morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-04-28
From: Sassafras Gap shelter

To: Cable Gap shelter
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: clear sky

The stars clear and bright at 4 AM. (Please understand that I don¢t get up that early, just go out for a pee and then crawl back into my sleeping bag.) I started hiking at 7:15. Stopped atop Cheoah Bald with Tip. There were great views and I could see the route along the ridge line of the Nahantahala Mtns all the way to Cable Gap, which is close to Fontana Dam. I got a great look at two chestnut sided warblers, the birds whose call sounds like ¢Pleased to meet you!¢ The trail passed large expanses of ferns dotted with their fruiting bodies. After a snack break in Stecoah Gap there was a killer climb up the Cheoah Mtn ridge (distinct from Cheoah Bald) ¢ I ran my pulse up into the 150s while maintaining a fast pace for the fun of it. This turned out to be a mistake, as I was dead on my feet on the sun-baked ridge heading north from Brown Fork Gap despite a nice long lunch break at Brown Fork gap shelter. It was sunny and warm all day, actually too warm as I started to bake on the ridge in the afternoon, compounding my fatigue. I finally made it to Cable Gap shelter, where I talked to a pair of serious light-pack hikers named Ken & Chris, who got here from NOC in one day(!) 15.4 miles was enough for me. Todd arrived around 5:30. There were miniature orchids (Showy Orchis) on the path past the outhouse to the camping area. A big black salamander in the spring swam out from under a rock and kept challenging Todd¢s filter float as if it were another salamander. There were several smaller brown ones too. I¢m glad salamanders don¢t carry any pathogens that humans are susceptible to (at least I hope that¢s the case.) I also hope we didn¢t get poison ivy while hanging our food bags.
Date: 2003-04-29
From: Cable Gap shelter

To: Hike Inn, Fontana
Miles today: 8.9

Up at 6; out at 7. It was still sunny and warm. I made it to Fontana by 10 and stopped to chat with a thru-hiker named Froggy Pete who hails from Wells, Maine. The Fontana Dam shelter is a beauty, but I had made arrangements to stay at the Hike Inn and was picked up by Jeff Hoch at the visitor center, along with day-hiker Ken (from Ann Arbor MI). Jeff took us to a Wendy¢s for lunch after we checked in. I had a nap in my room ¢ it was a hot afternoon. Jeff loaned me map of the Smokies (mine was in the NOC mail drop which missed me). I had dinner with Ken in town at a little restaurant with home cooked food. Although legally blind, he doesn¢t let it stop him from hiking and has enough vision to feel comfortable hiking alone. Back at the Hike Inn, we could hear whippoorwills calling as it got dark.
Date: 2003-04-30
From: Hike Inn, Fontana

To: Mollie's Ridge shelter
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: few clouds

I only slept so-so. I took medication for a headache last night and again on the trail today. It was a beautiful morning. I called my son Greg before leaving. Jeff Hoch dropped me at Fontana Dam at 7:00. I hiked up to Shuckstack, where I had a bowl of granola and watched ovenbirds hopping around in the underbrush, then on to Greg¢s Bald Trail (which marks the start of the long stretch of AT along the TN-NC border). I heard thunder as I was packing up from lunch and went at top speed 2.2 miles to Mollie¢s Ridge shelter. It turned out to be unnecessary to hurry up the trail, as the weather held until 3PM (after I had been in the shelter for an hour). It turned cold and rainy after the thundershowers passed. This shelter is a fenced-front job made of stone by the heroic efforts of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal program of the 1930s that produced hundreds of improvements across the U.S. The shelter sleeps 14, has an indoor fireplace, and is covered with chain link fencing across its open front, to keep the bears out. Reportedly, these ugly barriers are being removed because some morons have taken to feeding the bears through the chain link, defeating the purpose and endangering both bears and hikers. Instead, new bear cables, like the ones already installed at Mollie¢s Ridge, are being installed. These are a wonderful invention: a horizontal cable stretched tight between trees perhaps 20 feet apart, with loops of cable attached at pulleys in the middle of the span. Your food bag clips easily to D-rings on the cable loops and are easily pulled up where the bears will have a hard time getting to it. (Of course, there are many stories of ingenious bears boosting up cubs to get the bags or diving out of the trees and swatting down the bags as they swoop past them, but it looks pretty close to bear-proof to me. On the trail this morning I saw a pair of scarlet tanagers so bright that at first I thought I was seeing some red hiker gear on the trail. At the shelter were Todd, Mark, Dale & Emily, and several others. Marcy showed up not long after I got there but opted to hike on ahead. I heard Tipperary was taking a zero day in Fontana Village with a heat rash, but who should show up but him, around 6PM. The rain stopped by bedtime, but there were high winds for much of the night.
Date: 2003-05-01
From: Mollie's Ridge shelter

To: Derrick Knob shelter
Miles today: 11.7
Weather: few clouds

By 4AM there was a large clear patch of stars. I left at 8AM. It was cool, breezy, and partly cloudy for most of the morning. I stopped at Russell Field shelter, which is located near a beautiful old orchard, and took a granola break. (I often start hiking before breakfast, eating a food bar as I walk.) The views from Rockytop & Thunderhead were superb ¢ I could look down into the valley at Look Rock from which a live internet cam provides a view of the ridge (it¢s easy to find the site via Google); I¢d checked that view many times in the past and was now part of it. The area along the trail was blanketed with white/pink flowers called Spring Beauties, that look like snow. The rest of the day's hike had lots of ups and downs (including a steep climb up Briars Knob, which looks like a pimple on the tiny profile on the map of the Smokies but kicked my butt), and I was fairly beat by the time I arrived at Derrick Knob shelter. Tip, Todd, Don¢t Stop & Bebop from Indy, David [¢Thermo¢] from Frankfurt KY, and Mitch were all at shelter tonight. After some gathering clouds in the afternoon, it was sunny again by 6 PM. I washed some clothes and hung them out to dry.
Date: 2003-05-02
From: Derrick Knob shelter

To: Mt Collins shelter
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: scattered clouds

The sky was clear at the 4AM pee break ¢ I saw Scorpio & the Milky Way- but it was mostly cloudy when I started hiking. I saw a small bear a mile from shelter, maybe 50 yards away just sitting up in the ferns looking blissed out. I clicked my hiking sticks together to get its attention and it took off downhill from the trail. Silers Bald was not extraordinary compared to Rockytop, but the walk up Clingmans Dome was on interesting trail through fir trees, which didn¢t look as badly ravaged by wooly adelgids as I had been led to expect. I talked to a young guy on the observation tower who had driven up to take in the view, which was nice, despite the lowering clouds. On the trail to Mt Collins a full-fledged thunderstorm hit ¢ I pulled out my raingear just as I felt the temperature drop and the wind pick up. The storm soon started pelting me with small ice pellets, cold wind & rain. I passed two hikers huddled like wood gnomes under the canopy of a huge fallen hemlock¢s roots. Hurrying to get out of the storm before one of the lighting strikes got me, I reached shelter in about 45 minutes, just behind two brothers from New Orleans & Baton Rouge. I changed clothes, and made soup and tea to warm up. The sun was back out by 5PM. The brothers from Louisiana were hilarious, livening up the shelter with a string of jokes. They also shared some very good Andouille sausage with Todd and me.
Date: 2003-05-03
From: Mt Collins shelter

To: Peck's Corner shelter
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: light rain

Up at 6. It was a damp walk to Newfound Gap, where I got a quick ride from a female ranger to Sugarland Visitors Center ¢ it was sunny by the time we got there. I walked down into Gatlinburg, which is everything it¢s cracked up to be ¢ daiquiri bars, commercial wedding chapels, and wax museums, in other words, everything you need for a wild weekend next to nature. In fact, it¢s almost exactly like Niagara Falls NY except with mountains instead of falls. A nice couple gave me ride to the post office, waited while I claimed my food drop, and brought me back downtown. They had been coming to Gatlinburg for more than 20 years and said it was much nicer and less of a tourist trap in the old days. I had coffee at a Panera, then got a quick hitch first to the visitor¢s center and then up to the gap in the back of two pickup trucks with Brian. I called my 18-year-old son Matt from the gap and then hiked another 10 miles to Peck¢s Corner. I talked to couple of day hikers at Charlie¢s Bunion and climbed to the top, a fun scramble. It¢s a pretty trail from Charlie¢s Bunion to the shelter, over a knife-edge ridge trail. I was pretty tired by the time I got to the shelter ¢ there were several short term hikers from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!), others from NC, and Sharon and Cheryl, two women from FL who shared some home-made chili they had dehydrated themselves.
Date: 2003-05-04
From: Peck's Corner shelter

To: Cosby Knob shelter
Miles today: 12.9
Weather: few clouds

It was a beautiful, cloudless morning. I left at 8:30 and hiked over Eagle Rocks, Sequoyah Mtn (named for the genius who invented a system of writing for the Cherokee language) and the steep-sided Mt Chapman. I met a thru-hiker named Grunt on the trail, a nice guy who started at Springer on 4/23 and is planning to thru-hike both the AT & PCT this year (he had already hiked the southern section of the PCT through the desert earlier this year). I sat in the sun taking a break at Tricorner shelter with David [Thermo] and Grunt. It was an easy hike on a pretty trail around Mt Guyot, although I never did find the side trail to the summit. From the shoulder of the mountain there were views of the valley through a layer of haze below a temperature inversion, with clear skies above. I arrived at Cosby shelter where Sharon and Cheryl later arrived. I did some wash and washed my hair. Two 50-ish Ohio guys were about to start hiking the Smokies SB.
Date: 2003-05-05
From: Cosby Knob shelter

To: Groundhog Creek shelter
Miles today: 17.6
Weather: light rain

Rain & thunder began at 7AM. I waited an hour for it to stop but there was no improvement, so I left Cosby Knob at 8. At first I used raingear, then opened the rain jacket and used my umbrella up Mt Kammerer. There was a big wind blowing at a rocky hairpin turn in the trail, so I folded the umbrella and relied on the raingear the rest of way to Davenport Gap. The rain stopped around noon. The trail down to the gap followed swift streams and was very pretty; I stepped over a box turtle on the trail. I met Thermo and a hiker named Kathy (from PA) under the I-40 bridge. The woods were scenic going up Snowbird Mtn ¢ mountain laurel and orange azalea were blooming and there was more trillium of various types ¢ also lots of poison ivy. The climb up Snowbird was a real trudge. It had an open summit (except for an FAA transmitter), and there were nice views of the ragged clouds hanging over the Smokies. I cruised into Groundhog Creek, happy to be going downhill. Marcie and Froggy Pete were there, and Brian, David, and Kathy soon arrived, so the shelter was full to capacity. My pack is somewhat damp inside, but my camp clothes and sleeping bag remained dry. More rain. 17.6 miles today. I¢m tired.
Date: 2003-05-06
From: Groundhog Creek shelter

To: Walnut Mtn shelter
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: heavy intensity rain

Rain from the beginning today. I walked in it all day from 7:45 until I reached Walnut Mtn shelter at 1:30. There was deep blue and purple wild delphinium along the trail. There were many wet stream crossings and long sections of trail with flowing or standing water, so my feet were wet all day. There were some nice views of nearby hillside pastures and the distant cloud-topped Smokies from the bald top of Max Patch, despite the low clouds. The sun came out around 3PM, and I put up a long clothesline full of damp clothes. Brian passed by with three others, but I was still alone at 4PM. Thermo arrived a while later, and it¢s just the two of us in the rickety old shelter tonight.
Date: 2003-05-07
From: Walnut Mtn shelter

To: Hot Springs NC
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: overcast clouds

There was thunder during the night, causing me to jump up and take the clothes off the line, and the rain arrived sometime before 6 AM. I finally got up and dressed, heading out at 7:45. I walked in rain to Kale Gap, but it began to lessen as I hiked up Big Bluff Mtn, so I stripped off my raingear. The sun was shining by Garenflo Gap. As I pushed on toward Hot Springs, yellow and red sandstone replaced the granite of the preceding mountains. I got a room at Elmer¢s Sunnybank Inn. It¢s no exaggeration to call this place Nirvana. It is a Victorian house with period furnishings and books everywhere. Dinner was vegetarian, much of it from Elmer¢s organic farm¢ pureed vegetable soup, a beautiful salad with tamari/sesame dressing, pasta with pesto sauce, mint tea, pecan pie. Elmer started a go-around of the dozen hikers at the table: where were we born, where do we want to die, where would we like to have dinner with any historical figure? My answers: Ann Arbor; Maine, where it¢s dark & quiet at night; Urbino (eating pasta with truffles and rabbit stew) with Leonardo (this was based on an actual meal I had once had there with my wife). After dinner I browsed Elmer¢s large library-- he has many books on the Tao, Zen, I Ching and such topics, as well as poetry by my favorite living poet, Gary Snyder, who has lived a real Zen life, much of it in the Sierras and the mountains of the northwest. Posted on the wall in Elmer¢s kitchen is a list of the greatest country/western song titles of all time, including such classics as ¢I¢ve Got Tears in My Ears from Lying on My Back and Crying Over You,¢ ¢She¢s Actin¢ Single and I¢m Drinkin¢ Doubles¢ and ¢If the Phone Don¢t Ring You¢ll Know It¢s Me¢, plus some other titles too raunchy to mention here.
Date: 2003-05-08
From: Hot Springs NC

To: Hot Springs
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

It was a warm, humid, pleasant zero day. I picked up my mail drop, read my email and sent replies to Sheila and to my friends at work. Had lunch with a beer at Paddler¢s Pub and then ice cream on Elmer¢s porch. Another good dinner at Elmer¢s with different guests. Todd is staying on for a while. I talked to Jorma at the Yellow teapot gift shop while drinking iced vanilla tea. There¢s a photo near the cash register of the huge Camellia tree outside the door covered with pink blossoms. (A Whippoorwill is calling outside now as I write this.) Next: pack, read, sleep, leave early.
Date: 2003-05-09
From: Hot Springs

To: Spring Mtn shelter
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: broken clouds

I didn¢t really sleep until 3AM ¢ the result of drinking a highly caffeinated cherry soda, I suspect. I got up at 7 and had a breakfast of French toast & deluxe hash browns at the Smoky Mtn Diner across the street. I left Elmer¢s at 8:30; it was sunny & humid. Happily, the beginning of the trail along the river at the opposite side of town was no longer flooded. I climbed up to ¢Lover¢s Leap¢ Rock, where I took photo of Hot Springs spread out below me. The trail went around the ridge to a lovely meadow ¢ the AT was on a gravel road through it. Like most meadows, it filled the air with nice smells of aromatic plants. I passed the pond near Tanyard Gap and could see pan fish swimming there. I climbed up Rich Mtn and found the first show of wildflowers above 3300¢ ¢ many trilliums & wild geraniums. There were little flies biting every time I stopped, so I kept on my pace. I saw a lizard flash around a tree trunk. I met MacGyver & No Doubt atop Rich Mtn, where we admired the views of Bluff Mtn & others south of Hot Springs. The climb up Spring Mtn was slow going due to the weight of 8 days¢ food as well as my lack of sleep and the heat and humidity. I¢m now writing in the mosquito net bivy that hangs under my tarp. I¢m camped next to Spring Mtn shelter, listening to the patter of tiny flies under the tarp and the buzzing of a wasp that can¢t figure out how to fly out from under it. I left my bear bag hanging cord at Walnut Mtn shelter, where it served as a clothesline, so I tied miscellaneous pieces of cord together with my bootlaces. A nice couple of short-term hikers are singing and playing the guitar at the shelter.
Date: 2003-05-10
From: Spring Mtn shelter

To: Jerry Cabin shelter
Miles today: 15.3
Weather: light rain

I slept well inside the net bivy under the tarp. It was warm so I used the light side of my Golite sleeping bag as a quilt. (Golite saves weight by using only light insulation on the bottom of the bag, which you compress with your weight, but this gives you the option of turning the bag upside down and sleeping with the thin side on top.) I headed out at 7:50. It was warm, very humid, and buggy. I met Water Witch at Allen Gap and walked with her for a while up the hill toward Camp Creek Bald, then stopped for a rest while she went on. I saw her again at Little Laurel shelter where we both made lunch stops. I was two miles south of Little laurel when the angry buzz of a rattlesnake on the trail brought me up short. It was the first time I have encountered a rattler this close, but there was no mistaking the signal it was sending: ¢Back Off!¢ The snake was maybe 8-10 feet ahead and coiled to strike. I backed off as requested, took a picture, and bushwhacked around it. By afternoon, I was getting tired of the stickiness and bugs (mostly black flies or their southern equivalent) and the right extensor tendon along the front of my ankle was getting cramped and sore. I took ibuprophen & soaked it in a cold spring. I reached Jerry Cabin shelter, about 15 miles, at 4:30. The last miles were a real slog. Now, though, the weather is getting less humid and there¢s a little breeze to dispel the bugs. The piped spring had a weird way of cycling between a slow trickle and high volume gush. I¢m all alone here and it¢s pleasant and peaceful. I¢m tarping it again but folded over one side so I¢m under the sky but can rig the open side in the middle of the night if it starts to rain; it also avoids capturing a menagerie of flying insects. The first quarter moon is almost at the zenith. I¢m happy to see that my left big toe feels and looks OK ¢ yesterday I was cleaning under the cuticle, which was red and tender after the day¢s walk, and a drop of pus came out, a scary sight. It seems better today, and there was no discomfort walking.
Date: 2003-05-11
From: Jerry Cabin shelter

To: Hogback Ridge shelter
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: moderate rain

A long distance section hiker came to Jerry Cabin last night and we talked for a while as it got dark. It was cloudy this morning, but dry. I started hiking at 7:20. By the top of Big Butt Mtn I could hear thunder. I got my raingear ready but used only the umbrella through a couple hours of rain. I¢ve learned I can hold umbrella in place with my sternum strap and still have my hands free to use two hiking poles. There was a plethora of trillium ¢ white and pink by the hundreds and lots of painted trillium near Big Butt. I also saw another turtle on the trail. I stopped for lunch in a dilapidated abandoned barn near the trail. The sun came out, and by Hogback Ridge it was a beautiful afternoon with breezes to discourage the bugs. Slo-Poke, Shankadelic, Half-Pint (aka No-Doubt) & MacGyver were at shelter. Shankadelic was reading Lord of the Rings, and we both agreed that Tolkien must have been an avid walker, because his descriptions of the trails and the terrain ring so true.
Date: 2003-05-12
From: Hogback Ridge shelter

To: No Business Knob shelter
Miles today: 20.7
Weather: scattered clouds

It was a windy morning after a cold front came through last night. I left Hogback Ridge at 7:05. It was mostly sunny but cool and so windy I had to keep my hat strapped on and my nose is running with allergies stirred up by windblown pollen. I crossed the road in Sam¢s Gap and met Marcie 360 going up Big Bald. There was a beautiful carpet of tiny yellow daisy-like flowers approaching Big Bald & lots of the white fringe-petalled flowers. Also lots of purple delphinium. The view when I turned around after leaving the trees and entering the bald top of the mountain was stunning. It was too windy up there to stay for long. One neat thing about the balds is that you can see the trail running a mile ahead. I had lunch on some rocks at Big Stamp. I felt energetic ¢ maybe the cool weather helps. I wore my windshirt until coming down Little Bald. The high rocks there were awesome ¢ bedding planes near vertical and rising 80 feet above the trail. I rolled down to Spivey Gap, but having decided to stop in Erwin tomorrow, I kept going to No Business Knob shelter ¢ over 20 miles today for the first time. Walking from Spivey from 4 to 6PM, it was very beautiful trail ¢ almost like a western canyon walk, with lots of red pine needles on trail, and warm sunlight slanting through the trees. I was tired but not demolished when I got to the shelter, which I had to myself after dinner¢ 2 guys were camped outside. There were no bugs today because of the wind.
Date: 2003-05-13
From: No Business Knob shelter

To: Erwin TN
Miles today: 6.3
Weather: clear sky

It was a short hike from No Business Knob over Temple Ridge to the switchback trail descending to the Nolichucky River and Erwin TN. It was a sunny morning. On the way down the hill I could hear trains on the track that follows the river gorge, and there were several overlooks at the turns from which I could see the river and the industrial buildings at the outskirts of town. I emerged near the river, passed Uncle Johnny¢s, which had signs sprouting all over to invite hikers in. However, I had already decided I wanted to stay in the middle of town, so I crossed the bridge and stuck out my thumb. I was worried at first about the lack of traffic on the road into town, but needn¢t have. I soon was given a ride by a guy who did a lot of hiking and worked for an outfitter. He dropped me downtown, and I walked a couple of blocks down an attractive, tree-lined street lined with handsome historic houses, soon arriving at Miss Janet¢s hostel, which was recognizable by the thru-hikers relaxing on the porch. Miss Janet was out, but one of the hikers showed me how to sign in, and I found a bunk, took a shower, and walked to the Burrito Factory in town for a pleasant lunch. Among the hikers staying at Miss Janet¢s were Reason, Lumberjack, Mr. Pumpy, and Very Small Animal. I spent the rest of the day picking up my mail drop, sending flowers to Sheila for our wedding anniversary, and picking up lunch items and other odds and ends. Miss Janet returned and took us to Johnson City where we saw X-Men II at the Cineplex and had an AYCE pizza-feed. It was a nice respite from the trail.