morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2012-08-06
From: Green Mountain House Hostel

To: Green Mountain House Hostel
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: broken clouds

I took a zero day today. That means I did not do any hiking. ¢Gipcgirl¢ and I went into Manchester Center, had a good breakfast and did some grocery shopping. We also went to a local outfitter to buy some clothes, where I met some hikers that I knew and talked with them for a little while. In the afternoon, I talked ¢Gipcgirl¢ into trimming my beard. It had grown untouched, since the end of March and was really getting to be pretty nasty looking so she was able to trim it up and I think it looks much better. After she had trimmed my beard, and by the way she did not cut me once, I was shocked to see how skinny my neck looked. The Green Mountain House Hostel provided a container of Ben and Jerry¢s ice cream, as I had mentioned, each day you¢re there so I got to have another container of Ben and Jerry¢s, as did ¢Gipcgirl.¢ I watched some of the Olympics on TV, talked to other hikers, and relaxed. It was a very good break on the trail and a great day to take some time off and rest.
Date: 2012-08-07
From: Green Mountain House Hostel

To: Lost Pond Shelter
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: clear sky

Returning to the trail today, mid-morning we hiked around ¢Sparky,¢ ¢Passion Flower,¢ ¢Reinhart,¢ ¢Voltron,¢ ¢Spiceman,¢ and ¢Heartfire¢ on and off all day. We would pass them then they would pass us, etc. We went up and over Bromley Mountain which was a pretty good climb. There was a ski lift at the top and other buildings associated with the skiing machinery. We looked fairly forlorn at the top of the mountain, empty, abandoned, and just waiting for the return of winter. We had several peaks to go over but the day went well. We have enjoyed very good weather for a change, for the last several days. We all camped at Lost Pond Shelter. In the morning I found out that ¢Spiceman¢ had developed severe vertigo about midnight and indeed needed help just to get to the bathroom. His hiking partner is ¢Reinhart¢ who is a male nurse from Germany, and is also ¢Spiceman¢s¢ brother-in-law. I examined ¢Spiceman¢ to rule out the possibility of his having had a stroke or some other neurologic problem but the only thing I could see was that he was dizzy from the vertigo. I felt like that was mostly likely the diagnosis with nothing else going on. I heard later that he had to be removed from the mountain by stretcher on a 4x4. I have no recent news about his condition. Otherwise the hike was quite uneventful.
Date: 2012-08-08
From: Lost Pond Shelter

To: Minerva-Hinchley Shelter
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: broken clouds

We¢re still having more nice weather. The hiking in Vermont was easier than expected because of less mud on the trail. It¢s still very rocky, rooty, and it has many elevation changes but these are all easier without the mud. The miles in Vermont however for some reason do seem to be longer. We stayed at the Minerva-Hinchley Shelter. There were several of us there mostly the same bunch that we¢ve been hiking around for some time. There are more Southbound hikers showing up and I enjoy their company. They are very good sources of information about the trail up ahead of us and can give us advice about where water is, places to go, places to avoid, and things like that. The Southbounders are the ones who just started at Katahdin a few weeks ago and are on their way back to where I started in Georgia. It continues to be a very fun hike, especially since the weather is nice.
Date: 2012-08-09
From: Minerva-Hinchley Shelter

To: Governor Clements Shelter
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Today we hiked a few miles, then walked into the Whistle Stop Restaurant. It was good to have a cooked breakfast. There were six of us hikers there. These are people we¢ve been hiking around for the last several days. The food was very good, plentiful, and fairly priced. I highly recommend the Whistle Stop Restaurant. Some of the group had heard that ¢Spiceman¢ had been evaluated at a local hospital and they only found that he had vertigo. It was good that it was nothing else but vertigo can certainly be bad enough all by itself. He is apparently staying at a hostel somewhere, trying to recuperate. It took a huge team effort to get him off the mountain including paramedics, ATVs, stretchers carried by numerous men, Jeeps, ambulance, and even a fire truck. Because of the remote location of the trail, simple evacuation off the trail to a nearby hospital is a very long, drawn-out many hours, many people helping ordeal.   The communities that are near the trail really know how to take care of injured and/or disabled hikers.As we were hiking along we saw much of the residual damage of the flooding caused last year by Hurricane Irene. There were roads washed out, bridges gone, and many other areas where the stream was now totally diverted, going in another direction with much damage associated with that. In a couple of places we had to cross the stream on a makeshift bridge which was in most places trees that had laid across the stream and in one place the bridge looked like a ladder that was lying flat as opposed to up and down. In any case, we were able to get across the water and continued our hike until we got to the Governor Clements Shelter. There were a few of us hikers there, including some Southbounders and then about 15 or so teenagers showed up who had been on a week-long group hike. They had one more mile to go the next morning and then they were getting on vehicles and leaving the area so they were quite excited about the approaching end of their hike. One of the hikers was a teenage girl who was sick, which they thought it might be associated with her breathing of the fumes of the DEET that she had used as a mosquito repellant. I examined her and found no other good source of her illness so possibly it was DEET. Possibly she was just coming down with something else. That evening, we had a terrific storm which blew through with much thunder, lightning, and of course lots of rain. My Hubba tent kept me safe and dry throughout the storm.
Date: 2012-08-10
From: Governor Clements Shelter

To: Killington, VT
Miles today: 16.0

There was a long uphill hike after we left the shelter to start the day. With the rain from last night mucking up the trail, bringing out the mosquitoes, and there being no breeze in this constant up made for a very long, difficult morning. I could squeeze my clothing anywhere and wring sweat out of it. The final ascent was a rock scramble. That basically means it was climbing on all fours up a very steep grade. The rocks were wet and one slip could be disastrous. At the top we found a gondola that was running, ferrying people up and down just for the ride. Unfortunately it was so cloudy and misty that there were no good views at all from the top of the mountain at Killington, which was termed K1 because it was indeed a ski area. We got a free ride down because we were through hikers. There are some people in places along the trail that treat through hikers with much respect and are generous to us. We also got a free bus ride into the Inn of the Long Trail where we had a good meal and some beers. They don¢t have Yuengling beer here but Long Trail Ale isn¢t bad. It was fit for a good day of hiking, the rain was not a big problem, and we got to see a skiing village albeit without snow.
Date: 2012-08-11
From: Killington, VT

To: North of Killington, VT
Miles today: 13.0

Hiking out of Killington was a pretty hike. The weekend hikes are usually the time when there are many day hikers on the trail. Many of them are interested in our adventure and are entertaining to talk to themselves. There were some big ups today followed by big downs and then big ups again, etc. The hike ended at Lookout, which is a combination cabin and tower that is built on the roof of the cabin. It has long since been abandoned but luckily the door was unlocked so we went in and proceeded to sleep on the floor that night. Another hiker named ¢Falls,¢ was also there with us that night.Unfortunately there were way too many clouds to see any of the Perseid meteor shower which was believed to be at its peak that night. It would have been a perfect place to see a meteor shower, had the weather permitted us to ¢ with us being on an observation deck, on top of a cabin, which was on top of a mountain ¢ it would have been ideal, but no luck. At least it didn¢t rain any more.
Date: 2012-08-12
From: North of Killington, VT

To: Hanover, New Hampshire
Miles today: 14.6

Today¢s hike was rather interesting. It was typical Vermont, lots of ups and downs with muddy bogs in between. The scenery is quite variable; many, many trees of differing nature. We¢re seeing many more of the birch trees, which are called paper birch; they¢re the ones with the white bark. The Indians used to use this white bark to make their canoes out of and I always wondered how durable it could have been.   But in some of the trees that have fallen over, the hard wood on the inside of the tree has long since rotted away and decomposed but the bark is still there intact. Obviously the bark is very durable and withstood the years that it took to rot the wood away from within the bark. This will be the last day that I hike in Vermont.We had gotten a pie yesterday as we passed a store called ¢Edge of the Woods Market.¢ It was a blueberry-peach pie, and was excellent. Gipc carried the three pound pie in her pack. We ate on it for three different times, and the final time we ate it there was another hiker near us named ¢Badger,¢ a great young man from Wisconsin and we shared a piece of pie with him. The last three or four miles of today¢s hike were on paved streets, leading into Hanover, New Hampshire. This is the first time I¢ve been in New Hampshire in my life. I have never been in New York or Vermont either. Maine will be the fourth state that I see for the first time by walking to it. The total Appalachian Trail hike goes through fourteen states, and I have now gone into thirteen of those states. Walking into Hanover took us over the Connecticut River, which divides Vermont and New Hampshire in this area. The bridge has numerous large concrete balls for decoration on both sides of the road. It was attractive in a way but I don¢t quite understand it. Then we walked into downtown Hanover, home of Dartmouth College. It¢s a beautiful campus there with many students milling about the small town. While we were hiking in the Vermont woods, we did see some cable-like structures running from tree to tree. As we got closer, it was obvious that these were the rubber, or plastic, connecting tubes from tree to tree that they harvest the sap from the maple trees, from which they make maple syrup. We ran into quite a few of these and it looked like it was a big operation collecting the sap, although they were not doing that at the present time but eventually will and that would be quite an interesting process. I understand it takes over forty gallons of sap that when it¢s boiled down to make one gallon of syrup.
Date: 2012-08-13
From: Hanover, New Hampshire

To: Hanover, New Hampshire
Miles today: 14.0

We decided to get a room, get cleaned up, do laundry, and resupply so we stayed at the Hanover Inn. This was a very nice place, right across the road from the Green, which is a large grassy area on the campus of Dartmouth, where students could congregate; throw the Frisbee, jog, etc. There were many school buildings located around the Green, and the campus itself, from what I could see, is very attractive. It was great to eat cooked food. The community was very hiker-friendly. Lou¢s Restaurant gave all through-hikers a free donut. They also had excellent breakfast. Another place gave all through-hikers a free slice of pizza, and an outfitter gave all through-hikers a Snickers candy bar. The Community Center allowed us to do laundry at an inexpensive price. I was surprised at how small the downtown area of Hanover was, since I had thought it was a larger town, but it is actually quite small. The whole downtown area was approximately three blocks by two blocks. All stores were nice, however, and it looked like a very attractive place to live.We decided to zero, which means to stay there, a whole day, and do no hiking. This allowed us to rest, eat, clean up, sleep, and plan the next several days.
Date: 2012-08-14
From: Hanover, New Hampshire

To: Moose Mountain
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

It¢s always tough to leave a town after a zero, but we moved out at about 9:30. The hike was not too hilly or muddy, until midday when there was a large, steep up. We climbed Moose Mountain before both South and North peaks. Then there was a long down. It was fairly steep and slippery. The weather has been relatively good lately, with mostly sunny days, not too hot, but nevertheless humid. In no time at all, while you¢re hiking up and down these mountains, I become drenched in sweat. We found a nice flat camping spot behind some downed trees and set up camp. I only laid my rain fly on top of my tent, then did some cooking for supper, read a little, and fell fast asleep. The rain fly is the waterproof part that fits on top of your tent and keeps the rain out of it. About 9:00 I was awakened, rudely, by a terrible storm which was gushing rain on my face. I jumped up out of the tent to attach the fly to keep the rain out of my tent, but too slow. My sleeping bag and everything in the tent was already becoming wet. As I was hurrying around, I also tripped and fell on top of my tent and snapped the supporting pole in two.   Consequently, my tent collapsed down to be about half the size. I nevertheless was able to get the rain fly up but spent the rest of the night sleeping in a pretty wet tent which now seemed more like a child¢s tent than an adult one because the supporting rod had been broken. When I finally got the fly on the tent, as I mentioned, my sleeping bag, my clothes, and everything inside it had already gotten pretty wet. However, in the morning I will try to repair that and hopefully will have an opportunity to hang out my clothes and sleeping bag somewhere where it¢s sunny and let them dry a little bit.
Date: 2012-08-15
From: Moose Mountain

To: Hexacuba Shelter
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: light rain

A steep up, past Holt¢s Ledge did not provide any views as it was cloudy and misty. We walked to the home of Bill Ackerly, a man that lives near the Trail and allows hikers to use water from his hose as there is no good water source in the area. He usually also gives ice cream to all the hikers I¢m told, but he had left a note saying that he was gone for a few days, so no ice cream for us. We did however, appreciate the use of the water and we moved on. The climb to Lambert¢s Ridge was hard and on up to Smart¢s Mountain, in the fire tower there. We had lunch at the Fire Warden¢s cabin before starting a long down. There were good views from the top of Smart¢s Mountain so that made some of the work worth it. After a brief, but steep up, we found a flat area near the Hexacuba Shelter, and pitched our tents for the night. I had to fashion a splint for my tent¢s ridge pole, out of a Beech tree limb. Luckily I had a rudimentary knife with me so I could cut the limb into the proper length. It sort of worked, holding the tent up and giving it some shape so I could crawl in it, but still the tent is wet as is my sleeping bag and an area inside the tent is restricted. We all have to learn to live with our mistakes.
Date: 2012-08-16
From: Hexacuba Shelter

To: Hiker's Welcome Hostel - Glencliff, NH
Miles today: 13.5

Today¢s hike started with a big up, to the top of Mount Cube. There were spectacular views from there. We could see mountains all around us, many of which we had just hiked within the last few days. A fellow who lives in the area and checks on hikers, and loves to go hiking himself, showed up and gave us some homemade snacks which he makes up fairly consistently for the hikers that he meets . I very much enjoyed talking to this man. The hike down was also fairly long, but not too steep, and it did not take us very long to get down off of Mount Cube. We caught a ride into Warren, New Hampshire, where I had four packages waiting for me at the post office. All the packages that I was expecting to get did arrive and I was happy about that. I had some blood pressure medicines, my winter coat and gloves, and hat, my new credit card, and some food. Then we had a meal, resupplied, and went to the Hiker¢s Welcome Hostel, in Glencliff. It was a drab, dirty place, where the workers were grumpy old men with long, gray hair. It stormed like crazy that evening. We slept in beds, but in a large tent that held eight or nine beds. It had been a long day of hiking and it felt good to get off my feet. Other people who were there at this hostel with us were ¢Sparky,¢ and ¢Passion Flower,¢ as well as ¢Chickadee,¢ ¢Lobster,¢ ¢Snake Eyes,¢ and ¢Frenchy.¢
Date: 2012-08-18
From: The Foot of Mount Moosilauke

To: The Kinsman Pond Shelter
Miles today: 11.0

Again, we had beautiful weather today. It¢s been pleasant, and enjoyable to be able to stay dry and have a dry trail to walk on. Having hiked through Kinsman Notch yesterday, today¢s hike was a lot of ups and downs. We had a break at Eliza Brook¢s shelter for lunch, with some hiking friends of ours named ¢Sparky,¢ and ¢Passion Flower.¢ Then came South Kinsman Mountain, which was very, very difficult, a very slight descent on the other side of it, then up again to the higher North Kinsman Mountain. So I went up over two mountains on the eighteenth. It was a very steep descent coming down, so very slow going. Finally we came to Kinsman Pond Shelter. Since we are now officially in the White Mountain National Forest, which is most commonly called ¢The Whites.¢ It is controlled by the Appalachian Mountain Club, which from now on I¢ll refer to as the AMC. You have to pay to camp there. We did pay at the Kinsman Pond Shelter and we were the only two in that shelter. Later I¢ll discuss the massive amount of money the AMC collects throughout the Whites when I¢m done, when I¢ve learned more first hand.There was a group of college students at the Kinsman Pond Shelter, camping as well. They were tenting however. They were taking a class with the University of New Hampshire, about outdoor living and camping and hiking, etc. and this was basically a field trip for them. One of them was a hiker that Gipcgirl had met the previous year, so they had a nice conversation about various friends and what their friends were doing now, etc. Gipcgirl and I had the shelter to ourselves.   Amanda, the caretaker, was very friendly when she came to collect the money.
Date: 2012-08-19
From: The Kinsman Pond Shelter

To: North Woodstock, NH
Miles today: 5.0

We did a ¢nero¢ today of only six miles going into North Woodstock, New Hampshire. A ¢nero¢ is when you nearly do a zero. A zero is no miles, and a ¢nero¢ is only a few miles. In any case, we did go into North Woodstock, New Hampshire to rest and to resupply. The hike there took us over the Fishing Jimmy Trail. I wondered if it had been named after me. Kinsman Pond looked like a great place for Walleye and Pike. I would have loved to have had the opportunity to fish there, but maybe some other day. I look for moose in the area and will be continuously looking for moose, as they are possibly to be found in this area, but no luck so far. The trail led us past Lonesome Lake Hut, which is the first hut I¢ve seen. It was a large, multi-floored building that might sleep 35 to 40 guests, and has six staff who work there throughout the summer, doing the cooking and cleaning and taking care of the guests. I understand these huts are typically booked up and cost $90 per person to stay there. When we got there, we had coffee, which they had available to whoever wanted it, and also they warmed up some chicken and had a few free pancakes left over from the breakfast they had served the guests. The pancakes gave us good nutrition to continue to hike. It was a nice, clean facility with solar panels on the roof. The nearby lake was also a beautiful lake with steep mountains all around. Still no moose to be seen. As we approached the road to Woodstock, there was a man under the bridge, giving excellent trail magic. His name was David, and was an old friend of Gipcgirl¢s from hiking last year. They had a nice chat before he gave us a ride to Woodstock. He is like several others who seem to live out of their cars as they travel up and down the trail, helping any hikers they find, in any way they can. It is an amazing culture out here of Trail Angels and good people helping other people.
Date: 2012-08-20
From: North Woodstock, NH

To: North Woodstock, NH
Miles today: 0.0

Today we took a zero so we did no hiking on the Appalachian Trail. Instead, we had a leisurely day to resupply, eat, reconnect with family and friends via the electronics, have ice cream, shop, and do laundry in North Woodstock, NH.The first place I went was Lahout¢s Summit Shop, an outfitter located in Lincoln, NH. I explained to Andrew, a worker there, how I¢d fallen on my tent, a Hubba, by MSR and broken the support rod. He called the MSR people, explained what had happened, and they agreed to immediately send him a replacement rod so he could give me, at no cost, the only rod that he had in the store. He did that, and I was so impressed with the great service by MSR, and especially by Andrew, to give me a replacement rod immediately. That really means a lot to me. They solved my problem immediately and generously. Thank you Andrew, and thank you MSR. I also ended up buying some replacement hiking poles as I had bent the tips of mine several times and I was afraid they might break when I needed them the most. Andrew also gave me a good deal on these poles.While in town I mailed some stuff home. I ran into a lady called Miss Janet. She is probably the best known Trail Angel of them all. She drives up and down the trail from Tennessee to Maine, helping hikers with shuttles, running errands, giving good advice, etc. She has been doing this for years and has an excellent reputation. She knows hundreds of hikers. Gipcgirl knew her and they had a very nice visit.While I was doing laundry, I saw Ragweed again. He is a guy who had an abscess. It drained spontaneously several days earlier and when I talked to he said he was feeling fine and the abscess was gone.This evening Gipcgirl and I had a nice dinner and took time to relax in town before getting back to the Trail tomorrow. This was a very good zero day in North Woodstock, NH.
Date: 2012-08-21
From: North Woodstock, NH

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Well I did it again. Somehow I lost another day as my dictation has been about a day off for some time. I don¢t know how I do this, but it¢s the second time it¢s happened. In any case, to fill up this space, I will talk about some things that are on my mind.New Hampshire has had the most spectacular scenery and has the most difficult trails to hike, by far. They often combine the Appalachian Trail with many local trails, which can be confusing. They are, in places, terrible at marking the Appalachian Trail with our white blazes. Consequently it is easy to get off on the wrong trail, as there are many different hiking trails that intersect. Some of the trail maintainers do an excellent job of marking the trail, but most do not, and it is very random to see the traditional white blaze on the trail in New Hampshire.Vermont had some beautiful scenery and had some difficult sections, but does not compare to New Hampshire in difficulty or, in the beauty of the terrain.