morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-08-08
From: Carlo Col Shelter

To: Grafton Notch Stealth Spot
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: clear sky

Everyone was gone by the time we were even awake except a nice German flipflopper named Spacious. Verge and I discovered our new favorite oatmeal: raspberries, chia, raisins, and dates. The dates and raspberries really made it. It has to be hot to be perfect though. Yum! So much yum! Perfect breakfast. We got going by 8:30ish, and then we ran into Farmer! We first met Farmer on our second day into the trail so it's really cool to be seeing him now in Maine, the end of the trail. The day started rough and windy, but at least it was sunny. The wind was so strong it was blowing me over! Actually pushing me over. Insane. I've rarely experienced wind like that. We did about 4 miles in like 3 hours. Uh-oh; maybe Maine is more like NH than I realized. We stopped for water at a shelter and ran into Farmer again as well as Stellar. Stellar ended up accompanying us to Mahoosuc Notch and THROUGH the notch as well! He was great company, and I'm glad none of us died through the notch because Holy Crap! The boulders were huge and awkwardly placed and difficult to scramble over and hop from one to the other. Sometimes you even had to take off your pack and push yourself through a cave! (Pictured above). I came upon Mola, Diatom, and Helter at a nice water source and said, "Well that was fun huh?" To which Mola replied, "You're only halfway done..." What?! We'd only gone half a mile?! The whole thing definitely took over an hour; probably and hour and a half or so, and it's only a mile of trail. Wow. They weren't kidding when they said it was the slowest/hardest mile on trail.We were going up the Mahoosuc Arm (a steep uphill) when it started raining again. Once again, it wasn't for too long, but it was enough to made everything slick and dangerous. Most people we'd been hiking with all day called it quits at the shelter 9.5 miles in (to which we all arrived at about 5pm). We wanted to stay so badly, but we pushed on up Speck Mountain. It was a beautiful view of Maine with all its mountains and lakes. Everything was wet, and we were exhausted, so we got about 5 more miles in before dark. Such a long, difficult day, again. I underestimated Maine. 14 miles in 12 hours (that's including breaks, but still, blah.) We got to the grafton notch parking area, and Verge went to look for a stealth spot while I cooked dinner in the parking lot. For a while I thought I lost her because there was no trail where she disappeared to in the woods, but she found a great spot and all was well. So tired!!!
Date: 2016-08-09
From: Grafton Notch Stealth Spot

To: Hall Mountain Lean-to
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: clear sky

Oops--slept in until 8! Man were we exhausted! The only thing is, my mom, Goldberry, is coming today with her friend Judy to do trail magic! I'm so excited, but that means we have to bust our butts to go 10 miles (were originally planning on going 2 miles further yesterday but underestimated the difficulty so now we have to go those 2 miles this morning) to get to mom as fast as we can! She said she'd be at the road crossing into Andover (East B Hill rd) from 11-3ish. We went over Bald Pate Mountain, which is actually one of my new favorite mountains on trail. It was yet another sunny beautiful day, and the trail was gradual and very well maintained. It was awesome! It was also so open and rocky on top. I loved it. We met Curly and Jetson, and we also saw Farmer and told them to hurry to get to trail magic.After a steep downhill (steep like they had a rope to help you get to the ladder they put there to help you get down parts of it...silliness), we saw Napster having lunch at the shelter, so we told him about trail magic too! We basically ran the few miles downhill (murdering our already ruined knees) and found mom and Judy hiking the last mile towards us! What a nice surprise! Trail magic was delicious--my favorite parts being the hard boiled eggs, pickles, carrots and hummus, and the Oreos and nutter butters. Mmmmm. Thanks mom!! She had people sign a card, so I saw everyone who's come through. She got over 40 people!She then let me take her car (and a couple hikers--Fire, Toasty, and Crooner) into Andover. We grabbed our box, had some ice cream, and popped back over to see her. In the last minutes before she left, we were surprised by Jingle and Sweets! We thought they might be further behind us! Glad to see they're not. My mom had to go, and I wished I'd gotten to spend more time with her, but I'm so glad she came.Verge and I had 6 more miles to go at 5pm. Not too bad. We had a fun time chatting, and though I'm still hacking stuff up, my sickness is mostly better. Almost. We got to the shelter as it was getting too dark to see, and we were both very angry with how terrible the trail maintenance was on the last mile to the shelter. We got there, bearbagged, had a conversation with the fellow in the shelter about the concept of bearbagging, which was interesting. See, the point of bearbagging, besides safety, is as a preventative measure against bears seeing humans as a way to get food. Bears should stay wild and stay afraid of humans. If you make it easy for them for take food from you, they'll be less afraid of you and less able to keep getting food their own way in the wild. Anyway, then I got a free beer from a thru hiker named Cheap'n'Easy who was tenting, and after a quick, light tuna dinner, we went to bed.
Date: 2016-08-10
From: Hall Mountain Lean-to

To: Bemis Mtn 2nd Peak
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Verge and I slept in until 8 again. Man, we've been so exhausted. We enjoyed a relaxing breakfast and started thinking about plans. When would be the next time we could shower and do laundry? When was our next near-o? When did we think we might catch dad? These aren't easy questions to answer! Especially when the post office is involved and also when all the towns these days are so far off trail.As we were working these things out, Jingle, Sweets, and Wheels rolled in! (Shows how much earlier they wake up...they were 4 miles behind us). We chatted and hiked up Moody Mtn with them, which they thought was fine because it was talked up so much (one lady said it would be worse than the Mahoosuc Arm), but me and my phlegmy lungs--pardon the excuses--had a harder time. I suppose mostly I'm just really tired. My legs don't feel like going uphill anymore. Or downhill.We hiked up Old Blue as well as Bemis Mtn, leapfrogging all day with Spielburg, Mouse, Mcdoubles, Fugitive, Sweets, Jingle, and Wheels--a much bigger group than we've been near in a while! We also came across some lovely blueberries on Bemis. Yum! Verge and I raced over Bemis, eager to get to the campsite 4 miles past where most of the others were staying (they'd started from an earlier spot), but we came across Bemis 2nd Peak and not only were we fed up with the tough day, but the sun was going down, and we just weren't feeling it. I told Verge of love to eat a quick dinner before we hiked the 2 miles downhill, and she barely agreed (she doesn't like doing that). After a crunchy dry ramen and some tuna and a phone call with dad where we found out he might be officially done with the trail because of his knee, Verge decided she was done with the day. I suggested we cowboy camp on these nice flat rocks with a lovely view and only a 20% chance of rain. She agreed. We also had service for the first time in a long while so I finally got to update my blog for like the last week! We'll see if we get rained on. Hope not!P.S. It's been super dry and I've been super sweaty so that means I'm getting super dirty. (Pictured above).
Date: 2016-08-11
From: Bemis Mtn 2nd Peak

To: Rangeley, ME
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Woke up to a beautiful sunrise and dew-soaked everything. That was a bit of a bummer, but the sunrise was so pretty it was worth it. (I think Mountain Goat and Peach would be proud of us for cowboy camping.)We had a few freshly picked blueberries in our oatmeal (yum) and were on our way by 7! At the stream 2 miles in we saw Mcdoubles and Fugitive and were joined by Jingle and Sweets. We hiked with them most of the day back and forth through the supposedly easier terrain (the small ups and downs are tiresome too!). We were aiming big for the day. 24 miles. We'd do our best!We were making good time for the day, though we were tired. Also, though some of Maine has great trail maintenance (like nicely built stone steps), a ton of it is awful and difficult to hike through. Forget the roots, it looks like a giant came and had a temper tantrum and ripped everything up and stomped on stuff. It's pretty bad. We recently discovered that our dad is zeroing in Rangelely (though he's 16 miles further than that on trail), so we were excited to know we'd meet him in Stratton, but sad to know we were passing right by an opportunity to see him in Rangeley. We were passing the road into Rangeley (16 miles into our day) at about 3:30 when the shuttle for the Farmhouse Hostel came by to pick up Spielburg, Cheap'n'Easy, Fugitive, and Shu. The owner, Stacey, came out and asked if we were Bombadil's daughters. We said yes, and she came over and hugged us and offered us a ride to go see him! We still had 8 more miles planned, but we couldn't pass up an opportunity like that! She even said she'd drive us back to the trail after!We all piled into the car (Sweets and Jingle included--though they only needed to go resupply), and I was filled with excitement at the prospect of seeing him early and surprising him. We got there, and he was indeed surprised! After a bone-crushing group hug, we got all settled and my dad offered to pay for us to stay! We figured out a post office fix of relocating our box and decided to stay. I'm so happy we're all reunited. Unfortunately, it seems Bombadil is very likely done hiking the trail. After about 2,000 miles (half of which was spent hobbling painfully on his messed up knee) he may be ready to hang up the trekking poles. I fully support whatever makes him happiest and healthiest. We went to the grocery store and Verge cooked us the best veggies ever. Yum! We then baked chocolate chip cookies to share with everyone at the hostel. It was a fun group! Training Wheels, Blazer, Farmer, Spielburg, Fugitive, Cheap'n'Easy, and Shu were there, and we met Juandurer, Homeward, Soup, Radar, Crasher, Deadwood, and a few others. It feels awesome to be clean and well fed. I wish Sweets and Jingle could have stayed! Hoping to catch Mountain Goat and Princess Peach soon. Not sure how far ahead they are. It's been beautiful weather, but I hear storms are a'brewin' for our hike up the Saddleback range tomorrow...wish us luck!
Date: 2016-08-13
From: Spaulding Lean-to

To: Stratton, ME
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I woke up in a lake. Talk about a damper on the morning. At least I knew that 1: my parents were meeting us today, 2: we would get to stay in hotel because of aforementioned #1, and 3: I was reaching 2,000 miles hiked on the trail today. Wow. I guess packing up everything soaked wouldn't be too awful. After a delicious chocolatey oatmeal (I put in a "breakfast essentials" packet--yum) and a long time procrastinating going hiking in the rain, we took the plunge. Out into the wet and the cold. We hiked the relatively difficult "Crockers," and when I got to the topi called my dad to check in. I was hoping he might mention we could kidnap Jingle and Sweets and he did! Thankfully, they were on top of the mountain with me, and they were more than happy to hear they would get free showers and laundry two days sooner than they expected. Yay! We all had a nice time hiking down together (in the awful dreary rain), and we hit 2,000 miles together and took a couple fun pictures. I'm so happy to have hit this milestone with them since we've hiked so much of the trail together. Verge had run down the mountain ahead to meet our parents (and probably to get the first shower...just kidding!) We got to the bottom, and Bombadil was waiting with Gatorade and chips! He and Goldberry shuttled us to the "Roadhouse" a spillover location for the Stratton Motel, and we basically had a house to ourselves! It was amazing! Laundry, showers, beds, a kitchen, and a couch with a tv! Heaven! We went out to eat then came back and watched movies and the Olympics and got to enjoy fresh baked cookies that Verge made. Yum. Thank you parents!!
Date: 2016-08-14
From: Stratton, ME

To: Zero Day
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

My parents put together the most amazing breakfast, and then were ready to drop everyone off at the trailhead. They took two trips because Verge and I were being pokey. "Can't we hang out a little longer?" we asked my mom, but with a five hour drive ahead of her and numerous things on her to do list, she had to get going. Back to the trailhead we go.They dropped us off, we said our goodbyes, and they left. Verge and I stood in the parking lot, looked at each other, and came together in a long, sad, tired, embrace. We're tired. We're just too tired. Maine is proving to be the ultimate damper on our souls. We debated maybe even going back to town and zeroing! We never do that! We decided to tough it out and keep going. I'm sure it will turn out to be a great day!Three steps later....we looked at each other, and took our packs back off. Nope. Not happening. We were on the exact same page--neither of us had it in us to keep going. We called a couple places to check rates and availability, and as it turns out, the best option was to go back to exactly where we had just been! It was way cheaper than we thought it'd be too! We got a shuttle, got to stop at the grocery store for food, and went back to the heaven that was the "Roadhouse." We basically had a house to OURSELVES! The other half of the house had two other thru-hikers doing work for stay named Ladybird and Jester. We hung out with them and watched the Departed and ate chips. We then went to our side of the house, had a dance party, and watched more movies. It was amazing.We've never really had a zero day where we literally don't do anything. It was needed. So very needed. Now we just have to catch our buddies again...
Date: 2016-08-15
From: Zero Day

To: Little Bigelow Lean-to
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Sadly, we didn't get dropped off at the trailhead until about 10:30. I'm glad it gave us more time in the morning, but it limited the number of miles we could do. During our lunch break, I realized it was my brother-in-law's birthday! A phone call was in order! We had a lovely chat with him, and I wish it could have been longer, but we still had 13 or so miles that we were aiming for. Though it was the most perfect, beautiful, sunny, breezy day, we still lacked motivation. "Sometimes there's no place I'd rather be, and sometimes, I'd rather be anywhere but here," Verge said, and I couldn't agree more. We realized we only had about TEN DAYS left. TEN! So, we fantasized about all the wonderful things we'd do after the trail, but it barely helped keep us going. We slowly hiked over the Bigelows (though they didn't feel too difficult), and unfortunately, we couldn't make our original destination, so we settled for the Little Bigelow Lean-to. We arrived, and although it was a 6 person shelter and there were only 4 people in there, an annoying fellow basically refused to make room for us...so we tented.
Date: 2016-08-16
From: Little Bigelow Lean-to

To: Pierce Pond Shelter
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: overcast clouds

9am start, flat terrain, huge mental game.Every day feels harder than the last. The terrain should have been a breeze, but it just wasn't fun. We also were annoyed that the only way to cross the Kennebec River for thru-hikers was a canoe ferry that only ran from 9am-2pm, and we definitely wouldn't make it by 2, forcing us to go fewer miles than we could have. Alas, at least it let us finish our day early. We got to the Pierce Pond Shelter by 5ish, but it was full due to impending rain. We pitched our tent, enjoyed a lovely dinner with our new buddies Radar and Deadwood, and settled in for the night. After some fun chatting and list-making, we cuddled into our sleeping bags, and listened to Radar play the ukelele while the rain pitter-pattered on our tent.
Date: 2016-08-19
From: Shaw's Lodging, Monson, ME

To: Cloud Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: few clouds

After a semi-stressed morning of trying to get everything together and make phone calls about reservations and plans for when my parents are coming on summit day, we took the later shuttle to the trailhead. We got there are got the most amazing trail magic from Curly and Jetson. They'd spent the night with Curly's parents (Jetson's grandparents) and gave us extra fruit they had (banana and an orange) and also a baguette each!! It was the best surprise and most delightful trail magic breakfast ever! I'm so thankful. We had a couple more "chores" to do, like email Odie the hiker yearbook guy with our pictures and also make bunk reservations at the AT lodge for Thursday night. By the time we finished, it was about 11:30am and we had to hike 19 semi-difficult miles. Thankfully, Verge and I were in "go, go, go" mode, the weather was beautiful and sunny, we leapfrogged with Scavenger a few times, and we had fun planning out our most perfect week back home ever. The best part was knowing that we could CHOOSE not to do any of the things we planned. The freedom NOT to hike everyday seems amazing. Though we were once again hiking a difficult day into the night, we were both in terrific moods all day. We've also realized that with all these hard days of hiking into the night, we frequently experience amazingly beautiful sunsets on top of mountains. There we were again on top of Barren mountain, enjoying a beautiful sunset and a view of the expanse of Maine. Though we hike as long as we can without headlamps into the darkness, I had to give in (I must not eat as many carrots as Verge because DAMN she has good night vision!) We made it to Cloud Pond Lean-to (a whopping 0.4 off trail...) and thankfully, there was shelter room. We even got to see our buddies Jingle, Sweets, Peach, and Mountai Goat just before they went to bed (Wheels didn't quite make it to the shelter). We also saw Curly, Jetson, and Footage there! We quickly ate and went to bed, trying to be as quite as we could. People are going to bed earlier as its getting darker earlier...
Date: 2016-08-20
From: Cloud Pond Lean-to

To: Sidney Tappan Campsite
Miles today: 18.5
Weather: few clouds

It was a pretty difficult first half of the day, going over Fourth Chairback, Third Chairback, Columbus, and Chairback. I was hiking alone, but I met a section hiker named Huff who had thru-hiked in 2001. He was very interesting! It turns out not only has he thru-hiked the AT, but he's done the 100 mile wilderness and Katahdin many many times, he's hiked the PCT, he's hiked a few times in the Himalayas, and he does crew maintence and trail jobs all over the place! Pretty neat. He was fun to chat with for a while. I also came across some nice new trail, and it was amazingly squishy under my feet! I was wishing all trail was that nice when I realized it probably all starts that way and then just gets compacted and eroded by all who hike on it. That made me sad. I know your doomed future, lovely section of comfy trail! I then forded a river and ran into a ridgerunner chatting with Curly, Jetson, and Footage, so I hung out by the sunny river for a while with them, waiting for Verge. She showed up a bit later, and we hiked the remaining 7 miles together. We got to camp before dark! Hurray! We got there and we're happy to once again see all our buddies, Jingle, Sweets, Mountain Goat, and Peach. Curly, Jetson, and Footage stayed there too, and I saw a guy named Goat we've met a couple times before, and Huff the section hiker joined later too. Still no Wheels though. Another long hard day coming to a close. I enjoyed dinner, though I've been hungry a lot lately. I'm thankful for my friends, and the wind felt amazing. It lulled me to sleep as if it was a chilly autumn evening.
Date: 2016-08-21
From: Sidney Tappan Campsite

To: Antlers Campsite
Miles today: 25.0
Weather: overcast clouds

We woke up so early this morning! (5:45am) We were even all packed up by about 6:30, but we had breakfast, so we didn't leave until 7am. Funny enough, we were the first ones out! We're usually the last ones out! (Like always!) We hiked up the steep West Peak, the relaxing Hay Mountain, and the steep Whitecap Mountain. The whole time we were in a foggy cloud with rain sprinkling on us a bit and lots of blustery Autumn winds. I really enjoyed it. We were supposed to have our first view of Katahdin from Whitecap, but we were in a cloud, so alas, no view yet.Four miles downhill later and Mountain Goat caught up. We chatted and hiked with him for a while, which was fun, and we learned we'd already hiked like 9 miles by 11am! That's a weird feeling--an awesome feeling! We sat by a sunny river for a little bit and had water and a snack. Mountain Goat went up ahead to be able to stop for a while at a fishing hole a few miles up trail. Oh! We also realized that today is our Five Month Trailiversary! Cool! Soon after, Princess Peach joined us and we got to hike and chat with him for a while! It's such a nice change when we get to chat and hike with buddies other than each other (though that is of course always fun...clearly--or we wouldn't still be hiking together after 2,100 or so miles). We then stopped randomly for a quick water break and Peach went ahead to meet up with Mountain Goat, but our "quick" stop turned into us sitting on a rock near the trail, drinking water, munching on trail mix, enjoying the breeze and the dappled sunlight through the trees. It was utterly marvelous. When we started hiking again, it lead to a conversation of our favorite moments on trail, which was fun to reminisce about. The terrain was fabulous the whole rest of the way (the remaining 11 miles). It was pine-needley and gradual and wonderful. The sunshine and breeze continued to accompanied us, and after we ran into Mountain Goat again (sadly, fishing had not been successful), he hiked with us for about 6 more miles, and we chatted about food and books and movies. We got to camp, cleaned up a bit in the nice pond, and Jingle and Sweets arrived! We all cooked dinner together by the fire that Mountain Goat and Peach made, and Goat, Panda, Whip, and Jelly Dog all joined us. Moments like these are the moments I'll miss. Everyone together, happy though hungry, having a great time. We even did 25 miles and got to camp by 6pm! Today was as close to a perfect day as you can get.