morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-05-19
From: Budget Inn -	Hiawassee

To: standing Indian shelter
Miles today: 16.5
Weather: light rain

Day 5, started At 69.6 at dicks creek gap, ended at standing Indian shelter at 86.3.Late start out of Hiawassee after a quick resupply at ingles. They were out of one pound jars of nutella and I'm not carrying two pounds with me!Hiking wasn't too bad today, uphill at the start then pretty smooth the rest of the way. Because my tent was still in no condition to sleep in I was forced to choose between sixteen or twenty four miles to shelters. After a slow morning I settled on sixteen.Got to spend most of the day hiking with Joe from new York. He does a lot of trail running and is in pretty damn good shape. He's looking to do a full thru. I also got to hike with a group of guys who just finished med school at OU last week. They're a funny group, looking to make it to clingmans dome in a week or so and then they'll head into Asheville for a wedding.Got to the shelter plenty early, and for the first time I'll actually be sleeping in a shelter. All day the skies threatened to pour but it never opened up. We heard a bunch of thunder in the distance but it must have passed us to the south. I did have my first fall today, a full comical banana peel slip on a slick patch of mud. luckily nobody saw and all that got hurt was my pride.Other bad news is forgot to set my phone to airplane mode during the day and now it's down toa quarter battery. Whoops! tomorrows log is probably gonna be nice and short.Tomorrows looking like a 20 mile day followed by my first 25 mile day followed by 10 miles Wednesday morning to get me to the NOC where I'll be buying socks, shoes, seam sealer, and possibly a sleeping pad.
Date: 2013-05-20
From: standing Indian shelter

To: Rock Gap Shelter
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: clear sky

Started at standing Indian shelter, ended at rock gap shelter.Uneventful lonely 20 mile day. No really good views, thunderstorm inthe afternoon and another in the evening. The forest really feels like a rainforest, complete with dripping trees and bird noises.haven't seen any people since a trio of sobo section hikers at 10am. Looks like I'll be alone tonight in the shelter. just heard some coyotes in the distance, hope they don't feel like investigating! I'll sleep with my poles and a stack of throwing rocks next to me, but hopefully I don't need em.As I've been going along I've been testing my creative side by renaming mountains. I'm not very good at it, as they usually end up all being named "fuck you mountain" but today I had a breakthrough and renamed mount Albert to "what the fuck mountain". Stupidly steep, but atleast there was a good view from the fire tower at the top.
Date: 2013-05-21
From: Rock Gap Shelter

To: Wasser Shelter
Miles today: 25.0

Day 7, rock gap shelter to wasser shelter. 25 miles.First 25 mile day! the soles of my feet hurt like hell. Tomorrow at the NOC I'll be buying some new shoes and socks. It threatened to rain all day, but didn't break until 8 pm or so. The shelter is pretty full and there's another half dozen people nearby.Meet a couple people, including over guy from near Harrisburg who is out sectioning, a family from Chicago that is sectioning one week at a time, and a guy who just finished law school who's trail name is cousin Vinny. Someone had a good sense of humor with that one!I still don't quite have my food dialed in, though I'llbe getting to the NOC tomorrow with less than I had when I got into Hiawassee. gotta check the map and find my next resupply. Maybe Fontana?Looking forward to some food and gear tomorrow. Only 6 miles to the NOC which I should be able to bang out pretty quickly.
Date: 2013-05-22
From: Wasser Shelter

To: Sassafrass Shelter
Miles today: 12.0

Started at Wesser Bald Shelter, ended at Sassafras Shelter. 13 miles or so.What an awesome day. started hiking at 7, made it to the NOC by 9 30 and started on the chores list. First item of business was to drop the kids off at the pool. Flush toilet with tp and a sink with running water? This must be heaven!Next on the list was to do some shopping. Picked up a new pad, a Thermarest ProLite. at one pound it's a full half a pound heavier than my old ZLite Sol, but I'm laying on it now and can't even feel the shelter floor. I'm gonna sleep like a baby tonight! the old ZLite is in the hiker box for some other unfortunate soul to take. Also picked up some seam sealer for the tent, I'll throw that on the next time the forecast looks good.Also picked up two new pairs of socks and ditched two pairs of smartwool socks that both had less than 200 miles on them. They has holes on the bottom and were gonna keep wearing through. Plus they smelled rank. Picked up some wigwam synthetics instead, we'll see how they hold up. Also ditched my Merrell shoes which had passed 400 miles and were wearing down to nothing. Picked up some new Brooks trail running shoes that have felt great so far.After that expensive shipping spree I met up with cousin Vinny who I meet at the shelter last night and we grabbed lunch after throwing a load of laundry in together. After putting down a ton of breakfast food at the nice restaurant overlooking the river we sat around for a while organizing and talking about gear. Also saw Joe from new York as well as the Ohio university med school crew roll in. They were gonna spend the rest of the day chilling at the NOC so I bid them farewell and me and uncle Vinny set off up the mountain.It was a brutal climb out of the NOC and about halfway up we saw a big rattlesnake just off the trail which uncle Vinny had shoed away. We rolled into the shelter (it's a really nice one!) At about five and got to chatting with the two women and guy that were already there. The ladies actually knew cousin Vinnys roommate so they swapped stories. Small world! Also meet a guy named hog who apparently started a day behind me at springer and took a zero day today to rest up, so he's at my hiking pace and looking to do a whole thru! Tomorrow we're gonna try to make it to Fontana, while cousin Vinny and another nobo thru will join us for some or all of the way.Looking forward to a full night of sleep on this comfy pad, a full day off hiking in my comfy shoes, and hearing back from everyone I sent Facebook messages to while I was at the NOC. Particularly Valerie, because I saw there were some tornados down in Oklahoma but I have no idea how bad was or how she's doing but I hope she's alright! It's past 9, tomorrow is a 23 mile day, time for bed!
Date: 2013-05-23
From: Sassafrass Shelter

To: Fontana Shelter
Miles today: 21.0

Day 9, started at sassafras shelter, ended at the Fontana shelter.Today started with some rain as we packed up, but it cleared up by seven am as we hit the trail. Me and cousin Vinny hiked for most of the morning till we got past Jacobs ladder to brown shelter, then hog caught up with us and I hiked with him for the afternoon.Another afternoon thunderstorm has put us at six straight days with rain, so drying out wet gear has been tough.After a long but pretty pleasant day of hiking we rolled into the Fontana Hilton, which is really just a regular shelter with lots of space as well as a full bathroom plus shower. tomorrow mornings shower will be my first in Almost a week. I must smell terrifying.Tomorrow will be a slow start as we'll call for a shuttle into the Fontana village at 8 30 or so. After I get a few days of food as well a my hiking permit me and hog will start going through the great smoky mountains. Hog has sectioned them before so he has an idea what's coming. We're hoping to do 25 mile days but we'll see. It well be sad to leave cousin Vinny tomorrow as he wraps up his section hike and heads back to real life.Also got to meet realtree today. He's quite the character. Real southern guy from Georgia, he wears camp pants and a legit leather vest. His diet consists of coffee, cigarettes, and oatmeal. He says he's hiking around for another month or so before he'll settle down to do some work. his accent is something to behold.
Date: 2013-05-24
From: Fontana Shelter

To: Mollies Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: broken clouds

Day 10, started Fontana Hilton, ended at Mollies ridge shelter.slow start, slow day. After sleeping in myself, cousin Vinny, real tree, and hog got breakfast at the Fontana lodge, stocked up at the general store, then said our goodbyes as cousin Vinny heads east to see his family before his travels and move to NYC start and real tree set of too hike a bunch of side trails in NC.hog and I had to head back from the visitor center up to the lodge to print our smoky mountain thru hiker passes. The rangers better check that I have mine or I'll be pissed at wasting all that time. With a full pack and enough food to get me to Davenport we hit the trail at one.Hiking in the smokies today was fantastic. Sunny, windy, smooth trail, great views. It was mostly uphill today but it was well graded so it was quite manageable. in the Chattahoochee and nantahala forests the trail ran straight to the top of every mountain like it was trying to prove a point or something. The result is lots of pointless ups and downs with crappy views at the top of the mountains. In the smokies the trail winds around and only peaks when there is a good view. it's pretty baller.Todays great views were from the rickety old feels like it's gonna crumble swaying in the wind fire tower. Got to look down into Fontana and over into what we'll be hiking in the next few days.After 10 miles my right foot arch and left knee were hurting so rather than push another three to Russell field we stopped at Molly ridge. There we caught up with patches, another thru who hog knew from earlier. we all chatted for a bit then teamed up with the other four section hikers at the shelter to whip up a kickass fire in the shelter fireplace. To seal in the heat we put tarps along the open edge of the shelter. Reason for all this is that the temperature might drop down to 30 tonight, or 35 at the least. It's gonna be a cold one!As we were closing things down for the night bud rolled in after an 17 mile day, his longest yet! Bud was at sassafras shelter with us and is looking to thru after a pretty crappy start. Tomorrow he's headed to clingmans dome to meet up with his family. Patches hog and I were looking to hike the same twenty mile distance so we can summit clingmans Sunday morning for the sunrise. It'll be nice to have some hiking buddies, though it will be both of their longest AT days ever.I hope my aches feel good tomorrow cause there's lots of miles and lots of climbing to do!
Date: 2013-05-25
From: Mollies Ridge Shelter

To: Double Spring Shelter
Miles today: 20.0

Day 11, Mollies ridge shelter to double spring gap shelter.An easy 20 miles. Didn't freeze last night, only had to put on more layers at four in the morning. Great views from rocky top and another bald later in the day.Patches joined us for all twenty miles and tomorrow at four we'll get up and climb clingmans. After that well mosey into gatlinberg for some resupply. She saw two bears this morning while all I saw was a dozen Turkeys. Screw Turkeys, they're boring.Also got to race a horse over a half mile today. I won by five seconds. The horse might not have known we we're racing..
Date: 2013-05-26
From: Double Spring Shelter

To: Ice Water Shelter
Miles today: 14.0

Day twelve, double spring shelter to ice water shelter.The smokies are fucking cold. We got up a bit after four and made it to clingmans dome by sunrise. Right before the sun came all the way up a wall of rain rolled through so we abandoned the dome and resumed hiking in the rain.Eventually we made it to newfound gap and caught a ride into gatlinberg with Eriks mom. Eriks mom was dropping him off at the trail to resume his hike so his mum was kind enough to take us to gatlinberg to resupply.Gatlinberg is a riot. Like some crazy combination of Jersey shore, duck dynasty, and a motorcycle convention. Totally insane town. Great for people watching.After a quick resupply we shuttled back to the trail and hiked three miles to a full shelter. Tents went up and I finally got to seam seal mine. There's this one couple here that hot boxed their tent then got drunk. They then fancied themselves rappers and tried free styling to eachother. They're really annoying. I hope they shut up or a bear eats them.Some big hiking days coming up. We're looking at 27, 23, 25, 28, 28 with a day stop in hot springs and an overnight in erwin at the end. Time to ramp up the miles!
Date: 2013-05-27
From: Ice Water Shelter

To: Davenport Gap Shelter
Miles today: 27.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 13. Ice cold water steam shelter to Davenport gap shelter.twenty seven miles makes for a long day. Started at 6 40 and rolled into the shelter at seven pm. It's barely past eight now and I'm ready to pass out.The morning hike was great, as the trail ran along a really thin ridge a fair bit. Awesome views on both sides. After doing twelve by twelve I got to stop for more than an hour to eat lunch and air out my quilt and dry my tent. The afternoon wasn't bad, as I spent the hike thinking about what my draft board for fantasy football in the fall looks like as well as mentally going over what I think my daily diet will be.Right now the diet is shaping up to be the following. First breakfast: 200 to 250 calorie bar, Snickers, clif, etc. Second breakfast: three instant oatmeal packets First lunch: two tortillas with peanut butter and something sweet, jelly, Nutella, honey, etc. Second lunch: pop tarts First dinner: two tortillas with protein, chili, tuna fish, etc. Second dinner: protein barSupplemented with random snacks whenever I feel like I need more. The breakfasts or dinners can also be combined if need be.Now for the exciting stuff for the day, in order from most to least exciting. I SAW A BEAR!! or more accurately I saw its big butt as it ran away downhill. Not much, but a bear sighting is a bear sighting. Second is I'm in the same shelter as some Pittsburgh people! They aren't super talkative, but then again we're all pretty tired. Thirdly is after giving a girl some duct tape to help with her blister her mum gave me a mountain house meal. I ate it for dinner and I haven't been used to warm food so it kinda hurt my stomach. Fourthly is at the shelter I stopped at for second lunch I got to chat with a really cute girl from Florida about thru hiking and trail life. There's not a lot of ladies on the trail, so it's totally possible to develop trail goggles where a real life four becomes a trail eight, but I'm like ninety percent sure she was a legit eight.After the twenty seven mile day I'm a bit sore, but the real problem is two small blisters I developed, one on the back of each heel. I could kinda feel the hotspots at the end of the day as we were coming down the mountain to the shelter, so shame on me for not stopping. I'll pay the price tomorrow, but we'll duct tape em up and see how they do. Tomorrow is looking like a pretty hilly 23 miles, but I've learned elevation change doesn't matter nearly as much as the condition/type of trail itself.
Date: 2013-05-28
From: Davenport Gap Shelter

To: Walnut Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 23.0
Weather: clear sky

Day 14, Davenport gap shelter to walnut mountain shelter.Slept real well last night, almost 9.5 hours. Woke up at 6 15 and was the first one on the trail. Weather was good today, humid, hot, and a bit windy. Made good time in the morning, with a 10 by 12 up the mountain out of the gap. Erik caught up with us for lunch and coming out of that me and him destroyed the Itrail between the lunch shelter and max patch bald. We averaged over 3 mph over some massive elevation change which is unheard of. The dude has a motor!max patch was awesome, amazing views. Definitely a place I wanna get back to. A pure bald at 5000 feet or so. after an hour break for first lunch we hit the trail again and it was a pretty easy afternoon up to the shelter.At the shelter now with Erik, fingers, and hog. My feet are hurting a fair bit in a whole bunch of different places. The small blisters are still there, I'll wait until tomorrow before deciding what to do about them. Tomorrow is looking like a 12 by 12 followed by some resupply in hot springs followed by a few mile hike out of town to a campsite. I've heard rumors of a hungry hiker burger with a pound of beef for lunch, so thatll be tasty.
Date: 2013-05-29
From: Walnut Mountain Shelter

To: Pond
Miles today: 18.0

Day 15, walnut mountain shelter to campsite 5 miles past hot springs.did some quick morning hiking to get into hot springs by noon, but hog and Eric beat me to it by more than half an hour. Guess today was slower than I thought. The trail was nice and easy, and the weather stayed clear and hot all day.In hot springs we demolished the smokey mountain dinner, I had some sweet tea, Mac and cheese (which was listed on the menu as a vegetable so I was being healthy!), mashed potatoes, cornbread and pulled pork. the portions were so big I ate until I almost puked. after that was a visit to the outfitters were I got some darn tough socks and enough food to happily get me to erwin by Saturday afternoon. I've been looking fit darn tough socks for close to six months now so it was nice to finally find a pair, though it does put me up to 4 pairs which is a bit much. I also got to weigh my pack and found out it is just 10 pounds 2 ounces. Nice!After we hit the trail out of town Erics knee started acting up so he decided to camp on the bank of French broad river while hog and me pushed on to this little campsite by a pond 5 miles up the trail. We're giving cowboy camping a try cause the sky looks good, so hopefully it stays nice all night. Tomorrow is a 27 mile day I think, so we'll be starting early and ending late.the sole of my shoe is already peeling off the upper which is frustrating after less than 150 miles. It's not much now, but I might have to duct tape it up soon. the blisters are feeling pretty good still, so I'll just keep duct taping them up. My calves felt like they were going to cramp today after we got into camp which was unusual, but after some extra hydration they kept it together. I'm also getting really frustrated with my phone service, I had nothing in hot springs. I might switch to AT&T cause of how crappy virgin mobile has been. Super letdown, penny wise but pound foolish.
Date: 2013-05-30
From: Pond

To: Flint Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 27.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 16, pond 5 miles north of hot springs to flint mountain shelterAnother 27 mile day, this time after a slow start. The morning was good and uneventful. The hiking wasn't bad, the trail was good and steady, and the weather was nice and sunny. At lunch we caught up with Jupiter and his friends twinkletoes and lost in the woods.The trail was pretty crappy in the afternoon, quite rocky. Good views from the rocky ridgeline and on the balds at the top of big butt mountain. Rolled into the shelter at about 7 30 and met music man, fiddle something, Emma, crank, and dream stealer.crank has been moving pretty well, so he'll probably hike with us tomorrow. Tomorrow should be an easy 24 mile day into a campsite. Blisters still aren't feeling great, but like always we'll see in the morning.
Date: 2013-05-31
From: Flint Mountain Shelter

To: Spivy Gap
Miles today: 23.0

Day 17, rabid fox shelter place to spivy gap.For the second time ever I wasn't the first one out in the morning as crank left 10 minutes before me and got the wonderful job of clearing out the morning cobwebs.Today wasn't a bad day of hiking, but the bottoms of my feet still ended up super sore. I think I'm going to go with even more solid soles on my next set of shoes. Some blisters still, but they haven't gotten worse, which I think means they're getting better?also ran into some cramping problems towards the start of the day, but some gatorade powder and over hydration fixed that up. Luckily after years of dealing with cramping calves during soccer I know the warning signs. It's tough finding the balance between carrying enough water to stay hydrated while not carrying any extra weight. I think I need to get better and more intentional about cameling up at water sources.Beautiful weather today, still no rain. I think that makes 3 straight days of sun, 7 straight days of rain, then 7 straight days of sun with the exception of the rain on the morning of clingmans dome. The clear skies made for amazing views from big bald, as we sat up there for almost an hour taking a long lunch.Hiking with crank today was nice, we have a very similar hiking pace unlike me and hog. He's a pretty neat guy, meche from Michigan who is heading into consulting. He was surprised when I had heard of accenture.Ate alot of food today, more than allocated, but I should be fine as we'll get into erwin tomorrow for lunch. There's rumors of a pizza buffet for lunch and a KFC buffet for dinner. We're gonna get fat. crank hog and I are gonna look to save some cash and share a place in town tomorrow night. I'm just hoping I'll get service so I can upload all these, check Facebook, and make some long overdue phone calls.We're tenting at spivy gap with the comfort boys, a trio of guys that are pretty up to date with trail gossip so we swapped stories with them for a bit. they told us about who we'll be running into during the next few days as we shoot for Damascus. we still need to figure out if we're gonna do the 120 miles in 5 straight days or try to resupply in the middle somewhere. It'll be a conversation top have over lunch buffet.There were points today where everything hurt and I just felt miserable and hated this damn trail, but I heard some great advice to make the decision to quit the trail tomorrow, never make it today. And I don't even want to quit, I just want the pads of my feet to hurt less. If I can figure this out I think I can start doing consistent 30 mile days rather than just 25s like today. if I can average 25 between here and Damascus then 30s through Virginia then I'll be on pace to finish this thing by August. I'm starting to get worried I might have already fallen too far behind. I guess the more I write here the more pessimistic I get. Time to stop then!
Date: 2013-06-01
From: Spivy Gap

To: Uncle Johnnys Hostel
Miles today: 12.0

Day 18, spivy gap to uncle Johnnys hostel.Started the day with a brisk 12 mile hike to the hostel followed by an afternoon and evening of chilling. The hiking was meh until we got close to erwin then there were nice views from the ridgeline over the river. there were also some pretty white flowers on the bushes along the side of the trail. As we were wrapping up the hike into hostel I tried running downhill like hog does and while it was fun I don't think I'll be doing it again.From the hostel I was able to update Facebook and trail journals and upload photos and call my parents which was nice. Lots of catching up to do. we got to shuttle into the town at 3 and hog, crank, an older nobo thru named freebird, and I all went to destroy the KFC buffet. They definitely lost money on us.After that we resupplied at the grocery store (50 bucks of junkfood, yikes!) We shuttled back to town and chilled out the rest of the evening. Lots of chilling and swapping stories. We ended up not falling asleep til 11, way past hiker midnight!Tomorrow is a long day, 27 miles with a good climb out of erwin with a full pack. Not gonna be fun, but every mile you hike today is a mile you don't have to hike tomorrow.