morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2018-10-07
From: Mollies Ridge shelter

To: Fontana Dam Lodge
Miles today: 13.0

Disco left an hour before me this morning, but I still managed to beat him to town. I ran into Mango on my way down the trail and talked with him more about the Pinhoti trail while we hiked. Omg, it¢s all so tempting. You have no idea. And apparently you can jump off that trail at some point, get on this river, and canoe all the way down to the Gulf of fucking Mexico! Forget flying back to Texas, I could just hike/paddle/hitch all the way there! LolRan into a black bear on trail today just like a mile before leaving The Smokey Mt park! I legit almost ran into him though. There was like 6 miles of downhill trail going into town, so I was basically running through this whole section. And right as I was making this sharp turn around a bend, the bear just appears right in the middle of the trail! And this little dude actually tried to stand his ground! He was huffing and puffing up a storm at me. Lol It was crazy cool. Eventually he ran away though, and I hiked on in one piece. Got to hike across the Fontana Dam, which is one of the largest dams of the south I think. I hitched from there into town to resupply and get food. The town is Fontana Village and it¢s not really a town, but more like a bid lodge/resort property with a couple places to eat, sleep, and resupply. My original plan was just to get food and then hike out and stay at the next shelter, which has the nickname ¢Fontana Hilton¢ because it has showers and real bathrooms for hikers. Lol But Disco, with all his money and super plush hiking lifestyle, has convinced me to split a hotel room with him. The hotel/lodge gives thruhikers a pretty good discount, so it¢s only $80 for the two of us to stay here. I¢ll admit though, I feel extremely out of place. This is the nicest place I¢ve stayed on trail yet. I¢m getting really stressed about finishing. I need time and space to think. Space that probably doesn¢t involve so much Disco. Lol I was supposed to book a flight home today, but I couldn¢t do it. 10 days people! There¢s no way I¢m just hopping on a plane and flying away from all of this in 10 days. I think I¢m just gonna keep going. There, I said it. ¢But you can¢t just hike forever Amanda?! You gotta rejoin society at some point.¢ I know this. Just maybe only when I absolutely have too. I don¢t know. I give up. I¢m done planning life. By the way, shout out to my grandparents Jimmy and JoJo! Today is there 57th wedding anniversary. You think I¢m impressive for committing to a trail for 5 months, well how about one person for 57 years! I think that takes the cake. Love you both!
Date: 2018-10-08
From: Fontana Dam Lodge

To: Locust Cove Gap campsite
Miles today: 17.0

Disco and I got a pretty late start to today. There¢s something about windows with curtains separating you from the sun that just doesn¢t inspire you to do much beyond sleep. Lol Even with all the comfy amenities, I really didn¢t sleep great. Got to much shit on the mind. We had a big breakfast at the lodge, where I drank an entire pitcher of sweet tea (literally). That woke me up. Then, we got shuttled back to the trailhead and were hiking at 9am. I finally got cell reception after making the big climb out of Fontana Village. Touched based with the crew and fam back home. I felt a lot better about my current situation after some of those calls. I learned that the direction of my life at the moment probably seems unconventional to some, but I¢m happy and it¢s working. So why stop? I¢ve been wanting to get out of a Texas my whole life and now I¢m finally out. So I think I should just GO, you know. Where? No idea. But for one of the first times in my life I don¢t need a plan, my next step isn¢t engraved in stone, and it¢s truly the best feeling in the world. Trail-life has given me so much freedom. Out here there¢s no pressures, expectations, commitments, or constraints. I get to just LIVE. You really can¢t get this anywhere else, which is why I feel like I could just keep hiking forever. LolBut here¢s another curve ball... I got an email back from one of the Colorado ski resorts/lodges I applied to yesterday, and they want to do a phone interview with me on Wednesday! Shits happening too fast. I hope I have cell reception though. Lol If I get the job, this could be the beginning of a whole other adventure, which is kinda exciting. And if I don¢t, then I¢ll just keep hiking until some other opportunity presents itself. The bottom line is this though. I¢m a hot mess, a rollercoaster of thoughts and emotions. I come up with a new ¢life plan¢ at least four times a day. Disco is real tired of hearing about all them. Lol I¢m not gonna have any clue what my next step is until my feet touch the top of Springer Mt in Georgia. And for once, finally, I¢m content with that.
Date: 2018-10-09
From: Locust Cove Gap campsite

To: Rufus Morgan shelter
Miles today: 11.6

Today was a pretty chill, nice day. We made it a short day and spent most of it hanging out at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. The NOC is this big touristy, adventure-central hotspot. It has cabins, a bunkhouse, restaurants, general store, an outfitter, etc. Kind of a similar set up to Fontana Village except it¢s mainly known as a white water rafting hub. The Nantahala river goes right through the center/complex. You can sit on the porch of the restaurant, eat a good meal, and watch the rafters and kayakers go by. So that¢s pretty much what Disco and I did all day. We did a 10 mile hike down trail to the NOC, which luckily the AT passed right through. We hung out for about 5 hrs, resupplied, ate way too much food, then hiked out one mile to the nearest campsite. We actually ate two meals, both lunch and dinner, at the same restaurant. Lol My stomach is painfully full and I regret it all. Everything at the NOC general store was insanely overpriced. Nothing had price tags on it, so I blindly spent $14 on two bags of granola. Terrible! However, the outfitter on site did Darn Tough sock exchanges, so I got a FREE pair of replacement socks because I¢d worn a hole in the bottom of my current ones. Darn Tough is a popular hiking sock brand that guarantees a free, new pair of socks if you¢re actually able to wear a hole through them. And us thruhikers are MORE than capable of that, so the free socks are always a nice trail perk. Too bad every gear company doesn¢t have that guarantee because at this point everything I own has at least one hole in it. LolGonna try and crash early tonight. Tomorrow is mostly UP and rain is expected. I also have my phone interview with that Colorado ski resort. Fingers crossed!
Date: 2018-10-10
From: Rufus Morgan shelter

To: Wayah Bald shelter
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: light rain

Today was an interesting day. It¢s rained most of the day, but stopped shortly before camp. Tonight and all day tomorrow is supposed to be terrible. Nearly 2 inches of rain expected. Luckily, I¢ll be neroing into Franklin, NC, which seems like a cool little town with lots of stuff, even a Walmart!Did a big 4 mile climb away from the NOC and back up to the ridge. Passed Disco on the way up even though he left camp an hour before me. Always feels good. Lol I stopped at a shelter for lunch around 1:30 and waited for Disco to catch up. My interview was scheduled for 3:00, but I wasn¢t sure if I¢d have service. So I made Disco give me his phone for the afternoon because he has Verizon. Neither phone had service during lunch though. And then I realized that I had actually passed the highest peak for the day, which was 0.7 miles north now. So I finished eating, dropped my pack, and raced back up the mountain with one phone in each hand. By this time, Disco had hiked on for the day. I got back up to the peak with about 20 minutes to spare. My phone still had no signal, but Disco¢s had one bar. So I stood there in the cold rain with the phone pointed towards the sky trying to get that second bar, so that I could call this Denver Brown dude before he tried to call me. I finally got two bars on Disco¢s phone, but now the screen was wet and my fingers were all pruny. So I literally couldn¢t get the touch screen phone to work! My clothes were soaked, so I had nothing to dry it off with. And it¢s still freaking raining. And then before I knew it, it was 3:15 and I¢m cursing at the sky because I know I¢ve missed the call. So I screwed around with the phone some more, accidentally pushed some wrong buttons and called Disco¢s son in the process, then FINALLY I managed to get the recruiter¢s number typed in and the dial tone began. ¢Sorry, I¢m in the woods and it¢s raining. Can you hear me now..?¢ That was my opening introduction. Lol The interview started with me being super apologetic and trying to explain that I¢ve been living in the forest on the AT for five months and cell reception is a hit or miss most days. Luckily, the dude was nice. At some point, I managed to put my ¢professional hat¢ on and not sound like a piece of hiker trash in the middle of nowhere. The interview actually went really well. Supposedly, I¢ll hear back by Monday with the final result. I also got an email today from a different ski resort I applied to in Utah. They want to put together an interview with me as well soon, so that¢s pretty cool. Its starting to look like the next 6 months of my life might contain a lot of snow... The ¢seasonal job ski resort life¢ is starting to really grow on me. I think it could be a pretty sweet gig and allow me to experience a lot of shit that you could never get out of Texas. Lol Regardless, it¢s nice to know I have lots of options.
Date: 2018-10-12
From: Franklin, NC

To: Franklin, NC
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I woke up to Disco calling my name from the bottom bunk. ¢V!... V!!!¢¢What.¢¢My brain really hurts.¢¢It¢s called a hangover Disco. Grow the fuck up.¢I¢ve learned some interesting things about Disco recently. One, he doesn¢t carry toothpaste and only brushes his teeth with water and the toothbrush. Disgusting. Lol Two, he also doesn¢t carry a water FILTER. Meaning he has never once on this entire trail filtered the water he¢s been drinking. Whether it be from a spring, pond, river, or creek - he just takes the gamble and drinks it straight up! He swears he¢s never had any issues the entire time, but I think that¢s just insane. Shit keeps breaking on me people. Only got like 100 miles left and the strap on my bra finally withered away completely and snapped yesterday. I guess I¢m going braless until the end. I also managed to punch a huge hole straight through the bottom of the stuff-sack that keeps my tent together. Why, whhyyyyyyy. So there¢s a smell that I often smell on trail in the woods and I could never exactly put my finger on what it was and where it was coming from. But I think that mystery has finally been solved. Today Disco asked me if I ever thought I smelled cheese on trail? That¢s when it hit me. Cheese!! Lol YES! I always get whiffs of what smells like baked macaroni and cheese while I¢m hiking. He then proceeds to open his pack and stick it in my face. ¢Is this what you smell?¢ Oh my god. I couldn¢t believe it. I ran over to my pile of stuff, grabbed my rain jacket, and took a sniff. Cheese. All our stuff smells like cheese. WE smell exactly like baked macaroni and cheese. Dear god. Another hiker wandered into the hostel this evening named Wookiee. He¢s 26, and a true SoBo all the way from Maine. He¢s from Georgia, so he¢s basically walking home. Super cool dude. Him, Disco and I went and had dinner tonight at this small, Thai restaurant in town. Wookiee WOWed us with all his stories about living in Thailand for 3 months and working as a bartender and scuba diver guide. I grilled him with questions. You mean I can just go live and work on a beach in Thailand? I was completely fascinated. Like why not, right?The day ended with me buying a plane ticket back to Texas for Oct 22nd. I know, fuck my life. The only thought keeping me sane is the fact that I will just be VISITING Texas. It¢s just a jumping-point, not a destination. There¢s a lot of important things I want back in TX, like my car, clothes, and passport. So I have to go back. Just for a bit. It¢s a depressing reality, but I don¢t doubt I¢ll come up with some new, crazy adventure soon. And at least I¢ll get to see friends and stuff. I don¢t know. !KCUF
Date: 2018-10-13
From: Franklin, NC

To: Standing Indian Mt
Miles today: 22.0

Zen overslept this morning, so we didn¢t get a ride back to the trail until 9:30am. Nothing moves fast at this place. The ride was extremely entertaining though. Zen pointed out all the ¢chem trails¢ in the sky and started talking mad-conspiracy about the artificial cloud cover the government was engineering over the town to combat global warming. It¢s was awesome. LolThe weather today was truly amazing. Sunny and clear with a high of 68. I held a solid 3mph pace all day. Reached the top of Albert Mt by 12:30 where I ate my lunch up in this abandoned fire tower with a great view. Disco eventually caught up to me there. That¢s when I broke the news and told him I was gonna hike further than planned today because I was feeling good and really wanted some space to ¢hike my own hike.¢ I started this trail alone, and I¢d like to finish it alone. I¢ve come way too far to let someone sour the tail end of this journey, and my tolerance was quickly reaching that point. So I hiked on. Being on the same trail and hiking in the same direction, I¢m sure I¢ll run into him again soon, just not today. And that helps. I hiked 6 miles past the shelter/campsite I had originally planned to stay at and am instead camping on top of Standing Indian Mt with a great view and KILLER sunset. There¢s a lot more people up here with the same idea than I had expected to find, but it¢s Saturday so I shouldn¢t be too surprised. I managed to find a very secluded stealth-site at the very top of the mountain that I now have all to myself. It took a little bit of meandering through this large campsite filled with about 8 dudes and then some bushwhacking through some overgrown bramble, but then I found it. The group of 8 dudes are nice though. They¢re out for the weekend and they all brought their dogs with them, all six! They¢re all very nice and let me mooch off their campfire with them. It¢s hella cold up here. Supposed to drop down into the lower 40s tonight with a 35 degree windchill and maybe some rain. Yay. LolIt occurred to me today that I really only have 6 days left to truly soak up the trail and spend time with just myself. I¢m planning to summit on the 20th. That¢ll be here SO soon. It¢s an insane feeling. I only have like 5 pages left in my guidebook and then what? The book ends. The AT ends. My trail alias as V will end. People will start calling me Amanda again and that¢ll be hella weird. I¢ll be back in Texas, feeling super depressed, getting super fat, and then I¢ll die. Woe is me.
Date: 2018-10-14
From: Standing Indian Mt

To: Hiawassee, GA
Miles today: 18.2

Omg it got so freaking cold last night. I wore all the clothes I had and kept the sleeping bag completely singed up and tied around my head to where only my nose was exposed to the elements so that I could still breathe. Lol I even slept with my granola bars inside my sleeping bag, so that they wouldn¢t be hard bricks by morning. It was so hard to emerge from my personal, warm cocoon. I woke up to harsh winds and cold, cold drizzle. Everything in my tent was moist from condensation. Hiking was the only thing that was gonna get me warm, so I got my shit together as quickly as I could. My hands were completely numb. That¢s when I remembered that my 17 yr old brother was supposed to mail me my all-weather proof gloves and beanie back in Roan Mt, TN, but forgot and never did. So here I am dying, and I¢ll I can think about is how nice it¢d be to have feeling in the tips of my fingers. LolLuckily, the weather got better as the day went on and as I hiked down to lower elevation. Ran into Buddy on trail today! That old, self-centered geezer. Lol I knew it¢d happen eventually. He asked about Disco, and I told him he was just less than half a day behind. Buddy wants to hike with Disco, but Disco hates Buddy. Disco wants to hike with V, but V is done with Disco. V wants to hike alone. The story of a Trail Triangle. Crossed the NC/GA state line today! I¢m officially in GEORGIA. The LAST state of the AT. The victory lap. The homestretch. The final chapter. I got an email today that I was denied the job at Winter Park Resort in Colorado. Thankfully, it hardly phased me. It was only the first of about a hundred applications I¢ll be filling out. The email, of course, didn¢t say why I didn¢t get the job. But I¢m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I called the interviewer ¢Dude¢. Lol! I¢m trying people. I¢ve been in the woods too long for this shit. Hitched into Hiawassee, GA this evening. Last town stop on the AT! I was gonna stay at the Top of Georgia hiker hostel tonight, but I¢ve been feeling pretty cheap these days. I learned from Mikey though, down at Big Al¢s Pizza, about a free campsite in town on the beach of Chatuge Lake. It wasn¢t in the guidebook, so there was really no way I would have known about it. But let me tell you, it¢s badass! I showed up just in time for an insanely pink sunset that made a cotton candy colored reflection in the water. It was awesome. This is what I live for, ya know! I almost had the entire beach to myself, but then Disco hits me up with a sob story about being stranded in town. Apparently, all the motels had no vacancy and he refused to go to the hostel, so I told him about the secret beach spot and now here he is. I¢m annoyed by his presence, but it¢s probably for the best. The campsite is a little sketchy and really close to a busy road. It¢s dark now, but people keep driving up periodically (either to get laid or smoke weed, I assume), and then they see that someone is actually camping here (me), and then they drive away. Lol So probably for the best I¢m not alone.
Date: 2018-10-15
From: Hiawassee, GA

To: Hiawassee, GA
Miles today: 0.0

Woke up to a beautiful beach-side view of the lake this morning. It was bliss. Disco hung out for a bit and then moved on. Said he was headed back to the trailhead today. I zeroed today because I have extra time between now and my flight. Spent most of the day hanging out by the lake submitting more online job applications. Denver Brown, the Winter Park recruiter that I did the recent phone interview with, sent a personal follow up email to me today about the position I was denied. He doesn¢t do the hiring, but said it was unfortunate that a different candidate was chosen. However, he thought I was more than qualified and believed I¢d be an excellent fit at the resort, so he asked for my permission to send off my application to other departments within the park. I said yes, of course. I was almost starting to think I was just some destitute, washed up, wanna-be-forever thruhiking bum, but then that email hit my inbox. You the real MVP Denver Brown. Eventually I made my way over to Ingles, the big grocery store in town. And it is big. I was a little overwhelmed by all the options. Today was my last resupply. Can you believe it?? Cause I can¢t. To celebrate, I treated myself and bought a bunch of tasty, heavy shit that I¢m sure I¢ll regret halfway up the mountain tomorrow, but who cares. I should slowdown anyways. I bought blueberry bagels instead of the usual flour tortillas. Organic chocolate granola instead of peanuts and raisins. Unfrosted cinnamon Poptarts instead of breakfast bars. And a pint of vegan banana foster flavored ice cream that I shamelessly ate all in one sitting. Livin large! Also, since when is it almost Halloween?? The grocery store was stocked full of candy and decorations. When I peaced out on the world it was like Easter! Lol Time warp.In an effort to save the monies, I hitched back to the trailhead and set up camp just about 100 yards down trail away from the road. I¢m over hostels, and I¢d rather sleep in my tent as much as possible at this point. I gravitated towards hostels a lot more when I started hiking south simply because that¢s where I could always find people. And people were hard to come by on trail. But now I¢m pretty much done with people. Lol I prefer the solace and solitude that comes with camping alone. Sleeping outside will never get old. I think I¢ll miss this part the most.
Date: 2018-10-16
From: Hiawassee, GA

To: Blue Mountain shelter
Miles today: 19.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Today was chill. It was a mostly overcast day, but then it started raining in the afternoon and then pouring when I was only like an hour away from camp - of course. So I¢m soaked and very cold. The usual. A section hiker stopped and chatted with me while I ate my lunch today. He asked if at any point on trail was all of my stuff 100% dry. I laughed and said no. Whether it be rain, humidity, condensation, or just drowning in your own sweat - everything is always damp. Lol I¢m embracing it though today. I¢m even tenting in the rain with my more-than-leaky rainfly. This may be the last time for awhile that I get the privilege to endure such welcomed discomfort. There¢s several sectioners staying at the shelter tonight. One is a woman from Manchester, England out here for a 2 week hike, and she happens to be vegetarian. And an older, dad dude here tonight is also vegetarian. Well, whatya know! This is the first time ever on trail that veggies have outnumbered the omnivores. Lol Another upside to this shelter/campsite is that it has class-A cell reception. Like AT&T people have 3 bars and LTE! This has never happened. Lol I was able to check my email and saw that Denver Brown¢s help really worked! The Ski & Ride School at Winter Park Resort in Colorado has chosen me to be apart of their winter staff. I¢ll basically be assisting instructors with teaching kids on how to ski. Nevermind the fact that I¢ve never skied a day in my life. Lol! But surprisingly, that wasn¢t a deterring factor. I have my ¢hiring phone-call¢ with them next Tuesday (the day after my flight) to discuss expectations, pay, lodging, and other logistics. So if that goes well, I¢ll be moving to Colorado for Nov-Apr!I also got several other emails today from people wanting phone interviews. It¢s kinda stressful doing this shit on trail, but whatevs. One is gonna be this Thursday with Stratton Mt Resort in Vermont. This one is kind of sentimental-ish to me. I don¢t know how I¢d fare living in VT (honestly, I think I¢d die). But Stratton Mt is on the AT and I vividly remember the day I hiked it. It was my first BIG mileage day. I did 25.5 miles, hiking up and over Stratton Mt in a huge rainstorm, and then had my FIRST shelter stay on trail that evening at Stratton Mt Pond Shelter. That was a super long, wet day, but I remember going to sleep feeling hella accomplished. So yes, the idea of working on that mountain, seeing it in the snow, and living close to the AT (even though it¢d be buried) sounds pretty sweet. We¢ll see though. Running away to Thailand is still on the table. Amongst many, MANY other things. Lol