morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2019-03-25
From: Amicalola Falls State Park 

To: Springer Mountain shelter
Miles today: 0.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 1 No rain, no pain, no Maine. This is the motto of A.T. On our first day on the trail, we got lots of rain already. With a little bit of pain, Maine is still more than 2189 miles away!We started from the beautiful Amicalola Falls State Park. Our friends Iris and Hu drove 150 miles to send us to the trailhead. Thank you so much! We are in debt to them forever. I hope they will visit us in CA in the near future so that I can return their favor.At 12:20pm, we left the state park after a short orientation by a park ranger. He suggested each one of us to pickup trash along the trail in Georgia, 5 pieces a day, before exiting the state park, I have picked up more than 7 pieces. And dumped them in the last trash can I saw in the park. I don¢t plan to carry them all the way to Maine.  The approach trail is very beautiful. After a short section of flat trail, we came to the base of the 728ft Amicalola Falls, we started to climb 600 stairs to the top of the Falls. It¢s a powerful sight to watch the water tumbling down the cliff. It¢s a disbelief to huff and puff up the steep stairs only to find out there is a large parking lot at the top of the Falls.  After leaving the state park, we hiked a few up and downs on the approach trail for 7.5 miles to the top of the Springer Mountain - the southern terminus of A.T. Along the way, the rain followed us on and off. As the ranger said, as soon as you put on the rain jacket, it stops. As soon as you take it off, it starts again. It was like that for about three hours before it got serious, and continued non stopping for two more hours. When we reached Springer Mountain, the sky is so dark that we were barely see more than 15 feet. So we decided to overnight at Springer Shelter instead of pushing for another 2.8 miles to the next one. It was proven a great idea, for in the next two hours, the rain turned to hail with gusty wind. And the water just slammed at everything horizontally. The thunder and lightening also lasted 30 minutes right after we set our tent up.We are happy to get about nine miles done today, even though officially we are only 0.2 miles on A.T. I loved the overall atmosphere of today¢s hike, especially when the rain was light, and the forest was engulfed in the thick fog. Also once we left the large parking lot at the top of the Falls, I hardly see any trash :-).~ Sweet dreams for now. Tomorrow it may still be raining, and we plan to do more mileage.
Date: 2019-03-26
From: Springer Mountain shelter

To: Gooch Mountain shelter
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: light rain

Day 2The wind was very strong last night.. the rain didn¢t stop till morning. The forested camp ground seams well protected. But it¢s wet, wet everywhere. We used bandana wiped off water from our tent ceiling. The humidity was sure 100%.When we started hiking again at 10am, the weather cleared. We had all nice soft trails for the full morning. We made good progress till our lunch break at Long Creek Falls. Along the way, the trail crossed 3 Forks, a beautiful converge of two wide creeks. The clear water, soft brown path lined with rain cleaned shiny green leaves. When we reached the lower elevation below 3000ft, huge areas were covered by rhododendron bushes. Many of them had flowering buds forming. Given a month or two, they will be very pretty.Today¢s trail also crossed an army base. We heard many gunshots and saw a few helicopters flying back and forth a few times.During lunch break, we took almost everything out to dry. It¢s a nice 45 minutes break at a campsite. It had a little breeze and intermittent sunshine, dried our sleeping bag, tent and ponchos nicely. It was crucial to dry our gears when it¢s possible. By 4:00 pm. It started raining again.  The rain lasted 5 hours, and still going as I am typing the journal. We got wet again, this time mainly during the 15 minutes when we set up the tent. And today, our boots were all soaked. Tomorrow, we will have to hike in wet boots and clothes.This morning I also got a bad news about my 94 years old father. He checked into an ICU last night in Beijing. I hope he can make it. While I hiked, I thought about him all the time. He¢s my hiking and travel angel. His love of the world history, culture and nature¢s wonders imprinted in my heart, too. While he¢s fighting for his life in hospital, I am his eyes and legs to take the challenges on A.T. Dad, I want you to win this battle!
Date: 2019-03-27
From: Gooch Mountain shelter

To: Blood Mountain shelter 
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: few clouds

Day 3In the morning, I put on wet pants, wet sock and boots, and wet pullover, claiming it was very refreshing, very refreshing! Within an hour of hiking, my wet clothes have dried up. The cold socks also warmed up and felt ok.It was a blue bird day all day. Lots of sunshine. But temperatures were pretty low. So it was comfortable all the way. The forest also showed nice shapes of shadows. At lunch break, we reached Woody Gap TH with picnic tables, restrooms and trash cans. We took all of our stuff out to dry, on the table and hung on trees. It¢s a great pleasure to have the sun and breeze. In the evening, we reached Blood Mountain shelter. It is the highest point on A.T. In Georgia. On the rocky top, we set up our tent and watched the beautiful Sunset. This is the first time for me to practice bear bag hanging. It was not easy.
Date: 2019-03-28
From: Blood Mountain shelter 

To: Low Gap
Miles today: 13.9
Weather: clear sky

Day 4The wind howled pretty bad last night. It only calmed down after 5:00 am. I didn¢t sleep much. I dreamed of my father. He went back home from hospital. I was happy to see him. He seams happy to see me, too.The sunrise was beautiful from the top of Blood Mountain, which consists of large slabs of rocks. Knowing that we¢ll pass through the Mountain Crossing outfitter and gift shop, we skipped breakfast to go there straight. In there, at 10:00 am we had pizza, banana, coffee and hot cocoa. It filled us up nicely for none of us wanted lunch till after 5:00pm.Today¢s trail had more rocky sections. That takes more focus and careful footing. Whenever I got on the Flat soft dirt section of the trail, I felt so happy. It¢s really funny to realize how little things can bring such a joy.The A.T. May not have the splendid grand views as in JMT. But it¢s a beauty in its own way. It is more humble and subtle, something brings peace and calm in me. Something that I can hold more closer. Walking in Georgia¢s still leafless forest, to see the sunlights dancing from tree to tree, to discover fancy rock formations by surprise, I just feel as lucky as when I was on JMT.In early afternoon, at Tesnatee Gap, we had our first Trail Magic. I never expected to meet this so quickly on A.T. But here a 4 persons crew laid out tables and lounge chairs. They displayed ice cold sugary drinks, hot coffee and chocolate, all kinds of snacks, candy bars and donuts. They are all free to thru-hikers. And they don¢t even want any donation. They are doing this just for giving thru-hikers support. Thank you trail angels! There was a whole A.T. Map hanging on trees. We found the location of this spot. It was right near the beginning of the trail!I have continued picking up trash from the trail. Majority of the trash were near parking lots or trailheads. So most backpackers have been doing a great job to keep the trail clean.
Date: 2019-03-29
From: Low Gap

To: Blue Mountain Shelter 
Miles today: 7.3
Weather: broken clouds

Day 5We had a very short hike today in expectation of tomorrow¢s two long uphill climbs. The tent was up before 2:00pm. It¢s good to have a slow day. Many thru-hikers also camped here, and plan to go to Town of Helen tomorrow. We will skip that town and continue for two more days before recharge. I continued trash collection. A few pieces near our last night campsite ~ to keep the backpackers¢ promise ~ always leave a camp cleaner than when you arrive. Also some plastic wrappers actually was on trail! Hi, hikers and backpacker, please be really pay attention to your stuff! I know people don¢t trash around intentionally. Most of the trash was littered when they pull something out of pocket and the trash just fell out without knowing. So it is a good practice to always put your trash in a place that you don¢t need to access to. While I was hiking and thinking about the differences between California¢s Sierra Nevada mountain range and Appalachian mountains, I felt the former is a place worth more for worships, and the later is more homey, a place nice to make it home.I got messages from my sister that our dad condition has been improved. Still in ICU, but not getting worse. I am very happy to hear this.
Date: 2019-03-30
From: Blue Mountain Shelter 

To: Sassafras Gap
Miles today: 12.8

Day 6We hiked 4 more miles than planned despite lots of elevation gains. In this way, we will have only 7.5 miles to reach our rest/cleaning/resupply spot tomorrow at noon time, leaving more time for us to do all the things in a civilized world.This morning after we came down the steep rocky trail to Unicom Gap, we saw the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club plaque. We also met Susie, a trail maintenance volunteer, repairing the trail. Thank you for the great work! Overall, A.T. In Georgia is in great shape. It¢s all the efforts of nice people like Susie.Today we had two long sections of up hills, 1100ft and 1300ft each. The second one tops Tray Mountain. Many day hikers and thru-hikers stopped there to take in the views and enjoy the well earned breaks. The top is a tiny area of rocks, hardly fits 10 people. After Tray Mountain, we pushed on, with an additional 500ft and 4 miles, we stopped for camping before 5:00pm.By now we have seen quite a few familiar faces ~ thru-hikers who are on the similar pace and stopped at the same camping location each night. All are friendly people. It felt like a village now when we camped.
Date: 2019-03-31
From: Sassafras Gap

To: Top of Georgia hostel 
Miles today: 6.5

Day 7Last night the wind and rain came rapidly after midnight. Fortunately after 7 am it became very light rain. But the wind was still very strong and and rain drops turned into icy drops. We packed fast and started moving before my desire to cook for breakfast. It was cold.I walked briskly in the cold strong wind, ¢exhilarating¢ I shouted over and over to give myself more energy. After about 4 miles into hiking, at a turn of a hill, the wind suddenly stopped. All the howling sounds disappeared. The rain drops also stopped. The morning sunlight peeks through cracks of clouds. The mountains were quiet, it felt like everyone stopped breathing, just observing attentively for a new world to be born. A new clean world.Before noon, we walked into the Top Of Georgia hiking center ~ a hostel that provides beds, hot showers, laundry, breakfast and free shuttle to the town of Hiawassee for resupplies and nice dinner. It¢s a great place to stay for A.T. Thru-hikers. They have so many advices and stories for newbies like us. I got fully charged in here.
Date: 2019-04-01
From: Top of Georgia hostel 

To: Muskrat Shelter
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: broken clouds

Day 8The shuttle driver dumped four of us at Dick Creek TH ¢have a good hike, you all fools!¢ Don¢t get him wrong, he is a really nice guy - 2 times A.T. Thru-hiker and the first one completed Erin cannel thru-hike. He also gave us so many good advices. One of that is - Try to get to the Hot Springs by all means! The hot springs is 275 miles from A.T. Southern terminus, we¢ll pass the challenging terrain of GSMNP.I also said goodbye to my husband this morning. Work duty calls! From today, it will be my own journey! For many hours in the morning, l let my emotions run lose. The moss and leaves were my Kleenex. And the trail had plenty of them! I missed him a lot. But going back with him never came to my mind. Actually I felt very lucky that he was able to do a section with me together, especially from the start when everything on the trail was only a concept on paper to me. I am very thankful to him that he allowed me to ¢feel the trail¢ with him as my assurance.At 1:15pm, I reached the border of GA/NC. A wooden sign on a tree marked the spot. One state done, 13 more to go! In the register paper, I wrote ¢I am a fool :-)¢.Immediately after entering NC, the trail went straight up for about 2 hours! What a kind of welcome is this? The going was slow. But eventually I reached Muskrat shelter by 3:40pm, just in time to squeeze me in the shelter. Tonight it will be the first time that I will sleep in a shelter with 5 other strangers. It was cold today, hopefully the shelter will be warmer than tent.
Date: 2019-04-02
From: Muskrat Shelter

To: Carter Gap
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: broken clouds

Day 9Sleeping in the shelter in a cold night was a mistake. The empty space beneath the wooden floor just sucked every bit of your body warmth  away. I went into my sleeping bag with warm feet. By midnight, my feet had lost all the feelings. I was restless for many miserable hours. The lack of sleep also made today¢s hike more tiresome even though the route was not particularly difficult.By noontime, I reached the top of the Standing Indian Mountain - the Cliff-top views to the south gave it the name ¢Grandstand of Southern Appalachians¢! This was after all morning snow. The Sun finally showed up when I was on top of the mountain, making hot water for my lunch. The views were fantastic! There were even dandelions on the top! Someone pointed out the Blood Mountain far far away. It was amazing that we had walked this far in a week!Overall, this was a very cold day. It was so cold that my phone was shutting down by itself when I was sending messages under the sunshine. I was all bundled up while hiking. When I was trying to boil hot water, the jetboil was hard to ignite due to cold. So I opened the back up matches container that I bought in REI in Greenville, SC. To my surprise, there is no single match in there, only two tiny strips of striking paper. The same thing that I bought from REI in Bay Area has 25 matches. I was so disappointed by this. Fortunately after keep pushing on the ignition on Jetboil, I had fire going. Tonight, I will sleep in my tent for better warmth. Tucked in at Carter Gap, and sweet dreams.
Date: 2019-04-04
From: Rock Gap Shelter 

To: Wayah shelter
Miles today: 14.8

Day 11Today¢s word of the day is ¢Wayah¢ - a Cherokee word for ¢wolf¢. Wayah Gap, Wayah Bald and Wayah Shelter. The sound of Wayah was so exciting to me that I kept saying ¢Wayah, Wayah¢ all the way. They are places pretty far from my starting point. So by the time I reached Wayah Bald Stone tower, I cannot help but shouted ¢Waaaaayaaaah!¢In the morning, there was a section that followed a singing creek. The sound of water was so pretty. So I started to sing my own song:You sing a song,I sing a song,The song of water.You sing a song,I sing a song, The song of forest.The morning Sun-shines warms the earth,The birds also sing together with me.You sing a song,I sing a song,The song of water.You sing a song,I sing a song, The song of forest.The morning fresh air, breath-in deeply,And it makes me smiling.I made more friends on trail. They all want to help me with hanging of bear bags since it took me forever to throw the rope on high branches. Thanks friends!I. Also met four grandma aged ladies on trail today - two backpackers, one thru-hiker and one day hiker. I really admire their attitude. Many my fellow Chinese ladies at their age would just stay home to take care of grandkids. Going into the wilderness by oneself is considered insane. But it is so common to see senior Americans still active the same as the younger generations.In the past a few days, I realized that I have under estimated elevation gains for most of the days by about 500ft, some days even more than 1000ft. I did the calculation based on the AT planning tables. However, when landmarks are at similar elevation, doesn¢t mean the trail is flat between them. Usually there is a hill needing to climb over. Only looking at profile charts can give the reader a better picture. Like today, My old calculation showed about 2400ft elevation gain. It was off by almost 1000ft! Now the trail sounds more challenging.The forecast has rain for tonight and all day tomorrow. It will be interesting again.For now, I just tucked comfortably in my tent. Sweat dreams.
Date: 2019-04-05
From: Wayah shelter

To: Nantahala outdoor center 
Miles today: 16.3

Day 12Today¢s theme was mud and water. Just as forecast stated, the rain started at 9:00pm last night. And it rained till 11:00am. So the trails were full of mud and water. It took extra caution to keep my balance. There were skidding marks everywhere on the trails. The balance act taxed my knees. Especially in the afternoon when the downhill sections became very steep and I was tired after long walks.Overall, my body had been reacting nicely to the trail. Before this trip, my biggest worry was the plantar fascia that had been bothered me for many years. Thanks to soft A.T. dirt surface and my small blue massage ball, the pain on my foot has not got worse. It was actually reduced a bit since I started this hike. I saw so many wild flowers along the trail today. Especially bunches of bleeding heart at a moist location, one of my favorite.For the night, I checked into Nantahala Outdoor Center hostel. About 10 of our hiking friends had a nice dinner in the Restaurant on the river. It was always nice to have fresh cooked meals, especially with fun friends.
Date: 2019-04-06
From: Nantahala outdoor center 

To: Locust Cove Gap
Miles today: 10.7

Day 13I had a video call with my dad in Beijing a little after 5:00am. He looks a lot more healthier. It worth to get up early for the call. After that, I ate breakfast in the river¢s End restaurant and shopped for more resupplies while running the laundry. I left the NOC near 10:30am.Today is all climbing, almost 4000ft, from morning till mid afternoon when I reached Cheoah Bald. In the middle, there is a section named The Jump-up for a reason ~ it was straight up on a rocky ridge. The going was slow.My left knee still hurt in the morning. Climbing actually was gentler on the knees. After I fully warmed up the knees were feeling better. Or may be it was due to an IBprophen pill that I took in the morning, even though it¢s been expired 5 years ago. I still very careful to not put too much weight on my left knee.When I finally reached Cheoah Bald, I ate a huge cookie as an award. It says 230 calories. Sure I have 230 calories boost. Only after I finished it, I read the label again, it says 2 servings per package. I just consumed 460 calories of sweet cookie! Well, this will be part of my dinner. On the bald, the views were great. I could see the mountains we had walked before, the steep ridge that I traveled yesterday, and the Smokies I will soon to reach£The mountains are calling...
Date: 2019-04-07
From: Locust Cove Gap

To: Fontana Dam 
Miles today: 17.1
Weather: broken clouds

Day 14From where I stayed last night at elevation 3700ft to today¢s destination at 1800ft, the A.T.table showed an easy hike of only 1200ft gain. The profile chart put a doubt on this. The trail gave me a hard reality check! Only the last 3 miles was the real downhill. The rest were felt more ups than downs. At the end of the 17 mile hike, I was happy to take a shuttle to Fontana Village Resort with another hiker, instead of going to an additional 1.5 miles to the ¢Fontana Hilton¢ - the Fontana Dam Shelter. Today morning when the rain started around 5:00am, I was already awake. As soon as I heard the rain drops on my tent, I jumped out of the tent to get my bear bag down. I don¢t want it to get wet with 2 hours in the rain. In the tent, I ate my breakfast and packed as much as I could. Right after the daylight was bright enough to see the trail, I started hiking. On the long climbs, I made up the following words:An umbrella in the left hand,A trekking stick in the right.Walking over the hills I puff and huff.Long and long is the winding path.Expecting great scenery after another turn.The heavy pack ~ no com-PLAINTS.The wet clothes, just breezy-COOL.In the rain, I walk and feel free.When these words were said in rhythm in Chinese, it sounded pretty funny. During my hike today, I passed many slower hikers - people I didn¢t meet before. I also thought a lot about my hiking friends in Sierra Club Day Hiking Section back home. With many years hiking with them on those tough hikes, I was pretty good prepared for the long hikes like today. Thank you Ron, Dara, Landa, Bonnie, Hailen, Piotr, Rosemary, and many other hiking leaders! I felt very lucky to be one of that legendary group!Also in today¢s hike, I found that if I put no weight on my trekking poles, my knees actually felt better. Because my weight was more centered so that my knees didn¢t need to do the extra work to keep me in balance. Near the end of my hike, the shower was on and off for couple of hours. It was after 5:00 pm, when the magical sunlights shone underneath clouds for two brief moments. All of a sudden, the forest was golden with sparkling rain drops, sparkling grasses, leaves and bright white and yellow flowers. All sparkles as diamonds in the spotlight. The moments came and gone faster than I can adjust my camera to capture the sights. But they were truly magical moments.
Date: 2019-04-08
From: Fontana Dam 

To: Mullins Shelter
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: broken clouds

Day 15Entering Great Smoky Mountains National Park today! Shortly after leaving Fontana Dam visitor center, I got a taste of what it¢s means to have the most rainfall on A.T. It rained and rained and rained. I made a mistake that I didn¢t use my poncho. The umbrella worked just fine for the most of the day until after 3:30pm when it started the down pour! In a few minutes, my whole pants were wet. My boots were wet anyway long time before that since the trails had been muddy throughout the day. Now the rain just runs through my pants into my boots like a water faucet turned on just below my knees. When the trail has slope, it became a small fast muddy river. When it flattened out, it became a water pathway in a meadow. Now it¢s near the end of the day, there is no sign of the rain to stop anytime sooner. Hopefully, it will stop tomorrow morning so that I can move on more easily. Mollies Shelter is said can sleep 12. I saw it has squeezed at least 16. There are people setting up tents outside too. It was not all this challenge actually. Just after noon time, there was a break from the rain. I had just reached the Shuckstack fire tower. It was windy, but the views on the tower was so worth it. I could see layers of mountains in the Smokies 360 degrees. The Fontana Dam and the lake formed by it was in clear view. The best of all were all the water vapor raising up from the mountains, some vertically, many changing shapes and swilling around, like spills made by fairies.In the afternoon, I passed a large section of flat area. Even though the trail was very muddy, the grassy areas on both sides of the trail were carpeted with white wild flowers. It¢s like millions of stars spread from the Milky Way.In the past two weeks, I have experienced Georgia¢s gentle trails - a great introduction of A.T., and North Carolina¢s ¢fun¢ trails - a good warning and testing of thru-hikers legs and wills on A.T. Please notice the ¢fun¢ word was squeezed from my teeth! Well, one had to make the best out of everything, right? Coming into Smokies, I was thankful for the gentle trails again. I would be more exhausted if there were not enough switchbacks for today¢s sub-4000ft climb! With the muddy currents on trails, I don¢t know if I could ever climb up without these switchbacks.In these two days, I met new people who had started their hike as early as 3/17, more than a week before my start day. I am looking forward to get to the Newfound Gap and take my rest day from there.Someone I met today suggested I use trail name ¢Click¢. As I walked towards the shelter in the pouring rain, I shoot 2 pictures of the full house of people in the shelter. I think this will do.