morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2015-07-24
From: Erwin / Cantarosso Farm

To: tentsite around 355 miles
Miles today: 12.5

Side note: UCLA folks will be amused to know this is me making the baked Mac and cheese recipe I got off Michelle Le that I make for my students every quarter! I made it at Cantarosso Farm to great acclaim - it's perfect hiker food!Today Pilgrim and I woke up at Cantarosso and feasted on an elaborate breakfast--two large cinnamon buns each (warmed in the toaster oven), fresh berries in yogurt with bananas, orange juice, and coffee. We sat on the balcony outside my room and listened to the Guardians of the Galaxy Awesome Mix, eating, reading the amazing log, and composing our own entries.Peggy asks hikers to write about what motivated them to hike the AT. The answers are so personal...wow.We were so relaxed and happy that we pushed back our departure time until 10:00 am. :-)Then they dropped us off back at the trailhead and we resumed our hike. We ran into Romeo and Julia on the trail, so we all hiked together.This area where we are all tenting reminds me of the scene in Star Wars where they land the Millennium Falcon on a critter and don't notice it. (An auroch??) They walk around and the outside is all spongy and soft. That's how it feels to walk here. The ground is mostly bare and mossy.Sean and I spent forever, in vain, trying to get a fire going. I think the altitude is too high, it's too cold, everything is too wet. We made s'mores anyway, mostly off of burning pages of Seven Steps to Midnight!We spent so much time on the stupid fire that it was dark before we set out to hang our food bags, which I don't recommend! My rock bag got stuck on a tree and it took Sean's strength and determination to get it down.So we hit some bumps tonight, but did our best as a group.
Date: 2015-07-25
From: tentsite around 355 miles

To: Clyde Smith shelter
Miles today: 13.6
Weather: clear sky

Pilgrim and I were up and ready to go before Romeo and Juliet had gotten out of their tent. :-)We were on the trail by 8 am and the sun coming through the trees on the cold, misty mountain top was AMAZING! There are parts of the trail that just look like everything else, that's when you tend to zone out. And there are parts like this morning that just stun you anew.We hiked apart for a bit of the morning, then he waited for me and let me set the (slower) pace. We made good time...13.6 miles and we were in the shelter by 2:00!We could have kept going, but the mountain ahead is a haul. May as well take an early day and rest up. This shelter has two bunk beds of sorts...I'm in one writing and reading Seven Steps, Pilgrim's across from me reading the Bible."Jesus was The Man! He really put people in their place!" - sudden funny outburst from Pilgrim, reading the Bible next to me.We were both hit with *stupid* hunger today. I ate yet another packet of raw ramen...8:50 pm - Pilgrim: "I just saw my backpack and thought it was a bear!"Tonight we also had a serious case of the bedtime giggles. Seriously, I don't know what caused it, but we were gasping for breath, cackling until our abs hurt. Each time I thought we'd calmed down...one of us would start up again. Most of it was related to our fear of bears...and the girl tenting behind us who casually strolled over and hung all of her bear-tastic food IN the shelter, a mere three feet from where Pilgrim was going to be sleeping.(Commence freakout)Needless to say, we mentioned the whole 100-feet-from-people rule, and offered to help her hang that sh*t OUTSIDE.It's making me laugh just remembering it.
Date: 2015-07-26
From: Clyde Smith shelter

To: Overmountain shelter
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: light rain

I am lying in the loft of an old red barn, looking out over the mountainside and the sky coloring up from sunset. There was a double rainbow earlier and we all gathered outside to watch it...16 men and boys...and Pilgrim and me. There's so much to write about but I am distracted by the awesomeness of sleeping in a barn loft. Today we were out by 8:15 and had our first climb already, followed by Roan Mountain. I had thought it was going to be really bad, but at least the weather was cool and the climb gradual until the end. I wasn't out-of-breath tired, more out-of-gas tired. Or out-of-calories. I ate a Snickers bar and it helped.Pilgrim waited for me so we could do lunch at Carver's Gap. Imagine a parking lot of families and coolers, out for a Sunday picnic. Now imagine two seriously bedraggled, half-starved pathetic hikers wandering in bearing their homes on their backs. We sat down...and people flocked to us. They were so curious. Had we really been walking since Georgia? How heavy were our packs? Would we like some leftover potato salad?HOLD THE PRESSES! Potato salad?!We just about lost our minds. People gave us potato salad, chicken salad, an almost complete loaf of sour dough bread, bottled water. We dipped the bread into little tubs of peanut butter that Pilgrim had. I made a "sandwich" out of a Slim Jim wrapped in sourdough. We stuffed ourselves. It was awesome. We had 4 slices of bread left, which we saved to go with Mountain Houses for dinner. Tomorrow we'll hit the 400 mile mark!
Date: 2015-07-27
From: Overmountain shelter

To: Mountaineer Shelter
Miles today: 18.0

I took a voice memo today, here's the transcription. Imagine it with lots of heavy breathing in between words:"I just passed Bradley Gap, Roan Mountain area, and it's so wide open and beautiful here, it makes you feel so small. You look in the distance and you can see the mountains you've already climbed, and you can see the winding path ahead of you of the mountains you're going to climb, and it seems like you've travelled so far...you're so small and yet you're going to cover all of this. There are birds startling out of the grass ahead, shooting out like rockets, that go up and down as they skim the ground...I filled a bowl full of blueberries and blackberries on the way up, scratched my legs to hell but it was worth it...it looks like Ireland out here."Today was tough. It started out quite beautiful, hiking up the hillside right above the barn, everything covered in wildflowers. We went up Little Hump and Hump Mountain (my humps! My humps!), which didn't look bad on the map but in fact were ass-kickers. There was no shelter to stop at for lunch - the shelters here are 18 miles apart! So we decided to lunch at the gap, the roadside of US 19E.We were both tired, but I was basically toast. We had had this awful descent from 5,000 feet to 3,000. It felt like forever and the trail was full of boulders and roots and #?&$?!!!! log stairs. We both had "the umbles" - first you bumble, then you fumble, then you tumble. Pilgrim had dropped his poles twice. I was zombie-walking, completely out of gas.We were also being slayed by allergies. My right eye was swelling shut.I made ramen at lunch and used the steam to treat my eye.There was trash on the roadside and a large bag of trail mix...with M&Ms inside. I was *this* close to fishing the M&Ms out, but Pilgrim convinced me NOT to eat road candy. Instead I dumped out the food (too heavy and tempting for me to pack out) and cleaned up the trash someone left. (I packed out their trash...karma again??)It started to rain, we crossed the street, and began the next climb, which was another 8-9 miles. I didn't know how I'd make it. I was SO out of gas.Pilgrim was ahead of me, and I thought I heard him shout, "The dogs are smiling!!" Which sort of made sense, he likes dogs , I was delirious. I was actually foraging for berries for energy when he called.What he actually said was "God has smiled upon us!"And then: " There's a cooler of food!"WHAT?!!!!I ran up to him, and there it was, locked to a tree: "TRAIL MAGIC Courtesy of High Country Outdoor Group."High Country, I don't know know who you are but I am so sending you a donation when I get home!"FOOOOOD!" I screamed.I inhaled a cookie, a bag of chips, and two cans of soda. I don't even drink soda. But this...this was sweet, sweet calories .And that was just what I needed to knock out the rest of the miles.
Date: 2015-07-28
From: Mountaineer Shelter

To: Dennis Cove Road / Black Bear Resort
Miles today: 15.9
Weather: overcast clouds

This is actually a picture from yesterday's hike, but it fits how Pilgrim and I feel about finishing this section of trail. As we think about getting off the trail, we get sad...we both could totally thru-hike if we had more time. Instead, we hike the hike we have. There are many ways to do the AT...section hiking, day hiking, flip flopping, slackpacking, thru-hiking...there really isn't a "wrong" way. It's all good. Hike your own hike, and it will be awesome. Be flexible, things will change in ways you couldn't predict or expect. Embrace the awesome folks you meet along the way. Soak it all in. However your hike is, it's a once in a lifetime experience.
Date: 2015-07-29
From: Dennis Cove Road, Yellow Blaze to Damascus

To: Saunders Shelter
Miles today: 8.6
Weather: light rain

As I mentioned before, you can make rough plans for the AT, but you have to be flexible, adapt, and hike your own hike. There was a trail hazard that forced me to skip a small section of the trail - a bummer because I wanted continuity and I wanted to walk over the Virginia state line. But safety has to come first. So I yellow blazed (named for the yellow lines on a roadway) to Damascus!The college guy who drove me grew up in a hostel. It was so interesting hearing what that was like! He said the hiker smell doesn't bother him...he grew up around it. And he knows it as distinct from other types of BO, like when you've been in band practice in the sun all day (his example!). He is a Bio major and got super animated talking about photosynthesis and ATP. It was so neat.He dropped me off at a coffee shop and I did a bunch of journal entries. I was surprised to see how much this has become a pleasurable part of my trail experience...and how hard it is when I stay at a hostel without wifi! :-) I must have spent 3 hours drinking coffee and journaling. It was great. Then I popped into the outfitter next door to see what I could do about the missing sternum buckle. REI sent one, but it didn't fit. The guys at the store helped me jerryrig a solution.When I got back on the AT at the Virginia Creeper trail, it was around 3:00. (Tell me that someone has "Virginia Creeper" as a trail name!) Because of the late start, I did an early day and stopped at the first shelter.There was a church youth group there - Church of the Brethren. I know this church from having attended an Easter service at a Church of the Brethren in La Verne with Wendy and JR. "Oooh!! You allow female pastors!" I said excitedly. The two girls in their group then high-fived me. ;-)I set up my tent in a little clearing behind the shelter...then realized the edges were full of blackberry bushes! Nom nom. I picked a bunch for the next morning's oatmeal.The kids were singing religious songs...it was sweet. Then they invited me to join them for hot cider. When we were finished drinking, the youngest boy there seemed kind of bashful about cleaning up. "Not in front of *company*!" he protested. Being the "company," I was curious to know what the big deal was. It's simply that they clean their cups and bowls by licking them. ;-)
Date: 2015-07-30
From: Saunders Shelter

To: Campsite past Thomas Knob Shelter
Miles today: 20.0

Oh my gosh. I knew this was going to be a long day...but geez. There's so much to get down and I'm running so far behind because I got here so late. I waffled about whether or not to spend the extra mile on a side trail up to the summit of Mt Rogers, but I thought doing dinner up there while watching the sunset would be worth it. I didn't realize there's no view! People go up there because the Christmas trees are nice. But if you've just hiked through the Smokies...you've seen Alpine Wonderland. If I had known...but if I hadn't of taken the side trail, I would have wondered.Notes:Mercedes AKA Bearanoid - A Sobo who started in Pennsylvania. We met on the trail and had a nice time exchanging stories. She's freaked out by bears ( hence her name). She was injured - the pain in her foot so intense that it was making her nauseous. She said she was probably getting off in Damascus. She told me to look out for her "trail bestie," Navigator. Get this - he's traveling south by hiking north. Navigator has two cars. He drops the first one off by the trail, drives 10 miles south, drops off the second car. Then he hikes north to the first car...drives it 20 miles south, hikes 10 north to the second car, and so on. He's leapfrogging his way south. The funny thing is, if you're going south around where he is, as Mercedes was, he'll keep passing you each day...going in the opposite direction! Isn't that funny? Cat Daddy - I tented with Cat Daddy on a hillside with stunning views just past the shelter. It was just too pretty to waste a night in a shelter with no view! Cat Daddy got his name from when he stayed in a hostel one night and a stray cat nuzzled into his sleeping bag. He didn't think much of it ...felt the cat moving around a lot, but whatever. It wasn't until he woke up to newborn kittens in his bag! Luckily he lives local (in Chapel Hill) so he was able to take the mama and kittens to a no-kill shelter.Couple I Met On the Mountaintop - after I made a big climb up this hillside with cattle, I saw an older couple on the rocks at the top enjoying the views. They were so excited for me to be entering Grayson Highlands tomorrow...the land of the wild ponies! (More on that soon) The ponies are "awesome" the lady said. Her husband offered to take my picture, and I remember laughing out loud to what he said as he took the pic above:They'd gone to Grayson with buckets specifically to collect berries. But then they got sidetracked petting wild ponies."We couldn't eat the berries then, cause our hands were all ponyfied," he said.I am fully intending to get as ponyfied as possible tomorrow!
Date: 2015-08-01
From: Old Orchard Shelter

To: Trimpi Shelter
Miles today: 13.2
Weather: clear sky

Yesterday's entry was pretty serious, so today I give you some laughs. A recent shelter log entry that cracked me up. And this exchange, which actually happened yesterday after the ponyfication."Are you sure you can eat those?" the lady asks in a nasally voice.I'm standing chest-deep in berry bushes, all my fingers dyed purple, my bared teeth full of blackberry seeds and blueberry skins. I'm a feral Cookie Monster on a berry binge.Lady, stay away from the hiker.ESPECIALLY when the hiker is feeding.
Date: 2015-08-02
From: Trimpi Shelter

To: Atkins
Miles today: 21.0
Weather: few clouds

Virginia, you are killing me with your blackberries that are twice the size of anybody else's that can be picked without a scratch.You are killing me with your rolling farmlands, your one room schoolhouses, your endless views and OMG PONIES!You are killing me with your marvelous flatline elevation maps which make the rest of the trail look like a jagged EKG.I just knocked out another 20 mile day.And the gal from California...can't handle the Virginia sun. Got royally burned (but you know, PONIES).Virginia, why are you so awesome?
Date: 2015-08-03
From: Atkins

To: Darth Maul Shelter...oh wait, Knot Maul
Miles today: 14.4
Weather: few clouds

10:10 am, The Barn restaurant, Atkins. I'm having a hard time gearing up to head back to the trail. I resupplied at a gas station, as that was my only option. I bought more than I should...I think this is the direct consequence of nearly running out of food yesterday. Plus last night I waited for over an hour for pizza...before the delivery guy called to say they wouldn't deliver out to where the motel was! So I bought $50 worth of junk food at a gas station and I can't fit it all in my food bag and it's made my pack stupid heavy. There's a whole jar of peanut butter in there. What was I thinking?!The gas station didn't have aloe or sunblock, so I'm screwed. Note: the Bates Motel ("Relax Inn") is in Rural Retreat, not Atkins, and there are no shuttles into town.Virginia sure is shaping up to be the prettiest state so far. I am excited to see more. Also, I passed 500 miles yesterday. Need a pic somewhere.3:10 pm, rock. I don't know if it's the heat or the bugs or the heavy breakfast or the metric ton that is my pack, but I am really dragging anchor today. I saw this large flat rock to lie on...which is what I am doing right now.5 more days...and I'm nearly out of paper. What can I write on besides pages of 7 Steps to Midnight? Which I finished at breakfast. Ending was stupid, as expected. He never even got past the third step! The whole "steps to midnight" thing was meaningless - just a tactic to make him feel a sense of urgency. Come ON!Come to think of it, when I did 21 miles yesterday my food bag was empty. No wonder I feel different today.Also: I am officially sick of walking through rhododendrons.10:00 pm, Darth Maul shelter. I am so proud of myself for the kick ass fire I just built! I got into the shelter late and was worried because getting water took forever (and I needed it - I ran out today!) and it was getting dark. I skipped dinner and hung the world's heaviest food bag. Someone had stacked wood to dry under the shelter...dare I try to start a fire, given how little time I had left? Yes. The funny thing is when I squirted the replacement Neosporin out onto the cotton ball, I realized I'd bought the wrong stuff. This was an opaque cream! And no, not flammable. But guess what I did have? The final freaking pages of 7 Steps to Midnight!! Hahaha! I totally started the fire with them and "leveled up" in no time. It's immensely comforting to lie in the shelter gazing out at the firelight. It's been a long time since I slept alone in a shelter. I forgot how loud and scary it can be. Today was way more climbing than I realized. So much for flat Virginia!
Date: 2015-08-05
From: Chestnut Knob shelter

To: Laurel Creek campsite
Miles today: 16.8
Weather: overcast clouds

I have so much to say but little paper and dwindling sunlight! Isn't that always the case? But today I saw....******A BEAR!!!!******I had left camp in the morning after chatting with the dad and his son and nephew. I had already startled a deer that morning, so I was expecting that sudden burst-of-noise-through-the-branches. But this time when I heard it up on the ridge to my left, I saw black hindquarters jump and disappear into the trees!Excited, I stayed where I was and watched. When I didn't see anything, I cautiously moved forward. Then he continued at a run (obviously freaked out by me) and crossed the trail ahead of me, so I could get a good look at him! He looked like a really, really big dog. It was so exciting!My third to last day on the trail...and I finally see a bear! What's funny is that it was just a day or so ago when I thought, weeeeelll.....*maybe* it would be neat to see a bear...IF it was daylight and IF it were safely far away and IF I was with someone else.Well, two out of three ain't bad!So there was a deer and a bear and a southbound hiker named Pale Horse (Bad Horse! Bad Horse! He rides across the nation, the thoroughbred of sin...). Jenkins shelter, where I was going to stay the night, had bear warning signs and was pretty buggy. I was planning on hitting a hostel, but by the time I got phone service I found out the number had been disconnected and I was already past the shelter options. I'm too far from Bland to make it before nightfall, so this campsite was pretty much my only option. But I don't like camping close to roads and parking lots. I did my best to get out of sight and I'm nestled on two sides by small pine trees. I can hear the creek and when the cars pass on the gravel road. So my fear here is more human than bear. I hear thunder in the distance...and the wind is coming through so loud! And now of course I'm worried about branches falling on my tent. Oh crap, one just did! I have to remember scary branch noises are probably not bears. Oh how I miss the safety of Chestnut Knob! This is a test on my penultimate night.
Date: 2015-08-06
From: Laurel Creek campsite

To: Bland / Big Walker Motel
Miles today: 7.8
Weather: overcast clouds

I woke up in my tent this morning and it was still drizzling...It made me think of something Pilgrim said after a rough night of thinking that bears were going to get him. He said, "Thank goodness for the sun so I can finally get some sleep." It was funny because it's true...in the daylight, you finally feel safe.I slept in, made a sad attempt at drying out the tent. (The AT *would* dump rain on my on my last days, just as it did when I started!) Turns out, my timing was perfect. Unsteady Eddie, Samson, and Rock Dumper from last night were all coming up the trail! Apparently they camped on the other side of the creek! And had all the same reservations about being near the road that I did. I wish I had known they were there...I would have joined them.We hiked together today, which was really nice. Meanwhile, I got phone reception and found out my good friend from college, Sara, just happened to be driving through Virginia that day! We made rough plans to meet at the Dairy Queen in Bland. Eddie has a house in Bland, which is two miles off the trail, and it was raining...so we all started thinking of ways to get to town that didn't involve two miles of road walking in wet shoes. Eddie comically used me as "bait" to get a ride into town from a colleague. It was so neat to have the opportunity to ride into Bland with them, to see the home they're fixing up, to have a little time wandering the town. (They have a BREYER DEALER in town! This will only make sense to the 3% of you who were plastic-horse crazed 13 year olds). Then we all went to Dairy Queen and ate to our hearts' content. I really appreciated the time with Eddie and the boys so much...people on the trail are just such fine people. I was already feeling sad about getting off the trail and no longer having these serendipitous connections.I waited at the Dairy Queen for Sara, who got really waylaid by bad GPS directions (an inevitable fate in this part of the state). It was getting late and I didn't think I'd have time to hike back in to a shelter...plus I wanted to see my friend."Is it cheating to spend my last night on the trail...OFF the trail?" I asked Eddie and company."No!" the boys said enthusiastically.It was pretty funny. I guess it would be hard to top my last two nights...the epically wonderful night in Chestnut Knob and the epically rainy night in Laurel Creek. So I said my goodbyes to the family, finished some journal entries on my phone, and headed across the street to (appropriately enough) the Big Walker Motel. And a woman stopped at the beginning of the driveway to give me a ride. :-)I ordered a "taco pizza" and cinnamon rolls from the local pizza place and waited for Sara to arrive. It was so wonderful to see her! We stayed up chatting and laughing and catching up. I still can't believe the circumstances that put us into Bland together.Bland turned out to be anything but.
Date: 2015-03-21
To: MT. KATAHDIN 
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Mike is beginning his journey on March 21, 2015 starting at Springer Mt. in GA. He will travel anywhere from 15-20 miles each day. He will check-in via phone when service is available or when he has to come off the trail for supplies. His hub (Zach States and wife, Katrina States) will directly input any new correspondence when they hear from Mike throughout his journey. Special thanks to Lewis Holland for making all this possible! He is truly a wonderful friend and I wish he could enjoy the journey with me!