morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2014-04-03
From: Neels Gap

To:  Hogpen Gap
Miles today: 6.9

I got up early at Neel's Gap and tried to get my phone charged back up while I walked around and took pictures. It is a neat old place that they lease from the government but could use a few upgrades in the laundry and shower area. They only have one washer and dryer and the dryer is real old and slow. The shower is in the women's rest room which is a bit awkward. The employees are real cool with lots of hiking experience and it was interesting watching them shaking down peoples packs to save them some weight. I upgraded my sleeping pad because I could save over a pound and it packs really small. I also bought a coffee press for the new Jetboil stove that Mike brought and a Powerade to drink so I could save the bottle to replace my big Nalgene bottle. I was able to get rid of my titanium french coffee press which made my camp kitchen bag pack better. You don't need a pot if you can't store anything in it. I shipped these items home along with some extra food. Some of the extra food I shipped to Standing Bear Farm for a food drop after I get through the Smokies. I almost screwed up and put the wrong labels on the two boxes which would have sent my food drop home and some unneeded equipment to the Hostel. Luckily I caught it and we were able to switch the labels. Wasn't able to do laundry so Anthony and I left about 12:30, another late start. It was supposed to rain Friday so we wanted to get some miles in. We hiked with Grizzelle, Dancing Feather, Dawn, and Gilligan for part of the way. Gilligan found a foam pad and cut it into customized butt squares for all of us. We tried to set up camp around 6:00 but there weren't many flat spots for tents, poor place to get water, and no limbs for hanging bear bags. We built a campfire, and had entertainment with people doing handstands and telling lame jokes. We went to bed about 9:00 with the threat of rain tomorrow.
Date: 2014-04-04
From:  Hogpen Gap

To: Unicoi Gap
Miles today: 14.3

Put in our 2nd longest day with the motivation of a hot shower and town food ahead. We left Hogpen Gap at 7:30, not the greatest campsite. It was a long hike taking us about 8 hours but we talked and cracked each other up all day so it went fast. We came off the trail at Unicoi Gap because rain was in the forecast and its still too cold to get soaked. We started out hitch hiking the wrong way but someone got us pointed in the right direction. After a little while a nice elderly gentleman in a Range Rover picked us up. He had AC/DC blasting on his cd player as he sped off down the road to Helen, Georgia.He was a very interesting person to talk to. He collected fast cars and even sold several cars at the famous Barrett- Jackson auctions. He took us right to the hotel and waited until we got a room. It is a quaint German town on the Chatahoochee River. We got a room at the Helendorf River Inn where we had hot showers and went walking around for a place to eat. Anthony and I both had the Octoberfest Special because it had the most food. It was quite tasty and filling. We did laundry when we got back, I had been wearing the same clothes since Sunday. I caught up on some journals and about 10:30 I went across the alley to Wendy's for a 1/4 pound cheeseburger and a loaded bake potato. About 11:00 Anthony, Grizzzelle, Dancing Feather and I were ready for a good nights sleep.
Date: 2014-04-05
From: Unicoi Gap

To: Tray Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 6.9
Weather: overcast clouds

We slept in till 7:45 ( nice beds)and went down for breakfast at the hotel. I hung out at the hotel and did some more journals and aired out my sleeping bag. We packed up our backpacks and checked out about 11:00. We walked to a grocery store for resupply, walked across the street and instantly got a ride back to Unicoi Gap. A nice elderly couple picked us up and seemed to be more thrilled about giving us a ride than we were about getting one. Their names were Ted and Sarah, she took our picture and talked to us about our hike. We experienced Trail Magic all day including the ride back to the trail. At Indian Grave Gap we got Cokes and Sprite from Eric, and Jennifer from St. Louis( Cardinal fans of course )and their friend Jennifer from North Carolina. We hiked past the old Cheese Factory site and stopped for a snack of cheese, summer sausage, and crackers there that we had brought along. At Tray Gap a gentleman had a whole table of fruit, snacks, and cold drinks. It was my first Pepsi in over a week, we are in Coke country down here. Albert was our Trail Angel. We started setting up camp about 5:00 on Tray Mountain (4199 ft.) Anthony ( now Lumberjack), Grizzzelle, Dancing Feather, and me the Mailman. We went up to the shelter to socialize with other hikers but it was pretty cold so I headed for my tent about 9:00.
Date: 2014-04-06
From: Tray Mountain Shelter

To: Dick's Creek Gap
Miles today: 11.0

Just to update some information about my food drops. I started the Approach Trail with one day's food, picked up 3 days worth of food at Big Stamp Gap when my brother-in-law Mike caught up with me there. I Picked up 4 days of food at Neel's Gap. I also had 4 extra days worth of food because Mike was unable to continue hiking so I sent a food drop to Standing Bear Farm Hostel when I come out of the Smokies. My sister Susie will bring 5 days of food when she hikes with me this week. When she gets picked up I will get another food package from them that might get me most of the way to Fontana Dam. If I need a little extra I can hitch into Franklin, NC for it. I have 6 days of food mailed to Fontana Dam to get me through the Smokies. This might sound a little confusing but this kind of explains the logistical part of hiking the AT. Part of the problem I am having with my food drops is that it takes a while to get your trail appetite so I am carrying more food than I am eating. It looks more likely that I will just start resupplying in trail towns and take my chances that what I want is on the stores shelves. We woke up this morning about 6:20 and headed out about 7:20. It was cold and windy on the hike to Dick's Creek Gap. I had 3 layers on top and 2 layers on the bottom to keep warm. It finally warmed up a little when we got down to the bottom. We walked out to the parking lot where there was Trail Magic, Sprite and other snacks. A group of scouts were hiking back to the parking area to head home and we got a ride part of the way to Hiawassee, then another ride on into town. The gentleman let us out at Daniels Steak House, our first AYCE (all you can eat) experience on the trail. The people in these trail towns are very supportive of hikers and have no problem coming up to us and asking questions and encouraging us to finish our hike. We met 4 hikers at the restaurant that were staying at the Holiday Inn Express just up the hill from the restaurant. We got a room and will probably wait out the storm coming in tonight. Several inches are predicted with some thunderstorms and flooding. It looks quite possible that we will not get back on the trail until Tuesday. My hiking friends also did a shakedown of my backpack in the hotel room, cutting out 3 pounds 8 ounces that I will be mailing home tomorrow. Right now my pack is at 30 pounds with 3 days food. They also did several strap adjustments that should pay big dividends when I start hiking again. I just need to get the soreness out of my right shoulder before we resume hiking. It has been my biggest physical issue so far, my feet and legs are holding up pretty well. I have one small sore spot on top of my foot but that was caused by my camp shoes that I was wearing at Neel's Gap without socks. We had pizzas delivered from Papa's Pizza (I like the name)along with bread sticks and chicken wings. It was more than 4 thru hikers could eat at one time and was delicious. I have probably gained weight so far on this hike. I caught up on some journals and we went to bed late (11:00) for hikers.
Date: 2014-04-07
From: Dick's Creek Gap

To: Zero Day 
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: moderate rain

Slept in until 7:00, first zero day on the trail. Weather forecast is calling for more rain and possible thunderstorms today. Plan on hitting the trail Tuesday with my sister Susie for 4 fun filled days, it might be a little muddy. The Holiday Inn Express has a great hot breakfast and the staff here in Hiawassee is great! The hotels and hostels on the trail have hiker boxes where hikers can leave unwanted items or take something that they might need. This hotel has so many hikers that the boxes contents change by the hour. The parking lot in the hotel has very few cars in it so you think that the place is empty, but quite the opposite is true, it's just packed with hikers waiting out the weather and they sure didn't drive here. After breakfast I took my package of unwanted gear to the Post Office to mail home. You meet fellow hikers everywhere and it's nice sharing experiences with them. Keaton, when the animals start showing up on the trail I will send you a picture. The locals say that the bears are down low in search of food because their normal food sources are scarce right now. Not much is going on up at the mountain tops but you can see signs of life as you hike down. Some flowers are blooming and trees are budding out. We are letting a young couple share our room tonight, Meri from Japan and Christopher from Texas. They camped out last night in the rain and it didn't take much persuading to talk them off the trail for one night. When it warms up the rain won't be as miserable. I had a new visitor to my guest book, the mother of my hiking partner Lumberjack. Linda he is safe in our wolfpack the Walking Dead and we will get him safely to Katahdin. With any luck I will step foot in North Carolina tomorrow.
Date: 2014-04-08
From: Dick's Creek Gap

To: Bly Gap
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: broken clouds

Up about 6:30 this morning, went down and had my last big breakfast for awhile. Hung out in our hotel room, everyone showered and packed their stuff to hit the trail. I got some crocs for my feet, a camelback water bladder, and some insulated underwear from the hiker box at the hotel. I left my new flip flops in the box and I heard some hiker from Germany snagged them. I made several phone calls back home while I waited for my sister Susie to pick me up. About 11:30 my ride was here to take me back to Dick's Creek Gap. At 12:00 Susie, Marcia, Logan, and myself started out on our 9 mile hike. We hiked down to Plum Orchard Gap Shelter so I could sign in and take a picture. It was my last shelter in Georgia. I met Free Bird, Nemo, Will Alone, and Carver there. It took us about 6 hours to complete the afternoon hike. We set up camp at Bly Gap just across the border in North Carolina, my first night in a different state on the AT. It was pretty cold and the campfire didn't warm us up much so we went to bed early.
Date: 2014-04-09
From: Bly Gap

To: Standing Indian Shelter
Miles today: 7.2
Weather: scattered clouds

I want to start my journal entry with a little quiz for non-thru hikers. How many zippers do you have to maneuver just to get up at night and go to the bathroom. I will post the answer in my next post. We slept in till about 8:00 and left around 10:00. It sprinkled a little last night and then got real foggy. Susie(now River Otter), Marcia(now Yertle the Turtle), and Logan(Captain Bly) picked up the pace so we could set up camp early and just relax by the campfire. We leap frogged during the day with the family of 5 from Quebec, Canada. We really want to call them the Von Trapp family because you hear them coming up behind you and someone is singing and they all seem to be having a really good time. We also met Redhawk, Blood Root, Giggles, and Patience. I signed in at Muskrat Creek Shelter because it is the first shelter in North Carolina. There were some wet spots on the trail from the heavy rains that we got earlier in the week, but the rocky terrain has dried fast. The good news is that there was lots of running water down the mountains for possible water sources. We had trail magic at Deep Gap, Ginger Ale and Snickers. We headed up Standing Indian Mountain on the way to the shelter. We camped in a perfect spot just short of the shelter that had flat areas for tents and a nice stream running down the mountain to serenade us to sleep. Safety First and Just Eric came down to our campfire to cook dinner and then headed on down the trail. We gave up on the campfire pretty early because the wood was still pretty wet. The North Carolina mountains even seem nicer than the ones in Georgia so it was a nice hike today.
Date: 2014-04-10
From: Standing Indian Shelter

To: Carter Gap Shelter 
Miles today: 7.6
Weather: clear sky

The answer to the zipper question is 10. The zipper on your sleeping bag, your jacket because it's cold outside, your tent, your rain fly, and your shorts. Then you reverse the order as you go back to bed. The whole point of the quiz is to show non-hikers the difference between life on the trail and life at home, it can get a little complicated. But, we had a nice quiet night sleeping next to the mountain stream running down next to our campsite, you don't get those amenities at home. Everyone was up by 7:00, we had breakfast of oatmeal, coffee, and hot tea. We headed out by 8:30 looking at a 2 mile climb of 800 feet up Standing Indian Mountain (5500 feet). The hike ended up not seeming too difficult, maybe we are getting our trail legs. I hiked a while with Trail Lobster(got sun burned the first day out)from New Jersey. Grizzzelle, Dancing Feather, and Lumberjack hiked with me for some of the trail for a brief reunion of The Wolfpack. We are now the Snot Rockets in North Carolina, something to do with North Carolina being the first in flight. We were the Walking Dead while in Georgia. I guess our group name will change in each state we travel through. We stopped at Carter Gap so I could drop off a priority package at the privy and sign in. The girls were sitting on a log when I got back and they told me they were done for the day. It was only 2:00 but I was out numbered by the mutinous ladies. We had time for a nice camp fire and Flipper stopped by for a visit and Lucky Moose (from Germany) talked with me for quite a while. We also went down and took pictures of a large group of campers just down the trail. One quick game of Euchre and it was lights out. We should reach the 100 mile mark tomorrow.
Date: 2014-04-11
From: Carter Gap Shelter 

To: Winding Stair Gap 
Miles today: 15.9

We were on our way by 7:40, we skipped breakfast so that we could get to Mooney Gap to be picked up. It did not get as cold last night, maybe Spring is finally mking its way up the mountains. The wind was really bad though, you could hear it overhead but we must have been protected from the wind becauase our tents hardly moved. We had a short 4.5 mile hike to our pick-up point and arrived about 10:30. We passed through Betty Creek which would have been a nice camping area and filtered water for everyone's water bottles. I met Spider, Loverboy, and Belch on the trail. Loverboy was on his second attempt of a thru hike, he had to drop out the first time when he ran out of money. There are lots of reasons why people don't make it all the way to Maine and that is one of them. We had one really nice view where there were no trees in the way so we took some pictures and moved on. We did limited mileage the last three days but it was a lot of fun hiking with Susie, Marcia, and Logan. Thanks for the memories and the new bear bag but I could have done without the Euchre lesson last night. My Brother-in-law Mike showed up before noon to pick up the girls and brought Trail Magic, fresh fruit, Pepsi's, water, Dunkin Doughnuts, and two servings of cheesecake for me. There were some happy hikers going up Albert Mtn. after those treats. It was time for me to push on so I asked Mike if he wanted to hike up Albert Mtn. with me and take some pictures. He was up for it but it ended up being the toughest trail I have been on so far. We had excellent views from the Fire Tower and we took pictures of each other to prove that we made it to the top. I also took a picture of the 100 mile sign on the tower, kind of humbling after hiking for almost two weeks. I thanked Mike for all of his support and we took off in opposite directions. The climb back down going north was way better than Mike's climb south. Stopped at Long Branch Shelter to sign in and take pictures, it was built in 2012 and it was as they say down here reaallly nice. I stopped for water there and pushed on to Rock Gap Shelter probably my final destination for the day. When I got there hikers were telling me that Lumberjack left a message for me in the shelter to pick up the pace. After seeing his message in the shelter log I wrote " Challenge accepted Lumberjack on to Franklin, Mailman " and pushed on to Winding Stair Gap to hitch a ride into Franklin N.C. I got out to highway 64 about 5:00 and got a ride from a nice young man from Maine that was headed to Ashville. He even went out of his way to take me to the hotel so that the wolfpack could be reunited. We shared a room with Fletch from England, quite a character. He is using his hike as a fundraiser for prostate cancer. There are lots of German hikers at the hotel along with several other hikers that we have met back on the trail. We had dinner across the street at a nice Mexican restaurant and headed back to the room. I worked on journals while Fletch showed the others some British card games. Back to the trail tomorrow. Mailman
Date: 2014-04-12
From: Winding Stair Gap 

To: Mile # 118
Miles today: 8.2

We slept in until 6:50 at the hotel. I walked across the street to Hardee's for breakfast, trail life is really tough. I talked to my son Carson as he was driving to work at the Post Office, and then checked in with my wife Paige to see how she was holding up without me. Surprisingly well! I didn't really have time to check out Franklin because I needed to finish some journals and pack up for the trail. Lumberjack and I caught the 11:00 shuttle to the trail, the others had more errands to run so they caught a ride later. We started out hiking with Sausage Boss(N.C.)and Sweppes. Sausage Boss is interested in small scale produce farming like me but leaning towards organic practices. We need to catch up with each other again to talk. Another hiker group nicknamed the Devils Children were planning a wine and cheese party at the first shelter but since it was .5 miles off the trail we pushed on. We heard later that the party was a big hit. We had a pretty good climb up to Siler's Bald, it was our first bald on the trail and Lumberjack and I don't pass up scenic parts of the trail. A bald is a top of a mountain without trees. Some people say that a fire caused it, or Indians or early settlers cleared them for farming. I thought that it was interesting that it had the same name as my fathers middle name and that the Brooks' also came from North Carolina. There were 4 young ladies up at the top from East Carolina University and they were all graduating this Spring in Athletic Training. The random people that you meet on the trail is always a surprise. Later we met a woman doing trail maintenance with her dog Scooter. We would bump into her from time to time and chat about her work on the AT. During a short break from climbing uphill we met Spirit a 67 year old hiker from Canada. He thru hiked in 2004 and also hiked the 500 mile Camino De Santiago in Spain. We leap-frogged with Redhawk and Blood Root a few times because everyone was having troubles with the uphills and needed periodic breaks. We found a pretty good spot for camping with water so we decided to stay there for the night. We were hoping that Grizzzelle and Dancing Feather would catch us as well, we were having trouble making connections on our cell phones. Fletch (U.K.) stopped at camp and said he was pushing on to the next shelter and Spirit stopped for water then moved on. The International hikers only have 6 month visas to complete their hikes so they are more motivated than us to move on. Grizzzelle and Dancing Feather also caught up but said they needed to hike some more to make the NOC by the next day. Grizzzelle's friend was meeting them there to visit and bring some supplies. Giggles set up her hammock sleep system close to our campsite so we got to visit with her as well. Hiker Midnight is 9:00 and we were probably in bed about that time. Not yet liking the hiking but love the views, the people, and especially the Trail Magic when we can get it.   Mailman
Date: 2014-04-15
From: Double Zero

To: Nowhere
Miles today: 0.0

Woke up around 8:00. No use getting up early if you have no where to go. It rained off and on last night and right now it is pouring pretty good. Not cold yet but that will change sometime today when the front comes through. I am just chilling today in my room with a heater. My family knows that I usually don't like sitting around but my body needs the rest, and the weather is another reason to sit tight. The hiking has been a huge physical challenge for me. It's not like you are just working out for an hour or so it last all day. You are breaking down your muscles as you push for miles. You have to remember to eat right and give your muscles time to rebuild or you will break down eventually. There seems to be a lot of people getting ready to hit the trail this morning. I wish them luck, my better judgement tells me not to hike in the cold rain today and then have to camp outside when the temps get down in the 20's. I sure hope no one comes down with hypothermia tonight or tomorrow morning, it can be deadly and you sometimes don't even know that you have it. The hiker family will take care of each other when necessary so everyone should be fine.Lumberjack helped me download some of my pictures on Trail Journals but the dates need to be corrected later when I have more time. We also went to the outfitters so I could print out my backpacking permit through the Smokies. We talked to Freebird(Md.)for awhile and went to the restaurant for pizza and a salad. They burnt Lumberjack's pizza slightly so they made him another to take with him. I made my family phone calls while I have good reception and a charged up phone. We are seeing that a lot of people have decided to wait one more day for the front to blow through. I will sleep a lot better tonight knowing that. We hung out a little in the evening in the dining hall because we were inside protected from the cold. We talked with Kevin (Kansas), Red Hawk, Blood Root, Viking, Hungry, Nemo, The Fonz, and some other hikers that passed through. I didn't go down to the bonfire but Lumberjack did. He said Nemo and Viking both swam across the Nantahala River and back. Way too cold for that!  I tried to get hold of Grizzzelle but had no luck it looks like our wolfpack is down to just Lumberjack and I.