morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2012-06-30
From: Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to

To: Bemis Mountain Lean-to
Miles today: 8.2
Weather: clear sky

I didn¢t even know that today was Saturday. Wow! Also, we don¢t know how many miles we hiked today. One book says 10 miles, the AT sign says 8.2 miles, and the other book says 8.3. Confusing! I¢m guessing one of the 8 mile ones is correct. I¢m guessing that we hiked at about a 1 mph pace today. Anyway, we¢ve revised our schedule to see how we feel and how Hummingbird feels about where we are in the day. She does not have the stamina or strength that we now have after being out here for nearly a month. I find it both a relief and a frustration. Steven and I would be farther by now, BUT it makes me feel like I have made physical progress with my hiking, even though I constantly feel like I¢m no better off than I was at the beginning.Hummingbird fell and twisted her ankle this morning on a nasty descent from ME 17. It was in some really thick grass and there was a hidden hole that she stepped in. That was a scary moment. She was okay, thankfully. I mean, we were by the road, so it was a good place to get hurt, but so soon into her adventure that it would have been very disappointing. Steven says that he just heard thunder. I say no. NOOOO!!! The western sky looks clear. I will pray that it stays that way.Bemis Mountain is BEAUTIFUL so far. The views are great. We passed Mooselookmeguntic Lake today and that was awesome too. There are so many beautiful things to see here. I am sad that I¢m missing so much from having to look down at my footing all of the time. At least I can listen to the birds. Hummingbird can identify some for us and I like that a lot. It makes me a little proud to know that I already knew some of their calls¢¦ thanks to my friend Maili.
Date: 2012-07-01
From: Bemis Mountain Lean-to

To: Stealth Site on a Blue Blazed Trail
Miles today: 2.7

Today was a sad day. Upon waking, Hummingbird decided that she was going to leave the trail because her body just can¢t do it. Her muscles are fine, but I guess the length of the day and the strenuousness of the trail was more than she anticipated. Then she puked her breakfast. :P I got her water for her and Steven gave her some tissues to clean up. She wasn¢t ill. It was her body rejecting the overexertion. I bade farewell to Lite Brite as she left camp this morning and wished her a happy Canada Day. We made the decision to hike Hummingbird out to South Arm Road so she could get a ride to town. We hiked to the west peak of the Bemis Range and it took about 2 hours. According to one book it is only a mile to that point, and another book said it is 1.7. What is up with these conflicting mileages?!?! Hummingbird was already very tired and we had two more mountains to go over. I knew that at the rate we were hiking we¢d be hiking until dark if we wanted to get to the road. I suggested that we take the Bemis Stream Trail back to Rt. 17 where the Mooselookmeguntic Lake overlook was. She thought that was a good idea. The terrain looked much easier and I thought we¢d have a decent chance of getting to the road by a more respectable hour. We got to the road around 5:00 pm whereupon we had NO CELL PHONE SERVICE! We walked up the hill until there was service and Carol called a shuttle to come pick her up. We walked up to the overlook (about 12 mile) and waited. There was a couple with a dog and I wanted to pet it. I asked if I could and they said yes. I started talking with them a bit ¢ Chris and Elizabeth and they offered us an entire strawberry rhubarb pie! They also offered us this veggie pate thing and a cookie bar. We took the veggie stuff (I guess we¢re not real hikers yet). They were so nice I wish I could write them a thank you note. The dog was 14 years old and name Roo (at least that was its nickname).Carol¢s shuttle arrived and we hugged farewell. I miss her already. We had many interesting things to talk about and she has lots of knowledge about the flora and fauna. I am sad. I am also annoyed at myself. It is my fault that we added 12.2 miles to bring her to the road, but I know it was the right thing to do. We are way behind our friends now. I guess we will have to make new ones or try really hard to catch up to the ones we have now. To get to where we wanted to be today originally, we¢ll have to hike a 15 tomorrow. We¢ll see what happens.Even though we hiked a lot today, I'm only counting the AT miles... 2.7.
Date: 2012-07-02
From: Stealth Site on a Blue Blazed Trail

To: Just south of Old Blue Mountain
Miles today: 6.0

Well, we did not successfully hike the 15 miles to Hall Mountain Lean-to. We did hike 8 miles by 1:30 and started a little after 8 AM. That isn¢t too bad considering that we gained about 2,000 ft in elevation during that time. I was pretty gung-ho, but I petered out.There were scattered showers today. We were in 3 of them. The last one was more of a downpour, but the sun is back out now. I am fairly certain I¢m having PMS. I feel extra tired and hungry and more like a failure than I did before. I¢m also sad about being behind our friends. I made this verse up today while hiking:We¢re here a day late,It must be fate.We miss our friends,But everything ends.Hike on.Steven is disappointed in me. I think he is also annoyed at my PMS and my general presence. I think he wishes I could hike as fast and be as strong as he is. Alas. I fail. But, not that badly: I still hiked 11 miles today ¢ which I think isn¢t so bad. Again, only counting AT miles above.The descent from Old Blue Mountain was killer. I think Maine needs to learn what an effective switchback is. That being said, the group that made the staircase the highest up the hill deserves an award. The steps weren¢t ridiculously high or tilted at weird angles. Hooray! My knees still took a beating. At one point, I just sat down. I didn¢t want to move any further. We¢ll have another awful descent tomorrow too. We have now BOTH decided that walking Hummingbird out on the Bemis Stream trail was the right thing to do today because of going down Old Blue Mountain. We are camping pretty much next to a road. There is a group of other people nearby. We can hear them, but we can¢t see them and didn¢t say hello. Also, we set up our tent in a kind of nice place, but when the breeze blew, we could smell human feces. Sick! We moved the tent to a different spot on the path to the campsite. Seriously, people out here are awful at the leave no trace practices. I picked up someone else¢s garbage today. Bluck. I think pooping close to where you eat/sleep is nasty, though. Way worse than dropping a candy bar wrapper. Well¢¦ maybe not. At least poop is organic. Anyway ¢ YUCK.I love to hear the thrushes in the evening. Tonight there are other birds, but I can¢t identify them.
Date: 2012-07-05
From: Bald Pate Lean-to

To: Speck Pond Campsite Lean-to
Miles today: 6.9
Weather: light rain

We got a very late start today because I had one of my crying mornings. My knee hurt so bad and I was scared to hike down. It definitely hurts worse on the downhills. Once we started it wasn't so bad. Our plan was to hitch to Bethel to the Rite-Aid to get me a knee brace and ankle support and insoles (and a Coke). Unfortunately, I'm not good at hitching and there were few cars. We did meet this guy yesterday with his dog named Boomer. He hiked back today and saw us trying to hitch and asked us if we were going to Bethel. We said yes and we told him why. He said that he had a knee brace that he'd lend to me!! That meant we didn't have to go to town. I thought that would have made Steven happy because we could hike on. It turned out that we both wanted to go to town anyway. Oh well. We hiked on. I will send the knee brace back to him when we get to Gorham. I'll buy my own there. What a nice guy!We only hiked 6.9 miles today, but we "wasted" time trying to hitch and we did go an extra .6 miles with no packs to go to the peak of Old Speck Mountain. We are now at the shelter for which we each had to pay $8.00 to stay. Stitch is here. I like him much better today. The caretaker here gave us BUTTER! It is so delicious. We put it in our couscous... and kept adding and adding. :9
Date: 2012-07-06
From: Speck Pond Campsite Lean-to

To: Full Goose Shelter (I think)
Miles today: 5.1
Weather: broken clouds

Today we hiked the Mahoosic Arm and Mahoosic Notch. It took us 8 hours to hike 5.1 miles. If we had left an hour earlier, we would have been able to hike to the next shelter. Oh well. Gene, this 70+ year old hiker told us that it was a very difficult hike and guessed it would take us five hours. Tomorrow we'll go 10 miles and to Mt. Success in NEW HAMPSHIRE!! As of tomorrow we will have hiked all of Maine. WOO HOO!We are in the shelter with Stitch, Booterman (who aren't speaking to one another), Gene, and Awakener. We are having a conversation about resources. There is a group of teenage girls here camping so that there was only one tent platform left when we got here. That's a lot of girls. Yeah, so about Stitch and Booterman - there was some drama about muffins. There is a woman who is writing a book about female AT hikers and she told Booterman that she'd leave her some muffins at Grafton Notch. When Booterman got there, there were no muffins. Stitch told her that he ate the muffins, but he told us that he lied to her and there were no muffins left when he got there. Then he teased her about the type of muffin - and how delicious they BOTH were. She pretty much hates him now. He thinks she is annoying. Do you know what this means? If the AT is like a romance novel, they'll be married by Springer. It is like living in a soap opera. We hiked most of Mahoosic Notch with Booterman. Around 1:00 we stopped and had lunch, but it took us about 2 hours plus the 30 minutes for lunch to hike the one mile. Two hours and thirty minutes. Crazy. I got scratched up a bit too.Steven had a fall down the Arm and hit his knee, but he says he is okay. It look... I have no idea what I was going to write. WTH? too much conversation happening. [Later: I'm sure it was something like "It looked like a bad fall"]Hopefully Stitch's snoring won't keep me awake tonight. The past two nights I haven't had much sleep. It is weird because my sister is a big snorer and I always could sleep in the same room as her. Well, almost always. I know I slept a bit anyway. Last night I had a dream that Barack Obama was my math teacher. Weird.The conversation just turned to "A Walk in the Woods." Some people here wonder if "Katz" is a real person or if Bryson made up the character to mask his inner self which he didn't want the general public knowing about. Interesting. HA! Stitch apparently emailed Bill Bryson and invited him to hike up Katahdin with him. I guess anything like that is worth a shot.
Date: 2012-07-07
From: Full Goose Shelter (I think)

To: Gentian Pond Shelter (newly fixed)
Miles today: 9.6

We didn¢t sleep at all last night. Gene has sleep apnea and snores, so it was sporadically quiet and loud. Stitch wore breathe right strips, so his snoring wasn't bad. At one point I checked my watch. 11:00 PM. I hadn¢t slept yet. WTH? Then my alarm went off (by accident) at midnight!! About an hour later Booterman just started laughing which made me laugh. We were laughing in the middle of the night because we couldn¢t sleep! It was hysterical and horrible.We¢re at the Gentian Pond Shelter¢¦ ewww I think some guy just puked in here! EWWWW TWICE!! Either that or he has a really bizarre sounding sneeze. He stayed sitting where he was, so I¢m not sure. I just asked another woman here if he puked and she shrugged because she couldn¢t tell either. We are sitting above him! This is our first two story shelter and we¢re on the upper part at Steven¢s request. I¢m glad about that right now.Today was going pretty well. There were some flooded bog bridges, but nothing awful. The wind on top of Full Goose Mountain was whipping so hard that the clouds were whizzing by. We were mostly in the clouds, but and when they were blown around by the wind we could see the next peak for a few moments. Then it was like it was never there. Amazing. I took several pictures in a row that all (I hope) have different clouds. At times it was so windy that I almost blew over.We finally crossed the state line and are now in New Hampshire ¢ WOO HOO! The first thing we had to do was climb up a slick, wet rock. We both agreed ¢ we hate New Hampshire! Hahaha! The end of Maine was pretty difficult too. It was as if Maine didn¢t want us to leave ¢ blocking us with giant boulders and New Hampshire didn¢t want us in with its slick rock. Well, we made it, SO THERE!Unfortunately, I hurt my leg worse today. I pulled a muscle near my knee and it hurts to use it. I can¢t believe it. I¢m so angry. First the knee brace and then the pulled muscle. We¢re hiking into Gorham tomorrow with Cappy (the woman here that I asked if the Canadian guy barfed). She hiked in 11 miles today with her nephew, Cotton. She is carrying a very heavy pack and doesn¢t feel up to hiking such tough days. I don¢t blame her. Anyway, I MUST sleep tonight.
Date: 2012-07-08
From: Gentian Pond Shelter (newly fixed)

To: White Birches
Miles today: 6.0
Weather: fog

We had a very nice hike out today on the Austin Brook Trail with Cappy (Carol). It is amazing to hike such easy trails after hiking the AT. We then ¢hiked¢ along the road for about 3 miles. So, we walked over 6 miles before 10:30 AM. Some days we only hike 7 miles total. This feels good. Cappy¢s friend picked us up at a parking lot and dropped us off at the White Birches Hostel.We went to Wal-Mart to get a few things and Bruce aka ¢Golden Waldo¢ brought us there without charging us! He said he needed groceries too. Sweet! He is a very nice guy.We then ate the rest of our bread and cheese for lunch with pepperoni and Cheetos Puffs. Then walked to town (about 2 miles?) and checked out what there was. Steven got a drink from Dunkin¢ Donuts and we played a game of mini golf which was fun and ridiculous. We had dinner at Mr. Pizza. They were pretty stingy on the toppings, but it was okay because I got an ¢orange creamsicle¢ as a drink. I guess it is just orange soda with vanilla ice cream. It made me happy.We were going to watch Talladega Nights on DVD, but couldn¢t figure out how to work the DVD player so we ended up watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade which was on television instead. Guess who showed up!? Fancy Free!!! She had a HORRIBLE day. She fell and sprained her ankle and twisted her knee. Even so, she FINISHED her section hike of the trail today and hiked about 14 miles even with her injuries. She is kind of my hero. She didn¢t take off her shoe to look at her foot until after she got here. That was probably for the best. She is a tough cookie. Scrabble wasn¢t with her, so that is a good thing. Fancy told us about her encounter with Gene, the man we met the other night. Apparently, he hiked the Mahoosic Notch and the Arm and it took him a LONG time. So long that he didn¢t make it to the shelter until 1:30 AM!! Poor Gene. She said he was so tired that He was staggering around like he was drunk. I hope he is okay.I spoke to Mom, Grandma, Marcia,, and Chris on the phone this evening. Grandma says that Hansel is peeing and pooping anywhere that smells like me. ? OH NO! Poor Schmance. Grandma says I should come home ASAP so he isn¢t more traumatized than he already is. Poor kitty. Milo and Matilda are fine. SCHMANCE!!We met this really nice section hiker, Green, today. He just finished hiking the Whites ¢ he did a hut to hut hike which sounds pretty awesome. It makes me wonder how we¢re going to handle the Whites. I get a little more nervous the closer we get, but we¢ll figure it out and I¢m sure it will be fine.Anyway, I should go to bed. We are probably taking a zero tomorrow so my leg can get better. The weather is gorgeous right now so that sucks! Stupid body.
Date: 2012-07-09
From: White Birches

To: White Birches
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

We are at China Dynasty Buffet in Gorham, NH. Steven is on plate number five of food!*   *   *   *   *   *Later... well, buffet Chinese is not for me, I guess. We picked up some food for Fancy and had Bruce bring us to WalMart where I got to know bathroom stall #4 very well. It was not one of my finer experiences in a public place. Steven, on the other hand, is so bloated that he looks like he is in his second trimester.We met Green in WalMart and the three of us went to the library together. Green was updating his Trail Journal, and I was on facebook. Steven used his phone to access the internet. Another patron wanted to use the computer I was on, so I went and read the first part of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It was funny. No wonder why kids like it.I think we are going to finally slack pack tomorrow! I don¢t think it will matter much in the way of my speed, though. We¢ll see. We are sitting pool side (gasp!) here at White Birches ¢ we walked up to the basin which is a really beautiful, clear swimming hole. It is part of a stream, so it is cold. Steven waded in and I didn¢t even touch the water. It looked icy! We came back here and Steven went for a swim. I waded up to my waist, but it isn¢t all that warm. There is a constant cool breeze, but the sun is beaming hot. A nice day for hiking.We met Walking Home today. He lives in Maine, so he is, in fact, walking home.
Date: 2012-07-10
From: White Birches

To: White Birches
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: broken clouds

Today we had our first slack pack! Golden Waldo even drove up a logging road to bring us closer to the trail. That was awesome! He couldn¢t drive us as close as he remembered, but I think we cut off about a mile. We were happy.It took only 1 hour to get to the shelter, so that was good. We hiked at about 1.7 MPH before lunch which was at 12:23. The terrain was much easier than I was expecting after Cappy¢s description of it the other day. We encountered Walking Home about half way through our hike. We had expected to see him sooner, but it was nice to see a familiar face. Oh, this morning when we caught the shuttle, he was fresh out of the shower. We had all been sharing the same body wash, so he got in the van and I recognized the smell immediately. I said, ¢Ooh, you smell like Sensual Amber.¢ It got a laugh. Shortly after lunch I re-pulled my leg muscle. I tearfully made the decision, with Steven, to take a week off from hiking. I called Grandma to see if she could come pick us up. She will be here tomorrow with Marcia. I am pretty bummed. The weather is so beautiful for the next week which is disappointing ¢ only because we¢re leaving.We still hiked about 13 miles today. We had dinner with Green at Mr. Pizza. We all had burgers. Then Green and I played air hockey. I won! It was a very close game. We¢re now watching Big Bang Theory. It is a fairly funny show.
Date: 2012-07-19
From: Baxter State Park

To: Abol Campground
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Last night, we slept in a lean-to in Baxter State Park with Hummingbird. Why the heck are you at BSP, Applejack? Oh, I¢ll tell you ¢ to finish our hike up Katahdin. We slept at Roaring Brook Campground.We took the Chimney Pond Trail and Hummingbird came with us part of the way. It was a slight incline the whole way with lots of stones everywhere and embedded into the trail. Not small, so I guess ¢rocks¢ is a more appropriate term than ¢stones.¢ From Chimney Pond we took the Cathedral Trail up, which was climbing boulders for most of the way. We made it to the peak by 11:30 and we didn¢t leave camp until nearly 7:00 AM! Go us! We took pictures and ate lunch at the summit. It was a GORGEOUS day with views in all directions. We could see the Bigelows and we think even Saddleback. We walked out onto the knife edge a little too, but not too far because we needed to meet Carol. Back at the summit I noticed the ranger from our first trip here. The one who thought we¢d be a ¢rescue¢, so I spoke with her making sure she knew we¢d made it all the way through Maine. That felt really good. Steven told her he didn¢t recognize her without her waders. HAHAHAHAHAHA! She laughed.The hike down was mostly uneventful. We saw some unfortunateness ¢ people had pooped almost on the trail and left all their toilet paper there. It was totally gross.Also, we got our photo with Betsy, the ranger when we reached the bottom. Tonight we are at Abol Campground in a tentsite. There was ¢WELCOME¢ written in the dirt when we arrive. ¢Twas nice. Sleep time. Zzzz WE DID IT!
Date: 2012-07-20
From: Abol Campground

To: Rattle River Shelter
Miles today: 5.0
Weather: broken clouds

Woke up late today 7:10 and had a good stretch. Packed up and out of Baxter. We picked up a hiker named Roadside who is from Germany. He finished his section hike yesterday! He was very happy.Hummingbird drove us to Monson so we could finish the three miles we missed/skipped there and now we have officially hiked all of Maine. We wanted to show her the little bridge and the very end (or beginning) of the 100 mile wilderness, but it was gone! Some trail maintainers were in the area, so we asked them how long the bridge had been out. They told us, "About ten minutes." They had taken it out! What timing!We drove the rest of the way to Gorham, stopping at a BBQ place on the way. It was okay.We are now at the Rattle River Shelter, less than 2 miles from the road. It was fairly easy to hike in, so that was nice. It took maybe 45 minutes total. I don't know how far we'll get tomorrow - that is only for tomorrow to know.It is only 7:00. We probably won't sleep very well tonight because we did a lot of sitting today. Ah well.Just as we were heading to bed, a hiker came in and set up his tent. We talked to him for a little bit. His name is Frogman 1. It is nice to be back on the trail... and out of the humid 100 degree heat back home. Onward!
Date: 2012-07-21
From: Rattle River Shelter

To: Mt. Height
Miles today: 11.0

Today was our first official day in the whites. We hiked about 11 miles today and the sun is still shining. My body is very tired. We are currently sitting atop Mt. Height and we intend to camp here as well. There is a small stealth site just east of the summit. This also means we get to see sunset over the presidentials. Cool! As long as there is no thunderstorm, I'm happy. The wind is almost non-existent and the clouds seem to barely move. Strange for 4,600 ft, but I'll take it!The hike today was mostly non-eventful. There were some very steep uphills and lots of rock, but not particularly demanding. Even so, it was enough for this gal. We met some NOBOs today that were on Mt. Washington yesterday!! We won't be there for another three days. It is amazing what some people can do. I'm trying to keep up the pace, but I don't think I'll ever be able to go such big miles. Poor Steven is always waiting for me and my inadequate body. It makes me feel bad for him and myself. I want to be better, but I'm not. The thing I have to remember is that I am here and I AM doing it. Slowly.