morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-08-12
From: Duncannon, PA

To: Kent, CT
Miles today: 0.0

Monday, August 12, 201308/12/13 Duncannon, PA to Kent, CTI've been having so much fun. If you've ever even remotely considered hiking the AT, you should do it. It is hands down the best thing I've ever done. Ever. Even though the trail is at times very trying, it's worth it. When I'm getting poured on on flash flood conditions I try to think of all the great people I've met and all of the amazing things I've seen. The hiker community is an amazing one. I've never encountered more giving and supportive people who are willing to put a hold on their everyday lives just to get you to Katahdin. I'm so happy that I've had the opportunity to do this. And I can't wait for these next 600 miles! I've got the Long Trail in Vermont, the Whites in New Hampshire, the 100 Mile Wilderness in Maine and finally Baxter State Park where rests the glorious Mt Katahdin. These past few weeks have just flown by. I left you in Pennsylvania I do believe. I took quite a few things out of my pack there including my bugnet. Upon leaving Duncannon commenced the horrid heat wave where I wanted to die and inhaled gnats way too often. My mom and Grandmother came to visit, yay! I got a pedicure, so did Smiley haha. They took great care of us and I loved seeing them! Shortly after we arrived in New Jersey where we got to stay at Dimples house in Vernon! I love Dimples! Smileys good friend Milo and Nicole visited us too and we grabbed some delicious pizza and checked out the boardwalk ( poctured below.) and had delicious ice cream from Bellvale Farms! Jersey was really nice, we did the whole deli tour thing in New Jersey and New York. There are Deli's at road crossings everywhere here, which means we carry less food hooray! New York was gorgeous as well, and pretty challenging as well. There were lots of big boulder rocks and you have really steep climbs and descents that are short but that you go up and down all day long. We arrived in Kent, Connecticut in flash flood conditions. We made a a creek crossing during the flash flood that almost made me piss myself (not exaggerating.) we finally made it to town though and got picked up by one of Smiley's hiker friends Buttons and Bearwalker! They took us home and let us dry up and shower and then took us to NYC for a fantastic weekend! We were so glad to get back to their place after the craziness of the city. We cooked a wonderful meal at their place that night, and now we sit in the woods cooking some Annie's Mac and Cheese under the tarp with a little rain. Great morning. Miss all of you so much and can't wait to see everyone soon!
Date: 2013-09-01
From: Kent, CT

To: Killington, VT
Miles today: 0.0

Sunday, September 1, 201309/01/13 Kent, Connecticut to Killington, Vermont!!!It's September! I can't believe it. It feels like I've been hiking forever, and I have haha. I'm at about 5 months into the hike and am about to be in New Hampshire in a few days. I'm so looking forward to the Whites and Maine! It's all these sobo's can talk about haha. I get to tell them to look forward to Tennessee though! Smiley and I just finished staying he night at the 12 Tribes' hostel in Rutland VT called the Yellow Deli. Delicious food, wonderful accommodations and really kind people. Men and women have to sleep in separate rooms, it was fun hangin with my ladies though. I've had such a wonderful time since Kent. We hiked back into Great Barrington on an amazing open ridge line. We stayed with Buttons and Bearwalker for another night and got to listen to a good band with all the other hiker trash in town. Staying with Buttons was so amazing, we really didn't want to leave! I got my winter gear back in Dalton, MA so now my packs not super light anymore. But...I got new poles as well! They really make a huge difference. We stayed at the church hostel in Cheshire that night and met Bud, who we ended up hiking with for a few days, great guy, and he's from Nashville! Massachusetts was a gorgeous state and we got great trail magic from all those massholes. A family in Morth Adams let us camp in their backyard and let us swim in their pool the next morning with their kids who were all super awesome. We made our way across the border to Vermont, and immediately stepped in mud. Lots of it haha. Vermont is green and gorgeous, but very very muddy As well. I'm still having a great time, although all nobos I've run into have expressed that their tired of hiking and after 5 months of it I can say I agree, but I wouldn't get to experience any of these things unless I hiked there! I'm so looking forward to New Hampshire and Maine! Hope to see everyone sometime in the near future! Much love!
Date: 2013-01-17
To: ...
Miles today: 0.0

So I'm starting this journal up in order to get myself in gear for my hike. Right now, my exact start date is up in the air due to several different factors, but it WILL be the beginning of March (which I think is an excellent play on words, as well). I'm currently fighting boredom as I wait for the north lands to become sufficiently thawed.For anyone reading this who doesn't already know me, a quick review of me: I am a 21 year old University of Florida computer science/physics major and outdoor enthusiast. I now plan on hiking the AT nobo in the span of about 4 months.To all the other preparing thru hikers out there, good luck in your preparations.
Date: 2013-01-18
To: Gear
Miles today: 0.0

I've got most all of the gear I'm going to bring, and I put it all up in the gear section in order to account for it all. I think the only thing I still might need is a new pair of shorts to hike in (my old ones have seen too many adventures, and are now too threadbare in the seat for me to not think about getting arrested for public indecency). I'm hoping really hard that my tent, which required a bit of DIY to finish the waterproofing on (as per manufacturer's instructions), will live up to expectations and keep the rain out, as I have yet to use it in real rain. Similarly, I am hoping that my Chaco/Seal Skinz/Smartwool combo will work well and get me through any of the snow I expect to encounter early on, and allow me to finish my thru hike with all my toes. I still have to round up the backup and supplementary gear I have laying around, so I can get it mailed to me if I need it, but that can wait for a while.My biggest problem right now is figuring out how to send myself the 75 pounds of dehydrated dinners and food bars I've been saving for this. I don't want to send too much too early and miss out on all the great free food that the other hikers starting out aren't eating! I suppose I'll just pack it up into a few bundles and have the family ship it to me as I move along.
Date: 2013-01-21
To: Getting in shape
Miles today: 0.0

I want to hit the ground running (or, at least not fall flat on my face), so I should probably get in a little bit of shape for this thing. Considering that I've spent my weekend drinking, sleeping, and lazing, I should probably give myself a schedule to stick to, so:M: running, minimum 3.5miT: rock gymW: running, coreR: rock gymF: runningI'll admit that this workout is probably better for making me a better climber, but then, I can't stand going to a gym to do squats, and I don't want to burn myself out before I even get on the trail.I'm also supplementing this with the work I get shoveling and raking mulch from the part time job I just got. I can tell already that it will give me a strong lower back, based on the soreness I had after doing a single day of it.
Date: 2013-01-28
To: I know when I'm leaving
Miles today: 0.0

My plot to trick college students into giving me a ride up to the start of my hike has worked! A few UF students have signed up to spend their spring break hiking on the AT in Georgia. Little do they know, I won't be coming back with them! I will instead use their southbound trip as a warm-up, hit springer, then about-face and start cranking towards Katahdin. Now I just need a cheap way to get to Gainesville...
Date: 2013-01-31
To: Food Prep
Miles today: 0.0

Dividing up all the trail food I have accumulated into approximately equal bags. I'll leave all but one at home and get them sent to me when I need them (instead of sending them all in advance) so I'll have flexibility and have a consistent amount of calorie dense food when I need it. I predict getting sick of larabars pretty quickly, but that's life.
Date: 2013-02-10
To: A good read
Miles today: 0.0

I was referred to a quite extensive and detailed trail journal, which was only about 30 years out of date. Really, a pretty good read, would recommend. http://www.skwc.com/exile/Hail-nf.htmlIn other news, I'm making a valiant effort to consolidate all my worldly possessions that I will not take on the trail, so that I'll be able to relocate to my new college apartment as soon as I come back from the trail.
Date: 2013-02-25
To: Pre trail gourging
Miles today: 0.0

I went to the grocer last night to grab the food I'm going to eat for the first week or so on the trail. In the process of trying to find enough of the most calorie dense foods I could, I came to the realization that food is heavy. I started to worry about my pack weight, and also worry about cautionary tales I've heard about loss of too much fat taking people off the trail. So, I've decided to gain as much weight as possible before I set out (in less than a week!). Operation gluttony is a-go.
Date: 2013-02-28
To: Two More Nights
Miles today: 0.0

It's 2 am. I'm feeling sleepy, which is good, since I'm waking up at 8 tomorrow. But I want to post before I lay down.I sleep tonight, wake in the morning. Then I take my keys and wallet out of my pockets and leave for Gainesville. I'll have about 24 more hours of friends, warm(ish) Florida weather, and roofs not made of tin or poly-whatever. Then, I cram into a car of people, and next stop: Amicalola.I've spent the last few hours packing and repacking my bag. i thought it would be just like packing regularly, but I was wrong. I have so much gear I haven't carried in so long, like a personal tent, and a water filter, and warm clothes. I'm barely able to fit everything together, and that's with my tent and rain gear strapped to the outside. I'm counting on finding several things useless and sending them home soon in order to decrease pack weight and bulk. I weighed everything tonight, and the final results were:Me: 188.5 lbsPack w/o food, water: ~23 lbsPack, fully loaded: 46.3 lbsSo, fully half my pack weight is food and water. It's way too heavy, but the weight should decrease by about 2.5 lbs per day until I resupply food, and my first few days will be very easy.I literally can't believe it's happening. I know I'm leaving for the mountains in 2 days, but it almost feels like everything is still the same, except for a nagging nervousness in the back of my throat. Hope that doesn't turn into vomiting as my departure time closes in.
Date: 2013-03-02
From: Gainesville, Fl

To: Stover Creek Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light snow

So, plans sometimes don't work out so well. Due to general flakiness, my original plan to catch a ride up to GA from Gainesville fell through with no notice. So, left with few other options, I caught a ride to the Gainesville greyhound station, and bought a ticket. While waiting in the station, i frantically called around until I found someone who would shuttle me from the bus station to Amicalola. All in all, a trip that would have cost me around $30 ended up costing me around 5 times as much. The Gainesville bus station closes at 9pm, and my bus arrived at 10:30, so myself and the other patrons were ushered outside to await our buses. While waiting, the best conversation came from the banter between an ex-paratrooper (who I suspected of being a bit of a sociopath, after he made several comments about how much he liked hurting people) and an ex-con (who had just been released from prison, given only his summer clothes). As they learned what I was planning to do, they made several incredulous remarks, and talked about how cold i was going to be, since it seemed to already be dropping into the 30s in central FL. The paratrooper offered a few bits of advice, such as how I'll get cold from my sweat when I stop moving, and how "shit stops working in the cold". The bus arrived, and I found a seat next to a man who looked like, had I met him in a dark alley, he would have stabbed me or tried to sell me some drug I'd never heard of. Fortunately, he seemed now more interested in sleeping, and I the same. The bus arrived in Atlanta at 4 in the morning, with temps in the 20s. Thankfully, the Atlanta bus station was open 24 hours, so I could wait inside until my shuttle arrived. I got to Amicalola at 7:30 in the morning, and snow was on the ground. I was told the visitor's center was quite nice, but I had no intention of waiting an entire hour for it to open, so I started hiking. As I reached the top of Springer, I took out my camera to take a picture of the plaque that marks the trails terminus. However, as I pushed the capture button, my batteries died, and I realized I had no extras. The view itself wasn't worth capturing anyway, as the thick snow clouds obscured all but the next ridge over. I hiked on to Stover Creek Shelter.
Date: 2013-03-03
From: Stover Creek Shelter

To: Neels Gap Hostel.
Miles today: 0.0

At Stover Creek Shelter that night, I met up with the people who would form my first trail family. When I arrived, the shelter was empty, but it gradually filled. Moxie and Joe had chosen trail names before they had started. Moxie was a teacher and mother of 2 from Colorado, while Joe was from Texas. They had met at a hostel the night before, and had found that they could stick together for a while, as they hiked at the same pace. As everyone was getting cleaned up from dinner that night, Joe fainted for a moment. After he had regained consciousness, he determined the episode was due to his mild hypoglycemia condition, and had been induced by the low temperatures and large amount of exercise he preformed that day. Slap and Dragon were friends from New Jersey who had decided to hike together, though Dragon would have to bail around early Virginia, due to responsibilities back home. Leprechaun came in late with another friend and didn't say much to us that night, as he got in his tent to avoid the cold.Also at the shelter was a woman everyone was already calling Mama Bear. She was intending to thru with her kids and dog, kids aged 8, 10, and 12. Holy Crap!The next day, I noticed, as I hiked through the snow, that the slight pain in my knee was annoyingly constant, though I ignored it, hoping it would get better on its own. The snow on the ground cleared up a bit that day, but it was still very cold. I noticed the beginning of a trend, where, by the time I was almost done with my dinner, my food would already be very cold.On 3/4, I realized I could no longer ignore the pain on the outside of my left knee, so I adopted a limp to relieve some strain on it, hoping that would be enough for it to heal. Shit stops working in the cold. Thankfully, as I complained about my knee at a scenic overlook, a hiker named Rambo (after the large combat knife he carried) graciously gave me his knee brace, which he said he had no need of. The brace helped substantially, but I knew I still needed to heal, so I kept limping when it hurt. Unfortunately, the limp did put extra strain on my other knee, and soon that one started to twinge a bit as well. I picked up a walking stick to help with this. That night, we stayed at lance creek camp, one of the last places to camp before the bear canister zone around Neels Gap. It was the first night it was warm enough that anyone felt like staying out of their sleeping bags to talk. Dragon got his trail name after his habit of starting a fire every night.On 3/5, it was supposed to rain, so we all woke up very early to beat it to Neels as quick as we could. Leprechaun got his name as he was from Mobile, home of the Mobile leprechaun, at the Blood mt shelter, where we broke from the rain. At Neels, we stayed in the Hostel, and a church group cooked us some burgers, after the rain had let up. All in all, a good day.
Date: 2013-03-06
From: Neels Gap Hostel.

To: Low Gap Shelter
Miles today: 11.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Holy crap it's been a long time since I updated! For anyone wondering, this is because I tend to not use my phone unless I am in civilization, and service in towns and on roads is spotty, and public internet is hard to come by, and there just isn't enough time with all the town chores I usually have to do, and other excuses. The last 2 updates I made were in Hot Springs, where I was eventually kicked off the computer in the outfitter for taking entirely too long (I was in town on a Sunday, so the library was closed). Anyway, back to March 6th!So the weather report for the 6th was cold crappy weather that would get better later in the day. However, no weather report could've told me as much as first opening the hostel door did. As I opened the door, the weather wasn't so much cold and crappy so much as it was the 7th layer of hell. I'm guessing 60 mph sustained winds (on a day that was all ridge walk) and temperatures in the teens. The day was so bad, that a common conversation starter now is asking how someone fared on 3/6. I had no gloves, so I stowed my walking stick on the outside of my pack and pulled my hands up my sleeves. Unfortunately, this meant i was constantly ducking and twisting as my stick would tangle itself in the trees overhanging the trail. For lunch, I dove behind a 2 foot high rock near the trail, crouched on my sleeping pad, and squeezed globs of viscous honey into my mouth for 5 minutes before I got moving again to warm up. I got to the shelter about 11 miles out in time to snag a spot on the wood. Once Dragon and Slapp arrived, a few of us (mostly Dragon) labored for 2 hours to get a fire going. Luckily, the snow wasn't too deep to find wood, and the shelter was protected from the wind, so eventually, we got a fire roaring.
Date: 2013-03-07
From: Low Gap Shelter

To: The Cheese Factory Site
Miles today: 13.4

I didn't get out of my sleeping bag until the sky finally lost a few clouds and the sun poked through, about mid morning on 3/7. After a day like 3/6, the sun shining was the best thing in the world. Unfortunately, my knees weren't. I'd wanted to get to Trey Mt that day, but as my knees ached on the downhills, and then on the uphills, I decided to stop 2 miles short, at the base of the climb, and camp at the cheese factory site with Lep, Slapp, Dragon, Moxie, and Joe.
Date: 2013-03-08
From: The Cheese Factory Site

To: The Blueberry Patch Hostel
Miles today: 13.0

I continued to worry over my knees this day. As I ascended Trey I could already feel some resistance. We all thought it would be a pretty easy day, as the elevatioin profile showed only a few big climbs and decents. However, the supposedly flattish portions turned out to be short, steep ups and downs that wore on my knees even more. I was never in much pain, but the worry of injuring myself was enough to slow me down drastically. Eventually, downhills caused pain no matter how slowly I took them. I remembered, years ago, a day hike I'd done with my father down from Brasstown Bald. We met a ranger of some sort going the opposite direction, when my knees were hurting quite bad. He told us that there was one time that he had done so much downhill, he had to turn around and walk the trail backwards in order to make it to his car. I now adopted this strategy I'd heard about so long ago, and started walking backwards on the extended downhills. It was awkward constantly looking under my armpit to one side or the other, and I ran off the trail multiple times, but the relief it gave my knees was worth it. I eventually caught up with everyone just a few miles short of Dicks Creek Gap, where we called the hostel to ask for a shuttle. As we left for the gap, I was surprised to find that I was keeping up with them. At first I though they were waiting up for me, but as we played leapfrog up and down the hills, I realised the day must have worn on them as well. The hostel waswell worth the walk, though.For just a requested $8 donation, we got suttled to and from the trail, and to and from town, a bunk, a shower, and a wonderful breakfast. Dinner was also worth it, as we went to an AYCE in Hiawassee. I ate several plates of fried fish and shrimp, salad with excess dressing, and pudding, while enjoying the decour dedicated to Jesus and Gone with the Wind. I could barely stand as we walked over to the pharmacy and grocer, where I grabbed a brace for my right knee as well. That night, I phoned home and got my trekking poles sent to Franklin. The way things were going, I needed them.
Date: 2013-03-09
From: The Blueberry Patch Hostel

To: Plumorchard Gap Shelter
Miles today: 4.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Although the Patch was wonderful, only rest would help my knees. So, as Lep, Slapp, Dragon, and Joe hiked on, I decided to fall behind. I had planned that day to just set my tent up at the first available location and pull a nero, but I couldn't bring myself to wait around like that. So I pushed to the next tentsite. Then the next one. Eventually, I just pushed the 4.5 miles to the first shelter past the gap. I moved very slowly, as not to injur myself, taking frequent extended breaks formy knees to rest. Despite this, 4.5 miles is not that far, so I got to the shelter fairly early. When I got there, I found a group of the GATC out for an organized day hike. As they milled about and left, others arrived. Among them, Tarzan, Coffee Pot, Smuggles, Operator, Amassador (Ambo), Little Engine, Timber, Bison, and Otto. There was so much daylight, we had time to make an excellent fire. Ambo was carrying a small guitar, and Smuggles is quite musically inclined, so we even had some decent entertainment. Ambo, Little Engine, and Timber were making a walkumentary, so their voiceovers made for some entertainment as well.
Date: 2013-03-10
From: Plumorchard Gap Shelter

To: Standing Indian Shelter
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: scattered clouds

3/10 was another beautiful day. I had planned to go just one shelter farther, but upon reaching it and realizing it was still quite early in the day (and that my knees weren't feeling too bad), I decided to push on to the one after that. I got to Standing Indian Shelter just as some clouds started filling the sky. Though they didn't bode well for the next day, they did refract the sun well enough for a nice sunset. Everyone from the night before was there, with the addition of Crow, and we hung around the fire as the sun set and the cold closed in.