good by then and I started joking about trail angels being at the bottom of the mountain. Well we got to the bottom and no angels. We sat there in the gap between the two mountains and talked to a few other thru hikers one of which was from Germany. We then decided to start up the next mountain...yes a third one in a row. Right as we were about to put on our packs on, a car pulled up and asked us if we wanted a gallon of iced tea. We gladdly excepted because we were all low on water and divided it up between the three of us and another hiker - J Dub. Sure enough I was right the trail magic was there...just a little late! We then started up and over the third mountain but this one was not as bad as the other two. The trail slowly wound its way up and over the top and down the other side into a Mountain Laurel and Rhododendron filled gap. We refilled our water supply at the stream in the gap and finished the last mile to the Gooch Mountain Shelter up yet another mountain but luckily the shelter was only half way up the mountain. This shelter was packed but we found a level spot to pitch our tents and ate our supper. Once again we had a fire and to bed we went.