morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2011-05-28
From: Spring Mountain Shelter

To: Jones Meadow Campsite
Miles today: 9.8

Day 41My feet don't hurt! Hiking is sooo much more fun when every single step doesn't hurt! That 4.5 mile up was WICKED! The first part of today was easy peasy. I was going a bit over 2 mph which is pretty good for a hiking with a full pack on. I caught up with who I have dubbed "longsleeves." Think his actual name is Jim. He was at Elmers when I was there and at the shelter last night. He said his trail name was "SilkySmooth" which was a nickname give to him in high school. I said "Nope, it's 'Long Sleeves'" because he wears long sleeves and pants all the time. He is a truck driver off the trail and was a band geek in high school. He played all brass including trombone. ("Band Geek" was his words, not mine.) At Elmers at dinner, Elmer had asked the question, "If you could have been born at another place and time when would you ant it to be?" Longsleeves said he wanted to be born exactly when he was. Elmer said he had to pick something so Longsleeves said, "Ok, I wish I was born 10 minutes earlier in the room next to the one I was born in." ...ok then. I forgot to say yesterday that I found yet another delicacy along the trail. Soloman's Seal flowers! OMG yumm! They taste just like baby snow peas! I bought some to Firebug last night and said "Here's a treat for you, I promise it's the best thing I've made you eat yet!" He agreed! I had harvested a bunch so I shared them with everyone. I had actually brought the plant to show Firebug (along with false Soloman's Seal to show the difference.) Today Turtle said he was snacking on them along the trail.I stopped at the first shelter for lunch and X3 and Turtle (and his dog Eve) showed up. We all left about the same time and had all decided we would only go as far as the campsite today. We were all REALLY glad because the 2.5 miles of up was TOUGH. Very Jacob's ladderish. Turtle and I hiked together the whole way from the shelter and we met up with X3 at the fire tower trail. X3 had gone to it and said it wasn't worth it so Turtle and I didn't go.Tomorrow we will tackle the "rocky and strenuous" section in the first 3 miles. I will hit the 300 mile mark tomorrow at the summit of (get this) Big Butt Mountain!
Date: 2011-05-29
From: Jones Meadow Campsite

To: Some Campground North of Flintlock Shelter
Miles today: 11.4

Day 42OMG! What a perfect day. I hiked all day with Turtle and Eve and the "rocky and strenuous" part of the trail was AMAZING! The views were awesome in every sense of the word.The rest of the hike was also really nice. Very pretty and fairly easy.We were having lunch at a campsite when a group of people riding ATVs came by. We were quite perplexed since ATVs aren't allowed on the trail. They acted like they were trail maintainers but we just couldn't swallow that the way they were. One guy seemed to have gotten stuck and one of the others just drove around him off the trail.They had come southbound so then as we continued on we were walking in their destruction. They passed us at one point so when we got to the shelter for water they were all gathered there taking a break. Most were smoking and one slovenly looking guy was leaning on a tree. Eve did NOT like him and neither did I! We did run into the actual trail maintainer and he didn't like hearing about the ATVs.We caught up with X3 at the campsite which was kind of a "fail" campsite. There really was only room for maybe 2 tents and no water.Turtle and I went back a tad to a site we had seen and while he went back about 1/4 mile to get water I stayed with Eve and got a fire going and set up my tent. It was getting dark, so I took the liberty of setting up his too.We ended up listening to his radio and talking around the camp fire until about 3am! It is now about 4am! We have a short day (8 miles) planned for tomorrow (thank god!).
Date: 2011-05-30
From: Some Campground North of Flintlock Shelter

To: Some Campsite Sout of Hogback Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 5.8
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 43We got a very late start today, didn't get on the trail till about 11. That was about when a couple of hunting dogs with antennae collars showed up. Some sobo's came along at the same time and said there was a note at the gap that the owner was looking for them. Turtle checked one of the collars and we called the number on it and left a message. Shortly thereafter 2 more showed up. I had been hearing about these dogs (or similar dogs) since the early days on the trail. They ended up hiking with us (and Eve) until we got to the gap. Hiking with 5 dogs is slow going!Then we got to a meadow where there were a lot of dandelions. We spent about an hour harvesting dandelion greens, plantains, bullbriar tendrils (note from Jess: I think that's what she wrote) and I found a nice little bunch of strawberries.We decided to make a salad and spent the day harvesting Solomen's Seal flowers and peas along with more of the above. We also found a few fiddleheads! We stopped at a nice river where we could wash up and also came across an awesom waterfall.All in all it was a pretty slow going, fairly lazy day.We ended up not going as far as we wanted to and not finding a campsite with water, but we did find a decent campsite and we knew we ere only about 2 miles from the shelter to get water in the morning. This campsite, wait, let me explain what I mean when I say "campsite".A "shelter" along the AT pretty much consists of a 3 sided structure. Generally there is a fire pit and a picnic table along with a source for water (stream or spring), a privy and bear cables. Any one of more of the above may be missing.A "campsite" consists of, well, someplace someone camped at some point so there is a fairly flat spot and maybe a fire ring or some black spot anyway.The campsite we found actually had some bizarre, primal, precarious "shelter" someone had attempted to structure out of many many fallen branches leaned up against a tree "lean to" style, a decent amount of flat space and some rocks that may at one point have formed a fire ring. Also there was a decent sized log to sit on (always a bonus!) but alas no water at all. We decided the "lean to" was a great source for fire wood and had a great fire while we made our salad!This salad was EPIC! All the wild things I mentioned and we added dehydrated mushrooms, crasins, soynuts, parm cheese and Italian dressing. OMG awesome! I made some ramen with dehydrated burger and veggies as the main course.All in all a fun, relaxing, nice day!
Date: 2011-05-31
From: Some Campsite Sout of Hogback Ridge Shelter

To: Bald Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: clear sky

Day 44Today was a little tough. We started out with only the water we had left from yesterday which wasn't much. I had about a liter and Turtle had a little more, but had to make sure Eve had some. There was not water until we would get to the shelter. I started out before Turtle and they caught up to me a little before the shelter.It's so funny when I go ahead cause as they catch up, Eve will run up to me like "OK! I FOUND YOU!" and turn around and run back before I can even try to pet her. This goes on a few times until Turtle catches up and then she doesn't have to keep tabs on us both. We had a cold breakfast at the shelter and camelled up (drank a lot of water) and filled up our water as we were looking at another 6 miles of no water available.There was a LOT of "up" today. We took a small side trail to "high rocks" and that up was definitely worth it. While we were up there, this guy rock climbed up and popped up at the precipice. It was kinda weird but cool. We chatted with him a bit and he said to watch out for the locals as "some don't cotton to yanks." Turtle has lived in Florida, so we decided if people as us where we are from, we will just say Davenport, FL and then I will just shut my mouth and let him do the talking.With all the ups today we had decided we would take the bypass trail and skip big bald. Turtle hadn't eaten enough and ended up hitting a wall and having to take a few long breaks. Turns out one of these breaks (where we checked the book and decided the bypass would be the best) happened to be at the bypass junction, but it wasn't marked. I left Turtle there and told him I would wait for him at the bypass. I quickly realized we had missed it when the terrain got VERY difficult and steep. Too late to turn back now.I was so glad we had messed up when I go to Big Bald. This bald was amazing and gave Max Patch a run for the money when it came to views. It was breezy and cool and the sun was on the lowish side. Turtle caught up with me just as I was getting back into the woods.We got to the shelter expecting to find X3, but Longsleeves was there and said they had gone on cause they were short on food.Oh! I forgot. Last night when we checked the book we saw there was a road crossing with a market about 3 miles off the trail. We had decided we might try to hitch to the market and get a 6 pack to bring to the shelter. By the time we got to the road we decided it was too late, but then we saw a cooler. I hoped beyond hope that this Trail Magic cooler would not be empty and full of trash as ALL the others I have come across have been. I opened the cooler, and got goosebumps. It was full of ICE COLD BUD LIGHT!! We each drank a couple right there and decided to take a couple each up to the shelter. As we were sitting there, the guy who had left it showed up to pick it up! His name is Blue and he is currently hiking the trail. (He has a trailjournal so you can look him up!) He had to come back to the area for a family event and this was all the left over beer and soda. It was so awesome!
Date: 2011-06-02
From: Erwin, TN Best Southern Motel

To: Erwin, TN
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Day 46Last night Turtle decided he wanted beer. It was about 11 so we walked down to the gas station that sold beer, but they had just closed. We got a hitch in a pickup back to the motel and they said Walmart (6 miles out of town) sold beer until 3am, but they weren't going that way. Oh well.No, apparently not oh well. Turtle decided he was going to go get beer and said he would be back by 5am. I woke up at 4:58 to him walking in with an 18 pack of Bud Light. Long story short, he hitched for a while till an unmarked cop car stopped and ended up giving him a ride to the edge of town. He then called the comps a total of 5 times to procure rides to and from Walmart.We found out after we checked in that the motel would take a dog for a $10 fee. So our sched today was laundry, hostel for mail drop, and get Eve by 6.We got a hitch in the back of a pickup full of trash to the hostel and I got my boxes. Turtle bought a new sleeping bag and we snagged a ride in the hostel pickup shuttle back into town.We decided we wanted Chinese for dinner and that he would go get Eve and I would meet him at the restaurant. Have I mentioned the heat btw? I was glad we were at the motel when I read X3's trail journal and saw that they were so hot at the hostel that they couldn't sleep. Well, I mean I was glad I had A/C, not that they couldn't sleep.Anyway, yeah, it's hot and now I have to walk 5 miles to dinner. I've never hitched alone before. I got about 1/2 mile (totally destroyed any semblance of clean laundry) and out went my thumb! I was so glad I ended up getting a ride from this OLD OLD couple. When I got to the place Turtle had just gotten there with Eve. I had been craving Chinese for DAYS! OMG I wanted crab ragoon, egg rolls, and most of all General Tso Chicken. Well, you know how there are certain things you look for that let you know if a Chinese place is going to be good or not. Yeah, this place didn't have those things. First of all, no fish tank, next, not one Asian person eating OR working there, but the biggest clue to that your Chinese experience may not be the best is when they bring you ketchup and mustard squeeze bottles... ... ...yep. On the menu I found "General Chow's Chicken" - I think it was squirrel.
Date: 2011-06-03
From: Erwin, TN

To: Johnny's
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Day 47We had called Johnny's and they said they did a shuttle from the post office at 2pm.We planned out everything so we could hit Dollar General and McDonald's and get back to the PO by 2pm. It was SO hot. No wonder Warrant smelled SO badly. He did say town was hot!We had our full packs on PLUS everything we were going to mail home. I had on my new boots and so far so good.We could not get a hitch and had to walk the whole way in to the PO. We got our stuff mailed off...btw I might not have mentioned that Turtle started out with a pack so heavy that when he (220lbs) stepped on his scale with his pack...the scale said error. He had left things like his heavy high leather boots and jeans, a shovel and hatchet near Hot Springs. When I first met him he had a full sized sauce pan! I laughed so hard when I saw it that he left it at the shelter the next morning.Now, he has kinda gone the extreme other way...yeah, he sent his TENT home.Anyway, we got our stuff mailed then trudged to McD's and got back to the PO by 2. At about 2:20 I called the Hostel to make sure we didn't miss it and we were told no. At 3pm I had Turtle call and they hadn't done a PO run that afternoon... ... ...Out went the thumb. Did I mention the heat, and that by now I was questioning why I bothered to do laundry much less take a shower.We finally got a ride all the way to the hostel! We got a cabin since Eve wasn't allowed in the bunk house and Turtle no longer had a tent.I got a surprise mail drop today !! My friends love me sooooo much! I got the most awesome stuff! Everything for S'mores of course! Baby powder (so I can pretend I'm nice and dry and clean before I go to bed), cotton T's (so I can pretend I'm in sheets when I go to bed), DEODORANT (so I won't wake myself up ), SpongeBob toothpaste!!! first aidish stuff (cuz Amy wants to make sure I'm all healthy and come back), Snickers Bars!!! (nuf said), Rubber bands (an insane amount of them lol! but you can always use a rubber band out here, Dog treats for Eve! (She loves them) and an awesome singing card with CASH in it! YAY! Now I can slackpack tomorrow...maybe...we'll see.
Date: 2011-06-04
From: Johnny's

To: Johnny's
Miles today: 20.7
Weather: clear sky

Day 48Slackpacking is the BEST INVENTION EVER!!!Slackpacking is when you hike carrying food and water. There are different ways to go about it, but how Johnny's does it is they dropped us off at Iron Mountain Gap (20.7 miles North) and then I walked back. Yes, I walked a 20.7 mile day!X3 had done the 8 mile one yesterday and then they were going out to do the 20 to walk back 12 and get picked up at Indian Grave Gap. I kept walking all the way back. It was awesome. Only thing that could have made it better would have been if I had sneakers. I actually jogged part of the way! I ended up getting a new blister on the side of my heel, but no biggie. So tomorrow we will all start out at Iron Mountain Gap and continue North. I'm not sure what Turtle is going to do. He is apparently staying int eh bunk house tonight, guess they are watching movies.X3 brought me back Wendy's since I wasn't back for the dinner run and Firebug lit the fire pit full of paper and boxes so we could have a fire for s'mores. The fire was about 15 feet high! It had been piled with boxes and stuff at least 4 feet high. It was awesome!I hiked a 20.7 mile day Me!! I love slackpacking! I do believe I will forgo sleeping in sheets if it means I can put my $ towards slackpacking! (You usually have to pay for the shuttle, it cost me $10 each day, so $20 for 20 miles.)
Date: 2011-06-05
From: Johnny's

To: Clyde Smith Shelter
Miles today: 6.1
Weather: few clouds

Day 49Turtle decided not to jump ahead (he had stayed at Johnny's yesterday and took a 0 and went tubing).X3 and I went to breakfast at Huddle House, then I said goodbye to Eve Turtle didn't have the $ he owed me for staying at the cabin and said he will catch up and give me it. I told him he could pay me back by carrying my food and for a minute he was interested, but since he isn't jumping ahead, no go.There was a 40% chance of rain today, and... I am a Murphy, but! Irish luck overruled and it didn't come till we were all (along with about 10 others) safely in the shelter. Did I mention this shelter only is supposed to sleep 5 LOL! X3, Chef Boy-R-Dee, and that kid whose name none of us can remember tented. The rest of us are tucked up here. We did get a good fire going before the rain came and I had brought the rest (most) of the s'mores stuff. We had and EPIC s'mores event!Chef Boy-R-Dee had NEVER had a s'mores before and he's gotta be in his 50's. But, he's from Canada, so, we will blame that. Granny and Speedy cooked their s'mores over their camp stove so they wouldn't have to go out in the rain (they were actually the only 2 who had gotten caught hiking in it).So, in this shelter that is supposed to sleep 5 we have 2 section hiking girls (we named them Africa and One Sock Down), Jedi is up in the other bunk with me (and the roof is leaking over us so we have Africa's tent footprint over us), Sittingbull (aka HeyJude), Waterboy, Granny, Speedy, and the kid with the ball cap are all on the bottom.I love my earplugs
Date: 2011-06-06
From: Clyde Smith Shelter

To: Stan Murray Shelter
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: clear sky

Day 50Day 50! AND blew away the 375 mark. Whoa!We had an awesome day! I got up really early. I wasn't going to do a hot breakfast so I could just get up and at 'em, but then I got up so early I decided to.I still ended up leaving a bit before X3. We had all (EVERYONE) planned on getting to the Overmountain Shelter, but we fell a tad short.The first couple miles out of the shelter I was so confused. I kept feeling like I went in the wrong direction, but everyone else went this way. Come to find out, the trail is going DUE SOUTH on this portion! Uugh!Anyway, I ended up passing the young girls Granny and Speedy. Yeah so Granny (a 21 year old who's hiking poles are actually canes) just got out of the hospital with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever...I still passed them!There were some awesome cliff views in the first portion of the day. The first 2 miles were ups that were pretty cool. Then a couple miles of down....Then, just up. Started out with steep long switchback, then it turned into the kind of climbing on rocks where you have to use your hands. Personally, I love this stuff. I ran into a couple sobo sectioners and told them to tell X3 that I would be at the Roan Mtn. parking lot waiting for them.As I was sitting, the storm clouds were building, but didn't seem to get anywhere.X3 caught up, we had lunch and then went and looked at the Roan Mountain Rhododendron Gardens. Unfortunately they were not in bloom yet, but it was a nice walk.We had been planning on going to the Overmountain Shelter, which is an old barn, but after Roan Mtn came the balds. OMG, beautiful. I felt like I was in the Sound of Music. That was where the rhodys were in bloom, along with the brightest orange azaleas. Round Bald, then Jane Bald, then Grassy Ridge Bald.When we were in the parking lot on Roan Mountain, we met a woman who was Stan Murray's wife. He was the president of the AMC and has the Stan Murray Shelter. That is where we stayed tonight.Jude was here and got a fire going so we all settled in. We decided we will go to the Overmountain Shelter for 2nd breakfast.
Date: 2011-06-07
From: Stan Murray Shelter

To: Mountain Harbor B&B/Hostel
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: clear sky

Day 51Today was just plain amazing. I must say the last 2 days were my favorite days so far.First we stopped at Overmountain to check it out. OMG. I want to live there. It is an old big barn in a valley with the most picturesque views. Just amazing. When we got there, Gramma and Speedy were still there. Gramma wasn't feeling well. While we were there some day hikers came in and we found out that there was a forest road that was only 1 mile from 19E. We gave Gramma the number to the hostel and told her to call there to let us know what she was doing.We then went over Little Hump Mountain and Hump Mountain. Little Hump was just amazing. We sat on some massive rocks at the top with Jude and had lunch. This is the area where the mountain goats and longhorn can be seen, but all we saw was on cow patty.Hump Mountain was DAUNTING. As you look at it from Little Hump it was, but when you are at the base of it it is even more so! It is a bald mountain so you can see the trail all the way up. I am so glad I am hiking with X3, cause that really made it fun. Kevin and Dylan went ahead to see how fast they could do it. It was neat to see them get smaller and smaller. Then as we are going, we looked back and saw Jude coming. Just a tiny speck on the side of Little Hump.The weather was amazing but we all kinda forgot about it and got LOTS of sun!We got to just before 19E and ran into the guys that had been hiking with Gramma and Speedy. We let them know what we know.Gramma and Speedy were at the hostel when we got here.This place is amazing. The hostel is over the barn and spotless! 4 beds in a loft and a semi private king on the "first floor" (second floor of the barn). A full kitchen and really cute bathroom. The house is a B&B and it is up on a hill with horse pastures all around.I had a card waiting for me when I got here. A graduation invitati8on for Ashley. I do wish I could go, but I totally love that they sent me the invite here. I need to RSVP with a phone call, but there is no phone svc here We found out we can slackpack from here to the next hostel for only $11 total. Like everyone splits the cost of $11!I love slackpacking, and hostel jumping is awesome! We should actually be able to go from hostel to hostel to hostel in the next few days
Date: 2011-06-08
From: Mountain Harbor B&B/Hostel

To: Vango and Abby's Memorial Hostel
Miles today: 0.0

Day 52Yeah that's right 400 down!!!We slackpacked today, and I am so glad we did. Although it was only 11 miles and not really too hard, it was HOT so it made it harder.We went past Jones Falls today. I believe someone said it's 100 feet up. It was pretty cool. Jude, Specs, and Bill were there and they climbed to the top.X3 climbed up about halfway, I chose to just view from the base.We also went past Mountaineer Falls, not so impressive.We stopped at Mountaineer Shelter and Jellybean was there! I was confused cause last I knew she was at Johnny's with a hurt ankle. She had jumped ahead to catch up. She said as far as she knew Turtle may have stayed another day at Johnny's.On the way north of 19E this morning we came to a meadow and found TONS of wild strawberries. We stopped and picked and picked!Jude, Specs, and Bill caught up with us and they picked too. Then we came to a tree with tiger lilies growing. I mentioned you can eat them and everyone was in on that. (at least I thought you could... I did double check online later ) It was so funny to see these "big strong hiker guys" picking tiny strawberries and eating flowers. I love that Dylan tried it. He didn't care for it, but he has been a great sport in trying everything I have offered him.At the Mountaineer Shelter there was a stray dog. It looked a lot like Eve. I miss Eve We got it to follow us and then when we caught up with the guys it went with them.Another HOT rough day, and I am glad we are at a hostel. X3 got a couple pizzas and I had 2 pieces. I was so tired that is all I had. Still no phone services, but there are 2 computers here with real QUERTY keyboards!I as chatting and facebooking and Kevin said to me "sounds like you have used a computer once or twice" commenting on how fast I was typing. LOL. I had Jess call Mom to have her get on FB so I could chat with her to discuss my next mail drop. Mom pretty much just wanted to know where I was and then said she had to go cuz she was hungry. Really? Anyway, OH! I got on the scale here and although it is an analog scale, I have lost at least 30 lbs. If I move the scale by leaning the right way it goes to 40 LOL.