morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2018-04-21
From: Hot Springs NC

To: Hot Springs NC
Miles today: 0.0

Moved to Laughing Heart Lodge hostel this morning and got a shower and washed my clothes in a real washing machine. I met up with ¢Tambourine¢ (a notable trail angel) and chatted with her for about an hour. I met her in Gatlinburg and have crossed paths several times. I met up with McNasty at the hostel and found out that my efforts to catch him was useless because he was behind me. He had stopped at a shelter that I bypassed 3 days ago and I had been in front of him since. I also met up with Hooters and and Kermit. They have been ahead of me for awhile but are taking multiple zeros due to bad ankles. They are two lovely German ladies that I first met on day 2 back at Gooch Mountain Shelter. We have cross paths many times and now I am ahead of them again. Besides the normal things of resupply, showery, washing clothes that you do during a zero day, today we had a party. They were having a Hiker Fest this weekend in Hot Springs and this evening we had a fish fry and other activities. It was fun and very relaxing. The Smoky Mountain Diner has the best coffee I¢ve ever tasted.
Date: 2018-04-22
From: Hot Springs NC

To: Spring Mountain Shelter 
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: light rain

Still, that is how I would describe my hike today. It was very quiet. The wind was just a breeze and it was not even rustling the leaves. You would here a bird in the distance but otherwise it was very quiet. As usual there was a climb coming out of town and this was one of the steepest. The good thing was it was a short distance. Made it to the shelter last and there was no room so I set up my tent. The wind had started and the rain will be moving in about midnight. I hope I¢ve got all my gear situated so nothing gets wet. I don¢t want to hike and sleep in 40 degree weather for the next 4 days. We¢ll try to do about 15 miles tomorrow and the next day to get out of the weather a day earlier.Night y¢all
Date: 2018-04-23
From: Spring Mountain Shelter 

To: Little Laurel Shelter 
Miles today: 8.6
Weather: heavy intensity rain

They (No, I do not know who they are) say that April showers bring May flowers. It got me thinking that for the last few days I have seen a lot of new buds and growth on the forest floor. It was a wonderful day after all. Rain can¢t keep me down. As Bob Marley said ¢Some people feel the rain others just get wet¢. Today I felt the rainMy wet boot didn¢t effect my hiking at all.  The heat I was generating helped to dry it out.Time to eat my 4 cheese mashed potatoes with spam,tuna, and chili cheese Fritos
Date: 2018-05-26
From: Little Laurel Shelter 

To: PeterÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Mtn Trailhead
Miles today: 362.1
Weather: broken clouds

Definition:Slack pack - Where you hike without your backpack. You may take a small daypack with only essentials like toilet paper, water filter, snacks to eat, and water. You either start your hike at your present point and someone brings your pack to you at the end of the day or you are dropped off up the trail and you hike back.  You will be shuttled back up the trail the next day to continue hour journey Yes yes, I know it¢s been over a month since you¢ve heard from me. Many of you have let me know. I¢m sorry and will try much harder in the future to journal on a more consistent basis. I have been immersed in the beauty of the Appalachians. I¢ve done over 300 miles since my last entry and tomorrow I will be starting at mile 656.1 and plan on doing about 18 miles. I may have to do shorter miles because of rain. It really sucks hiking in heavy rain all day. Not only is the trail like a little river you have to walk on but the mud is either sucking you in or making you slip and slide. It makes for slow hiking. Last week I hiked 5 out of 6 days in the rain. Two weeks before that it was 5 days of rain. Oh the upside the mountains are beautiful and full of green. I walk through a meadow full of yellow, white, and purple flowers. Besides the beauty of the setting I noticed a loud humming noise which came from hundreds of little bumblebees flittering from one flower to another. I past through the Grayson Highlands where I saw the wild ponies. They will come up to you and lick the salt off your skin. They will also try to eat your hiking pole straps and grips where your sweat has built up. While in the Grayson Highlands we encountered a bear. I did not see it but those that did said he was big. He had been raiding the shelter area and tent sites for food. The night I was in the area he was able to get 5 food bags. I was on the 2nd floor of the shelter along with 6 other hikers and we had our food bags with us. It seems he gets someones food bag almost every night. They will either relocate him or kill him soon. Right now I am at the Angels Rest Hiker Hostel in Pearisburg VA. I have been here for 5 nights now. Why you ask? Why are you not hiking?  3 reasons I had over 150 mosquito bits and I wanted to get off the trail a little while to get some meds and heal up a bitI¢m exhausted. I think I¢ve lost to much weight to fast and my body seemed to be weakening. I took a real bad fall on a hugh bolder/rock and bruised some ribs and my hip/butt. The doc said they were not broken ( I knew that) but I should rest a few daysYesterday I slacked packed. The hostel dropped me off at a trail head 20 miles up the trail and I hiked back to the hostel. It was a good test of my body without carrying a 35 lb backpack. I did good so tomorrow the hostel will again drop me off up the trail but this time I¢ll continue heading north carrying all my stuff. I¢ll journal again soon. Bye now
Date: 2018-06-26
From: Potomac River (Harpers Ferry WV)

To: Crampton Gap Shelter 
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: scattered clouds

Just to be clear about whats happenings I want all y¢all to know that I have finished Virginia and West Virginia. Along with Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee that¢s 6 states complete. Only 8 states left. Very easy trail today. I planned to hike 15 miles today but was waylaid by a trail angel at Gathland State Park. I had a fantastic turkey sandwich a Dr Pepper and good conversation. Before I knew it 2 hours had passed. I haven¢t looked yet at what that means for tomorrow but I really don¢t care. I¢ll jut get up and start hiking. It¢s easy terrain so maybe I¢ll try to do 20 miles. Night y¢all. It¢s time to get my beauty rest
Date: 2018-06-27
To: Annapolis Rocks Campground 
Miles today: 14.2
Weather: moderate rain

The word of the day is mud  it seemed that¢s all I hiked in today. I guess that the trail is so easy in Maryland it feels the need to hinder you some how  Yes the trail is s sentinet being.  It knows all about you and it will give or take away from your hike as it feels the need.  It must be frog hatching day.  Or are they toads.  I saw 15 of the little tiny things my 1st mile.  It was the hi light of my day.It was hot and I took many breaks today.  Not much to tell todayGood Night all
Date: 2018-06-28
From: Annapolis Rocks Campground 

To: PA Route 16 (Waynesboro PA)
Miles today: 18.9

Today¢s hike was relatively easy and flat. I did have a choice of bone shattering rocks and boulders and sucking mud. I guess my request for a yellow brick road was denied. It rained all last night and the trail was just horrible today. I started the hike in rain which was a surprise because the weather guru called for a nice day. After the 1st hour the day became very nice. Party cloudy with a nice breeze. The weather guru was right after all. I had so many wins today. High mileage Another state gone. Maryland is in the books. If you are keeping score that makes 7 down and 7 left. WINI¢m officially out of the south and in the north regions. Not sure that¢s a win but it¢s different. How do I know I¢m in the north? Mr Dixon and Mr Mason says so. (See the  picture). When I took the picture I had one foot in the south (Maryland) and the other in the north (Pennsylvania). I was a man divided. Last win is I made it into town for resupply. I would have been out of food but a trail angel fed me yesterday and I still had one meal left.  If you make it to town with no food it¢s a big win. Food is weight and you don¢t need to carry extra food. Staying the night in a real bed. No bugs, no one snoring in my ear, no gear getting damp because of relentless downpours. Good Night y¢all
Date: 2018-06-30
From: PA Route 16 (Waynesboro PA)

To: US Route 30 (FayettevillePA)
Miles today: 15.3
Weather: scattered clouds

Had crappy hotel breakfast this morning and was picked up by 7am for shuttle back to the trail. Mud, rocks, roots , ups and downs etc. All normal trail stuff today, nothing to hard or difficult. The trail was easy, my heel problem was hard. Have I mentioned my foot problem? Probably not as it¢s just a manifestation of a fat man pounding his feet against the unyielding earth for over a thousand miles. I was on the trail and hiking by 7:15 and by 7:30 the juice bugs (my term) were already swarming. A juice bug are those flying nats etc that buzz right in front of your face. They sometimes try to fly up your nose in your mouth or ears but mostly they fly right into your eyes to bask in that glorious eye juice right before they die. We all hate juice bugs. I stopped for 2nd breakfast around 9:30 and was able to use the privy at the shelter I stopped at. As disgusting as privies are the still beats digging a cat hole. I was about to get some water at a nearby stream when an old guy came up and started talking to me. He was one of the maintainers of the trail in this area. The shelter I was at was slated to be torn down this spring but was delayed due to weather. He said probably this fall. He also told me the next shelter has a spring nearby and it is probably the best water on the whole trail.  I got water from a faucet 5 feet off the trail at a campground. It may not had been a delicious as spring water but it was easily obtainable. I hobbled to US Route 30 where there is a restaurant 0.4 miles down the rode so I thought why not. The double cheese burger with bacon and banana split was just what I needed. I decide I didn¢t want to hike to the next shelter/tenting area so I walked another 0.4 miles to a church hostel. Tomorrow is Sunday so maybe I¢ll go to church.  Time to ice my foot and get some sleep.
Date: 2017-11-01
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Ever since I was 19, I have wanted to thru-hike the AT. You can count me amongst the generation of folks that were inspired by Bill Bryson after reading A Walk in the Woods. So cliche, I know. I knew nothing about the trail before I read that book but have spent lots of time in the outdoors throughout my life. Being a CO native, my experience is mostly concentrated here in our great state and the incredible high country it provides. I've summited somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 dozen 14,000 foot mountains and will eventually climb all 58 in the state. I have backpacked plenty of times but never for more than one week at a time. The longest I've ever camped was during a float of the Grand Canyon the summer after I graduated from college. That was over two weeks of sleeping under the stars and it was freaking incredible. I have decided to begin a journal now in anticipation of attempting a thru-hike in the spring of 2018. I figure I need to start vocalizing my intention to actually do this and put it out there. They say every thru-hiker must answer the question: Why do I want to hike the AT? Without a clear answer to this question, you will most assuredly fail. For me, it's a combination of things. I sometimes worry that I have too many reasons for wanting to do this without having one really great reason but I suppose too many is better than too few. Here is what I've come up with:-It's a pretty massive undertaking and I want to prove that I can make it. To see it through all the way to the end.-I've never spent more than a couple weeks outside of my home state. Being away from home for months on end is something I should probably experience.-I've not spent a lot of time in the eastern US, I would love to see more of this part of the country.-The idea both exhilarates and scares me. I look forward to the experience both for the joy and the misery, this won't be a vacation.-I've wanted to do this for almost two decades and I'm at a point in my life where I think I can logistically pull it off.That's what I've got for now, maybe I'll discover other reasons as I start to put things together. For now, I am in the planning stages, considering gear choices, sketching out timelines, researching the exploits of others who have both succeeded and failed. With a tentative start date sometime in the first two weeks of March, I have just over four months to get my proverbial shit together. I intend to update this journal at least once a month as the departure date approaches, possibly more depending on what happens between now and then. It begins.
Date: 2018-02-15
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: mist

Have been slacking on getting entries in here but I am going to try to make a weekly posting now that I'm 5 weeks out. I've got a lot of gear dialed in at this point and getting more comfortable with some of the smaller details of my hike. I have booked my flight from Denver to Atlanta for March 20th and will plan on starting the trail either the 21st or 22nd depending on if I meet up with family friends before the start. It still seems pretty surreal and I have to get a couple major things done before I go, namely selling the Jeep and subletting my condo. Gear wise, I have one large item yet to acquire (sleeping bag) and a bunch of minor things that will be fairly easy. These last couple months have flown and I'm sure the remaining time will go even faster! Still trying to get in some quality ski days and time with friends and family, it's gonna be hard being away from CO for such a long stretch. More updates to come!
Date: 2018-03-18
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

It's here, it's real, it's happening. My place in Denver has been leased, all necessary gear has been acquired and goodbyes have been said. Was able to celebrate with a ton of friends at Trey and Jamey's last night for St. Paddys day and my liver is looking forward to cleaner living in the coming weeks and months. In two days I fly to Atlanta and will begin the trail! It's pretty surreal and I'm only slightly panicked. I constantly think of all the shit I maybe haven't thought of and worry that some small forgotten thing will lead to my undoing. It's probably the same mild psychosis that every thru-hiker experiences before they begin and I just have to remind myself to not overthink too much. I will have plenty of time to iron out the smaller details as I hike so as long as I don't forget to wear pants or something, it'll all work itself out over time. Even the pants thing could be worked around. Tomorrow is my last day in Denver and I will be doing laundry, treating clothes and gear with Permethrin (super bug killer), and going through the gear shakedown again. It's been so great to stay with Mad Dog and Val at their place in Lakewood and to have them as my home base for storage and to send packages when needed. I plan to be keeping daily entries on the trail so bookmark this page so you can keep up with me as I go! I'll try to remember to periodically post this to Facebook and will be using Instagram (tobiasrottman) for most picture sharing. So if you've always resisted signing up for the Insta, I may be the asshole that forces your hand now. Forgive me. More to come tomorrow.
Date: 2018-03-21
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Been a whirlwind couple days and I dont know if Ill sleep well tonight despite this being my last soft bed for a while and my last night as a non-dirtbag for hopefully many months! Mad Dog dropped me at the airport bright and early yesterday and I made the flight to Atlanta, although I cut it pretty close . I took the train from the airport to the northern part of the city where I was picked up by my old family friends, the Lehrs. Our families have been close since before I was born and I havent seen them in years. So nice to have them host me these last two days and provide clutch assistance in getting my things together. We sat through rain and wind last night at a high school soccer game (so as to toughen me up apparently) and then caught dinner close by. Today we ran around town to get the last few necessary items (groceries, stove fuel). Ill start tomorrow morning at Springer Mountain (about an hour north of here) and Im shooting for a somewhat significant mileage day (15 miles) in order to avoid heavier crowds at the first shelter. This may be overly ambitious but we will see. I mean, its only hiking, amiright?More to come once Im able to connect. Have no idea how spotty my coverage will be in the coming days, weeks, and months but I fully intend to post updates for each day on the trail as soon as Im on the grid. And you know what they say about good intentions...They always lead to the expected outcome and no one is ever disappointed. Thanks again to Ken, Marsha, Meredith and Drew for being such gracious hosts here in Atlanta!
Date: 2018-03-22
To: Gooch Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Thurs, March 22Miles: 16.7Started early from Ken and Marsha¢s to get to springer mountain. I didn¢t sleep well last night with thoughts of the coming adventure crowding my brain. We made a quick stop at McDonald¢s for some breakfast sandwiches and made the hour drive north. The road to the trailhead reminded me of many 14er approach roads and we would not have made it without an suv and Marsha¢s skillful driving. After a quick photo and goodbyes, I was finally on the trail. A quick one mile hike up to the summit of springer mountain to tag the official AT plaque and then back northbound to start my journey. The early morning was frigid and I was wearing a down jacket for the first few miles. The weather was gorgeous the rest of the day and I was grateful to not start my hike in rain or worse.After 8 miles I hit hawk mountain shelter to eat lunch and filter more water. I met a guy (sketch, tweak?) who had thru hiked in 2012 and he was a wealth of information and fun to talk to. I didn¢t linger too long as I knew I had another 8 miles to make Gooch shelter and a beastly ascent up sassafras mountain. The elevation may not be as high as Colorado but the vertical feet I¢m tackling are demanding for sure. I was pretty gassed after reaching Gooch mountain and since the shelter itself was already at capacity, I found a tent site below the main area next to Eric who is from Hawaii and was celebrating his bday on the trail. I went through the process of setting up camp, cooking dinner and trying to organize myself so that this process would become smoother over the coming days. I¢m adjusting to almost all new gear so it¢s taking some time for me to get in that groove.Overall impression of the day was extremely positive. I¢m still really nervous about a lot but I feel like I can do this if I just keep one thing at a time ahead of me. The people are awesome and the sense of community out here is great. We had 22 people in camp last night and most of us are attempting a thru-hike. Everyone is super excited to be out here and they are friendly, helpful, and just generally fun. A lot of miles today and hoping to put in another sizable day tomorrow my body will allow it. Day one in the books!
Date: 2018-03-23
From: Gooch Mt 

To: Jarrard Gap
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: clear sky

Last night was interesting. I got all settled in for the night, was pretty comfortable and just as I was drifting off, heard a rustling in the leaves outside my tent. I immediately thought ¢mouse¢ and opened the tent to pull my pack from the vestibule to the inside of the tent. I laid down and immediately heard a scratching noise coming from the pack. I immediately opened the tent and gave it a good shaking, hoping to scare the culprit out and turned on my headlamp to discover that indeed a mouse has chewed through the mesh side pocket on my hip belt and found a bag of salt and vinegar almonds that I¢d neglected to store with the rest of my food in the bear box. Not finding the mouse, I assumed he¢d scared off an I rezipped the bottom of my tent. I turned off my headlamp and before I could even lay back down I saw the silhouette of a mouse trying to scamper up the zipper to escape. I completely freaked out at this point. I threw open the zipper, turned on my headlamp and in the ensuing chaos, knocked down my trekking pole that supports the front of the tent and collapsed the whole thing in on myself. I rolled out of the tent, pullled my pack out and stood up in my skivvies totally flabbergasted. I ditched the almonds, propped the tent back up and did a thorough shaking out to make sure the little bastard had in fact vacated for good. Satisfied, I resettled into my bed but then realized I had a secret weapon. Peppermint oil! Mice hate peppermint oil. I opened the small vial I was carrying in my toiletry kit and went ham on my tent and pack. The smell was almost overpowering but I was going to make damn sure the little jerk wouldn¢t come back. I finally got some sleep. Because my brother-in-law Jamie ceaselessly mocks me for carrying peppermint oil and all my gear is now pungent with that fresh scent, I have adopted the trail name, ¢Peppermint¢. All thru hikers go by a trail name instead of their given name because it¢s easier to remember and it speaks to a unique story (usually some kind of fuck up) that characterizes the person. Could be worse, I¢ve read about a guy named ¢Piss Shoe¢. Anyway, thanks Jamie for the handle.The rest of the day was relatively uneventful. I  slept in later than most because of my late night shenanigans and was last one to leave camp. I encountered my first instance of trail magic (typically food distributed by good samaritans along the trail at road crossings). It was a group handing out apples, breakfast sammies, and coffee. I just grabbed an apple and snacked on that at a high point with incredible views a couple miles up the trail. I eventually connected with another group that I had tented near the previous night and we pushed to a campsite with a nice wind break behind a hill. Just over 10 miles and feeling generally good despite a couple hot spots on my feet that may require taping to avoid blisters. On to Neels Gap tomorrow and possibly beyond but I may be enticed by the siren call of a hostel with shower and pizzas. We shall see.