morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-08-29
From: little swift river pond campsite, me

To: rangeley, me
Miles today: 4.8
Weather: overcast clouds

day 157 sun aug 29   4.8 mi 1953.1 totalrangeley, me   baby blue treats me to a coffee out here in the woods. such a treat just to smell it, let alone drink some. thank you, sir.   at the road, i hitch a ride with a UMFarmington student, jennifer, who's working as a lifeguard in rangeley. she mentions it was 90 degrees yesterday. i thought it was a bit warm.   i go for a big breakfast at bmc diner in town, and call bob o'brien for a shuttle to his lodge a few miles past rangeley. at the lodge, there's doc and dragon slayer and yoga monkey. then flipflop comes in. i deal with resupply, go for a swim, and doc suggests we all go to town for pizza and a movie: manchurian candidate. good choice, doc.   bob proves extremely knowledgeable and informed about the trail in maine. he's one of the best hostel hosts so far, kind and accomodating.   in the morning, flipflop finds his maildrop did not show, so we stop at a market on the way to the trailhead. i get excited to see lobsters in a tank at the store, my first sighting of them in almost six months. i say hello, but they pretty much keep to themselves.   doc and i consider getting pints of ice cream, but it's only nine in the morning. but then again, it'll be eight days to monson.
Date: 2004-08-30
From: rangeley, me

To: poplar ridge lean-to, me
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: overcast clouds

day 158 mon aug 30   10.7 mi 1963.8 totalpoplar ridge lean-to, me   it's up and more up to saddleback mtn, with dark clouds ranging 'round, and one lone rumble of thunder. i know there's a long stretch of above treeline ridgewalking, but intuition tells me it'll be alright. i've been here before and know the vistas are amazing when it's clear. ah, well.   there's a fellow ahead coming this way with two small packs, front and back, and a hat with earflaps pulled down. it's easy one, all of eighty-one, started at springer january one, flipping now and finishing quite soon, i didn't catch where. eighty-one years old. i bow to you.   at the shelter, there's doc and flipflop and we cook in the dark, settle back, and are entertained by a powerful rainstorm and lightning show. it goes on for most of the night.
Date: 2004-08-31
From: poplar ridge lean-to, me

To: sugarloaf mountain summit, me
Miles today: 10.9

day 159 tue aug 31   10.9 mi 1974.7 totalsugarloaf mountain summit   it's still raining a bit in the morning, but there's a new coolness in the air and we think it just might clear later. we need to ford orbeton stream, swollen with two nights' worth of heavy rain. it's three feet deep, dark, 25 feet across and moving fast. doc kindly waits on the far side as i wade through it, up to my hips, slowly working through the current. the water's too dark to make out the rocks underfoot, but finally there's the far shore and i make an amphibious landing; drain my boots, wring out my socks, and it's onward again.   a stiff wind brings sun and sets the clouds racing around us at the empty gondola hut high up on top of sugarloaf mountain. we spend the night there and it's awesome. we catch a beautiful sunset, stars, and a bright moonrise.
Date: 2004-09-01
From: sugarloaf mountain summit, me

To: horns pond lean-to, me
Miles today: 15.7
Weather: broken clouds

day 160 wed sep 1   15.7 mi 1990.4 totalhorns pond lean-to   there's something quite remarkable about watching the sun rise from a viewpoint above 4000 feet. it seems to call out,"hey, you don't get to see me like this most days down lower. pay attention. watch my wonders."   the wind is just a-ripping through and pulls a long cloud over bigelow even longer like it's soft taffy, away to the east. and there's a hint of pale blue katahdin on the northeast horizon. blow you old blue norther.   down sugarloaf's west side and up into the crocker mountains, i can hear dylan and gordon lightfoot in my head, and the clouds and blue sky take me back thirty years to my trip across canada and for a few minutes i'm in both places, both decades.   present day again and there's frank and alfreda from saskatoon hiking to hanover. she's getting off, from the strain. he looks about 75. go, frank, go. heading into the bigelow range, flipflop flies by, and pauses to say he hitched into stratton for food, and then back to the trailhead, and now he's past me and intent on reaching west peak. at horns pond, alice the caretaker gives us the skinny on acceptable behavior at this very busy pair of shelters. she's from jay, maine, and surmises she might have to snowshoe out when her season here is done october 15. rick from philly is hiking to monson, and sharing this shelter with us. he and doc have a bet going tonight how cold it will be at dawn. the winner will get a snickers bar. will he be cold enough that he will eat it for breakfast?
Date: 2004-09-02
From: horns pond lean-to, me

To: little bigelow lean-to
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: clear sky

day 161 thu sep 2   10.2 mi 2000.6 totallittle bigelow lean-to, me   at dawn it's 36 degrees, but no one wins the bet, 'cause doc and rick misunderstood the split. there's a fog cloud over us and the horn above, and we wait a bit, but it hangs tough. once we've climbed up on the horn, the wind blows the fog and the clouds away, and we're treated to magnificent views to both katahdin ahead and mount washington behind. flagstaff lake is spread out an impressive distance below us. one of the smaller mountains on the horizon to the southeast must surely be cadillac on mount desert island. it's that clear a day.   at little bigelow lean-to, doc, rick, millipede and i have a great evening discussing the trail and the people we've met along the way. millipede is flipping south and says one leg and baltimore jack are just to the north, heading this way.   millipede tells us how he got his name. seems down south, he told a buddy he would eat a millipede if someone would give him a candy bar to do it. he takes a bite out of the millipede, his mouth burns, then goes numb, then he spits it out. he finds out later they are poisonous. he lives to tell about it.
Date: 2004-09-03
From: little bigelow lean-to

To: pierce pond lean-to, me
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: clear sky

day 162 fri sep 3   17.3 mi 2017.9 totalpierce pond lean-to, me   the trail skirts a cove on flagstaff lake that glows with the dawn sun's rays diffusing through broken bits of fog. the beach is chock full of an amazing amount of driftwood, polished and worn from wind and water and winters beyond counting.   between east and west carry ponds, here comes baltimore jack with a twinkle in his eye. he's got eight AT thru-hikes under his belt and he's hoping to do the PCT next year. he says he takes his name from the first line of a bruce springsteen song. if you want to guess which one, i'll leave the answer in my katahdin summit entry.   soon one leg comes through and when i mention meeting him down below neel's gap in georgia, he says he remembers. someone later says one leg has had 1.7 million hits on his webpage. good luck to both of you.   doc and i go swimming in pierce pond, the prettiest pond on the trail so far. we share the shelter with rick, bluebearee, toke and grass. bush pilot tents nearby and tells us stories about flying adventures in alaska. he says he thru-hiked the AT in 92 and the PCT around 98.   the evening sky is impossibly beautiful.
Date: 2004-09-04
From: pierce pond lean-to, me

To: caratunk, me
Miles today: 4.0

day 163 sat sep 4   4.0 mi 2021.9b totalcaratunk, me   late afternoon yesterday, i followed a blue blazed side trail to make breakfast reservations for doc and me at harrison's camp. tim runs things there with his family. it's a wonderful place with driftwood railings, a log cabin playhouse for the children, a piano in the dining room, and hummingbirds along the wrap-around porch.   he makes what he calls patriotic pancakes with raspberries, blueberries, and apples and you get twelve of them and coffee and juice and sausage and yes, it was very good. just out the door we have a close encounter with one very large bull moose. doc takes it as a good omen.   at the kennebec river, we catch a canoe ride across with steve longley the ferryman, who offers us a ride later, when his morning ferry shift is done. at his store he leafs through a stack of waivers signed by hikers, and remembers some essential about each one. when a brit balked at signing a waiver, steve told him that it didn't bother richard branson at all, when he passed through. the brit signed.   doc and i get a cabin tent through northern outdoors expeditions at the forks, and get a bit lost trying to find it in the wrong one of two campgrounds next to each other.   back at their bar and restaurant for dinner, i'm amazed when the cook comes up and identifies himself as van gogh, someone i hiked with back in the smokies. he credits me with giving him his name, and treats me to a great breakfast in the morning. thank you, sir.
Date: 2004-09-05
From: caratunk, me

To: moxie bald lean-to, me
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: overcast clouds

day 164 sun sep 5   18.8 mi 2040.7 totalmoxie bald lean-to, me   up on pleasant pond mountain, i meet dean morrison, an IT vp from concord, nh. his cap refers to an expedition to mount logan in '92. it's (no, not his cap; rather the mountain) in the canadian rockies, yukon territories, over 19,000 feet. he says they took a month to climb it and get back. it got down to 40 degrees below at night, in may and june. he says he also climbed aconcagua in chile (i hope that's right), huarascan in peru, and reached 20,000 feet on everest. an old school friend of his is a pharmacist in bar harbor, who keeps a lobster boat as well.   the eastern side of pleasant pond mountain is incredibly lush with lower forest growth, and mosses and lichens. the variety of mushrooms is astounding, including some that are purple and lilac.   doc and i hiked up and across moxie bald as the late afternoon sun raked across mountains as far as we could see. moxie pond looked beautiful, and seemed to invite us to come back later to explore it properly. the bigelow range appeared to float on air.   at the shelter, doc and rick impress me with their collective knowledge on the intricacies and history of beer making. now i thought yuengling was a chinese beer. no, says rick, it's german. and the son has to go into debt to buy the business from dad. he does not inherit it.   it's a very popular beer with thru-hikers as they pass through pennsylvania.
Date: 2004-09-06
From: moxie bald lean-to, me

To: monson, me
Miles today: 17.9
Weather: few clouds

day 165 mon sep 6   17.9 mi 2058.6 totalmonson, me   in the morning i ask rick if he's got a hangover from talking about so much beer last night. he laughs and says no, 'cause he only talks about the better beers. i suggest he could become a professor of the history of beer, at a university of his choosing, perhaps holding the anheiser busch chair. he had his own microbrewery for a while.   on the trail, the piscataquis river running through horseshoe canyon is rugged, wild, and roaring. this is a beautiful stretch of trail i'd like to visit again someday. and i thought i knew something of maine, having hiked most of the 4000-footers. not so. what an eye-opening adventure this has been.   hitching to monson, i get a ride with flipflop, who's driving back from a visit to greenville with his girlfriend joanna, just in from st. louis. she's going to hike the hundred mile wilderness with him. and then he goes to harper's ferry to continue on south to springer. hence his name.   at shaw's, there's myst and bones, and some section hikers and doc and rick and fliflop and joanna. dinner is substantial.
Date: 2004-09-07
From: monson, me

To: monson
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

day 166 tue sep 7   zeromonson   at breakfast, rick delivers a polished lecture on indian pale lagers, that is both informative and amusing. the man is good.   there's a library with internet in monson which i visit, and then at lunch from a bench in front of the store, i see joe flamingo and octane come into town. we reminisce about virginia.   doc goes back on the trail by mid-afternoon. i stay for another dinner and breakfast. keith shaw, sr., shares some of his family history with me.
Date: 2004-09-08
From: monson

To: long pond stream lean-to, me
Miles today: 15.1
Weather: overcast clouds

day 67 wed sep 8   15.1 mi 2073.7 totallong pond stream lean-to, me   today is joe flamingo's birthday and at breakfast we all wish him well.   everyone's talking about the weather, about the remnants of hurricane frances coming our way, and the forecast is for three days of rain, heavy by friday. bushpilot from passaic warns some of us to wait it out here. i catch a ride to the trailhead with keith shaw, jr., just as it starts to shower.   within the first two miles i meet six sobo'ers with recent news about which stream crossings will be difficult with more rain. i manage to get over big wilson stream okay, with octane just ahead, doing advance scout work. the water is dark and it's hard to tell where it's deeper.   at the shelter, there's joe flamingo, octane, and then alpha, crash, and their dog cadbury. stretch tents nearby; he comes up and introduces himself. doc and gaiterwoman had spoken well of him. he tells us he's doing without a stove, and says he has to carry more food (more weight), and it's more expensive. hobbit did that for a while too.   there's a woman tenting nearby who gets lost in the dark looking for the privy (it's raining), and she's cries out for help. it didn't help that the trail was overgrown. her husband helped her out. bees knees and relentless they were.
Date: 2004-09-09
From: long pond stream lean-to, me

To: chairback gap lean-to, me
Miles today: 0.9
Weather: moderate rain

day 168 thu sep 9   10.9 mi 2084.6 totalchairback gap lean-to, me   today in a steady rain we hike across barren mountain, and then fourth, third, and columbus mountains. it's tricky and slow going; there's lots of wet slick rock and slippery tree roots. i take a fall, go down, and hit my left thigh on a rock. my second fall since georgia. well, it could have been a lot worse. this barren-chairback range covers about fifteen miles and i remember from a day hike about ten years ago on the north end, there's a steep, difficult boulder field down off chairback mountain. this is rough stuff in the rain.   at the shelter there's joe, octane, and flipping south, there's father ounce and samson, a young woman with very long hair. it rains steadily through the night, sounding like hail on the shelter's tin roof. stretch, alpha, crash, and of course, cadbury, tent nearby.
Date: 2004-09-10
From: chairback gap lean-to, me

To: carl newhall lean-to, me
Miles today: 9.9

day 169 fri sep 0   9.9 mi 2094.5 totalcarl newhall lean-to, me   steady rain turns heavy, then stops just before joe and octane head out. there's a lighter yellow cast to the sky on the horizon through the trees, and the wind is picking up. hey, it just might clear.   that steep boulder field is just as i remember it.   the west branch of the pleasant river is thigh deep, but i do okay in my crocs, with my boots tied to my pack.   the sun comes out.   oh, happy day.
Date: 2004-09-11
From: carl newhall lean-to, me

To: cooper brook falls lean-to, me
Miles today: 18.9
Weather: clear sky

day 170 sat sep 1 18.9 mi 2113.4 totalcooper brook falls lean-to, me   the day turns sunny and clear, and at lunch, stretch and i find ourselves enjoying vistas from high on whitecap mountain. there's the barren-chairback range to the southwest, and way, way off on the horizon, an impressive, awesome distance away is the bigelow range. it could be mexico, so far away.around the corner to the northeast, standing proud and magnificent is katahdin, cloudless, glowing.   after whitecap, the terrain turns easier, and then there's the last ford, the east branch of the pleasant, where i almost take an accidental swim. it's my closest call yet at a ford.   at the lean-to, joe flamingo has taken a deliberate swim in a beautiful piece of cooper brook. we share the shelter with octane, and kathy and tim from litchfield. tim entertains us with some nice fly casting, his white line carving arabesques across the darkening shadows.   they get a fire going after dark.
Date: 2004-09-12
From: cooper brook falls lean-to, me

To: white house landing, pemadumcook lake
Miles today: 13.7

day 171 sun sep 12   13.7 mi 2126.6 totalwhite house landing, pemadumcook lake   joe flamingo is 23. with a large frame and a big black beard, the man could pass for a greek god. in fact, he hiked up mount olympus last summer. he's thru-hiking this season with a pack that weighs 48 pounds when full. on the top of it, he's scrawled in block letters: GO HEAVY. he doesn't mind the weight.   octane is about twenty, from tallahassee. slighter than joe, he bridges the difference with a wonderful mix of determination and humility.   we've been hiking together since monson, five days ago. every afternoon i catch up to them at the next shelter, and make a formal request.   "you fellas got room to spare in there for a low-down, no good, no account, vagabond gypsy hobo thru-hiker?"   with a grin one of them says, "well...we'll let you in this time," which has become my cue to say, "this sure is a remote shelter." to which octane answers, "that's why they call this the hundred mile wilderness. a fella could die out here."   "and then again, he could live to tell about it," says joe flamingo, and we all roar with laughter.   at white house landing, joe and flipflop ferry me back in a canoe to a wilderness camp where bill and linda ware cook up pounder cheesburgers and put up hikers in their bunkhouse.   stretch, c'est la vie, my buddies and the other hikers are heading on in the morning, but i'm going to stay a day or two to rest and refuel. sciatica has come to visit me with a vengeance; i've lost ten pounds; and i took a fall in the rain back on barren mountain, injuring my leg.   before they leave, joe flamingo and flipflop come by to shake my hand and to ask me to let them know when i finally summit. i'm moved by their votes of confidence, because frankly, right now mine's at an ebb.   it's forty-six miles to katahdin.
Date: 2004-09-21
From: white house landing, pemadumcook lake

To: home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

sep 21 04   yes, i'm back home, and back at work in ellsworth, and no, i didn't quite finish the trail. i lingered for two days with sciatica and a leg injury, at white house landing on pemadumcook lake, just 46 trail miles southwest of katahdin. or fourteen, as the crow flies. and yes, the mountain looked so close, like you could reach out and touch it.   as my condition got worse, i decided to come home to heal. linda ware at wilderness camps shuttled me eleven dusty miles to the golden road and then fourteen more to millinocket, and i spent the night at a rooming house there. in the morning i caught a cab to medway, then a bus to bangor, arriving there about eleven a.m. when someone said the next bus to ellsworth would go out at 3:30, i decided i didn't want to wait that long. i took a taxi to south brewer, and with my pack on my back and a pain in my leg, i stuck my thumb out. forty minutes later an outward bound instructor from new mexico gave me a lift. he said he could tell from the look of me, where i was coming from.   that was last wednesday. as i write this tuesday evening, the sciatica is all but gone, and i've gained back five pounds. if the leg heals in a week and the weather cooperates, then i'll go up to finish that 46 miles. if it doesn't, i'll listen to my body and wait it out 'til next year. i don't think that mountain is going anywhere soon.   to everyone who helped, thank you for all your kindnesses.   it was most definitely worth it.
Date: 2004-09-22
From: home

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

wed sep 29 ellsworth   my apologies to anyone expecting a quick reply from me over the internet, as i do not own a computer. it's a little tricky posting entries without one, and if you're nice to me, i might confide just exactly how i do this. but then again, shackleton at nasa might be eavesdropping.   heartfelt gratitude to homer, two cents, sharon, rick, willie nelson pipesmoke and company, crystal, don, and my sister patti for your kind words and encouragement. and hotrock, so very good to hear from you.   i finally got to see a physical therapist yesterday, who seemed to make the sciatica go away. i go back to see him in two days, in the hope he can lessen the pain in my leg. he won my confidence relieving the sciatica. one down, one to go.   i hope you all are doing well.
Date: 2005-09-12
From: monson

To: katahdin part1
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

you might remember, about this time last year, right on the verge of finishing a hike from georgia to katahdin, i had to bail, 46 miles from the end. nerve compression and blunt trauma combined to persuade me to go home, to heal, and to practice patience. for almost a year i kept to walks around the block, and dayhikes in acadia. six weeks ago i managed a moderate seven-day backpack trip in the pemigewasset wilderness. with warmer weather, the pain faded, and finally flew away. seeing how i was healed up, and 46 miles is not all that far a piece, i set my sights on the hundred mile wilderness, starting in monson and hiking on through to katahdin.   two friends from the trail, doc and pipesmoke, asked if i wanted some company on the walk. why on earth those two galoots would want to hike with a curmudgeon-in-progress like me, i could not fathom. but still i took them up on their offer, considering various wondrous adventures we'd shared last year, and the prospect of more to come.   true to his word, pipesmoke swung by early the last saturday in august, and we drove on up to monson. we stopped by shaw's boarding house, keeping an eye out for doc along the way.   more to follow
Date: 2005-09-14
From: monson

To: katahdin part 2
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

...keeping an eye out for doc along the way. Strapping on our packs at the trailhead, we could hear an odd mechanized commotion through the trees. when it shifted, we laughed as we recognized it for a pontoon plane, taking off from spectacle pond. a mile in on the trail, we met tramper al and poison ivy, also headed to katahdin. it was they who'd chartered the floatplane from ambajejus lake. what a flight and a view that must have been.   we paused to admire the steep and rocky little wilson falls, and then struck on to big wilson stream, where the fording was knee-deep. behind a wild and woolly-looking colonel mustard, a young blonde from tennessee, found a way to rockhop it.    we set up camp at the base of barren mountain. midway through our dinner, we heard a voice down trail, "i'd have thought you boys would've gone further," and doc appeared through the trees, just back from bicycling in ireland, and a hike through on the cohos. so we commenced a good reunion, and doc entertained us with stories of guinness and friendly irish lasses.   the next two days it rained steady, as we worked our way across the barren-chairback range, and then gulf hagas and whitecap mountains. early on we met second chance (soboing), the fellow who broke his leg on priest mountain last year. i could definitely relate to his story.   at logan brook, in a heavy downpour, a bates college group made space in the shelter for doc and me. pipesmoke stoically endured wet conditions in his hammock.   the rain stopped on tuesday, but the water in the brooks did not. as we forded the east branch of the pleasant river, at one point it reached just about chest-deep on me. along cooper brook, we met a remarkable sixty-year old woman from singapore, tiger lil, hiking from georgia in four months (with warren doyle's group). she was sore and tired, but with her sense of humor intact.   more to follow