morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2006-03-16
From: Tray Mtn shelter

To: Hiawassee, Ga
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: light rain

Not a bad day, sun came out after awhile, kelly knob was not as bad as advertised or reputed. The whole section has some ups and downs which the knob probably gets blamed for. At Dick's Creek gap Smile and I got a ride pretty quickly from a young mother and 14 month old son. Smile had started to walk downhill away from the group - holly and jumpstart and solace and little easy and I had just suggested we go back for the same reason she wanted to seperate from the guys - it would be easier for women to get a ride when the driver pulled up with only room for two, the others waved us on, so I went. That night -courtesy of smile -I stayed at the Holiday Inn with hot tub, laundry,internet access and we had suppper at the asiana, a fine Thai and sushi restaurant.
Date: 2006-03-17
From: Hiawassee, Ga

To: Hiawassee, Ga
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

a second day and night at the Holiday inn, resupplying at the ingles, riding the bicycle from the hotel around town and to do shopping.Soaked the compeed type blister bandages off. Popped the blisters and unroofed the ones that wouldn't stay popped, then applied a couple coats of new skin over them very successfully. Knees are swollen and stiff but biking loosened them up. In evening we were waiting for Holly's mom, Jumpstart's wife Tracie to arrivefor us all to go to dinner at the sushi place together when the owner of the Cloud 9 trout farm showed up and smile hit him up for a ride to the restaurant early. Sean (who becomes Chewie) came with us. While we were there waiting for the others I looked up and saw in the doorway a womyn I went to school at Haywood with, Michelle Drivon, porcelain potter extrordinaire and gifted spiritual healer as well. We talked for a long time, very intently. We both survived a hard year since school with relationship challenges, housing changes, her s.o. Kenneth moved in, she was ill for a couple months, took classes at the Hoffman institute, disappointed in her pottery sales, she sold her equipment, and is teaching at the John c Campbell folkschool before she and Kenneth travel to new zealand, australia and other places checking schools, being WWOOFERS, willing workers on organic farms and other things. We talked about being surprised by our meeting like this and what it would be like to be the womyn we know we are who are not surprised at all by this sort of thing. We agree to keep in touch as we travel our life paths. Some people travel the same paths and never meet, we travel different paths and meet again and again.
Date: 2006-03-18
From: Hiawassee, Ga

To: muskrat gap
Miles today: 11.6

Rode back to trail with Jumpstart and Holly and Smile. Planning to take it easy this week and arrive at Winding Stair gap thursday to meet KC. Did not mean to go as far as Muskrat but it was a beautiful day for hiking. Stopped at junction of Plum Orchard shelter trail and AT to eat a bit and cool feet. A chocolate chip cookie from Woody and Mike whose mom baked for them was delicious. It was way too soon to stop for the day so hiked on. The rocks in the trail after this were brilliant with red iron oxide and ochre and pyrite, I bounced with excitement about inspiration for surfaces of sculpture like those rocks. Add chartreuse moss in feathery fern patterns and it is stunning. I am more focused on art since the news that Eve sold, thinking about forms and surfaces, colors and textures. Greeted the old tree at Bly Gap and decided to continue on. Miss Holly ditched smile and I on the ascent out of the gap. She was talking about going past muskrat shelter for the night, Smile was talking about going into franklin before the bad weather hit and I was thinking about meeting KC thursday only 40 miles from dick;s creek and it was sunday! That is an arduous climb out of bly gap, but it was pretty. could still see that weird tower that we had been seeing since the morning out of neel gap and had fantastic views from the ridge top. I had told Holly about the muskrat creek shelter I remembered being an A-frame but on arriving recalled the hike in '99 when found it replaced by the nantahala design with covered kitchen area. tented that night near shelter.
Date: 2006-03-19
From: muskrat gap

To: standing indian shelter
Miles today: 4.9
Weather: overcast clouds

cool morning. Sun came out about 10:00. When we got to Deep Gap we put our feet up for a while and then Frosty came along as we were getting ready to leave. the hiker he was with carried a little weather radio and was predicting T-storms and cold. At the gap Frosty said he wanted to get off the trail until he felt better and Smile was glad to get a ride into Franklin with him when he called Ron Haven on his cell phone. She generously offered to let me come along but I had really had enough of town for the time being and wanted to hike to meet KC on thursday - figured I had enough time to hole up for a day in the tent if it rained as predicted so I walked the .9 further up to standing indian. As I walked by the kiosk after the gap I read a sign warning: bears have taken packs and showed no fear of humans between deep gap and siler bald, keep food separate. after a while alone at the shelter a group of Georgia Tech outing club boys on spring break showed up. shortly after that other hikers trickled in and soon was quite busy in shelter.
Date: 2006-03-20
From: standing indian shelter

To: standing indian
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: snow

another zero day. stayed in sleeping bag all morning, during rain and wind and cold. barely keeping warm. The Maine Train showed up - 5 young hikers from maine and another outing club on spring break and it was not worth staying in the shelter despite the rain, the wind came up from the floor boards and the noise was overwhelming, plus I was realizing that if someone had purchased Eve they must be banking on my success as an artist and that I ought to get to work and not blow the opportunity to make a solo show. That thought process was making me sad and antisocial. I withdrew from the thru hiker fellowship, I felt unworthy to be in the shelter for considering Not going to Katahdin. I needed time to think about it. I picked up my gear and took my tent down the trail a ways and pitched it just as it started in raining more. When the rain settled down a bit I got up to eat under the shelter. The food bag cord was frozen to the tree I tied it to but pulled it free with the loose end, breaking the ice. The bag wouldn't come down - it was frozen to the tree branch I had pulled it up to so had to get a dead limb and whack it like a pinata to loosen the icy grip and get it to fall down. while I was making soba noodles with cheddar broccoli soup mix and salmon brains and brawn came in shortly followed by ranger and tagalong. I noticed I was a little stupid from the cold, but didn't do anything dangerous, just slow. The rain stuck to the trees, icicles, all the branches coated with ice, so that they rattled when I brushed past them.
Date: 2006-03-21
From: standing indian

To: carter gap
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: overcast clouds

got a late start- about 11:30 I think, waited for the rain to stop then it was a great day. sweet trail, rhododendron walks. finally got back to enjoying being present in this beautiful world. finished thinking about Jumpstart asking about how do you get the work to the show - realizing 5 months is not too long to develope a body of work. that there is packing and photographing and transporting and new materials to get used to and failures that must be compensated for, etc etc. the sun was out most of day until arrival at carter gap when the cold wet wind began sweeping in the fog. pitched the tent and had oatmeal for supper.
Date: 2006-03-22
From: carter gap

To: rock gap shelter
Miles today: 12.1
Weather: clear sky

wow, a great day. So cold in morning my water was frozen solid - hiker in shelter told me it was 10 degrees. Felt almost warm in privy with wind break. Passed by Railroad and Critter as I stopped to put socks on my hands they were so cold. Avoided trail magic at bearpen gap - sorry but with fore knowledge that am going off trail tomorrow did not want to do anything but hike. That climb up albert mtn was amazing. couldn't be steeper, had to eat half a luna bar on the way up. the water in my platypus was beginning to thaw so had a little breakfast on steps of albert mtn. Stopped for hot lunch at Big Springs shelter. Gap after that I took off my long johns, got to rock gap at 3:15. Met Crutch there, he gave another hiker a ride into town and came back with bananas and orange soda. He asked my story and I told him it was a long one, but he put his foot up on the wall and rested on his knee and listened. I felt better after talking to him. Solace and Little Easy caught up later and I admitted to them I was considering getting off. I wrote about it in the journal there. If I get some work done I can come back.
Date: 2006-03-23
From: rock gap shelter

To: off trail with KC
Miles today: 3.8

started out from Rock Gap after all but Chewie had left. Met ranger and tagalong (not sure I have their names right) and went with them down to the old Wasilik poplar. forged out after that on trail to winding stair, up that ferocious climb from wallace gap and about a mile from winding stain saw someone in blue -a familiar blue, and a dog! it was KC and Isis. at the road chewie was waiting - he'd gone past when we were down at the poplar, we gave hime a ride to haven's and took 28 south through Highlands - ate at a burger grill there - good! craving protein on the hoof. Poor KC spilled the woes of her last two weeks at SuBAMUH, the womyn's land trust we have been living at since October. She has been under horrendous stress while succeeding in her efforts at right speech. We spend the evening talking.
Date: 2006-03-27
From: Asheville, nc

To: our temporary home, SuBAMUH
Miles today: 0.0

am catching up correspondence, having decided to work until have some sense of satisfaction that not too much is left for body of work to be completed. picked up 100 lbs of clay in Asheville. plan to come back to trail in a few weeks. Had reinforcement of decision - it snowed and there remains a fair amount visible on ridges, will give it a chance to warm up before heading back too.
Date: 2005-12-15
To: Introduction
Miles today: 0.0

I've sent my journal link to a lot of people who aren't too familiar with the trail, so I figured I'd make a sort of introductory entry to start off with to get most of the big questions out of the way. You can skip to the preperation journal here. A little Q&A :What's the Appalachian Trail?Here's a good description, with a good map : http://www.nps.gov/appa/index.htmWhat's a thruhike?Hiking the whole trail in one season.How long is it going to take?Well it'll probably take me about six months, some people take more, some less.What about food?I'll be in a town every 5ish days; most towns along the way have enough to resupply. For those that don't, I'll be mailing myself food.No cell phone? Gun? Bowie Knife??No.. Am I going alone?I'm not going with anyone that I know, but because of when I'm going and the number of people that try a thruhike every year, I won't really be alone too much.
Date: 2005-12-16
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

So, 2006 is going to be the year. ! Exactly three months from today I'll be flying to Atlanta.(General journal disclaimer - I'm writing this journal partly for friends / family that I know are going to read it so they'll know how I'm doing, partly for anyone who's looking for advice from someone that's tried, and partly for myself. That means that there'll be a lot personal, emotional, blahblahblah rambling stuff in here that's not interesting to anyone but me. Sorry! You can skip those parts. This whole entry might be one of those parts.)Anyone who knows me knows that I've been talking about hiking this trail for a very long time. Tried in 2002 but I realized that I just wasn't ready. So am I ready now? Good question! I don't think there's any such thing as being ready, but I'm going to spend the next 3 months doing what I can, physically and mentally.Whenever I tell people what my plan is, I get all kinds of reactions, ranging from "Yeah right, you'll never make it cityboy." to "Wow, that's great! You'll do fine!" Definitely worried about the former, but certainly hoping for the latter So why am I doing this? I'll be hot, cold, wet, sore, grumpy, tired, hungry, dirty.. what's the point?I guess the most important thing to me is to prove to myself that I can do this. Many people have done it.. what kind of stuff were they made of? Anyone who's in reasonably good shape can do it, the biggest factor is mental. I want to see if I have the attitude that will get me through, and if not, I want to learn enough about how I tick to be able to adjust.Also, growing up we used to go to the Maine woods every year, and I realized that there's no place where I feel more comfortable. Because of where I live and my job I don't get to get out much at all anymore, but, every time I'm in the woods there's no place I'd rather be. When I drive past a wooded area I always wonder "what's in there? What's over that hill?" I want to know what 5+ months of that will be like..But, I guess we'll see how it goes. I read somewhere that the instant you realize that the trail is completely different from everything you expected it be, is the instant that you're a real thru-hiker (or something like that!) So I guess I'll have to see what comes, day by day.
Date: 2005-12-17
To: Testing my gear
Miles today: 0.0

Bought 60 lbs of sand today from the hardware store and filled my pack until it weighed 40 lbs, and walked 5 miles with it with all my trail clothes on. Everything went suprisingly well, even though it was only 5 miles and Chicago is the flattest place on the planet. The temperature was in the low 20's and I was pently warm with what I had on, which is a good sign for those early March months. Boots and socks held up great, but I did get a small blister on one of my toes. Need tougher feet!Got to come up with a good workout routine for the next few months, so I'll be in good shape for the trail, as much as that's possible to do.89 days to go!
Date: 2005-12-21
To: Day off!
Miles today: 0.0

Took the day off today just to solidify my gear list a bit. Made quite a mess in the apartment. So I packed (mostly) everything in my pack, and sans food and water, it came to about 27 lbs! Seriously, I have no idea how I pulled that off.. I think my scale might be broken. Makes me think that maybe I scaled back too much??This is how much of a geek I am : my gear list is in Excel (it's 'autofiltered'). I have color coded bandanas to serve different purposes (eg red is the pot holder. Light green is for nose blowing. Get it?) I have markers on my tent straps that say 'back', 'front', 'starboard', 'port', so I can put it up quick in the rain. If you see me on the trail feel free to point and laugh.Back to work tomorrow. Always fun.Who reads this stuff anyways?
Date: 2006-01-14
To: Slackin off..
Miles today: 0.0

I have been seriously, seriously slacking off, and am feeling pretty guilty about it. My job has offered me very little rest this past week but if I end up dropping off from not enough conditioning I'll be very disappointed! I think this week I'm going to have to draw the line and just leave on time to get my rearend to the gym.I also hear of so many people doing this or that for mail drops, food, etc.. I haven't done any of that! My plan is to use maildrops for the first few hundred miles, just give me one less factor to be concerned about. After that I was going to take my chances with the supermarkets (except for Monson ME, maybe). I was pretty confident with this idea until I read about other hikers that have been dehydrating food for months now..Thruhikers handbooks are coming this week .. that's when the real planning begins.
Date: 2006-01-31
To: No longer slacking off
Miles today: 0.0

Ok, slacking off days are done and over. Went to the gym today (actually, just changed there, and went to the stairwell) and up and down I went until my heart was pounding out of my chest. I scared the crap out of one of the guys working late (because why would anyone be running straight at you in a fire stairwell?) he jumped and spilled his coffee all over his shirt. Sorry bro.I managed to get myself banned from trailplace, which at first made me feel like a criminal but then I realized that I didn't do anything wrong.. I posted a link to another site which is a game misconduct, apparently. Tread lightly!I honestly think I can make it to Virgina using only at-least-I'm-not-at-work mantra. Even if a bear eats my leg. 31 days left.Turning 28 on Friday. When I was a boy, people wrote their journals on sheets of paper!Worried that I might go crazy without music out there. There's someone here in Chicago writing the words 'try whistling' in big sharpie marker over a bunch of the iPod ads on bus stops, etc. Ah, but can you sort by genre?? No, you cannot.Sorry, this rambled. My next entry will have seemless continuity and brilliant segways. Promise.Wait, one last thing.. some people have emailed me about why I wrote my last name as 'Truelove'.. it's actually my real name, no trail name or anything like that. If I self-assigned myself the trailname 'Truelove' when my name was actually Jones or something like that, I certainly hope someone out there would make fun of me for it.
Date: 2006-02-11
To: Gear is DONE
Miles today: 0.0

I officially have all of my gear, down to the stick of Chapstick. Bought a new hat that looks rediculous but I think it'll go a long way to keeping me warm. I also bought one of those Steripen things.. it's pretty cool but I'm worried about battery usage (4 AA's), and breaking the bulb. Uses UV light and attaches to your Nalgene bottle to kill the bugs. Cool stuff. The UV light can't penatrate plastic, only quartz (says the instructions). Nalgene discontinued their quartz water bottles about 3000 years ago so that should be fine.I've though of a trail name, I think, assuming that I don't get one on the trail - Scatterbrain. (If you don't know what a trail name is, click here. Someone at work called me a scatterbrain this past week and that about sums me up. If I haven't lost/forgotten any gear by Neel's Gap it'll be a mircale; I hope they sell socks there because I'll be short one or two. I kind of like the idea of earning a name rather than just thinking one up and assigning it to myself, but.. I guess we'll see what happens out there.Word seems to have gotten out at my office that I'm leaving and doing this crazy thing.. It's amazing the reactions I get. Some people think I'm nuts but one thing that suprises me is how many people are envious. Makes me realize that I'm pretty damn lucky to have the chance to do this.. most people, no matter how much they might want to, wouldn't be able to because of other obligations.
Date: 2006-02-13
To: Stair workout
Miles today: 0.0

Ok, here's the stair workout that I do.. we'll see when I get out there if it helps or not.Set a number of floors (current number is 7). Every floor in my building is about 14 feet high, so it's split into 2 flights. Set a time (today was 42 minutes. Adding a minute every day until trail day.)Walk up 7 floors, two steps at a time very slowly, like I've got an apple balanced on my head. Then walk about down. Jog up 7 floors pretty fast, walk back down. Repeat until time is up. Once I can do all 7 floors the first time without stopping, I'll bump it up to 8 floors.Thought about taking my pack in there, but I don't think it would go over well with building security.Only 3 weeks left of work, really can't wait. I used to be such a nice guy before this job..
Date: 2006-02-19
To: Can't sleep..
Miles today: 0.0

Decided that until my trip I'll be sleeping in my sleeping bag, on the floor with my sleeping pad, in my kitchen. No more bed. So last night I shut the heat off (it was below zero in Chicago last night.. smart..), made a stuffsack pillow out of extra clothes, and went to sleep. Well, I tried to go to sleep. I think I slept a total of about 3 hours.. whatever I did I could not get comfortable. Too constricted, too cold, then too hot, then too cold again, pillow too flat, pillow leaking clothes, hips too pointy, neighbors cooking what smelled like hamburgers at about 2:30am and listening to what sounded like Jethro Tull.. why were they doing that?I was seriously starting to go berzerk. I thrashed all night. How can I sleep in a shelter like this, where there will be bugs and wind and people snoring and farting.. My fellow hikers are going to murder me. I hope I get all these kinks out before I go. I'll be a lot more tired after a day of hiking than I am lazing about my apt, so that help should help.Making 'Scatterbrain' my offical trailname unless it gets dethroned.
Date: 2006-03-03
To: Last day of work
Miles today: 0.0

Today was my last day of work in Chicago.. heading back to NY for a few days to see the family. Was pretty sad, leaving the people I've been working with for about 3 years now.. I started working at that place before I even moved to Chicago so it's all I really know out here.One of the groups I support spilt up the 2174 miles into 12 chunks and tooks bets about when I'll drop off.. the first girl to pick picked the 0-188 mile slot. Thanks for the encouragement! Most people were really supportive, although I do have a few threatening boldily harm if I drop off.
Date: 2006-03-11
To: Pinky Toe
Miles today: 0.0

Loaded my pack to 45 lbs today (much more than I hope to have on the trail) and decided to hike about 12 miles on flat Chicago Forest Preserve land. It was supposed to rain but ended up being an absolutely beautiful day. It was also suprisingly nice in there.. got to see a family of deer while the planes from O'Hare roared directly and deafeningly overhead, not more than 100 yards up. Deer in Chicago! Who'da thunk it. Poor things have to deal with those airplanes every day.I did, though, end up getting a doozy of a blister on my baby toe which has got me a bit nervous. The body glide did not work! It's healing up nicely today (thanks to some 2nd Skin and duct tape) but I don't like it one bit, especially since it was on flat land. I've been wearing these boots for months with no trouble. Not good. I'll have to be all padded up before heading out next time.I can't think of a harder place to wrap duct tape than on a pinky toe.Just checked the weather for Suches for Thursday.. mid 50's and partly cloudy. Perfect!
Date: 2006-03-12
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

For whatever reason it's taken until today for me to realize that it's going to be six months before I get to see and talk to the people that I care about. I think I've been so wrapped up in getting ready that I haven't thought about it, but it hit home today and was very sad. I've been in the woods when there's no one else around and it can be awfully lonely.. those times aren't fun. I won't be able to sit and have a beer with my friends and tell them trail stories and they won't be able to tell me what's going on with them. I'm very lucky and have a lot of great friends who have been really supportive of me, and it's tough knowing that I'm not going to be able to see them for so long.
Date: 2006-03-15
To: No more prep...
Miles today: 0.0

This will be my last Preperation entry.. after that I'll be official.Just wanted to say a quick thanks to the community out there. I've gotten so much good advice and support from complete strangers.. it's been overwhelming. I don't think I'd have the courage to go out and do this if it weren't for the information and encouragement that's available from all past and current hikers.And of course, to my friends and family.. everyone has been amazingly supportive fo me. Even the people who think I'm nuts are behind me It's made a huge difference.. I wouldn't be doing this without all of the help I've been given.Thanks! See you out there!