morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2015-03-23
From: Low Gap Shelter

To: Unicoi Gap
Miles today: 8.9
Weather: clear sky

Got an early start again. Said bye to Will, he was pushing on further than I was today, hopefully we'll see him again. I talked with Sunny about my problem and she said she'd go into town with me. Thano God! I could do it myself but it's nice to have some moral support. I left before her but she caught up quick. We hiked together the whole morning and made good time. We got to Unicoi Gap at about 1230. I made some quick phone calls. I got us a room at the Budget Inn in Hiawassee , the last room in fact! He gave me the number of some good shuttles since I had to make a pit stop at the doctor. I called a woman named Sally Smith and she was amazing!! Wonderful woman. She picked us up from the trail, drove us to the hotel to get our room and then drove me us to urgent care. She knew the doctor there and had great things to say about her. It only cost 50 bucks for me to get checked in. Turns out this sort of thing happens a lot! Haha. Also, she said that it was suctioned to my cervix that if she pulled it too hard she could rip out my uterus with it. Good grief, the Diva cup went right in the trash. The doctor was absolutely lovely!! She was so nice!! Very interested in my journey, reassuring about taking the cup out, she gave me fruit snacks after we were done!! My favorite!! She came outside to meet Sunny too. And she and the nurse parked over me and my trip. Small towns are awesome. Sally was still there and she gave us a ride back to the hostel. Such a nice woman and some great conversation. We showered, dried out tents, did laundry. We went into town and got a few things at the store and had dinner at an AYCE buffet. Good food, I had three pieces of chicken parm and a plate of salad. Talked to family and relaxing in the room. Got some HUGE climbs tomorrow.
Date: 2015-03-24
From: Unicoi Gap

To: Deep Gap Shelter
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: overcast clouds

What a nice night spent in a real bed. Well, as real a bed as a cheap motel can be. But it was great to be able to use some indoor plumbing. The Inn does free shuttles back to the trail at 9am. Of coarse we were one of the last ones out there so the shuttle filled up. Sunny and I and one other person ended up having to wait. At first the owner wanted us to wait until thier other shuttle at 11am...no way! So he ended up calling Sally and Joyce to come bring us to the trail. Sally was the one that shuttled us into town yesterday. Joyce had some great stories, wonderful lady. We got dropped off at Unicoi Gap around 930 I think. The Hiker Supply Box was set up for some trail magic. We grabbed some cookies, and chatted with Popeye and Ahab a bit. Then we started our hike.Good grief! We had some pretty hard climbs today. A lot of elevation changes. Up and down, up and down. It was definitely a struggle today. We hardly take any breaks during the day and we definitely didn't eat enough. The last climb took us over an hour. We finally limped into camp about 430ish, I think. It was a very very long day. Our feet were very sore.We set up camp and made dinner over by the shelter. We chatted with Popeye and Ahab, who arrived a bit later. As well as Squabbles and a few others. The bear cables were a bit overloaded,Hahaha, there had to be about 15 bags hanging from 3 little cables. Went to bed early, another long day tomorrow. Going to try to make it to NC.
Date: 2015-03-25
From: Deep Gap Shelter

To: Bly Gap
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: light snow

Early start today. We were trying to determine whether we should push it and try to make the border. We decided North Carolina or Bust!! Sunny and I have similar hiking styles where we just want to go go go. We really need to learn how to take breaks and relax during the day.The day was foggy of course, we had a bit of rain during the night. Packed up everything wet and moved a long. We were both having an meh morning. Sunny suffers from really bad headaches and her head had been bothering her the day before and a bit this morning. I was lost in my own head trying to deal with some things that have been bothering me. Its been a bit of a struggle. Now that the excitement of being on the trail is over I'm starting to be in my head a lot more and trying to work out some problems and frustrations. I'm a huge over thinker so I just worry the issue over and over and over in my head. To the point when I just want to scream Get Over It!! I'm sure I'll get there eventually. But it will take time.On the way down to one of the gaps we met a day hiker coming up. He had the cutest Yellow lab puppy. She just bounded right up. Brightened our mood considerably! ! I wanted to take her to maine with me, I think she would have came. Our hike wasn't too bad elevation wise, nothing too extereme. Made it really easy to push on to the border. We ate more today, still not taking enough breaks. We'll get better at that soon, I hope!Made it to the NC border about 3 o clock!!! Amazing to have made it this far. I can't describe how excited we were to cross this milestone! 1 state down 13 more to go!We soaked our feet in the creek once we set up camp. It felt so good! We were pretty exhausted tonight too. Must learn to take more breaks! Squabbler, Ginger Tea and a few others started up a campfure. We went over to enjoy the warmth and chat a bit. Squabbler is something else, cracks me up though. One guy had a little saw so he was able to cut some nice firewood. Good time. We ended up heading off to bed when it started to rain. Blah more rain, hopefully it will be decent tomorrow.
Date: 2015-03-26
From: Bly Gap

To: Carter Gap Shelter
Miles today: 15.3
Weather: overcast clouds

It rained all night. It was fairly windy tok. It had stopped by the time we got up but we still had to pack up a wet tent. It was a fairly early start today, we had a lot of miles we wanted to get through. I have a few blisters I doctored up on the outside of my feet. They don't normally bother me in the morning but by the end of the day my feet are killing me. It's a combination of pushing ourselves to far too fast and maybe the boots. I'm thinking of getting new boots in Franklin. We passed by the gnarly oak tree at bly gap. Awesome tree, reminds me of my tattoo. And let me say, NC is a bitch!! The uphill death climb out of bly gap was unreal. There was no time to warm up the muscles or the joints. It was just BAM, you ain't in GA no more! It took a while but we made it through. It helps to have someone to hike with because she encourages me when I want to lay down and die and I do the same for her.This climb made us a bit concerned for the next climb. The big one we had that day of over 5500 feet. But that was such a delight! It was a nice gradual uphill that we just cruised right through! We made pretty decent time into camp. But again my feet were killing me and Sunny's knee was killing her. We set up camp and soaked our feet again. This turned into a hopping place to be. A lot of people ended up camping there. We ate and relaxed for a bit. Squabbler came over and chatted a bit. Some guys up at the shelter started a fire so we went up and mooched some heat. Bed early again. Contemplating how far to go tomorrow. Maybe an easy day or should be push to Franklin....
Date: 2015-03-27
From: Carter Gap Shelter

To: Winding Stair Gap
Miles today: 15.9
Weather: broken clouds

Very cold and windy night. And yes it rained again. Packed up a wet tent. Bleh. We heard from Sunny's friend's aunt. She lives in Franklin. Ann and her husband Jim said they would live to host us for the night! And there went our plans to take a short day and hike into Franklin tomorrow. So off we went. It was a fairly easy hike And it went by pretty quick. Albert Mountian was the hardest part. It's a large elevation gain in .3 miles. It was a vertical rock scramble the whole way up. Intense!! But awesome. We got to the dirtier about 113pam. And that was our 100 mile marker!! Whoot Whoot, we made it 100 miles on the AT. There was an extereme amount of fog so we couldn't see a thing. But we climbed up the fire tower anyways. At the tip was Ginger Tea and Ferris Bloomers and three beers left over from some red necks the day before. I got the last bud light and we toasted to our 100 miles. Sunny didn't want any beer but she took our picture. It was pretty awesome.Onward we went, down the mountian. Much easier on the other side. The rest of the hike was fairly easy. We made some good time but we were in extereme pain by the end of the hike. My feet were killing me and Sunny's knee was killing her. We definitely over did it but we just couldn't get the thought of a shower and clean clothes out of our heads and we just pushed on. We got to Winding Stair Gap at 330. Ann and Jim met us there and took us home. We stopped at three eagles outfitter to pick up my package, Walgreens for some Epsom salt and McDonald's for some french fRies. The house is amazing!! Absolutely beautiful, three floors on 30 acres. No neighbors and an amazing view off the back porch of the mountians. We each got our own room with our own bathrooms. The hospitality was such a blessing. We showered and did our laundry. Ann and Jim made us dinner. Fresh rainbow trout grilled with oven roasted vegetables and rolls. With super tasty wine and walnut cake with strawberries for dessert. Absolutely amazing. We stayed up late chatting.So glorious being in a bed!
Date: 2015-03-28
From: Winding Stair Gap

To: Franklin
Miles today: 0.0

Our first zero day. It was amazing sleeping in a bed. It was amazing being able to sleep in. I organized my mail drop and the things I had in my pack. I ended up having to ship some things forward because I got too much food from my family! But at least I didn't have to do any grocery shopping. Ann took Sunny and I into town. She was great, she drove us anywhere we wanted to go. And it took the whole day. We went to the post office and the outfitters. I ended up getting g a new pair of Keen boots from Outdoor 76. Fantastic place. They are all about feet there. They measured my feet, watched me walk. They had me try on like 50 pairs of shoes and inserts. They knew there stuff. It was great. I was able to ship my old boots home from the outfitters. We also went a couple of places to find a knee brace for Sunny. We had lunch at a great place. I can't remember the name but I had a really good grilled chicken sandwich. Then we went back to the outfitters because we forgot some things. And they had a small bar in the outfitter so j got a beer too while we were shopping. We got back to the house about 430. Such a busy day. We felt bad taking up so much of Anna time, she's been so great. Her and her husband made us dinner again. We had steak and chicken, grilled of course. Oven roasted veggies, salad, rice, rolls and some delicious walnut cake with straw berries. So delcious. I organized all my crap and I am ready to hit the trail again tomorrow. Hopefully the new boots will work great. And our plan of taking breaks and doing less miles!
Date: 2015-03-29
From: Franklin

To: Wayah Shelter
Miles today: 11.0

Another amazing night spent in a nice warm bed. It had been really cold the past two nights, it even snowed in the mountains. I was so greatful we had two nights to stay in such a lovely home. Ann made us an amazing breakfast before we left. Scrambled eggs, homemade bacon and toast with yummy raspberry jam and orange juice. So freaking good!! We are just so thankful to our two trail angels for welcoming us into their home and feeding us. They went above and beyond! They dropped us off at Winding Stair Gap about 930am. And up we went! The trail wasn't too bad today. There was snow everywhere! We took it fairly easy not wanting to overtax ourselves. My boots are great! They made my feet feel so much better and after doing 11 miles they are only a little tired. Nothing extremely painful like it was before. Plus the day off yesterday helped a lot too. Sunny's knee was decent today tok. Painful but not as bad. We has an amazing view up at Wayah Bald today! Absolutely breathtaking! We made it to camp at about 340pm or so. And we were feeling pretty good! Not too tired, not too sore. I had my tent up in like 5 seconds. Beautiful day out but I think it's suppose to rain tonight. Off to make some dinner soon, see ya!I almost forgot. Sunny kept throwing snowballs at me today. Lol! I didn't feel right throwing any back at her with her being so much older than I and having a bum knee. ..bahahahahahaha!
Date: 2015-03-30
From: Wayah Shelter

To: Wesser Bald Shelter
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: light rain

Holy Catfish, what a night. We hung out by the fire for a while last night with a few people including Boston, Neon, Britches, Caveman and The Hoff. Some kids hiked down from the tower and gave everyone hotdogs! So yummy. It got cold pretty quick. Then the storms hit. First the wind. Crazy wind. Crazy, I'm going to drop a house on you, wind. It was insane. I kept hearing the trees creek and prayed that one wouldn't fall on me. At some point it started to rain. A heavy freaking down pour along with massive amounts of Thunder and lightening. It was really cold. I had to put on extra clothes in the middle of the night. I hardly got any sleep. It was just impossible with the wind. I dozed off around dawn. We got up about 730 and attempted to get everything packed up. Everything was so cold and wet we didn't even want to get out of our tents. We left camp about 9 am. It was a very muddy, mucky hike. It was such a mess. We just slip and slide the while way down. Other than that, the hike wasn't too bad. It wasn't raining but the wind was still blowing. Very cold. We stopped for a quick break around 1130. When we moved on the sun was trying to make an appearance. Eventually it warmed up, the fog burnt off and the sun was shining nice and bright. Just in time for us to get to Wesser Bald. Such an amazing 360 view from the fire tower. Neon, Britches and The Hoff were up there too. It was great. We made camp about 3ish I think. It turned into such a nice day. My feet were a bit sore by the end of the hike and Sunny's knee was bothering her. Tomorrow we have a long climb down into the NOC and Sunny is a bit concerned for her knee. We don't plan to stay at the NOC long tomorrow, just hang out, eat lunch and see who we see. We plan to head back out to the next shelter after the NOC but it's going to be a long climb back up. Hopefully we're up to it. Closing in on the Smokies fast!
Date: 2015-04-01
From: Sassafras Gap Shelter

To: Cody Gap
Miles today: 11.9
Weather: overcast clouds

No rain last night! So great packing up a dry tent. Neither Sunny or I got much sleep. We were laying on a hill and we kept sliding down to the bottom of our tents during the night. So irritating. We had a great steep climb of 1.2 miles first thing in the morning. Such a struggle when you're not warmed up yet. But the view was amazing. We reached Choeah Bald with its view of "sweeping vistas" as stated in the book about 830ish. After that we hiked! We chatted a bunch. It was another glorious day weatherwise. We reached Stecoah Gap at about 1130ish. There's a road crossing and we were hoping for some trail magic. Unfortunately there was none. After a break for trail mix and water we moved on. Another climb up into the mountains. The one sucks thing about gaps...once you go down to one you have to go right back up the otherside. The same could be said for the climbs. You expend all this time and energy climbing and climbing for miles and miles just to reach the top and go right back down. It'd be great if the trail would just follow along the ridge for a while. We made it to Black Fork Gap Shelter early afternoon. We took a break and determined whether to push on or not. We were both pretty tired. The climb from yesterday and today kind of had us wiped out. Plus we hadn't been sleeping well either. Sunny soaked her feet in the creek and I took my shoes off to give my feet a break.We decided to push on to a campsite 2.8 miles away. That way our hike into fontana dam wouldn't be as long in the morning. we had to rush to get to the post office in time to pick up my package. They have funky hours. We made it to Cody Gap about 330, I think. We were the only ones to camp there tonight. It was glorious!! And relaxing. We went to the creek and washed off the grime. The water was cold but it was nice and refreshing. We set up camp on flat ground!! We made dinner and just relaxed! There were logs set up so we had places to sit. I layed down on one for a while and just watched the trees sway in the breeze. It was so peaceful. Such a great night.
Date: 2015-04-02
From: Cody Gap

To: Fontana Dam
Miles today: 8.8

Great nights sleep! It was nice and quiet all night. We left camp about 740am. The hike wasn't too bad. A few ups, a few downs. Then we had the 2 mile down into Fontana. Such a struggle. It's steep and and long. 2 miles! After the first mile you're like enough already. We could have been there by now if the trail didn't go all over Timbuktu! We were both pretty sore and tired by the time we got down there. I think it was about 12/1230. There were already 3 hikers down there waiting on the shuttle. So we didn't have to wait too long to get picked up.Fontana Village is cute. A great place to be during the summer. Great now, just really quiet! I picked up my box from the post office and we trugded up the hike to check in. We decided to stay the night and relax before we hit the smokies. The shuttle driver was a jerk for not telling us how far we had to go. He's like oh, it's just right behind the resturant there. We thought it was a short walk...wrong!! Anyways, we checked in. It's a nice place. We have WiFi but no cell reception. I have a nice soft bed with 4 soft pillows! Amazing! We showered, which was glorious and went down to do laundry. The laundry, general store and post office are all at the same place. So we had to hike back down the giant hill. But it's much easier without our packs on.After chilling down there, waiting for the laundry to be done, we went back to the room to organize our crap. Then we went to the grill for dinner. Pulled pork sandwich with fries and chili. Super yummy. Now we have the rest of the evening to chill out!Smokey Mountians tomorrow!!
Date: 2015-04-03
From: Fontana Dam

To: Russell Field Shelter
Miles today: 15.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Lovely night in a real bed! So soft! So many pillows. We got all our things ready and headed down to check out. I dropped a few things in the hiker box then caught the shuttle back to the trail. One of the guys in the shuttle said he read my journal so that was pretty cool! We got dropped back off at the Fontana Marina and saw Neon and Momemt! They were taking a zero in Fontana. We said hellos and goodbyes then moved on.We came across the Fontana Dam shelter which is called the Fontana Hilton...not too impressed, looked like all the other shelters. There were some showers a little ways up in the parking lot. We made it to the Dam. It was pretty awesome. Got some cool pictures. It's closed for traffic because they are doing construction but hikers still get to go through.Once we crossed the dam we entered into Smoky Mountian National Park. We took pictures by the sign. We followed the road for a bit and hoped that this was part of our uphill climb. No such luck. We entered the trail and deposited our park permit in the box. And up we climbed. We had a 4 mile uphill climb to the firetower. It was such a struggle. But but we made it. The weather was pretty decent and we had lunch at the firetower. The Hoff and Britches were there so it was good to see them. The view from the tower was amazing! Almost worth the climb, lol.We pushed on to the shelter. We planned to stop at Mollies Ridge Shelter. It was a long climb uphill. About a quarter mile from the shelter I sat down and told Sunny to leave and let me die. Haha! We were pretty exhausted. It was about 12 miles by then, mostly uphill. But we moved on up and made it to the shelter.In the smokies you are required to stay in the shelters unless they are full because of the bear activity. When we got to the shelter there was still a ton of places left and we knew there were a bunch of people coming up behind us. It was going to be full. There was a ridgerunner at camp. He chatted with us about the next 2 shelters and how they may be less full. We hate staying in shelters. Too many dirty smelly people in your space. We decides to press on to the next shelter 3 miles away. He said it was a fairly easy hike and shouldn't take too long.We got to camp at about 530/6. There were just a few section hikers there. Section hikers can make reservations for the shelters. So if the shelter is full, and they have a reservation they can kick thru hikers out no matter what time it is. Luckily that didn't happen to us. A few thru hikers showed up after us. Proudfoot, being one, I remember reading his journal. Then a few more section hikers showed up so the shelter was full.We made dinner then crawled in our sleeping bags. It was a bit uncomfortable with all the people. If it was just thru hikers I would have been more comfortable. The temperature started to drop and the rain held off all day which was great. Storm will probably hit tonight
Date: 2015-04-05
From: Derrick Knob Shelter

To: Mt. Collins Shelter
Miles today: 13.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Cold, cold morning. Sketch kept the fire going all night, which was so awesome. We moved out about 8ish. We had a lot of miles to cover today.It turned out to be a beautiful day! It warmed up a bit, the sun was out. We were excited because we were going to Clingmans Dome today and we wanted a good view. The miles flew by. It was such an easy hike. We made great time. The were such great views on the approach to Clingmans dome. And at one point it was like we were hiking through the Enchanted forest. It was beautiful. So much better than all the scrub brush. Things were greening up, there was moss on everything. It was great.Happy Easter...we made it to Clingmans Dome about 1ish. There were tons of people at the observation tower. It's the highest point on the AT. We went up and took some pictures and hoping for some phone service. The whole time in the smokies we haven't had any service. No such luck. We didn't stay too long because of the massive amount of people there...normal people...it was wierd. We ate a quick lunch there. A few people stopped by to talk about our journey and wished us well. It was great. Another few miles to camp. It went by really fast. This shelter was .5 miles off the trail. Such a hassle. Very inconvient. At least this shelter had a privy! A nice one too! With a door. They don't have privys in the smokies for various reasins, bug they have toilet areas. Which is gross walking through where others have gone. We made it to camp by 330/4. And we're the only ones there! We chose our spots, this time on the top bunk. The bottom bunk was very very low and looked like a cave while the top bunk was a short step up. Easy. We ate dinner and still no one showed up. Eventually people started filing in around 6ish. Britches and the Hoff showed up and set up next to us in the shelter. Some section hikers showed up. 2 couples with thier kids. They all took the bottom bunk. It filled up fast and a lot of people had to tent. The water source was a rediculous distance from the shelter ....about .25 miles. Insane. But we sucked it up and went down there to get water. Not like we had a choice.It was getting cold but not enough dry wood for a fire. The kids were insane...hopefully they quiet down quick and we could sleep.