morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2006-04-25
From: Max Patch (North Woodline)

To: Walnut Mt. Shelter
Miles today: 6.7

I am so disgusted with myself, I have stopped in a shelter for the night. The pain in my foot seems worse, and have had a short day because of it. I know I could have made better miles today, at least made it over Bluff Mt., but I seem to be getting worse mentally as well. I miss Gerry, Alexa and my cat, and have come to realize that by being out here, I am not with them as I should be. I have tried to rationalize it, but now no matter how I look at it I come up empty. I have come to love the trail, and look foward to putting on my pack and trekking on, but something is missing, and I believe that is the family I have left behind. I will dwell on it some more, and hopefully I can make some sense of the way I feel. The foot pain can be intense, but I will live with it and hike into Hot Springs tommorow.
Date: 2006-04-26
From: Walnut Mt. Shelter

To: Hot Springs
Miles today: 13.4
Weather: moderate rain

Hot Springs Again!!!!Great little town, very hiker friendly, and has one of the best outfitters on the trail. Bluff Mountain Outfitters is in the middle of town, and offer great services for hikers. I chose to stay at the Cody House, a hiker hostel that is run by the Outfitter, and it is a great way to spend a night. I have not really had the time to think today, as I listened to the mp3 player all day while hiking to tune out the pain in my foot. I will sleep on it, and go to the clinic tommorow. I do not know what is wrong...stress fracture? tendon? dislocated bone? who knows. I can walk, and bend all my toes, so I do not believe there is a serious broken bone, but a stress fracture can be just as bad if I hike on it. I have talked to alot of people today, and it seems like this could easily turn into a serious thing if I do not rest it. I cannot see staying in town a week or even two to let it heal up, or worse, hike on and damage it to where in a worse case scenario end up in a cast. If it comes to it, I will have to make a decision on what to do. I dread the thought of leaving the trail, and all the friends here, and I think that may be part of what has me so down latly. I am torn between my real family, and the new one I have out here.
Date: 2006-04-27
From: Hot Springs

To: Hot Springs
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Well, I am afraid my hike is over. I have been told that a stress fracture may not be visible on an x-ray until it becomes agrivated (to the point of needing a cast), and if it is a tendon injury, if it gets worse I would possibly need surgery to correct it.After much thought on where I am in my life, and where I need to be, I have decided to return home to my family and be there for them, and support them as they have supported me while I was out here. The A.T. will be here when I am ready to try again, whether I decide another Thru-attempt, or if I decide to section the remaining miles.271 trail miles, 8.8 for the approach, and 3 or 4 for blue blazed trails to shelters or water sources. Call it 282...283 miles?? Thats 250 more miles than I had started with expectations of for this out of shape, chain smoking truck driver to make. I am happy with my progress on the trail, tho I know if I hiked longer days, I could have had more miles. But for this attempt, the miles were secondary. I have some great pictures (will post them all when I get home), and some great friends I am looking foward to hiking with in the future, maybe even see some of them at Trail Days. I have no real regrets from this experience, except that my body and mind were not in the right place. Now I know where both need to be for something of this enormity, and so now I will be ready for the next attempt.I am so miserable now that I have made the choice, but I know in the long run it is the right thing to do. The mountains will be there waiting for my return, and I WILL return, as I have fallen in love with the adventure, towns, people, and spirit that is the trail. To those hikers still on the trail, keep your thoughts happy, and know that even though some of us are not on the trail now, we are still with you and wish you all the best out there.I will be making one last entry upon my return to Tampa to add pics and some last thoughts, but would like to thank everyone that has signed my guestbook or sent me an e-mail with good wishes. You HAVE made a difference in my hike, as it is an inspiration to me and the other hikers to know that they are cared about, from friends, family, and even total strangers that happen to find their journals. Thank you all so much for the support!
Date: 2008-02-05
To: Continue my hike as a Section Hike...
Miles today: 0.0

Well, Here we go again. As I contemplate another hike, I have looked back at what I have done so far and still dream of a thru-hike. But it is not something I can do yet, due to a number of reasons. So, this year, I will try to get back to Hot Springs, and keep going where I had left off.I have all the gear I need, and know whats involved now. I hope to be able to get in about 30 days in before returning , but will have to see. This time, I am planning few, if any at all, stops in towns except to restock food and fuel.I have not done any real hiking since I left the trail, but have no worries I'll be able to fall right back into the rythm of it. I expect to take many more pictures this time, as well as getting to know more of the history of the areas I will be hiking in (getting into areas that have strong civil war history).I'll update when I finalize things, all I really have to do is find out about getting a lift from Ashville to Hot Springs. As for getting home, I can get to Marion Va. easy enough from the trail, and there's a bus station there. Everything else has been planned, and I am looking forward to getting some more trail miles under my boots. I am going to start a new journal for 2008, and continue this story there. Hope to see y'all soon!
Date: 2006-02-27
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Three weeks to go. Woah, Three weeks to go! It's amazing how the human mind works; things go from being, "way off in the future" to, "right around the corner" in a blink of an eye, with seemingly no transition in between. The hike has just crossed that threshold. Instead of feeling like the remaining planning can be chipped away at gradually there is now an urgency to wrap things up. Realistically I'm in pretty good shape in terms of getting things ready to go, but it certainly doesn't feel that. Typical jitters I suppose.
Date: 2006-03-02
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I'm continuing the non-hiking preparation work on the journal today. I added some more stuff to the gear list, trying to fill that out a bit more completely. Not every piece in the pack is on the list, but most of the big ticket items are up there, and I will add a few more as I think of them before I set off. As I was researching gear for my hike I found the gear lists of former hikers to be incredibly useful, so I thought I should fill in my details as a way of perhaps extending that to future readers. Whether my gear choices were good, bad, or indifferent remains to be seen, of course, but we will figure that out as things unfold. If things go phenomenally badly perhaps the list can serve as a cautionary tale. (but lets not dwell on that possibility)The other thing that I added is a link in my signature to a little custom google map that I've been working on to graphically show my progress once the hike gets started. It's not much to look at currently, but once the journal entries start building I hope it will be useful. After each entry there will be a new red marker on the map which represents that day's ending location. String a few of those together and you can start to get an idea of how much ground I'm covering. (or not covering) Each of the daily markers, when clicked, will have a link to the trail journal entry for that stop. Hope that makes sense...it should become clear once there's more than just the one marker for Amicalola. If anyone has trouble with the map, drop me an email before the 17th. I tested it as best I could, but there could be some issues with it's code yet. The trail centerline and shelter location data comes from the ATC. 17 more days!
Date: 2006-03-16
To: Amicalola State Park
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

The journey unofficially begins bright and early tomorrow morning. We're making the drive down to Amicalola over the course of tomorrow and Saturday, and staying in the lodge at the park Saturday night. Might be the last comfortable bed for a while, so I better take advantage of it while I can. The actual hiking will start Sunday morning on the approach trail. The "official" start of the AT will probably be Monday morning. I'm guessing that the eight mile climb up to the top of Springer will be enough for a first day.Packed and unpacked the bag a couple of times today. Again. And did the last-minute grocery shopping for the first leg. I am probably packing more food than I need for the stretch from Amicalola to Neels Gap, but I'm banking on my mileage starting out pretty low.There will be a little break between journal postings from this one to the next. After tomorrow they will all be transcribed versions of what I have mailed in from the trail. The first batch of handwritten entries will probably be put in the mail at Neel's Gap, so be on the lookout for updates starting in a week or so. I'll try to make the actual on-trail writings as interesting and fun to read as I can. So far these preliminary entries have been short and dry - I've just been having a heck of time writing about hiking when I'm not hiking!Ok, I'm going to lay in bed and pretend to sleep....somehow I doubt the nerves will let me sleep much tonight.
Date: 2006-03-19
From: Amicalola Falls State Park

To: Springer Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.5
Weather: broken clouds

First day is in the books! Got an early start from the state park, well early for me anyway, since there was rain in the forecast for the afternoon. Made pretty good time up until about noon. After that it was pretty rough going. Michigan¢s hills are a poor training substitutes for Georgia¢s mountains. Ended up getting up to the shelter at about 2:00, I suppose that¢s not terrible time, but it does work out to 6 hours of hiking to go 7.5 miles. Fixed dinner early, just in case it started to rain, but I think I¢ll hang on to my food bag in case I feel the need for a snack later. The Springer Shelter is big; it even has a loft space. Everyone warns that this shelter is likely to be full to capacity, so considering that, plus the fact that the rain would probably encourage more people to hit the shelter early, I had resigned myself to tenting it tonight, especially given my slow pace, but even now at 5:15 there are only 3 of us here. I took over one corner of the loft for all my stuff. It sounds like several people pushed on to Stover Creek, assuming that it would have more room than this one would. I won¢t complain; 3 people in a shelter with room for 12 isn¢t a bad deal at all.According to the inspector gadget watch (as I¢ve come to think of it) it is 52 degrees here, I suspect that it might even be colder than that. Supposed to be in the 30¢s and rain overnight¢¦lets hope the shelter doesn¢t leak.
Date: 2006-03-20
From: Springer Mountain Shelter

To: Hawk Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.4
Weather: moderate rain

Had a wonderful evening at the top of Springer! Tyler built a campfire over in the tent area and invited all of us in the shelter to come over and enjoy. And the best part¢¦ he brought wine too! Now that is the embodiment of the hiker community: he lugged a 5lb, 3 liter pouch of wine up a mountain, just to share it with total strangers. The campfire party consisted of Tyler, Grey Matter, Rush Hour, Transcriber, Skunk, and myself. Since Tyler was kind enough to haul all that wine up the mountain, it was the least we could do to make sure that there wasn¢t any wine to carry back down. Sitting around a campfire with a friendly group, drinking red wine out of Nalgene bottles was just about an ideal first night out. Got a late start¢¦ didn¢t get on the trail until 9:20. Very cold in the morning, 37 degrees by the watch, cloudy, windy, and gray... hey, I thought I left Michigan! Blustery all day, with occasional spitting rain. I seem to have been hiking in slo-mo; it was after 3 by the time I got to the shelter. Given my slowness, and the weather, and the fact that Hawk Mountain only holds 12, it was of course full by the time I rolled in. It started to rain steady just as I got the tarp set up, so I¢ll hold up in here for a while. Hopefully it will let up soon so I can go cook dinner.
Date: 2006-03-21
From: Hawk Mountain Shelter

To: Gooch Gap Shelter
Miles today: 7.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Last night was absolutely, positively, the most miserable night I¢ve spent in the woods. The rain did not let up; in fact it just got colder and windier as the evening went on. Eventually I gave up and cooked in the rain. I¢ve decided that I hate my tarptent. To stay dry you have to pitch it with the foot end into the wind, which is fine if you have a level site, but at Hawk, all the tent spots sloped so that if your feet were up upwind they were also uphill. Sleeping with your feet elevated above your head is a nightmare. A sure-fire migraine in the morning. My solution was to flip around and put my head at the narrow end of the tarp, which puts the roof inches from my face. As it got colder, and rainier, condensation built up on the inside and it didn¢t take long for my bag to be damp, and for me to start shivering. About dusk I gave up and squeezed my way into the shelter. I had to lie crossways, at everyone else¢s feet. Whenever the wind blew hard I got misted but it was still better then the tarp.On the plus side, sleeping like that meant that I got woken up at first light. I was on trail by 7:15. Made it here at Gooch by 2:00. Would have been sooner but my left knee was giving me serious trouble on the down hills. I¢ll load up on the Motrin tonight, and hopefully it will be happier in the morning. It was super fogy most of the day, but gradually cleared up as I got closer to the shelter. Even saw the sun for a bit this afternoon. Two last bits for tonight, one good and one bad. The good was that Stones found my headlamp that I left in the Hawk Mountain Shelter and carried it all the way here to return it to me: that¢s the second but of hiker kindness in as many days. The bad bit: I stopped in Cooper Gap to call home and learned that my Grandmother died Sunday morning. It wasn¢t unexpected, but I feel terrible that I am not able to be home with my family during this.
Date: 2006-03-22
From: Gooch Gap Shelter

To: A.T. Hiker Hostel, Dahlonega, Ga
Miles today: 5.0

26 degrees at dawn this morning! Had to break up the ice in the water bottle in order to fix breakfast. But at least the sun was out. Not a cloud in the sky for most of the day. The plan last night was to get up early and push out the 12 miles to the Woods Hole Shelter. Got up early enough, but it quickly became clear that my knee had no intention of going that far. So instead I hobbled along to Woody Gap. Ended up hitching a ride in to the hostel here with A.U., Skunk, and Souljoy, in the back of a tiny little pickup truck. Quite a ride down the mountain. The hostel here is amazing. Beautiful house, comfy bunk beds, and it¢s run by some of the friendliest people you¢re likely to ever meet. The hot shower alone made my knee feel 100% better. I¢ve already decided to stay a second night to give my knee a full day of off-trail rest.
Date: 2006-03-23
From: A.T. Hiker Hostel, Dahlonega, Ga.

To: A.T. Hiker Hostel, Dahlonega, Ga
Miles today: 0.0

Big fat zero day today. Got up, ate breakfast, and basically lounged around all day. I did manage to sort through my pack though, and pulled out about a pound of stuff to dump out. Every little bit helps, right? Skunk and Souljoy, with the advice of Josh and Paul at the hostel, lost a combined 11lbs out of their packs. Pretty impressive, but skunk is still carrying more than I am, even though she weighs just a little more than half my weight. Back on the trail tomorrow, going to break the 11 miles in to Neel¢s Gap into two days, just to rest the Knee.
Date: 2006-03-24
From: A.T. Hiker Hostel, Dahlonega, G

To: WoodÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Hole Shelter
Miles today: 6.9
Weather: overcast clouds

24 degrees, at 2PM, snow on the ground, windy, with 2¢ more snow forecast for overnight. Sorry for the short post, but it is damn cold. Knee hurts, but is better for having been rested. Big ascent and decent of Blood Mountain tomorrow. That will be the big test for the knee.
Date: 2006-03-25
From: WoodÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Hole Shelter

To: Bull Gap Campsite
Miles today: 4.8

Big event for the day was the ascent and the descent of Blood Mountain, the highest A.T. peak in Georgia at 4450 feet. Didn¢t feel too bad, even after the steep drop into Neel¢s Gap. Got into there around noon, and just sort of hung around the Walasi-Yi Outdoor Center there for a couple of hours. Ate a couple of hotdogs, drank a coke, made some phone calls home. Felt really nice to just kick back and do nothing for a bit. I upgraded my tent while I was there too. Sent the tarptent home, and replaced it with a Big Agnes SL1. It works out to be just 2oz. heavier than the tarp, nest, and ground cloth combined were, but is much more weather proof. On the way out of Neel¢s Gap I put the pack on the scale: 36lbs., with food to Hiawassee and half a sack of water. Not bad¢¦ we¢re getting there. On a weather note: this was the coldest morning yet at 18 degrees inside the shelter, with a dusting of snow. Too cold to cook breakfast, just packed the gear and started walking to get warm. Was hiking through 3¢ of snow by the time I got to the Summit of Blood. Pushed on past Neel¢s Gap to the first campsite. Thought I might as well cut a little distance out of tomorrow¢s long day, plus it stops me from wasting more money on a hostel night. Was kind of hoping Skunk and Souljoy would press on this far, just so I would have someone to camp with, but it looks like the lure of hot showers and clean beds was too much for them. Can¢t blame them¢¦its¢ going to be cold and windy here.
Date: 2006-03-26
From: Bull Gap Campsite

To: Low Gap Shelter
Miles today: 9.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Had a great night in the new tent. It was at least 15 degrees warmer in the tent than it was outside. Even still it was only 29 degrees in the tent. Longest hike yet today. Shouldn¢t have done it really, given how my knee was feeling this morning. I¢ve decided not to write about my damn knee anymore so this won¢t just be an unbearably whiny journal, but lets just say that after a pretty good day yesterday things have taken a turn for the worst. I think a hospital visit is on tap for Hiawassee. Tenting tonight, hoping to be warmer then in the shelter.
Date: 2006-03-27
From: Low Gap Shelter

To: Low Gap Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Oh my what an interesting 24 hours. About 5:30 Skunk comes in to camp, looking more than a bit frazzled. Surprised that heck outta me, I was sure that they wouldn¢t try the 10+ miles out of Neel¢s Given Souljoy¢s hiking speed. Skunk is a much stronger hiker then Souljoy is, so their pattern of late has been for Skunk to hike on ahead, get to their planned destination, set up camp, and wait for Souljoy to arrive. Well last night the inevitable happened: they picked a destination that Souljoy couldn¢t reach. Skunk waited and waited, and eventually hiked back south with Marshall 3 miles in the dark with headlamps, looking for her with no luck, they couldn¢t find her. They returned to the shelter way after dark, and Skunk suffered through what must have been a very long night alone in their tent. To be honest, I didn¢t sleep well either. I kept finding myself looking off down towards the south. Souljoy was pretty well equipped: sleeping bag, food, stove, first aid kit, plus she¢s a tough girl who knows how to take care of herself, so there was little real danger, but knowing that does little to stop the worry. In the morning Skunk and I backtracked south a few miles until we ran into a couple of guys who had an update on Souljoy. She was fine of course, and had spent the night up on Wildcat Mountain with them and a couple of other hikers, one of whom had room for her in his two-man tent. Hiker kindness, it never fails to amaze. They said that she was on her way north to Low Gap. Relieved, Skunk and I returned to the shelter to wait for her to arrive. It was a simply a perfect afternoon weather wise, so we took advantage of the idle time by doing some much needed chores: We made a huge lunch ¢ a Double Batch of Mac-N-Cheese and tuna, washed laundry with water from the creek, and generally lazed around enjoying the sunshine and the rare quiet of an empty camp. About 2:00 Jesse, the hiker that had given Souljoy tent space for the night before, arrived at Low Gap. The news was not good. The first bad sign was that he was carrying Souljoy¢s portion of the gear that she and Skunk shared. Souljoy had decided to bail out at the Gap and hitch in to Hiawassee, and had asked Jesse to catch up to Skunk and give her the gear she would have to have to carry on the hike on her own. Not a good sign, not a good sign at all. The new plan for the improvised Skunk-Trusty team is to bust ass up to Hiawassee to see what is up with Souljoy. It¢s 26 miles, which should be 3 plus days at our typical pace, but we are going to try to do it in two. My knee is not going to like this plan I think. I¢ve already decided that I¢m checking in to the hospital when we get there, so it just has to hold together till then. In some anti-logic sort of way working the knee real hard before it is examined almost makes sense. Sorta like making sure your car actually acts up when you bring it in to the mechanic.
Date: 2006-03-28
From: Low Gap Shelter

To: Cheese Factory Site
Miles today: 13.0

Big day of hiking today, highest mileage day yet. We¢re making a big push to be in Hiawassee tomorrow night, so Skunk can hook up with Souljoy at the hostel and see what the future holds for their team ¢ hike. A 12.5 mile hike tomorrow should get us there.I¢m pretty beat, so this won¢t be much of an entry.Two items of note: I saw a BEAR! Up on Blue Mountain, in the clouds. He was about 15¢ off the trail, making an awful racket with something under a log. He didn¢t even realize (or at least acknowledged) that I was there. Snapped a couple of pictures of him before quietly moving on. Heard from Anthony later it is a yearling cub that has been frequenting the area for a couple of weeks. Second item of note for the day : Skunk and I received some very nice trail magic at Union Gap. A local named Anthony and his little daughter were there in the parking lot with a mini-van full of hiker goodies. Said he was just out ¢doing Christ¢s work¢ bringing comfort to the weary hikers. A can of coke, a bag of chips, and a couple of Little Debbie snack cakes made for an excellent snack. Just what we needed before the climb up Rocky Mountain.