morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-09-17
From: US 201, Caratunk

To: Caratunk
Miles today: 0.0

Sean-O and I enjoyed a zero day in the delightfully small and pleasant village of Caratunk today. We needed to hit the post office to collect our final bounce boxes, make phone calls and wait for Bump to arrive.   The Caratunk House B&B is a great place to stay. Paul is a wonderful host and an even better cook! Breakfast was sooo yummy-- scrambled eggs, potatoes, fruit, muffins and the best french toast I've ever had. All topped off with coffee and orange juice. We needed to stroll (or maybe roll) to the post office to work some of it off    I called Bump from the pay phone there and he was only a little over an hour away. Yeah! Back at the house, I reserved the double room for tonight and waited. When I saw him come up to the door, I was excited to introduce him to Paul. He told me our friend, Dickie wanted to say hi so I walked out to the car with him.   I was waving at Dick and saw the back door open and out came my Flying Cricket! She's back with us to finish the trail! It was such a wonderful surprise, of course we both "almost" cried.   We spent the rest of the day catching up on trail gossip, eating, laughing, walking to the river, eating again and laughing some more. The best zero day ever!    P.S. Today is our 6-month anniversary of starting the trail.
Date: 2003-09-18
From: Caratunk

To: Bald Mountain Brook Campsite
Miles today: 14.4

It was great being all together today. And we set our sights high to get this trip moving toward completion--14 miles. Perhaps a little too high for Bump and Cricket coming back from civilization, but they did great as I knew they would.   The Maine woods have become all that I could have hoped my home state to be: lush and rich, smelling of pine, fir, cedar and spruce. The ground is mostly covered with evergreen needles, providing soft cushioning for our feet. We've walked along ponds, lakes and streams supplying us with plenty of water to drink. And the views from the mountaintops have been glorious. Is it Maine or is it the end of the trail that makes it seem so beautiful? Hmmmm....   At least this time, it wasn't hard to leave town. As much as we enjoyed Caratunk and the hostel, it was exciting to be moving on to the next chapter in this adventure. Monson and the 100-mile wilderness are calling. Monson will be the last stop in "civilization" before we live the final chapter of the AT experience. And how special this part will be for me--to be able to share it with my wonderful and supportive husband Bump, my best AT friend Sean-O and my sweet sister who inspired the dream, Flying Cricket.
Date: 2003-09-19
From: Bald Mountain Brook Campsite

To: Horseshoe Canyon Lean-to
Miles today: 13.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Today was a great day of hiking. Maine really IS beautiful! First we climbed Moxie Bald, although we didn't actually have to go to the summit. We stopped to look around at the gigantic boulders perched precariously on top of one another and the caves they formed. Very cool.   There were some great views from the top and supposedly you can see Katahdin, but none of us can identify it yet! We did manage to find some of the last blueberries, so Cricket got to enjoy those.   There were also some streams to ford today; the biggest being a branch of the Piscataquis River, successfully done with no wet feet! The trail followed the stream for several miles up and down some small hills. It was really pretty with the trees turning colors and the small bushes and ferns along the banks. We had lots of signs of moose, and we think even a moose call was heard, but still no sightings for me. :(    Tonight we are camped with 3 members of "The Family", Momma and the 2 youngest, now 15 and 16. They thru hiked in '98 (?)--mom and the 5 children ages 10 to 21 at the time! Dad stayed home and ran the farm and provided support for them. Amazing! We swapped trail tales around a campfire and had a fun evening. The kids are delightful and it was a real treat.    Tomorrow it's on to Monson....
Date: 2003-09-20
From: Horseshoe Canyon Lean-to

To: ME 15, Monson
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: scattered clouds

It rained during the night. It started right after we crawled into our tents. Good timing, huh? I tried to read for a few minutes, but Bump and I found ourselves talking about how all of a sudden, our days together in the woods are almost over. For 6 months I just wanted to get done. I was certain that I would never want to do anything like this again. Now the thought of going back to "real life" feels weird. I'm actually going to miss being part of this strange little community we've lived in for such along time.    This morning, we packed up and headed into Monson, our last town stop and another one of those special places I've read so much about. It's a great little town. We took a walk around and stopped in a couple of the local shops before dinner with the Shaw's. I like it here. The Shaw's are very sweet and the accommodations are great. Another of those trail legends you just have to experience.   Bump and Sean-O tried to work out a schedule for the remainder of the trip. It's so hard because you just can't quite predict with unknown trail conditions and weather. It looks like we will summit on 9/30. We would like to get there on 9/29, but who knows. It's not an exact science!   I know there are a lot of people who would like to meet us at Katahdin, (especially those who need to be there to give us rides back home!) and we will do our best to update if possible. I'm not sure if we'll have any more phones with which to send progress reports out, but we'll use any we find! You see, tomorrow we head into the 100-mile wilderness. Yikes!
Date: 2003-09-21
From: ME 15, Monson

To: Vaughan Stream
Miles today: 13.7

This is it! The hundred-mile wilderness! When you get to the trailhead at the parking area, there's a sign that cautions you to carry 10 days worth of food and declares that the trail is difficult and far from help. Then it says, "Good hiking." :)   The trail itself was very pretty and in excellent condition. We passed some day hikers who had driven in on one of the logging roads and parked their car near Little Wilson Falls, where we had lunch. The falls were gorgeous, cascading down the slate rock canyon. There is lots of beautiful blue slate throughout the forest. Easy to understand why it was used as roofing tiles on so many of the buildings here in Maine.   We passed several ponds, streams and small lakes along the way today again, also. But STILL no moose sightings! Cricket and I are determined to spot one! We're running out of time though, less than 100 miles to Katahdin!   We were planning to stop at the next shelter for the night, about a mile from where we are camped. Fortunately, we came upon two young fellows camped on the south side of the stream who told us there is no water at the lean-to. They are southbound hikers out for 2 months and had passed it just a little earlier. There is a lovely campsite here on the north side of the stream, just above the waterfall. It has a great tentsite with room for all 3 of our tents and a fire circle complete with big birch logs to sit our weary bottoms on. Water, level ground to sleep on, logs to sit on--what more could we ask for?   We cooked our favorite dinner--a Lipton side dish with turkey in a pouch and cocoa. Yummy! (thanks, Sara). Then Cricket and I enjoyed toasting some marshmallows over the campfire before turning in. Ahhh, the good life :)
Date: 2003-09-22
From: Vaughan Stream

To: Stream after Third Mountain
Miles today: 10.6

What a glorious day for hiking! The sky was blue with just a few clouds, a moderate breeze was blowing and the temps were in the 60's. Good thing, because we had some mountains to climb. Barren, Fourth and Third Mountains were waiting for us. We were also supposed to do Columbus, but didn't make it that far :(   Anyway, the trail was interesting shall we say. It took us through some beautiful forest, up to Barren Ledges where we had a fantastic view, over some rocks, down some more rocks, through lots of mud, through a bog where we saw dozens of pitcher plants, up and down some more rocks and finally to a great little stream tumbling down from West Chairback Pond.    We were still about 1.5 miles from the lean-to we wanted to camp at, but it was 5:00, we were out of water and everyone was getting tired. Sean-O found a decent campsite just past the stream, so we called it home for the night. Cornpatch came along right behind us so we made room for him. too.   Highlights for the day (or perhaps I should say low-lights) included Bump and I getting stung by yellow jackets--him twice, me once; I tumbled on my hiking pole and bent it; Cricket took a tumble and Sean-O walked ankle-deep in a puddle as he watched a young lady hiker go past.   Tomorrow we are supposed to meet Sean-O's good friend and mentor, Tiger Lilly, at the Hermitage. She is bringing our resupply and lunch from town! What a woman! We LOVE Tiger Lilly! Part of the reason we were a bit disappointed to camp early is it puts us the 1.5 miles behind our scheduled rendezvous time with her. Mr. O will get up early and hit the trail to meet her at the appointed time. We'll do our best to drag ourselves out earlier than usual so we don't hold her up too late! Hmmm, lunch from town--we won't need much more motivation than that to get us going :)
Date: 2003-09-23
From: Stream after Third Mountain

To: Carl A. Newhall Lean-to
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: overcast clouds

We had some boogie-ing to do this morning to get to our meeting place with Tiger Lilly and husband, Will. Sean-O packed up and headed out first so they wouldn't be left waiting. We followed shortly after.   We stopped at the first shelter for a quick privy break and read about a day hiker who had been injured and airlifted out a few days ago. The thru-hikers on the scene were very generous as usual, offering clothes and a tent to the 2 men who had to wait overnight for the rescue.    On we went, over Columbus and Chairback Mountains. The hiking was excellent, but no views today, too much cloud cover and fog. When we got to the Hermitage parking area, there were Tiger Lilly, Will and Sean-O waiting for us. We enjoyed freshly made subs, brownies, Fritos, apples, sodas, Gatoraide and DUNKIN DONUTS coffee. Thank you so much, Liz and Will!   We packed our resupply bags, made sandwiches for dinner and arranged for another mercy visit on Thursday. Boy, I love the 100-mile wilderness! Liz and Will walked to the river with us and watched us make our first real ford across it. Sean-O braved the rocks and made it with dry feet. Cricket and I waded in our walddies and Bump followed barefooted. BRRR! We waved good-bye and headed back into the "wilderness".   The rest of the afternoon was great hiking through some of the prettiest forest yet. (Again, is it because the end is near?) I took some pictures of a little waterfall that nearly brought me to tears. Gotta be that end thing! We had an almost close encounter with a moose. Cricket was ahead and just missed them and Bump and I were behind and just missed them. A sobo hiker was right in between us and scored the sighting. Oh well, 86 miles to get our moose!   Tonight we are in the shelter with Cornpatch, Tedd, and Sharon, a sobo section hiker. It is absolutely pouring buckets! Sharon showed up as we were settling in and didn't think there was enough room. She left quickly before we figured we could squeeze her in. Cricket ran out into the rain to find her and brought her back. Nobody should have to tent in this! We're packed pretty tightly now, so hopefully no one else will show up! Except maybe a moose :)
Date: 2003-09-24
From: Carl A. Newhall Lean-to

To: Mountain View Pond
Miles today: 12.7

The rain finally stopped sometime during the night. It was bright, crisp and sunny this morning as we packed up and hit the trail. Sean-O seemed unusually quiet and left before the rest of us, after planning to meet for lunch on Whitecap Mountain.    Whitecap is the last real mountain before the "Big K". It offers the first clear and identifiable view of Katahdin. The view we've been searching for over the last week or two. Amazing.   Everything seems to be happening so quickly now. The miles are falling away and we are down to counting days, not weeks or months anymore.   When we got to the top of Whitecap, the wind was blowing and it was pretty cold, so we decided to hike down to the shelter for lunch. Cornpatch had the same idea. It was a beautiful hike down the mountain, thanks to Honey and Bear and family, who maintain this section of trail.   Oops, I had to shut the pocketmail down just now. Cricket called me--she heard splashing in the pond we are camped beside. MOOSE!!! I jumped out of the tent and went over to her by the edge of the water. It's too dark to actually see him, but we could see the ripples and wake on the water as he swam across in front of us. We could hear him swimming and grunting. He stopped near the other side and started eating water plants. Each time he lifted his head, we could hear the water splash and then hear him chewing and chomping! He bellowed a few times, too. As we were listening to him, an owl flew right by us and hooted from a nearby tree. The stars are out and it's a perfect night. How cool is that!?! Perhaps we'll have more moose tales to tell in the morning!
Date: 2003-09-25
From: Mountain View Pond

To: Potaywadjo Spring
Miles today: 17.6
Weather: scattered clouds

Well, no more moose activity to report. The rest of the night was quiet. We woke up to an absolutely gorgeous day for hiking--clear, bright and windy, my favorite! Of course, it also helped to know that we were meeting our favorite trail angels, Tiger Lilly and Will again today :)    We had 10 miles to do by 2:00; no problem, we were cruising! We got to Jo-Mary Road just before noon and had time to take our shoes off and dip our pitiful feet into the stream. Much to our delight, Liz and Will arrived early, too! And they came bearing goodies as well as our resupply. Again we were spoiled with chicken tenders, potato wedges, sandwich fixings, brownies, chips and beverages galore (DD coffee!!). They brought so much, they fed several other hikers who came by: Cornpatch, Hamburg, Thoreau and another whose name I didn't catch. We left our extra resupply stuff for anyone else who may come by.   Then it was time to go back to work. We hoisted our oh-so-heavy packs and headed back into the "wilderness". We kicked out another 7.6 miles (must have been the coffee and Dr. Pepper!).   Tonight we are sheltering with O.T., Cornpatch and Wildflower, who summited Katahdin on the 19th and is now hiking sobo back to Monson to meet some friends. She hiked the Pacific Crest Trail last year. Awesome young lady!   Only 48.3 miles to Special K!!!!
Date: 2003-09-26
From: Potaywadjo Spring

To: Campsite at North End Nahmakanta Lake
Miles today: 9.7

It rained during the night again, so we were grateful to be in the shelter. It's always nice not to have to carry the extra weight of a wet tent. The trade-off, however, was that this shelter had the noisiest, squeakiest floor on the whole AT. Every time someone rolled over or got up to go to the privy, the floor knocked and banged and creaked like crazy. Needless to say, nobody got a whole lot of sleep!   That said, it was still up with the sun for another day of hiking in the "wilderness". We were headed just 2.4 miles to the old logging road that would then lead us another 1.2 miles to White House Landing.    WHL was originally an old logging camp in the 1930's. Then it became a sports camp for hunters and fishermen in the '40s. Today it is a wonderful camp/lodge that caters to hikers, hunters, and snowmobilers. AT hikers walk through the woods to a dock where there is an airhorn. You blow the horn and Bill comes across the lake in his boat to pick you up and takes you back across the water to the camp. He, his wife, Linda and their son, Ben are just delightful. We had a great visit that included hot showers, great food and wonderful conversation. Our only regret is that we didn't spend the night.   We are camped at the edge of the lake and can hear the water lapping up on the beach. We walked along the edge when we first got here because we heard there are fresh water clams. There are, but we only found 3 without digging in the sand at the water's edge. Cricket waded in hoping to find a few more, but it was getting cold and we still needed to cook dinner. We decided to "free" the 3 poor little clams we had and ate leftover pizza from the White House instead!   A big highlight for the day was coming across a sign that pointed us down a little side trail to a "view". We don't often bother with these extra steps because we figure we've seen the "view" a zillion times along the way. This time we bothered. The trail took us down to the edge of the lake and when we looked to the left, we had the most breathtaking view of Mt. Katahdin. Just a couple of days ago, we were excited to see the peak miles away on the horizon. Today she was looming so near and so beautiful. It truly moved us to tears. There's that end thing again.
Date: 2003-09-27
From: Campsite at North End Nahmakanta Lake

To: Rainbow Spring Campsite
Miles today: 12.3
Weather: overcast clouds

The rain held off overnight, but it was foggy and cold this morning. Still, a good day for hiking. We had to get a little climb over Nesuntabunt Mountain out of the way early. There is supposed to be a view of Katahdin from the top, but all we saw was fog. It lifted just as we came down from the mountain, of course.   We followed along the edge of Crescent Pond and then along Pollywog Stream for awhile. There were some beautiful old cedar trees beside the trail today, as well as some large pine trees that somehow survived the clear cutting of the area years ago. I had hoped to see a lot more old growth forest along the trail. It's really amazing at how few big old trees we've seen on this trip.   We met Hamburg and his dad, Thoreau and Kristen at the shelter this morning. Kristen is from New York and is out for a month. Nice girl. She needs a ride from the "Big K" on summit day. If we have room, we'll help her out.    We also ran into Yo-Yo and Zero this afternoon. They had summited on 9/25 and were working backward so Zero could make up some miles she missed when she jumped up to summit with Yo-Yo. They were both so excited. He was just babbling away about how cool it was and congratulating us on our impending summit. It was so much fun listening to them. Can't wait!
Date: 2003-09-28
From: Rainbow Spring Campsite

To: Abol Bridge
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: moderate rain

It poured once again during the night, only this time it didn't stop.No matter, we were headed toward the end of the 100-mile wilderness and Abol Bridge, another one of those famous landmarks I've read about so many times.    Sean-O and Cricket were ahead of Bump and me as usual. We were cruising along in the downpour, walking across some bog bridges when suddenly Bump let out a "whoop"! I heard crashing through the woods and knew right away he had run into a MOOSE! He was pushing down the hood to his rainjacket, not paying too much attention to anything else. When he looked up, there was a big bull moose standing just a couple of feet away from him. The moose moved which startled Bump which startled the moose again which made Bump yell...and so on. I missed the whole darned thing again! Oh well.   We got to the last shelter--THE last shelter of the whole AT--for lunch. Sean-O suggested that we stop for the day and not have to camp in the rain. My mind was set on a hot shower and hot coffee at the Abol Bridge Campground. That and the donuts :) We decided to push on the last 3.5 miles.   When we got to the sign announcing the beginning of the 100-mile wilderness to southbounders, I was in awe. As silly as it seems now, I started to cry. We took a picture of the sign. Then it was out to the road and over the bridge, crying again. There was the campground and the store.    We dumped our packs outside and went in to figure out what we wanted to do for accomodations. Since we were all soaked to the bones, it didn't take long to decide a cab ride into town was just what we needed. We gulped coffee and munched down donuts while we waited. To our surprise, we had a message from our friends Bill and Karen Roak. They had driven all the way up to meet us and we missed them by about 2 hours! Thanks so much for thinking of us, you guys! We really appreciate the effort :)   We did get to meet Poptart '02, who is the ridge runner for the area. He thru-hiked last year and knew our trail angel, Tiger Lilly. He had some great stories to share.   Our ride finally arrived and we are at the AT Lodge in Millinocket tonight. We have clean dry clothes for tomorrow and full tummies to sleep on. Tomorrow it's back to work one more time. We'll hike to Katahdin Stream Campground and summit on Tuesday, as planned.
Date: 2002-05-26
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Hi,This is my first entry and it's kind of scary, because now I'm REALLY committed to this! My sister, Brenda and I have been planning our AT thru-hike for a few years now, but got down to the "nitty-gritty" about 2 years ago. She was the one who originated the idea of hiking the trail many years ago. I started out thinking I might hike some of it with her, and the idea just got bigger and bigger. It sort of took on a life of its own! We formally decided on 2003 two years ago. It's the year I turn 50 :) and what better way to celebrate?!? I have been going to school and running two childcare businesses and made myself a "goals calendar" to close my businesses, finish school, and simplify my life as much as possible to get ready for our hike. Well, I closed one business and sold the property, put enough $ in the bank to finance my trip, and graduated from college last week! Now I just have to figure out what to do with the daycare in my home (it's a long story I'll brief on next time), finish buying my/our equipment, and start some serious training! Brenda found this website, and we have been addicted to it ever since. It is incredible to be able to follow this year's hikers and read planning journals of people we'll be hiking with next year. My poor husband keeps getting deserted as I spend time on this computer reading and dreaming about the AT. It's hard to wait for next year, but at the same time this year seems to be flying by as we try to get prepared.I've read at least a half dozen books about hiking the Appalachian, done research on the internet, and made a scrapbook of news articles about the AT and hiking in general. This journal is the next logical step. Thanks so much for this opportunity! I hope to get in touch with some of the 2003 hikers whose journals I've been enjoying.Lorna aka Sassafras
Date: 2002-06-01
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Hello all!Just checking in. I have started my pre-hike training in earnest. There is a nice walking path near my house that goes around the cove. It's marked every 1/4 mile and totals 3.5 miles around the loop. The only "hill" is a brief incline that takes you up over the bridge, so for now I go around to the 2.5 mile marker and then turn around and go back to my starting point, totaling 5 miles with twice over the bridge. Not much, but a start. I try to go everyday barring thunder and lightning storms like the past 2 days, then I use my stepper at home for an hour. I've started adding our gear info. Also not much yet, but working on it. I'm looking at the MSR Zoid 2.0 for a tent. Has anyone used one? Any info out there would be helpful. Because my sister and I will be tenting together, we want something big enough so we can breathe and hopefully get our packs in, but light enough for me to carry. Remember--I'm old :) Also looking for any input on water filters. We keep going back and forth between PUR Hiker and MSR Miniworks. HELP! Too many decisions!I checked into the backpackinglight.com website. It's great for research. I recommend it. That's about it for now, so until next time "Happy Hiking"...