morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2006-03-20
From: Hogback Ridge Shelter

To: Bald Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I woke up this morning and saw "Hit" and "Miss" at our shelter, it was 7am - geez, now there are some go-getters. Next, Guns shows up and says he saw Braveheart, said he didn't seem too happy and that he nwas was ahead of me - great. So I packed up, ate, and sped up to hopefully catch my buddy. After about 3 miles, I spotted him under a bridge sitting down where the trail crosses - finally the man has returned. Knowing Braveheart, I knew that he would be upset to say the least due to his perspectivethat he had encourtered for the past 6 days. But when I met up with him and explained my side of the story he was very understandable. It seems that we stayed about 6 miles apart for the past 5 days. When I stopped, he stopped. When I moved he moved. When I planned the day we would meet up, someone would give him wrong information. That weird chain of events makes me believe that all this was God's doing. Like we had something to learn that could only be learned apart from each other.For me, it was that I have a deep wound in me. I was chastized my freshmen year in high school, becoming the lowest of the low, no friends, no support, nothing, all due to my belief in God and I told people I was a Christian. At lunch time, a time where kids love talking about whatever and just messing around, I sat at the "loser table" with a parapaligic, a kid from Vietnam, and a black kid with a hip disorder. We had no friends, no social life, nothing. We were losers. We sat at that table every lunch time, eating our food, heads down as if there was something to discover under that pile of mashed potatoes. It was at that table that my would grew deep and scarred me severly: I would for the next 10 years be afraid of sharing my faith because I didn't want to end up back at that "table", dead inside. But now, I'm due for some spiritual surgery, the laser kind, and it's time to bust open that wound and let it heal the right way under watch from God: It's time to find the Message that is inside of me.Anyways, we hiked 10 miles today because ti was just nasty out, snow and sleet. Isn't today the first day of spring or something? So we made it to the shelter and called it a day. I can't wait to get to town tomorrow, everything I have is wet. I hate cold weather! And I hate being wet! Tonight I'm using my tent fly as a tarp to hopefully block some of the wind. I hate snow, wetness, and cold - I'm moving to the desert. But even there the nights are cold, DOH!!!blueberry tart, blueberry oatmeal with gorp---pop-tart, bread and peanut butter---pop-tart, ramen noodles - chicken x2, cheesey mashed potatoes, jambolya rice
Date: 2006-03-21
From: Bald Mountain Shelter

To: Miss Jannette's Place
Miles today: 16.9

Cold, wet, and 17 miles away from town. Oh, and let's not froget the wonderful blisters I have. I put on my last bit of dry clothes, my reserves, which would soon be soaked too. So we got the heck out of there and blaster our way to town. What a miserable day. We had to hike in snow, then slush, then mud, all the way down to town. Once in town I was finally able to relax. Having practically froze to death trying to eat lunch on the mountain, warm town was a nice change. Some guy saw us and stopped to give us a ride to the post office, where Keri sent me another letter and then to Miss Jannette's Hiker Hostel. Once there, we showered up and put on some old clothes they keep there for hikers to use. Then we headed to McDonald's for an early dinner, before real dinner. We decided to make it interesting so I grabbed a hott pink robe to wear with my cord pants and patriotic shirt, and Braveheart looked like a weird combination of a business man and a cowboy. I assure you the people at McDonald's were more than caught off guard. It was all fun, until trying to get a hitch back tot he hostel in the freezing rain. No one would pick us two idiots up. so we grabbed some trash bags to wear and then was about to walk to the hostel when a couple saw us and gave us a ride, turning out to be the hostel's neighbors. Dinner was made by Bruno, which was awesome!!! I talked with everyone most of the night, and even got to talk to mom and Keri - ahhh...I love her. Such a wonderful woman. I also got an email from dad saying he is ready to come up and hike with me when I let him know. He better be ready for 16 mile days. Bed time now, I'm so tired.blueberry oatmeal with gorp---peanut butter and bread---double cheeseburger x3 - McDonald's---brushetta, noodles and sauce, prunes wrapped in bacon, winter warmer by harpoon, mexican beer in a red can
Date: 2006-03-22
From: Miss Jannette's Place

To: Library
Miles today: 0.0

Messages...Ed Wright - Holy cow man, I can't believe we missed you! That would have been so awesome to meet you. You've been such a help to me on the trail so far, maybe some other time. And it would have been great to get some of that phantom trail magic too, lol.Keri - You are amazing. You are wonderful. You are captivating. I love you. Thank you so much for everything you do for me while I'm out here on this trail. Everyday I wish I could run the trail and finish so I can see you again. You are prescious to me, thanks for being my girl.Kaeli - Hope you got the letter and you are reading that book. If you aren't, I'm going to beat you up, through the internet. Then you'll have to tell all your friends that your brother beat you up through the internet, somehow.Mrs. Gamrot - Thank you so much for the gift of support I received. I am so blessed. That is always a part of my prayers and I just wanted to let you know that you helped answer that prayer.Koinalelos - You best be ripping down some walls by now. I hear J.J. makes a great battering ram.Dad - I just got the email that you sent about coming to hike with me. I have no idea when a good time is yet. I'm thinking some place in Virginia because it is suppose to be easier. I hope you have light weight in your pack, some good trecking poles, some good boots that are already broken in, and the ability to go about 20 miles a day with all that on your back. If you are, I can't wait to have ya up here! LOL. It'll be fun so I'll give ya a call soon.Gus and the Wilde family - Thank you so much for taking us in while we were at your house, it was truly a blessing to us.Cindy, Don, and Allison - You guys are awesome, and your family is constantly in my prayers. Please keep me updated with everything. You all are prescious to us.Lindsay Hebert- Thanks for the message, it was a huge encouragement just to hear from you. I'll try hard to find your husband out here for ya.T-Lar - I hope everything is kickin' butt with your "situation". Also, get my cleats from that there boyfriend of yours!
Date: 2006-03-22
From: Miss Janete's Place

To: Curley Maple Gap Shelter
Miles today: 4.2
Weather: clear sky

Staying up late and waking up early don't mix like they used to when I was younger, haha. But it is a small sacrifice that I'm definitely willing to make if that means talking to the girlfriend. So I felt tired this morning. Ok, big deal. Breakfast was cool. Janet made us go around and say something interesting about ourselves. I don't know why but I couldn't come up with anything, maybe because I was tired. Either that or I hate talking about myself. After breakfast, Braveheart and I went to the library to work on our trailjournals so those that keep up with us can get their weekly fix. After that, it was the famous "3 blocks" to Food Lion which was more like 12 blocks, to get food for the next leg of hiking. After that we got a hitch back to Miss Janet's, and then to the famed "Elms's Diner" for this huge hamburger we kept hearing about. So the place was you typical Mom & Pop Diner and we took our seat at the bar, I like how bar stools feel at a diner. so we ordered and waited. I remember it clearly, I was in mid sentence when I saw it. It was massive. The vixon brought us Kings two planks of meat from the biggest animal in the lands. Ok, this burger was one foot in diameter and had to weigh 3 lbs. It took a loaf of bread to be used as the bun. We were in awe. Shocked. And we ate it like animals, cramming our faces with charred flesh. It was a heavenly experience. Our waitress couldn't believe we ate the whole thing. So after we finished and thanked the chef with a standing ovation, we hurried back to Miss Janet'sfor the bathroom was calling...more like yelling. Relieved, we packed up and said bye to everyone. Katlyn was sad to see us go, I think she favored Braveheart and I. So Miss Janet took us to the bridge where we would start our hike 4 miles to the shelter...and we started at 7:30pm - geez. Miss Janet blessed Braveheart and I in a way I can't describe, but it brought me to tears for sure. God has been doing that a lot lately. So we hiked through the night and then arrived at our shelter.OJ, biscuts & gravy - Miss Janet---pizza slice x2, Elm Street Burger - Elm's Diner---packet of crackers x2
Date: 2006-03-23
From: Curley Maple Gap Shelter

To: Clyde Smith Shelter
Miles today: 21.0
Weather: broken clouds

Dang that was a cold night sleep. It was in the 20's for sure. So apparently I lost one of my crocs some place between Erwin and the shelter. The guys that shared the shelter with us agreed to send it to my home address if they found it so my prayer is that they do. Hiking today...sucked! Not only did we buy too much food making our packs so much heavier, but the terrain was ridiculous. It was filled with rolling hills. It was as if we were teleported back to GA for the day, I mean it was tough! But regardless, we are young strapping men and achieve the impossible again and again. And I might add that we did arrive to our shelter at 7:30pm but who cares. We both thought that we had passed the shelter in the dark because we thought at one point we were .7 miles from Greasy Creek Gap with it was indeed 1.9 miles. So I pretty much thought that if I speed walked 1 mile that I could get there to the shelter in 15 minutes. 40 minutes later I found the shelter. So tonight we did our Fajita Feast and boy it was good. Our moms would have been proud. the guys that were here already at the shelter got a fire going before we got in so that was nice. Another big day tomorrow so time to hit the hay.
Date: 2006-03-24
From: Clyde Smith Shelter

To: Miss Janet's Hiker Hostel
Miles today: 7.9

Sleeping last night was amazing! I almsot went the whole night without waking up which would have been a first. But, as I'm learning out here, that when something good happens weather wise, in this case it was being warm, then something terribly aweful must happen to counter the good - which is what we woke up to: 4 inches of snow everywhere and it was still coming down at a good rate. Wonderful. Perfect timing too because today we had to climb Roan Mountain which climbs 2,000 feet in 2 miles. Now we get to do it in ice an snow - sweet! I always love slipping and falling on sharp, cold rocks. It's one of my favorite things. So that is what we had coming. So we headed off. It took us 4 hours to go 7 miles and summit Roan Mountain. I, as well as Bauman, was glad to be done with that section for sure. So next we went to the shelter and ate lunch. The shelter was like a log cabin with a door and everything and very welcoming as it offered a warmer environment and shelter from the icey hell that was outside. But, although warmer, it was still like a large refrigerator, so we started to die as we ate lunch. It was at that point, cold, wet, and dieing that we understood that we needed to get out of this weather ASAP. Lucky for us there was a road a mile up. Well for starters we couldn't get service, and when we finally did Miss Janet wasn't home. Crap. So we called her daughter who for some reason put her number in Braveheart's cell phone. Bingo. the daughter, Katlyn, answered and began to hunt down her mom, wherever she was. In the mean time I called Sam to see if he could be our plan B. Finally we get word that Miss janet can come and get us...but it is going to be 2 hours of driving to ge to us. Crap. At this point the wind is a constant 20 mph with blinding snowfall, we are dieing. Cold does not do justice to the sensation my body was experienceing. God was providing for us though. When we needed cell phone service we'd pray and poof we got service. He also provided someone to let us sit in his SUV for a while to warm up. That same person even took us a bit down the mountain and we met up with Miss Janet as she was coming to get us. If that SUV wasn't there I'm sure we would have been seriously hurting. Thank you God for providing! Miss Janet saw how bad we looked and bought us each a coffee which helped so much. Then we went to Lowe's to pick out some light for her kitchen. Dinner was pick-up of Little Caesar's where we go 2 large pizzas for the price of one with 2 free crazy breads - all because they were going to throw them away. At the hostel there were 20 people total. So many that Jolly Green Giant, Mrs. Gorp, Braveheart, and I had to go to the overflow apartment which was 3 blocks away. What a day. I don't ever want to almost die again.chocolate and bluebery muffins---tuna fillet on tortilla x2, honey on tortilla x2---large pepperoni, crazy bread - little caesar's
Date: 2006-03-26
From: Miss Janet's Hiker Hostel

To: Pastor Philip Rogers' House
Miles today: 0.0

We went over to the house to get breakfast only to find out that all of it was eaten. Dang. So Miss Janet took the van and went to McDonald's to get the 4 of us breakfast. Josh Rogers, son of the Pastor of the church we were going to go to, arrived and waited for us at the hostel. Soon enough breakfast had arrived and we were off to Edneville Church of Christ.It is a very nice chruch with awesome people. So many people came up to us and talked with us. After Sunday school, Josh, the Pastor, and the youth Pastor took us to Pizza Hut for lunch. We ate so much at the buffet. I'm sure they lost money on our visit. All these hungry guys filling their faces, it was beautiful. So tonight was suppose to get down to the low 20's and tomorrow is suppose to be warm and sunny, so we took the Pastor's offer and decided to take a zero day and stay at this house and then leave tomorrow.Braveheart and I sharaed a room and a small bed. I don't know what it is but we can share a tent, floor space, or whatever, but a bed is always a bit weird. So we both napped until class and evening service. After the service the family took us to Wendy's for dinner, only to find out that they were out of hamburgers - wow. So we ate our food and enjoyed the company. The Pastor's wife, Mia, is a hoot.So we got back home and the Pastor and Braveheart went to the hot tub and I just jammed on the guitar for a bit, trying to rock out to the Eagles greatest hits cd. I was able to play Josh's Washburn guitar that had an awesome sound! It was hand made from fire maple and had turle shell inlay.Finally I got bored and hit the internet. I was able to talk to some people for a while, specifically A-Rod. It was just a great conversation altogether and en encouragement for sure. Finally around 1am I went to bed.Oh! Random people from the church just walked up to us and gave us money, a total of $30.00! Amen! I think they were worried for us, especially the moms.McGriddle, egg McMuffin - McDonald's---pizza buffet - Pizza Hut---large chili, spicy chicken combo upsized - Wendy's
Date: 2006-03-27
From: Pastor Philip Rogers' House

To: Overmountain Shelter
Miles today: 5.0
Weather: few clouds

The Pastor dropped us off at Hardee's for breakfast while he went out and ran some errands. It was sunny and warm out so we looked forward to hiking. When he got back, we loaded up the Pastor's car and headed for Carver's Gap.When we got there we said goodbye and thanked him so much, and then started off our hike, only problem was there was snow everywhere and it was deep, very deep. We hiked in at least 1 foot of snow all day and up to 4 feet at times. Needless to say, hiking was very slow. It took 4.5 hours to go about 5 miles - that's so slow for us. It was miserable! And of course my boots are soaked again. I guess at least the good news is that it wasn't snowing on us.So we came across some guys from Auburn and one of them hiked the A.T. in '04 and his name was "Rocky". He was walking trailmagic as he gave us both 3 packs of Reesee's cups - sweet!So tonight we are stopping at Overmountain shelter because we are bushed from blazing the trail today. The shelter is an old barn that the overmountain men used during the revolutionary war.pancakes, biscuts, bacon - Hardee's---tuna on tortilla x2---pop-tarts, donut stick
Date: 2006-03-28
From: Overmountain Shelter

To: Bob People's Hiker Hostel
Miles today: 8.7

I pretty much slept from 3:30pm yesterday to 9am today and I feel sooooo much better. Braveheart and I went slow this morning in hopes that someone would leave ahead of us and break trail for us through the snow. Finally, the group from Auburn took off around 10am, so we left around 10:45am.Let me tell you something: I hate snow. If I never see it again I would be so very happy. Snow is definitely a result of the fall, because I assure you that Adam and Eve weren't prancing around named in this crap.We caught up to the Auburn group at the first of two balds. Rocky seemed like the only on that wasn't hurting from the hiking. The rest of the guys were whipped. It reminded me of our first days on the trail, how those seem so long ago. What a way to spend spring break. So they broke for lunch and we continued on to the next balk which was even bigger and no one hand blazed the trail since the snowfall so hiking was very slow through there. The sniper was out in full swing as we found ourselves falling numberous amounts of times due to not being able to see the surface under the deep snow, at some places a foot deep. I also learned that my boots have pretty much seen their days. They were three years old and have seen a lot of use and so my search begins for a new pair so that is my prayer and I know God will come through because he says he clothes the lillys of the field and will do much more for us. I'm excited to see how that turns out.So we arrived to the last shetler before the road, where we planned on getting picked up to go to Bob People's hiker hostel, and found a sign for trail magic left by Dragon Slayer and Wildcat! It was for today and from noon - 4pm and was located .5 miles away at the road - it was 3pm at that time - we rejoiced. I'm sure youcould hear us yelling "Thank you Jesus" the whole way.When we got there we were greeted by a car loaded with food and Dragon Slayer '04 - a girl. Come to find out that she got the name because when she hiked she didn't want guys hunter her down from when she would sign shelter ledgers. She was a very nice person, full of excitement to see us, we were the only people she had seen all day. So we ate then got a ride up to the hostel.the hostel was a very nice place and we had it all to ourselves. We hitched a ride to town with Bob's wife and went to dinner and then to Walmart for groceries. When we got home I was able to talk to Keri which is always good. then it was time for a late night snack, then off to bed. Tomorrow I'm going to slack pack for the first time and all of me hates to do it. But there is no shelter for the next 20+ miles and the conditions have been bad the past few days. I don't want to do it but it makes sense. I feel like part of myself is dieing.poptart, donut stick---chips, soda, cheese cake - Dragon Slayer---super enchilladas - Amigos---ramon noodles x2, tuna on tortilla
Date: 2006-03-29
From: Bob People's Hiker Hostel

To: Bob People's Hiker Hostel
Miles today: 23.8

Sleep was so sweet, like a rock. Bob came and got us to take us to our starting point. We also picked up Dreamer from another hostel. We plan on going about 23.8 miles today and make it back to the hostel for the night.So I didn't slack pack, I couldn't do it. I had al my stuff scattered everywhere and it would have been so much easier to just take what I needed for the day and leave everything else at the hostel because we were coming back that night, but I couldn't do it - and it sucked! Maybe it was because today would have been my biggest hiking day yet or that I hadn't slack packed yet, I don't know. Regardless, I couldn't do it and didn't, and it made all the difference. Actually it didn't. I didn't feel like I was slow at all today.So today was the first day of the entire trip that we have had good weather. It was beautiful, a crisp 60 degrees, no wind, barely any clouds, and a day full of sunshine. The morning hike was rather easy, which is never good because what have we learned - that whenever something good happens then something terrible must come in its place. And this something terrible was a ton of uphill and rolling hills after our nice lunch by the water. On top of that, nothing was marked so we never knew where we were or how far we had hiked, and that was extremely frustrating. Many, many, many bad things were said, I repented.It was a terrible feeling with nothing around us to give you a bearing. All there were was the white blazes, leading you somewhere else. Isn't that how it is sometimes, we follow the footprints of Jesus and everything is cool until it all hits the fan and you find yourself in the valley of death, no way out, and no way to tell how long you'll be in there for. The only thing you have is more footprints which is, from what you've learned and have been told, will lead you to safety. It is at that moment when we don't have control or a complete schedule of events that we all lose our faith, blow our Christianity, and become this six headed monster of frustration and worry and doubt...awe, what a lovely sight. The feeling is quite hectic but it is all brought upon us by ourselves, so it is all quite a pointless show. We should have just taken that smart man's advice when he said do not worry.Anyways, we finished out the hike at night. We did get spooked a bit by a pair of glowing eyes that my headlamp illuminated. We hurried past them very quickly, plus the old shack of a shelter was giving me too much of a Blaire Witch vibe. It was good to be back at the hostel, and there were 4 others here tonight.Oh! I lost my beanie at Laurel Fork so hopefully those guys find it tomorrow when they do that section. I will miss that brown, Transnine beanie. I loved it very much....tah tah.corn flakes---tuna on tortilla x2, honey on tortilla---mexican rice, stuffing