morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-04-07
From: Plumorchard Gap shelter

To: Carter Gap Third World Shelter
Miles today: 19.8

No rain, no pain, no Maine. I've heard this a couple times today. It's been raining all day. I've been making sure to eat all day and drink lots of water to heed off the threat of hypothermia. I kept my urine clear the whole day and only stopped for breaks at the shelters along the way. Just past the North Carolina state line, I saw 2 deer that couldn't have been more than 12 feet away and I locked eyes with one of them for a few seconds before it ran away. Much of the downhill was muddy and slippery. I came close to biting it one time but threw out a pole into the deep mud and was saved.OC-1 was telling me last night how some guys in Vietnam came back from the war with fungus between their toes. There was no way to get it out so the fleshy part between their toes had to be cut out. With regard to my crotch rot problem, I am hoping that the fleshy part between my legs need not be removed as it has important uses :-). It seems to be getting a bit better, I'm wiping the area with baby wipes every evening and spraying Lamisil on and keeping it dry with Gold Bond. It's not too out of control like it was on the FT.I tried to face the gloom of the day with a stoic acceptance, knowing that there will be many more days like this, I'll be stronger for hiking through rain and cold, and I can do it!I saw in the kiosk at the entrance of the Nantahala Wilderness Area a sign that said that there was a bear roaming in the area designated "no fear" and had taken several packs from hikers in the area. I would like to see a bear but am hoping to avoid any violent run-ins!I got to Carter Gap around 4:00 and was considering walking the seven miles more to the next shelter. I probably could have gotten there before dark fell but decided that I should not push myself too far in this miserable weather. There are two shelters at Carter Gap, a newer one and a very old one. The newer one was full so I am staying in the older one which we are calling the third world shelter for its shaky structure and leaky roof. Fellow thru-hikers Tom and Matteo arrived a little while after me and are staying here as well. We've all angled ourselves in a way as to attempt not to get leaked on during the thunderstorm. We'll see how well it works. We spent about a half hour before dark trying to throw a rock over a tree limb to hang our food bags. We kept missing and when finally we got it, the limb couldn't support our bags. That was fun.They are doing something called Trail Fest starting tommorow in the city of Franklin. I don't know what it is, only that all the meals are $5 and AYCE. There are signs for it in all the shelters. Franklin's about 16 miles away and so I hope to get there tomorrow afternoon; I might end up spending the night in a shared motel room since more "nice" weather is supposed to be on the way.It is thundering, lightning, and pouring outside and I hope my night is dry in the third world shelter.
Date: 2005-04-10
From: A. Rufus Morgan Shelter

To: Cable Gap Shelter
Miles today: 22.9
Weather: scattered clouds

I picked up some new chlorine drops to purify my water this morning at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. I'd been there 4 years ago whitewater rafting. I was debating eating at their restaurant but decided to skip it and press on, especially since I learned that Fontana Dam has an AYCE buffet restaurant.The climb out of the NOC was the longest consecutive uphill so far on the trip. It wasn"t so much that the climb was so steep but that it was so long to get up. It was almost 10 miles in which over 80% was uphill. I stopped at the Sassafras Gap shelter for a long time, using the privy, getting water, and then when Hot Flash and her partner showed up, chatting with them. The views were stunning and the weather beautiful all day today.As I continued on up past the shelter and made it down to the road crossing at Stecoah Gap, I became really thirsty. I should have chugged water when I stopped at the shelter before filling my Platypus. There was supposed to be water at Stecoah Gap but I sure couldn't find it. Some hikers up ahead said that you had to go down some dirt road to get to it. The hike up from the gap was extremely steep and my dehydration put me in a really bad mood. I snapped at a hiker on the way up when he told me that the water was "right there" at the gap (I later apologized). Arriving at Brown Fork Gap shelter, I rushed down to the creek to get some water. Two kids were they and as I filled up my bladder bag, we started talking. I assumed they were weekenders and was shocked to find out that they had started March 14th with their mom and were hiking as much as possible north until sometime in August. Their trailnames were Bip & Bop and they were 7 and 11-year old girls. I was impressed. They had taken the spring off from school to hike the AT and their teachers told them that they would learn more on the trail than in school. I feel like I am learning more hiking than I did in school. I ended up hanging out with them for over an hour and was sad to go on.It was after dark when I got to the shelter. Only one person was there, Pied Piper. He is a good guy and we talked for a while. He attempted a thru-hike in 2003 and had to get off because of Haunti Virus of all things. He still stays in the shelters though, mice and all. On this trip, he's been having a knee problem and he's been trying to walk more slowly so as not to do more damage to it. This is hard for him since he's naturally a fast walker.I've been getting so hungry lately and hope to go into Fontana Dam tomorrow and find their AYCE restaurant. More fun ahead.
Date: 2005-04-11
From: Cable Gap Shelter

To: Fontana Dam (village)
Miles today: 5.5
Weather: scattered clouds

The day was short. A clear morning with foreshadowing of a storm ahead. The Fontana Dam is massive and can be seen from above. I was glad to come into the village. With the exception of the poor buffet dinner, I have only good things to say about the Fontana Dam village. They offer a free shuttle into their resort community, encourage you to relax and hang out in the hotel lobby with TV and friendly staff, and invite hikers to swim in their heated pool and shower. I am sure glad I stopped today.Although the food at the buffet tonight was not too tasty, I met some really neat people and that made up for it. I was preparing to eat by myself but when I first got up to get some soup, an old man came up and asked me if I'd like some company. I was happy to sit with him. He is The Wanderer, 70 years old, possibly the oldest thru-hiker on the trail at the moment. The Wanderer also hiked in 2002. Then Three Cats came up, a man in his 50s who sends many postcards to his six year old daughter back home. It was apparent to me that The Wanderer and I had a deep connection from the start. He's a follower of Jungian psychology and so calls moments like this when the universe pulls together "synchronicity". When he heard that I would be stealth camping, he invited me to occupy the second bed in his hotel room and so of course I took him up on it.The Wanderer is a sagacious man. Beyond what he has told me about his life and the lessons he has learned, his eyes tell the story. I get the sense that I have known him for years, since before I can remember actually. I've had this sense with only a handful of other people I've met in my life. These few remind me that I am on a spiritual journey and through all my anger and grief, that I am still here. The Wanderer read me a quote he heard recently, "The journey is my home". He is confident that by the time I reach Katahdin, I will have more of a handle on my suffering and that this trail and nature is all I need. He said he would talk to me any time but the trail itself has more to offer me. It is a blessing to meet The Wanderer and others along my journey.
Date: 2005-04-12
From: Fontana Dam (village)

To: Derrick Knob shelter
Miles today: 23.7
Weather: light rain

This is going to be a short entry since I'm exhausted and it's way past hiker midnight.It was a late start today, I didn't get moving until 11:00. At the Fontana Dam visitor's center, I saw Nathan and Marsha, a couple I met on the Florida Trail. Funny coincidence. It took Marsha a while to remember who I was; I guess the old age is getting to her.It started to rain early on and when I finally got to Mollies Ridge Shelter, The Wanderer et al were already there. I hadn't been sure if I was going to keep going since the rain was so bad but when I saw that The Wanderer, a 70-year old man, was heading out, I vowed to also. This section is one of the few parts of the AT where horses are allowed and there were three horseback riders and four horses at the shelter.I pressed on, hitting the Spence Field shelter. Most everyone I had come from Fontana with was camping there. I have been invited to a night at the home of Dan "Jes Feeblin' Along" Raber, a man I met at the Florida Trail Association conference about a month ago and hope to get picked up tomorrow at 6:00 PM at Newfound Gap. We haven't confirmed this though so it's possible he won't be able to make it. Newfound Gap is a ways away and so, even though late already, I decided to move to the next shelter so there would be less pressure tomorrow.At this point, it appeared that the weather had cleared some and there were even patches of blue sky through the clouds. I can really see why so many people are enchanted by the Smokies. As it grew dark, I watched a faroff lightning storm get closer. Then thunder and lightning crashed down all around as I walked in the blackness of the night. Soon it was upon me and I was under a rain and hail storm in the dark. No fun.Finally arriving at the shelter, of course everyone is asleep, so I quietly got myself together and crashed on the floor. My right leg is starting to bother me and I'm concerned about it.
Date: 2005-04-15
From: Newfound Gap (Asheville, NC)

To: Cosby Knob shelter
Miles today: 23.3
Weather: clear sky

Dan was a sport this morning and gave me a tour of Gatlinburg, his favorite town in the country :-). I had a great time spending time at the Raber house with Dan and his wife Joyce, who has a very amusing personality. They fed me unbelievably well too. When Dan dropped me off at the Newfound Gap parking lot, we ran into Willow and Hawk, two thru-hikers from '03 who are doing a section hike to Damascus this year to see old friends. Hawk has thought about doing the Florida Trail but would be scared of the alligators, he said.I met L.B. at the Ice Spring shelter. He's a little older than me and when I asked him what his trailname stood for, he said "Lost Baggage". I asked him if this was physical baggage or psychological and he said that it had taken on new meaning during the trip and now referred to both. Turns out the airport lost his backpack on the way down to Atlanta. The view from Charlie's Bunion is amazing, especially on this clear, cloudless day. I'm glad I walked the extra 50 feet :-). I met a guy named Justin who was sitting on the rock. He has been following my trailjournal and seemed surprised to meet me when I told him my trailname. I got him to take my picture on the rock for me.I passed Squeaker and Umbledog after this. Squeaker's a fitting name for this girl as she has bandages wrapped on seemingly every joint. She has fallen several times, fracturing her elbow and doing damage to many parts of her body. Speaking of falls, I slipped on a rock and landed hands down in the mud this morning. It could have been worse but it did bend one of my poles even more. I am just waiting for one of them to crack.I saw Sherlock and Circuit Rider at the Tri-Corner Knob shelter when I went to gather water. I met these guys in Fontana Dam village. They have a really good energy about them. They've both hiked the trail several times but they refuse to say how many times because, as Circuit Rider said, "when we compare, it reduces the enjoyment of the experience". Well said.I can't believe I ate my whole bag of peanut butter cups I bought yesterday. I shared them with a few folks I met on the trail today, but still. I ate a lot, but they were so good!I was feeling pretty happy all day today, feeling like I never want to stop hiking.I have finally ordered new shoes. I was trying to get the same ones as I have since they have lasted about 1,500 miles. They don't make my old ones anymore so I am settling with the Merrell Chameleon II Stretch with Vibram outsoles. I'm supposed to pick them up in Erwin a bit over 100 miles away so I am spending my last days on these babies.My leg was feeling alright for most of the day. The day of rest helped. It started to hurt a bit in the afternoon though. If it keeps up, it might mean that I have to do short days for a while, and I'd hate for that to happen...but it would be better than having to get off the trail!
Date: 2005-04-16
From: Cosby Knob shelter

To: Groundhog Creek shelter
Miles today: 17.6
Weather: clear sky

Today was a good day. Lots of socializing and hanging out and less hiking than could be done. But why am I out here anyhow? Growth in lots of ways and fun and this shelter is lots of fun tonight. There's this girl named Slaphappy who's really cool. I got to the shelter at 4:00 and hung out since then, it was just us two at first. I couldn't believe she was 29, she seems a lot younger and is a lot of fun. Well, I'm not going to pink blaze and there are girls everywhere, on or off the AT. Who cares. She keeps talking about the "humming, white dildo" though which is really the FAA beacon tower on top of Snowbird Mountain. So lots of fun people ended up at the shelter: 3 Cats, One Thing, Goatboy, Ironfoot, Pied Piper, Peeps, and Montana. So it's a pahty and I can do the miles into Hot Springs tomorrow. Probably good for my leg too. I'm gonna pick up my Florida Trail End-to-Ender badge on Monday morning at the post office and hopefully I can put it on my pack in Erwin so everyone knows what a good hiker I am. Ha! I might splurge and get a cheeseburger and a beer at the tavern.I found out One Thing has a secret trail name, I won't out him. Ha!Okay, before this turns into something sicker than it needs to be, what did I do today? There was some hiking, clear beautiful skies. The leg's tender but I'm managing alright. Hopefully the pain will just die away magically. Right.I had lunch at the Standing Bear hostel. Really nice owner, Curtis. There was some drunk guy there who seemed to live at the hostel and he was really annoying, butting into everyone's conversations and generally being obnoxious. Not a hiker. We heard a couple owls this evening really close by. Then Ironfoot told us to come on over and to see them. They were flying about. It was pretty neat. I still haven't seen a squirrel monkey or a bear though.I hope to make it to Hot Springs tomorrow if my leg holds up. I hear it's an easy jaunt once you get past Max Patch.
Date: 2005-04-18
To: Little Laurel Shelter
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: few clouds

Oh no! I can't get out! It's pulling me in! I'm talking about Hot Springs of course...the town sucked me in today with a loud belch. I told myself that I would be gone by 9:00, right after the post office opened and I could retrieve my Florida Trail end-to-end patch. I didn't pull myself away until 1:00! I ate breakfast at the diner, got my patch, then of course I had to take a (long) look in the outfitters. What's breakfast without dessert, I wondered, so I bought some candy bars and ice cream and ate it all. Hey, at that point I needed to go to the library for the ever pressing reason of having to surf the web. After all this, gee golly, it was 12:30. When I got down the hill, I saw some hikers at the pub that I knew and why am I here anyway besides to have a trail experience? After chatting with them for 15 minutes, I strolled out of Hot Springs. The mountain coming out of Hot Springs is really nice, a lot of it's the same kind of rock as Charlie's Bunion and you get a nice view of the French Broad River on the way up. I didn't sleep well last night and so got tired very early. I was walking really slowly and had all but settled on spending the night at the first shelter, 10 miles or so out of town. I met these guys, Will and Keith, who are doing a 100 mile section. In their early 20s, they're doing a program called Narrow Gate which integrates outdoor activities with spiritual growth. It sounded really neat and this is their final project before they graduate from the program.I am having some severe monkey butt. Ooga booga!I saw my first snake on the AT today, a 4 foot black snake. I watched it for a while and took a photo when I got close enough.It got into the 80s today, the hottest so far on the AT. The trees near the summits are not blooming yet but many trees well higher than the gaps are in bloom.It was a decision made in action that I hike all the way to the shelter. Since I was so tired, I thought I might just hike a few miles past the first shelter. There wasn't much flat ground, so I kept on going. I passed Quiet Paul's campsite, an older thru-hiker, going down into the gap. He didn't have much nice to say about several other hikers. Hmph. Night started to fall and when I checked my data sheet, I saw that I was only 4-5 miles from the shelter. I seemed to have a second wind and so I headed into the night. It was a half moon and this was enough to guide my path without my headlamp. I could see the trail quite well. As I was walking up to the shelter, I heard voices in front of me. Six to be precise. One of them was Break-a-leg, a hiker I had emailed with a bit before I started my AT hike. I didn't think I'd catch up since she started almost three weeks before me so I was surprised that she was there. She remembered me quickly. I didn't talk long to these folks and couldn't really see them too well.Arriving at the shelter, it was mofo tent city! There were more people here than when I started on Springer. Almost 30 if I had to guess. A few were still awake at 10:00 when I arrived. I quickly set myself up and jumped into my sleeping bag. Yawn.
Date: 2005-04-19
To: Hogback Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 21.5
Weather: 0

Longer than it should have been was today since I have not been getting enough sleep for the past two nights. But it was a good day nonetheless!Dan "Jes' Feebling Along" Raber volunteered to meet me up at Hogback Ridge shelter tonight with strawberry shortcake for everyone at the shelter. I offered the folks at the shelter this morning the strawberry shortcake challenge. Everyone was happy about the prospect of strawberry shortcake but didn't accept the challenge. Only one girl, Hardcore Hiker, said she'd take me up on it...but she ain't here 2nite so...I guess she's not...really...that...hardcore ;-).Dan showed up true to his word and everyone was already eating their strawberry shortcake when I arrived. Delicious! He also made me dinner, what trail magic. Dan told me how to make Ramen noodles cold, so this will be a nice dinner in addition to my cold oatmeal breakfast that I've been doing lately. See, I really can eat real food without a stove.The hike had more hills than planned today and I was beat by mile 15. I heard the clap of thunder in the afternoon and the rain clouds rolled in. Fortunately, it only drizzled and the thunderstorm rolled right by us.Heading up Blackstack Cliffs mid-morning, I passed CycleHiker. In addition to his pack, he carries an 18 pound bike on his back. He biked from Evanston, Illinois to Amicalola Falls and then got on the trail. He's only doing about 10 miles a day but his thing is to get home and back all on his own power. It would be a first if he makes it but more power to him.I passed two clusters of gravestones right by the trail today. The first was for a few Union soldiers and their scout who had been ambushed by Confederate troops. It was noticable that one of the gravestones was new, while the rest appeared at least a hundred years old. I thought this must be because the old one had deteriorated and was replaced but Dan told me it was because the scout, a 13-year old boy, was black and therefore did not originally receive a gravestone. I saw Domino walking up ahead of me when I was about 5 miles out of Hogback Ridge shelter. He lives near the southern terminus of the Florda Trail. We started up a conversation, a really good one actually, as we walked the final miles up the trail. It's good to meet people I can really talk to out here, and there's something about the comradery of the trail that opens us up. When we got to the shelter, he shook my hand and said "Thank you". Apparently, he was having a difficult time and the conversation helped pull him up the mountain. Anyway, his appreciation made me feel really good.I'm glad that Dan and his son Marsh made it up here. There were lots of thru-hikers already here when I arrived and they seemed to appreciate the strawberry shortcake a great deal, as I did the company. We had a fire and hung out for a while, until past hiker midnight.
Date: 2005-04-21
From: Erwin, TN

To: Curley Maple Gap shelter
Miles today: 4.2
Weather: scattered clouds

A short entry for a short day - I think we're calling these neros, as in near zeroes. I been a walkin' hard for 6 days straight so I'm cool to chill a bit.I had a nice view of the Nolichucky River last night under the moonlight. Stealth camping in Erwin. When I got up and walked over to Johnnie's Hostel, Irish was already there from the shelter and was chuckling at me. He bought me lunch at the AYCE pizza place. Real good guy.I went to the post office to see if REI had successfully gotten my new shoes over here and if they would be alright. My old shoes were absolutely falling apart last night as I hiked into town. The insoles came out because of the nasty, smellier than you can believe sweat and dirt mixture and I had to walk directly on the millimeters of worn-out sole. I missed a photo op this morning and forgot to photograph 'em for my journal. My new ones are futuristic looking, I didn't realize this from the photo but they don't even have laces but just an elastic drawstring - hopefully this isn't some gimmick and they don't break after 50 miles. Well, I bought them from REI so I can send them back if I feel like it.It was unbelievably easy to get rides in town today, I got three and each one only took like five minutes. The librarian said, "I hope that's one of the things we do well in Erwin, we know who you guys are and so we hope to make your trip just a little better". A great town with very kind people. One of the guys who gave me a ride in town today took me past his workplace, a nuclear facility. He showed me a hole in the ground where they used to dump nuclear waste befor the EPA regulations came into effect and are now cleaning it up. He mentioned that he was hoping to thru-hike one day. When I got out, I tried to encourage him to do it, telling him what a great experience it has been. He said that he had a lot of demons to face and I responded that the trail is a good place to do it. He said, "Good energy" and drove off. I saw another one of the guys that gave me a ride on the AT later in the day.A lightning storm started up as darkness fell in the shelter...of course it will clear up by tomorrow morning. Right.