morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2015-08-11
From: Crocker Cirque Campsite

To: Maine 27, Stratton, ME
Miles today: 7.3

Had a crummy nights sleep. Some other campers were up late making a lot of noise and they kept shining lights on my tent. Irritating. I was also lazy and ended up not hanging a bear bag. I just left it in my vestibule. Sometime duri ng the I thought I heard a little creature outside my tent chewing on something. (Although, now I think it was the wind and some of my guy lines scarping against the tent.) So I brought my food bag inside and layed back down to sleep. At some point it fell on my legs and scared the crap out of me. I kicked it so hard, afraid that an animal had come into my tent. Lol! Got my heart racing for sure, lol.We left camp about 730. We had a climb first thing in the morning. It was steep in some spots but not too bad. After our climb over North and South Crocker mountians. We had a 5 mile decent into Stratton. I had heard that the crocker mountians were difficult. Not so much.It was an uneventful climb down. Started to spit rain here and there. About a mile from the road we hit the 2000 mile mark!!!! Can't belive it! So excited. Just 189.2 miles left to go. As we were taking pictures of the sign on the ground I noticed someone come up the trail behind and stop. It was Doc!! We hadn't seen him since VA. Forward and Clank were at the motel we were staying at too.We hiked to the road together and got a hitch from the first person that passed. We sat in the bed of the truck, he brought us right to the motel/hostel. We checked in and dropped our stuff. We went across the street for lunch at the Plaza. I had a smothered beef burrito. It was amazing. I also had a brownie sundae. So tasty. Next we went to the grocery to resupply. Now we're just chilling in the room, wishing the rain would stop.And Mighty Mouse got her phone back! The trail angel dropped it off yesterday!
Date: 2015-08-12
From: Maine 27, Stratton, ME

To: Maine 27, Stratton, ME
Miles today: 0.0

I slept in this morning. Might Mouse came back to the room a bit later. It was rainy and gloomy outside. We decided to zero and wait out the rain. These mountians are no fun in the rain. We relaxed all morning and afternoon, watching crummy tv. We made lunch at the hostel, chili cheese dogs!For dinner we went to the white wolf lodge. Really awesome food. Went to bed somewhat early. We decided to slackpack over the Bigelow tomorrow.
Date: 2015-08-13
From: Maine 27, Stratton, ME

To: East Flag Staff Rd.
Miles today: 16.7

We got up early. Shuttle was leaving at 6am. Mighty mouse and I got dropped off about 630. We were slackpacking north (never south) and the hostel was going to bring us our packs in the evening. It was a pretty cool morning. And off we went. We had a decent climb up to the first Bigelow Mountian. There were some fantastic views. We saw the next mountian we had to go to. Down then back up. We ate lunch at Avery Peak. We met some day hikers out with thier dogs and daughter. She gave us some trail magic!Onward we went. We had a very steep downhill to Safford Notch that took forever. Once we were down there we had to climb through boulders and whatnot. Wasn't too bad but been there done that.Along the way to the last Bigelow Mountian I called the hostel to let them know of an ETA for them to bring us our packs. We ran into Happy Warrior. He was slackpacking too! He had some awesome trail magic. A guy picked him up and took him to his cabin to stay. He was feed lobster and steak and the guy is slackpacking Happy for free. Super awesome.We hit flagstaff rd about 530. A few minutes later our shuttle arrived with our packs. There was a campsite right at the parking area. We set up and made dinner. Then to my tent to read and relax.
Date: 2015-08-14
From: East Flag Staff Rd.

To: Pierce Pond Leanto
Miles today: 16.3
Weather: clear sky

We were up and out of camp by 730ish. We had a bit of a climb in the morning but nothing too bad. It was a cool morning but warmed up quick. We've crossed and walked around a lot of water lately. Lots of ponds. It beautiful. We stopped for lunch along the beach of one pond. The water felt amazing. I just wanted to stay there all day. We met some hikers named Not Swedish and Samwise. They were asking about the Kennebec River and the possibility of fording it. We told them that was a bad idea. They were going to try and make the ferry before it stopped at 4. After a long lunch we moved on. A few miles down the trail we saw Not Swedish and Samwise laying in the middle of the trail. Samwise was strumming a guitar...pretty sure they weren't going to make the ferry. Lol! We made it to the shelter about 6ish. It was a pretty nice day for hiking. We were camped right in front of a pond and it was gorgeous! A little to chilly out for me to go for a swim. This was the pond a thru hiker drowned in a few years back.We set up camp and made dinner. Then back to the tent for relaxing.
Date: 2015-08-15
From: Pierce Pond Leanto

To: Bald Mountian Brook Lean To
Miles today: 18.7
Weather: clear sky

We were up and out of camp by 7am. It was a pretty humid day already. We made it to the Kennebec River by 9. The ferry runs from 9-11 and 2-4 during peak hiker season. Free of charge to hikers. The Kennebec River is 500 feet across and impossible to ford. People try and end up dying. The river level changes rapidly depending on if they open up the dam. I find it amusing when people talk about fording the river. The AT makes us do some pretty dangerous things...so when they pay for a canoe to ferry you across the river I feel like that should throw a warning light in your head. Like you will actually die if you do this. After the ferry we had a snack break, the moseyed on up the trail. I was having a tough time. I really am tired. My body is tired. I just don't want to hike. But Onward I went. We had lunch at another pond today. We sat on the dock and ate. It was glorious. After lunch we had a very steep climb up Pleasant Mountian. But there were a shit ton of blueberries at the top. So that was pretty awesome. It was a very hot and humid day. I was sweating like crazy. It's miserable. We had a down hill and then a walk along another pond. We has a rock hop across the one section of the pond. After that it was another few miles to camp. It was a long day and we were getting pretty tired.We crossed the stream right before the shelter and tented there. There were already a few tents set up. We made dinner and as we were eating it started to rain. Of course . It didn't rain long and the humidity was still super high. Some other hikers made a fire and stayed up late talking right outside our bloody tents. So that was fun. On to Monson tomorrow
Date: 2015-08-16
From: Bald Mountian Brook Lean To

To: Blue blaze to Pleasant Street
Miles today: 18.7
Weather: few clouds

We were up and out of camp by 700. We had a climb first thing. We moved at a pretty good pace up the mountian. We had a nice view and break up at the top. The downhill on the other side took us quite some time. It was another hot and humid day. We came across a brook that we had to ford. There were a few stepping stones but it didn't look like my legs would reach. Plus I had no treat left on my boots and I didn't want to slip off. So we took off our boots and forded. It was knee deep at the highest but not too bad. On the other side we chatted with a sOBO. He said the trail gets muddy for a bit but then it's flat smooth sailing into Monson...what a liar.We had a bit of mud. We also had a little bit of flat, smooth trail...for maybe a couple of miles. Then we hit the Piscataquis river. We had to ford this river. It was pretty wide and had a rope across to help hold you up. The ropening made things more difficult. Luckily the river was low, only knee deep. So we crossed. We had a nice lunch break on the other side. But we had to keep moving. The trail got rediculous. It followed the river so we were going up and down and up and down. It was long and tedious and tiring and hot. Finally we came to the east branch of the Piscataquis river. Our last ford of the day. Knee deep again. I really just wanted to sit down in the water.After that we had a few more miles to the blue blaze into Monson. We decided to take the blue blaze because we were getting tired, it was getting late and we just wanted to get in at a decent time. We hit the blue blaze about 630. This trail used to be the AT and it went right into town...would be much more convenient if it still did that. We called the hostel and they came to pick us up. It was only 2 miles down the road bit we were tired. We stayed at Shaws. This place is amazing. The owners are super friendly, nice and it's just awesome. The Germans and Fireman were here!!! We showered, which was amazing and then went to dinner. We went to the Pub, great food, shitty service. We were there an hour before they brought out our appetizers, apparently they were really busy. But people who were seated after us got thier food before us. Irritating. We saw Doc and Forward at the pub. I lover running into people I know! Such a great community. We took our desserts to go. We ate outside at the hostel and chatted with the others staying here. It was a nice night. We went to be about 1030...so late!
Date: 2015-08-17
From: Blue blaze to Pleasant Street

To: Maine 15, Monson ME
Miles today: 3.3

We got up and had the breakfast here at Shaws. It's touted as one of the best breakfasts out here. Thier crowning glory is the homefries...which I don't eat because I hate potatoes. So I just had eggs, bacon and pancakes. Nothing too spectacular. But it was still really good.We got dropped back off at the blue blaze and hiked the last 3 miles into town. Super easy slackpack. It's another really hot and humid day. Back at the hostel we showered and did laundry. We went to lunch at the only place that's open on Mondays. Petes Place. Decent food, yummy ice cream.Back at the hostel we figured miles, food and a possible summit day. August 25th!! I can't wait! We also decided to slackpack the next 2 days. There are 4 of us so it's going to be super cheap! Exciting.
Date: 2015-08-18
From: Maine 15, Monson ME

To: Long Pond Lean To
Miles today: 15.1

So last night Poet made dinner at the hostel since all the restaurants in town are closed on Mondays. It was amazing. He made burgers, real burgers that were huge, grilled corn on the cob, a huge bowl of potato salad. It was amazing. He also picked up some craft beer so everyone could have a beer with dinner. That was totally unexpected but pretty amazing. Then they made dessert. Warm brownies and ice cream. So freaking good!!This morning I sort of slept in. Breakfast was served about 7am. Ive heard lots of good things about the breakfast at Shaws. He made eggs, bacon, blueberry pancakes and home fries. The home fries were the crowning glory of the breakfast. Thats what everyone talked about the most and since I dont eat potatoes it was just another breakfast. It smelled good but I couldnt eat it. Everyone said it was good though!At about 8 our shuttle arrived to take us back to the trail. It was glorious being able to slackpack. Its just so much easier. It turned out to be a pretty decent hike. Small ups and downs but we were able to move along at a good pace. It was exteremly humid though. We were just sweating buckets, it was so miserable. I was trying out my new boots today too. They are the same brand of boots but a slightly different style. I'm not sure how I feel about them but at the end of the day I had some blisters on my heels. I'm hoping the boots will break in quick. We also had to ford 2 rivers today. So much easier without a pack on. Both were about knee deep at the highest point. The water felt nice and cool. I just wanted to sit down and not move for the rest of the day. We moved on. We had to make it to our pickup point for 5 pm. The side trail to get out was just past the Long Pond Lean To. It was about a mile down hill to the car, so not looking forward to walking that mile back up tomorrow. We made it to the car ontime and headed back into town. We got cleaned up and went to the pub for dinner. The service was still super slow but the food is good. I even got dessert for free because it was still frozen. But by the time I walked back to the hostel it was defrosted. It was going to be another long sleepless night. It was just so freaking hot in the room. On the plus side we have less than 100 miles to Katahdin!!!
Date: 2015-08-19
From: Long Pond Lean To

To: KIW Road
Miles today: 15.3

We had a very early start this morning. The shuttle driver was coming at 630. I had a cinnamon role for breakfast that I got from Petes Place. It was large and looked super tasty but it wasnt that great. We got dropped off for our second day of slackpacking. It was another hot and humid day. Very very very very hot. Today we were going over the Chairbacks. It was a very long day of ups and downs. Thats all we did all day long. Up and down. We did have some spectacular views today though. And I have to say, the MATC does an amazing job with maintaining the trail. The rock stairs they put in are fantastic. Nice and level and easy to step up and down. We were moving along pretty good and we were ahead of schedule. When we got to the last peak I called into Shaws and said we were going to be early. And we asked for soda to be brought to use as well. We hit the road about 430. A few minutes later our shuttle driver showed up. We grabbed our packs and drank our sodas. So satisfying. After a break we packed up our stuff and went to find a campsite. Within a half a mile was river we were going to have to ford and there were a ton of sites just before the river. We set up our stuff and went for a swim. It felt so good to just submerge in the water. I even brought my soap and took a bath. I felt so much better after the long sweaty day. It felt so nice to crawl into my tent tonight after so many nights at the hostel. It was still pretty warm so i left my vestibule open all night.We crossed the 2100 mile marker!!
Date: 2015-08-20
From: KIW Road

To: Logan Brook Lean to
Miles today: 13.2

Had a decent nights sleep. My clothes were still a bit damp from the swim last night. We had to ford a river first thing in the morning. With the ford and a somewhat late start we didnt get moving until about 8am. It was another hot an humid day. And we had a big climb up to the first mountain. It wasnt too bad just very long. The day consisted of mostly 'Puds". All the summits were wooded, which means you dont see anything. And it was so hot and humid. After a zero day and 2 days of slackpacking carrying my heavy pack sucked so freaking bad. It was a struggle all day. The last peak we had to climb to was Whitecap. It was really windy and cloudy when we got to the top. We had a little bit of a view but we didn't stay up there long. We wanted to get down the mountain before the storm hit. I had to make a quick phone call to Shaws to confirm our food drop for the next day. We started on down the mountain. It was mostly stairs which is both good and bad. My knees were killing me. We got to the shelter about 430ish. Mighty Mouse wanted to go on but I didnt. I was exhausted and feeling like crap. Plus our food drop was for tomorrow, if we went on tonight we'd only have a 4 mile hike to the drop and then we'd be sitting around for hours. Id rather camp and go to bed and then hike the 8 miles tomorrow to the drop and not putz around as long. So we stayed. We set up camp and did our chores. I ate and went to my tent. It felt so nice to just lay down. I almost went to sleep early but some people came in around 9 and made tons of noise and talked forever. Eventually they shut up. Rain held off and I'm hoping it continues to do so.
Date: 2015-08-21
From: Logan Brook Lean to

To: Antler Campground
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: broken clouds

We got up and left camp about 715. It was a cloudy, misty morning. It was a quick 8 mile hike to the food drop location. We had to go finish going down the mountain and then it was flat. We cruised along. It rained off and on. We got to the road for the food drop at 1130am. The food wasnt coming until 1pm. The Germans were there waiting for their drop as well. We sat and ate lunch and chatted. It was still raining so we were getting pretty wet. At about 1 the food showed up. We hustled and did our last resupply for the trail! The driver took our trash and anything extra we wanted to give to the hiker box. After we packed up we moved out. we still had some miles to cover. It finally stopped raining for a while and we cruised. The trail was flat for the most part, not too many rocks and roots, no ups and downs. Just flat. We made some really good time. But of course just before we got to where we were planning on camping for the night it started to rain again. We waited for a few minutes to see if it would stop. It wasnt. We decided to hike on a few more miles hoping that by the time we got to the next campsite it would have stopped raining again. We cruised along and it started to pour. I was soaking wet at this point but we made it to the next campsite about 630ish. Unfortunately it was still raining. But it seemed to have let up a bit. I tried to set up as fast as possible. And of course as I started putting the tent up it started to pour. I did it as fast as possible but by the time I got everything set the whole inside of my tent was soaking wet. I mean inches of water sitting in the bottom of my tent. I cried. I was tired, hungry, thirsty, I had to pee and my tent resembled a swimming pool. So i cried as i used my bandannas to get some of the water out. I just kept sopping it up and wringing in out. It sucked. The only thing I put in my tent was my sleeping pad. I got out of my wet things and sat on the pad to change into some dry clothes. I didnt even bring out my sleeping bag because it would have gotten soaked. I just used my sleeping bag liner for the night. Everything else was in the vestibule of my tent. Everything was soaked. I hated it. And the rain kept coming. It was pouring pretty heavily now. Eventually I had to venture out. I really needed to pee and I needed to get water. The water source was the lake and I didnt have a cup to scoop water into my water bladder. But since it was raining i was able to grabbed some of the water flowing down the path. Not tasty at all but better than nothing. I ran back to my tent. I ate a packet of tuna and some cheese-itz for dinner. There was no way I was going to be able to cook. It was a long night.
Date: 2015-08-22
From: Antler Campground

To: Wadleigh Stream Lean To
Miles today: 13.6
Weather: light rain

It was a very rainy wet night. We had some decent thunder and lightening storms as well. Thankfully, when we started to move around it had stopped raining. It was very slow going getting started. Everything was soaking wet still. I hate wet clothes and wet boots. But eventually i crawled into my wet clothes even though my skin was crawling. Mighty Mouse gave me some Vaseline to put on my feet. I greased up my feet and stuck them back in my wet boots and socks. The vaseline is to help keep a barrier on your feet so they dont get nasty and painful from being wet all day. And it did a fantastic job. My feet were great still at the end of the day. .We left camp about 830. It was pretty slow going. I was so uncomfortable plus with everything being wet I started to chaff. Ugh, so annoying. we came across the next shelter and I stopped to put some stuff on my chaffing to help with the irritation. And guess who comes up behind us, Papalu! we knew he was getting close but wee were sure when we were gonna come across him. We chatted for a bit and hiked on. We came to a stream crossing. It was evil. With all the rain we got it was deep and fast moving. I really did not want to ford it. So we spent time trying to figure out how to get across. There was a tree sort of set up but it was very sketchy. Papalu came up behind us. After a bit he ended up walking across the log to a point where you could rock hop across the rest of the way. I went next. It was terrifying. My boots were slipping on the wet log and it was narrow and it was very hard to keep my balance. I was so scared I started to shake which didnt help with stabilization, lol. I inched along slowly and finally I got to a point that I could get off te log and move at a quicker pace. Once on the other side I dropped my pack and went to help mighty mouse. She was more terrified than I was since she catn swim. But he got up on that log and inched across. And she made it, pack and all. A little bit later we stopped for lunch. I took a few things out to dry them. After we moved on. It was a decent hike today thankfully. Not as easy as the day before terrain-wise but still pretty good. We hit a road crossin about 3pm. A bunch of hikers were there drying out thier things. We stopped to dry out the tents and our stuff as well. We chatted with Papalu, he decided to summit with the Germans and us!After our break we went 3 miles to the next shelter. It was s hort day but we had a late start and a long day/night. We set up and cleaned up. My tent was really dry inside thank god. I was able to put everything inside. It was a much better night than last night. I went to bed and fell asleep about 730. We have an early start tomorrow.
Date: 2015-08-23
From: Wadleigh Stream Lean To

To: Hurd Brook Lean To
Miles today: 19.6

We decided on an early start because we had quite a few miles to cover today. My boots were still soaking wet. Super irritating. we had some tough terrain today. Really rocky and rooty and it took a lot of time to manuever around things.We had out last "climb" before Katahdin today. It was a 1500 ft climb up to Nesundabunt Mountain. There was a pretty nice view off on a side trail. We decided to check it out even though it was off trail. Back down we went. The trail took us around a large pond. It made us walk all the way around the pond which i found pointless since the 'entrance' was right where the 'exit' was. What a waste of time. We stopped for lunch at the Rainbow Deadwaters. We were tired and hoping the terrain eased up. After lunch i feel like the terrain got a bit better. It didnt seem like we were struggling as much. We came across another lake with some nice stealth sites. We took a break there and sat out on the rocks. I really wanted to camp there for the night but we needed to do more miles. We hit camp about 6ish. We set up, cleaned up, cooked and went to bed. We had another early start planned for tomorrow. We wanted to make sure we got there early enough to get a spot at the Birches campsite in Baxter State Park. Tomorrow we exit the 100 mile wilderness and enter Baxter State Park. I have to say the 100 mile wilderness was a piece of cake. It was just like any other part of the trail and actually i think it was easier than a lot of the trail. I dont know what all the doom and gloom is about but it was pretty easy.