morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2021-09-12
From: Stecoah Gap

To: Nantahala River
Miles today: 13.9
Weather: scattered clouds

Had another restful night at the Hike Inn after enjoying a replay of birthday cake and ice cream with Nancy on the front porch of her home. Quiksilver and I sat and chewed the fat with her for an hour, enjoying the cool evening temps and mountain air. We also enjoyed the state police ticketing motorcyclists driving like aggressive idiots all afternoon. Back the Blue!  The one down note from yesterday evening was watching Quiksilver struggle in the wake of his birthday on Saturday. He¢s having trouble when going out to eat trying to decide if the early bird special or a regular menu item with the senior discount is a better deal. Tragic dilemma, you don¢t want to make the call.  You really have to feel for the old fella.  Nancy drove us back up to Stecoah Gap at 8 so we could hike on. She really runs a great hiker hotel - she actually only serves hikers, not the general traveling public. Doing this as she has for 28 years, she knows hikers and what they need. She goes out of her way to make sure you have what you need and her thru hiker deal includes laundry and trips into town for food and resupply. And she¢s super nice. Hard combo to beat!Back on trail, we had a 2000 foot climb up to Cheoah Bald over the first five miles. I have to say we did pretty well for one senior citizen and one middle-aged guy.  (Full disclosure: the senior citizen did reach the summit first.) There were great views to the south and East from the partially clear bald. Just before we had reached the top, we came across an apparently abandoned duffle bag sitting trail side. It's always a bit disconcerting to find gear on the trail or at a shelter. Why was it left?  Where is the owner?  Should we be concerned? Quiksilver called out a few times to see if the owner might be nearby or in need of help, but got no response. I can tell you, for the next mile I kept glancing back over my shoulder to make sure I wasn¢t being stalked. As we started downhill, we passed to NOBO section hikers and as always, we were pleased to see them. Seeing hikers coming towards you means the spider webs will be cleared from the trail for a while. This is welcome!  I mean, great to meet people too, sure. But let¢s remember what¢s important!We arrived at the Nantahala Outdoor Center just after 1pm and it was a zoo. The NOC is right on the Nantahala river and is a center for rafting, kayaking, canoeing, scenic train rides, and a major AT crossing. We were able to get a room in the Dogwood Hotel for the next two nights. It¢s a small room with two beds and shared bathrooms and common areas with about 9 other rooms. We will be taking a zero here tomorrow, as we try to balance hiking miles while targeting a September 23rd finish date in Georgia. Quiksilver and I are on the same page that we¢d rather hike more miles and maybe take an additional zero versus limiting daily miles over the next fortnight. We¢ll wait and see how it works out!
Date: 2021-09-13
From: Nantahala River

To: River side
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Last night we sat and watched some football with another guest here at the hotel. His trail name is Salamander and he thru hiked the trail back in 1993 when he was 20. Turns out, he¢s from Grand Rapids, Mi. We asked him lots of questions about life on the trail pre-cell phones and how they figured out resupply and the like. He also told us he took 26 straight zero days at Rusty¢s Hard Times Hollow - wow!  I showed him pictures and videos from my stay at Rusty¢s back in April. He said it really hasn¢t changed much. As usually happens when I¢m not sleeping in the woods, I couldn¢t get to sleep until 11pm last night. This doesn¢t bother me that much, but it will catch up to me when I get back to hiking. We had signed up for whitewater rafting today at 10am as a zero-day distraction and mosied down to the center after 9. They set us up with life jackets and had us watch an instructional video before getting on the bus for the 15 minute drive up to the drop in spot. Quiksilver and I shared a raft with a three person family who were on a short trip before their son goes back to college next week. The mom and dad were originally from Taiwan and i think if I hike another 5 months I might meet someone from every country on the planet. It also turned out our guide grew up in Ionia, Mi before embarking on a career as a river guide. Yes: I¢ve met a lot of former Michigangsters on this hike as well. The trip we took was pretty tame with one class three area and one class two area but was fun nonetheless and there were lots of great views of the mountains rising on either side of the river. All in all, an enjoyable two hours on the water.I spent the afternoon catching up on my photo-video project as I hadn¢t put together any daily summaries in over a month.  I also spent some time finalizing our hiking itinerary for the last 10 days (lord willing) of the trail.  It looks like we¢ll need to take one more zero this coming Sunday, but will be spending the next three nights camping on the trail.  The weather is going to be turning rainy starting Wednesday, but temps above 4000 feet should be in the upper 60¢s during the day and around 60 at night.  We¢re both eager to get back hiking tomorrow and as you might expect when leaving a river/gorge area, we¢re going to be doing some climbing.Thanks again to all of you reading along with me, it does mean a lot to me to know that you¢re out there and I hope that I¢ve been able to entertain you just a bit!
Date: 2021-09-15
From: Wayah Shelter 

To: Long Branch Shelter 
Miles today: 18.3
Weather: few clouds

We were up well before dawn with the plan to hike the mile up to the Wayah Bald Tower to try and catch the sunrise from the observation deck. Our plan worked, as the clouds and rain held off long enough for us to spend an hour at the summit, watching the sun slowly reveal itself and light the sky on fire. What an incredible start to the day. Hiking away from Wayah, Quiksilver and I slowly separated and did our own thing. We generally have a pre-selected rally point anywhere from 12 to 15 miles up trail where whoever is in front will stop and wait for the other. We do this just to make sure that if one of us has an issue, the other isn¢t too far ahead. Today we picked the Rock Gap shelter as our rally point. We met two more trail maintainers there as they did privy work and then we decided to stay on-plan and hike another 4 miles to our target shelter.This was one of those hiking days (after the sunrise) that was pretty monotonous and low energy. Not everyday is filled with ¢wow!¢ moments or hiker-highs. It¢s on days like these that I need to mindfully appreciate the trail. It¢s still amazing that I¢ve been blessed to attempt this thru hike and that I¢ve managed to avoid major injury. Getting the opportunity to meet other hikers and members of the trail community is always rewarding. I met 6 different hikers today doing NOBO section hikes that started at Springer, and each conversation I had recharged my batteries just a bit.We rolled into camp a little after two, normally it was a bit soon to call it a day, but with rain moving in we took the opportunity to set up before it got wet. Finding a tree to do a bear hang was difficult but after nearly maiming myself by knocking over a dead tree, I managed to find an adequate tree limb for the purpose. I was done with dinner by 4 and hung my food and smellables.  A short while later No Bad made it in and he told us he¢d booked a bed at the Around the Bend hostel in Hiawasse for Friday night. So we¢ll get a chance to perhaps go out to dinner with him before he moves on to his planned summit day of the 12th. There are six other hikers here besides we thru hikers as we all listen to the falling rain. Tomorrow we are hoping to do our last 20 mile day and hike to the Muskrat Shelter. That would leave us with a short day Friday into Hiawassee and a chance to dry out.  Early Thursday morning we¢ll cross the 100 miles to go mark. This is fine.
Date: 2021-09-17
From: Muskrat Creek Shelter 

To: DickÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Creek Gap
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: light rain

It was a dark and stormy night.No, not a hackneyed opening for a horror story, just a straight news report about last night. The rain started again around 8 and was steady until about 5 am. I roused a little after six and executed another successful wet pack up by 6:45. Then we milled around the shelter and waited for enough light to begin hiking. Had another pleasant chat with the boys from Charlotte and wished them well on their section hike. Shortly after hiking out the rain began again, but the ¢green umbrella¢ - so named by Quiksilver - kept the worst of the water up in the forest canopy and we dealt with the drips down below. We were cloud walking once again, so there were no sweeping vistas to take in, just lush, green, soaking wet terrain. I had donned my hiking kilt to reduce some of the hiker-car wash affect from the overgrown trail sections. Once again, I looked quite fetching. We had a relatively short 11.8 mile day planned but with plenty of moguls and PUD¢s to grapple with. We hoped to knock out this section by noon and then walk the half mile to the hostel. I happened to check the Guthook app at 10:30 and saw we had exactly 3.1 miles to go - a 5k!  I got a little fired up and decided to try and finish in less than an hour.  I activated my version of ¢Quiksilver mode¢ and started hoofing it. We still had two climbs to negotiate, but I had a purpose. Off we went. And got to the road at 11:25. Pointless victories are my specialty!We walked to the Hostel Around the Bend (Quiksilver still insisting on walking on the wrong side of the road) and within 30 minutes I had showered, had my clothes in the wash, and a frozen pizza in the oven. This is a really nice place with great owners. We¢re going to town shortly for resupply and hit a restaurant and then back here for the night. We plan on an early start tomorrow for the 17 miles we plan to hike. Like pumpkin spice this time of year, we¢ll have more unwanted moguls to contend with.  This is fine.
Date: 2021-09-18
From: DickÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Creek Gap

To: Unicoi Gap
Miles today: 16.7
Weather: broken clouds

Had a great night at the really well run Hostel Around the Bend. The owners Lisa and Gordon just opened it this past February (it was formerly called Top of Georgia) and they¢ve done a fantastic job remodeling and refreshing a tired property. And it¢s not just a nice place, they are great hosts who really like what they do. A great combination!I was up at 5:45 to drink too much coffee and repack after drying out some gear. I even went crazy and ate breakfast of a sort - three Skippy Peanut Butter individual squeeze packs. Bring on the day!  Lisa gave Quiksilver, No Bad and I a ride back to the trail at 7:30 and we were toes-south and ready to hike. I had looked at the trail profile last night and it had Quiksilver-mode written all over it. Nothing gets his blood running like a long, steady, steep uphill. He was already champing at the bit when we got out of the car. (Obscure reference warning) I felt like The Humongous holding Wez on a chain and as soon as we hit tree line, releasing him to wreak havoc. We wished No Bad well on the last leg of his hike.  Quiksilver was off like a shot. I made a miscalculation by trying to keep on his heels, it only makes him go faster!  I need a more sedate start to my day: one can¢t just jump straight into plodding, one needs to sluff along a bit first. We had four peaks to climb, the third being Tray Mountain at 4398 feet. Halfway up Tray I caught up to and lasted two day hikers who were treating some flash-burns from Quiksilver blowing past them. I commiserated for a moment, then pushed my sweaty-self onwards and upwards. We had planned to meet near the top of Tray and decide if we should move up our 3pm shuttle based on our progress. When I got to the top of Tray: no Quiksilver. He had gone by in a blur. I did finally manage to catch him just past the summit when he stopped to chat with a woman who is planning a 2022 thru hike. We had gotten over the top at 11:30 - some 12 miles. So we contacted our driver and moved up our pickup to 1:30.  I have to tell you: I felt like a hiker today. We were both in a grove and just chewed up at mileage today. We talked about how fortunate we both are to still be physically fresh and mentally engaged with only a few days left in our hike. Today¢s hike was AWESOME. I continue to feel fortunate to have this opportunity to hike and I¢m enjoying every single day out here. John the shuttle driver collected us and drove us to our hotel in Helen, Ga. Helen is a small German-themed town whose big draws are tubing on the Chattahooche River and fake Alpine architecture. It¢s actually a cool little town and they have Oktoberfest weekends all September and October. We¢ll take our final zero here Sunday, enjoying some beers and food. My cousin Lee and his wife live nearby and are coming to town tomorrow to have lunch with us. How cool is that?I¢m hoping to post a rather longish entry tomorrow. Let¢s see if I can make that happen.
Date: 2021-09-19
From: Helen, Ga

To: Helen, Ga
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

When you can¢t sleep on a rainy night, there are worse places to be than a hotel room with college football on the tube until 1 am. Quiksilver and I had a nice evening enjoying the Oktoberfest atmosphere here in Helen and watching tubers get caught on the rocks in the river. A surprisingly high number of people don¢t seem to understand the fundamentals of physics or Newton¢s Laws of motion. But this lack of working knowledge sure does make for solid entertainment!Had some great trail magic today as my cousin Lee Feldpausch, his wife Carol and her mother drove 90 minutes from where they live in Ellijay, Ga to meet us in Helen for lunch - and they graciously picked up the tab!  We spent about two hours with them eating German food, talking home remodeling, family, trail stories, various wildlife encounters, and what to get for dessert.  I hadn¢t seen Lee in quite a while, but it was great caching up and it was a great way to spend time on our last off day.  What a treat!After they headed home, we returned to our hotel to watch some football and I did one more pack shakedown, removing a few pieces of unneeded gear - like two water bottles.  We¢ve got our resupply done as we head out for the last stretch of trail.  There¢s a lot of rain in the forecast through Wednesday but we¢re still exited to get back to it.I continue to feel a tremendous amount of gratitude for everyone who has made it possible for me to tackle this endeavor. My wife for her support and understanding and patience with me when we discussed this AT thru hike and her continued unconditional love.My three children for their humor and supportive messages and excitement in cheering me on.My parents for their weekly Sunday call and the Marriott Hotel points!Sister Sherpa (Laura) for visiting me in New Hampshire and slack packing me all over the granite state.My brother Dennis and his wife Dee for seeming to know when I needed a phone call.My brother Tom for sending me trail related news clips and drafting my Fantasy football team.My niece Rachel for the cool Mt Washington magnet.Lee, Jason, Stephanie, Tressa, Sam and all my wife¢s family who have all been supportive from the start.My friends Mike and Jason for hotel support, LOTS of food delivery, and generally keeping me in line.  Also Jason for driving 27 hours over two days to pick me up in Maine and help me get back home to surprise my wife.Adam, Elaine and Sam Howell - knowing you¢re out there and reading kept me fired up and motivated.Easy, for his Inadvertent New Jersey Challenge and leaving me a surprise package at the last New Jersey road crossing.I¢ve got more people to thank, but I don¢t want to totally jinx myself!  So I¢ll have more to add over the next few days.In the spirit of Oktoberfest¢¦PROST!
Date: 2021-09-21
From: Whitley Gap Shelter

To: Woody Gap
Miles today: 17.69
Weather: broken clouds

Man oh man, did it rain last night. It started at 3:30pm and didn¢t let up until 8 o¢clock this morning, varying between steady rain and downpour. I¢m happy to once again report that I stayed warm and dry for the duration. I¢m sure this has involved some mix of luck and skill (heavy on the luck) for me, but it¢s allowed me to meet my goal of not having to sleep in a shelter during my hike. Huzzah!I didn¢t exactly leap out of my hammock this morning, hoping the rain would abate but this was not to be. So I got up and at it at 6:45 as Quiksilver and I had planned to leave at 7:30. I was only a few minutes late and we took the 1.2 mile trail back to the AT and were SOBO a little after 8:00. The rain stopped about 9 and for a change the weather forecast for the day was incorrect: the heavy rains never came all day and the sun even made a cameo appearance after noon. I¢ve been surprised by the number of section hikers we¢ve seen in Georgia, but apparently this is a very popular time for section hikers to start from Springer and get some miles of trail done. Today I saw another dozen or so, undeterred by the weather (though not happy about it!). You can usually spot a section hiker because they still have a little more gear than your typical thru hiker - though I¢m not judging!We hit Neels Gap where the trail goes right through the Mountain Crossings outfitters. There are many pairs of shoes that have been thrown up into the tree in front of the building by NOBO hikers who quit the trail at this point. We went into the store and I had a hot pocket and two cups of coffee. Aaaahhhhhh¢¦. The guys at the outfitters were very accommodating and just great to talk to. Naturally, one was originally from Michigan and had actually worked as a phone installer years back for the blueberry farms around Holland. I¢ve come to the conclusion that 1/3rd of the people in the US used to live in Michigan.We headed back out just before noon and with a climb up Blood Mountain - which has quite a reputation from NOBOs as it¢s the first 4000 footer on the trail. For us, it was just another 1300 foot climb (slight brag) and our last mountain before Springer. We fairly cruised over the next three hours to Woody Gap where we were getting picked up by Above The Clouds Hostel. When I got to the parking lot I was happily stunned and surprised to see Iceberg walking up to me!  He drove down from Cleveland to hike some of the last miles with us and finish with us at Springer. I can¢t tell you how happy I was to see him and how fired up I am that he¢s going to finish with Quiksilver and I and see the end of our hike like we were able to experience watching him finish at Katahdin. I also got to see Iceberg surprise Quiksilver as he arrived at parking lot and the smile on his face was priceless.So the three of us are staying here at Above the Clouds Hostel tonight and then Quiksilver and I will hike about 17 miles to a shelter 3 miles from Springer. Iceberg will meet us halfway and hike 10 miles and then hike with us up to Springer Thursday morning. So very, very cool.
Date: 2022-01-20
To: Jonesborough, Tennessee
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Hello to anyone still randomly checking in to see if I would ever post again! I know this is just a tad overdue (I was never good at doing anything in college without a panic-inducing deadline - I once wrote a 26 page term paper pulling a 16 hour all-nighter, research included) but I did want to prove my friend Tom G wrong...So, first - a quick life update: On the drive home from Georgia back at the end of September, my Wife and I finally decided to do something we had been contemplating for about three years. Namely, sell our house in Michigan and move to Tennessee to be near the mountains. This was a very difficult decision for us to leave family and friends and strike out into the unknown, as middle-children we have not been known for bold action, but the time just felt right. Moving further from our respective parents and two of our kids has been a tough one and saying goodbye's to all of my close friends at work was difficult, as I had been there for almost a quarter century and truly enjoyed the people I worked with. But as I learned on the trail, you can't do everything. Choosing to do one thing invariably means that you can't do something else. But Jessica and I felt a strong push to make this change while we're both still relatively young enough to get out on the trails and enjoy what the mountains have to offer.I've spent the last 4 months getting the house ready to sell, paring down 29 years of accumulated "stuff" for the move, selling the house, packing up, travelling to Tennessee to look for a place to live, and then unpacking into our temporary rental home before we decide where to drop anchor for a while. I've not spent the last four months writing journal entries - apologies.So we are about 10 miles outside of Jonesborough, Tennessee on the far eastern edge of the state. From our home I'm roughly an hour from the Appalachian Trail in many directions: northeast to Damascus, Virginia. South to Erwin, Tennessee. Southwest to Hot Springs, North Carolina, West to the Smokey Mountain National Park. I'm looking forward to getting back on the trial for some day hikes and overnighters this spring as well as going out from time to time to provide some trail magic the the 2022 AT hikers.I'll be back in the next day or to with a gear review post and some un-asked for advice about hiking the AT.
Date: 2021-04-05
From: Harpers Ferry, WV

To: Blackburn Tent Site
Miles today: 12.3
Weather: clear sky

Day 1! I'm finally doing this! I checked my gear and packed my pack. Then paced (as best I could in a small motel room) anxiously. Then upacked my pack, rechecked all my gear, and packed it all up again. This process repeated until check out time, when I finally put on my pack, checked the room to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything, and headed outside.A very brief walk, and I reach the point where the trail leaves Harpers Ferry and joins US 340. So it begins. The first steps of a 2000 mile journey take me across the Shenandoah on a pedestrian bridge next to the highway. It's a beautiful place to start, the river splashing beneath, the picturesque town of Harpers Ferry to the left, the first climb, Loudoun Heights, looming ahead.Now climbing said heights. It's easier than I thought it would be. I'm breathing heavily, but not out of breath. I can feel the weight of the pack on my joints, but it's not painful. I finish the climb and have a fairly easy time of it along a ridgeline.Lunch is at a road crossing. A quarter mile east is a gas station. I grab lunch, a couple sodas, and a little more food for the journey ahead. I eat lunch at the road crossing. A few miles west is Charles Town. A part of me whispers that I could head that way, I could reach the town by dinner, sleep in a motel, give up this ridiculous endeavor. I resist the voice and head back into the woods, heading south.The rest of the day is uneventful and make a respectable 12 miles to Blackburn, which has tentsites, clean water, and even a spot to charge electronics. I make dinner, eat dinner, set up my tent. I still haven't adjusted to trail life, so I'm having difficulty figuring out what to do during downtime. I make a fire to keep myself occupied until dark, then head to bed.Happiness is a cozy campfire.