morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-09-03
From: Gorham, NH

To: Gentian Pond Shelter
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: haze

It's always hard leaving the comforts of town. Our packs are heavy with resupply and we are usually tired because we always stay up too late. But leave, we did; this time with the excitement of crossing the border into Maine to look forward to in another day. While it may sound a bit premature, we are beginning to feel a little bit sad about the end of our journey approaching. We have under 300 miles left to hike to Katahdin, 286.1 to be exact. I remember when Cricket and I made our first marker on the road. It was the 300 mile mark! It seems like such a long time ago.   This morning we got a ride back to the trail from a sweet lady, Tagalong, who is helping her husband, Little John, complete his section hike this year. Congrats, Little John!   Today's hiking was really nice, with no huge climbs to face. We passed 3 ponds with lots of signs of moose around, but no actual sitings. The shelter we are staying in is situated on a 4th pond, so I'm hoping that we may see one in the morning. We did see a snake today, though. I believe it was just a garter snake.   When we got to the shelter, Stripe was already here, cooking dinner. We thought he was ahead of us again! Scotland was also here and another thru-hiking couple. I'll have to get their names in the morning. No one else has arrived yet, so this is probably it for the night. A nice small group. :) Tomorrow, as I said, we cross into Maine. We've heard that the first 30 miles are the toughest of the entire trail! We'll see...
Date: 2003-09-04
From: Gentian Pond Shelter

To: Full Goose Shelter
Miles today: 9.6
Weather: light rain

We want to wish our first-born and the heir to the Leo throne, Mathew, a very happy 30th birthday! We wish we were there to celebrate with you. We love you.   We're in Maine. It's hard. I don't know yet if it is the hardest part of the trail; that we'll find out tomorrow when we do Mahoosuc Notch. But today was no cake walk!    During the night we had a huge thunder storm so the trail was wet and even flooded in some parts. The lichen on the rocks gets very slippery when it's wet, not to mention the roots, rocks and mud. We had several difficult climbs and descents today, so kick them up a notch when you add water.    It was exciting when we reached the stateline marker. There's a sign that reads,"Maine The way life should be", just like on the highway :) Still no moose sightings, though.
Date: 2003-09-05
From: Full Goose Shelter

To: Speck Pond Shelter
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: light rain

I think the translation of "Mahoosuc" is "die, hiker, die". Well, we made it through. Ha! We beat the notch! And then we had to climb Mt. Speck, what a chore after going thru the notch. Today I believe we set a record for fewest miles in the most hours of continuous walking: 5.2 miles in 8.5 hours.    It took us 4.5 hours to crawl over, under and around the huge boulders that have tumbled down into the gorge. It's really a cool place. There are huge cliffs on each side and the rocks and boulders are covered with thick green moss. There are places where you have to crawl thru caves under the rocks. There are other places where you can hear water running underneath the boulders, but you can't see it. The temperature will drop easily 10 degrees in some spots. I heard there is ice in some of the caverns year round. We each had a turn taking a tumble on the slippery rocks. It was definately a tough 1.5 miles!    The shelter we are at is very cool. It sits right on Speck Pond, which is stocked with brook trout. And Bump with no fishing pole! The caretaker is a great young guy. We had met him back at Pinkham Notch when he told us about the stealth campsite we used. Lots of good company too.   Today is Handy Andy's birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad!
Date: 2003-09-06
From: Speck Pond Shelter

To: Grafton Notch
Miles today: 4.6
Weather: scattered clouds

Brrr! Cold night and cold morning! It's so hard to get going when it's cold and your clothes are still wet from sweating the day before. Big sigh... The good thing was we only had 4.6 miles to the road where we were being picked up by the shuttle to The Cabin. Yippee!!! We needed to be there by noon. No problem...except that we didn't get out of camp until 9:00. And there were lots of day hikers with lots of questions. Still, we made it down the mountain and into the parking lot by 12:15. Not bad :) We were met by Wind Walker, a section hiker who was staying at the Cabin. He was helping out Bear and Honey by shuttling us. Sean-O's friend and mentor, Liz aka Tiger Lilly (GA-ME 02) had told us about The Cabin and recommended it as a great hostel. She also mentioned their shuttle service just in case we might want to consider a few days of, Heaven forbid, SLACKING!   The Cabin is, indeed, a great place. The host and hostess, Honey and Bear, are just wonderful. The accomodations are great and the food is even better! I think we're gonna like it here :) Best of all, Tiger Lilly herself showed up to welcome us to Maine! She came bearing gifts of ice cream, snacks and lobsters for dinner! She is awesome! It's nice to be in our home state and to be able to share the fun with new friends.
Date: 2003-09-07
From: Grafton Notch

To: East B Hill Road
Miles today: 10.3

Slackers, we're slackers. No, scratch that. We're "freedom hikers". As Bear puts it, by the time you reach Mahoosuc, the rules change. He's right.    We started the day with an incredible breakfast of blueberry pancakes, bacon, homefries, melon, biscuits, coffee and juice. Mmmm-mmmmm :)We headed out to the trail and hiked up and over Bald Pate Mountain. It was really beautiful--the sun was shining and the sky was blue. We hiked with Wind Walker, which was very nice. He's hiked a lot of Maine and we got to get his opinion about some of the upcoming trail, especially the 100-mile wilderness.   Bald Pate is an interesting hike. The mountain is crowned with a solid rock surface, not technically above treeline, but still with an alpine atmosphere. The views were beautiful, overlooking a lake in the distance. The descent on the other side was a little hairy for awhile. Again, those flat rock faces with no footholds.    We were nearly down, when Bump took a digger. He was trying to walk down one of those rock faces when there was just no traction to be had. His feet slid out from under him and as he put his hand out to stop his slide, he caught his thumb on the rough surface of the rock. It pulled half of the nail away from the fingertip. OUCH!!! We wrapped my bandana around it and he continued down the mountain. Fortunately we didn't have too much further to go. We passed a cascading waterfall in a gorge and then it was out to the road and back to the cabin.    Ah, hot showers, clean dry clothes and another great dinner. What a day :)
Date: 2003-09-08
From: East B Hill Road

To: South Arm Road
Miles today: 10.1

Tiger Lilly had to go home this morning, so she gave us a ride to the trailhead. I think she would have liked to hike with us, at least for a little while. She's a wonderful friend and I'm so glad we finally got to meet in person.   We "freedom hiked" again today. It is such a nice break from humping up and down mountains with 30-35 pounds on your back. We can actually enjoy the hike and get back to the cabin early enough to clean up, relax and eat a real meal. Not to mention sleep in a real bed and have all the luxuries of home.   We hiked over Wyman Mountain first. On the way up we met 2 southbound thru-hikers! I can't believe these guys are still coming. Hopefully these are the last ones; it's really getting too late to be heading into the Whites now. Two of the huts close on Sept. 15, Lakes of the Clouds and Madison, because the weather becomes so unpredictable. They are the two huts on each side of Mt. Washington and the whole area is above treeline. I understand the "dungeon" at Lakes is available as emergency shelter, but who wants to be stuck there? Anyway, I hope these guys get through quickly and safely.   We stopped for lunch at Hall Mountain Lean-to and met up with Mello Yellow, Hepcat, Cornpatch, Kodiak and a couple of others, all slacking sobo. They warned us about Moody Mountain being a tough climb. So, onward and upward we went. It wasn't that bad at all, maybe because we weren't carrying the weight. :) There were some iron rungs to climb up on and a couple of ladders, but we've certainly seen worse. We actually did our old comfortable 2 miles per hour today. It's been a long time since we've been able to do that kind of time. We are fast approaching the end of this journey; only 246.4 miles to the "Special K". Yikes!
Date: 2003-09-09
From: South Arm Road

To: Route 17
Miles today: 13.0

Another great day for hiking--cool and bright. Believe it or not, we met 2 more southbound (sobo) thru-hikers! I can't believe these guys are still coming. The first one we picked up hitching as we were driving to the trailhead this morning. Honey was taking us north to Rt 17 so we could hike sobo over Beamis and Old Blue Mtns. We saw Crash Test Dummy trying to hitch, so Honey stopped to pick him up. He started hiking in Canada on the International AT! He had hurt his leg on a blowdown (a tree that has fallen across the trail) and it got infected. He was advised to take a couple of days off, but can't afford to zero right now, so he was planning to slackpack 23 miles! Honey invited him to dinner and to watch their tape of Earl Shaffer's interview with CBS from 1998. He blew right by us when we started hiking.   When we got to the lean-to for lunch, we met Spoon, the other sobo hiker. He is very sweet and very tall--6'8"!   He was interested in any info we could share about getting through the Whites, etc.   Later, as we were hiking over Old Blue we ran into all the hikers from yesterday: Radar, Mello Yellow, Cornpatch, Hepcat, Kodiack, and a girl I don't know. Then we met Groovy and 2 friends back on the trail after a side trip to Portland. There were 1 or 2 other thru-hikers and a couple of section hikers also on the trail. It was a busy day! Most days we can hike all day and not see anyone.    When we got back to the cabin, we heard Mountain Butterfly was coming in. Small trail world! Crash Test and Spoon took Honey up on her invitation to dinner, so we got to see them again over roast turkey! After an incredible meal, we watched the tape of Earl Shaffer. He was the first person to thru-hike the AT in 1948, then I believe the first to hike it sobo, and finally the oldest person to thru-hike in 1998 at 79 years of age. He was quite a character and a good friend of Honey and Bear. He stayed with them in '98 and they have lots of pictures, etc. Earl died last year, but will always be a trail legend. It was neat to watch the video; it was filmed here in Maine at Caratunk. We'll be there in about a week. How cool is that?   We still haven't seen a moose :( but tomorrow we hike by 3 or 4 ponds, so maybe...
Date: 2003-09-10
From: Route 17

To: ME 4, Rangeley
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: clear sky

Well, we finally had to pull ourselves away from Honey and Bear and the Cabin. We've "freedom hiked" enough for awhile and it's time to get back to serious work. Putting on our full packs felt strange and HEAVY!    Honey shuttled us back to the trail and it was on to Rangeley to meet Bump's ride. He has to go back to work at the Civic Center for a few days. It's time to put the ice in for the hockey season and they just installed a brand new cooling unit. We are keeping our fingers crossed that it works when they fire it up so that he can get the ice in and painted quickly. Then he will meet us in Caratunk to finish the trail.    Meanwhile, Sean-O and I will hike on. Scary thought isn't it? No Flying Cricket to navigate for us and no Bump to look out for us! I guess after all these miles, we can manage a few days on our own. My biggest gripe is adding 3 pounds of tent to my pack    Tonight we are staying at Gull Pond Lodge. Mr. O'Brian, the proprietor, is very nice. He even puts mints on the pillows! He picked us up at the post office and then gave us a ride back into town to eat dinner and get groceries. Tomorrow, we'll get a ride to the post office so Sean-O can check on his 2 missing(?) boxes and then we'll head back to the trail. Next stop...Stratton!      Hurry back, Bump! We miss you already.
Date: 2003-09-11
From: ME 4, Rangeley

To: Poplar Ridge Lean-to
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Today was my first day on the trail without Bump or Flying Cricket. I'm really glad I am hiking with Sean-O, it would have been very strange to hike and camp by myself. It was especially nice to be with him because I didn't feel well after lunch.   We were hiking along just fine all morning. The trail wasn't bad and the weather was a little bit warm. We stopped for lunch at a logging road, knowing that we had to climb Saddleback, the Horn and Saddleback Jr. afterward.   It was going up Saddleback that I started to have trouble. I felt shaky and weak and my stomach was queasy. Sean-O was very sweet and waited when I would have to stop and even take my pack off. We had hiked out with Buckeye and Cornpatch and had even passed them in the morning; but I couldn't keep up with them in the afternoon. We climbed slowly, but eventually made it to the summit. I stopped to rest for a couple of minutes and started to feel better.   As we continued to hike, I was able to rest on the downs and just took my time going up. At the Horn, we caught up with the guys and I was feeling much better. I think I just got overheated after eating. I'm fine tonight. Go figure!   It's really weird to be tenting all by myself. There was room in the shelter, but it has the old log style floor which didn't feel very comfortable. So, I decided since I'm carrying the darn tent I might as well sleep in it. Besides there were little mice running all around the place! Now, as long a moose doesn't come thru and walk over me during the night, I should be fine :)
Date: 2003-09-12
From: Poplar Ridge Lean-to

To: Stealth site near stream
Miles today: 11.5

I survived my first night "alone". Of course I was tenting right next to the shelter where Sean-O, Cornpatch and Buckeye were. But still, no moose walked over me nor bears carried me away nor even little mice got in my tent to harrass me. So, I would call my first night alone a success.   Today, we had a pretty good day of hiking. I felt much better and after a breakfast of "raw" poptarts and an apple, Sean-O and I headed out. We climbed to Poplar Ridge and crossed some great streams. It reminded us of the early days down south where there were streams everywhere.    Then it was up and over Lone Mountain where we stopped for lunch. There wasn't any view, but we found a good log to sit on. Ah, the simple pleasures of trail life :) Next we kind of skirted around Mt. Abraham and then up Spaulding Mountain. There was a bronze plaque on a big boulder to commemorate the completion of the AT in 1937. It was conveniently placed at 199.8 miles from Katahdin! We are now officially less than 200 miles from the Big K! Of course pictures were in order, but since it was only the 2 of us, they're pretty boring. Oh well.   We are now camped on the side of Sugarloaf Mountain. There is a very steep down facing us first thing in the morning and Sean-O felt we should stop for the night before tackling it. He was pretty tired this afternoon. We found a small clearing right beside the trail and another flat spot on the other side. There is a small side trail that loops through the trees and comes out right beside my tent. There are moose tracks on it. Uh-oh! I pitched my tent as far to the side as I could fit it. Hopefully, if Bullwinkle decides to take the shortcut tonight, he'll miss me! Yikes!!!
Date: 2003-09-13
From: Stealth site near stream

To: ME 27, Stratton
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Once again, I survived tenting in moose country! I'm pretty sure we did have visitors during the night, though. I heard heavy steps and a snorting-kind of noise in the middle of the night sometime, but I didn't peek out of my tent. This morning there were some fresh tracks just down the trail from our campsite!   The steep descent we were dreading turned out to be well-built and was not a problem for us at all. We got down to the Carabassett River in good time and hopped across it on the rocks. I decided to forgo getting water there in favor of the stream at the campsite a mile and a half up the mountain. We were looking at the big climb up the Crocker Mountains and, boy do I hate carrying ANY extra weight!    At the top of South Crocker, we were hoping to see Katahdin, and maybe we did-they all look alike to me! Then it was up another half-mile to North Crocker. After that it was all downhill. At the road, we met Rock Dancer ('97) who was doing trail magic and ofered us a ride to town. We actually had some magic already in place for us. Ramblin' Rose had left his car at the trailhead and had offered us the use of it while we were in town!    We tried to figure out a way to slack over the Bigelow Range, but couldn't come up with a workable solution. So, it's up and out early in the morning with full packs. Ooh, my aching back!   By the way, my daughter, Sara has been loading pictures like crazy lately, so be sure to check them out. Thanks, my bella baby!
Date: 2003-09-14
From: ME 27, Stratton

To: Safford Notch Campsite
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Once again I had to pull myself away from town and the desire to take a zero day. We had made arrangements to meet Cornpatch for breakfast at 7:00 and then give him a ride back to the trailhead with us. We also picked up Heather and her dog, Zeke.    Sean-O and I had planned a short but tough 10 miles over Bigelow Mountain for the day. It's the last climb over 4000 feet until Katahdin! There are still some good climbs ahead, but not for a little while. :)   We had some spectacular views on the way up and over the peaks. The gorgeous Flagstaff Lake was on our left almost all day. It's huge! All around us were mountain ranges. I never realized how many mountains we have in Maine. It really was beautiful. The trees are changing colors here already, so there are yellow, orange and red patches across the mountainsides.   We ran into Jack on the Mountain this afternoon. He had flip-flopped at Hanover, NH, and is now heading south to complete his hike. The last time we saw him was at Delaware Water Gap. You just never know who you'll run into out here!      Tonight we are camped with Cornpatch near the base of Little Bigelow Mountain. Tomorrow we'll make the climb over it and then it looks like relatively smooth sailing for a little while. Of course, I've learned not to trust the books, maps or other hikers. They all lie. We all say, "You're almost there and it's all downhill after that." :)
Date: 2003-09-15
From: Safford Notch Campsite

To: West Carry Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 12.2
Weather: clear sky

Last night I forgot to describe the approach trail to the campsite. It was a miniature version of my favorite--Mahoosuc Notch! First, the trail was littered with branches, stumps and downed trees. Add to that a little mud and some roots. Finally, throw in the rocks. Not normal everyday kind of rocks, although those were there, too. I'm talking gigantic boulders! There was even a rock tunnel to go through. It was really a cool place. Excuse the pun when I say "cool". As you go by these wonderful huge boulders all toppled on top of each other, you can feel very cold air coming up from underneath them. There are holes and little caves between them. It gives you a feeling of mystery about the place. There have been several areas along the trail like that lately.   As for today, we conquered Little Bigelow Mountain. The views this morning were so interesting. It was very humid and at first there was a thick cloud cover over the notches. We were up above the clouds and could see the mountain peaks we've been climbing over the past few days. As we would get to the next viewpoint, the clouds had started to lift and shift. Each time, we could see more of the lakes and valleys.    We stopped for lunch at Little Bigelow Lean-to. The official mileage from Springer Mtn, GA to the lean-to is 2000.1! Congrats to everyone who made it this far, you are "2000 milers" now! I have a few miles to make up before I can claim that title. Later, when we got to Long Falls Dam Road, they have painted "2000 mi" on the road! Photo op :)   There is a loon singing on the lake tonight. Cornpatch has been waiting to hear one. It's a much more pleasant sound than the whip-or-wills (sp?) we heard in Virginia!   Tomorrow we head for the canoe ferry across the Kennebec River. I've read about it so many times, it's one of the trip highlights for me. Can't wait :)
Date: 2003-09-16
From: West Carry Pond Lean-to

To: US 201, Caratunk
Miles today: 14.0

It was starting to rain when I got my wake-up call this morning. Nothing like a few big fat raindrops on your tent to get you moving. Yawn...   I had agreed to a 6:30 alarm so that we could get a jump on the gang all headed to Caratunk. There's one B&B in town and we wanted it! We were on the trail at the record-breaking(?) time of 7:40. Yes, that's a.m. And we were flying. We got to Pierce Pond Lean-to at 11:40, 10 miles in 4 hours! After all this time, I finally made it into the "10 by 12" club. That's 10 miles by noon :) Yeehaw, I guess I'm a real hiker now.   At Pierce Pond, you make the decision about whether you can make the ferry across the Kennebec River or not. The ferry runs from 9-11 and 3-5. You cannot ford the river because the dam could be released at any time. Anyway, if you don't think you can make the 3.6 miles to the river by the last run (or if you don't want to), the plan is to walk 1/2 mile to Harrison Campground and make a reservation for a hiker-sized breakfast in the the morning. Then you catch the ferry on the first run.    Because we wanted to beat the gang to the B&B and because the rain now torrential, we had already decided to skip the breakfast and go on into town. So we stopped just for lunch and everyone eventually caught up with us as we waited for 1:00 to roll around so we could do the 3 miles to the river.    We made it pretty clear that we intended to be on that first ferry run at 3:00! Cornpatch had just discovered that the ferry was a canoe! I'm not sure how comfortable he was with that idea! Sean-O and I were the first to grab our packs at 1:00 and dash back out into the rain. Again, we were speeding along, slipping and sliding on wet rocks and roots.   The trail here is actually very beautiful. It follows along the pond and then along a stream that slowly builds to some pretty waterfalls and finally feeds into the Kennebec River. We had to cross one small creek via a two-log bridge. It was perhaps 4 feet high and very slippery. I hate those things on dry days! But, we made it.   When we got to the river, there was a couple from Portland, Schooner and Glisten, already waiting. They are doing some section-hiking. The ferryman had to bring to hikers from the north side across first. Oops, make that ferrywoman! A lovely and very capable canoeist, she did an excellent job navigating the strong current. We all waited our turns. This was a high-point for me. I've read so many books about the AT and each talked about the ferry. It's still hard to believe I'm really here and doing this sometimes!   At any rate, we made it across and into town and succeeded in securing the last spaces at the B&B/Hostel, the Caratunk House. We missed the post office, but plan to zero tomorrow and wait for Bump to rejoin us. The adventure continues...