morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2018-08-20
From: Imp Shelter

To: Hogan Rd
Miles today: 8.7
Weather: broken clouds

When I woke up in the morning I was fairly certain that I had been snoring. My nose was plugged up and my mouth was dry. Cole immediately confirmed it. Sleeping on the second floor of a shelter wouldn¢t be so bad if I didn¢t always have to get up in the middle of the night to pee. Before I went to bed last night, I practiced getting up and down from the second level. I couldn¢t jump right down like the young spry kids who were up there do. I was fairly convinced that if I tried that, I would sprain my ankle. On Friday, while going over the Wildcats, Nike sprained his ankle and had it to get off the trail. That was foremost in my mind as I contemplated the safest way to get down. I was beside a wall, so I stuck my right foot in a notch of the wall and hung onto a wooden sign that was attached to the wall. Then slowly I lowered my left foot to the ground. No jumping. My quilt is made from a very slippery material. When I woke up in the night, my toebox slipped over the edge of the platform pulling the rest of the quilt down with it. I reached quickly to grab the quilt and was able to save it, but not my headlamp. Down it fell and landed with a plunk at the feet of the person below me. In the dark, I lowered myself to the ground. Thank goodness I had practiced.We had some climbing to do up Mt Moriah. The sky was clear and the views were spectacular. We could see along the presidential range we had been traversing. Cole pointed out Mount Washington. We could barely make out what we thought was a road going up. Hovering above the mountain was a cloud. While we had been waiting for our work for stay assignments at Mizpah Hut, Cole had listened in on a presentation about clouds. Standing there on Mount Moriah, he identified the cloud above Washington by name and described its characteristics, repeating what he had learned from the ranger. Smart Kid!The rest or the trail down to US 2 was fairly easy. One more mile would bring us to a parking lot on a gravel road that Mark would still easily be able to access. I messaged him that we were going the extra mile. It was still early in the afternoon and we could have gone further, but not if we wanted more time with our family. Mark picked us up and we drove to the hostel in town. Nick is staying there until Susan picks him up on Thursday. (His dad and Gene had continued hiking after Nick got off.) We picked Nick up and we all went out for pizza. Back at the campsite I tried unsuccessfully to have a nap. Instead I sorted our gear and food to get ready to get back out on the trail.
Date: 2018-08-21
From: Hogan Rd

To: Full Goose Shelter
Miles today: 20.7
Weather: moderate rain

From Hogan Road, the next place that Mark is able to pick us up is Grafton Notch. That is a distance of a proximately 30 miles and includes the hardest miles on the trail, Mahoosuc Notch. We need to do that distance in two days if we wanted to spend more time with Mark and Evan.My alarm went off at 5 AM this morning so that I could get us packed and ready as soon as possible. Mark had us back at the trail by 6:30. The skies were bright and clear, but I knew that rain was in the forecast tomorrow. I wanted to take a big chunk out of that 30 miles today.We hiked, not quickly, but steadily and with few stops. The terrain was certainly easier than in The Whites and we made fairly good time...for us.We reached the New Hampshire/Main border and snapped some celebratory photos, then pressed on.By sunset we still had two miles to go to get to Full Goose Shelter. When it got too dark to see, we pulled out our headlamps ( with new batteries). We were above treeline for what seemed like an eternity. Our headlamps could not penetrate the mist, and we could not see very far in front of our feet. We couldn¢t see the cairns that we were supposed to be following either. I pulled out my Guthooks app and we used it to keep us pointed in the right direction, feeling relief whenever we spotted a cairn or a short boardwalk that told us we were still on the right track.Eventually we were back down into the trees where the trail was easier to follow, but not flat. There were rock inclines and even a few ladders. At 9:15 we finally arrived at the shelter. It was perfectly silent, but packed with bodies lined in a perfect row. We looked around for a tent spot and found space on a platform. As quietly as we could we set up the tent. I took our food bags over to the bear box, but it was already packed so full of food bags that I could barely get it closed again once I had opened it. Exhausted, we crawled into our beds. We had bit off a big chunk of the 30 mile stretch. But would it be enough? Tomorrow would be hard
Date: 2018-08-23
From: Grafton Notch

To: BaldpateLean-to
Miles today: 2.3

After every hard day or series of hard days, clean clothes, sleep and food usually sort me out and set my brain back on hiking. Not today.Mark needs to be back home for Friday evening. It¢s an eleven hour drive. Originally his plan had been to take us to the trail today in the morning, then head towards home.Cole wanted to take a zero. I wanted to be with my family a bit longer.Mark agreed to hold off heading home until later in the day.I tried to sleep in, but I¢ve never been good at that. Mark did our laundry.....again! I worked on my journal. Slowly we packed up our campsite and I went through our back packing gear and loaded up our bags once again. By noon we pulled out of White Birches. We stopped to get lunch and pick up a few last minute things at Walmart, then drove the forty minutes to the trailhead. It went by all too quickly.The Grafton Notch parking lot was full of cars and people when we arrived. There was trail magic happening. We didn¢t need food, we were stuffed. However, there was a gentleman giving away free Farm to Feet sox in exchange for a picture and our story about why we were hiking the AT.¢I don¢t want free sox.¢ Cole grumbled.¢Oh yes you do!¢ I retorted. ¢Come on and get your picture taken!¢I briefly told our story. We posed. We got free sox.Goodbyes seem to be getting harder and harder. Evan always knows what to say to tug on my heartstrings. ¢I want you to finish mom, but I¢m tired of you being away from home. I cry every time we leave ya know.¢¢I cry too.¢ I replied. ¢We¢re almost done honey. I¢ll be home soon.¢Climbing up out of the notch, the terrain was fairly easy. Our destination was Fry Notch Lean-to, just under six miles away. After hiking for only two miles, Cole said ¢Mom, I don¢t even want to hike six miles today. I¢m too tired.¢Cole almost always wants to hike. I checked our distance, then I checked the upcoming terrain. Ahead there was a steep climb on a rock slab. Neither of us felt up to doing that again today. Baldpate Lean-to was only .3 away. We decided to stop there and call it a day.We set up the tent and Cole napped from 4pm to 6pm. Then we ate supper and Cole hung the food bags. We were both under our covers with our eyes closed by 7:30. We had hiked all of 2.3 miles for the day.
Date: 2018-08-25
From: Hall Mountain Lean-to

To: Bemis Mountain Lean-to
Miles today: 12.8
Weather: clear sky

Cole has decided that he has a calcium deficiency. He doesn¢t have any physical symptoms that would suggest this, he has just decided that he hasn¢t had much milk to drink on the trail so he must be lacking calcium. At home he drinks litres and litres of milk. 1% milk. He has had many opportunities to drink milk in the past few months, but most of the time it is 2% milk, so he curls his nose up at it. Well, the situation has now become so dire that he has lowered his standards greatly and is now more than willing to drink powered milk. My powered milk! I¢ve been carrying powered milk so that I can make carnation breakfast essentials. This week I also packed out cereal and a bowl so I needed milk for that. This morning I made two litres of milk. He drank a litre and also wanted some for a bowl of cereal. My cereal! Sheesh! It¢s a good thing that I love that kid.Cole retrieved his snickers bar wrapper before we set out. A little late, but at least not never. He took a spill five minutes into our hike, scraping his wrist on a rock. ¢No worries, I don¢t need that to hike.¢ He said.The climbing was a bit harder today and there were little to no views to reward us for our efforts. By 11:00am we had only gone four miles when we came across people lugging coolers, boxes and bags, tables and chairs and more, across a stream. They were preparing to set up trail magic. It looked like they were a long way from being ready. They gave us pop and cookies and invited us to stay. We wanted to. We really really wanted to.¢It will be worth it,¢ the gentleman told us. ¢We are going to have lobster.¢Lobster! That might just have made it worth, but more than food, we wanted miles. We are getting so close to the end now and we just want to get there. We haven¢t seen more than two NOBOs in the last two days. I feels like they all took off sprinting to the finish line, leaving us in their dust. I don¢t have any sprinting left in me, but I am still moving forward. Slow and steady.So, we passed up the feast and continued on, slow and steady.We were headed for a campsite at the bottom of Bemis mountain, but as the day progressed it became clear that we were not going to make it before dark. I was hobbling along, walking sideways down inclines to try to keep less pressure on the ball of my right foot. I wasn¢t going to hike in the dark. About a mile from the Lean-to on Bemis Mountain, Cole went ahead to set up the tent. I sat for a long while. Then I walked for a bit. Then I sat. I took pictures of mushrooms, moss and lichen, making up funny names for them and not really caring too much what they were actually called. I sat some more and cried over my foot. Why must Katahdin be so far away?
Date: 2018-08-29
From: Mile 1992.8

To: Horns Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 15.0

When we woke up in the morning our air mattresses were overlapping in the middle of the tent and we were encroaching on each other¢s space. (translation: Cole¢s elbow was practically up my nose) We had arrived near sunset at a stealth camping location mentioned by a user on Guthooks. Our tenting options were a rocky area, a rooty area or a sloped area. We chose the sloped area. We were at a high elevation and the wind was howling. The trees around us were swaying in the wind and Cole was certain that they were going to topple over. Remembering what had happened to Beats, he checked for loose branches, or widow makers as they are called. We had a sporadic Verison signal and so I sent Mark a message. ¢Please pray that the trees don¢t fall over.¢ I don¢t think that either of us slept very well. By morning we were both still tired, but the trees remained upright. I made certain to send Mark another message before we headed out. ¢The trees stayed up!¢We worked hard climbing Crocker Mountain and had a few views. On the way down we passed the 2000 mile mark. We have hiked over 2000 miles now. Unbelievable! Incomprehensible! We passed highway 27 and our last chance to Resupply before Caratunk. I was a bit nervous about being able to do the miles we would need to do to get there before running out of food, but I sure didn¢t want to carry more food either. The weather forecast had been calling for a thunderstorm, but the sky was bright, blue and clear as we started up onto the bigelow range. We were about a mile and a half from the next shelter when it clouded over. The sky rumbled and then it began to rain. The thunder got louder and louder...and we were climbing! Then lightening. The safest place for us was the shelter, but we still had to climb further up before the trail would bring us back down again to Horns Pond Lean-to. I remembered that there was a lookout at the top, but couldn¢t remember if it was above treeline. My phone doesn¢t work in the rain so I didn¢t even bother trying to check Guthooks. We just kept climbing. Up. Up.We reached a blue blazed trail that led to the viewpoint. Relief! No open area to traverse! Then we started going down.It stopped raining by the time we reached the shelter. Shelters, actually. There were two of them. One had two occupants. One was empty. We took up residence in the empty shelter. A late arrival joined us some time after dark....just a two legged one, thank goodness.
Date: 2018-08-30
From: Horns Pond Lean-to

To: Flagstaff Lake Campsite
Miles today: 12.8
Weather: clear sky

It was a misty morning and everything felt moist. The forecast promised sunshine, so I didn¢t grumble too much. Putting on wet clothing is gross though, and not something I will miss at all! I have to be honest. I was not at all wanting to do this day. Maine has been hard. Not as hard as The Whites, but still, the climbs are taking a tole on me. The day after day after day hiking is wearing me down. Both of us really. With regards to being out here on the trail, Cole has had a positive attitude and has been driven since day one. Though he has a lot he likes to complain about, being out here hasn¢t been one of them. However, lately his attitude has slightly been changing. He will say things like;¢I¢m tired of putting this backpack on. I¢m ready to be done.¢So I will ask, ¢Did you want me to call dad to come?¢¢No, I still want to finish.¢The Bigelows are supposed to be our last big climb. Southbounders had told us that they were difficult. We can look at the elevation on Guthooks or the trail guide, but that doesn¢t tell us what the terrain will be like. Back in the Whites at one of the shelters, there was some banter going on between the NOBOs and the SOBOs. The basic gist of it was, NOBOs shouldn¢t trust SOBOs and visa-versa. It is all about perspective I think. Over 2000 miles of hiking, my perspective has certainly changed. At this point, SOBOs only have a couple of hundred miles under their feet. How they view the difficulty of something might differ greatly from how a NOBO sees it. I had that in the back of my mind, but was still dreading the day. As it turned out, the Bigelows weren¢t so bad after all. A misty morning meant clouds and no views. As we were coming down off of Avery Peak, we came upon two hikers that we had not seen in months; Amazonian and Chomba Womba. I was overjoyed. We stopped and talked and talked. Chomba had taken a fall and they had gotten off trail for a few weeks. Then they flipped up to Katahdin and were now headed south. Surprisingly, seeing them really changed my outlook and attitude for the day. The promised sunshine made an appearance and I am certain that helped too. We found ourselves a lovely unmarked lookout to enjoy our lunch and dry out our sox. Then we set out to attack Little Bigelow Mountain. Not only did it give us a view, but the climb was no big deal. Still, the relatively flat terrain that followed was very welcome.We stopped at a campsite on Flagstaff Lake. The air was quite cool and I was happy for all of my warm layers. In the distance we heard the call of a loon. Then another, closer. I absolutely love that sound. It reminds me of home.
Date: 2018-08-31
From: Flagstaff Lake Campsite

To: Mile 2038.5 Stealth Site
Miles today: 17.9
Weather: overcast clouds

The call of the loon greeted us a we awoke by the lake this morning. It was a nearly perfect day for hiking. It was cold in the morning but warmed up just slightly so that we could hike in t-shirts and be a comfortable temperature. Aside from two easy climbs early in the day, the trail was flatter than we have seen in a month. I couldn¢t believe how quickly the miles ticked by. We crossed swamps on boardwalks, walked around ponds and even crossed a small beach on the shore of a lake. That is where we had our lunch and dipped our feet in the water. We also paused at two different shelters to rest, West Carry Pond Lean-to and Pierce Pond Lean-to. At West Carry Pond there was a big rubber tote labeled ¢treats¢. There was garbage and two rotting apples inside. On top of the tote was a bag of oversized marshmallows. They were soft and fresh. I ate two, but they were so sweet they made me feel ill. Cole gobbled up half a dozen or more.At the start of the day I was thinking to warn Cole to be cautious. On the steep trails we have been so careful about every step, every wet rock and every slippery root. It would be easy to let down your guard when the terrain looks flat and easy. Just as this thought crossed my mind, my foot slid through a slick patch of mud and I fell to the ground, banging my shin on a rock. For the first ten seconds it hurt so much that I was sure that I was finished hiking. Then the pain subsided a bit and I relaxed somewhat. Awkwardly I attempted to stand.....and succeeded. I guess the hike was back on. Cole had watched the whole thing. I guess my tumble took away the need for a verbal warning. Our goal for the day was to get as close to the Kennebec river as possible. You have to take a boat across, but it only runs from 9am to 2pm each day. We wanted to camp close by and catch the 9am boat. A Guthooks user identified a stealth site about a mile from the river and we had our sights set on stopping there. However, when we reached it, it was already occupied by another couple who we hadn¢t seen in months. We ventured about .3 down the trail and found our own stealth. We ate most of the rest of our food, leaving one bagel and a bit of cereal for breakfast, then we were under our covers by 7:30. It was a good day!
Date: 2018-09-01
From: Mile 2038.5 Stealth Site

To: Caratunk 
Miles today: 1.2

¢I¢m excited mom!¢ That is what Cole said this morning as we were hanging out in the tent looking at what is ahead. We might only have 11 days left and a lot of the terrain looks flat. He is so anxious now to get home. I am excited about getting a rest today. We ate the rest of our food and still with rumbles in our tummies we packed up and made our way to the shore of the Kennebec River. We were early. One person was ahead of us. We sat in the sun and chatted as a few more NOBOs showed up. Eventually we could see the canoe being loaded into the water on the opposite shore. Two by two we were ferried across. One hiker had to help paddle and Cole was happy to volunteer. He has paddled before, but it was a long time ago and he didn¢t remember how. He picked it up quickly though. Once we were across, it was a short walk to Caratunk House B&B where we ate pulled pork sandwiches and milkshakes, and have been lazing away the day and planning the remainder of our hike. It¢s exciting to plan these final few days! Our thoughts are, 2 days to Monson and another zero there. I want to give my foot another rest before the 100 mile wilderness. Then, 6-7 days in the 100mw. After that, 1 day to the Katahdin campground and 1 day to summit if the weather is favourable. There it is. The final days laid out. I¢m so excited. I¢m also a lot of other things that I just can¢t describe. Are we really this close? Are we really still so far away? The 100mw sounds daunting. Is it? I guess we are about to find out.151.2 miles to Katahdin
Date: 2018-09-02
From: Caratunk 

To: Bald Mountain Brook Lean-to
Miles today: 14.7

Our stay at Caratunk B&B ended all too soon. Yesterday had been very relaxing. Instead of running around trying to get chores done, everything we needed was all in one place. They had a small Resupply store which was good enough to do us for the two days it will take to get to Monson. I just had to bring down our dirty laundry in the basket they provided and our laundry was done for us. That gave me the opportunity to take an afternoon nap.They offered to take us to a local bar and grill so that we could get dinner, but I didn¢t feel like budging. In the resupply store they had burritos, chips and pop. That was good enough to make Cole happy who was deeply engrossed in a book he had found.This morning, for $7, we had a delicious breakfast.I slept well during the night, but was tired anyway. Cole did not sleep well and was quite tired too as we paid our tab and headed back out on the trail.The weather was beautiful and although we had a bit of climbing to do, the terrain was favourable. Mostly we hiked together in silence, but when Cole spoke, he talked about being tired and having had enough of hiking. When I said that I hoped he would find something enjoyable about our coming final days, he expressed a desire to plow through to the end as quickly as possible. However he was so lacklustre that for most of the day he was content to hike at my speed.Our destination was Bald Mountain Pond Lean-to, but when we reached a shelter four miles before that, Cole asked if we could be done for the day....and if we could stay in the shelter so we didn¢t have to set up the tent....and could he go to bed now. He said that his stomach was upset and he didn¢t even want any dinner. So we stayed, and Cole went straight to bed. Hopefully he will get a good rest and feel better tomorrow.136.5 miles to Katahdin
Date: 2018-09-05
From: Thompson Brook

To: Mile 2101.4
Miles today: 15.7

I messed up. Considerably. It is embarrassing to admit since we have been doing this for over five months now and I should have it down pat. Considering where we are now hiking, I should have been extra careful not to screw up. But I wasn¢t, and now we haven¢t got enough food for 6-7 days through the 100 mile wilderness. We discovered this last night when we noticed that our packages of bagels don¢t have as many in them as the ones we normally buy. Even if they had, I still would have been short. What was I thinking?So, we have a new plan. We need to get to Millinocket by Monday morning at the latest. I have no doubt that Cole can manage this task. I¢m the weakest member of this duo. I¢m also the one who messed up. So, I¢m going to have to work hard and press on with everything I¢ve got. When I hurt, I¢m just going to have to suck it up. We¢ve done these kind of miles before and we¢ll do them again.The first half of the 100mw is the most difficult. We managed almost 16 miles today. We are hoping for the same or better tomorrow.Since we did not stay in town the other day, I was not able to charge my battery pack. I will have to try to keep my entries short for the next few days. Something else happened last night. While Cole was hanging the food, he wacked himself hard in the jaw with a stick. I¢m not sure how it happened. He was doing a PCT hang and had a stick attached to the rope. Anyway, after a considerable amount of howling, he let me look at it. The skin isn¢t broken and he can move his jaw just fine. His teeth look ok too. I thought for a moment that we might be turning around, but I believe he is fine. This morning it was feeling better and there wasn¢t even a bruise. He has decided though that for any future thru hikes we will carry a bear canister.We forded a wide stream first thing in the morning. We climbed mountains. We scrambled along rocks. We hiked past sun down to get the miles in. Cole was beginning to feel anxious as we were climbing up a mountain by the light of our headlamps. A moment after he expressed his worry, we came upon a tent spot right beside the trail. If it had been off the trail, we wouldn¢t have seen it in the dark. We did great today! Pressing on tomorrow.