morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-10-22
To: Tranform to a hiker
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

10/22:  Going from "civilization" to life on the trail can be a shock to ones daily routines.  Today I woke up from my cozy bed, did he usual morning routines, got a ride to the airport, kissed my wife and baby goodbye and headed to Atlanta.  Blister picked me up, we stopped briefly at his house, and headed north to the Nantahala Outdoor Center aka the NOC.On the way, we stopped by an REI so Blister could pick up an additional water container so we would each have the capacity to carry 6 liters.  Why would we need that much capacity you ask?  Well, it turns out the Smokeys were in a drought, of the likes have not been seen for 50 years.  Anyway, back to easing from civilization to trail life, we arrived at the NOC at around 9:30 pm.  I looked in a wooden box near the general store's door, and sure enough, there was an envelope with my name on it and directions to our room on the "campus" map.  Our room was listed as Tsali 3amd we drove the car up the hill to the rooms.  We walked to the room wondering if there was a bathroom inside.  As we opened the door to Tsali 3, we started laughing out loud. The room was very modest to say the least.  It had two bunks on top of each other with a 2x4 crafted ladder.  There was a mirror, a bench, some hooks on the wall and a few outlets.  It also had a heater/air conditioning unit.   Under normal circumstances, this would get around a half star review in hotels.com.  Under a hiker's view, however, this room had everything one could need.We went up to the common area which was a dining hall with a few picnic tables and a kitchen that had all the pots and pans and utensils that anyone would need.    The bathroom was more like a locker room with showers, toilets and sinks.  I was impressed that it was actually really clean.We retired to Tsali 3 around 10:30 pm and layer on our prison issue like mattresses using our own sleeping bags to sleep in.  The big adventure for 2016 was about to start in the morning.  Since Blister is over 6 feet tall, for some reason we had him take the top bunk.  Let's just say if he had a nightmare and sat straight up, he could quite possibly be concussed by the ceiling of Tsali 3.   The rustic nature of this room was like the "missing link" between civilization and trail life.  It was was the perfect way to gradually turn from Joe Schmo to hiker trash..
Date: 2016-10-30
From: Icewater Springs Shelter

To: Tri-Corner Knob Shelter
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: clear sky

10/30 Day 8: Our goal for the day was to do another short day to Peck¢s Corner Shelter. We broke camp and had a very easy walk towards Charlies Bunyon. We almost had the Bunyon to ourselves. It was great. The views were quite impressive under almost clear skies. You could see for miles. What was equally amazing was how the trail was perched on a cliff that, had you slipped and fallen, would certainly have ended your life. The sign says watch your children and that really can¢t be understated. After some photos and video, we moved on. We got to Dry Sluice Trail in which the sign said 4.2 miles to Peck Corner Shelter. Somewhere along the way, we got confirmation that Pecks was dry with no water. This damaged our spirits a bit. We had such good luck with water the last couple days, we were not looking forward to another dry night. We were conserving our water on the way to Pecks and I was having the argument in my head over and over¢¦do we stay at Pecks or move on to Tri-Corner Knob shelter where we knew there was water? Short day vs. a longer day. Well, by the time we got to the 1/2 mile trail that leads to Pecks, I was really dejected. It seemed to take forever to cover the 4.2 miles from that last sign. I had never really pulled out my AWOL guide, but apparently the signs was a bit off. We actually covered 6 miles since the sign, and 7.4 miles for the day, all by lunch. Knowing that, we sat down and made the decision to eat lunch, drink our water normally, and push on to Tri-Corner Knob shelter. The afternoon was filled with beautiful views from the sides of the mountains we were climbing. It seemed in the northern Smokeys the trails skirted the mountaintops in lieu of going over the top of them like further south.Dusk was upon us when we arrived at the shelter, but we felt we really made the right decision. While we had three pretty good afternoon climbs, we were able to stay well hydrated and knew there was water at the end. When we got to the shelter we met Red Cap and Lumberjack. Red Cap was a free spirit who worked in computer graphics and travelled all around the world, working when she needed to as a free lance to make money. She was a LASH¢er (Long Ass Section Hiker) who started north and was doing around 500 miles. Lumberjack was a funny dude who had opinions about many of the other thru hikers we came across. Both seemed like really cool people. Blister fixed the spring pipe and we all had flowing water to fill our needs. Hiker midnight once again came and I went deep in slumber in my hammock that was perched on a hillside. When I say deep in slumber, I can¢t really say I mean ¢deep.¢ I was still trying to perfect the hammock thing and actually was not getting great sleep. I was working on it, however.
Date: 2016-10-31
From: Tri-Corner Knob Shelter

To: Cosby Knob Shelter
Miles today: 7.7
Weather: clear sky

10/31 Day 9: Happy Halloween! Since I was wearing a bright yellow shirt I was going to be Pikachu. Blister was wearing an orange shirt, so we agreed he was dressed as a road cone.   We awoke around 7:30 which is when the first light starts to brighten the dark woods. We had some nice breakfast conversation with Red Cap and Lumberjack. Lumberjack decided to pack out some other people¢s trash that was left in the fireplace. Who leaves their trash? Honestly? Anyway, he needed a trash bag so I gave him a ziplock that had a Snickers in it. He was like, ¢You know there is a snickers in here, don¢t you? I said yes, and happy halloween. With through hiker hunger, he was probably very happy to have that snickers.It was a pretty uneventful day hiking towards Cosby Knob shelter. We passed a lot of mossy covered forest and some good springs on the trail. Most of the day was a downhill walk losing much of the elevation we had gained during the first half of the trip. While coming down the hill, we passed remnants of the old plane crash site. Apparently in 1984 an F4 military plane crashed there which is what we thought because some of the metal was painted green.We got to the shelter pretty early in the day which gave us time to find a good spot to hang, wash up a bit, eat, and just relax. I went through my food bag and set up my stuff for the next day, to even include my water. Later in the evening a thru hiker named ¢Profit¢ (he said he was the real profit) came into the shelter area. I gave him all the water information which he took notes on. He then set up his tent and never really came around us again. He was nice, but I guess just looking to be alone. He did have some strong opinions on some other thru-hikers we had met, almost getting mad that they were calling themselves thru-hikes because of all the ¢yellow blazing and hotel rooms they had been staying in.¢ He seemed a little bitter about that but then ended it up with ¢well, hike your own hike I guess.¢ That is the trail equivalent of a saying that I use in daily life when I can¢t explain peoples actions and I don¢t want it to wear on me. I use what my mother always says, ¢Everybody is different.¢ A short time later, a young 21 year old kid named Johnathan who was from Pennsylvania showed up. He was a bit of a free spirit too, preferring to hike about in lieu of finishing his marketing degree. We had some nice conversation. He asked me if I smoked to which I replied no. As we went into our hammocks for the night, I think Johnathan and Prophet were toking up some herb over at Prophet¢s camp site. They seemed to stay up way later than most hikers who had just climbed 3000 feet.
Date: 2016-11-07
To: Its Over Johnny
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

11/2 Post Hike Day 1: Sometime around 6 am, I heard a rooster crowing at the hostel. It was still a couple hours from daylight, so I am not sure why he started so early. Eventually I heard people starting to stir and I walked over to the common area. I gave Grizzly my last summer sausage stick that he ate on the spot. One by one, we saw the hikers depart to continue on with their hikes. Stumbledwarf was going to catch a ride into Gatlinburg to take care of some visa issues he was having so he could finish his hike. We settled up our tabs with Clark and talked politics around the morning non burning fire pit. Around 9:30 am, our ride Ronnie McGaha arrived and we said goodbye to anyone that was left. As Ronnie drove us, he told us about the various parts of the country he has visited, hiked in and some of the volunteer work he had done in the Smokys. It was very clear that he cared deeply for this trail and the park. We took his business card for future use and he took a photo of us once we reached the NOC. All that was left was for us to travel via Blister¢s car to Atlanta. We ate lunch at the NOC, hit the road and made it back to Atlanta mid afternoon. All in all, while this trip was tough due to water conditions, it was another successful trip on the Appalachian Trail. I thought the Smokeys were beautiful. We didn¢t see a bear, but saw lots of squirrels, chipmunks, deer, birds and wild turkeys. Hopefully I will be back on the AT sometime in the future. I would love to get my wife into backpacking, but those chances are between slim and none. Happy hiking to everyone and thanks for reading my wordy journal.¢Turk
Date: 2015-12-30
To: 'Once More Unto the Breech, Dear Friends!'
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Seems like the deed will be started anew. A year and a half ago (or so) one trail ended. Two operations ago (one involving adding a great deal of stainless steel to a foot of mine) it does seem reasonable to start the next trail on the Holy Bucket List. Come March, or April, or May (the starting date is floating a bit) I will begin my first ever immersion experience on the east side of this continent.My only real dilemma is whether or not to replace my decade old sleeping bag.
Date: 2015-12-31
To: 'Are we there yet?'
Miles today: 0.0

Being a west coast boy (Anchorage to Visalia, CA) I know little about the east. I have visited: three weeks in NJ for pharma training one year, a week long sales conference in Miami and a week in Anniston, GA for WMD (yes, that deadly scenario) for the hospital. Heck, my family got here from Norway AFTER the Civil War so we missed that also. I here it is more crowded and more social than my five thousand miles on the PCT. We shall see!
Date: 2015-12-31
To: 'Fill the gap?!!?' You have got to be kidding
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

My son works in DC and we intend to meet to attend the Gettysburg re-enactment come July 4th weekend.   That should be fun. Oh, my sister has pointed out that we had a great, great aunt from my father's side who was in Harper's Ferry during the Civil War.   I shall try and look up relatives when I pass through.
Date: 2016-02-08
To: On training
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light snow

"There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path." Morpheous c.1999. Here is what I believe to be true. You cannot train for a ultimate-month extreme sport. There is no end point where you can stop your sweating and announce: "I am ready!". What you can do is find a point on the continuum of training where you are ready to launch for a two week entrance to the trail. After two weeks of not using some muscles they will atrophy. This occurs when you place a patient in an ICU bed or for an astronaut in space. Muscle wastes away with a lack of use. The muscles you do use for two weeks will grow and strengthen assuming you keep your calories and protein intake up and you do not abuse yourself and kill muscles cells by asking too much of yourself. So, train to survive the first two weeks. At the end of 14 days if you have succeeded you will know. You will know.Oh, I am also listening to Aaron Copeland's Appalachian Spring Suite.
Date: 2016-05-30
To: A Date is set!
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Yes, the ticket is bought. The pack is on the couch being repacked. Friends and family are informed. The foot with a pound of metal in it is doing well. Time to hike!Flying to DC on June 13th (a red eye from Victoria, BC), a few days with my No. 1 Son and then a train to Harper's Ferry where on June 16th I will start north. Whither then?   I cannot say!For training I have have been reading, listening to Copland's 'Appalachian Spring Suite' and watching 'Last of the Mohicans' with Daniel Day Lewis.I found this magic staff in a newspaper ad in Victoria. As far as I can tell it seems to be a low powered taser like device at the top end of a hiking staff.   Hmm, maybe if I had a flash-light to it I can pretend to be Gandalf and chase off both Orcs and the darkness from the Trail.
Date: 2016-07-02
From: Hamburg, PA

To: Mile 1232
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Okay, two weeks it has been on the Trail. It has had its ups and downs most really and metaphorically .First, a week in I suffered enough to head into hospital with a Small Bowel Obstruction that (thankfully) resolved with gut rest. Sigh, the burden of having IBD for 42 years.Thanks to Freckles at the AT museum for her TM assistance!The train from DC to Harper's Ferry was fun. The hostel was a treat and the town pleasant. Then the Trail and this odd phenomenon of humidity. At one point the Dew Point was 0 a.dthetemp was 80. I sweated like a horse in a race. Ugh.I passed through my first down pour and did not melt. A few tiny toe blisters and that is about all.I am at the front of the Thru Hiker bubble and their culture and 'teams' are well bonded. Coming in mid trail I am a bit of an outsider. I will establish my credentials with time and miles.
Date: 2016-07-02
From: Hamburg, PA

To: Mile 1232
Miles today: 0.0

Okay, two weeks it has been on the Trail. It has had its ups and downs most really and metaphorically .First, a week in I suffered enough to head into hospital with a Small Bowel Obstruction that (thankfully) resolved with gut rest. Sigh, the burden of having IBD for 42 years.Thanks to Freckles at the AT museum for her TM assistance!The train from DC to Harper's Ferry was fun. The hostel was a treat and the town pleasant. Then the Trail and this odd phenomenon of humidity. At one point the Dew Point was 0 a.dthetemp was 80. I sweated like a horse in a race. Ugh.I passed through my first down pour and did not melt. A few tiny toe blisters and that is about all.I am at the front of the Thru Hiker bubble and their culture and 'teams' are well bonded. Coming in mid trail I am a bit of an outsider. I will establish my credentials with time and miles.
Date: 2016-07-10
From: Mile 1232

To: 1356
Miles today: 0.0

Sunday-at the hostel in the very friendly town Vernon, NJ.The floor space was full of Hiker Trash last night. A night of heavy rain yesterday brought many of us to town to dry out and rest. Today is sunny (following another night of rain) and relatively cool in the am.A couple of good meals and I will do a half day.Birds of note: a blue finch and a red cardinal. Birds I do not see on the west coast.Met Pirate, whose head lamp I had found a shelter weeks ago and carried forward for him. I mailed it off to him from Duncannon a week ago and he was happy to be united with it. Trail Magic-Hiker to Hiker.Out of Pennsylvania and the trail is more refined, shall I say. I do believe that the trail teams of Pennsylvania choose, quite actively NOT to provide a tread that does not require ankle twisting rocks.   Cursing and scrambling through the state I would often note an old and abandoned back country road that did not have a rocky tread. I would observe that it is possible to build a trail to a good trail IF one chooses to do so. Flitting in and out of NY-NJ on this section. The trail follows the border between the states. The ground is wet and it tends to be a bit buggy. No big deal.
Date: 2017-05-26
From: A Date is set!

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Okay, listen up you east coast liberal arts majors.Henry David Thoreau did not invent thru hiking in 1800; Geoffrey Chaucer did in 1386:¢Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,And bathed every veyne in swich licour Of which vertu engendred is the flour; And smale fowles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open ye (So priketh hem nature in hir corages), Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages.¢And so it is that I too choose to go on a pilgrims journey.I will be flying into Albany, NY in mid July and hike north from there.  I had hoped to start earlier and beat some of the humidity but life does happen.  I have purchased a pair of expensive Nike shorts which are supposed to be the cat's meow for chafing.  I really don't like humidity, especially between ones' thighs.
Date: 2017-07-27
From: Yellow Deli in Rutland, VT

To: 10 miles or so
Miles today: 0.0

Back on the Trail!  A quick flight up from Dulles to Albany.  Dinner with Vern Tejas (the climber I first met on Denali in 1986) and then a bus ride to Manchester and a night at the great Green Mtn. hostel.The train is muddy and the skies are gray.  Fill, I mean full of hikers.  SOBO meets NOBO!  Keeping mileage under 15 per day to acclimatize.
Date: 2022-07-02
From: Pinkham Notch Mile 1869.7

To: Pinkham Notch
Miles today: 0.0

Well after a five year hiatus I have returned to the trail at the same place I got off five years ago with a sore ankle. As part of my hiking tradition when I reached the trail head I move my wrist watch my left wrist my right wrist. I found over the years that putting my left arm first in my pack cans to pull wrist watches off my wrist. It doesn¢t happen so much with the wrist watch on my right wrist. Spent the evening in Toronto with hiking friends Magellan and And. Turtle. Had not seen them since 2012 I think it is. Good friends good memories are made on the trail.
Date: 2022-07-05
From: Pinkham Notch Mile 1869.7

To: Gotham,NH mile 1890..8
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: light rain

well, I picked up the trail at Pinkham Notch. A room at the AMC lodge was $200.  I passed.  I went across the road and did a throw camp by the Ledges.  The first day to Carter Dome was naught but brutal.  Class III-IV over the Terrible Twenty Five¢ slabs.  Ah, the locals love to scare the tourists.The AMC hut at Carter Notch hut was $100 for a bunk.  The only thing they do not charge for is water.  I pushed on to Carter Dome we¢re I ran into Spills and Mass Hole who remembered me from the PCT in 2014.  We really are a Village!The ne t day on the shelter at Rattle River where I reunited with Moonshine and Hillbilly from W. Virginia.  This morning on to the village of Gotham.  Hikers will be pleased to that Paul and his white Cadillac are running the hostel as they have for 12 years.
Date: 2015-01-19
To: 413 Days!
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

I guess it's about time to put this out on the World Wide Web to make it "internet official"...I'm going to attempt a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail!I've set a fairly arbitrary start date of March 7, 2016, and I'll finish when I'm done. 413 days might seem like an awful lot of time, but golly it's coming fast! There will be more technical posts in the future, but this will serve as a basic introduction to my hike.I think the big question that most aspiring thru hikers get is "Why?" I think this is also the most hated question from a hiker's perspective. There's no simple answer. If you get it, you get it. If you don't, you probably never will. There are a lot of responses that might be true: self discovery, personal challenge, a love of the outdoors, a disdain for society, transition, general dissatisfaction with one's current situation, etc. Some of these apply to me, some do not. But the answer to this overly simplified question is not in this list. The answer, for me at least, is that it's just meant to be.I am fortunate to have a whole heap of support. My family and friends are behind me 100%. Even those who do not understand it still have my back and respect what I am doing.I've made a lot of gear decisions recently, and I have a few more to make. The biggest hurdle for me right now is getting my daily life in order, or rather doing away with my daily life. I hope to liquidate most of my material life over the next year and that will be quite an undertaking. One thing that I am kicking off right now that I'm super excited about is making this hike about more than just myself. Don't get me wrong, I'm hiking the trail for myself, but I want to do some good while I'm at it. I am collecting per-mile pledges for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Pledges are accepted through HikeFor. The page for my hike is http://www.hikefor.com/Spice/AT/2016. The way it works is you make a per-mile pledge through the site, HikeFor tracks my progress, and when I complete my hike they will send you a reminder about the pledged donation to be sent to St. Jude's. The money does not go through me or through HikeFor, 100% of it goes to the cause. So go have a look and make a pledge if you can, even a penny a mile is awesome! I'm totally stoked!
Date: 2015-01-25
To: Gear Info
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I have started to create my gear list. Click the link on the left (the one to do with gear) to see what I'm planning to bring. I've included the MSRP on these items, NOT the price I paid for them. I have been able to get a fair bit of stuff on sale or using one of my awesome REI member discount coupons! Of the items that I have listed at this time, I still need to purchase the Sawyer Squeeze and the Pinnacle Soloist Cookset. I've also added a video of a previous backpacking trip just for fun. :-)
Date: 2015-01-25
To: Pledge for St Jude
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

And don't forget to pledge for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital! This is a cause that is dear to my heart. Fulfillment of pledges is not expected until after my hike, so sometime around September 2016. Register and pledge through HikeFor.com. They will track my progress and send you a reminder email when I finish my hike. My pledge page is here: http://www.hikefor.com/Spice/AT/2016Thanks!