morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2015-04-12
From: Wallace Gap

To: Winding Stair Gap
Miles today: 3.1
Weather: overcast clouds

We awoke early this morning, around 0600 because we were looking forward to getting into Franklin and getting cleaned up and resupplying. We arrived at the road crossing at Winding Stair Gap at 0800. We had arranged with a guest house to pick us up at 0830 and shuttle us to town. They never showed up and we ended up taking a different shuttle to town. Today we are true hikers. The list for being a true hiker that we accomplished today:1. Change into rain gear in a laundromat to wash all the clothes you have. 2.        Picked up by a local in a pickup truck which had a bungee corded recliner in the back of the truck, crawled in the back of the truck and rode to a hotel. 3.        Scavenged through hiker box and found two items we needed. 4.        Ate at an all-you-can-eat buffet and we ate (we think our hiking appetite has kicked in.). 5.        Walked to the grocery store for resupply, got picked up again by a local in a pickup truck, this time, no recliner. Crawled in the back and taken to our hotel. 6.        Called a local hiking club member for a shuttle ride back to the trail head tomorrow. Yes, we are true hikers.A big thank you to everyone who has commented on our guest book. We really appreciate your support and prayers. It makes the tough days a bit easier!
Date: 2015-04-13
From: Winding Stair Gap

To: Rocky Bald
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: clear sky

We woke this morning in a nice dry room. A kind volunteer, Miss Joyce from Nantahala Hiking Club, picked us up from the hotel at 8:00. She drove us to the start of the trail, Winding Stair Gap. As the name indicates it was all up. We started the trail and climbing at 8:18. We hiked 1250 feet elevation climb in 4 miles. We felt good hiking and made the climb in 2 hours. As we approached the top, the rain came. And it rained all day. We felt as if we were in England on a rainy, drizzly winter day. But, we did not have the warmth of Yew Trees to go home to. Only our tent awaited at the end of the day. We stopped for a short snack break and were joined by a group of 12 20 something in age hikers. (They call themselves the AT Team) Not ones we wanted to hike with for the day. So we cut our break short and continued another climb. We climbed again for another 900 foot elevation change.   Lunch was made at Wayah Bald shelter as it was raining. We no sooner started eating when the AT Team took over the shelter. Again, we shortened our lunch break and continued hiking. And hiking we did.  We hiked until 6:15. We found a stealth tent site along side the ridge of a mountain. We quickly set up the tent and put our packs inside to avoid the rain. We are spending the night at a little over 5000 feet elevation. We should have a great view except it is foggy. No view for us. This was our longest day yet, we completed 17.5 miles today!   We saw a fat little mole today trying to scurry into his hole. He was too fat to go into his hole. He tried another hole just beside that hole and still did not make it. We left him at peace to make it into his home without us watching. We have been hearing this thumping noise that starts and then gets faster and faster. We did not know what it was. Tyler informed us it is rabbits. Sure enough, we heard it today and it sounded like Thumper from the Disney movie Bambi. Thanks Tyler for telling us what it was.
Date: 2015-04-14
From: Rocky Bald

To: NOC
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: light rain

Rain all night. Well, not exactly rain but a downpour all night. We can safely say our tent is now waterproof. We are learning as we go. The last time it rained when we were setting up our tent, we brought our wet rain gear into our tent vestibule. This time, we hung a line and tied our wet gear to the line. We tied it right way out to keep the inside dry. Even though it poured all night, we woke in the morning with dry inside gear! You would think the sound of rain would lull one to sleep. Not really, the rain was so loud sleep did not come. Hopefully tonight we can sleep. We started hiking after eating a quick poptart. Of course, it was up hill. The AT consists of all up hill and down hill, we have concluded there is no level hiking. The trail was, as my Mother would say, slop! There was mud, running water and more mud everywhere. One hiker left the trail permanently today as she slid in the mud and tore a legiment. Even hiking poles didn't help with all the mud. We stopped for a "real" breakfast of oatmeal and a power bar at a shelter to get out of the rain. We continued hiking or should we saw rock climbing for a bit. We aren't sure if it is better to hike in the rain without rain gear and just get wet, or hike wearing our rain gear and sweat, sweat, sweat. We started a long downhill stretch into the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC). The sun came out and it turned hot. We shedded our rain gear as it was a sauna wearing them. We arrived at the NOC around 2:00pm. We had a real lunch at a restaurant where we were sat in the back because we smelled so good - not. We decided to call it a day. We hiked over 27 miles in 2 days. We dried out our tent, boots and socks. Tonight is a real bed in a cabin. We are looking foward to a good night sleep. Tomorrow, we climb out if the NOC which will be a climb of over 3000 feet in 6 miles. We are not looking forward to that.. And they are calling for rain the next 3 days! Keep us in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow.
Date: 2015-04-15
From: NOC

To: Cody Gap
Miles today: 18.9
Weather: heavy intensity rain

We wanted to get an early start so we got up at 0600 and we were on the trail by 0645. We were hoping to hike for a few hours without rain but it was raining when we started so on went the rain gear. The first part of the day was all uphill, 3000 feet elevation gain over 6 miles.   We finished this in about 3 1/2 hours in a steady downpour of rain. We took a short break here to catch our breath and the continued on for another mile to Sassafras Gap shelter. We stopped in here to get out of the rain and we made some oatmeal for breakfast, it was 1100. It was hard to leave the shelter because it was still raining but we slogged on. The trail was now nothing but water and mud. The mud would come up over our boots it was so bad. We climbed up another 600 feet elevation gain in another 1 1/2 miles and then we had a long 1400 foot elevation drop. All the while, the rain continued. By this time we were getting hungry for lunch but we didn't want to eat in the rain. Finally, hunger got the best of us and we just sat down on a fallen tree and ate lunch in the pouring rain.   Lunch consisted of a flour tortilla with some Nutella and trail mix rolled up. Suprising how good this is when you are hungry. Away went our wet lunch supplies and up we hiked in the rain. We continued climbing up supposedly to a viewpoint. A viewpoint of fog. We met and passed a few other soggy hikers, all pressing on to Jacob's ladder. But, before the start of the 600 feet climb in less than a half mile, we were met at Stecoah Gap with fresh fruit trail magic. We quickly ate an apple and a banana. While talking to the gentleman, he informed us all materials for the Smokie Mountain shelters are helicoptered in. It cost $275.00/minute air time. That is alot of money. Last week, the flew in tons of mulch for the privys. We said our thanks and good bye and stated up Jacob's ladder. It was certainly a climb. It would be difficult in good weather. Doing it in mud and rain made it all the more treacherous. It was so steep and muddy that sometimes when you took a step forward you would just slide back to where you started. We finally made it and thought we were nearly done for the day but little did we know we would be hiking another 5 miles. We got to the shelter we had hopes to stay at but it was full so we continued on. We stopped a short while later to filter water from a stream. We started to look for a camping spot near the trail but didn't find anything until nearly 1900. By that time we were exhausted, soaked to the bone and cold. Connie had slipped in the mud and her one entire side of her body was covered in mud. We quickly set up our tent in the rain and removed all our wet clothes and tried to warm up in our tent. We cooked our dinner in the tent (rice mix with spam in it, tasted better than it sounds) and then we crashed. We were awakened sometime in the night by the sound of coyotes howling! Total elevation gain for the day was 5,650 feet!
Date: 2015-04-16
From: Cody Gap

To: Fontana Dam
Miles today: 8.6
Weather: scattered clouds

We awoke at 0700 to a very sweet sound, no rain!   We put off getting out of our tent because it was warm and dry inside and we had to put on our cold wet clothes that were hanging outside our tent. Eventually we did get up and put on those cold wet clothes. It took everything we had to put them on. Oh, they were wet and we were cold.   After that all we wanted to do is start hiking to try and warm up. We started hiking and we both found we were still tired from the day before. We only had to hike 8.8 miles today and we were very thankful for that. Our clothes dried quicker than we thought. And before we knew it, we were dry. Our last 3 1/2 miles we dropped down 2500 feet into Fontana, NC. Of course, it started to rain. We can't hike without rain. Today was day four for rainy days in a row. Once at Fontana, we caught a shuttle into Fontana lodge to spend the night. We had a late lunch at the grill and then started the task of doing laundry and drying out our gear. No rest even when we thought we could rest. But, we will be dry for at least a few hours tomorrow, hopefully.
Date: 2015-04-17
From: Fontana Dam

To: Spence Shelter
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: light rain

The weather looked threatening but it wasn't raining. We hoped for the best. A trail angel, Mr. Bob, took us to the start of the trail. His son hiked the AT 3 years ago. He and his wife met his son at Fontana. So, every year since then, his wife gives trail magic to others for her birthday. We were lucky enough to receive some of this magic. He took us to the start of the trail and gave us lots of goodies, peanut butter, trail mix, and granola bars. The trunk was full of magic. He even had toothpaste and toothbrushes donated by his dentist. When we receive such generosity, we are awed at mankind. What a great way to start the day.   We climbed out of Fontana and crossed the dam. This a milestone as many AT books we have read talks about the Fontana Dam. It was strange thinking, here we are hiking what we have read.   We entered into Smokie Mountain National Park. The weather was holding and so far we had no rain. We turned in our back country permit and started to climb. We climbed 2800 feet in 9 miles. We climbed for 5 hours, a long steady climb.   We stopped for lunch, sitting on our log relaxing and who do we see come lumbering up the trail?   Big Jim. We hadn't seen him for three days. We finished our lunch and hiked with Big Jim the rest of the afternoon. Jim asked if we had received trail names yet. We told him yes. Mark's name is Counter as he counts to himself to make it up the steep parts of the trail Connie's name is Lavender because when we were going into Franklin, the B&B we were going to stay promised her a lavender bath. Strange thing is the B&B owner never showed up to pick us up, so no lavender bath. The say the Trail picks your name. Sure enough, the trail picked our names. In the Smokies, all hikers must stay in a shelter. So, we hiked to a shelter for the night. If the shelter is full, you can pitch your tent. Lavender didn't want to stay in a shelter with strangers, so we were hoping for a full shelter. No such luck, the shelter had room. At 5:30, we decided to continue to the next shelter 3 miles away. Another hiker, Yoda, was hoping for a full shelter also. So, she hiked with us. We made the 3 mile hike in an hour. We were tearing up the trail! We had a mile of level hiking, a mile of up hill hiking and a mile of slight up hill. We were amazed we did it in an hour. We arrived at the shelter to find it was full. YEAH. We are tenting tonight beside the shelter. At least we aren't sleeping with strangers! Just before we had made it to the shelter we saw 3 turkeys. Counter pitched the tent and got everything ready to sleep while Lavender retrieved water and filtered it. Then it was make dinner, eat and clean up. While we were eating it started to rain.   We chatted a bit with other hikers, bear bagged our food and then to bed. It was a long day of hiking. We had hiked 18 miles..
Date: 2015-04-18
From: Spence Shelter

To: Clingman's Dome
Miles today: 16.6
Weather: overcast clouds

We awoke around 0600 this morning. It had rained most of the night but it wasn't raining now. It was nearly 0700 by the time we started hiking. We were thinking we might do a 20 mile day so we would have a really short day tomorrow. After hiking just a few hours we decided that was going to be really hard to do.   The climbs and descents were really steep and long today. I don't think the trail builders know the word switchbacks. It was always straight up and straight down.   We were treated to some wonderful views this morning. At the high elevation we were at we could see the clouds settled down in the valleys with just the peaks of the mountains sticking up. We went over Rocky Top Mountain which is the inspiration for the University of Tennessee fighting song. It was another great view from here. We made it to the next shelter which was 6.3 miles at around 1100. We stopped and filtered water from a nearby spring and took a short break. The flies werw terrible so the break was shorter than expected. Wd continued on hiking and then stopped and had lunch around 1230. The weather was still pretty nice but we could see dark clouds in the distance. We talked with a ranger who told us they were calling for heavy rain later tonight and all day Sunday and Monday with strong winds and hail. We sure didn't want to hike in the rain anymore.   Today would be the sixth day in a row of rain. We continued hiking and keeping an eye on the dark clouds. Later in the afternoon we decided we would try and have Tyler pick us up at Clingman's Dome today rather than tomorrow since bad weather was approaching. Of course, first we had to get a cell signal before we could call Tyler. We kept checking and checking and finally we were able to call Tyler. Better yet he could pick us up today! We still had about 7 miles to go when we called him. Now all we had to do was hike that far. We made it to the next shelter around 1600 and it was just in time. A few minutes later, the heavens opened up and it poured.   We sat there talking to other hikers hoping the rain might stop or at least slow down. We decided we would need to start up the trail by 1640 in order to reach Clingman's Dome by 1830. Fortunately by 1640 the rain had almost stopped.   On went the rain gear and we started hiking the 3 miles up to Clingmans Dome. Of course it was all uphill since Clingman's Dome is the highest point on the trail, 6,643 feet above sea level. It rained the entire way to the top but we finally made it there around 1815. There is supposed to be a great view but all we saw was white clouds. Tyler arrived and brought us dry clothes and some much needed food. We quickly changed into our dry clothes and we were on our way to Knoxville to take a few zero days. A zero day is when we don't do any hiking. We should be back on the trail on Tuesday. Thank goodness for a great son who could change his plans and pick up his weary parents! We are so thankful for Tyler.
Date: 2015-04-19
From: Clingman's Dome

To: knoxville 
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: moderate rain

Today we enjoyed a much needed zero day. We had a great day spending time with our son Tyler and exploring a bit around Knoxville.   We had a great breakfast at Trio in downtown Knoxville. I had an omelet with spinach, brie and bacon in it and Tyler and Connie both had french toast. Much better than our normal poptarts on the trail. The rest of the day was spent lounging around and resupplying. We hit up the local REI for a few items. Connie wanted to get a poncho to see how well that works in the rain. We found a pack cover doesnt really do a very good job. We also got some trash compactor bags that we will be using to line the inside of our backpacks. This should help ensure everything in our backpacks stay dry. We are learning as we go. Tyler made us some great Flatbread pizzas for dinner. They consisted of Flatbread with olive oil, sliced pears, walnuts, crumbled gorgonzola cheese and arugula.   They were delicious! It was a great day!
Date: 2015-04-20
From: knoxville 

To: Knoxville
Miles today: 0.0

Today we enjoyed a much needed zero day. We rested more today as we had completed most of our resupply errands the day before. We went along with Tyler to the UT campus this afternoon as he had office hours. Connie and I wandered around the campus checking out the store and looking for a new hat to wear on the trail. Then we went to Whole Foods for lunch. Connie and I both had a huge salad as we have been missing our vegetables being out on the trail. We then visited the REI store again and Mark got a new hat that will be a bit more waterproof than his other one. We also got some dehydrated vegetables to add to our rice dishes on the trail. At least we will be getting a few vegetables while on the trail. Tyler made us a wonderful brisket dinner in the crock pot. He also made sweet potato fries which were delicious. We are going to have to do some serious hiking to work off all those calories. We took it easy in the evening and then watched a movie. All in all a really great day. Tomorrow we will be heading back to the trail in the afternoon.
Date: 2015-04-21
From: Clingman's Dome

To: Ice water spring shelter
Miles today: 10.9
Weather: broken clouds

We woke up early today as Tyler had an early class and then he had a class to teach. We dropped Tyler off at UT and then we went and ran some errands. We packed up our backpacks and weighed them again. Lavender 's pack was 27lbs and Counter's was 34lbs. We had left sone stuff with Tyler thinking our packd would be lighter. But, they are still heavier than we would like but again we are leaving with a lot of food. Our body weight has gone down. So, we are really carrying less weight!! We picked Tyler up around 1330 and went back to his apartment to get our packs. We left for Clingman's Dome and arrived there around 1600. We all hiked up to the observation tower and were treated to a great view. We could see over 70 miles in all directions. A very rare view from here as quite often it is fogged in. We said our good byes to Tyler at 1630 and were on our way hiking again. We came to the first shelter around 1800 but we had only gone 4 miles so we decided to continue on. The next shelter was 7 more miles ahead. We don't know what we were thinking trying to hike 7 miles with lots if climbs to reach the shelter during daylight. We hiked as fast as we could but soon enough we had to get out our head lamps to see the trail. We finally arrived at the shelter just after 2100. We had hiked 10.9 miles in just 4 1/2 hours.   Our fastest hiking yet. We quickly found a spot to put up our tent and got ready as fast as we could. We were in our sleeping bags by 2130. It was getting really cold and it was supposed to get down to 30 degrees.   All in all not a bad days hiking after our two zero days.
Date: 2015-04-22
From: Ice water spring shelter

To: Tri Corner Knob Shelter
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: few clouds

We woke this morning to the sound of rain. Of course, we can't go for more than one day without rain. Not wanting to get out of our warm sleeping bags, we lounged a bit and the rain stopped. It was cold this morning, 27 degrees. We made oatmeal in our tent to warm up. Then, it was time to start the day.   Just as we were leaving the shelter area, we saw Ghost who we last saw in Franklin. We chatted with him a bit. He had fallen on Monday and broke a rib. But, he was continuing on. The rain had stopped and the sun was shining - a good day for hiking. We passed three hikers from Knoxville. They are retired and hike every week in the Smokies. The lady gave us some trail magic. We continued on to a fabulous view from Charlie's bunion. The wind picked up and was windy the rest of the day. There were gusts up to 35mph. The roar of the wind was deafening.   Up and downs, up and downs today. We did have some ridge walking which was a bit scary with the wind. We had some rock climbs but the worst was a newly fallen tree blocked the path. It was so large, it couldn't be crawled over. So, we had to get on our hands to go under. Try doing that with 30 lbs on your back! We had to look ridiculous. Along the way today, we turned over logs looking for salamanders but saw none. There is to be a unique species found only in this area. But, we weren't fortunate enough to see one. We continued to a shelter for the night. The shelter was full, so we are tenting. Of course it started to rain as we ate dinner. It is windy and cold. Our tent is sheltered a bit. Hopefully we are warm tonight.
Date: 2015-04-23
From: Tri Corner Knob Shelter

To: campsite by a stream
Miles today: 17.8
Weather: clear sky

It rained several times during the night and we woke this morning it was freezing.   Literally, it was 25 degrees when we woke up. We really didn't want to get out of our warm sleeping bags but we finally made the decision to get up. We quickly got dressed and started to break camp. Our tent was covered in ice. We tried to knock as much off as we could. All we wanted to do was to start hiking to try and warm up. We started hiking around 0700. Our fingers were freezing even with gloves on.   It was very difficult to do anything with our fingers because they were SO cold. The cold was made worse by a constant 20 mph wind. I don't think we finally warmed up until we stopped for breakfast around 0930. We made hot tea and ate cold Poptarts. After this the sun started to warm things up a bit, if we were on the sunny side of the mountain but we zigzagged between sides and the wind was still very cold. We stopped for lunch after making a 800 foot climb.   We got the tent out to let it dry a bit and we took a nice 45 minute break. And took our boots off to let our feet have some fresh air. We then started a very long downhill stretch, 3500 feet over 7 miles! I know, downhill sounds great but it takes a toll on you knees and feet. As one hiker said, going up hill is hard on the soul, going down hill is hard on the body. How true. We left the Smokies and are now free to camp where we like. Another milestone. We stopped again after about 5 miles going downhill when we crossed a stream. We filtered water and filled up our water bottles. We continued on and just before we went under I40, a nice gentleman, Bob, a truck driver from Iowa and his dog Carly, was handing out snickers bars. What a nice treat. Trail angels are such nice people! We continued on about another mile or so and found a lovely camping spot next to a stream. We relaxed a bit, ate dinner and then soaked our feet in the stream.   Great therapy for tired feet. Now we will be lulled to sleep by the sounds of a babbling streamLife doesn't get much better than this!