morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-08-06
From: Wintturi Shelter

To: Thistle Hill Shelter
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: light rain

Recently (in fact for quite a while now) I¢ve been walking almost exclusively on my own but yesterday and today I have had the pleasure of spending some time walking and talking with Euchre and we certainly have covered quite a bit of ground ¢ conversationally, if not actually.Today I caught up with him after my quick detour to South Pomfret and its General Store. It had been roasting sitting outside the store but now only one hour later I was surrounded by more rain and thunder. I came out of the woods to see Euchre crouched and sprinting up over a bald ridge. I caught up with him in the woods at the other side and we discussed both the risks of being hit by lightening and my policy of ¢ignorance is bliss¢ where I believe that if I ignore the possibilities of something bad happening to me then it can¢t happen. However, despite all my debating skills Euchre remained sceptical about the appropriateness of my policy.Like yesterday we seemed to arrive at the shelter during a lull in the weather and were able to organise our gear in relatively benign conditions while having a laugh talking to the South Bounders already esconsed in the shelter.Of the 4 girls coming along behind only Strappy (who had rushed) beat the second wave of the storm but although Tadpole, Big Red and Hover arrived soaked their spirits didn¢t seem to be too dampened.There was space for everybody who needed it in the shelter and after everyone had got into dry clothes and had eaten all was as it should be.
Date: 2003-08-07
From: Thistle Hill Shelter

To: Happy Hill Shelter
Miles today: 8.8
Weather: light rain

You know what I¢ve been thinking about today?No?   Well let me tell you....I¢ve been thinking about all those times I¢ve stood watching Scotland play football (soccer) and sung ¢I¢ll walk a million miles for one of your goals oh Scotland¢ and you know after doing 1,700 miles myself, and presumably only qualifying for a squaff that just about hits the corner flag, I¢m coming to realise that one million miles per goal is a pretty poor return.It¢s not that easy to keep churning out the miles and maybe one thousand miles per goal would be a little fairer. With the fans Scotland have if we all had a go who knows we might wrack up enough miles and therefore goals not only to qualify for something but actually to win something!Imagine it ¢Scotland World Cup Winners 2006¢. Picture the dancing in the streets, the week long drunk (and hangover), the way we¢d finally be able to stop going on about Archie Gemmel¢s goal in 1978 and if anybody mentioned 1966 we could say ¢Hey mate, ancient history, yesterday¢s news¢.Yes, I like the sound of that!
Date: 2003-08-08
From: Happy Hill Shelter

To: Danville, VT
Miles today: 5.8

Today was a small day mileage wise but a big day in other respects as it would bring me to Hanover, New Hampshire and my planned rendezvous with Lightbright and Ethan today and with Mike and Kelly Joe Phelps tomorrow.The walk was even quicker than expected as a couple of miles of road walking, including a nifty looking bridge over the Connecticut River (the State Line), brought me into the centre of town in double quick time.I drank my now customary 4 pints of milk with a Milky Way chaser, had a look around and checked my e-mail before phoning Lightbright at, what I believed could pass for, a reasonable hour. She arrived shortly afterwards and I even managed to recognise her despite her attemps to disguise herself by wearing normal town clothes.We headed off into the great American wilderness (with the windows down to try and mask just a little of my stench) to I didn¢t know where. It turned out we were headed about 60 miles north - a distance that made me feel rather guilty for causing all this bother but which seems to equate to a trip to the corner shop this side of the pond. After a couple of quick stops I met both Lightbright¢s mother and the dogs and we sat and chatted while I hoped that my eforts to make a good impression weren¢t being undermined by the fact that I smelt like an overflowing latrine (nobody mentioned it so I kept quiet). Ethan and his dad then arrived back from a trip out mountain biking and after the introductions were complete I headed off to delouse.I had a great time being wined and dined and going over all the old and new trail news that we could share before rounding off the evening with a dram of ¢Talisker¢ (the latest malt to make an appearance during my hike ¢ and a fine one it was too).
Date: 2003-08-09
From: Danville, VT

To: Danville, VT
Miles today: 0.0

I¢ve struggled with this entry a bit ¢ starting it, scrapping it, starting it again etc...Normally by going through the day¢s activities and highlights I think I can reasonably sum up most days but in this case it just didn¢t seem to come anywhere near capturing what I want to say.It wouldn¢t be captured by talking about the hearty breakfast, lunch and snacks I ate (although that was part of it).It wouldn¢t be captured by the cups of tea I enjoyed (although that too would definitely be part of it).It wouldn¢t be captured by the way, to my embarrasment and shame, I didn¢t lift a finger all day ¢ being waited on hand and foot, andIt wouldn¢t be captured by the jar of Milky Way Spread I was given to see me through the days ahead (although, of course, that was part of it).No, my abiding memory of today (and those spent in New Preston with Mike and the rest of the Hoffmans) is of the way I was welcomed and made to feel both at ease and at home. Of the way people took time out from their own routine to take an interest in both me and what I was doing, of the kindness and generosity I was on the receiving end of and of my complete inablity to return this in anything like an adequate manner.There, that¢s closer to what I wanted to say ¢ Oh yes and thanks.As for the evening¢s entertainment.   Lightbright, Ethan and myself headed into Hanover to meet Mike for a bite to eat before heading to the Kelly Joe Phelps gig. Lucy Kaplansky opened and was pretty good before KJP came on and did his stuff. My only quibble being that he didn¢t play any of his lap slide kind of thing so we missed out on ¢Goodnight Irene¢ if not a good night in general.
Date: 2003-08-10
From: Danville, VT

To: Moose Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 10.8
Weather: broken clouds

After being treated to another hearty breakfast I made what I hoped would be my last imposition on Lightbright and family by requesting a lift back to the trail as soon as was practicable. This left just enough time for her dad to try and give me the willies about the upcoming White Mountains by showing me a book about everyone who had died on Mount Washington (one of the peaks to come). Anyway, on that cheery note off I headed (fairly confident that I would not be the next name on that particular list, despite scare tactics). However, confident or not, my planning for the trip through the Whites was sketchy at best. A quick glance at what lay ahead produced no obvious plan so I fell back on the old favourite of buying 7 days food and seeing what happens next.Although still 3 days from the start of the steep stuff this might be my last chance for a decent resupply as there are few obvious options ahead. That, on top of the uncertain terrain and its effects of how far I might go each day and what (if any) food might be available at the huts that operate throughout the Whites, leaves me both a little uncertain and concerned about the food situation ahead. Oh well I ¢ll just try and stretch it out and adapt as everythng becomes clearer.One thing that wasn¢t clear was the sky. It was distinctly uninviting as I set off for my hike to Moose Mountain Shelter. After the usual ups and downs and the inevitable rain I arrived at a cramped shelter. I had time to eat and set up my tent before others arrived. This made things a bit crowded so I headed off to bed early to give the others a little more space.
Date: 2003-08-11
From: Moose Mountain Shelter

To: Hexacuba Shelter
Miles today: 17.9
Weather: light rain

What is the most useless item in your pack?Well perhaps it¢s my big, chunky, silver wrist watch/compass/altimeter thing. For while it is indeed big and chunky, and no doubt this bulk helps to hold at bay the atrophication of the muscles in my left arm, it also has the annoying habit of resetting itself to 6pm on the first of January 2000. The alarm can only really be heard if you are already awake and even then if you are waiting for it.   A compass seems to be more or less redundant on the AT and the altimeter is in metres and I don¢t know how to change it into feet. Or rather I didn¢t know how to change it into feet.Today during a break at the top of Smart¢s Mountain (an ascent that took me longer and left me more breathless than I had thought) I met 5 south bounders, 2 of whom were sporting similarly chunky wristwear. Anyway I took a punt and asked if they knew how to operate it, explaining that mine was in metres and that although metres are fine for the UK, Nepal, Australia and most of the civilised world (as well as probably all of the uncivilised world) it would be nice to have it in feet so that it was of some use in America. Would you believe it? One of them actually had the instruction manual and a couple of minutes later I was back in the good old imperial world. After 4 months of it being useless I would now be able to play with it through perhaps the area where it would be of the most use ¢ the ups and downs of the Whites.But all of this is really by the by. I never thought of it as useless. I always liked it just because it was big, chunky and silver.
Date: 2003-08-12
From: Hexacuba Shelter

To: Hikers Welcome Hostel, Glencliff
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: light rain

I surprised myself by sleeping well last night despite the woeful pitch that I had found. In fact it wasn¢t sleeping at an acute angle that was the problem, more getting up and facing the early morning drizzle.It wasn¢t too bad really but did have the effect of making the steep rocky climb up Mt Cube somewhat slicker underfoot than I might ideally have liked. I made it in one piece and once again was rewarded with conditions reminisent of Bonnie Scotland in that it was misty, chilly and a little windy. I enjoyed it and stopped for 10 minutes.Next stop was Ore Hill Shelter where I had a strange, if not bizarre, conversation with a guy who (if I understood him correctly) seemed to both have a problem with my desire to be fairly independent during my hike and seemed to be suggesting that if I really wanted to have the full experience of ¢seeing¢ America then I needed to hitch hike more so that I could speak to people. I was baffled and chose to ignore him and fortunately he went away.The wet conditions underfoot took their toll again today as ¢wet socks plus wet shoes ¢ equals ¢sore skinned toes¢. I changed into my trusty sandals before too much damage was done and headed on to tonight¢s hostel, where once again I bumped into first Euchre (who was already there) and then Cakalaki and Skywalker who arrived later. In fact Skywalker arrived so late that he missed the food order which was to be picked up from the nearby town. However, as it turned out he did OK working his way through everyone elses leftovers and in the end even he had leftovers of his own.I too did OK as, as well as the pizza I had ordered, Euchre came back with 2 pints of milk for me and a bottle of Newcastle Brown. He is going off the trail for a week or so to go home to two weddings so this might be the last I see of him but as far as I am concerned he is the ¢Dudiest Dude in Dudesville Man¢ (and Dudesville is no one horse town).
Date: 2003-08-13
From: Hikers Welcome Hostel, Glencliff

To: Eliza Brook Shelter
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: light rain

Well the wheels well and truly came off the wagon today.With hindsight I can see a lot of the reasons why this happened but at least it¢s not a catastrophic failure and we¢ll get the wagon road worthy again tomorrow and keep heading north but this time at a pace that spares the horses a bit more. However, that said, now that I¢m here at the end of the day I can still appreciate that it was far from all bad. After my low mileage days into Hanover I had the desire to do some more challenging days and this fitted in nicely with the potential need to take less days to cover the miles to Gorham and the next obvious resupply. I realised that the Whites would be stiffer terrain but reckoned that if I walked from dawn to dusk and did a mile and a half an hour then everything would be hunky dory ¢ and for the morning at least so it proved.It was misty and cool for the first serious climb in the Whites, over 3,500 vertical feet up Mt Moosilake. The trail was tough but fair and after just over 3 hours I had made it to the top. There was no view but it was still nice as there was a real feeling of how raw and powerful the elements can be.A little later, accompanied by the occasional roll of thunder, I made it to a shelter for lunch. I was wondering (as The Clash might have said) ¢should I stay or should I go¢ and had just packed up when the rain started. The gods are surely smiling on me I thought as I sat out the storm for an hour before the sun came out in a lovely blue sky - oh how wrong I was!The afternoon proved challenging indeed. The terrain both into and out of Kinsmans Notch was rough, steep and contained lots of sizeable obstacles that required clambering over. The 1.6 miles down was beautiful but slow and unfortunately I had little time to pause and enjoy the surroundings fully during the 1 hour 40 minutes I took going down.After a brief stop at the bottom where I talked to a Texan girl who had been to Aberdeen and had climbed Bennachie (it¢s a small world if you didn¢t know) it was more of the same only up then down then up then down etc...It was at this point that all the get up and go just went and soon after I ended up flat on my face on a bog board with my left leg and arm, thigh and elbow deep respectively in the mud (insert expletives here ¢ I certainly did).I had to push my weary bones on to make camp before dusk which creeps up a little quicker these days than I thought it would. Only just made it ¢ one tired and weary boy.
Date: 2003-08-14
From: Eliza Brook Shelter

To: Liberty Spring Tent Site
Miles today: 11.4

Late start after yesterday¢s debacle. I really needed the extra rest though and I could afford the time as yesterday also brought about rapid revision of my plan, leaving me only (only!) 11.4 miles today. I was further delayed as this morning¢s chores also included a trip to the river to wash yesterday¢s mud off my socks (did I mention how muddy it was yesterday?).Anyway once I did get going the walking was pretty decent with a toughish steep scramble up South Kinsman Mountain with nice views behind me to the south. It was then on to my first experience of the huts that exist throughout the Whites. They are for paying overnight guests really but you can buy snacks and drinks and sometimes get some real food as well, Thru hikers often stay here at night and get fed in return for doing some work but I didn¢t plan on doing this as I thought it would restrict my ability to get up on the hills early in the morning.The walk down to Franconia Notch wasn¢t too bad and at the bottom I found the girls and Gazer drinking sodas that had been left in the river along with a mysterious note saying ¢Hi Neil¢. Although not signed I had my suspicions but given that innocent men have been hung for less I¢ll keep them to myself until more evidence comes to light. Needless to say it was much appreciated before starting the climb up towards Franconia Ridge. It was a good 2 miles of up but again it was hard but fair and a pleasure on the bright day we were getting (hopefully a sign of things to come). I stopped at the campsite below the top and set about setting up my tent on one of the many tent platforms dotted about.Now I remember my mate who lives and works in the US saying that America does most things really well but one or two things really, really, really badly ¢ I think banking was top of his particular hit list. And to that list I will add tent platforms. The way they have set them up is, frankly, inadequate but they just seem to shrug their shoulders and look the other way. I explained to the caretaker how it was done in Tasmania and suggested they adopt the same system. People might then actually be able to use the platforms for what they are intended for.Anyway, I got everything set up but wouldn¢t want it to be either too windy or wet tonight less I end up like the Three Little Pigs and find that my house has blown away.
Date: 2003-08-15
From: Liberty Spring Tent Site

To: Guyot Campsite
Miles today: 13.2

Well the Whites are, thankfully, living up to much of the top billing that everybody has given them. I am really glad ¢ so often when I have been told that some such or other was just awesome I have turned up to discover something, that if I was being ¢nice¢, I might describe as ¢nice¢ but certainly no more. So I could not help but remain sceptical about all the hoopla while secretly hoping for the best.Well I need not have worried myself. Today turned out to be pretty sweet. Highlights being:the walk up on to Franconia Ridge the walk along Franconia Ridgethe views from Mt Garfield, andthe view from North Twin Spur.All of these with a backdrop of mostly bright blue and sunny skies.The day started early at 5.45am when I forced myself up and hit the trail at 6.30am. The early start would, I hoped, have 2 advantages: to avoid crowds and have at least some nice peaceful time on the hills; and to give me more time to stop and enjoy without interfering with my efforts to get to tonight¢s camp.This worked out more or less to plan, for although I could still have done with more time there were only 2 of us to be seen all the way to Mt Lafayette (myself and Finch ¢ another thru hiker).The first real crowds I saw (maybe 20 people or so) were at, or near, Mt Garfield where I stopped for lunch. I really liked this spot as it sat at the bottom of a ¢U¢ shaped ridge with impressive views of both right and left. Here is where some more time might have been handy. I think I could have sat there for 90 minutes easily but reluctantly forced myself on after 30 minutes.I don¢t know why but I¢d kind of thought at this point that that was the nice stuff over and it was just onto camp but that wasn¢t the case at all.A brief stop at Galehead Hut for lemonade and snacks before what turned out (for me) to be a brute of a climb up the romantically named ¢North Twin Spur¢. I had little energy and stopped frequently on the way up and, more importantly, for quite a while at the top. Again I was more than impressed with what stretched out before me and particularly by Mt Washington which once out of the cloud was clearly recognisable as the highest piece of land around topped as it is by a carbuncle of buildings and masts. I could even see a couple of puffs of smoke from the cog railway rising into the sky.In a couple of days I¢d be heading up and over it but for now I was content with another couple of miles to camp and a well earned rest.
Date: 2003-08-16
From: Guyot Campsite

To: Ethan Pond Campsite
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: fog

I¢m definitely on the slow track throught the Whites.Not that it is my choice so much as the choice is being made for me. People keep saying that you shouldn¢t rush the Whites but for me it¢s as much that I cannot (physically) rush the Whites.Today it was either 9 or 18 miles and actually it was never going to be 18 miles.This did turn out to be a short day though and given that this section had no real grandstand views like yesterday I was in camp by 1pm.The weather was a bit overcast so perhaps it was a good day to be devoid of spectacular views and a good day to be in camp reading a book, catching up on my journal and generally recuperating for all the ups and downs that lie ahead.
Date: 2003-08-17
From: Ethan Pond Campsite

To: Nauman Tent Site
Miles today: 9.3

Another early start to spend time out on the hills rather than in camp. I was down at the pond by 6.30am where I stopped for breakfast and to top up my water for the morning ahead. I had heard that some mornings moose could be found drinking at the pond but today I had the whole place to myself (hopefully I¢ll see some further up the road).Today, however, was dominated by the walk up and views from Mt Webster and Mt Jackson. While the walk up Webster was ¢below tree line¢ much of it was on exposed rock and gave great views out over Crawford Notch to the hills on the other side of the valley.I¢d made good progress up the hill and came to what might ,or might not, have been the top of Webster but it had my name all over it. I sat down with the sun on my back, the view laid out in front of me and nobody around. It felt like I¢d the whole park to myself (if I ignored the traffic on the road that runs throught the valley). It seemed like a suitable time to break out the Milky Way Chocolate Spread ¢ with great restraint I have carried it for 7 days knowing that if food ran low then I could rely on a couple of Milky Way Crackers and a damn good thrashing every morning to get through even the toughest day.   It shouldn¢t get to that stage though as I seem to have rationed my food pretty well and look like making it through the Whites without the need to chew off my left arm (well the whole of my left arm).Once I got going again it became clear that I hadn¢t been at the top after all, but all the better, for once at the top proper there was nothing for it but to pause again to take in the surroundings and to read a chapter or two of my book.The top of Jackson was a little different as by the time I got there things were a little busier with 8 or 9 people already there but this simply convinces me that the early starts are worth it for the quiet times they allow me.