morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-03-16
To: Ready to go!
Miles today: 0.0

A tearful good bye to Tara and ZigZag (our dog) this morning and now I'm sitting in the airport. I checked my bag, which weighed in at 49.5 pounds...a little heavy. There's a few pounds of stuff in there that I'll be sending home tomorrow (long story short, I had to bring some things to finish up some last minute stuff at the hostel tonight), and once I add a couple liters of water to the pack, I think I'll be around 47 pounds...still heavy. I'd like to get down to 40 pounds, but I can't think of anything I can ditch. I'm sure I'll have a different perspective on that within a few days. I might not need as much food as I've brought. Maybe I could have done without the Little Debbies Celia bought me...thanks Celia. ;-)Tara pulled together a bunch of friends for a farewell get together at John Harvard's in Cambridge last Friday night. It was great to see everyone one last time and everyone wished me well, which felt good. Thanks to everyone who came.I'm in the airport terminal and I'm stylin' in my new Crocs. I just bought them recently and I haven't worn them anywhere yet ¢ didn't really think I was much of a croc guy ¢ but I can't believe how comfortable they are!Time to board......Just got on the plane and listened to a voicemail from Tara. Looks like I forgot my eatin' spoon. Tara's gonna send it to me, but if that's the only think I forgot, then I'm doing okay. I just watched my pack get loaded onto the plane, so that's good news.I'm at the hostel now watching "Romancing the Stone" on VHS and eating a terrible pepperoni pizza from Domino's. I hesitate to even call it pizza, and anyone who knows me well knows that I don't say that lightly. $19 including the tip for delivery and I swear I had better pizza from the cafeteria in high school.The hostel is awesome, though. It's really nice, the people are great, and I almost don't want to leave. I'm ready for tomorrow to happen, though. Now that I'm here it's all feeling real to me. The shuttle leaves for the Approach Trail at Amicalola Falls State Park tomorrow around 8:30. I think I'll plan to go the 9 miles to the Springer Mountain shelter tomorrow.I just heard that this week is spring break in parts of the South. The trail might be kind of busy this week...maybe I can make some extra cash buying alcohol for the underage kids at the shelters.Oh, and Mom, calm down. It turns out I have my spoon after all...Tara saw something else on the counter and thought it was meant to come with me. So I'm not gonna starve. I repeat, Mom...I'm not gonna starve. I have a spoon.
Date: 2008-03-17
From: Amicalola Falls State Park, GA (Approach Trail)

To: Stover Creek Shelter, GA
Miles today: 11.5
Weather: overcast clouds

I'm sitting on the front porch of the Hiker Hostel with Lukasz and his fiance Karen waiting for our shuttle to the approach trail. Karen is from Malta (cool accent) and Lukasz is actually from my hometown of Quincy, MA! I shared a room with Ken and His daughter Molly (from Alabama) last night...quite possibly two of the nicest people ever.Shuttle's leaving......Well, despite my plan to take it easy today, I ended up going past the Springer Mt. shelter and pushed on the 11.5 miles to the Stover Creek shelter with Karen and Lukasz. I had hiked off and on with them throughout the day. I was saying good bye to them near the Springer Mt. shelter and Lukasz made a pretty good argument for pushing on to the next shelter. Stover Creek shelter is brand new and it's really nice, so I'm glad I kept hiking. It was a long 2.5 miles to get here from Springer, though. Feels nice to be off my feet now.The approach trail from Amicalola Falls State Park was rerouted to go along the falls this year. I must have followed the old sign when I started by myself because I never saw the falls...or any other hikers. Lukasz and Karen said they did the same thing before turning around after a few minutes. I enjoy hiking with them, but I don't know how long I'll end up staying with them. Karen has a deadline to be back in Malta for work, so they might end up keeping a more aggressive schedule then me.So I was hiking the approach trail and walking toward a big group of ~30 people who yelled "Jesus loves you!" in unison. When I came close to them, their leader asked if I was thru-hiking. When I said I was, he announced to the group of teenagers, "This guy's goin' to Maine!" in an Alabama accent and they all got excited and cheered. In all the commotion, I missed a sign that was in the middle of the crowd and I turned off the approach trail onto a side trail. So now I had gone the wrong way twice. It was like being led through the woods by Al Donatio. After ~10 minutes I turned back and ran into the church group as they were heading up the side trail I was on. This time they stopped and talked for a minute and a few of the girls asked to take a picture with me. A couple of the leaders were asking about the hike and if they could track me online, so I told them about my journal. Friendly people.Wildlife sightings: We saw some turkeys on the ride from the hostel to the approach trail. I also followed 3 white-tailed deer for ~100 yards up the approach trail. Pretty cool.Beard status: Lookin' like the guy from Winger in the "She's Only Seventeen" video, but without the stretch pants.Alternate ending: The church group turned out to be a cult. They kidnapped me, gave me some Adidas sneakers, and made me drink poisoned Kool-Aid with them. Fortunately, I always carry a poisoned Kool-Aid antidote, so I slugged that down while the rest of them were falling into a death sleep. I hitched a ride and made it back to the trail in time to get to the shelter before dark.
Date: 2008-03-18
From: Stover Creek Shelter, GA

To: Justus Creek, GA
Miles today: 11.1

I'm keeping pace with Lukasz and Karen and we're all camping at Justus Creek tonight. We had planned to go another 1.3 miles to Gooch Mt. shelter, but we heard there were 45 people at Hawk Mt. shelter last night. We figured that most of those people would be at Gooch Mt. shelter tonight. It's just as well, though. I was ready to be done when we reached the creek and now I get to listen to the rush of the water all night. We might hear the same sound all day tomorrow because it's supposed to thunderstorm.Today was a good day for hiking. The temperature didn't rise above 50 and the sun was behind a thick haze for most of the day. It was kind of chilly whenever I'd stop for a while, but the cool breeze helped keep me cool when I was hiking.I took more breaks today. When we arrived at the shelter yesterday, I realized I had only sat down once since I started hiking the 11.5 miles. Stupid.Today was kind of a tough day. A bunch of ups and downs over mountains (better get used to it) and I didn't sleep well at all last night, so I was still really tired from yesterday. I might not try to go the 13.2 miles to Woods Hole shelter tomorrow. There's a stream with good camping at 9.5 miles, so maybe I'll shoot for that.I already stink. My tent is a cocoon of stink.My pack's bigger than I had imagined now that it's filled with all my gear and food, so now my Packa (combination rain jacket/pack cover) doesn't fit over it. When I get to Neels Gap (2 days from now) I'll see about getting some compression sacks for my sleeping bag, tent, and clothes. I want to make my pack smaller, anyway. I know the compression sack I have at home will make my sleeping bag half the size it is now, so I'm hopeful.Wildlife sightings: I saw a dead cat on the side of the trail. It made me a little sad. I'd have stopped to give it a proper burial, but I'm more of a dog person.
Date: 2008-03-21
From: Fish Gap, GA

To: Neels Gap, GA
Miles today: 3.6
Weather: clear sky

A woodpecker was my alarm clock this morning. The wind quit about halfway through the night and this morning was beautiful. It was a great day for a hike...especially a 3.6 mile one. It felt really nice reaching Neels Gap. It was my first place to reach, so it feels like I've accomplished something. I got a bed in the hostel, took a shower, got a couple hot dogs (which I've been dreaming about for two days), resupplied, and now I'm waiting for my laundry to dry. They came around taking orders for a pizza run, and for some reason I've again put my faith in Domino's. This place is awesome. I'm heading up to have the staff go through my pack to give me suggestions on packing it better......Well, Winton went through my stuff and gave me some useful tips on packing it more efficiently. There were only a couple of things he suggested ditching or sending home. Guess all that planning paid off. The windscreen I made for my Jetboil (which has a windscreen-type thing built into it) is going in the hiker box (a box of stuff people don't want that other hikers may be able to use) in the hostel. I made it for windy days, but it's a real pain to fit into my pack and I have faith in the Jetboil.This time Domino's got it right (as right as Domino's gets, I guess). A lone hiker arrived after the store closed and while we were watching The Big Lebowski on VHS. I gave him what was left of my pepperoni pie and he seemed grateful. Turns out he hiked here from Springer in two days...that's pretty impressive.Tonight should be a good night...warm, dry, and comfortable. I might shoot for Low Gap Shelter (10.8 miles) tomorrow.Beard status: Filling in nicely. I saw myself in a mirror today for the first time in five days...kind of strange.
Date: 2008-03-22
From: Neels Gap, GA

To: Low Gap Shelter, GA
Miles today: 10.8
Weather: scattered clouds

I got to talk to Tara for a bit this morning. That felt good. She put her phone on speaker so I could say hi to ZigZag and I guess he ran away from the phone...wimp. Tara might start putting my journal entries into Trail Journals for me since it's tough to get computer access for any length of time when I'm even near a computer. We'll see. It seems like everyone is keeping a journal online, so I'm guessing there will always be a line of hikers waiting for the computer when one is available. I went to use the computer in Mountain Crossings yesterday but there were already four people waiting for it. I had a chance to enter a couple days worth of entries this morning. I didn't end up leaving the hostel until ~10:30, so I was one of the last ones out.They woke us up at 7:00 this morning and had breakfast waiting for us, then Pirate came around taking pictures and names to hang on the hostel walls...great time to take a picture. I wasn't expecting breakfast. That place is awesome.I made it 10.8 miles to Low Gap shelter today. It was a rough day and I think I went a little too far. I'm still getting used to it. Today's hike included a pretty steep climb over Wildcat Mt. The next shelter is Blue Mt. shelter (7.2 miles) and I think I'll aim for that tomorrow.I used Winton's advice in packing my pack today, and it worked out really well. The food and water (the two things I need access to most often throughout the day) were much easier to get to and the weight distribution was as good as before. Good stuff.I bought a book yesterday, so that should help keep me occupied during quiet times. That's one reason I didn't stay at Gooch Mt. shelter when it was pouring the other day...I didn't have anything to do.
Date: 2008-03-24
From: Blue Mt. Shelter, GA

To: Tray Mt. Shelter, GA
Miles today: 7.7

Last night was cold. Today was cold. Tonight is cold. Tomorrow draws a line in the sand with a forecasted high of 60 degrees in Helen. Wednesday promises to be even warmer with a high of 70.I woke up this morning to snow flurries and a partially frozen water bag. Someone said it had gotten down to 19 degrees during the night. I checked my thermometer shortly before coming to my tent tonight and it was 25 degrees. Luckily we've had a pretty good fire going for a while, so I'm warm enough right now. If I get too cold tonight I'll heat up some water, put it in a Gatorade bottle I have, and put the bottle in my sleeping bag to warm me up. I put my stove just outside my tent door, so it'll be easy to do it if I need to.Today was a chilly day for hiking. When the sun was out it was pretty good, but there were a lot of clouds that brought snow flurries and cold wind with them.I'm here with Crabby, Bob, Greenwood and his girlfriend OrangeDust, and Paul...all good people. The people with the two dogs are here, too (don't know their names), and their Burmese Mountain Dog is sleeping outside, right next to my tent. Looks like I have a watchdog for the night...not bad.Crabby, Bob, and I are planning to hike 11.1 miles to Dick's Creek Gap tomorrow. We'll catch a ride into Hiawassee and share a room at the Holiday Inn Express. Bob hikes a lot faster than Crabby and me, so he'll probably go ahead of us and reserve the room. The plan is to go to Daniel's Steakhouse at 7:30 for their $8 AYCE (all you can eat) buffet. Greenwood and OrangeDust might meet us there, too. By tomorrow night I'll have hiked more than 75 miles, so I think I deserve it. I don't expect it to be very good...I'm thinking it's something like Ponderosa back home.
Date: 2008-03-26
From: Dick's Creek Gap, GA

To: Plumorchard Gap Shelter, NC
Miles today: 4.5
Weather: broken clouds

Last night was awesome. I was up late putting my journal entries online, but it was great to be able to do that and then crawl into a nice warm bed. It felt so good to sleep in a bed and have a pillow...or four. Crabby and I shared a room and Bob and Paul shared another. Crabby snores pretty bad, but I just used my ear plugs and it didn't bother me at all.We took advantage of the free "econo breakfast" at the Holiday Inn Express this morning. It was actually really good. After resupplying (and adding a good 6 or 7 pounds to our packs), we made the most of our town trip by eating lunch at Hardee's before heading back to the trail. Bob called (and paid for) a shuttle back to the trail. Joyce picked us up in an old VW camper bus...really cool.We hiked 4.5 miles to Plumorchard Gap Shelter, which is a really nice shelter with 3 separate sleeping platforms. It was buggy when we arrived, so I decided to stay in my tent tonight. I think this might be the nicest place I've stayed so far. I've just gotten in my tent for the night and it's 48 degrees, so it should be a good night for sleeping...the first I've had on the trail. Today was really warm, too. I removed the bottom half of my pant legs and hiked in shorts today. It felt good.I called Black Diamond (the company that makes my trekking poles) and told them my story about the dog chewing on my trekking pole. They're sending me a replacement piece free of charge. That surprised me. Most of the good gear companies really stand by their equipment and take care of their customers warranty-wise, but I was surprised they were willing to send me a free replacement for damage done by a dog. Good stuff.I'm still with Crabby and Bob. Paul took a zero day (no hiking) at The Blueberry Patch (hostel) in Hiawassee today. I gave him some of my unwanted food to put in the hiker box there.So we've settled on "Chewy" as my trail name. It's official now that I signed the shelter register as Chewy today. It's kind of weird answering to a different name.We cross into North Carolina tomorrow and the day's hiking is going to be either moderate or difficult. I'd like to make it 12.1 miles to Standing Indian Shelter, but I'll have to see how I feel. I'm not sure Crabby wants to go that far tomorrow, but I think we can do it. We'll see. I like hiking with Crabby (despite his name, he's a really nice guy), so it would be nice if we stayed at the same pace as each other for a while.Greenwood and OrangeDust are here, too. They saw a mother bear and two cubs on the trail today. Pretty exciting.Off to a warm night's sleep...
Date: 2008-03-27
From: Plumorchard Gap Shelter, NC

To: Standing Indian Mt., NC
Miles today: 12.1

Today was the longest distance I've covered in a day so far...12.1 miles. It was long, but I felt pretty good. Last night was warm enough that I slept really well, so I had some good energy today. I also got up earlier today, so maybe that had something to do with it, too.Crabby, Bob, Greenwood, and OrangeDust all covered the same distance today, so we all ate dinner and had a fire at our camp just below Standing Indian Shelter. Colby and G-Town are here, too. We met them at Plumorchard Gap Shelter last night.The marching band I had expected to see at the NC border didn't show up, but it still felt really good to cross into a different state. It's a good thing Greenwood and OrangeDust were hanging out at the state line or I wouldn't even have noticed it. I was walking by OrangeDust and she said "Welcome to North Carolina!" I looked up to see a tiny little sign that I wouldn't have noticed otherwise.The plan for tomorrow is to hike 11.3 miles to Betty Creek Gap. We'll go 11.5 miles to camp near the Route 64 road crossing on Saturday so we can get a ride into Franklin on Route 64 on Sunday. There's a Hiker Fool Bash happening in Franklin on Saturday and Sunday, so Crabby and I will try to get there on Sunday for music and food. Should be fun.It's pretty warm again tonight (45-50 degrees), so it's another good sleeping night.Off to bed...
Date: 2008-03-28
From: Standing Indian Mt., NC

To: Betty Creek Gap, NC
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: overcast clouds

It was a damp day today. I woke up to thick fog and as I summited Standing Indian Mt. it started raining. It never got really bad, so I didn't end up getting too wet...just a little damp. I stopped to eat lunch with Colby, Greenwood, and OrangeDust at the Carter Gap shelter. There was a church group of boys staying there and they didn't seem very happy with the weather. Some of them were wearing shorts and looked pretty cold. By the time we left the shelter the rain had pretty much stopped and I didn't have to wear my rain jacket for the rest of the day.Today's hike was really pretty...lots of rhododendron that sometimes formed long tunnels. They're not in bloom yet, but they're still pretty. Greenwood, OrangeDust, Colby, and Crabby are all here at Betty Creek Gap. A few newcomers have joined us, too. They're doing yoga poses with OrangeDust to help stretch out. All three of them smoke...a lot. It's hard for me to imagine how a smoker could do a hike like this.It's starting to get a little misty, but hopefully the wet weather will be gone by morning. It's probably the warmest night we've had and I'm really sleepy, so I should sleep well tonight.I miss home but I'm having a great time. This thing is by not means easy, but the sense of accomplishment at the end of each day feels good and I'm meeting some great and interesting people (some odd ones, too).Greenwood, Crabby, and I collected a lot of firewood when we got here today, so we had a great fire and got to know the three new people a bit.
Date: 2008-03-29
From: Betty Creek Gap, NC

To: Winding Stair Gap, NC
Miles today: 12.2
Weather: light rain

Today started with a thunderstorm that came on quickly and poured rain on me as I was lacing up my boots to start the morning. I was packing up and thinking that I wouldn't need my rain cover on my pack today just as the sound of thunder told me otherwise. The rest of the day consisted of on and off showers and cloudy skies.We climbed Albert Mt. today. It was our first peak above 5000' (5220') and the view from the top was awesome. There were patches of fog stuck in the valleys below and the whole scene was gorgeous from above. Albert Mt. was really steep and rocky, which was a good challenge in wet, muddy weather. We met a hiker on the summit who plans to hike the whole trail in 95 days and has been averaging 22 miles per day!I saw my first trail magic today...a past thru-hiker named Butterfly was hiking by as part of a trail maintenance crew and she passed out homemade brownies to all the thru-hikers as they went by.Another personal record today...12.2 miles. We also passed the 100 mile mark today. What a great feeling! We had planned to find a spot to camp just before Highway 64 in Winding Stair Gap, but we didn't find any. We could have pressed on to the AT on the other side of the highway and come back to the highway tomorrow to catch a ride into Franklin, but it was wet and raining and we decided to hitch a ride into town.We knew that the Hiker Fool Bash was happening at Ron Haven's motel, so Crabby called Ron Haven's Sapphire Inn to see if we could camp there. We camped on the lawn by the light of the motel sign for free and paid $10 for all you can eat hamburgers, hot dogs, BBQ steak tips, chicken, and a bunch of other stuff. I ate all I could.Last night was a good time. Crabby, Colby, Greenwood, OrangeDust, and I walked to Khan's down the street to get some good beer, then just hung out, ate, and had some good laughs. There was a local band that played some old school country music...Hank Williams and stuff. Ron Haven even jammed on banjo with the band. After dark, there was an impromptu jam session that was kinda cool.Just as I was saying that we don't really drink much whiskey up north, a bottle of Knob Creek appeared in my hand. Still not a big fan. After that, Ron Haven (legendary friend to hikers) came around to say hello. He had some moonshine in a milk jug. I just took a couple of small sips so that I'd still have my sight in the morning. Not ready to give up my beer for whiskey or moonshine just yet.Crabby's brother is coming to town, so he's arranged a hotel room for me and Crabby at the Hampton Inn...livin' large. That'll be nice. My feet could us a good soak in epsom salts and I'm definitely in need of a shower and a washing machine. Tomorrow will be my first zero day (no hiking) and I'm looking forward to it. My body's kind of asking for it.
Date: 2008-03-30
From: Winding Stair Gap, NC

To: none (zero day)
Miles today: 0.0

Today was a zero day and it felt nice. Crabby's brother picked us up around noon and drove us around to do a few errands and get lunch at Cody's Roadhouse. I took a shower and washed my clothes and I'm pretty comfortable right now. Not much to report since it was a fairly uneventful day. There's rain a comin', so I bought some silicone to seal up the leaky zippers on my rain jacket. Hopefully that'll help. I talked to Tara tonight and it seems to get harder to be away from her every time I talk to her. I'm ready for bed, but I figured I'd upload some pictures since I'm at a computer that I can plug my camera's memory card into. Check back on a few of the recent posts to see the pictures I've added. I'll try to add more later. Miss you all at home.