morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2014-04-27
From: Smoky Mountain Natl Park

To: Max Patch
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: clear sky

AT day 22 - SundaySunday we left our beautiful campsite refreshed and clean and in good spirits! It was another beautiful day and we got to see some great waterfalls as we headed out to Standing Bear hostel to pick up my new tent!!!!When we got to the road where we would cross under I 40, we met Aquaman, Tricks, Sheepdog and Butterfly who ere staring into the woods by the highway. There were two elk walking alongside the road! So very cool! I got some great pics with the camera, which you will have to wait to see when I download them in five months! We headed up the mountain and made it to Standing Bear hostel where we all grabbed some snacks, charged our phones, and I picked up my new tent! I decided to leave my old tent there in the hiker box. While we were eating a visiting, a hiker came in and asked about my tent.   I told him I was leaving it. He was thrilled and said it was a trail blessing! His tent was very heavy and leaky. I told him mine leaked a bit too, but he didn't care. He quickly grabbed it! I was so happy that he could use it!The hostel was pretty cool! It has a very rustic feeling with log cabins and chickens running around! We enjoyed hanging out by the fire for a few minutes, but knew we had a long day and had to get going.We started off on a steep uphill climb. The slope up was treacherous. We had to take a few breaks before getting to the top. It was a hot day and sweat was dripping in our eyes constantly. Thank god there were a few springs on our way up, so we could get plenty of water. Breaking was a bit annoying because those gnats were back and swarming us every time we stopped. But we finally made it to the top!Of course, the AT is known for it's up and downs, so getting to the top just meant heading back down immediately! That was the rest of our day. Up down, up down, swatting gnats, drinking tons and more up downs. We crossed a couple roads and were secretly hoping for a cooler with drinks or something, but there was nothing. No surprise there! We have been missing trail magic all over the place. In fact, I forgot to mention in my last post the numerous times people had shared with us that we missed more trail magic by minutes. It's just not meant to be I guess. After a long day of hard terrain, we finally made it to the top of Max Patch! It was gorgeous! An amazing 360 degree view of the mountains! Just breath taking. It was hard to leave, so we decided not to! We pitched our tents right on top of the bald patch of the mountain in the beautiful green grass! It was scheduled to rain that night though, so Jon had to night hike down to the next shelter 2 miles away. My new tent is only a one person, so he can't share with me anymore and on top of a bald, there are no trees to hang in. It was good that he left though, as it did rain all night and he would have been soaked if he had cowboy camped. The wind whipped all night long, but it was worth it for the view of the sunrise the next morning!
Date: 2014-04-28
From: Max Patch

To: Hot Springs, NC
Miles today: 20.0

AT day 23 - Monday This morning Kent and I had to gather our tents without being blown off the top of Max Patch and head down to the shelter where Jon stayed. It was a whole nother world off the mountain. It was peaceful and quiet and sunny and fabulous! We gathered up Jon and started off on what would be our longest day yet!The walking was easy for the first four miles. There was a lot of flat and some ups and downs, but nothing hard! It was such a pleasant walk! There were tons of new flowers on the trail too. I loved stopping to take pictures of them when I could. Side note, if you guys didn't know, you can look at our pictures through trail journals if you want to. Instead of clicking on the journal, just click on photos!We had a big climb up but we did it quickly and were able to take a quick break at the shelter on top. We were making great time and truly enjoying our day! We headed down the mountain and started our next big climb of the day a two mile up. At the top we had our lunch on some big rocks and were happy to know we would have a few miles of downhill hiking to the shelter where we could stay for the night. It turned out to be a super hot day and we were downing water in liters at a time and still making great time! We started thinking we would maybe try to push into town. The general idea was to stay three miles outside of town and come in tomorrow for a "nero" (a close to zero day) then stay on Wed to rest and avoid a huge thunderstorm coming in. But the pull of showers and laundry after nine days without them, was great! By the way, if you ever want to know what it's like to be a hiker, try working out for ten hours a day, with a twenty pound backpack on, sleeping in the clothes you wore and doing the same thing for the next nine days. It's so unbelievably gross! We therefore, decided to push into town for our first twenty mile day! More side notes: Kent's heel is still hurting, but he got some heel cups in town and more anti inflammatory medsWe all weighed ourselves at Standing Bear on their scale. The boys both lost over ten pounds and I have lost five (This is so unfair as I carry 15 - 20 lbs more than them, I eat half the calories they do of healthy food, and I walk the same amount of miles they do). So depressing!Because of losing a few pounds, my skirt fits lower and has now chaffed the inside of my things due to sweating incessantly and having it rub where it shouldn't. So doing twenty miles with chaffing, basically sucked!In addition to chaffing, I have poison ivy and a really itchy red rash all over my feet! My picky toenails, cut the sides of the toes next to them and I think I have a broken bone in my foot! This made yesterday a little painful, but it was still a great day.And to top it all off, my butt seems to be getting bigger! I can rival Kim Kardashian! I posted a pic of my new found huge butt so you can truly appreciate what I'm talking about! Aaahhhhh the things I do for your entertainment!Ok I think that catches you up to Tuesday. Ill post more later, but I have to share the computer now!
Date: 2014-05-05
From: no business shelter

To: Erwin, TN
Miles today: 6.0

Today was yet another great day! We woke early (the guys at the shelter left early and warned us they'd be up - but didn't warn us they got ready like a pack of elephants! But it's ok, we needed to get going anyways) and enjoyed a few minutes by the campfire with two other hikers before we set off for Erwin!The forrest was pretty and smelled great again! We got to see some amazing views of the Nolichucky River as we headed into town. There were some rollercoater ups and downs (which are a lot less fun when walking them with a backpack on than actually riding a roller coaster - by the way). And then lots of steep downhill. My knees were screaming by the end of it. But it was well worth it. I love being able to get a glimpse of the town we are about to enter from way up in the mountains. It's definitely one of my favorite parts of hiking!We arrived into town around 10am and walked over to Uncle Johnny's Hostel to wait for Kent (Mr Blister). There were lots of hikers there waiting for a shuttle into town, so we got to visit a bit while enjoying a cold drink. Kent picked us up and took us to his home outside Erwin, in Kingsport. Unfortunately, his wife Nancy (Singing Sister) is out of town so we didn't get to see her, but Kent took great care of us! They have a beautiful property and home. We all took much needed showers and threw the laundry in (also much needed) before Kent took us to get our re-supply. It was so nice to have someone who knew their way around town and was so willing to help out. Kent and Nacy are big hiker's themselves having logged well over nine thousand miles themselves between the AT, New England, the Florida Trail and trails in New Zealand! They truly understand just how much we appreciate all their help! When we got home Kent made us a huge pan of lasagna, garlic bread and spinach salad (with fresh spinach from their garden)! It was all delicious. Way better than Ramen! For dessert, we get homemade brownies and ice cream! Basically, we are never leaving! Actually, Kent offered to "slack" us for eight miles tomorrow! Woo Hoo! It's almost eight miles of uphill, so we are really looking forward to it! My legs will hopefully thank me, they are the more sore today than ever. I'm not sure why they are hurting so bad almost a month into our hike, but they are. I also have seven blisters/hot spots/wear spots on my left foot and two on my right (not to mention the maybe broken toe), so I'm hoping a few miles without a pack will help! Kent Slay hasn't mentioned his heel hurting lately, so hopefully the socks and inserts are helping.Our plan is to get into Roan Mountain in the next two and a half days. Thank you again to everyone for your coments and support! I love reading them and sharing with the boys!
Date: 2014-05-07
From: Iron Mountain Gap

To: Roan Mountain High Shelter
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: overcast clouds

AT day 32 WednesdayToday was another beautiful day with a nice breeze and full sun. The boys thought it was too hot, but I sweat even when it's cold so I didn't notice! In my works hot is always better than cold anyways! We left camp around 8am and immediately had some uphill, of course. My legs felt like jelly after our twenty mile day the day before. I was seriously not sure that I was going to make it a single mile much less the 15 we had planned. I'm so confused as to why my legs are starting to fail me now a month in. Its so weird. Maybe I'm not getting enough protein to build the muscle back up that I'm positive I'm breaking down every day despite my best efforts to eat better on this trip. But I digress. The first half of the day wasn't too terrible as far as terrain goes but was steady uphill for the first six miles where we took a long break before braving the big climb we knew was ahead. Today we had to go from 4000 feet of elevation to over 6000 feet of elevation. The numbers probably don't mean much when reading from home, but let me assure you that going up 2000 feet with a 35 pound backpack on, is pretty much pure agony. The nice thing is that the trail maintainers had put in switchbacks for some of it which helps a great deal!We made it up to our first break point in good time. There was still over a mile of climbing to do though, so we didn't stop for long. I've found for me personally, stopping for too long makes it harder to start back up again. Legs freeze up, Achilles' get tight, and fatigue sets in quickly. So up we went!The forrest changed to hemlock on our way up and it was gorgeous! The smell from the trees is amazing. I felt like I was walking through a Yankee Candle! I wish I could post the smell for you all because it has got to be one of the best smells ever! Of course, anything smells better than us at this point, but even so the trees were awesome! It almost made up for the fact that we were climbing forever!When we finally reached the top, we enjoyed the views, as always, but were ready to get to camp for the night. Especially me. My legs and feet are shot. There were definitely tears today. It's so frustrating to be in pain all the time, when you have no choice but to keep going. The hot spots/blisters/wear marks and general achy ness are a constant nuisance and nothing seems to be making them better. I think I need a day off to let my feet air out and my legs rest, but I don't think we have one planned anytime soon. I'm not sure what I'll do but I know it'll work out somehow. I hope!We stopped about 14 miles in at the highest shelter on the AT. It's pretty cool! It has a door and two stories. Sadly, there was a ton of trash in it so no one slept in it! We all set uptents for the night not wanting to deal with the mice inside. On that note, it's time for lights out. Hopefully, I'll be posting these entries from town tomorrow. Goodnight
Date: 2014-05-13
From: Double Spring Shelter

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: broken clouds

AT day 39 TuesdayWe got up and on the trail pretty early this morning. As always in shelters as soon as the first person is awake, everyone else is up too. But it was a good thing, because we were walking into Damascus and it was still 18 miles away. So getting an early start was a good thing. We kept a fairly good pace right off the bat. There were lots of rolling ups and downs but nothing too steep, which was so nice. My legs were still killing me so even the small hills felt hard. The boys said their soreness is completely gone so the small hills were easy for them. I'm jealous!We stopped for a break and to get water at Abingdon Gap Shelter. We were told there is no reliable water after that point until town, ten miles away, so we wanted to tank up. The unfortunate part was that the spring was down a huge steep hill about a quarter of a mile away. No one wants to walk an extra half mile for water but we had no choice. About 6.5 miles after that we crossed the border from Tennessee to Virginia! We stopped for the token pictures by the sign and continued on our way. Soon we could start to see the town below us and we started our descent. It was interesting walking into Damascus because we literally walk out of the woods and onto a street where there's a big sign to walk under showing that we were in Damascus! We then walked a path through a pretty green field next to a beautiful river and right onto the main road. We took the trail/sidewalk all the way through town and to Sundog Outfitter to get our care package! The box was huge! The guys behind the counter asked if there were black smithing tools in it because it was so heavy! There weren't black smithing tools, but there was tons of amazing treats!!!! Jon and I were like kids at Christmas opening it up! We couldn't believe how much thought and effort was put into the things we received. Lisa and Kathy did a great job at picking out things we love and things we needed plus a lot of extravagant treats! The goodies just kept on coming! As we took things out of the box we just kept saying, "oh my goodness", "wow", "I can't believe they thought of that"!!! They even took the time to take everything out of its packages and put stuff in small baggies (which is what we do when we resupply). They really did their homework! We can't thank them enough for being so thoughtful and generous. I especially loved the notes they included. We are truly grateful for everyone's love and support while we're out here. It means more than we could possibly express. It was a long day and we were tired so we all showered, ate and went to bed. It was nice having comfortable beds to sleep in and showers! We stayed at the Woodchuck Hostel, which is new and fabulous! I couldn't relax with thoughts of home on my mind, but it was nice to be clean and indoors as the rained started outside. Tomorrow we will figure out what we need to do about our unexpected situation back home.
Date: 2014-05-15
From: zero day

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

News flash the AT is hard. Really hard. On its 2185 miles journey from Springer Mnt Ga. to Katahdin in Maine the Appalachian Trail crosses 14 states. It is said that when a Thru-hiker completes the Trail they will have climbed enough mountains and gained enough elevation to have summited Mnt Everest 16 times. There is traditionally less than a 25% completion rate. So the likelihood of all three of us successfully walking every mile was never in our favor. The strain of walking mile after mile and climbing mountain after mountain all while burdened with an all too heavy pack takes its physical toll. Dealing with the elements; trudging through rain and mud, toiling away in sweltering heat, and coping with anything else mother nature decides to throw at you can take its mental toll. By now,I'm sure, Sarah(aka Optimist Prime) has painted a detailed image for ya'll. So I will not dwell into further details. Though, I will say that I have gone through special ops training and selection courses in the military and the AT is by far the hardest thing I have ever done. Any way you say it the AT is hard!! That being said it is with a heavy heart that I have to say Sarah will not be continuing her hike at this point. She will be providing us with vehicle support in the meantime with the hopes of continuing once mended. First let me say how proud of her I am. Back in December she underwent surgery where she had her back opened up. Less than a month later she was already walking another long distance trail. She has run several marathons and countless half marathons. She once hiked 48miles(with 22,000ft of elevation) across the Grand Canyon and back in a single day. She has tortured her body and is certainly no stranger to pain. However, enough is enough and there comes a time when you are doing more harm and possibly causing irreparable damage. She has earned her Trail name. She is indeed Optimist Prime. This post by Jon aka Salty
Date: 2014-05-20
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Hello everyone! It's Sarah again!I'm sure you've seen the post from Jon about me being hurt by now. I thought I was just having muscle soreness in my quads (which was very weird since we had been on trail for over a month and most people are over the soreness phase) but upon further review, it has been determined that it's not. After five days off, I was still having the same pain from my knee to my hip. I could barely walk because it was hard to pick up my legs. Time off wasn't helping so I knew it couldn't be my muscles. As Jon mentioned I used to be a runner and muscle soreness generally goes away pretty quickly with rest. But the pain I am having wasn't letting go. I kept saying I was never this sore, even after running a marathon. Naturally, I was confused. I called Jon's cousin, Georgie, who is a physical therapist to see what she thought. Based on my description of what is happening, she thinks I've done something to the tendon that runs up the quads. She was nice enough to come over and check me out. But the problem with internal issues is that without an MRI, it's impossible to see what going on. Georgie recommended that I take a break from the trail to get better. She said, in additional to antinflammatory's, to rest, elevate and ice my legs. So that's what I've been doing while in Florida hoping I'll be better soon. I decided that I would help the boys while I recover by doing car support. That way I could jump back on the trail when I feel better and continue to hike to Maine. Baxter State park closes in October, so if I can successfully make it there, I can come back to Virginia to make up missed miles after we're done with the rest of the trail. I'm not quitting. I want, more than anything, to make it to Kathadin. And that's what I plan to do!
Date: 2014-05-21
From: Damascus, VA

To: Featherlight trail
Miles today: 5.5
Weather: overcast clouds

It's good to be back on the trail! We officially started to hike again today! Our group is one bigger now. Duke is a hiker dog again. He seemed to be happy to be out again!We only did about four to five miles due to the time we got back out to the trail. It was very nice and easy, which was good for Duke (who is overweight thanks to all the treats he got at his grampy George's) and me with my hurt legs. I decided to do the small miles without my pack to see how I did. I also switched to my running shoes to see how they felt. It was great to be hiking again! Because we have our car now, we decided to do a key swap halfway through. Jon and Kent dropped Duke and me off at the northern most point and we started hiking south. Jon and Kent went back to where we got off the trail, left the car and started hiking north. When we met in the middle, Jon gave me the key to the car and when I got to it, I drove up to the boys. Phew! We found a campsite off the road and set up for the night. Jon, Duke and I our using our huge three person tent again. I guess we never cleaned it after the Florida Trail, so it smells terrible! We are trying it out again tonight, but it may be retired quickly depending on how it handles the weather. We've had numerous issues in the past with this beast. We're crossing our fingers it works out tonight as the dark clouds are rolling in and a storm is sure to hit sometime tonight. A lot of logistical planning goes into using a car. At camp we talked about how soon we can ditch it. A more traditional hike is what we are leaning towards. However, hiking with a dog adds a whole slew of other issues so the car could be helpful (for getting into towns, doing our resupply, and keeping Duke out of bad weather). We'll see how everything pans out. Especially depending on if I can hike or not. As far as my legs go, the pain was tolerable but still very much there. I'm not sure if I should just take another week to heal more or keep pushing as long as I'm not dying. I'll see how they feel in the morning and make the decision then. Either way it feels good to be back out on the trail. And I'm especially comfortable tonight since I brought along my pillow! Like I said, having a car can be helpful!
Date: 2014-05-23
From: Elk Garden

To: Elk Garden
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: broken clouds

This morning, after surviving the thunderstorms overnight, we woke up dry! However, I also woke up sore. Sore enough that I decided it would be best not hike. I'm sure even small miles at this point would be doing more harm than good. So I loaded up the car and took the boys to where we got off the trail yesterday. Jon took Duke since I was going to meet them 11 miles north where the trail crossed the road. While the boys hiked, I explored a little and then pulled over on the side of the road where they would come out of the woods and read. As other hikers walked by, I felt terrible for being near the trail and not doing trail magic. But I didn't plan beforehand so I didn't have anything arranged. I also felt super bummed out for not hiking myself. It was awful being so close but so far away. It was pure torture. I wanted to be hiking and smelly and huffing and puffing from climbing the mountain. I hated sitting there. It would be like going to a gourmet restaurant and not being able to eat. When Jon and Kent got there with Duke we had a little discussion and ultimately decided I would go to my moms to try to get better as soon as possible so that I could rejoin them as a hiker. It was a tough decision but I knew it was the right one. While we were going through the car to get the boys situated another hiker asked if she could ride back to town with me. Of course, I said yes. Then the girl asked my name and I didn't know what to say. I immediately broke down in tears. I wasn't going to be hiking so I was Sarah again, not Optimist Prime. It was the worst feeling. Then I had to say goodbye to Jon and Kent which was equally as hard. I didn't want to go. But Jon promised that if I could get better and come back to meet them, we would finish the trail together and he would come back to Virginia to car support me while I did the miles I had missed. With that in mind I left the trail.
Date: 2014-05-24
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

I'm at my moms now resting and icing and trying a stronger antinflammatory. I'm hoping another week or two off will cure me. And thankful for my mom and Jay for letting Duke and I stay here while I try to recover. Duke is happy to have Hannah, my moms dog, to play with. And I am happy to have good company, great food, a comfy bed and showers every day! I haven't heard from the boys yet, but I'm hoping they'll call when they get to town. I miss the trail and our trail friends. I hope everyone is doing well!Hopefully my next journal will be good news!