morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2007-07-31
From: Apple House Shelter

To: Moreland Gap Shelter
Miles today: 18.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Got up at 7:20 and was very sore. AM walking was over some balds and was harder than it appeared on the map. Snack at Jones Falls, a nice and very tall waterfall a couple tenths off the trail but totally worth the trip! Lots of small PUDs. Also, we saw a couple rabbits, a deer, and an incredible variety of mushrooms (neon orange, yellow, green, red, etc). Plus, the leaves were vivid orange and blazing red and oh, we saw some neon pink magnolia pinecones. Small rain this PM but pretty light. At lunch, a college-age guy with his dog Paige passed us, and we met him here at the shelter tonight. BTW, that's not the same guy with his dog named Paige--we actually stayed with two different younger guys with dogs both named Paige. A little twilight-zone trail time to keep things surreal. Yea. The last two hours of walking was quite hard: I kept expecting the shelter for 1 1/2 hrs. We're going to be so sore and blistered tomorrow! But it does look very feasible mileage-wise to make it to Damascus by the time we need to get back home! So tired...
Date: 2007-08-01
From: Moreland Gap Shelter

To: Tentsite b/w Abingdon Gap Shelter and Backbone Tr.
Miles today: 12.2
Weather: light rain

Today we became SOBOs! If only for 50 miles. Slightly strange. Well, woke up at 7:30 and were off by 8:48. The guy from ETSU with Paige wasn't packed up yet. Some bumps, then down to Kincora. We passed by a little abandoned log cabin that was interesting. Got to Kincora after a couple tenths of road walking at 11:30, took showers, did laundry, had lunch, restocked, etc. Bob Peoples suggested he shuttle us today to Damascus since he wasn't busy and since he would be busy Sunday morning when we would need him. So, after a brief discussion about the purity of our NOBO-only hike (apprx 8 seconds), we agreed to go SOBO. Drove up to Damascus (took 1 hr 20 min) and headed south! Noticeable ascent out of town, but I was in a good mood with plenty of energy. Stopped after about an hour for water and snack and called Dad. Got quite sweaty--it's supposed to be in the upper 80s and 90s this week. Better than a lot of rain, I suppose. PM wasn't flat all the time but it was more gradual, not mountainous. Now it's 7:15 and it just poured buckets. Thankfully, we got in the tent just in the nick of time (but what exactly does that expression mean...probably shouldn't say things without comprehending their actual significance...I'll work on that). It's still raining hard now. Dinner was a noodle bowl we cooked at Kincora and just carried in ziplocs. (Hiking does demand a little more innovation than the average lifestyle.) Now we're just reading and hoping the rain will stop. You know, bathroom time and all that...
Date: 2007-08-02
From: Tentsite b/w Abingdon Gap Shelter and Backbone Tr.

To: Iron Mtn Shelter
Miles today: 20.0

Haha, our first twenty-miler! I'm unduly proud, I'll admit. Had a really nice sleep last night and the tent was pretty dried out by this morning (the water-proofing job with Scotchguard definitely worked). Up at 7:15 and gone by 8:30. Saw 7 dayhikers altogether and a boy scount troop I guess, all heading north (like we would've been. hmm...) A pair told us they saw 2 bear cubs and Double Springs Gap, but we didn't see them when we got water there. This PM just before crossing 91, the trail went through someone's oat fields freshly cut. It had started raining at 3 and was just letting up when we walked through. Had a picturesque snack break on a bench in the middle of the field, overlooking the mountains beyond. We were more than pleased. My knee was twinging some after crossing 91 on the downhills, but not badly--just wanted to be extra careful now. So there's only 24.3 miles til Dennis Cove. It's sort of sad we don't have enough miles left for Sunday, so we'll be leaving when we finish Saturday PM. But Mom does have to work bright and early Monday morning, so it all works out nicely. It was cool-ish today but so humid. Now it's 8:10 and I need another long-sleeve layer. I think I'll sleep well tonight. Oh, saw a couple deer (their tails, at least).
Date: 2007-08-03
From: Iron Mtn Shelter

To: Campsite after Watauga Shelter
Miles today: 14.5

Today wasn't too eventful. Took lots of pictures of mushrooms and had lunch at Vandeventer Shelter where we met two older men doing 19E to Damascus. Gave them my extra chocolate bar. It was funny--they declined at first, but after a few moments of the impending tragedy of refused chocolate weighing on their wavering minds, they came back and accepted it. Actually, we ended up bringing too much sweet stuff and not enough salty snacks. Made camp kind of early after getting water and sponge-bathing at a creek. We're camped right on Watauga Lake shore with an island a little ways ahead. It's very lovely. (The campsite was to left of the trail for SOBOs and a creek trickled just yards away across the trail--pretty much the perfect campsite.) We actually went swimming a while ago--quite cold and didn't stay in long because we were unsure of the water's cleanliness. Now just sitting on a log overlooking the lake drying and reading. Very picturesque and tranquil. Tomorrow is the huge uphill to Pond Flats, then the insanely steep downhill to Damascus. I'm nervous: I wore my brae today and it did seem to help; I just hope my knee holds out.
Date: 2007-08-04
From: Campsite after Watauga Shelter

To: Dennis Cove, Kincora Hostel
Miles today: 10.0

We made it. We have officially entered into VA and completed about 460 miles of the AT! It's so amazing that I was able to come back after only a month or two and hike again without re-injuring myself. God is so gracious--really, what else is there to say?
Date: 2007-05-27
To: 60+ days to go
Miles today: 0.0

This time in two months we will be just about to make a jet-lagged attempt on Mount Katahdin in Maine before heading south on the 2175-mile long Appalachian trail. We are Weka and Kea from New Zealand. We do quite a lot of hiking in New Zealand but have not attempted something as ambitiously long as the Appalachian Trail. Last year we completed the Bibbulmun track in Western Australia and loved it so we are not complete novices to long distance hiking. We are currently in preparation mode. Our Bibbulmun gear served us well but we think we can improve on it so the sewing machine has come out again since we tend to make a lot of our gear. Often we cannot get the fabrics we want in New Zealand so have placed a few orders for shipments from overseas. We are looking forward to their arrival since time is pressing.Next week we fly to Auckland to be interviewed (!) for our visas. I wonder what extra information they get from viewing us in person that warrants the extra cost to us. I understand the maximum time we will be allowed is 6 months so - given we aren't as young as we used to be - how will that affect our ability to do the whole trail? I plan to mention this at the interview to find out what to do if we actually want to take some time off from the trail and can't fit it into the timeframe. It would be nice to feel we don't have to watch the clock every step of the way.Now I've got one more thing done - setting up our journal. Tick off one more item on the list. More later.........
Date: 2007-06-01
To: 59 days to go 
Miles today: 0.0

We have now been to Auckland to apply for visas. Our passports were delivered to us in the mail today stamped with 10-year visas. It was quite painless actually, except for the approximately $500 cost of getting to the consulate for our 5 minutes worth of interview! The only thing is, a visa is not a guarantee of entry, nor does it tell us how long we will be able to get a visitor permit for. These things are for customs officials in LA to decide.
Date: 2007-06-02
To: 58 days to go
Miles today: 0.0

No, I won't be doing an entry every day, just trying to get our journal showing on the trailjournals site. You need three entries. We are going on a day trip tomorrow despite an awful forecast. The plan is to climb up to Table Top in the Tararuas (north of Wellington) then go down an untracked spur to Penn Creek, down the Penn Creek track and then up onto Tirotiro Knob. Should be fun in the rain and cold southerly temperatures. Today might have been better after all, but too late now. I've spent all day on the sewing machine. I put new zips into my overtrousers and finished my pajama bottoms (pajamas are better than a sleeping bag liner in my opinion). I made pockets for my windbreaker too. I've still got a few things to make. I have to repair the bowl after the Bibbulmun - the bowl is a round bit of coated nylon material that fits over a frame made of closed cell foam mat. It is very lightweight and works well for washing feet, clothes, bodies and whatever else. One of the metal holes has pulled out and needs to be reinforced and replaced. I like a bit of luxury on the trail which means having a chair to sit in. When you are tired, there is nothing like a bit of back support. So the next project is to copy Kea's chair so I can have one too. We have to be completely ready by the end of June, since July is all filled up with other things. We are going with a couple of our mates to the Abel Tasman track for 5 days, then to Nelson Lakes National Park for another 5 days. It is easy travel so it won't get us fit unfortunately, but I suppose it all helps. Then I'll spend a few days with my sister and my mother before we leave. We haven't made bookings yet but are now aiming at a 22 July departure date. This would mean bringing our trail start date forward a day or two. Tune in again soon.
Date: 2007-06-07
To: 53 or less days to go
Miles today: 0.0

I am not sure how many days are left as our start date will only be finalised when we have made our flight bookings.We are trying to do a day trip at least once a week. Kime Hut is on the Southern Crossing of the Tararuas, just north of Wellington and is our main hiking area with easy access and challenging weather and terrain. We ended up climbing to the top of Hector last Saturday. This was not the original plan but due to the rare favourable weather we decided this at the turnoff to Penn Creek. It was a hard day with over 2000 metres of climbing, rough track, and covering a distance of about 25 kilometres. I was glad we weren't doing the same again the following day.The sewing goes on. Kea is making our tarp tent out of silnylon and noseeum netting. I've finished my pajamas and am re-making a fleece pullover top. There are a few other similar sewing projects still to be done. We are trying to find someone living near Springer to whom we can mail stuff to be picked up at the end of our hike. I have emailed someone who contacted us via the forum, so hopefully something will come of it. We are hassling with trying to make bookings at Baxter State Park so we can climb Mt Katahdin. Seems they won't take phone bookings but want a posted application with self-addressed stamped envelope. Not easy if you are in New Zealand where we cannot buy American stamps. The system seems to be geared to Americans only. They also seem to have successfully kept technology at bay. Of course the system could be a clever ploy to weed out all but the most determined, given the high demand for camp sites. Maybe we will have to settle on climbing Katahdin from Millinocket. I would be a bit worried about having enough time to do it as we will still be jetlagged and probably pretty slow.
Date: 2007-06-27
To: 30 days to go
Miles today: 0.0

We are in the final days of preparation now. Time has been so short I haven't got back to our journal. I have a few items of gear left to make including a pair of overgloves and a couple of stuff sacks. Baxter State Park unexpectedly sent us confirmation of bookings. Thanks to the person there who realized that it was impractical for us to send a SASE and went to the trouble of mailing the information. We are most grateful. Kea has been worrying about critter protection for our food and has come up with an arrangement for fooling the mice which consists of a string with a barrier made from a compact disc. You hang up your food bags and supposedly the mice are not smart/agile enough to climb down the string, negotiate around the slippery compact disc and onto your food bag. Ha! We'll see who is smarter. For bears we have decided to buy Ur-sacks. They are bear-proof if you don't mind your food ground to powder when the bear chews on the bag, but not mouse-proof! There is probably nothing mouse-proof. Trading off the weight of the ur-sack against the weight of other methods of bear-protection there seems a good case can be made for taking them. If we have them we will not have to worry about losing our food to critters. Also we should be able to mail them forward from time to time so don't anticipate carrying them all the time. Our impression reading journals is that not many people take food protection too seriously so maybe we are overreacting. Oh yes, a complaint from one of our faithful readers. He says our journal is full of American spellings. I assured him it was not me doing it even though I lived in Texas for 13 years, so trailjournals must have a sneaky spellcheck. Kea is immersed in paperwork today since we have to pay our taxes and pre-pay other bills before leaving, amongst other things. Also arranging access to money in the US for 6 months is an interesting exercise. Hope it will not be so long before I get back to this next time.
Date: 2007-07-16
To: Less than a week to go....
Miles today: 0.0

We have just got back from our annual winter trip - this time it was to Abel Tasman National Park for 5 days and then Nelson Lakes National Park for another 5 days. The weather was a bit rainy at first but then we had magnificent blue sky days with bitterly cold temperatures in the early mornings. It was great to see Abel Tasman again after 30-odd years. The fig tree outside Whariwharangi Hut is still there but too old to have figs on it any more and the bush has all grown up around the hut. I hardly recognised it. The old farm house is in beautiful condition but the wind blew in through the gaps in the walls - they were tough back then when houses were not seam-sealed! We had two early starts due to the tidal timetable and I remember why I don't care to tramp by torchlight. It is great to see the sunrise but you miss a lot in one of the most scenic areas in the country. I hope not to leave it for 30 years before getting back there again, not least because I'd be 90! Nelson Lakes was good too, but very cold. It was -9C in St Arnaud on the day we started our walk but lovely and sunny, and you could walk over all the mud holes and puddles which were frozen solid. This was a nice change! We went to Speargrass Hut, then on to Sabine Hut. The track was very good but quite slow due to a lot of branches having come down after heavy snow. Then up the Sabine Valley to West Sabine Hut and from there to Blue Lake. On our return we found the rest of the country had been either submerged by floods or deep frozen. We certainly picked the best part of the country to be in.So now there is less than a week to go and we are mainly focused on social and family things - since we'll be away for 6 months. As planned, our winter trip showed up one or two glaring shortcomings of the gear so there've been a few alterations to make - most particularly to my boots which caused me some problems. I've had to ask our bootmaker to do a rush job. Hope it works. Boots are definitely something you want to get right.OK, time to go and do things.Going Up Sabine River ValleyWeka and friends on the track in the Sabine Valley, NZ This is our annual winter trip to areas that are too popular in the summer however we didn't get across the Travers Saddle as planned due to deep snow, ice and bitterly cold temperatures. Some things you need to do in summer.
Date: 2007-07-23
To: Los Angeles
Miles today: 0.0

Well, we have got as far as Los Angeles after a no problem flight from NZ. And what is more, we got a 6 month entry permit so the trail is on. Actually, it was touch and go. The guy we saw in immigration was quite understanding and recommended us for an eight month permit (as he could only give us six months). "See my supervisor" he said "and she may give you eight. I'll recommend eight". So off we trooped. The supervisor was a young black woman who appeared nonplussed by our request. "Why do you want eight months? Tourists are only here for 2 to 4 weeks." "We want to walk the Appalachian trail". "You want to what??" That anyone would want to do what we were planning seemed beyond her comprehension and for a while we were staring at a four week entry permit. We talked, and eventually she declared that she would give us six months. She said this was "the limit of my authority". She did say that we could apply for an extension but it was generally agreed that this would be impractical. We must have looked really suspicious to her.Neither of us slept on the plane coming over but we both got a good sleep (14 hours!) last night and believe it or not, Weka is alert and cheerful today, if not a box of birds. After some distinctly average "food" at Denny's we are just about to depart to the airport for leg number 2: 23 hours of travel to Millinocket by plane, plane, bus, bus, shuttle. We have decided that Millinocket is at the end of the earth.
Date: 2007-07-26
To: Mt Katahdin tomorrow!
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Well, here we are in Millinocket in the Appalachian Trail Cafe. Paul is driving us to Baxter State Park tomorrow morning for the big climb up Mt Katahdin. It is funny meeting people who have finished their trip when we are just about to start ours. There are not too many of them about yet, but the flow is expected to increase. We will pass them on our way south. We had one hiccup with Delta Airlines who lost one of our bags somewhere between LA and Portland. It finally showed up but I think I lost a year off my life wondering what we'd do without it if it came to that. Apparently this is not unusual. Paul told us that one hiker waited for his missing pack for several days and eventually gave up, starting his hike with gear Paul loaned to him. Our missing pack went on a side trip to Atlanta according to the label and after it got back to Portland Delta delivered it by courier to our accommodation here in Millinocket. It is particularly hot here at present with a low of 22C and a high of 33C. The locals say it is unusually hot and we are hoping this is right. We thought we had timed our starting date late enough in the year to miss the worst of the heat. We haven't done much since arriving except buy and organize our food - this took longer since things look different and we couldn't find full cream milk powder, coconut milk powder or dried vegetables like mushrooms, corn, carrots, peas, beans and tomatoes. I did find some curry powder! I am hoping these things are generally readily available at supermarkets along the trail as it would be pretty hard to prepare trail dinners without them. When I rang the supermarket from New Zealand they told me they carried a wide selection of hiker food so it has been a big disappointment not to find at least some of these really important trail food items. I can't work out what they meant when they said they had hiker supplies. It is going to be interesting to see what others have on the trail and I look forward to learning additional food options besides our old faithfuls.
Date: 2007-07-27
From: Katahdin

To: Katahdin Stream Campground Lean-to, ME
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: clear sky

We met a couple of northbounders in Millinocket, our starting town, who had just finished the day before. They have a certain spaced-out look about them and are pretty gaunt! I wonder what we will look like when/if we finish! There is due to be a large group of northbounders coming through during our first month or so but the early ones are straggling in now. "Old Man" from the AT Lodge gave us a lift to the trailhead in Baxter State Park. On the way he stopped at a pond and out there in the middle of it there was a moose up to its stomach in the water eating water weed. It was fascinating to watch it grazing on the deeper water weed with its head completely submerged. We were maybe 30 meters from it but it was unperturbed and simply continued feeding. Leaving our packs at the ranger's station we proceeded up the trail towards Mt Katahdin. Both of us were feeling really sick from jetlag and lack of sleep and I for one thought it might be better to try again the next day. With this in mind we kept on for a few more meters, then discussed it again and did another few more meters, and so it went on till eventually to our great surprise we got to the top. The track up is a big rock scramble but we had good weather with only a light breeze on the top once we got above the bush line. Despite the fairly good day there was not much of a view due to a lot of haze. We could see that there were quite a lot of small lakes in the forest down below us but the haze was so bad that all we could see were vague outlines even though some of the lakes were quite close. There were quite a few people up there including a family with a 7-year old who we thought would have had a tough time getting up some of those rock scrambles. His legs simply would not be long enough.There is a fresh water spring on the big flat just before the top which we found pretty surprising. Where could the water be coming from? We saw mice on the trail, a snake, lots of toads/frogs and very cheeky squirrels. People have been feeding the squirrels, inadvertently or otherwise, and they are very adept at getting your food however carefully you store it. One camper was feeding them jellybeans and we were interested to see how lightning fast they can run. There was a brief thunderstorm and a bit of rain in the evening, just enough to be annoying since our accommodation consisted of a three-sided "lean-to" which was quite small. Once we'd got our mossie netting up there was no room for cooking. Since the idea of cooking in the rain did not appeal to me we appropriated the unoccupied lean-to next door and did the cooking there. Climbing today was 1318m in temps of 24-31C, and it was 5.2 miles from the summit of Katahdin to the campground. The trail starts officially at the summit so we have taken the first few steps on our thru-hike. Katahdin from Abol Stream Footbridge (Thanks Bama!)