morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-03-29
From: Springer Mountain

To: Sassafras Mountain
Miles today: 11.0

Lee and Brenda dropped me off at USFS 42 about 9:30 AM at the intersection of the forest road and the AT which was about 9/10 of a mile north of Springer Mountain. What I had to do was hike south to get to the top, then turn around and re-hike that 9/10 of a mile. I passed several hikers on the way to the top that were on their way down, including the two guys I saw at the Super 8 last night that later turned out to be Ben and his dad who were section hikers. I also passed two girls that were together, a blonde and a brunette whose trail names were Nemo and T-bird. I ended up passing all of them by the time I reached Hawk Mountain shelter at 2:15. They all decided to stay because they said there was an incoming storm, but I moved on because the shelter was full and I was trying to make it to Gooch Gap Shelter by dark. The shelter was pretty full anyway. There were two older women whose names were Dot and Ann and they call themselves Data and they were intending to hike the entire AT by going from shelter to shelter, once a day going to a new shelter which considering the fact that the shelters are about 7 miles apart, on the average, it would have taken them, oh, a couple of years. They didn¢t even have their sleeping bags, tents or anything. They had quilts. Mrs. Gorp, whose name was Cindy, was also there. I talked a bit later with her, turned out she¢s hiked the Trail 3 times before and she was coming back again. At any rate, they were correct about the storm. It was a bad mistake for me to continue on. As I came over the top of Sassafras Mountain, about 11 miles north of Springer, I was slammed by the storm that was coming up the other side and the temperature which had been, I don¢t know 65 or 70 degrees started dropping rapidly. The rain was coming down sideways. I was trying to scramble to set up the tent which blew away from me 3 times because it was so windy. The wind was like a freight train and in about 15 minutes the temperature was down to 42 degrees. I just crawled into the tent wet and there was no way I was going to be able to cook so I just grabbed some crackers and some Emergen-C cola, beef jerky and pork rinds and just ate them there.
Date: 2003-03-30
From: Sassafrass Mountain

To: Woody Gap
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: broken clouds

The wind only got worse as the night progressed. I was sure I was going to be blown away any minute. It was horrible. I kept thinking all night ¢my god, if the tent goes down I¢ll die of hypothermia and it¢s just the first day on the AT. That so sucks¢. At 2:30 am the pounding of the rain turned into tapping and I looked outside to see that it was sleeting. About an hour later the tapping turned into thumps as the snow started to fall in big clumps. By 4:30 in the morning there was so much snow on the tent that the tent started to sag and was starting to collapse, so I sat up until dawn beating the walls to keep the snow off and trying to get dressed. Around 6:15 I put every single piece of clothing I had brought with me on including the rain gear. I checked the temperature. It was 29 degrees and the wind was still blowing like crazy, probably 40 mph gusts and easily below zero with the wind chill factor. The tent was completely iced down so I took a credit card out of my wallet and ended up scraping the whole tent down before packing it. A broadly smiling young guy with blond hair passed by as I packed and then I got the hell out of there. Spent about 2 hours hiking through the snow and wind with all the wet gear until I got to Gooch Gap Shelter about 11. The sun came out about that time and I hung everything out to dry, got the cell phone out and managed to make some calls. I hung out at the shelter until everything was dry about 1 o¢clock, and I repacked it. I decided I was going to hike another 10 miles but apparently I had done something to my knee that day and I could hardly walk. I ran into Mrs. Gorp before Woody Gap and we pitched camp, cooked and got in the tents. The forecast was for a hard freeze of 20-25 degrees. I didn¢t know what I was going do about my knee. I really didn¢t think I could walk as I was barely able to limp. The young guy with the blond hair whose name was Jason walked in after a bit and set up camp, as well as a bizarre couple named John and Laura. The tent sites were right close to the road at Woody Gap and there was an actual bathroom, which Mrs. Gorp was very excited about. Also, something I had encountered that day, which I didn¢t understand, but they explained later was trail magic. I was by a garbage can and all I saw was a box with raw sausages in it and a bunch of other junk. Apparently there had been some people there who were doing trail magic. That is where people come out and feed the hikers or, or leave a cooler of sodas, or take their garbage. I was told later that these trail angels had been cooking sausage and egg breakfasts, and when it started to snow they left a box full of apples, bagels and other food. All that was left when I got to it was raw pork sausage.
Date: 2003-04-01
From: Walisi-Yu

To: Zero Day
Miles today: 0.0

I decided I was going to try and lay over to let the knee heal a little bit. Only 3 days out on the trail and it was beginning to look like I would end up one of the many early casualties that don't even make it past Nell's Gap.A lot of hikers came through; the names I can remember are Mary, a couple Evan and Shannon(I think those were the two with the dogs) and Ben and his dad who were section-hiking. They were going to spend, I believe, 12 days altogether on the trail and then go back home. Ben¢s dad was carrying a big wooden stick and Ben was carrying a liter and a half of scotch whiskey. After carrying it for three days I guess he figured he didn¢t need it so he passed it around and everybody had some. Also there was Janet who decided on her own trail name, Edelweiss. Nemo and T-bird were also at the hostel that evening. That night we ended up going into town again. One of the hikers who shall remain nameless because he was a jerk, talked the hostel owner into letting him drive the van into town and ten of us piled into it. The reason he was a jerk is that he insisted on stopping at EVERY freaking store in town looking for HEET. AYCE place and the pizza buffet were both closed by the time he got done and we ended up just getting whatever. Chicken wings and pizza. It turned out to be ok but everybody was bummed out about missing AYCE. Jerk.
Date: 2003-04-02
From: Walisi-Yu

To: Blue Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 18.1
Weather: clear sky

Woke up this morning figuring I had to put up or shut up, so I packed my stuff up and started hiking from Walisi-Yu at 6:30 am, and I walked until 7 PM. If you could call it walking. I basically staggered the whole way because of the knee. I ended up covering 18.1 miles. By the time I pulled into Blue Mountain shelter it was dark and I was too tired to do anything but eat and go to sleep. Everyone else staying at the shelter had already eaten and were bundled up in sleeping bags. There was a real nice guy there who had hiked the Trail before. His trail name was Animal.
Date: 2003-04-03
From: Blue Mountain Shelter

To: Tray Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.4
Weather: clear sky

Hiked a total of 7.4 miles from Blue Mountain Shelter to Tray Mountain Shelter. Very hard section of the Trail. 7.4 miles is all I could do for the day. Everything was very vertical. A very steep climb. Too beat to write anything else.
Date: 2003-04-04
From: Tray Mountain Shelter

To: Plum Orchard Gap Shelter
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Tray Mountain Shelter to Plum Orchard Gap Shelter. Total of 15.5 miles. I got up and started walking at 6:30 am and managed to do 10.5 miles to Dick¢s Creek Gap by 11:30. I decided not to go for the North Carolina border until morning. I was going actually try and hike through it, but I fell four miles short of the Carolina border. Plum Orchard Shelter was a triple decker, three levels of sleeping space. It was one of the nicer shelters I'd seen, with plenty of tenting areas around as well. And was totally packed. Goat, a funny guy with dreadlocks who hiked in a kilt and was a logger got a fire going. He carried no stove and cooked every night over a fire. Also at the shelter were Pez, Ben and his dad. I met for the first time Josh (Trail name Sherpa)and his wife Rachel. No actually I had run into them at Walisi-Yu, literally. the two of them and Goat walked in together and had practially ran me over to get to the hiker box. There was a lot of camaraderie and story-swapping, a good time around the fire. I was actually feeling good about life for the first time in a week.It rained most of the night and everyone took turns snoring. It seems like everyone woke up in a bad mood that morning. Also, this is the first time I started to take note of the total elevation gains which is total climbing. My little altimeter said that so far we had come 13,612 vertical feet so far.
Date: 2003-04-05
From: Plum Orchard Gap Shelter

To: Standing Indian Shelter
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: heavy intensity rain

Elevation gain 4,776 feet for a total of 16,398 feet. (That has to be wrong) I started at 7:30 from Plum Orchard in the rain. I figured it wasn¢t raining enough to put on raingear which was a mistake because it started raining hard and I got soaked. Then I put my raincoat on and froze for a few hours. This day I also passed a group coming out of Black Gap with three dogs. At one point the Trail came out on the forest service road at Deep Gap and a Trail angel named Tom was there with 2 kids, hot dogs and hamburgers on charcoal, and sodas. They had lawn chairs set up and a big banner that said ¢Welcome Hikers, Come Eat¢. Standing Indian shelter was also packed. I crossed over into North Carolina at 10:30 in the morning and everything went uphill immediately from there. I started walking up and I did not stop until 4,000 vertical feet were behind me.
Date: 2003-04-06
From: Standing Indian Shelter

To: Rainbow Springs Campground
Miles today: 20.4
Weather: scattered clouds

From Standing Indian Shelter to Rock Gap where I stayed at Rainbow Springs Campground. It was a very exciting day for me. A very hard day. The reason it was a big day for me was because it was my first 20 mile day. I did 20.4 miles. It took me from 7:30 in the morning until 6:30 at night running hard. Total elevation changes for the day were 3,084 feet. Total elevation changes to date were 19,480 feet. I got out at Wallace Gap onto a road and ended up walking about 12 mile before I got picked up by a guy in a truck who ended up being this guy named Night Stalker. Lots of stories I heard about him, but basically, he hangs out at the country store at Rainbow Springs campground and he shuttles hikers. He makes money by taking hikers back and forth to town for ten dollars a shuttle. By the time he dropped me off at Rainbow Springs Campground the store had already closed and I was out of food for the most part. I just got out some crap I had left over and tried to cook that. I was beat. Very tired from long miles. But I did manage to shower and I did laundry. There were a total of ten hikers in the bunkhouse. This is the campground that Bill Bryson dissed so badly in his book. I personally didn't have any issues with the place although the hostel really was pretty crappy. Very dirty, very cramped, bare plywood walls and signs of mice everywhere if you know what I mean. The bunks are stacked 3-high and if you are unlucky enough to get stuck with a top bunk (which I was) it is a real bitch to climb up to it and then the roof is so low you can't sit up in the bunk. Not that you would want to because the nails from the roofing are sticking down through the roof and you can easily impale your forehead on one. And when the rain hits the bare tin roof it sounds like you are in a tunnel with the train a'comin'. I didn't care, I was dry and warm.This is the first time I ran into Wild Child. Wild Child was a hiker who sold everything he owned in 1998, over some woman from what I gathered; His house, his car, everything and started hiking and hasn¢t stopped since. He was out of cigarettes, I had extra packs so I gave him one for which he seemed to be unusually thankful for. Anyway, I ate what little I had.. the store didnt open til 9am the next morning.
Date: 2003-04-07
From: Standing Indian Campground

To: Big Spring Bald
Miles today: 10.0

I hiked from Rock Gap to just short of Big Spring Bald. Ten miles total. Total elevation changes were 22,569 and elevation changes for the day were 3,087. It rained very hard last night, which made me very glad to be in a bunkhouse. Unfortunately it had a tin roof and it sounded very loud. I packed up the food from the camp store. I bought a new knee brace there, little tiny gaiters and liner socks. I was so hungry that I ate two Red Baron breakfast pizzas. I was there so long re-supplying and eating that I didn¢t get started until 11 am. By that time, the owner Barry, drove me in his truck to the trail. Really nice guy. Ended up he was also from Florida. I stopped at the Siler Bald shelter at 3 o¢clock but decided to move on and made a wrong turn. It took me until 5 o¢clock to get on track and I hiked until 6:30. What happened was that I got to the shelter and there was a blue blaze that goes in and a blue blaze that goes out of the shelter. I took the second one out and hiked downhill, down this tractor road. I must have gone down about 1000 vertical feet and decided there was no way I was going the right way so I hiked back up again and I ran into Tucson, whose name was Mary, and she said ¢No, No, that¢s the way to go, that¢s the way to go¢¢¦so I turned back around and walked back down the road again. This time about 2000 vertical feet until the trail ran out. That was my first big wrong turn.
Date: 2003-04-08
From: Big Spring Bald

To: Wesser Bald Shelter
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: light rain

15.4 miles to Wesser Bald Shelter. Total elevation changes 26,165 feet. Elevation changes for the day 3670 feet. Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain all day. I got to the shelter and the shelter was full. Absolutely full. It was a wreck. There was mud everywhere. There were people sleeping on the table. There were backpacks hanging from so many places you couldn¢t walk through the shelter without banging your head into them. There was just wall to wall standing people. We had actually, some of us, not intended to hike to this shelter. The book said that there was a hostel at Tellico Gap, 2.2 miles short of the shelter. But when we got up to the road in Tellico Gap, we hiked down to where the hostel was supposed to be and there was just this yellow house there. It turns out the guy who had been running the hostel had told his sister, who was the owner of the yellow house, that he was in seclusion writing a book. In reality, he was running a hostel out of her house and he got busted by her. Unfortunately, he got busted too late for them to be able to change the book. So, it showed on the book a hostel. Marcus, Mary and I spent hours walking up and down the roads looking for the hostel that didn¢t exist before we finally decided to go back and start hiking up to the shelter. It was a horrible hike. Straight uphill, in the rain.
Date: 2003-04-09
From: Wesser Bald Shelter

To: Nantahala Outdoor Center
Miles today: 6.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Wesser Bald shelter to Nantahala Outdoor Center by 10:30 am. The walk down was a terrible walk, a steep 2500 foot descent in pouring rain. It was raining so hard that the trail turned to mud, what part of it wasn¢t underwater. Many parts of it was like a little creek running downhill. The knee was hurting terribly, the downhills just really, really hurt, much worse than the uphills. NOC is a beautiful place where the Nantahala river runs through, a meccafor kayaking and white water rafting. They have a first-class operation at NOC with an outfitter for most outdoor sports, restaurants, hotel rooms, cabins, and a hostel. When I dropped down to the road, Jason and Marcus (Marcus is Big Paw, Jason is Spiderman) were already there trying to figure out where to stay. I talked to them and we decided to share a room together instead of getting into the bunkhouse with forty other hikers, which turned out to be an excellent choice. They gave us a cozy room with two beds, one in a loft. I took the bed on the bottom, Jason took the bed in the loft and Marcus decided he wanted to sleep on the floor. We all did our laundry and we showered, hit the outfitters to buy gear and then hitchhiked into Bryson City with Dave (trailname STICKS). The four of us stopped at KT¢s bar for beers, then went to the pizza place next door (I split a white pizza with Marcus), ate, and hit the IGA for groceries. As we started hitchhiking back the 13 miles to NOC it started to rain and this turned out to be a problem for Big Paw and Sticks who had no raingear with them and it was very cold. We went back to the IGA and asked them for garbage bags which Big Paw and Sticks used as raincoats. It was getting dark when a car finally stopped, and this gal asked us if we needed a ride. The first thing she asked us was, did one of us have a beer? We had bought a bunch of beer at the store, so we gave her a beer and she drove us back to NOC Her name was Luna and she had actually thru-hiked three years back, had met a guy on the trail, married him ON THE TRAIL, with thruhikers as witnesses. She came inside with us and we all sat in the common area where Luna drank most of our beer and talked until late at night. We also found out it was supposed to snow the following day and talked about taking a zero day. I finally decided to get up and go to bed.
Date: 2003-04-10
From: Nantahala Outdoor Center

To: Zero Day
Miles today: 0.0

A zero day. This was the day it was snowing in the higher elevations. We had decided to hang out. No miles. So, Marcus, Jason and I went to town again. We all hitch hiked in. Marcus and Jason went to the library while I went around shopping. I bought heat. I bought, I tried a new knee brace. I bought some more moleskin, which I ended up going through a lot of it from some blisters on my feet. Also, somehow I had neglected to pack fuel pellets in my mail drop so I had no fuel to cook. So I did a little improvising. Made a stove out of a can that that had a candle in it. I melted the candle out and put pellets in it and bought a can of heat. Big Paw and I went to the all you can eat lunch buffet at the Chinese place in Bryson City which was a wonderful, one of the best buffets I¢ve ever had. Just really good stuff. So, it was just a hang out day. We all hung out. We packed our gear. I did a lot of changes on bags and stuff like that. I also decided that my Go-Lite jacket was not working for me. I was sweating to death in it. So, I sent that home and I bought a ? jacket. Also, I had called Laura to overnight my therma-rest sleeping pad because at this time my over-walking had swollen my hips and the pad that I brought with me was not good enough to pad me while sleeping with swollen hips and I was not getting enough sleep. The therma-rest came in a day late so that was another reason why I also took a zero day here.
Date: 2003-04-11
From: Nantahala Outdoor Center

To: Brown Fork Gap Shelter
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: overcast clouds

NOC to Brown Fork Gap Shelter. 16 miles total. A hard, hard, very difficult 3500 foot ascent in 7 miles. It never leveled off in 7 miles¢¦all the way Sierra Bald. Sierra Bald was covered in snow. In fact this whole section of trail was at higher elevation and there is snow all over the place. I did drop down to one of the shelters to check it out and it was a mistake. Total slush going down. I don¢t remember the name of it but it was freezing at that shelter. So, I got out of there and I kept on going to the next one. A couple things occurred that day. Sticks, which was Dave, hiked over thirty miles from NOC to Fontana. Which was just unbelievable considering the condition of the trail with the snow. I did also manage to get Bob on my cellular phone up on the top of the bald. He said he was gonna come down and see me over at Fontana Dam the next day, at the post office. He was going to come hang out, bring beer and possibly drive me back into Asheville.
Date: 2003-04-13
From: Fontana Bridge

To: Russell Fields Shelter
Miles today: 13.6
Weather: clear sky

From Fontana Dam Shelter to Russell Fields shelter. A total of 13.6 miles. This was a very hard day. Hard uphill. A lot of elevation changes. Some of them went from 1750 feet all the way up to 4600 feet. This is the beginning of the Smoky Mountains park. Starting at Fontana Dam, you walk across the dam, which is about a mile on top of the dam. Then you walk another mile or so on a dirt road that starts up gently then it¢s a hard walk straight up into the Smoky Mountains park and all the peaks of the Smoky Mountain Park. Right on the road going into the woods there was a dog that had followed Spiderman up the trail 3 times. Apparently he was a stray dog. More than likely what happened was that a thru hiker had gotten to the Smoky's and found out that you can't take a dog into the Smoky Mountain Park. Strictly forbidden. Probably just deserted the dog. The dog was a really, really nice dog too. But he kept trying to follow hikers up the trail. Specifically Spiderman, who had dragged him back down a couple times and tied him up to a tree and the dog just bit the rope and chased him back up. Apparently what he was doing was following the hikers and then he¢d jump off the edge of the trail, which was usually pretty steep and got himself stuck in the thorns and stuff.
Date: 2003-04-15
From: Double Springs Shelter

To: Icewater Springs Shelter
Miles today: 13.8
Weather: few clouds

13.8 miles from Double Springs Shelter to Icewater Springs shelter. Very, very steep descents. Really nasty. The knee was hurting very badly. Up to this point the total elevation changes were 50,745 feet. My boots started falling apart. The seams on them. I got so angry that when we reached a high point, I pulled out my cell phone, the phone actually worked amazingly)and I got directory assistance to give me a phone number for Montrail who were the shoe manufactures for my boots. I talked to a girl named Libby there who said she would replace my boots. So, I had them shipped ahead. I just went on a consumer rampage about this. Actually, my padded gloves also fell apart at the seams. While I was on the consumer rampage I went ahead and had my gloves replaced as well. Apparently, what happens is, if you¢re an AT hiker they will do things for you that they just won¢t do for other people. Mainly because, you¢re out on the trail and they don¢t want a bad name getting around. That was the case. Not very much of a problem replacing my boots or my gloves.
Date: 2003-04-16
From: Icewater Springs Shelter

To: Cosby Knob Shelter
Miles today: 20.3
Weather: overcast clouds

From Icewater Springs Shelter to Cosby Knob Shelter. This was another 20 mile day. Actually, our 2nd twenty mile day. 20.3 miles altogether. One of the reasons I was running this hard is because I was almost out of food. Accumulated elevation today was 5000. To date 54,072 feet and the elevation for today was 3327 of climbing. At the Cosby shelter, Hoser, Flamingo and Goat were all there and the reason the Goat was there, or the reason he told people he was there, was because he was trying to catch up to me because he heard I was running out of food. Around this time I was finding that I was no longer going to sleep in shelters. It¢s just such a hassle to sleep with everybody snoring and then they tell you you¢re snoring and trying to fight for floor space to put your sleeping bag down.