morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2015-11-20
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I am retired from the Air National Guard. Took up hiking back in 2006 when my youngest son was in basic training. I have section hikes the first 106 miles since then. Missed a couple of years because of health problems. I know the odds are against me finishing in Maine , but guess what " I'll be on the trail in April going north". I heard the AT was hiring hiker for summer work haha. I've been doing some training hikes here in Alabama. I do walk at work 3 days a week so that helps. That's all for now. G-Ray
Date: 2016-01-07
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I made it thru the holidays. Had a great time with all the kids, grandkids and wife and my Mom here. Ready to get back to some training hikes. Going to Gatlinburg in a week or so. Will check out the NOC there for some items I may need. I.e. Gators, pack cover etc.. Only 85 days to go. Next time I'll tell my plans to start the hike.
Date: 2016-01-10
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Wow what a wild weekend. Had a surprise birthday party for my wife on Saturday. More in a bit, but first my plans in April. Since I have hiked the first 106 miles of the AT in the last few years, I'm going to skip ahead to start at Rock gap shelter. My 12 year old grandson is going with me to start. We will go by Amicalola SP and sign the 2016 register, then drive to rock gap and slack pack the 4 miles to hwy64. Then on Sunday take my pack and head north. Only 83 days to go: but before that I have a wonderful trip to Alaska with my beautiful wife to see the start of the Iditarod. That is what she got for her birthday this weekend. A total surprise for her. This weekend it's a quick trip to the mountains of East Tennessee and Gatlinburg. I can see a trip to the NOC to purchase a couple of thinks in my future. Be safe. G-Ray
Date: 2016-01-15
To: Outlet mall
Miles today: 0.0

We drove up yesterday. Had a beautiful day in the low 60's. Got our room and then did a little shopping. Last place to go was NOC out fitters. I got a pack cover, gators, a pair of darn tough socks, Patagonia cheplene pants and shirt, Mountain hard wear down jacket and gloves. My wife also got a Northface jacket and Patagonia pants and shirt. Now it's off to lunch.
Date: 2016-01-18
To: Home
Miles today: 350.0

Had a wonderful weekend. Went to Cade's Cove Saturday & Sunday wild life viewing. Did a lot of shopping on Friday and Sunday. Had lots of good food to eat doing it all with my beautiful wife. Got up this morning and had breakfast at Crocketts Breakfast Camp. Wow!!! What a spread: eggs,potatoes,sausage link,bacon,ham,biscuits,gravy,corn prone and a pancake all for one. Then we drove up to Newfound gap. The tops were all cover in rime ice with a few inches of snow. 9 deg and wind blowing. Cold but beautiful. Then we drove home. A great weekend. 75 days to go.
Date: 2016-01-22
To: Another week
Miles today: 0.0

Been home a few days and worked some of them. Weather has been changing a lot. We missed the big snow coming to Gatlinburg and mountains by a week. But as I sit writing this entry it is starting g to snow a little here in central Alabama. Looks to be minor flurries but still fun to watch. Looks to be a good weekend to go thru gear and do a check list for the trail. 71 days to go.
Date: 2016-02-09
To: Home
Miles today: 0.0

I work three days a week driving rental cars. So I'm up earlier on those days. Well one morning a week or so ago I woke at about 0430. To early for work. But my mind was not on work it was on my up coming hike. I laid await thinking about the first 106 miles I have hiked. Then I started making myself promises of things I would and wouldn't do when I start. Here are a few:Don't leave the trail on a Rainey day. Or on a cold miserable day. Don't try to do to much in the start. Don't carry to much weight. When you think you might want to quit, remember all the days at work when you said how nice it would be to be on a mountaintop. Do enjoy the views. Do make a new friends. Do enjoy each day for what it bring and the new things you get to do. Embrace the change that comes your way. Be thankful you have someone that understands your desire to do something crazy and stands behind you.So in 46 days I'll stop by Amicalola SP and sign the book, maybe say hello to any NOBO's that are there, then I'll skip north 106 miles and start north. Here's looking forward to meeting lots of new friends.
Date: 2016-03-13
To: Home
Miles today: 0.0

Well it's been a month since I made an entry as a lot has been going on. As part of my prep I sent an email to Spot admin for a password reset and to Osprey backpack for a replacement clip. Got a call the next day to reset password and from Osprey to send a replacement clip. They actually sent two of exactly what I needed at no charge. What great customer service from both company's. Then I went on a very fun trip to Alaska with my beautiful wife to the start of the Iditarod 2016. We got to meet several of the musher competing this year to include 4 time champion Jeff King. You may have have seen in the news where two mushers were attacked and one dog will killed early yeasterday. It was Jeff King's dog that was killed. We had a great time there at the banquet, ceremonial start in Anchorage and offical restart on a frozen lake in Willow. Then it was back to New Oleans for my wife to work a company trade show. She was very sick while there we thought from a cold from the frozen lake and cold while there. Little did we know she had type B flu. So it has been a slow weekend for us back here at home. Looks like about 21 days till I go hiking for a while.
Date: 2016-03-20
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

After an extra week off from work for me and a week working from home for my wife, we are finally getting over the flu. Glad it came now instead of when I hit the trail in two weeks. Still need to work on food for the start. Weighted the pack at 30-31#s without water. I think it has a couple of days food. Will do some more in detail weighting this week. Following a lot of journals. Seems like the class of 16 is off to a good start. My grandson said last night he will go on Saturday 2 Apr for a day hike with me.. Maybe his Mom also. Till next time. G-ray
Date: 2016-04-04
From: Siler Bald Sheltr

To: Wayah Crest Picnic Area
Miles today: 1.7

After almost 4 hours to cover this very short distance I've decided to stop for now. You spend all day looking at where you put each foot especially the weak one, there is no fun in hiking. Also had a lot more is the pack than what I needed. I waited at the picnic area for a while hoping for a ride. Then walked down to the main road and started towards Franklin 13 miles away. After a short road walk I stopped for a break and several cars come up the hill. One stops and ask if I need a ride. I say yes and met Beverly who is a shuttler for the area for donations. Very nice lady carried me to the hotel till I could get a rental car home. I'll be back!!!
Date: 2015-07-03
To: I might be crazy...
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

For as long as I can remember, I've been fascinated by the Appalachian Trail. I learned the basics of hiking and camping while I was growing up in New England and each time I'd hit the trails I'd wonder what it would be like to be in the woods for five or six months, carrying my life on my back. As a kid, I grabbed every opportunity possible to string multiple backpacking days together - it didn't matter if it was through church camp, girl scouts, or tagging along with my friends' families or my brother's boy scout troop. I just wanted to be outside. I'd even build ramshackle shelters in the woods behind our house and sleep under pine boughs in a bulky three season sleeping bag every time my mom would allow me to stay out all night (provided that I promised to take ample food with me and not eat any poisonous plants). Those nights made me anxious to grow up and finally be old enough to backpack long distances on my own and let me tell you, I couldn't wait!Of course, life doesn't always turn out the way you think it will when you're ten years old in the forests of New Hampshire. I did grow up, but I went to college for engineering and got a good, steady job instead of becoming a hiker bum with a sprinter van. I ended up with three televisions and a big house far away from any mountains or forests. I slowly forgot about my dreams and I committed myself to my new, fancy, comfortable life.And then, everything changed (and I mean EVERYTHING).So here I am, feeling as if I'm poised on the brink of an enormous chance to change my life and go off to chase dreams and goals and happiness. And so it's time to absolutely, publicly, irrevocably declare that I'm going to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. It's going to take me five (ish) months. It's going to be hard. It's going to hurt, and be cold and wet and tiring. I'm going to be doing it alone, because I don't have any friends who are in similar circumstances who have the ability to just pick up and leave and start something crazy. And, honestly, I don't know anyone who has this same scary-powerful urge to take on an enormous challenge and make a statement - draw a metaphorical line in the sand with that first step off Springer mountain - saying "This is my moment to start over. This is the new me. This is my new life."What better way to walk away from an unhealthy past than to literally walk the 2,200+ miles of the Appalachian Trail? And concurrently, I'll be achieving a lifelong dream. I know it's crazy, but I'm certain that it's what I need to do. so here we go!! Time to plan and shop for gear and figure out how I'm going to make this awesome goal a reality.
Date: 2015-07-04
To: I heart cooking setups
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I'm an engineer by education and profession. I like to have all the data before making a big decision. I've been trained to be level-headed and careful in all aspects of my life and I'm usually fairly cautious when it comes to determining which option is the best.That being said, I totally bought two different cooking setups yesterday because I'm quite seriously OBSESSED with little lightweight adorable thru-hike cookware options. I can't deal with how freaking cute the tiny, efficient water-boiling stoves are, and have you SEEN the little 100g fuel canisters!?!?? Come on now. I couldn't resist.To be fair, I did a huge amount of research before my sorta-splurge buying spree. I looked at alcohol stoves, canister, hyper-efficient water boiling, solid fuel, homemade, etc etc etc. And I decided on canister because I like that the litter canisters are self-contained and the systems (Jetboil, MSR, Snow Peak) met my weight vs. convenience/comfort standards. I bought both an MSR Pocket Rocket with Titan kettle (.83L capacity) and a Jetboil Minimo (1L capacity). The Minimo was really the 'splurge' purchase since I only intended to get the Pocket Rocket to allow me to simulate cooking camp dinners to test recipes and flavors. But, I couldn't resist the dang purple plaid Minimo cozy available on Amazon (for cheaper than retail!), and I knew I'd use it on short hikes even if it ended up to be too heavy for the AT itself.So that's the story of how I ended up with both a Pocket Rocket and a Minimo. I'm definitely lucky to have the financial durability to buy two whole cooksets just to test out and find my favorite!! I have the MSR here at home already and the Minimo is on its way from Amazon. I plan to start cooking up dinners with Knorr's sides and trying out different meats (I got some SPAM already!!) to see what I'm comfortable eating on a regular basis and to get myself used to the canister cooking times and methods. I'll do this for all of my gear... eventually camping out in the yard during the work week with my full gear set to try to get an idea of how my daily camp routines will go, and then taking everything out hiking on the weekends to test shoes, clothes, pack weight, etc. See? Told you I'm an engineer at heart!
Date: 2015-07-05
To: Telling my parents
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

I was pretty nervous about telling my parents about my crazy plan to hike the AT sometime in the next two years. It could have ended up being a big fight trying to convince them that it's something I need to do for myself, even though it sounds unusual and dangerous. I had everything ready... I would explain about all the research that I've done already, that I planned to hike northbound to ensure that I stayed near group of people in case of danger on the trail, whether from nature or ill-intentioned people, and that I had calculated that the costs would be easily withstood by my bank account even if I needed to quit my job to guarantee the ability to finish.And it went so much better than I expected!!! My parents are totally on board with the plan and I'm even more excited now that I have my two biggest supporters and best friends behind me as I plan this undertaking. Hooray for awesome family!
Date: 2015-07-07
To: Figuring out my work/career stuff
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I've been thinking a lot lately about what to do with my job/career when I go off to hike the AT. I'm fortunate enough to be in a place where the financial aspect of taking unpaid time off for five months isn't really a problem, but I do worry a little bit about how this hike will affect my career. My whole life was dedicated to doing extremely well in school, getting a good STEM degree from a highly-ranked university, and then getting into a career that paid good money at a stable company. I managed to achieve all of those things!! But now this big awesome life goal of mine has me thinking... do I want to stay at this company? It's really, really huge. Like, the biggest consumer goods company there is. I like my job well enough, but I really don't like where I live and due to some previous things in my life, I really don't trust a lot of the people I work with. I'll never feel like I'm part of the work 'family' - and it makes me think that it would be a great idea to just quit and start over somewhere new. I'd LOVE to live in Colorado or Wyoming!! My work history and skills/background would definitely make it easy to find a position at another company, so I got that going for me, which is nice My real concern was that I recently transferred locations with my company and I was worried that if I left my job before working a year in this location that I'd have to pay back all the financial relocation help that they'd given me. Yikes! It's not a small amount of money!! Butttt.... today I found out that there's no "time requirement" or anything of the sort that would tie me to this job for 'x' months or years!!! Of course, I don't want to be a terrible employee and quit just after they pay a ton of cash to get me to a new location (to be fair, I didn't WANT to move, but it's a long story and became necessary) and I do care about the company and my current projects, so at the very least I'll work up until I leave to do final preparations for my hike. Whether I fully quit or just take a sabbatical is up in the air, but it'll probably depend on a few things, like whether I start to really enjoy my job here, whether I get a different job with a different company that would let me start in October next year, or if I just get fed up with the whole thing and 'run away to the woods' for five months and leave my life after the AT up in the air. I wonder what other hikers do with their careers/jobs?
Date: 2015-07-10
To: Trail friendliness is real! + start date concerns
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I've read a lot of trail journals and am following a few hikers going through this year and almost all of them say something at some point about how exciting it is when they get guestbook entries and I have to say - I GET IT NOW! A few wonderful souls have written in mine already and my heart is so full just seeing that I'm making connections with people who share this AT experience, even so many months out from my start date. It's so exciting to think about starting this hike and meeting real people along the way who I can actually get to know! I love everyone already Back to trail planning: my original start date (April 10th) is starting to seem a little bit too late. I know it's quite a bit colder and the weather is worse when you start in March, but if I can hike even half the days between March 16th and April 10th (based on weather, etc) then I'll have given myself a very decent head start and it will make me less anxious about taking zero or nero days later in the hike. I wonder if anyone has done an analysis about the average finish date for people starting in April vs. people starting in March? Do the April-ers always finish earlier? Or do they both finish around the same time because of zero days or short hike days due to weather, or something? I'd love to see a chart of that stuff. Yikes, I think my data-nerdiness is showing! I guess in the end it doesn't make too much difference - I just want to make sure to start when there will be other hikers around if I want them to be. As stupid as it might sound, I'm a little concerned about hiking solo and being female on the trail. I know it's dumb and "bad stuff" happening on the AT is super duper rare, but it's something that I'll probably worry about until I actually get out there on the trail and see for myself that everything is fine. Lots of ladies successfully thru-hike solo and I'm just going to add my name to the list!! Gosh, I'm already dreaming about Katahdin!I've hiked enough in my life to know what's what - lots of New Hampshire and Maine hiking, which I hear is some of the most difficult on the trail - so I'm really excited to see how my body handles the new geography of the southern end of the AT. I'm absolutely not making any hiking goals that revolve around speed or distance but it would be pretty neat if I feel comfortable with long days early in my trek!!To my new journal friends: how much did weather factor into your start date decisions? Any opinions on March 16th vs April 10th?
Date: 2015-07-14
To: Comfortable sleeping
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

I sleep cold. It's a fact. I don't know if it's a result of me being female, being of fairly lanky build, or because my body hates me and refuses to properly regulate temperature, but I sleep cold. I can have my house set at 72F and I'll still wrap up in a sheet and down comforter and full pajamas. sometimes I wake up a little bit sweaty but more often than not I still feel chilly if a foot accidentally pokes out of the covers.I'm sure you all know how this relates to my newest concern - staying warm while sleeping on the trail! I've read SO MANY THINGS about sleeping. I've researched tents vs. hammocks, down vs. synthetic, quilts vs. bags. I'm not scared of the cold, but I want to makes sure I'm properly prepared. For me, that probably means a 20deg down bag (I'm thinking Feathered Friends Egret Nano, in 5'9" - it's only 31oz!) with a silk liner (I hear the 6oz Sea-to-Summit one is pretty good?). I'll wear lots of my clothes and a balaclava and sleep on a pad (Thermorest Prolite Plus, in small?). I'll make sure to dry out as much as possible and try to get into the bag before it gets very dark and the temps start to drop, and I'll be careful to keep a good air pocket around me to hold the heat close.But IN WHAT TYPE OF SHELTER DO I PUT ALL THIS STUFF? Do I go with what I "know" and get a backpacking tent like the Big Agnes Fly Creek UL1 or UL2? Do I go for the ultralight/ultraminimalist TarpTent? or do I try out hammock camping? I've never slept in a hammock in my life... i've slept in many tents. some were pitched in very poor spots but I slept alright, some were pitched well and I slept awfully. I've never been cold in a tent because I try very hard to surround myself with very warm things, but I'm really, really worried that I'd be cold in a hammock. All that cold air below my butt, just making my back/side cold? People bring underquilts, I know, but by the time you add up that weight why wouldn't you just bring a tent? Not to mention, I'm afraid of not finding good places to tie a hammock when I want to sleep, and I'm not familiar with tarp pitching - so a tent rain fly would be a LOT easier based on what I know.I think I'd be more comfortable long-term in a hammock (maybe) but I know for a fact that I can sleep well on floors/ground without a problem as that's all I've ever done while out backpacking. Recently, I finished reading Certain's journal entries and to be honest, her enthusiastic endorsement of hammocking really does make me want to investigate it (along with my concern that there will be SO MANY PEOPLE EVERYWHERE that I will want to just go into the woods and hide from them in the trees). I wish I had more real-life backpacking friends so I could test out different gear before committing to something. First world problems I guess, right!?
Date: 2015-07-28
To: My membership in the pedant club
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I have a confession to make... I'm a secret member of the spelling police (a.k.a the pedant club).And I get irrationally irritated when people write that they are experiencing "chaffing", are "chaffed", or that hiking+sweat makes them "chaff".Dear fellow hikers who also sometimes get raw, uncomfortable patches of skin caused by excess moisture and friction - this is called chafing. It has only one f ("chay-fing"). Not chaffing, with two f's (that'd be "chaff-ing")To be fair, chaff actually IS a word. It refers to husks of corn or seeds, chopped hay/straw, or worthless trash-type things. It does not mean awfully painful skin irritation, though. To be even more fair, I know that I don't use proper capital letters (EDIT: NOW I DO!) and I write in 'internet syntax' and I overuse ellipses... but for the love of Pete, can't we all just please spell "chafing" correctly? We sure as heck talk about it enough! Ha.