morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-04-01
From: Russell Field Shelter

To: Silers Bald Shelter
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: moderate rain

Long Day, Bad weather.Long Day, with a break, and bad weather. See those 14.7 miles, they should really be more like, oh I dunno, 20. You see, I'm an idiot sometimes.We were doing good on miles, Taking off out of Russell Field in the morning and at Derrick Knob shelter by noon, we decided to take a nap.As we head out, we're joined by Ed and Jerry, two older hikers, and real nice guys. I'm chilly, so I throw on my Moonstone insulating jacket, my pack, and head out. Around 2.5 miles later, I realize that I'm missing something, something like, MY FREAKIN CAMERA. Time for backtracking. I have hope that Freeze Dried, who left behind me grabbed it, until I see him and he's sans-my-camera.As I kick myself, knowing this is a huge day to start off with, and that there's bad weather, I think, "Hey idiot, make better time, drop your pack". So I ditch my pack behind a tree and RUN back to the shelter. Five minutes of jogging later, completely out of breath, I think again. "Hey idiot, you're in the smokies, your pack has food in it, and there are a lot of bears". Now I'm REALLY rushing. Thanks to you Ed and Jerry for keeping my baby safe, they give me a few jabs in the ribs, but fortunately return the beast. I say a quick thanks, which is really not enough to say when someone does something that nice for ya, and then bolt back up the trail. I make it back to my pack, which is fortunately undisturbed by bears or park rangers, who apparently issue hefty fines for leaving food unprotected in the forest. After a discussion with a ridge runner, who is very nice and tells me about the ranger fine thingy and how lucky I am, I finally arrive at the shelter late at night, exhausted.My fellow hikers managed to help me out by feeding me some hot chocolate to warm me up, and I throw my stuff up on the top bunk for some sleep. In the shelter tonight is our familiar foursome (James, Freeze Dried, Bubbletoes and I), Chef Boyardee, Lowjack, and four strapping young section hikers.The rain is really pelting the top of the roof, and the wind is unreal. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
Date: 2005-04-03
From: Gatlinburg, TN

To: Gatlinburg, TN
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

It's days like today that make you appreciate how fortunate you can be on a zero. Yes, we woke up a little rough around the edges from last night's bender, yes, certain members of our hiking party had disappeared throughout the night, and yes, I think I ate something that didn't agree with my stomach. However, we're much better off than some of the other folks on the trail.We considered ourselves lucky to be off of Clingman's dome yesterday, without even considering the folks still on the trail. Today we strolled around Gatlinburg, took the $.25 trolley type thing and hung out like schoolkids on a summer day. It's 6:50 right now and no more than 10 minutes ago a large group of people came into the motel, they were shuttled in from the mountains today.Among our new neighbors in the hotel are Skylark and Nu-be (I've been spelling it wrong for a while, I'll try to fix that later). Skylark and Nu-be came off of Clingman's Dome today, they came out of the same bathrooms we were in, fortunately they had a cell phone and signal and arranged a ride. The story the tell makes ours sound, well, kind of lame.Our two protagonists managed to hike through WAIST deep snow to the top of Clingmans, as my friends and I shuttled around town in shorts. What a difference several thousand feet makes. However bad the weather may be, it appears that everyone has made it to town just fine, including Chef Boyardee and Lowjack, who were in the same shelter as us the night before. I guess this is why we pack all that heavy gear.Tonight should be a good night for dinner with everyone and some relaxing, as it sounds like the road to Clingman's might not be open until later tomorrow anyway. I'll close with a list of folks (I'll do my best to remember everyone)that I know are in/around town right now: Myself, James, Freeze Dried, Bubbletoes, Red, Lion King, Ski Bum, Sunshine, Rabbit, Lard Lad, Nu-be, Skylark, Swamp Fox, Vitaman, Tim, Adam, Josh, Lowjack, Chef Boyardee, Colorado, Marshmallow.
Date: 2005-04-10
From: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)

To: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)
Miles today: 0.0

Ahh Hot Springs, I barely knew thee. But, all good things must cometo an end, so today we reluctantly hiked out of Hot Springs. Knowingthat Erwin was next on the list I did have something to look forwardto, so I was still in a pretty good mood as we hiked out of town. Loaded with some sort of Peter Gibbons-like new perspective on myhike, I came to several conclusions. Firstly, I was going to hike myown hike, at my own rate, and enjoy the picture taking opportunities,bask in the sun, meet new people, and howl at the moon, all of thiswhenever I wanted to and without care of what anyone thinks of myactions. Secondly, that my first conclusion meant I will beseparating from the "fantastic four". Although hiking with the groupdoes have its high points, unfortunately it's downsides weigh heavily.The group, or rather some folks in the group, tend to do big, longdays which leaves not a whole lot of time for enjoying the hike, in myopinion. There is also some obvious tension between myself and onemember of the group, who shall remain nameless in this journal. Regardless, I'll probably bid farewell to the group in Erwin orslightly after, depending on how miles go. But it's for the betternow, I'll be hiking a happy hike.Anyway, onto leaving Hot Springs, it was a beautiful day to hiketoday, weather was in the high 70's with low humidity and not a chanceof rain. Scenery included an awesome pond, and I even managed tocatch some shots of a cool frog. Hiking went well today too, I hikedwith Swamp fox for a good while today because...god dammit, he's acool guy and I felt like hiking with him. I'm out here busting myhump at 23, swamp fox is 65 and knocking out the same trail I am, whowouldn't want to hike with the guy. One oddity of today was walkingthrough a HUGE area of controlled (we think) burn, the smell was stillfresh in the air.By the end of the day I had parted ways with swamp fox and was hikingwith Bubbletoes and a new face named Pilot when we get to a sign thatpoints out some trail magic. Well, one day out of town or not, we'refreakin' going.So, we follow the directions on the sign and are greeted by an oldergentlemen in front of a wonderful log home who tells us to take offour boots and make ourselves at home. Well, you don't have to tell ustwice. As it turns out, our trail angels are Hercules and Fal (shortfor Free at Last), thru-hikers from a few years ago who are puttingback into the system. They served us some ice cold sweet tea, amazinghomemade soup, and some ice-cream-pie-type-stuff that was out of thisworld. They also served up some amazing conversation to help put anend on a great day. Hercules and Fal your generosity ismucho-appreciated.
Date: 2005-04-11
From: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)

To: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)
Miles today: 0.0

So the trail magic continues, as it turns out, the conversation withHercules and Fal was so good, that we ended up not making it to LittleLaurel shelter, ahh the freedom of my newfound lifestyle is great. Soanyway, when we awoke, we were close enough to return for anothervisit to Hercules and Fal's place for some more magic and some moregreat conversation. But all good things must come to and end, and theother two members of the Fantastic Four were I'm sure pondering ourabsence, so we bid our hospitable angels farewell.
Date: 2005-04-11
From: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)

To: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)
Miles today: 0.0

Sometimes the weather cooperates with your hike, sometimes it doesn't,today, the latter happened. Being wet sucks, being wet and coldreally sucks, but at least we made it to the shelter. I'm in BaldMountain shelter right now, drying out and recuperating from today. Today was one of those days: get up, hike, find sleep spot, go tosleep. Not much excitement. Granted, the weather wouldn't allow formuch, but still, I grow weary of such days. On the bright side, I'mstill on my "I made it to Hot Springs and I'm headed to Erwin" kick,which is helping somewhat. Also, I hiked with Bubbletoes, she'sslower than Freeze Dried and Capt Patagonia, so I get to enjoy thehike a bit more. So I guess overall, even with the weather, it wasn'ttoo bad of a day.
Date: 2005-04-12
From: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)

To: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)
Miles today: 0.0

This is it, the last day before Erwin, I know it seems like it's onlya short distance between towns, but when you've got towns withreputations like Hot Springs and Erwin, one can't help but getexcited. Hiked mostly with Bubbletoes today, she hikes slower thanFreeze Dried and Captain Patagonia so I get to enjoy the hike a bitmore when we hike together. Saw some awesome waterfalls today alongthe trail, took some cool pictures too. Other than that, not much tosay about the hike except for BRING ON ERWIN!--
Date: 2005-04-14
From: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Ahh...the zero day...ACK! the zero day. Woke early and headed rightback to la computadora to get back to work on Miss J's computer. Fortunately someone had already made coffee, so it wasn't too horribleof a wakeup. I use the term "someone" because in my blur of amorning, it was impossible for me to discern on face from the other inthe plethora of folks around Miss Janet's. As I put my computerskills to the test against the evil computer from hell, the otherfolks in the kitchen put together a helluva breakfast, we even ateoutside, and had a great conversation about pet peeves on the trail, Ithink Baltiomore jack had about 7 or 8 peeves, but they were allvalid, and the wisdom that he passes on is much appreciated. Afterbreakfast, a bunch of us went shopping for some random junk, computerstuff, beer, feminine products, what else could you possibly want. After the return from shopping I finally did manage to get MissJanet's computer in working shape, thanks to a little help from somefriends back home. I finally got to relax and chill and watch amovie, tonight was Braveheart, a great choice for the trail, after theend of the movie I was ready to hike for about 30 miles...ok, maybenot quite that far.
Date: 2005-04-15
From: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Days like today are great, the weather was great, the views weregreat, the skinny blondes in bikinis that hand out cold beer along thetrail...OK so it wasn't THAT great. But nevertheless, it was a prettygood day. Busted out a whopping...something like 12 or 13. I'm nottoo sure of the exact number, we're camped a bit past beauty spot,which is an awesome little spot. There are quite a few of us here,including Buzz, Freedom, a nice couple from Wales, Rainbow andSparticus, and of course Bubbletoes, Freeze Dried, and CaptainPatagonia. We even convinced Quinn to stay, she seems to be somewhateasy prey for the "mile monster", but today we won over that beast. Good day to be out in the woods, temperatures are great even in theevening. Although we are near a road and the occasional vehicle doespass by, the sounds of birds chirping are a bit more prevalent. Ialso get to FINALLY try out my tent. We even had a campfire tonight,now call me crazy this far into the trip, but that campfire was prettymuch the first real "hikers around a campfire" experience that I had. It really sets in that I'm thru-hiking the AT on a night like tonight,if just a little late.
Date: 2005-04-16
From: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I could get used to short days, yeah. The Clyde Smith shelter came uppretty quick today, although the miles did feel like they were takingtheir toll. It definitely seems that no matter how many miles I do Iend up feeling like I've set a record.Speaking of setting records...Bubbletoes' grandfather will be meetingher at the road crossing at 19E tomorrow at 4:00 so she took off fromthe shelter to head over Roan Mountain to make it in time. I wishedher the best and decided to chill at this shelter and do whatevermiles my feet tell me, until I looked in my food bag.It appears that I'll need a resupply soon, and Bubbletoes' grandfatherand his truck happen to be able to provide just that, not to mentionsome town food too. So, reluctantly, I've accepted the fact that I'llbe doing a huge day tomorrow. Fortunately, Quinn has decided shel'lldo the big day too, I think she's probably craving town food too. Either way, I've set my alarm, very reluctantly, for the first time onthe trail. I know it's going to be a rush, but I think I can make it. Cheers to poor planning.
Date: 2005-04-19
From: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

After the incredible waterfall and questionable drinking wateryesterday, today's scenery seemed rather blah, so this entry will bededicated to the wonder that is Kincora.Rolling in to Dennis Cove road in late afternoon it was easy to makethe short walk up the road to Kincora Hostel, one of the coolestplaces on the trail. As I walk up the driveway and around to thehostel, I'm greeted by a wonderful site; a bucket of ice cream withthe words "eat me" written on it. No, I wasn't halucinating, CaptainPatagonia, Freeze Dried and Quinn had arrived at the hostel earlierthan I, found the treasure in the freezer, and now surrounded thebucket, spoons in hand. I had little choice but to join them.While I chowed down I learned that the hostel was pretty full, BobPeoples, who runs the place had a whole bunch of people out doingtrail maintenance, and their bunks were reserved with packs and such. I was fortunate enough to score a bunk. Kincora is an awesome place. In addition to being a crazy bunkhouse with Katahdin photos of so monyfolks, there's also several bathrooms, a laundry room, and a shower. I went ahead and took care of what needed taking care of, somewhere inthe middle of which Bubbletoes arrived. Shortly behind her was Bob'struck full of hikers turned trail maintainers. Included in that groupwere some packs of some other folks who happened to be hiking by themaintenance and decided to lend a hand, so Bob shuttled their packs tothe hostel so they could make up for some time. Later, the owners ofthese packs, David, Swan, Haiku, and Rawhide arrived. Bob was thennice enough to shuttle everyone who wanted to go to town, roughly adozen of us. I learned two important things today: 1 Bob Peoples andKincora are awesome and 2 I get carsick when riding in the back of atruck for long distances.
Date: 2005-04-24
From: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)

To: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)
Miles today: 0.0

Hrm...the second zero, this feels weird. Woke up at Trey's place, abit cold but overall OK. My head hurt a bit, maybe from the drinking,but maybe also I might be getting sick, I dunno. Trey and Nuffy werenice enough to cook us all breakfast, a filling, good hiker breakfast. Then it was time to get to work, demolition work. Trey is in theprocess of some refurbishments, so some of the hikers helped take careof some of the stuff that, needed taking care of.I had every intention to help Trey, but just in case I packed my packbefore we headed into town to see if anyone else wanted to come in. By the time we got to town, I was glad I did. There was a naggingthought in the back of my head that said "trust me, stay here". Icouldn't put my finger on it, but I eventually told Trey that I feltit better to stay in town that day and catch up on some journaling,and that I might come back later. Several hours later, my bowels mademe aware that I would be staying in the place for a while. I'msuffering from what my father would call "Tarbelly", something I atejust didn't agree with me, so my insides are fussing about it. Nomatter, it's controllable with pepto-bismol, and fortunately, I'm nearthe bathroom. But that didn't stop me from banging out some town foodwith the other hikers before I retired, I mean really, calories arecalories.Oh, on a gearhead note, after food but before bead I stopped in theoutfitter to switch headlamps today, went with the Petzl Tikka Plus,it's a lot better of a headlamp than the Princetontec Aurora I wascarying earlier.
Date: 2005-04-25
From: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)

To: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)
Miles today: 0.0

Woke up this morning, stared out the window at the blue sky and foronce I thought "Damn!". It's kinda crazy, but town can do weirdthings to a fella, I could've gone for another zero easily. But allgood things must come to an end. The nice thing about the second zerowas that I got to visit the post office this morning and mail out thestuff I forgot to mail earlier. Nothing big, just my town shirt andthe insoles from my new shoes, but it's a few more ounces I don't haveto carry.Jersey Jones and I caught breakfast at the Dairy King, I highlyrecommend the king breakfast, but the all you can eat pancakes soundslike a good deal too. I had some time to waffle around, I knew thatSwan, David (now trail named Buck Naked), Haiku and Rawhide wereheading out late since they wanted to take Swan to the clinic to gether hip checked out. I hit up the outfitters for some alcohol afterpicking up a new soda bottle, since I managed to drop and break mybottle at the post office (and I thought plastic was unbreakable). Then it was to the library for some High Quality internet time. Iprobably should've sent out some emails, but I'm lazy and just readmail and the news until Buck and Swan arrived. Good news is, Swan isOK, bad news is, they billed her 180 dollars for the good news.So it was back to The Place to pack up, and it seemed like I had someextra time, so back to the outfitters to weigh my pack. Well, I'm at33 or 34 pounds without my camera, 37 or 38 with it, not too bad,considering I've picked up a frisbee and some other non-necessities.Well my friends, now the time has come, and we walked up the AT out ofDamascus, but not before a stop at subway...mmm, subway.What else did I do today, oh yeah...hiking. Hiking with the new groupis a bit more enjoyable than the last, nothing against the last group,I just like the hiking style of this one better. For one, there wasmore of a group formation, after a while we split up, but for themajority we were together, and talking. Talking while you hike,that's a novel idea to make the miles pass easier. We also took somebreaks to enjoy the scenery and the trail, not bad, not bad at all. The shelter tonight is a real nice shelter, and the privy, well, itmight be the best privy of the trail so far. Yep, I'm a thru hiker, Iget excited about privies.
Date: 2005-04-26
From: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)

To: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)
Miles today: 0.0

OK, today was pretty cool, however, today was...let's say different. Miles today: 6.4. That's right, under 7 miles today. Why you mayask? Well, we got to the shelter 6.4 miles out, looked at the sky,felt the wind come from one side, felt the wind come from the otherside, felt the wind switch directions, then saw the clouds on thehorizon and said well, let's just crash here. So, we did the happyhiker thing, we kicked a hacky sack for a while, gathered somefirewood, ate some snacks, and well, here we are, it's only like 4:00and we're all in the shelter.This shelter is nice and new, and it looks like we won't have a mouseproblem, but the water source was really worth writing home about. Normally, the water sources at shelters are either a spring coming outof a rock with a pipe concentrating the flow, or a slow moving stream. This source however, flowed out of a rock, down the rock, and somegenius had used a rock and a rhododendron leaf to concentrate thewater. The flow was nice, the water was crystal clear and there wasnot even a drop of sediment. I actually took a second trip to thewater source with my camera and took some awesome pictures. Wait,yesterday I was excited by a privy, today I'm excited by a watersource, I really AM a hiker.
Date: 2005-04-27
From: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Ahh, late April in southern Virginia, birds chirping, the town ofDamascus preparing for trail days, dawn 6:30 am, alternating periodsof snow, sleet, rain and hail accompanied by freezing temperatures. Wait a minute, one of those doesn't quite seem right, but they're alltrue. Today was...weird to say the least.As I rose late in the shelter staring at the sun peering through theclouds, I was sort of glad that we had done our whopping 6 mileryesterday. Sure, it hurt the mile average, but hell, now we'll get togo through the Grayson Highlands on a nice bright sunny day. Thebeginning of the hike was odd, we seemed to go through every differenttype of terrain and forest, from rocky trail and rhododendron tograssy path into a forest of telephone-poll pine trees. We evenpassed the abandoned brick house which is rumored to be a few milesearlier an the trail and also a place for hikers to crash, although Ido have to say I think a shelter would provide better accomodationsthan that place, which appeared to be trashed.The gain in elevation was almost unnoticable, whether we've gotten ourhiking legs or the countless switch backs just took the edge off, Icannot decide. Either way, we took a break at buzzard nob, still inbright sun shiny weather. As the end of the break neared, when weturned around to see behind us...SURPRISE grey skies moving in fast. We knew it was coming, there was no denying it, so it was on with theraingear. Soon the precipitation started, a little rain, but mostlysleet. That's right, sleet, mixed with some slow, but mainly sleet. But there was a bright side. We rolled into Thomas Knob sheltershortly before 2 for lunch, and immediately the thoughts of possiblyspending the night kicked in. However, as we parused the shelterregister stories of waking up frozen to the shelter floor and sub 20degree temperatures scared us away, and rightfully so. Somehow, justas we crested the hill and started into the Grayson Highlands, tadaa,blue skies and sun. Apparently these mountains cause some weirdweather. In the bright sun and no-sleet we even caught up with someof the wild ponies. We did the tourist thing and snapped some photos,they seem to be used to being fed, they walked right up andinvestigated what was in our empty hands. For the rest of the walkthrough the Grayson highlands and up until the shelter, we hikedthrough alternating periods of sleet/snow and sun.It seems as if we hit the shelter right on time too. As soon as wegot in: HAIL. I'm not talking about golfball stuff, more like peas,but nonetheless, hail, sleet, rain, and snow in late April in southernVirginia, boy am I glad I didn't mail my winter stuff home.
Date: 2005-05-02
From: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)

To: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)
Miles today: 0.0

Today was May second... and it snowed. That pretty much summarizes the day.We're not talking light quick flurries, we're talking I walked throughthe snow as it fell at increasingly approaching horizontal angles. For a good two hours I dealt with the snow, then finally managed tohike out of it.It's not that it was REAL bad snow, we weren't hiking through waistdeep drifts or anything. It's just the fact that it's May and we'rein the south, it's supposed to be sweltering hot and we should behiking in our skibbies. Well, at least that's what I had imagined.Besides the weather today was pretty boring, there were a fewexceptions. The Chestnut Knob shelter was a welcome relief and asurprise with it's four walls and door and fanciness. There was aridgewalk for a few miles, a long way without water, but overall, thatwas about it. Well, it's been a long day, time for sleep, gottaprepare for an in-and-out in Bland, VA tomorrow.