morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-07-02
From: Cheshire, MA / MA 8

To: North Adams, MA / Massachusetts Avenue
Miles today: 14.2

We woke up to a wonderful breakfast at the Inn. Eva made fresh granola and french toast. We also had orange juice, coffee, english muffins, fresh bread, home-made strawberry preserves, and yogurt. EXCELLENT meal.Boston and Cubby started on the trail at 8:05am. We planned to hook up with Crampy and Chipper at the top of Mt. Greylock at the monument. The weather was good, cool and no rain. It rained over night last night.We met up with Crampy and Chipper about 1 mile before the top of Greylock. Crampy had hitched a ride from the top down to where we met them. He wanted to hike up to the top. Hitching a ride was another first for Crampy.Once at the WWI Monument we took pictures and then went to the snack bar at Bascom Lodge for hotdogs and sodas.We left Crampy and Chipper and hiked down Mt. Greylock into North Adams, MA. The hike down was very steep, especially the last few miles. We were glad when we were finally down.We hiked into and through the outskirts of North Adams, MA to Massachusetts Avenue. Crampy and Chipper met us there. We then loaded into the car and headed east for 3 ZERO DAYS! Yippie! This will be the longest break we have had since starting the trail. It is a much needed break.When we crossed the Hoosic River Footbridge, we saw two young guys getting on the trail with their proud Moms' taking pictures as they crossed the footbridge. Crampy and Chipper were parked on Mass Ave waiting for us and saw the two guys walking towards them. The guys walked passed the car and Crampy (the experienced hiker that he is) asked them where they were heading. They proudly proclaimed, "Maine!" Crampy quickly replied, "Well, if you are going to Maine, you better go over there.", as he pointed to the left. Crampy then showed them the double white blaze on the telephone pole that indicated they needed to turn left. They were slightly embarrassed, but thanked him and continued on their way. They had missed their first double blaze.We got to Boston's parents' house and cleaned up, had dinner and relaxed. Cubby was excited to find out that NASCAR was on. It usually runs on Sunday, but it was on Saturday night. It was rain delayed so she taped it to watch tomorrow.Approximately 1 mile before the town of North Adams, we came across a family of turkeys. They were 2 feet off the trail. At first, we thought it was just a handful of good sized small birds. They were startled by us and ran and flew off. It wasn't until Momma turkey showed herself that we realized all of the birds we first saw were baby turkeys. It was fun to see them. Wish we had not accidentally startled them.
Date: 2005-07-03
From: North Adams, MA / Massachusetts Avenue

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

We slept in until 8:30am. We ate breakfast and visited for a while. Boston had her hair cut while Cubby watched NASCAR. Cubby then got her hair cut. Boston's Mom cuts hair, so the cuts were free!We went to a cookout at a family friend's house. We relaxed and enjoyed steaks, baked potatoes and homemade food.We didn't do much today. That is what a zero day should be!
Date: 2005-07-06
From: Massachusetts Avenue

To: VT 9 / Bennington, VT
Miles today: 18.2
Weather: light rain

We got up early to leave Boston's parents house. We left at 5:40am and drove to North Adams, MA.We started back on the trail at 10am. It rained quite hard in the morning on the drive to North Adams, but only light sprinkles and heavy mist during the hike. When leaving Massachusetts Avenue in North Adams, you actually walk through someone's side/back yard. It is crazy to be on the trail and walk through somebody's backyard. Isn't that a pretty cool backyard? -- A.T., forest and stream all in your backyard.We crossed into Vermont before noon and checked Massachusetts off our list!We hiked by and along a very swampy pond. One section of poncheons (wooden walkways) was under water and someone had thrown tree branches across to walk on. At this section of poncheons the water in the pond was HIGHER than the poncheons we were walking on. It was strange to have water higher than us. It was just spilling over some unknown wall of mud, sticks, and branches.When we crossed into Vermont, we began hiking The Long Trail. The Long Trail is a trail that goes north and south through Vermont. The AT is actually joined with the Long Trail for about 100 miles.Looking back, it was nice to take three zero days to rest our bodies. We hadn't had this long of break since we started from Springer, GA in March.
Date: 2005-07-07
From: VT 9 / Bennington, VT

To: Stratton-Arlington Road
Miles today: 22.6

We knew we had a big mileage day (22.6), so we started off early, 5:45am. In less than a mile we hit "split-rock", where the AT passes through a cleft in a rock. EVERY state, if not EVERY trail club, has to have one of these CLEFT-ROCKS. We aren't sure about you, but once you have seen one or two, they just don't seem so fascinating anymore. It certainly doesn't warrant a five mile detour to walk through one.We walked over a nice footbridge over Hell Hollow Brook. We are not sure if this footbridge actuall exists. Yes, we did walk on it, but Wingfoot does not mention it in his book.We climbed up to Glastenbury Mountain where there is an old observation tower. We then proceeded to "Big Rock" with much anticipation as to how big "big rock" really was going to be. It turns out Big Rock is not so BIG, it is probably the size of a big garden shed.We saw Kid Gore Shelter, it was just off the trail. Since it was off the trail, we walked over to Caughnawga Shelter instead, it is ON the trail. No sense in walking extra steps. A sign on the side of the Caughnawga Shelter said that it was built in 1931. It looked good for 1931, but not so good if it was any newer than that. It was one of the rougher shelters.We crossed Black Brook on a very nice and solid footbridge before coming to Arlington Road. The last 1.5 miles before the footbridge was extremely muddy, as was much of the trail today. It seems we went from ROCKS in Pennsylvania to SWAMPS and MOSQUITOS in Massachusetts to SWAMPY MUD in Vermont.The mosquitos are still out, but they are not swarming in droves like in Massachusetts.NOTE: Check journal entry for 7/2/05 for an addendum about TURKEYS.
Date: 2005-07-08
From: Stratton-Arlington Road

To: VT 11 / VT 30
Miles today: 17.5

We got a 6am start. First thing out of the gate was a climb up to the top of Stratton Mountain. We saw the care-taker's cabin and the firetower. We then hiked to Stratton Pond. At the pond, we took a break on a bench overlooking the pond. We saw a huge fish rise and eat some bugs. Pretty cool.We walked over Winhall River Footbridge. The state of Vermont sure does have well-built footbridges. It is just too bad that they only take you from one muddy section of trail to another muddy section of trail.During one section of the hike today the AT is on the Old Rootville Road for a short while and it leads to Prospect Rock. We did not actually go to Prospect Rock, but took a snack break on a rock leading to the Rock.We met a south-bounder during our break. He left Baxter State Park on May 26th. He tried to start at Katahdin, but there was three feet of snow on it, and he was unable to get up there. He is not actually thru-hiking, just hiking until August.This was a sub-twenty mile day. It always seems like a better day when we do sub-twentys, but it is hard not to want to knock out a bigger chunk of the trail for the day.The weather today was misting all day, and just about 1 mile before we finished it started to rain.
Date: 2005-07-09
From: VT 11 / VT 30

To: Danby-Landgrove Road / USFS 10
Miles today: 17.8

It was hard to get up this morning due to the rain all night and into this morning. It ended up raining all day on us, but not heavy rains. The trail was nothing but mud interrupted by lakes. Lots of lakes. Some were wide. Some were long. Some were deep. Some were wide, long, and deep!We hiked with Biscuit for about 10 miles and she called Vermont, "Vermud." That pretty much sums it up. Biscuit has a faster pace than we do, so we picked it up and hung with her for the last 10 miles of our day, she was heading on. It was enjoyable hiking with her because we got to share "trail stories." Some of our shared stories had hikers in them that we all knew.The hike included Bromley Mountain and then on to Styles Peak. We did not take in any vistas today. They were all the same, nothing but clouds. It rained all day. We made it over Peru Peak, no vistas again, and then down to Peru Peak Shelter. We quickly stopped and signed in the register. Moving right along, we made it to the Danby road by 2pm. Pretty quick for us.We headed into Danby and grabbed a shower and got cleaned up. It felt good. Overall, it was a good hike today even though it rained on us all day.
Date: 2005-07-10
From: Danby-Landgrove Road / USFS 10

To: VT 103
Miles today: 14.6

It rained all night last night and into the early morning. About 5am it finally stopped and the skies became blue, a first in quite some time. We got on the trail at about 6:30am.We hiked for about 1.5 miles along a creek. We heard a splash and looked to the creek and saw two beavers jumping in the creek and then out of it on the opposite side.We hiked for another hour or so and heard a huge tree fall nearby. It was very loud.We walked past Little Rock Pond. It was picturesque. We got to White Rocks Cliffs Trail and saw a bunch of cairns and stacked rock formations. People had made these stacks of balancing rocks and they were everywhere. It was quite a sight. We couldn't resist, so we made a couple of our own to add to the menagerie.We took a break at VT 140 and then headed up Bear Mountain. We came down into VT 103 and visited the Whistle Stop, .5m off the trail. The Whistle Stop is a wonderful little restaurant in an old train depot. There is an old caboose attached to the depot by a huge wooden deck. The caboose serves ice-cream and the depot serves breakfast and lunch.We each had lunch, grilled cheese with bacon and tomato. It was very good and hit the spot. We took our time and enjoyed the meal and the depot. We then ordered strawberry shortcake for dessert, not as good as Mom's, but a close second! Afterwards, we walked over to the caboose and had ice-cream. The Whistle Stop is WELL WORTH the stop.About .1m south of VT 103 we crossed a suspension bridge over the Mill River at Clarendon Gorge. The water looks very powerful. There were teenagers wading and tempting fate on slippery rocks. If they were to slip, it would have been a drowning for sure. It did look very refreshing though.Today's hike was wonderful and the weather was clear and cool at 70 degrees. The trail was also better maintained and less muddy. In addition, it was a relatively short mileage day for us, 14.6m.All in all, we would say this has been one of our best days on the trail in recent memory.
Date: 2005-07-12
From: Kent Pond

To: VT 12 / Barnard Gulf Road
Miles today: 19.5
Weather: mist

We were both tired, so we slept in a little today. We got on the trail at 7:15am. That's one of our latest starts in recent history.The weather was warm, 80+ degrees and sunny. We climbed few mountains and walked passed the Eastern Continental Divide.We also went over the 1,700 mile mark.We met a few southbounders including Little Debbie, Gill and Somoa. Gill and Somoa actually recognized us from our Trail Journals and had signed our guest book before they started. They all started the first week of June. We never saw any northbounders today.We look forward to the end of tomorrow when we will be done with Ver-mud (Vermont)!
Date: 2005-07-13
From: VT 12 / Barnard Gulf Road

To: Hanover, NH
Miles today: 22.4
Weather: scattered clouds

We started on the trail at 6:30am. During the hike up the first hill, we had our first porcupine sighting. It was too far away for a good camera shot.At the top of the hill we met Streetfighter and Turtle. Bones was there too. Bones had passed us going up the hill.On VT 14, we stopped at Rick and Tina's Country Store in West Hartford, VT. Guess what? It was closed. It looked to be closed for good, and it looked to be closed for quite some time. We went over to the library and got a liter of chilled filtered water. We sat in the shade on the porch of the closed Country Store and drank the water and had a snack. A few minutes later, a guy from the construction company behind the store offered us water from their bottled-water cooler in their shop. We got another liter and sat on the porch a little longer. It was about a half hour break.After resting and cooling off, we headed up VT 14 to Tigertown Road. We only made it passed the church next to the Country Store, when a guy that lives in the renovated School House offered us more cold water. Now, for a town that has lousy water, filled with sulfer, a person sure can get a lot of cold cooler water offered to them. We could have been water logged within 300 yards. We declined the homeowner's offer of water, he then offered us some cold apples. We happily accepted those.As we began to eat them in the shade on his front porch, we got to talking about old houses and renovations. When he learned we knew more than the average person about home repair and renovations, he offered to show us more of his interior renovations.It was his opportunity to show-off all the work he did to renovate the old school house into a home. He even updated us on Lance Armstrong's standings in the Tour de France. We stayed about 30 minutes.We climbed Griggs Mountain and then we came down into Norwich, VT. Our impression of Norwich is that it is dripping with money.We did what seemed to be the longest continuous road-walking thus far on the trail: from Norwich, VT to Hanover, NH.We crossed the Connecticut River into New Hampshire and bid our farewell to Vermont!We ate pizza for dinner in Hanover at Ramunto's Brick & Brew. It was very good pizza.
Date: 2005-07-14
From: Hanover, NH

To: Smarts Mountain Ranger Trail
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: broken clouds

We were on the trail today at 5:40am. We hiked up Velvet Rocks. We took a late morning snack break at Moose Mountain Shelter after summitting the south peak of Moose Mountain. There is an interesting privy there. We took pictures of it.We went down to Goose Pond Road, then up to Holts Ledge. We had a snack break at Holts Ledge. It was a hot, long hike up to the Ledge.We then headed back down to the first crossing of Lyme-Dorchester Road. We hiked another 2 miles to the second crossing of Lyme-Dorchester Road and Smarts Mountain Ranger Trail. Those last 2 miles were mosquito and black gnat infested, even worse than the previous 17 miles today, which were really bad with black gnats.The last two miles did have a nice granite marker. The marker stated only 412 miles left to Katahdin, ME. It was a little off on the mileage, the actual mileage is closer to 423 miles. We are glad to be done with this up&down-bug infested day. To top the day off, it even started to rain right as we finished hiking.
Date: 2005-07-15
From: Smarts Mountain Ranger Trail

To: NH 25C
Miles today: 18.8

This was our latest start ever, or at least it is the latest we can ever remember starting, 8:15am. We were very tired. We have not had a zero day in 10 days. 10 hiking days without a break is too many for us.We hiked up Smarts Mountain and at the top we climbed the Firetower. It was a great view from up there. We had our morning snack break up in the tower. There was a day hiker up there with us also.We went to the Smarts Mountain Firewarden's Cabin and signed the register. We then headed down to Clark Pond. After every down, there is a corresponding up. So we then hiked up Mt. Cube. We followed that up with a long hike down and finished the day hiking up and down a little bump by the name of Ore Hill.
Date: 2005-07-16
From: NH 25C

To: Kinsman Notch
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: light rain

We have entered the White Mountains and terrain is supposed to get harder from here on out.We got an early start, far earlier than yesterday. We knew we had a BIG climb today and wanted to get it done and over with. We made it to Jeffers Brook Shelter by about 8:40am and continued on.We hiked onward to Mt. Moosilauke. We climbed a steep 3.8 miles up, which took us about 2.5 hours. We took a snack break at the summit and took pictures at the summit sign. There is suppose to be a great view from the top of Mt. Moosilauke, but we saw nothing but whiteness. The mountain was shrouded in a cloud. We were standing inside of a cloud when we topped out. This was our first "above-treeline" summit. The climb was strenuous, but not too difficult or risky. The climb down the north side was everything the climb up was not and more. It was steep, wet rocks, and very risky. There were rebar handholds in not-enough-places, there were man-made steps on some shear rock faces, and some of those steps were missing. It took us a long time to descend, while trying the entire time not to slip and die. We even read a sign at the bottom of the descent that warned southbounders, and day-hikers going to the summit that "This trail is very tough. Consider an alternate trail to avoid possible tragic results." "Tragic Results" is right, one slip at an inopportune time and you are done for. Needless to say, we were VERY glad to finally be down and hiking on dirt again.Mileage-wise, it was a short day, only 14.5 miles. It still took us 8 hours due to the treacherous and insane climb down.We got to Kinsman Notch and went to the Lost River Gorge Snack Bar. What a mistake! Even for a thru-hiker, no hotdog or cold soda was worth the chaos of kids and teenagers all crushed into the small space while clamoring for snacks. It was a definite "eat & run" situation. We could not even stand to be there. We wolfed down our hotdogs and were out of there in 5 minutes. It was an absolute zoo of people.
Date: 2005-07-17
From: Kinsman Notch

To: Franconia Notch Bike Path
Miles today: 16.4
Weather: overcast clouds

We got an early start at 5:50am. We hiked up to the peak of Mt. Wolf. It had rained quite a bit last night so all the vegetation was terribly wet. Talk about a "car-wash." It was overcast all day and by the time we got to the South Peak of Kinsman it was a white-out with mist and fog. It was quite a climb up the south peak of Kinsman, shear rock faces and the ascent involved a straight up rock scramble.We hiked on and up to the North Peak of Kinsman and was there by noon. We hiked down to Lonesome Lake Hut and Lonesome Lake. The hike down was not as bad going down the north side as the climb up the south peak was.Lonesome Lake Hut looked beautiful, it looked new and lots of people around and down by the lake. The trail improved some after the Hut and we made it to the Franconia Notch Bike Path by 3:30pm.We will be zero-ing tomorrow with Boston's parents. We are well over-due for a zero-day. We may even take more than one. We can't wait.
Date: 2005-07-19
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Another zero day at Boston's parents house.We got up at the decent hour of 8:40am. We then went to buy our food for resupply. We had decided to buy enough food for the rest of the trip and have 3 drop boxes. What we mean is that we will pack up food for the rest of the trip and then divide it up into 4 groups of hiking sections. Then we will mail 3 boxes to towns that we will be going to on our trip. We will keep 1 group of food to carry with us. That will be all the food we will need to get to Katahdin, hopefully!We then had to come home from the grocery store and package up all our food. It was quite a production. We have done our resupplying like this all along, but never on this big of a scale, it was hard to organize. We got it done and now we need to pack up our backpacks and hit the sack to get rested up for our day tomorrow.We plan on getting to the trail by 9am and heading up to Little Haystack, Mt Lafayette and Mt Lincoln. We hope to make it to Galehead Hut and get a work-for-stay, but we may be getting too late of a start and other people may beat us to the punch. We will see...
Date: 2005-07-20
From: Franconia Notch Bike Path

To: Galehead Hut (AMC)
Miles today: 12.9
Weather: scattered clouds

We got up at 4am after zero-ing. Crampy drove us back to Franconia Notch. We got to the Notch by 7am and hit the trail by 7:30am.We started our hike by going up Little Haystack, then Mt. Lincoln, and then Mt. Lafayette. It was a tough hike with a full pack containing 6 days of food. The weather was cloudy and warm, so our vistas from the top were limited. We got to re-live the day that Crampy got his trail name. We had a moment of silence at the very spot, and took a picture as we re-enacted the "cramp."We got to Galehead Hut at about 4pm. It is good to be here and have the miles done, however, it was a long, hard day. We got a "work-to-stay" at the Hut, although there were already 2 southbounders here doing a work-to-stay. We talked the cook into letting us stay also. The southbounders were Hawkeye and Oneday. Our work-for-stay was to peel and slice apples so that the cook could make apple pies for the weekend, and then sweep the floors in the morning.When we first arrived, the cook heated up some mac&cheese with ham in it for us to eat. She knew that thru-hikers are always hungry.As it turned out, the work-for-stay was a bit more than we expected. We peeled and sliced apples for 2 solid hours, from 8pm to 10pm. Now everybody that knows thru-hikers, knows that hiker midnight is somewhere around 7pm. For us to stay up that late and work was exhausting. Even without the work, we could not have gone to bed before 10pm when it was "lights-out" for the paying guests.We slept in the dining room on benches. It was a long, noisy night. The wind turbine on the roof whined all night long and the guests were constantly slamming doors behind them as they got up to use the restrooms.