morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2015-09-01
From: Gorham, NH

To: Gorham, NH
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: broken clouds

Slack packed the Wildcats today. Rough section! Soggy, Pocket, and Hollywood all decided not to slack. Bummer. Left about 8:00am and didn¢t get back till 8:30pm. Went pretty hard the whole day. Exhausted. Showered and had a pop tart for dinner. Crashing out.
Date: 2015-09-02
From: Gorham, NH

To: Dream Lake
Miles today: 9.7
Weather: scattered clouds

Up for breakfast at the hostel. Delicious breakfast burritos. Planned to make it to Maine today but didn¢t make it. Didn¢t leave Gorham till noon and legs feel terrible. It wasn¢t a good idea to not have a decent dinner last night. I think I¢d feel much better had I eaten better. My pack is super heavy from resupply as well which doesn¢t help. Took 7 hours to go 9.7 miles. Feasted on pasta with salami, trail mix and pop tarts. Passed 1900 miles today! Supposed to rain tomorrow.
Date: 2015-09-03
From: Dream Lake

To: Speck Pond Shelter
Miles today: 16.8
Weather: overcast clouds

On trail by 7:30am. Hiked the two miles to Gentian Shelter with Rambo then we parted ways. I have to finish before she does and she doesn¢t want to have to race which is understandable. She is going to wait at the shelter for Pocket, Soggy and Hollywood. Definitely going to miss hiking together. Really long day. Lots of climbs. Crossed into Maine!! Had some thunder and lightning and it started raining as I was climbing Goose Eye Mountain. It¢s a bald mountain so I didn¢t feel too good about being up there with lightning, but turned out alright. Completed Mahoosuc Notch which is considered the hardest mile of the entire Appalachian Trail. I definitely agree. It¢s a notch with just a bunch of giant boulders to climb over, under and through. Everything being wet from the rain didn¢t help. Took hours to get through all of it. The climb up Mahoosuc Arm after the notch was awful as well. Super steep. Made it to the shelter at dark. The shelter is full of day hikers so I¢m cowboy camping on a tent platform. Met a SOBO who had been hiking with Gorp Gobbler! Turns out Gorp Gobbler knew he wasn¢t going to make it to Katahdin before Oct 15 so he flipped. Unfortunately he took a fall during a river ford and had to leave trail. Quite a bummer to hear. It¢s getting cold. Going to get ready for bed. Had too hard falls today. Might be feeling them in the morning. Saw Bernard while I was getting water. He said he¢s leaving at 4:00am tomorrow if I want to go with him. Not going to make it that early.
Date: 2015-09-04
From: Speck Pond Shelter

To: Hall Mt Shelter
Miles today: 20.9

Saw Bernard leaving at quarter after four. I went back to bed for a couple hours. 2 more hard falls today. So far Maine isn¢t treating me too well. Steep climbs and steep descents today. No fun. My water filter is going super slow and back flushing is not fixing it. It is getting really frustrating. Long day. Legs are sore and tired. Looking forward to some flatter terrain. Baldpate Mt was tough. Some super deep mud pits! Maine is famous for their mud and I now know why. Hiked alone all day. The few people I saw during breaks were not very friendly. Getting really annoyed with people today. It¢s after dark and I¢m the only one at the shelter. Kind of spooky. There is still a lot of downed trees and forest damage from the hurricane years ago.
Date: 2015-09-05
From: Hall Mt Shelter

To: Sabbath Day Pond Shelter
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: scattered clouds

Bilbo and Papa Oats rolled in later last night. Bernard and his dog Sheila rolled up this morning while I was eating breakfast. I passed him while he was in town getting resupply. Bernard and I passed each other a handful of times today. The first 7 mile today pretty tough. Steep descent then 1400 foot climb in 0.8 miles. The rest of the day was rough ups and downs. Saw some SOBOs. I didn¢t slip and fall today but I smashed my head so hard on a downed tree that I fell over. The footing was so rough that I was looking down and didn¢t even see the tree across the trail. From the looks of the tree I¢m definitely not the first one. Made it to the shelter a little before dark. Quite a few people camping but have the shelter to myself. Haven¢t seen Bernard since the last time I passed him 8 miles ago. Ready for some sleep.
Date: 2015-09-06
From: Sabbath Day Pond Shelter

To: Woods Road
Miles today: 22.9

Bernard made it to the shelter around 10 last night. I was already sleeping. Saw him come in then fell right back to sleep. Hiking by 6:30 this morning. The first 10 miles were pretty easy. Stopped at the Hiker Hut briefly for a mail drop. It¢s less than a mile off trial. Then climbed Saddle Back Mountain. Great view! Felt a crunch in my knee on the way down. Bothered me pretty much the rest of the day. Hope it isn¢t serious. There was another river ford today but like the first it was just rock hopping since the water was so low. Found a nice camping spot. 18.7 miles to Stratton tomorrow. Looks like some tough terrain but I¢m hoping to get there fairly early. We¢ll see.
Date: 2015-09-07
From: Woods Road

To: Stratton, ME
Miles today: 18.7
Weather: broken clouds

Didn¢t sleep well. Had nightmares. Don¢t really remember what they were just that they were unsettling. Up at 4:30am and on the trail by 6:00am. Tough day. Lots of climbing. Crossed 2000 miles today! Made it to the road to Stratton about 3:30pm. Quick hitch into town. Shower felt great! Haven¢t showered since New Hampshire. Had the famous Wolf Burger at the White Wolf Inn and picked up some beer. Found my first Maine geocache. Relaxing the rest of the night.
Date: 2015-09-09
From: Stratton, ME

To: Little Bigelow Shelter
Miles today: 15.3
Weather: broken clouds

Slept in till 7:00am. Had some oatmeal showered and left. Stopped at the gas station looking for smart water bottles and pop tarts. They didn¢t have smart water or boxes of pop tarts. They did have two individual pop tarts that I picked up. Easy hitch from a couple in a camper back to the trail. Hiking by 9:00am. Big climbs today. Super windy on the bald summits. Met ¢Five¢ today. He¢s rocking a 90 liter pack. I haven¢t seen a pack bigger than my 85 liter in months. I wonder if he has gotten as much crap from other hikers about having a gigantic pack as I have. Pretty short day today. I got to the shelter by 5:30pm. It is supposed to rain tonight so I didn¢t continue on. Heard rumor of some trail magic a couple miles up. We¢ll see tomorrow.
Date: 2015-09-10
From: Little Bigelow Shelter

To: Pleasant Pond Shelter
Miles today: 27.4

Up early and on the trail by 5:30am. Too early for the trail magic breakfast but there was a bag with some snacks and a note so I took a protein bar and a snickers and continued on. Needed to go 21 miles to the Kenebec river by 4:00pm to catch the ferry across. Made it there about 2:30pm. The ferry is a canoe. Pretty cool. It¢s been in service longer than the AT has been here. Started for hunters to get across the river. The ferry operator said it¢s too expensive and dangerous to build a bridge so they continue with the ferry. I enjoyed it. Did another 6.6 miles to the shelter. Started raining just before I got to the shelter. I had wanted to do 30 miles today but with the rain, the next water source not for 6 miles and a steep 1000 foot climb I decided to stay here. I¢m glad I did. It¢s raining pretty steady now. A big rocky climb wouldn¢t be fun right now. 3 guys I haven¢t met before are here. They said it¢s supposed to rain all night and day. I¢m not sure how far I¢ll make it tomorrow. It¢s 30 miles to Monson, the last town before the 100 mile wilderness.
Date: 2015-09-11
From: Pleasant Pond Shelter

To: Dirt Road Near Monson
Miles today: 28.1

Rained all last night. Still raining this morning when I left the shelter. Two big climbs this morning. The second, Moxie Bald Mountain, was easier than the first. I was worried at first because I saw a summit bypass trial. Normally if there is a bypass trail it¢s a rough summit, but this one wasn¢t bad at all. Had two river fords today. Knee and thigh deep. Almost fell but caught myself last second. The rest of the day was pretty flat. Muddy but flat. I passed the last lean to about 5 and decided to try to make it to Monson and do a 30 mile day. That didn¢t happen. I got close but it got dark and my head lamp started flickering and dimming. With no extra batteries I decided to find a spot to pitch to avoid getting stuck in the dark without a light. Found a decent spot on a dirt road. Hearing strange noises in the woods. Some critters are out there. Crashing before my batteries give up.
Date: 2015-09-12
From: Dirt Road Near Monson

To: Monson, ME
Miles today: 2.9
Weather: light rain

Up and on trail by 6:30am. Easy 3 miles to road. I couldn¢t catch a hitch so I ended up walking the few miles to town. Staying at Shaw¢s Hostel. Great hostel. Cool people, clean, reasonably priced and really good resupply and gear shop. I picked up some Aqua Mira. I¢m sick of my filter not working so I¢m going to use chemical water purification for the rest of the trail. I enter the 100 mile wilderness tomorrow. Slim is here as well. We are going to hike the wilderness together. Will be nice to hike with someone again. There was also a hiker feed today. Free lunch and dinner. Great people! Catching 7:00am shuttle back to the trial tomorrow.
Date: 2015-09-13
From: Monson, ME

To: Cloud Pond Shelter
Miles today: 19.1

Caught 7:00am shuttle with Slim from Chuckles. Hiking by 7:15am. It was raining when we woke up and rained lightly for a few hours. Pretty muddy and had a few river fords. Ran into some trail magic. Some older guy brought us to his hunting cabin and cooked us up some brats and homemade baked beans. His son had hiked a number of years ago and he does trail magic in his memory. Really nice guy. Spent about an hour there before continuing on. Big climb to end the day. Hand full of people at the shelter. Got here right at dark. Less than 100 miles to go!
Date: 2015-09-14
From: Cloud Pond Shelter

To: Sidney Tappan Campsite
Miles today: 18.6
Weather: clear sky

Rained all night then on and off most of the day. On trail by 7:00am. Rough terrain in the morning. Slim broke his trekking pole. Shortly before lunch Slim said he couldn¢t keep up and told me to go ahead. That was quite a bummer. I liked hiking with Slim. Really cool guy but he doesn¢t have a deadline and unfortunately I do. Originally planned to do 24 miles but the terrain did not cooperate with that plan. Big climb to end the day. Decent campsite. Started raining while making dinner. Sick of rain and mud. Plan to be on trail by 6 tomorrow. Might be able to do 30 miles. Would love to get at least one 30 mile day. We¢ll see. Plan to summit on the 18th.
Date: 2015-09-15
From: Sidney Tappan Campsite

To: Potaywadjo Shelter
Miles today: 28.5
Weather: clear sky

Didn¢t get on trial until 6:30am. Long day. Climbed West Peak, Hay Mountain and White Cap Mountain. Tried to make travel arrangements home in a small pocket of cell reception but reception kept cutting out before I could do anything useful. Guess I¢ll deal with it after I summit. After messing around with that for 45 minutes climbed Little Boardman Mountain. The rest was pretty flat. Hoping for 29.7 miles tomorrow if my legs are up to it. Hope to get out early tomorrow. Tired and in bed and it¢s not even 8:00pm yet. Big miles are wearing me out.
Date: 2015-09-16
From: Potaywadjo Shelter

To: Spring near Hurd Brook Shelter
Miles today: 30.2
Weather: clear sky

First day over 30 miles! Made it in about 12 hours. Long day. Only took breaks to get water. Only two substantial climbs one 800 feet and the other 500 feet. Did 10 miles by 10 am. I wanted to do that at least once as well. 12.9 miles to the Birches tomorrow. Then summit Friday! I¢m ready to be done. Still not sure how I¢m getting home after I summit. Hope it works out.
Date: 2015-09-17
From: Spring near Hurd Brook Shelter

To: Katahdin!
Miles today: 18.1

Easy trail to Abol Bridge Campground. Stopped there for breakfast and to pick up some extra food then entered Baxter State Park. A couple hairyish river crossings. Made it to the Birches Campsite (base of Katahdin) by 11:30am. Checking in at the ranger station I talked to one of the rangers and decided to go ahead and try to summit today. Beautiful day and plenty of light left. My legs are not happy with that decision. Rough climb up with some false peaks. Pretty windy and exposed. Made it to the summit at 2:34pm. Slow rough descent. My knees hate me. Total day mileage of 23.3 with descent. Met Yogi Bear and Hooter at the summit. They had a ride coming at 6:00pm and offered to give me a ride to Millinocket. Turns out they were going past Bangor so they took me all the way to a hotel in Bangor. Thank you!! I was able to find a flight out in the morning back to Wisconsin. It still hasn¢t sunk in that I have completed the Appalachian Trail.
Date: 2015-03-20
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

It¢s hard to believe it has only been 10 months since my first week of hiking on the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina with some friends. We hiked all of the miles between Albert Mountain and the Great Smoky National Park boundary at Fontana Dam. Even though I was hooked on hiking after only a couple days, a Thru-Hike was never on my radar screen and still not something I thought I ever wanted to do. However, as the miles hiked by, I kept asking myself ¢Why not? What am I resisting?¢ I had quit my job two years earlier to take some time to experience all of the things I could never do while working. So why not hike the AT? Best case: I summit Mt. Katahdin. Worse case: I continue the AT section hike I had already started. So here I am . . . a week away from the eve of when I will hike the Approach Trail to Springer Mountain and then start the AT. It is exciting and intimidating all at once. This will definitely be one of, if not the most difficult challenge I have ever attempted.I have never been one to share my activities in a public forum. However, I have learned so much from reading about other hikers¢ experiences via trail journals and blogs over the past several months that I decided I needed to pay it forward and hopefully help someone else or at least provide a way for family and friends to keep track of me. So let the adventure begin!
Date: 2015-03-21
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

My goal is to start Springer Mountain with a pack that weighs less than 30 lbs including cold weather gear which I can hopefully shed after the Great Smoky Mountains. I have spent hours and hours over analyzing what to bring, weighing everything on my food scale and logging it into a spreadsheet. So I went to Travel Country yesterday for a pack shake down. My pack weighed 27.8 lbs excluding water. I felt pretty good about my starting point but knew I needed some pointers on packing my gear more efficiently. Brian spent two hours with my friend and me going over our gear and ensuring anything we bring either keeps us safe, warm / dry, feeds or hydrates us. Otherwise, we should consider leaving the item behind. We did pretty well overall. My biggest excess was having my gear in a separate bag or stuff sack. He pointed out that even though the stuff sacks weigh only a few ounces collectively, we wouldn¢t want to carry a rock of the same weight on our hike just for the sake of carrying it. So why would we carry the weight in stuff sacks. Also, the stuff sacks make the items less packable because they create a dense, less malleable item in the backpack. I like to pack things separately for hygiene purposes. Anything that touches my feet would never touch anything that touches my head . . . it is always separated in a bag. So when Brian suggested I could dry my cooking pot with a sock instead of my micro towel since I would be boiling water in the pot anyway, I had to hold back a gasp which I hoped was inaudible. But he made a valid point and my sock touching my cooking pot will probably be the least of my concerns on the trail. Still a major paradigm shift for me. My running friends gave me a ¢survival kit¢ today as a sendoff after my last Saturday long run until I complete the trail. I am not sure how I will justify the weight of the items, but the kit was funny and I will definitely miss my Saturday group runs while on the trail. I will post my final pack weight once I get a few more things finalized.
Date: 2015-03-27
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Today I arrived at Amicalola Falls State Park with Susiwellness who is hiking with me for the first 10 days and Ann Marie was kind enough to drive us here and join us for the first hike. It was a long drive but happy to finally be here. Tomorrow we hike the approach trail and the first mile from Springer Mountain. It's chilly and windy and is expected to be 28 degrees tomorrow morning. Great hiking temps up a mountain! Looking forward to getting started!!
Date: 2015-03-28
From: Amicalola Falls State Park

To: Mile 1 - USFS 42
Miles today: 9.8

Finally started hiking today! I registered at the AFSP visitor Center and got my first AT Passport stamp. Then Susiwellness, Ann Marie and Jason hiked the Approach Trail to Springer Mountain and the first mile on the AT. It was a good climb, especially the 604 stairs up to the waterfall. Starting temperature was around 27 degrees and a little breezy. It warmed up a little and turned into a beautiful day for hiking. We finished in 5 1/2 hours at a comfortable pace. Great first day!Thanks to Ron's Shuttle Service for his helpful info and awesome service! We hiked faster than expected but Ron was already there waiting for us based on or update texts so we weren't waiting in the cold.
Date: 2015-03-29
From: Mile 1 - USFS 42

To: Gooch Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: clear sky

After our friend dropped us off at the first mile after Springer, we started hiking in chilly 27 degrees. First few miles is beautiful! We passed a tent someone left with "free to good home. This place is hell" written on it. Perfect weather day for hiking but controlled burn made air smokey. Cooked a couscous lunch by a stream just before Hawk Mtn Shelter. Ash started falling as smoke got worse. Met a mom and young 8-9 yr old son thru hiking the trail while dad and 3 other kids stayed home. Wow!Tough climb up Sassafras Mtn but descent hurt more.. Finally arrived at Gioch Mtn Shelter. Packed! Tents everywhere. Found spot and with managed to set tent up. Not the best stakeout but hopefully good enough for tonight. Rain is forecasted for tomorrow. Feet and shoulders tired but good day. The guy next to me snored loudly!
Date: 2015-03-30
From: Gooch Mountain Shelter

To: Neels Gap
Miles today: 15.9
Weather: scattered clouds

Rough, sleepless night filled with very loud snoring, thunder, lightning and rain.   Worried about tent getting soaked since I had to set up on an incline. Fortunately my tent kept me dry even though it's brand new condition is now initiated with mud spatters. We headed out unsure whether to hike 8 miles or go for 16 since you need a hard bear canister to camp between Jarrard Gap and angels Gap. It was longer than we wanted to hike but after receiving our first trail magic at Woody's Gap (Gatorade & Sun Chips never tasted so good!) and were able to found out there was a good chance we could stay in a cabin at Neels Gap, we were motivated and plowed through 11.5 more miles including amazing ascent, views and tough descent at Blood Mountain. We were rewarded at the end with an awesome trail magic pasta dinner with salad, muffins, candy and drinks at Neels Gap! And an available cabin at Blood Mountain Cabins. Trail life is good!
Date: 2015-03-31
From: Neels Gap

To: Poplar Stamp Gap
Miles today: 12.9
Weather: clear sky

Surprisingly, a bed doesn't guarantee good sleep as we didn't sleep any better than the night before in the thunder and snore storm. But we started off on a high - showered, clean clothes, dry gear! Our packs weighed in around approx 28 lbs. I got my AT Passport stamped at Mountain Crossings and we passed under the shoe tree and headed on our way. Beautiful warm day! I should have worn a tee-shirt! Amazing view at Wolf Laurel Top and Cowrock Mountain. Even more amazing trail magic at Tesnatee Gap where Kingtutt and his group gave us chairs to sit in, cold sodas, chips, snacks, and hand knit caps. The ladies at his church knit 1200 caps for hikers each year. A young girl hiking with her mom interviewed Kingtutt about why he does trail magic for her school project. He said it's because he loves God and hikers. The sugar was a big morale booster which propelled us up Wildcat Mountain. A few miles later the sugar high wore off and lack of sleep took its toll as we trudged up and down Poor Mountain and Sheep Rock Top. The trade off for nice weather is bugs. Fortunately I brought my fashionable bug net. The descent to Low Gap felt like an eternity but then we only had to go 1.4 miles to Poplar Stamp Gap, our camping designation. Unfortunately a large family occupied the main camp site and we had to follow the water source trail where we found a campsite further away than we had hoped. Spirits tired and low we set up tents,pumped water and cooked dinner. Finally laying down in tent felt good! Funny how a "short" hike can still hurt as much at the end as a short run! The ups and downs of hikingFor my marathon friends - we are 2 marathons down, 82 to go!
Date: 2015-04-01
From: Poplar Stamp Gap

To: Tray Mountain Shelter 
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: clear sky

Finally a better nights sleep ... Not sound but more continuous than the previous two nights. We lucked out with our campsite because we were more protected from the wind gusts. The occupants of our first site choice said it was really windy all night (31 mph and hail had been predicted). Fortunately we only heard thunder and woke up dry. Beautiful warm day for hiking!! My pack didn't feel so bad either! Great variety and scenic part of the trail! Some tough climbs and descents but it was the best we felt so far. An awesome group had trail magic at Unicoi Gap - hot dogs, chili, chips, apples, clementines, bars, drinks, Easter candy, homemade cookies and peppermint patties and lawn chairs!! We enjoyed a rest eating and chatting with the group. It fueled our climb up Rocky Mountain. Some poor hiker dropped his or her homemade peppermint patty a few feet up the trail from trail magic. Still wrapped it was sad to see it go to waste so I picked it up and ate it! Who am I?? In just 48 hours I have wiped dirt from my hands and then ate, happily accepted and eaten junk food from strangers, dropped my spork in the dirt, forgot and ate with it, left camp forgetting to brush my teeth and now ate someone's dropped (but wrapped) peppermint patty off the ground ... Maybe I will be drying my pot with a sock after all! (Hope not!)We made it up to Tray Mountain at 4.430 ft where the view was amazing and the bugs less so. We made it to Tray Mountain Shelter before the rush and was able to pick a campsite with a view away from the shelter. Today was our best day so far in terms of hike, how we feel and camp set up! It's packed so hopefully nobody snores!!