morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2014-07-27
From: Dalton

To: Dalton
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

We slept in late, what a difference a comfy bed and a quiet surrounding makes. We actually slept till 9:30am! When we got downstairs breakfast was waiting for us. Fruit salad, waffles, juice, and I could make myself a tea of garden herbs. What a start in the morning. We had decided not to do anything big today, we needed the time to clean all our things, rearrange, repack, and figure out what we really need. We both wanted to downsize some more and carry less. We had bought a new little stove, the old one we got replaced and we will take it home the way it is (new!). The new stove is all we need from now on. Then we replaced the big pan and Marcos cup with smaller, lighter ones. And we got lots of freeze dried food since it is a lot lighter than normal food. We exchanged some of the clothes since it can get colder in the whites and in Maine but we will not have as much to change anymore. I will not carry the solar panel anymore since we usually got by without it. We just keep the charger which we can also charge at an electronic plug and which we used often. I also got rid of all the fire making things because making a fire is mostly forbidden up here (especially in summer). We tried to find the hole in our mattresses but couldn't find it. We will take the repair kit with us just in case. For lunch we went to a restaurant which has typical American and English food, yummy! Shepherds pie for Marco and chicken pot pie for me. Then once more to the outfitter for the things the other outfitter didn't have. Then back to the house, updating the journal and doing some other stuff. Dinner we got from a thai, more than plenty of food. And finally to bed after a busy day.
Date: 2014-07-28
From: Dalton

To: Dalton
Miles today: 0.0

Today we actually had a time schedule, so when I woke up at 7:30am I had time to do some things before shower and another yummy breakfast. Then we left to do sightseeing! We went to a place where the revolution started (against the English colonialist). Then we went to the harbor of Boston to see the old war sailing boat "constitution" and a newer destroyer. We also saw the Coast Guard cutter on which the son of Deb and Jeff works. Then we took a stroll in the town, Marco and Jeff went to the old Oyster house while Deb and I went to the Hard Rock Cafe to find a tshirt for me. Later we walked to the fenuil hall, an old market place full of food stalls. Great individual lunch for all of us. Then some more Window shopping, a walk through the park and finally back to the car. Back at the house I was finally able to get our new phone to work, keep the old number and transfer the minutes, I'm so proud of me! We had heavy thunderstorm and rain in the area and when we wanted to go for dinner the Japanese restaurant didn't have power. We went to a different restaurant, the only one around still having power. Just after we got our food the power went out too. But Marco had mussels and oysters and ribs! It was probably the best weekend he had for years! Great food everywhere we went! Back at the house I made a last laundry, packed and will now go to bed. Tomorrow we will have to leave early since we have a two hour drive back to the trail.
Date: 2014-07-29
From: Dalton

To: mark noepel shelter
Miles today: 13.9
Weather: scattered clouds

Happy Birthday Daddy! We got up early to finish packing and enjoyed another great breakfast. Then we had to say goodbye to Deb and Einstein the dog. We had a wonderful time at the home of Deb and Jeff. Thank you again, it was more than we had dreamed of and we hope to welcome you in Switzerland some day! We brought two big packages to the post office to send them to Millinocket, Maine and a big bag with things for the hiker box, including my old shoes. I'm using my big boots again till they fall apart, I think it's a good choice for the whites. Jeff drove us back to Dalton from where we slack packed the first 9 miles. Jeff took our packs to Cheshire where we met him in the early afternoon. It was great hiking without a pack and we had a fast pace even so the trail was in a bad shape after the heavy thunderstorm and rain the last couple of days.We said goodbye to Jeff even so we would have loved to go back to their house with him :-[ but we only get to Maine when we hike, right? Most of the trail was really muddy, sometimes the trail became a creek. But nothing as bad as it must have been yesterday. Shellback told us how he walked through streams (the trail) and Cannon showed us a video he had made wading through more than ankle high water. I guess once more we just were really lucky not to be on the trail yesterday and the day before. Just a mile before the shelter we met Opus, he went south because he thought he had missed the side trail to the shelter. Somehow the trails going off the AT didn't agree with the book. Our app with gps helped in that case and we figured out how much further we had to go. Finally at the shelter we decided to sleep in the shelter since the tent site seems to be muddy and we aren't sure it's not going to rain again tonight. All of a sudden it got really cold and we went into our sleeping bags early. It's only about 10? Celsius, a chilly night after a warm day. At least the low temperature keeps the bugs away. Now I have cold hands, good night!
Date: 2014-07-30
From: mark noepel shelter

To: seth warner shelter
Miles today: 16.5
Weather: light rain

We hiked 3 miles up to mount Greylock, not a bad hike at all, to have breakfast at the lodge. We both had an omelet and toast, it was great! A place with good food is difficult to leave but finally we hiked on. We had just figured out that if we do a small resupply today in a village close to the trail we could go 4 days without a stop. On the trail this morning we ran into Soggy, the section hiker which helped us in Waynesboro. He is going south for this section and was really happy to run into people he had met before, since this was his goal and the reason for going south. Going down from mount Greylock was in some parts a challenge but we met a big group of trail maintainers, they are making a new trail and will close the old bad part as soon as they are done. Further down we were able to enjoy some of their work. Thank you girls and guys you are doing a great job! Down in the valley a note said that a guy offers free bikes to rent for hikers. We went to his house and Marco went grocery shopping on bike while I waited with the packs and planned the next few days. Marco was really quick, going by bike helped a lot, thank you! After this break we had a 7 miles uphill. We crossed the Massachusetts/Vermont boarder, "only" 3 states to go! This boarder also marks the south end of the Long Trail, it's a trail which goes along the AT for about 100 miles and then heads north to the Canadian boarder. Altogether about 270 miles long if I remember correctly. So right now we thru hike the AT and section hike the LT :DAt the shelter are several weekend hikers, some of them quite annoying since they just know everything. And there are LT thru hikers here which just started the trail and are happy for all the advice they get. Quite an interesting group...
Date: 2014-07-31
From: seth warner shelter

To: Melville nauheim shelter
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: overcast clouds

We woke up several times hearing mice chewing but we just didn't feel like checking. In the morning we found out that the mice had chewed through many food bags trying to find out who has the best food. Luckily they bit only a small hole in one of our bags and into my chips. Shellbacks food bag looks like a swiss cheese after the mice attack. We heard from another hiker that the weather forecast was pretty bad and we decided to go as fast as possible those miles to the second next shelter. Unfortunately that wasn't really fast, kept slow by muddy trails. My left foot started to hurt really bad and I don't know why. Since two days I wear my old boots again, I'm really glad I have them for the whites but maybe they are too hard for the soft ground here. Startled by a noise to my right I looked up and saw a big furry back walking 10 meters ahead of me and a smaller back following it. A mother bear and it's cub! Wow! Luckily they didn't care about us and trotted away into the woods. We had a bad steep downhill, only stone steps, most of them a few inches too high and after this a similar uphill to the shelter. All day long it rained a little bit then we had sunshine and some more rain but we never got really wet. About a mile before the shelter the thunderstorm started. By the time we got to the shelter we were wet. We got the two last spaces in the shelter. We got less than 600 miles to go! Remember: no rain, no pain, no Maine!
Date: 2014-08-01
From: Melville nauheim shelter

To: story spring shelter
Miles today: 17.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Happy Birthday Switzerland! We are happy and proud to be able to say we are Swiss! We had a late start, it seemed like no one was in a rush and when we got up at 7am we were the first. Some of the hikers at the shelter are of the fast kind and had planned a "short" day to the same shelter we wanted to go to (just for us its a very good day). The other hikers had planned shorter distances and weren't in a rush either. At breakfast the "hiker trash", as we smelly hikers call ourselves, decided to rename Vermont into Vermud! I guess the name speaks for itself. Besides a trail which would need some serious trail work we had a great day. It had rained when we had left the shelter but it soon cleared up and at lunch we were able to dry all our rain gear. My feet didn't hurt till about mile 16 and even then just a little compared to yesterday. The nature was a beauty today. We hiked through dwarf and fairy tale forest, came along beautiful beaver dams, saw ducks swimming on a pond. We didn't cross one road and met only a few hikers. The world was peaceful and perfect where we were!
Date: 2014-08-02
From: story spring shelter

To: William B. Douglas shelter
Miles today: 15.3

We both weren't motivated to get up this morning and just layed around in our sleeping bags. I didn't sleep well last night and felt sleepy all day long. I just didn't have any energy. We realized that we haven't have too much food left for today and tomorrow and rationed the food for today. At noon we got to the next shelter and had lunch there. We met a day hiking couple which told us that the weather forecast is bad for the afternoon and evening so we decided to just hike to the next shelter and not tent a mile further like planned. We made it there dry and since it's half a mile of trail we thought we would be alone. But there are 7 weekend hikers and three thru hikers staying here too. Oh well there is enough space. Several mice live here too and seem to enjoy the company. They aren't afraid of us at all and run all over the place. Luckily they are of the cute kind and even so we know they want our food and will try everything to get it we aren't able to hurt them. We didn't have lots to eat today so when the weekend hikers burnt their leftovers I couldn't stop myself to ask if I could have it. They felt sorry for us and for throwing away food and gave us a mountain house dinner, dried fruits and cliff bars, this is al very good hiker food! We were so happy, and we ate almost all of it. Some of the dried fruits we kept for tomorrow to put into our muesli. Now I'm finally not hungry any more and tomorrow we can do resupply. Once more we got really lucky!
Date: 2014-08-03
From: William B. Douglas shelter

To: Bromley mountain
Miles today: 8.8

We hiked as fast as possible the 5 miles to the road. Shellback was there and had just found people who would give him a ride. They didn't mind to take us as well. I think we never got a ride that fast before. In Manchester Center we first went to the laundromat, then to the Pizzeria. The pizzeria was awfully expensive but this is a tourist town so no cheep food! Anyway we stayed at the pizzeria for a long time, we were able to charge our phone and tablet. They also had wifi so I could update the trail journal, send some emails, check Facebook and find a place to stay in Rutland. We should be in Rutland in 3 days, there we will enjoy a hotel room. Marco did the grocery shopping while I did all the email and planning stuff. He also went to the outfitter and saw that they have a big sale, so later he dragged me there. We now both have new tshirts. I made the mistake of just keeping one plus my long sleeve. But the long sleeve is way too warm that's why I needed a new one. Marcos shirt got badly ripped by the bushes so he needed a new one too. They had really cool 100% cotton shirts on sale, perfect. After we went to subway to get a sandwich which we took with us for dinner. Then we hitch hiked to get back to the trail. We got a ride fast but had to sit in the back of a pick up truck. Feeling of pure freedom! We hiked 3 more miles up to the top of a mountain. In winter its a skiing mountain with several slopes, in summer its deserted. The warming hut is left open during the summer for thru hikers to stay in. It is perfect for us, we don't need more and I'm sure it's a great morning start tomorrow
Date: 2014-08-04
From: Bromley mountain

To: little rock pond shelter
Miles today: 16.8
Weather: light rain

I had hoped for a beautiful sunrise on top of the mountain but it was foggy and we couldn't see a thing. This was also the reason we didn't get up early. We finally hiked out and the weather got better, the trail was nice and we hiked a good pace. At lunch we decided that we could go further than planned since we both felt great. 2 miles before the shelter we got trail magic from cozys mom. A after work beer and the last two miles were easy cruising. Parts of the trail were washed away. The caretaker at the shelter explained us later that the beaver dam got so big it flooded the area. The trail club will reroute the trail there, since the beavers obviously took the place over, but for the time being he tries to fix the trail as good as possible.We sleep another night in the shelter since the tent platforms and our tent don't match. The shelter seems to be quite new, it's big and clean with a big covered picnic area. We hope there aren't any mice.
Date: 2014-08-05
From: little rock pond shelter

To: minerva hinchey shelter
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: scattered clouds

We woke up at 8:30am, we hadn't even realized we had slept in. We left the shelter when it was raining a little bit but luckily it stopped shortly after. The terrain was difficult for us. Lots of wet slippery rocks. We both twisted our ankles several times. It reminded me of Pennsylvania and it wasn't a good memory. We stopped short at a shelter because there was a thunderstorm behind us. Other hikers who had a weather radar on their phone told us that the thunderstorm would be really bad with hail and we didn't want to get hit by it. We made tea because it got cold later we made dinner and it still rained, finally we decided to stay in the shelter and not go further. Marcos right leg hurts a lot so we changed our plans. We hike 3 miles to the road and hitch hike to Rutland. There we do resupply and enjoy town. We will leave the other road out and go to a nice hotel for the night. Like that we cut off about 20 miles and a bad hill. It gives Marcos leg the chance to take a break and we don't get behind schedule. So the miles on top for today and tomorrow are the ones we had planned to hike but didn't do. I leave them like that so you know where we are at.
Date: 2014-08-06
From: minerva hinchey shelter

To: Killington
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: light rain

We hiked the 3 miles to the road. There was trail magic from a local deli/religious group. They also have a hostel but we didn't want to stay there. We met a south bounding swiss hiker, dani from bern. He gave us a name and phone number of a swiss couple in Montreal with whom he had stayed for a few days. We will definitely call them when we are in Canada. Good luck to you dani, hope you make it to Georgia! Let us know! Then we hitch hiked to town. First to the outfitter than hitchhiking again to Walmart. There we resupplied not only for the next 3 days but also for the 100 mile wilderness. We made a big food package and sent it ahead to Monson in Maine. We should be there in 4 to 5 weeks. Then lunch and later taking the bus to Killington. There we stay at the mountain Meadows Lodge, a beautiful hotel, at the lake and right at the AT. Tomorrow we just can walk through the garden/park and we are on the AT again.
Date: 2014-08-07
From: Killington

To: lookout
Miles today: 17.3

We were the only guests at the lodge, the house was quiet and we slept great. Breakfast was the best we had so far in a hotel on the trail. We just wanted to keep eating. Yesterday our wifi didn't work properly and I was really annoyed not being able to update the journal or do my email. We thought it was the wifi fault but we found out it was the tablets problem. So after updating the tablet we finally were able to do all the online stuff. This delayed us but this was more important to me. We actually would have loved to stay there another night but the hotel is completely booked for tonight. The weather forecast said no rain today, I still wonder why we got soaked several times today. Once we had sun, rain and hail all at the same time, crazy weather. All day we heard thunder all around us and sometimes closer than we like it, especially being on a mountain range. We stopped short at a private cabin which is open for everyone who needs a dry place to stay. This is awesome! It doesn't have any furniture but it has plenty of space to put mattresses. By now we are 9 hikers who found refuge here. All of us had planned to go to the shelter which is 3 miles north from here. But we couldn't pass this opportunity of staying in a dry place with 4 walls, a door and closed windows, just too good to be true! Hopefully all our stuff dries out till tomorrow. Marco doesn't like hiking in wet shoes, I'm used to it by now.
Date: 2014-08-08
From: lookout

To: west Hartford
Miles today: 19.0

We slept great last night. Feeling safe in this rustic cabin it was hard to get up and leave. We had heard there was a guy letting people stay for free in his barn and that he offered free meals too. It just ment for us that we had to hike about 19 miles. Would we be able to go that far? The trail was great in the most parts, I definitely have to give a compliment to the Dartmouth outing club who maintains this part of the trail. There are only a few places where the trail literally slided down the mountain. But like I said most of it was great, I especially enjoyed the "no rocks" of the miles today. We had several steep up and downs today, all little hills rolling one after the other. It was exhausting and we kept hoping it would be the last but there was always another one. We had to find out that the awol AT guide and the map from the AT conservancy weren't accurate or up to date, the trail profile of both definitely didn't match with the trail we hiked today. I'm disappointed to spend a lot of money on guides and maps and then they aren't accurate. If I find the time and effort I will write both of them an email and tell them. By the time we got to the town where Randy (the trail angel with the free hostel) lives, we were completely exhausted. He saw us crossing the bridge and he rang a bell on his porch. We were told that he does so to invite hikers. So we went straight to his front porch, got a cold soda, he showed us where we could sleep and invited us for breakfast tomorrow morning. Randys house got destroyed by hurricane Irene, during that time he lived in the upstairs room of his barn, this is the place where he now lets hikers stay for free. His house is still under construction but he is able to live in it now. I think/hope the donations he gets from happy hikers help him to rebuild his home.
Date: 2014-08-09
From: west Hartford

To: Hanover
Miles today: 9.9
Weather: clear sky

We hiked the 10 miles to Hannover. This means we are in New Hampshire now! But then the town swallowed us, we just couldn't leave! We were able to stay at trail angel Betsys house for free. It was awesome, thank you so much! Today we met sunny. He is probably in the early 40s. He has started hiking in Maryland and had hoped to be able to hike Pennsylvania, now he is already in New Hampshire. The amazing thing about this is that he has MS. A few years ago he wasn't able to walk at all and the medicine made him always really tired. This spring he felt better, stopped taking his medicine and decided to go hiking on the AT. Another amazing hiker!
Date: 2014-08-10
From: Hanover

To: smarts mountain
Miles today: 23.3

We got a great breakfast at Betsys, afterwards she brought us back to the trail head. We had a good time in Hanover, its a really hiker friendly town. So once again it was difficult to leave but we had plans. At Starbucks we met toasted toad, he had come to the town last night and went on together with us today. We came by Bill Ackerleys house, he does trail magic since many years. He wasn't at home but there was a sign telling us where we could find the freezer with ice cream! Wow!The last hill of today was extremely steep and tiring, I'm so glad we made it up here today and don't have to hike it tomorrow morning. The tent site has a beautiful view but unfortunately no flat space to put up the tent. I hope we don't slide around too much tonight.
Date: 2014-08-11
From: smarts mountain

To: Jeffers Brook shelter
Miles today: 21.0
Weather: light rain

I'm sorry, I'm too tired to write much. We had some big hills to climb, very nice views and awful downs. I was once again ready to quit. But we have less than 400 miles to go, it's too late to quit. I guess I just can't...Tomorrow we got the first real mountain, the beginning of the Whites, Mount Moosilauke. We heard it will be one of the worst ups and downs on the trail! We will start on 300 meters above sea level, go up to 1468 and back down to 500 and from there up the next mountain.I better get some rest now!
Date: 2014-08-12
From: Jeffers Brook shelter

To: Eliza Brook shelter
Miles today: 13.6

We got up Mount Moosilauke today a lot faster than expected! It was a climb and long uphill but the trail was pretty good. We had a quick early lunch. It's the first mountain above tree line since we started the trail. The wind was so strong it was hard to stay up and it was really cold too. Knowing it would rain tomorrow we decided to do the downhill climb today too. We had heard it was one of the worst downhills on the trail and the trail would turn into a waterfall when it rains. The 2 miles down took me more than 3 hours! (Usually we have a 2 miles per hour pace). It was steep along side a waterfall, when there actually were rock steps they were made for giants! We hadn't expected it to be that time consuming and it messed up our schedule. After the downhill we still had to hike another mountain, 7 miles to the next shelter. And again the trail wasn't as nice and easy as we had hoped but we just kept going. I don't know how many times we just got lucky that we didn't hurt ourselves. Many times trees had to help us getting up or down boulders and rocky slippery slopes. Toasted toad and Marco had their falls and twisted ankle, I hit my knee hard on a rock I didn't see when I passed it. Finally we had to get our head lamps on since the daylight faded fast in the woods. We got to the shelter at 9pm! Everyone was asleep but when they woke up they weren't really mad at us but made space so we would fit in too! So the long hike was worth it and we will definitely sleep in tomorrow!