morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-04-27
From: Erwin, TN

To: Indian Grave Gap
Miles today: 8.3

Today was an AWESOME day. I woke up and packed up camp with sand pouring out of everything. As i was brushing my teeth, tech showed up and interviewed me. Ill share the site with to all once he shares it with me. We then hiked 1.5 miles on the trail to USA raft to go Whitewater rafting on the Nolichucky river.Siren, tech, icarus, a couple from pa and one older gentleman loaded in to a raft with our guide Chris and set off to conquer the river in the rain. We had a blast paddling down the class III and IV rapids. No one even went for a swim from our boat!Afterward, we took hot showers to warm up and changed back into our hiking clothes. Tech and Icarus returned to uncle Johnny's and siren and i hiked on. We set up camp around 730, just as the rain really started coming down. I cooked some mashed potatoes in my vestibule, ate some chocolate covered almonds and fell asleep to the pitter patter of rain on my tent.If you're interested, please see mail drop page, mail drop #2, if you're interested in sending a package. Anything is appreciated :-) Thanks all!
Date: 2013-04-28
From: Indian Grave Gap

To: Erwin, TN
Miles today: 0.0

I woke up to rain pouring on the sides of my tent. It was just plain wet outside with no sign of stopping. Siren called over asking if I was awake. I replied that I was and that this rain was horrible. She said "yeah". We called around to Greasy Creek Friendly, a rumored awesome hostel, and she quoted us a $50 shuttle fee, which was above our budget. We called a few more places without success and finally got ahold of Miss Janet, who arranged a shuttle for us back to Erwin.We were shuttled by Shepard, who was a former SOBO hiker in town for the day. He said Uncle Johnny's had an open cabin, and sure enough, he was right. We shared a cabin with Oops, who Uncle Johnny kept calling Paul (as did we after that, it wasn't his real name either). The cabin had queen size bunks, a couch and TV. We set up and caught the shuttle to get dinner at the italian resturant in Unicoi, stopped at Walmart and then caught the shuttle back. We had a rainy day movie marathon of Uncle Buck and Forrest Gump with Oops, Outside dog, and Patchoulie until 1030. After that I signed Outside Dog's guide book (yearbook style) and crashed.
Date: 2013-04-29
From: Indian Grave Gap

To: Greasy Creek Gap
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: overcast clouds

The shuttle let from uncle Johnny's back to Indian grave gap at 9 am. I felt really awesome hiking today. Recently, i changed up my diet from honey buns and cheese danishes to dried fruit and chocolate covered nuts. I think that may have something to do with it :-)The hike today took us over Unaka mountain, which had a pretty awesome pine forrestwhere we had lunch. All say long we heard rumors of trail magic by honey badgers mom at iron mountain gap, so it was a pleasant surprise to see a van that had food when we arrived around dinner time. It wasn't honey badgers mom, but rather embassador and rob, the former owner of the bird cage in MA. They had the leftovers and we waiting in a few slackpackers. We ate some dinner and continued on a few more miles to greasy creek gap, where we got our tents set up just prior to dark and fell asleep.
Date: 2013-04-30
From: Greasy Creek Gap

To: Carvers Gap
Miles today: 8.9
Weather: overcast clouds

I woke up feeling as if a freight train ran me over. Sometime in the middle of the night I woke up feeling horrible and couldn't really fall back asleep. After lying in my tent for a long time, hearing Siren already all packed up, I decided to roll out of my sleeping bag and slowly pack up. Siren had already left and I was just getting around to breakfast. I could tell today was going to be a long, miserable day. The original plan was to hike to Overmountain shelter, a barn converted into a shelter that was supposed to have amazing sunrises. I knew immediately I wouldn't be able to hike the 17+ miles to get there. Every step felt like 20 and my feet felt like bricks. The part that made the day worse? It was practically steep uphill all day long. I got to Ash Gap, a small gap on the way up the 4 mile climb of 2000 ft+ up roan mtn when I decided to take a nap. I fell asleep at the campsite and woke up 20 minutes later and decided to tackle the rest of the climb up Roan Mountain. Holy steep. What seemed like hours later I summited Roan and fell asleep again at the campsite at the former Cloudland Hotel. About 20 minutes later I decided to descend into Carvers Gap. The trail was either a stream or loose rocks the size of baseballs. My ankles twisted and turned in ways I didn't know possible. At the bottom of the mountain, I decided to refill my water bladder and walked toward the road, hearing voices in the distance.I was greeted by "I found another one!" and a huge tent with the smell of grilled meat wafting my direction. It was amazing. A former thru hikers dad, Jim and his wife drove 4 hours to provide trail magic to hikers. It was perfect timing. I was told to grab a cold drink out of the cooler and chose a perfectly cooled Coke. The was given a huge sausage with peppers and onions, along with a buttered, grilled roll, and loaded up with fresh veggies and ranch, chips, potato salad, apples, and rice krispie treats. Jim encouraged us to eat more and more and seemed dissapointed that we weren't eating 3 sausages each. My mood instantly improved and I felt my spirit return. After talking and eating for an hour or 2, we decided to set up camp across the street along with Caboose, Surfer Dude, Soulshine, Koonzie and Honey Badger. We had a fire and laughed and told stories until dark. Not a bad end to the terrible day!
Date: 2013-05-01
From: Carvers Gap

To: US 19E
Miles today: 16.5
Weather: overcast clouds

For every minute yesterday sucked was amazing today. The Roan highlands are the most gorgeous views on the AT to date. The say started by going over Jane bald, followed by little hump mountain and hump mountain. All had 360 degree views of the surrounding mountains, including the evil Roan mountain ;-) All day long, it was like hiking through a scene in The Sound of Music. I started the morning with a breakfast of 2 apples and a rice krispie leftover from the previous days trail magic. As i was ready to leave, a bus full of preteens emptied into the parking lot next to us and swarmed honey badger asking a million questions. I waited for them to walk away and ran up the first mile of the trail. At each bald i took a long break, enjoying the breath taking views. About half way through the day, we arrived at Overmountain shelter, which was a former barn converted into an AT shelter. It was probably the nicest views at any shelter to date. We are lunch and finished the hike, arriving at us 19e.At that point, we hitched in to Roan Mountain, TN and went to bob's dairyland, which made the best cheeseburger that I've ever eaten. I ordered a milkshake and banana split to boot. We caught a ride back to the trail and set up camp next to the road. I fell asleep very full, incredibly happy and completely relaxed.
Date: 2013-05-02
From: US 19E

To: Campsite at mile 408.8
Miles today: 19.2
Weather: clear sky

Nothing terribly exciting about the actual hiking today. It was kinda PUDy (pointless ups and downs) without any real elevation gain or loss. There were, however, 3 pretty sweet waterfalls, the most awesome being Jones falls. Siren came up after i did, i didn't hear her coming and nearly fell over when she started talking, which was ironic, because caboose was saying tsars where her hike ended the year before due to a fall.We took a birdbath in the elk river, walked through a golden warbler restoration area, which just looked like a bulldozed forest, and saw our first garden bench amongst the woods. We also crossed the 400 mile mark today!Otherwise, we hiked until our planned campsite, set up tents and went to bed.
Date: 2013-05-03
From: Campsite at mile 408.8

To: Hampton, TN
Miles today: 13.9
Weather: clear sky

As with most town days, i woke up at the crack of dawn and sprinted into town. I left camp around 7:30 AM to tackle the downhill hike toward Hampton. Todays hike went through multiple rolling fields with wildflowers blooming and butterflies fluttering around my head. There was an old barn in the background as the perfect backdrop to a scene that looked like a painting.Around 11 we arrived at Dennis Cove Rd. which houses Kincora hiking hostel. Siren and I both had packages sent there, so we went over to pick them up. The owner, the legendary trail maintainer Bob Peoples was not available to unlock the packages, so we sat around for a little. I got antsy and decided to walk back a mile to check out the Black Bear Hostel. I got some food there, including combos and a rootbeer, and then walked back to Kincora to meet up with Siren. After all that walking, we decided to hike a few more miles into the actual town and continued on the trail. We walked past the Laurel Falls, a gorgeous waterfall that was incredibly high. After taking some pictures, we continued the hike down the 1 mile connector trail to town. We walked into Brown's market and checked into Braermaster Castle Hostel and were walked to our rooms. The place was enormous and clean, with a hot shower. It was also quiet with only 2 other occupants, so it was a nice place to stay. For dinner, we went to the only real dining joint in town, which just also happened to be the laundrymat, computer store, bicycle shop, and pool hall. We did wash and ordered snackbar style dinners then bought an hour of internet on the computer. Wal-Mart, Blue, and Bass were hanging out there as well because they were helping the owners build a hostel out back. Next year, that place will literally be a one-stop shop for Hampton.We walked back to the hostel and were both exhausted. After talking briefly it was bedtime.As a side note- my phone has not been acting right for a long time and will not hold a charge. It's being sent back so I'll be phoneless for a while. Apologies in advance!
Date: 2013-05-04
From: Hampton, TN

To: Watuga Lake Shelter
Miles today: 1.7
Weather: clear sky

We woke up and left the Castle to get McDonalds for breakfast. After walking for what seemed like forever, we arrived at the gas station/ McDonalds combo. I got my new "usual" of a bacon, egg and cheese McGriddle, sausage burrito and OJ, along with a fun oreo ice cream for dessert. We stopped by Subway on the way out and I got a 12" sub for future lunch. After hitting up the dollar general, we returned to the castle, gathered our stuff and headed out of Hampton. We hiked 2.5 miles up to pond flats, which dissapointingly did not have a pond and was not flat for very long, the hiked back down to Watuga lake. The lake had warning signs posted saying it was flooded. We ate lunch there, ignored the warning and detour signs and hiked the trail around the lake. There weren't many issues except for the fact 2 bridges were nearly underwater, with maybe an inch or two covering the middle section. Siren was the guinea pig on both and made it across without problem or wet feet. When we got to the shelter So Way, Caboose, and Surfer dude were sitting there having dinner. We decided to stay. I made Mac and cheese which was disgusting and thankfully had a banana moon pie from So Way for dessert. There was a fake phone in the shelter, too bad we couldn't pick it up to call for some good food!
Date: 2013-05-05
From: Watuga Lake Shelter

To: Iron Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 13.9
Weather: light intensity drizzle

So it seems that when you sleep in a shelter, everyone wakes up around oh, 6:30 am or so, which is not the typical style of Siren and I. We usually wake up around 7 or 8 and stay in our sleeping bags til 8:30 and head out around 9. Everyone was fairly loud when waking up early and was in a big rush to leave before the rain started. The wind was howling to the point it sounded like the trees were just going to blow over. The hike was uneventful, but the wind was insane. It howled all day. When we were on the ridgeline I was afraid of being blown off and had to stop behind a rock or bush with my back turned to the east to avoid falling over. We stopped at Vandervent Shelter for lunch, which was fairly blocked from the winds. That shelter was great. Bob Peoples quotes were everywhere, Chuck Norris style. "Bob Peoples housecats are racoons" "When Bob Peoples builds a switchback, an angel gets its wings" " When Bob Peopls sleeps at this shelter the mice bring him food". Hahahaha! I coudn't stop laughing. For those that don't know, Bob People is the owner of the Kincora hostel and a legendary trail maintainer. I assume this is part of his area.Siren and I were the first ones in Iron Mountain Shelter, but it quickly filled up with others that never bothered to introduce themselves or really talk much. I played a few games of Suduko, made dinner and went to bed early.
Date: 2013-05-06
From: Iron Mountain Shelter

To: Campsite at Unnamed Gap (mi 460.7)
Miles today: 22.4

I woke up and all my clothes were still soaked. Getting back into wet, cold clothes is a pretty miserable thing. Especially when you look outside and notice that it is still raining. That means nothing (I mean nothing!) is going to dry throughout the day. Once again, we caught flack from the other shelter stayers about sleeping in. One girl even asked "so are you zeroing in the shelter?" when we didn't leave, or even get out of bed at their 7:30 starting time. We left late, and thankfully so. The rain stopped around lunch and then drizzled on and off all day. We found a nice campsite for lunch and I enjoyed my trail pizza, although I nearly flipped it on the ground. I reached out to grab it and sauce went flying all over me and my gear. Lunch was saved, good enough for me!At Abington gap shelter, we stopped and had dinner and talked with Code Walker for a bit. Sire put on some awesome music and it was a relaxing time. We decided to keep walking and finished up at the campsite just before dark. As So Way said earlier, "You have the TN turnpike coming up followed by the escalator down in to Damascus." How correct he was! Damascus in the morning!
Date: 2013-05-07
From: Campsite at Unnamed Gap (mi 460.7)

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 3.7

In typical "town day" fashion I woke up early, went to start packing... and rain started pouring. "forget this" I thought and returned to bed. About 2 hours later the rain stopped, I got up for real, packed and pretty much ran the 6 miles into town with Siren. We arrived at the Blue Blaze Cafe around 1030, which was too early to order the pizza we were going to buy for lunch, so we ordered the Iron Mountain Breakfast instead. 5 chocolate chip pancakes, 3 slices of bacon, 2 sausage patties, 3 scrambled eggs, and a "moat" of homefries later and I swore I was never eating again.From the Blue Blaze, we headed to the Mount Rogers outfitters to pick up my packages. Many thanks to Steph and my mom for the awesome food, gear, etc! It was like Christmas morning After getting my packages we headed over to "the Place" a donation based hostel. We met Bayou, the caretaker who read and reread the many rules of the hostel to us. We unpacked our stuff and headed to the laundrymat to start laundry, then back to the blue blaze for their happy hour from 3-6. Blue Blaze Cafe is apparently the place to be, and we spoke and ate with many other hikers including Bass, Wendy, Breeze, Burrito, Double Dare, Groundhog and Skillet into the wee hours of the morning (not really, they close at midnight). I got a blueberry cheesecake with chocolate on top to go and crept back into The Place, kinda feeling like a kid sneaking back in after hours.
Date: 2013-05-08
From: Damascus, VA

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Surprise Zero! Wahoo!So the orinigal plan was ditched when we learned the Virginia Creeper trail was fairly short and ridable in a few hours, versus the few days we had envisioned. We convinced Bass to come with us so the 3 of us headed to Adventure Damascus and rented bikes, caught the shuttle to Green Tavern and began the bike ride back in to Damascus. The trail is GORGEOUS! Lots of lush green vegetation, cascading falls, flowing water, kayakers, flowers, prestine campsites... just plain amazing! All was good until the rain started. We began going quicker. Then, BANG! It sounded like a gunshot. Siren was up front, thought it came from a nearby house and started pedaling like crazy. Bass started to slow and being behind him, I noticed he had blown his back tire. I started laughing hysterically as the person who looked like a 5 year old schoolboy earlier, now looked like a kid who had candy taken away from him. Poor bass had to pedal his bike (with the flat) another 5 miles to a road. We left him there in hopes he would catch a hitch back.We arrived at the gear shop to hear that the police had just called. Apparently, Bass was picked up by a passing state trooper and called the company for a shuttle for him. He walked in a few minutes later, soaked and looking pretty unhappy. The company kindly refunded his money and we went to eat AYCE spaghetti dinners back at the Blue Blaze Cafe. Later that night a great game of Trivial Pursuit ensued, without pieces or a board, where once again poor Bass didn't get a single question right. I think it just wasn't his day.
Date: 2013-05-09
From: Damascus, VA

To: Saunders Shelter
Miles today: 9.4
Weather: light rain

On the way out of town, Siren, Bass, Snail and I stopped at the Country Inn for an absolutely amazing breakfast. Siren and I returned to The Place to finish packing while Bass headed out and Snail went for a walk around town. We went back to the Country Inn for "lunch" of a milkshake and single cone then walked out of Damascus and back in to the mountains.We ended up back on the Virginia Creeper trail, hiking this time though or following just across the creek from the trail throughout most of the day. The walk was breathtaking with waterfalls and awesome footbridges galore. The original plan was to stop at a campsite which we never found, so we pushed on to the shetler.Wal-Mart, Cocoon, Chris, Siren and I were the shelter residents for the night with Slim Jim and CDAT camping outside. I made a rice side for dinner and added the "Just Veggies" freeze dried veggies sent in my mail drop. What a difference! Those veggies would make the worst food amazing! What an awesome find Just as I was laying down to sleep I looked up (so did Cocoon at the same time) and said "oh, a mouse!" as it was running over a wallboard. Out of left field, chris comes into the shelter with a stick and stikes it dead. We all just stared at him, stunned, for a minute, then burst up laughing. A few minutes later Coccoon got another and started quoting "the 300" saying that hikers will prevail for this night and the mice were going down. I went to bed knowing my food was safe for the night as Cocoon stood watch with a handmade spear. Hikers- 2, mice- 0.
Date: 2013-05-10
From: Saunders Shelter

To: Thomas Knob Shelter
Miles today: 18.6
Weather: light rain

This day was RIDICULOUS! I mean, there's just no other way to say it. It was HOT when we woke up. Not just "oh, it's warm" but "what the heck, why is it this hot and humid all the sudden!?". The hike was all uphill to Mt. Rodgers and I was dying in the humidity. Sweat was constantly pouring off my head and I couldn't drink enough water. When we were about a mile away from the top of Mount Whitetop, (VA's second highest peak that is also a huge bald) it started to rain. I was like a kid, incredibly excited to be cooled off. We began to crest Mount Whitetop when a huge bolt of lightning struck incredibly close by with a BANG of thunder simultaneously cracking. I looked at Siren and we both threw down our trekking poles and packs and began running back down the mountain. The rain was pelting incredibly hard and the trail instantly became a stream. We found 2 rocks with a cravass inbetween and we both huddled between them for what felt like an eternity. AFter about 30 minutes the rain let up, the thunder and lightning were at least 20 seconds between eachother, and the skies overhead were starting to clear. We picked up our now soaked gear, and continued the climb over Mount Whitetop, which was now almost pretty.After passing whitetop is a nice, exposed field, parking lot, then camping area. Our luck remained the same. As we got into the exposed field, the lightning decided to return, striking a telephone pole only 40 feet away. I screamed and ran one direction, Siren ran the other. I saw a car in the parking lot and ran toward it. No one was there, so I ran towards a nearby wooded area with Siren on my heels. We huddled under a small pine (smaller than the surrounding trees) where I fell into a ditch underneath it. We got soaked... again. 45 minutes later we made the executive decision just to hike on to the next shelter. It was like hiking in a river and multiple times I would call to Siren and ask if we were on the trail or a riverbed. "I just passed a blaze! We're good!" she called back. After a while we passed a bag of candy on the ground. Sweet! I took a Snickers and Siren took a jolly rancher. 5 minutes later we saw Bass, dry and warm with his tent set up. We were giggling uncontrollably at the ridiculouslness of the day. He said he knew it was us because of the giggles. We continued splashing in the stream formerly known as the AT for the next 7 miles, entering Mt. Rogers recreational area, arriving at the shelter and going to bed looking like we just hopped out of a pool.
Date: 2013-05-11
From: Thomas Knob Shelter

To: Wise Shelter
Miles today: 5.1
Weather: light rain

"The ponies are about 1/4 mile back" said Bass when he rolled into Thomas knob around 1130 am. "What!?!?!" I yelled, threw off my sleeping bag and ran to see the ponies. I tried to take a picture with one. It tried to eat my rain jacket. Fair deal I suppose. After hanging around with 3 ponies for 30 minutes, I returned to the shelter, packed up and headed toward Grayson Highlands state park to see more ponies. We deemed today "My little pony" day. We were allowed to act like kids again.The actual hiking kind of sucked. Tons of rocks with puddles galore all over the Mt. Rogers area and Grayson Highlands. It was a weekend, so there will about a gadzillion (I'm not exaggerating) day and section hikers and I was getting slightly annoyed at the shear amount of people present. I stopped to have a snack and continued on to the shelter where we lied around and ate lots of candy.Later that evening I heard a familiar voice. It was Lisa, now Dreamer, from my first night at cooper gap. We did a quick catch up and chatted throughout the night. Siren and I played Rummy, I made a Stroganoff dinner and then went to bed.
Date: 2013-05-12
From: Wise Shelter

To: Campsite mi 517.6
Miles today: 20.1

Everything was wet in the morning but the rain had stopped. We left the Grayson highlands almost immediately and I trudged through the first 5 miles. We got the the next shelter for lunch and I realized my nose and eyes were really running bad. Apparently, I am allergic to VA. I took some Advil cold and sinus, ate some jerky, and continued hiking. At the road crossing, some AMAZING dayhikers gave us fruit juice and orange slices. Delicious! For whatever reason, I started nearly running. My legs felt awesome! For the next 10 miles I had a 3 mph pace, which is pretty fast for me. When we got to our planned campsite, Bass had an awesome fire going. I set up my tent, collected firewood, made dinner and hung out around the fire. It was getting cold... very very cold... again. I think 2013 is the year of the freeze Partnership shelter tomorrow!!! Pizza!