morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2007-04-24
From: Tri-Corner Knob Shelter

To: Davenport Gap Shelter
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: broken clouds

Everyone left the shelter early this morning with a sense of urgency, or was it a sense of smell for pizza at Standing Bear Hostel? The day began with a stiff climb up Mt Guyot, another 6'300'+ mountain and one of our last 6,000 footers until New Hampshire. The morning was foggy and cool and felt like it could rain at any momment, though never did. It was wonderful walking through the spruce-fir forest as clouds of fog rolled through, reducing visibility to meer feet at times.I ate lunch 7.7 miles later at Cosby Knob Shelter along with half a dozen other thru-hikers. From the shelter it was another 2.8 miles of mostly uphill grade to the side trail to the Mt Cammerer fire lookout.The Mt Cammerer fire lookout was built in 1937 by the CCC and offers one of the best views in the Smokies. It is a 2-story building on a stone base tht looks very similar to the Chimney Rock lookout on the San Juan NF. There was a small fire burning nearby low on the slope below the lookout and a helicopter was busy dropping water on it. So, we actually saw a fire from the fire lookout!I walked the remainder of the afternoon with Hurdy Gurdy Man down the long hill to Davenport Gap Shelter. We dropped 2,400 feet in 4.3 miles and walked back into spring again. The shelter was basically full with about 15 people so I tented beside it and kept my streak alive (I haven't slept inside a shelter yet in 230 miles of hiking).The past five days of hiking in the high elevation spruce-fir forest has been wonderful! The smell of the forest, the thick carpets of deep green moss covering fallen logs, the songs of Winter Wrens and Golden-crowned Kinglets and Brown Creepers, the fog swirling thru the spruce trees, and the spectacular views have made this 75-mile stretch thru the Park a favorite for me. The requirement for all hikers to stay only at shelters has crammed lots of people into overcrowded shelters, but the weather and scenery have been superb! Tomorrow I go to Standing Bear Hostel for a few supplies, then onward to Hot Springs.
Date: 2007-04-25
From: Davenport Gap Shelter

To: Groundhog Creek Shelter
Miles today: 10.5
Weather: overcast clouds

I left the shelter at 8.00 and was the last one to leave. Everyone was in a hurry to get to Standing Bear Hostel. It was all downhill to the bridge over the Pigeon River, which appeared to be quite low. After crossing the river we passed under I40 where hundreds of Cliff Swallows were building nests on the bridge abutments. By 9.45 I had arrived at the hostel.The Standing Bear Hostel is run by Curtis Owen, a former thru-hiker, not as a primary business but more as a service to hikers. He told us he has about 1,200 hikers stop by each year. It consists of a complex of 4-5 small bildings clustered along and in one case over a small creek that flows thru the property. A bunkhouse has space for about 14, another cabin is built spanning the small creek and has space for 6 more. There is also a kitchen building, a laundry and internet building and a small camp store building. Everything is on the honor system, write down what you take from the store on an envelope and put enough cash in the envelope to cover your bill, then place the envelope in the drop box. I spent $25 on food for 3 days, a shower, laundry and food for lunch. When I arrived the place was packed with thru-hikers coming out of the Smokies and heading north.Alpine Strider and I left the hostel and headed up the trail about 2.00 on a hot and humid afternoon. My thermometer showed 91 degrees; my fresh shower didn't last long in the humidity. We finally made it to the top of Snowbird Mt by about 5.15 after climbing over 2,800 feet along 5 miles of trail. We then immediately dropped 1,400 feet back down again to the next shelter. The view from the top of Snowbird Mt was excellent because the top of the mt was kept free of trees for the FAA tower. To the west, there was a great view back to the higher peaks of the Smokies that we had just crossed. To the east, we could see a string of higher peaks, some of which appeared to be balds, stretching off to the horizon. Which ones will we be walking across tomorrow?We arrived at the Groundhog Creek Shelter about 7.00 and barely finished dinner before dark. Just after everyone had turned in for the night a tree came crashing down very close to the shelter and to where several of us were tenting. It was a little unsettling, but a part of life in the outdoors I guess.Northward to Hot Springs, and we cross Max Patch tomorrow!
Date: 2007-04-27
From: Garenflo Gap Campsite

To: Hot Springs
Miles today: 6.6
Weather: light rain

It rained quite a bit over night and soaked our tents and pack covers so we packed wet tents and gear in the morning. We were on the trail by 8.00 having skipped breakfast due to lack of water. Alpine Strider's UV water treatment system broke down nearly 2 weeks ago and the pump seal on my Sweetwater filter failed yesterday so the 2 liters I was able to get thru my pump was all the water we had to share for dinner last night and this morning and had to last until the next shelter. My pump will clearly need to be repaired or replaced at the outfitter in Hot Springs today.It was a relatively gentle hike to the Deer Park Mt Shelter, then steeply down to Hot Springs and the crossing of the French Broad River. We got in to town about 11.00 and were walking down Main St headed for Bluff Mt Outfitters when Dad and Mom drove by and spotted us! Neither of us expected the other to be in town until late afternoon so it was a surprise to both of us. So, we went back to the Duckett House B&B where they had reservations. I was able to get a room in the house and Alpine got a bed in the bunkhouse.I spent a while setting up my tent in the yard and hanging my rain wear and other gear to dry then headed back to the outfitter to pick up my mail drop box. My box was there and I bought a new pair of short gaiters, another small food bag, and an Alcohol stove. They checked my water filter pump and told me what I thought they would say; my water pump was a sealed unit that could not be repaired and would need to be replaced. However, this was a well known problem for this filter and MSR had sent them a supply of new pumps for just this purpose so they simply gave me a new one for free! Back in Business! They also told me that the MiniWorks filter, although being 5 oz heavier, was known to be much more dependable than the Sweetwater. So I immediately called Brenda and asked her to mail the new MiniWorks I had sitting in my closet at home to me at Damascus where I'll be in about 2 weeks.With that, I went back to the Duckett House and did laundry, unpacked all the rest of my gear, and looked at my schedule for the next trail segment to Erwin, TN to figure out what food supplies I'd need to buy. I also asked about Library computer access to upload photos to my Journal from the past week. Unfortunately the Library was only open for a few hours this afternoon then it would be closed for the remainder of the weekend so I had no chance to upload photos during this town stop and it will take me another week to get to Erwin.Oh well - it's HikerFest this weekend in Hot Springs!
Date: 2007-04-28
From: Hot Springs

To: Hot Springs
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I took a Zero day today and did not hike any miles on the AT, that is except back and forth to several stores on Main Street. Main St in Hot Springs IS the AT. After breakfast Dad drove me to Ashville where I was able to use a computer at the library for 1 hour and 20 minutes (they would not give me even 1 minute more time!) to upload digital photos to my web journal. Ashville was about an hours drive from Hot Springs but it was good to get caught up with uploading photos from the Smokies to my journal. On the way back to Hot Springs we stopped at an Ingles supermarket and I did all my food shopping for my next 6 day segment to Erwin. This was really good because there is only one small market in Hot Springs and the slug of hikers in town for HikerFest has cleaned it out of most hiker foods. It will be nice to have my usual hiker foods during this next stretch when a number of other hiker friends were complaining that they were going to have to eat nothing but crackers for the next week!
Date: 2007-04-29
From: Hot Springs

To: Hot Springs
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I took another Zero day today. It was a beautiful warm blue sky day so Dad, Mom and I drove back to the Max Patch road and walked to the top of the mountain. It was a very busy place on a warm Sunday afternoon. We had clear skies and great views back to the Smokies and the ridges I had been walking the previous week. It was nice to walk without a pack and fun to drive the backroads of NC and see rural life in areas close to the trail but which we never see from the trail.Another nice day in spite of no new miles on the AT.
Date: 2007-04-30
From: Hot Springs

To: Spring Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: clear sky

I said goodbye to Mom and Dad and was northbound on the AT once again by 10.30. It was great to have had 2 and a half days off to rest my sore feet, but it was time to be moving northward again. I had a great visit with my folks who had driven most of 3 days to NC to come visit me from VT. Hopefully we'll meet up again in central VA in about 6 weeks.Today was basically an uphill day, quite steeply on leaving the French Broad River, but then more rolling and gradual climbs for the rest of the day. Overall it was an 11 mile climb of 2,300 feet. While stopped for a brief rest in Pump Gap I got great looks at a Red-bellied Woodpecker foraging on oak and hemlock snags.The climb from Tanyard Gap up to the Rich Mt Fire Tower was continual and hot in the early afternoon. At one point I stopped to fill my water bladder and had 2 Black and White Warblers foraging on tree trunks within 3 feet for several minutes.The views from the Rich Mt Fire Tower were excellent under clear skies with good visibility but I did not recognize any peaks in any direction. I stayed about 45 minutes on the wide balcony that wraps around the top of the large tower hut. From Rich Mt it was steeply down to Hurricane Pass, then back up again to Spring Mt. This seemed to me to be the Energizer mountain, it just kept going and going, up and up. When I arrived at the Spring Mtn Shelter I tented with Hurdy Gurdy Man and Bird Star whom I hadn't seen since before arriving in Hot Springs. At the shelter spring I began to filter water for the evening and my brand new pump failed completely! Now I'm without any water treatment options until at least Erwin, TN which is almost a week away. This new pump O-ring didn't last even a full day! It worked fine in the store and at the hotel, just long enough to get me back out on the trail again and far enough to be unable to go back to replace it. Oh Well; I just hope that most water sources are springs rather than creeks.In spite of my water filter irritations, it's good to be back on the trail again.
Date: 2007-05-01
From: Spring Mountain Shelter

To: Jerry Cabin Shelter 
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: scattered clouds

The day started at 8.15 with a long and continual downhil to Allen Gap. Either I missed the spring along the way or it was dry. This lack of rain has made walking nice but many of the springs we have seen recently appear weak and could dry up quickly. The heat that has come with these clear skies has also been difficult. I came prepared for snow, wind, cold and rain during this early going, but I had not anticipated this high heat.About 200 yards east of the trail is an abandoned gas station with a pipe tied to a tree spouting water that comes from a spring a ways uphill. The timing was perfect! I spent nearly an hour at the spring with Hurdy Gurdy Man and filled every water container I had before heading up the stiff climb to Camp Creek Bald.I arrived at Little Laurel Shelter and took a nearly 3 hour siesta from the 86 degree heat, along with 9 other hikers. We were all waiting for cooler temps to continue the climb. I was anticipating good views from the firetower on the summit. It was a steep and continual climb up to the shoulder of the mountain where you could see the tower clse above, but somehow I missed the side trail to it. I found out later that everyone else who was looking for it also missed it, so I didn't feel quite such an idiot.The 2 mile stretch from Bearwallow Gap to Lick Log Gap turned out to be difficult but a fascinating rock-hop along the crest of a narrow hogback ridge. There were great views off both sides of the ridge at almost every turn of the trail and off each rock outcrop. For a while I thought I'd been picked up and dropped on a stretch of ridgeline trail somewhere in NH. Much of this trail was along the spine of a layer of white rocks tipped up on end so I was constantly hopping from the edge of one outcrop to the next or moving from one rock staircase to the next.The ridgeline was quite exposed and Ravens and Turkey Vultures were a constant part of the views, with an occasional Winter Wren song drifting up from the steep slopes below. Peregrines must also be nesting on the cliffs below because I saw several signs warning of areas closed to hiking.Huedy Gurdy Man and Bird Star had had enough of the heat and decided to wait out the day at Little Laurel Shelter then night hike this same section. I thought about hiking this ridgeline section by headlamp and decided that I would have missed the great views and was glad to have done it during daylight in spite of the heat.I'd finished the rock section about 7.15 and walked the remaining 2 miles to the shelter by 8.00, getting in just before dark. I found that my feet were more tired than the day's mileage suggested they should be. But all in all, another fine day full of surprises on the AT
Date: 2007-05-03
From: Sam's Gap Spring Campsite

To: No Business Knob Shelter
Miles today: 16.9
Weather: overcast clouds

I got moving about 6.00 and had breakfast with Further and his dog. Further is a retired teacher who taught nutrition at a culinary school in western PA. His dog is a typical happy friendly Lab who just wants her belly rubbed. She appears to be still favoring her left rear leg after a fall going down Blood Mt several weeks ago. But she carries her own pack and seems to love going up the trail.It was a nearly continual climb to the top of Big Bald, some 5.2 miles away. Just after Low Gap a trail angel had left a large tupperware container beside the trail with hard boiled eggs and graham crackers along with a large thermos of hot coffee and about 5 gallon jugs of water! Trail magic ia always such a surprise!I went over the top of Big Bald but couldn't see much because of the thick smoke and haze in the air. I'd been smelling smoke ever since I woke up this AM and visibility was poor. No news about where the fire is but I am guessing it is a ways away and fairly large in size. This was a true bald in the fact that it was open meadow on top and most of the way over to Little Bald. Apparently a rather crazy dairy farmer from New England lived on top of the mt for many years and kept it open for grazing cows. At Big Stamp I got my first looks at singing male Chestnut-sided Warblers and Vesper Sparrows. I ate lunch at Bald Mt Shelter with Hurdy Gurdy Man who said his night hike over the rock ridge was tough but pretty neat with all the lights below and a large full moon above. He was intending, like me, to walk another 10.6 miles to the next shelter tonight but I didn't see him again until 3 days later in Erwin. He said he just faded out and camped at a gap along the way.It ended up raining on me most of the rest of the afternoon, often hard at times, with a number of rounds of close lightning. I arrived at the shelter soaked thru and glad not to have to pitch my dry tent in the rain because there was 1 spot left in the shelter. I decided later that I really preferred sleeping in my tent in spite of the rain because I slept better and had more room to myself. This was the first night i'd spent inside a shelter during my trip so far.
Date: 2007-05-04
From: No Business Knob Shelter

To: Erwin, TN
Miles today: 6.3
Weather: light rain

I left the shelter, again in the rain, and began the final six+ miles down to the famous trail town of Erwin, TN. It was a generally mellow series of gradual downhill and short uphills, then a brief series of switchbacks down into the Nolichucky River canyon. Going down the final switchbacks I saw my first Mt Laurel in bloom! The showy white flowers will be spectacular when in full bloom.I had hoped to stay at Miss Janet's legendary hiker hostel but by the end of the day Miss Janet's turned out to be full so I ended up in a room at the Super 8 motel in the center of town. Uncle Johnny's hostel at the river crossing had plenty of room but at nearly 5 miles from town was not nearly as convenient.I was not able to find a shuttle in to town from Johnny's but was able to hitch a ride with only walking about 1 mile of the way, and was delivered at Miss Janet's who told me to make myself at home and wait to see if anyone left and a bunk might come open. So, I took a shower, did my laundry, hung a bunch of gear up to dry on the lines in the back yard and managed to get a bit of journaling done amid the chaos of the house.I was really wanted a ride to an outfitter in Johnson City, about 13 miles away, who had told me they might be able to replace my filter pump for me, but for many reasons it never happened and I had to leave in early evening to find a room. So I walked the mile over to the hotel and got a room for the night.Just as I was leaving to walk to dinner Tree Work and hia dad showed up and his dad ferried us plus another hiker I had not met before to a Food Lion a few miles away where I resupplied for the next 80 mile stretch.It turned out to be a late dinner at the McDonalds next door, but a fairly productive day in the end.
Date: 2007-05-05
From: Erwin, TN

To: Erwin, TN
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

I ended up taking a zero day today and spent another night at the Super 8. First thing in the morning I put together a bounce box of stuff from my pack that I hoped I wouldn't need for the next 10 days and mailed it to myself at the outfitter in Damascus. I think this reduced my pack's base weight by about 4-5 pounds, weight my feet won't have to carry for the next 10 days. My new alcohol stove seems to be working well so I mailed my Simmerlite and fuel bottle, as well as my bivy sack, my winter jacket, thermal pants, spare thermal shirt, and the MSR Sweetwater filter that failed me for the third time. No sense in carrying a filter that you can't count on to work and I can't get parts for. The outfitter in Damascus has the replacement pump I need and I think I'll replace it again, then send it home for good.One of the reasons I stayed another day in Erwin was to find some sort of alternative to my failed water filter. I did not want to have to walk the 100 miles to Damascus without any water treatment capability. So, after mailing my bounce box I went over to Miss Janet's to see if she was going to the outfitter in Johnson City today (which I understood she often did). After a few hours of waiting on various things to settle out it turned out she wasn't going. However, she ended up ferrying a bunch of hikers around Erwin and in the process went by Uncle Johnny's where I was able to buy a packet of Aqua Mira, so my biggest problem is hopefully solved for this next leg to Damascus.This was a good day to zero because it rained most of the day, and my feet still ache pretty much constantly. I also seem to have developed a few new blisters from the wet boots during the 2 days of rain walking. A day mostly off my poor dogs, or at least a day they don't have to carry a pack, will do them good.Tomorrow I head north again, with a slightly lighter pack and the famous Kincora Hostel as my next destination.
Date: 2007-05-06
From: Erwin, TN

To: Deep Gap Campsite
Miles today: 12.1

I always enjoy the AT trail towns, but I always enjoy leaving them and getting back on the trail. I got a ride from Miss Janet back to the trailhead and was heading north again by 11.00. The other 7 hikers in her van were all heading out for various slackpacking trips. Slackpacking is being dropped in the morning at a gap and hiking with only a light day pack then being picked up at the other end of the section and being ferried back to town for the evening. I haven't slacked yet and am not really interested in it because it seems a bit like cheating, although as long as you hike every mile maybe it really doesn't matter how much weight you carry along the way. For me though it just seems a little too much like cheating the trail.I paralleled the Nolichucky River for over a mile before climbing the hillside and heading east onto the ridges. The long coal trains that run along the river canyon pass nearly every hour and are a dominant sound in this narrow valley. After leaving the river the trail followed upstream along a very pretty little creek that seemed just perfect for fly fishing and small trout. I never saw any fish in it but was wishing I had a rod to give it a try. Just before arriving at the Curley Maple Gap Shelter I scared a toad out of the trail and got some toad-level photos of him amoung the Rhododendron leaves.After a quick lunch at the shelter I pressed on towards Beauty Spot. At Indian Grave Gap I passed out of spring and back into winter again as the trees had no leaves out yet. The climb up to the open summit of Beauty Spot from the gap was a continual rise of 1,100 feet over 2.3 miles; not too tough but enough to get your attention. The summit of Beauty Spot is open and grassy and appears to be artificially created and maintained, not really a true bald. The views are great however and extend for miles in three directions. A couple was there enjoying the view having parked at a nearby trailhead and walked the 200 yards to the summit.It was rather windy on the summit of Beauty Spot and the skies to the northeast looked ominous so I decided not to camp there but pushed on towards a campsite with a spring in the nearby gap. Unfortunately I missed the campsite and the spring and ended up another 1.5 miles further down the trail than I intended. But, while walking down through the open meadows off the summit I heard a new bird for the trip, a Bobwhite quail was singing from a nearby slope!The views were dominated by Unaka Mt looming high above me just up the trail to the east will be the first task of the day tomorrow and is an impressive sight. This already looks to be one of the coolest nights we have had in several weeks with the temp at dark in the high 30's. And I just mailed most of my cold weather wear ahead to myself in Damascus! It just didn't seem necessary to continue carrying them with high temps in the 80's most days. Oh Well!