morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-08-22
From: Old Speck Mt.

To: Andover
Miles today: 13.8
Weather: broken clouds

We woke up for the sunrise. Then we woke Bree up for the sunrise. She seemed a little less enthusiastic at first, but when the full red sun hung just above the horizon at 6 am, we were all happy to have suffered the constant roaring wind all night long as we slept in the tower. Bree decided to go back to sleep, but Flanders and I packed up ¢ sleeping bag in the front of my jacket, sleeping pad down the back of my shorts ¢ and descended the vertical ladder down to the bottom. Snappy was up ¢ he said my giggling had woken him , but I¢m not as bad as those noisy squirrels, I swear. We continued to pack up, ate breakfast with Puf and Snappy, and managed to wake Bree up eventually, yelling ¢Bree Rules¢ up to the tower.        We all left about 8:10. When we got back to the AT (the tower was on a blue blaze), D©j vu, Songbird, Zapman, and Sparky passed us immediately. We fell behind the group pretty quickly and hiked by ourselves the rest of the morning. We stopped at Baldpate Shelter for water and found a note from Monkey telling us all to come to town and drink cheap wine. So we started hiking a bit faster. We finally caught up to Bree, Puff, and Snappy on the West Peak of Baldpate Mt. Eating lunch. We ate our peanut butter on whole wheat bagels quickly and hiked with them over the east peak and kept up most of the way to the road.        The east peak was a very cool climb ¢ tons and tons of sheer rock. But, unlike the sheer rock on Kinsman, this was dry, had good holds, and lots of choices regarding routes, so it was much more fun. After all the rock climbing the terrain got pretty easy. Puff and Snappy flew to the road and got a hitch to town just as we arrived behind Bree. It was a pick up so we cheered and piled in.        In town we ate double bacon cheese burgers, bought some cheap wine and checked into Pine Ellis Bed and Breakfast, which seemed a lot like a really nice hiker hostel to us. Only hikers were there. Trailfrog, Monkey, Flo, and Spiderman were there ahead of us. Bree, Flanders, and I got the small bunkhouse ¢ a beautiful breezy little room with soft happy beds. Puff and Snappy got the love shack ¢ the trailer in the back yard which became the center of cheap wine drinking. Bree and I split the bottle between the two of us and I was reminded of good times back in C¢ville. I read some of Life, The Universe and Everything before going to bed. It was sitting on my bed asking to be read!                                                                Chicken Feet
Date: 2003-08-23
From: Andover Pine Ellis B & B

To: Hall Mt. Lean-to
Miles today: 6.0

We woke up lazily. Paul, the owner of the B&B, had juice and fresh bread for us for breakfast. He asked if we wanted a ride to the P.O., which we couldn¢t pass up. Surprisingly, we had four packages. One was our maildrop, and one was from Penny. Chicken Feet got a box of Girl Scout cookies from Mrs. Cummings, her teacher friend. Thanks! We also got some goodies from Jen and Kenan ¢ thanks, guys! Needless to say, we had too much food, but that¢s a good thing for us. We went to Adie¢s for a big breakfast. Then we went back to the B&B and packed up. Fremont and Stoker showed up and we all hung out in the yard for a while. A friend of Trailfrog gave us all a ride back in the back of his truck. We hit the trail at around 1 p.m. We stopped with monkey and hung out at Surplus pond, where we bumped into Papa Roach who was flip-flopping. We hadn¢t seen him since Trail Days. Then we climbed Wyman Mt., and before too long we were at the shelter. Most had pushed on. Fremont, Monkey, and Spiderman remained. We made a fire and played guitar and caught up some more with Fremont. Today was the first day that it started to feel like fall. There was a cool breeze blowing , and we were expecting a chilly night. I¢m so glad we have our winter gear!!                                                                Flanders
Date: 2003-08-24
From: Hall Mt. Lean-to

To: Bemis Mt. Lean-to
Miles today: 12.8
Weather: clear sky

Another fall-like day. It went below 40 degrees, so we were slow getting out of our bags. That was our first night in a shelter since Delaware Water Gap. Fremont, Spiderman, and the two of us talked for a while in the shelter. Monkey rolled out of his hammock just about when we were leaving. We hiked a fair amount with Fremont, whose knees are really bothering him. We went up Moody Mt. which wasn¢t all that easy, and then up Old Blue which was even longer. Up on Old Blue we were reunited with our crew: Stoker, Puff Puff, Snappy, Spiderman, Monkey, Flo, Bree, & Fremont. We ate lunch in a windy spot and eventually moved on. It was one of our clearest days yet, and our next mountain was Bemis Mt., which is rumored to yield the first view of our holy grail ¢ Katahdin. We only got one view off of Bemis and we didn¢t see the big one, but we will have many more chances. We could smell a campfire five minutes before we got to the Bemis Mt. Lean-to. We knew we were close. It was only the crew at the shelter, nobody else that we had to be quiet for. The rest of the day included the following: eating, watching fire, playing guitar, and sleeping in the tarp.                                                        Flanders
Date: 2003-08-26
From: Little Swift River Pond Campsite

To: Piazza Rock Lean-to
Miles today: 6.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Woke up and ate granola while we chatted with Puff Puff and Snappy. Chicken was disappointed to find out that I heard a moose during the night and didn¢t wake her up. She¢s also been begging for a fishing pole, what with all the beautiful ponds and all. Amble pulled up as we were leaving, so we talked to him for a few minutes. It was less than fiv miles to the hitch into Rangley for more food. We only had a few cars pass, without luck. Then a day hiker walked out of the woods and offered us a ride. It turned out to be Ted Adams, an English literature professor at Washington and Lee University in Lexington. He was on vacation in Rangley. He dropped us off at the P.O., where I discovered I¢d lost my Tyvek ground cloth. We got our food drop and went to eat lunch at Parkside. Rangley is a bit of a resort town, so the food isn¢t geared toward thru-hikers. The portions were small and prices were large. Then I called home to have a new filter shipped. The grocery store had been relocated recently, so it was a half mile walk to the IGA. On our way, we bumped into Amble again. He¢d picked up my Tyvek, and I was relieved. We also ran into Paladin who talked us into a quick beer at the pub. Finally, we were on our way to groceries. I bought ice cream to eat in the parking lot, and Chicken Feet bought wine and hot dogs to pack in. Then I realized I¢d left th camera battery charging by the payphone. So, I had an extra mile-long jog to go get that. Our hitch back out was a really nice realtor who did his best to encourage us to live in Maine. It was a quick two miles to Piazza Rock Lean-to. Flo brought s¢mores, and Bree brought popcorn. So, we had a great little party. Monkey, Trailfrog, and Stoker showed up later. The privy here is a two-holer, with a cribbage board in between. Tomorrow, we climb Saddleback, another chance to see the ¢Big K.¢                                                                Flanders
Date: 2003-08-27
From: Piazza Rock Lean-to

To: Old Woods Pond near Orbeton Stream
Miles today: 11.7

When we got up in the morning I invited Ned to play some cribbage with me, but he said he didn¢t need to go, so I used the big two-hole privy alone. How lonely it was to have an unoccupied toilet seat next to me! We packed up and ate breakfast in the shelter with Spiderman and Flo. Also, we recognized a hiker as Strappack, who we met at the NOC, over 1800 miles ago, but he didn¢t seem like he wanted to be particularly social, so we left him be. Unfortunately, we heard he headed south this morning (must be flip-flopping) so we won¢t get another chance to say hello.        Flanders and I left before anyone else in our crew, so we had a quiet walk past 3 pond and then, UP SADDLEBACK! It was very windy ¢ I kept getting blown off the trail, but BEAUTIFUL. After we got above treeline the grade was no longer steep, and the climb seemed to last forever. We looked for the Big K at the top, but we didn¢t see anything so we kept moving to climb the Horn. On our way up The Horn, we passed D©j vu and Songbird who told us they had seen Katahdin and told us where to look for it. (Also, Good news ¢ they raised enough money to pay back the woman in Andover who had her purse stolen by hikers.) Anyway, we did find a mountain that seemed about as far away as we could possible see, was very tall, and kind of matched the description ¢long, flat mountain with a hump in the middle¢ given to us by the owner of Pine Ellis B&B in Andover. Flanders isn¢t convinced the mountain we saw was Katahdin, but I am. It was very exciting to sit atop the Horn and gaze at our destination for over 5 months!        We ate lunch in between The Horn and Saddleback Jr., and finally got caught by Flo and Bree as we sat on the non-windy side of Saddleback, Jr. matching up the mountains we saw with our maps. The downhill was difficult after that so we couldn¢t keep up with them, and we got water at a small spring. Our filter broke at this spring, but as long as it¢s matched up right, it still works. After getting water we made it to the poplar Ridge Lean-to and sat with Bree and Flo a while before the four of us headed out to camp. We hiked with Bree the rest of the way. She is just so much fun.        We made camp at an old woods road near Orbeton Stream. Flo said Puff Puff and Snappy had just headed on right before we arrived. We all cooked dinner together and then sat and talked, told stories, and ate no-bake cheesecake. And then safely off to sleep.                                                        Chicken Feet
Date: 2003-08-28
From: Old Woods Pond near Orbeton Stream

To: Crocker Cirque Campsite
Miles today: 11.4
Weather: overcast clouds

We left camp about 8:30. It was COLD. We passed Puff and Snappy almost ready to leave 2 miles down the trail. They were cold too. We also passed two of our neighbors from last night: Alona and Shockah. It looked like they had heavy packs and they were walking pretty slow (slower than me!), but they were headed for town ¢ 7 miles farther than our plan. We never saw them again all day ¢ wonder if they made it!        Anyway, we climbed Lone Mt. and reached the Spaulding Mt. Lean-to by 10:30. We met a weekender couple and their very energetic dog, Simon. Flo arrived just behind us and found an abandoned tube of toothpaste which we desperately needed ¢ Flanders lost ours. While we were getting water, Puff, Snappy, and Bree arrived and we all climbed Mt. Spaulding together and then rejoiced a half mile after for we have less than 200 miles to Katahdin now.        The six of us ate lunch at the next stream. I have been carrying ketchup since Rangeley for the first night out hot dogs, and Flo had the spectacular ideaa of making hobo soup with it. So I did. I am sick of tuna anyway. I boiled water, ketchup, dry milk, Italian seasoning and pepper together and added parmesan cheese at the end. Still, it tasted a lot like ketchup and was not popular with my companions. I ate most of it, though, with my orange-cranberry bagel.        We continued down a pretty steep descent and when we got to the bottom there was a very rocky stream. I was pleased to see our buddies taking a break by the edge. We joined them and soon Flanders and Snappy were chucking rocks at other rocks, the stream, and the double-blazed tree across the stream. They looked like little boys from a Norman Rockwell painting. Next we all headed up to Crocker Cirque Campsite. On the map, it showed a small pond at the campsite and we were hoping to see moose. Puff and I spent a while following a creek upstream looking for the pond, but didn¢t find it. We did find some nice camping spots, though, so while everyone was setting up and cooking dinner, I went looking again and found it. It wasn¢t really a pond anymore. There was just a little bit of water and mostly solid ground with dried out pond logs in a beautiful bowl surrounded by mountains. After dinner we made a fire in it and stayed there almost until dark. Paladin joined us a little later. It was a wonderful evening.                                                Chicken Feet
Date: 2003-08-29
From: Crocker Cirque Campsite

To: Stratton, ME
Miles today: 7.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Something was wrong with our granola. It didn¢t taste right. So, we didn¢t eat it. Instead, we ate most of the rest of our snacks, but we¢d be in town soon enough. We climbed South Crocker right out of the gates ¢ no warm up. It was great though, because we were climbing up and around the pond where we¢d camped. We also got to see ¢the Indian Mountain¢ Snappy had told us about. The ridge looked like the profile of an Indian lying on his back, complete with foot, knees, and even a headdress. One more mile to North Crocker, and then it was five miles to town. Paladin was there, so we stopped and talked to him. Our hitch dropped us off at Mainely Yours Restaurant. Then we hit the P.O. Then we decided to stay in town. The rest of the crew was already setup at the White Wolf Inn because they blue blazed into town. We got a room with Flo, Bree, and Fremont. Got the grocery shopping out of the way, and Chicken finally found a suitable fishing pole ¢ a two-foot Snoopy pole, ran her $15.        We ate subs for dinner and watched a rerun of The Daily Show. Then we drank some beers and I played Monkey¢s guitar which I nabbed from their room while they were eating at the local fish fry. He later walked in a breathed a sigh of relief to find it wasn¢t stolen. Once we were drunk enough for karaoke, we headed for the bar. The locals accepted us quite nicely. They sang and the hikers sang, usually as a big group, although Fremont and Chicken did go solo a couple times. I was enjoying PBR on tap when a bar fight broke out amongst some locals. We were lucky to be far enough away not to have to dodge flying tables and chairs. The lights came on and they kicked everybody out. We all went back to the room and hit the nice comfy sack.                                                                Flanders
Date: 2003-08-30
From: Stratton, ME

To: Horns Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 5.1
Weather: overcast clouds

We slept in real late. Fremont was sick. Poor Fremont. When we came back from breakfast (at the Stratton ¢Tiny Portions¢ Diner) he had rented the room for tonite as well. In fact, everybody had decided to take a zero after breakfast. I wanted to fish, however, and Flanders never wants to zero anyway, so we headed out a bit after noon. We met Llama while we were hitching. He was just getting into town, and we told him not to go to the Stratton Diner which charges $1.25 for an order of home fries that contain 7-8 home fries ¢ less than half a potato. It took us a long time to get a hitch, but finally we did. Our driver was all over the road, though, showing off his fancy built in navigation panel.        We hiked our 5 miles up to Horns Pond. It was a tough climb, but we had plenty of energy since it was only 5 miles. It was freezing cold up there! The caretaker told us they were calling for frost tonight, but I was really dying to fish, so we put on all our clothes and began our exploration of the pond. I lost one of my lures on my first cast, but Flanders tied another one on. We eventually found a good spot with a rock over relatively deep water where I could sit and shiver while I fished. Soon enough I caught a small trout. I reeled him all the way in. Flanders said he was too small and we should throw him back, and before I could say anything the trout jumped off the hook and back into the water. Eventually we got too cold to stay out and went and crawled in our sleeping bags. We ate Mac & Cheese and Bugles for dinner, followed by Hershey¢s with Almonds. It wasn¢t fresh trout, but it was good.                                                        Chicken Feet
Date: 2003-08-31
From: Horns Pond Lean-to

To: Flagstaff Lake
Miles today: 12.2
Weather: broken clouds

Brrrr¢¦ We had a tough time getting out of our cozy sleeping bags. As we were packing up, the caretaker passed on her way to the privy with an adorable little puppy in tow. The puppy was scared to pass me, yelping out a high-pitched bark and jumping ever so slightly. We had a treat of molasses donuts for breakfast. Just before we left, I found a newspaper in the shelter from Salisbury, CT with a picture of FidoDido and Dirty Bird on the front page. Our first of three 500 feet climbs was the South Horn of Bigelow Mountain. The sun was out, warming up the day, and we had fabulous views of the upcoming peaks. We stood on our tiptoes and craned our necks looking for Katahdin, without luck. We climbed the West Peak and then dropped into the Avery Memorial campsite. It was filled with Labor Day hikers, with their humongous, heavy dome tents still setup. We had some trouble finding water, but we were able to pump out of a nearly-dry spring. Then we climbed Avery Peak, our last steep climb for a while. Looking back on the peaks of Bigelow was incredible. From the top of Avery, we finally got the see the big ¢K!!¢ It was really the only big mountain in the distance, 180 AT miles away. We took a break and ate Bugles on Avery and stared off at the gigantic Flagstaff Lake and Katahdin. We also realized that Bigelow Mountain was the Indian profile Snappy had showed us. Then we had a long, steep down and gradual up to Little Bigelow Mountain. We passed a lot more hikers out for Labor Day, and ate lunch at the viewpoint on the north end. Then we descended down to Little Bigelow Lean-to, which is 2000.1 AT miles from Springer, GA!!! 2000 MILES!!! We shared our joyous moment with Hoppin¢ Hoosier, a section hiker. Then it was a short hike to Flagstaff Lake for some fishin¢. It was a great, rocky beach with quite a brisk wind. Chicken fished while I napped. We setup our tarp and cooked on the beach. Afterwards, we were treated to a beautiful , pink sunset on the lake.                                                        Flanders
Date: 2003-09-01
From: Flagstaff Lake

To: Pierce Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 15.3
Weather: overcast clouds

We got to West Carry Pond pretty early. We were low on water and counting on the spring at the shelter. Unfortunately, much like the rest of Maine, the spring was dry. There was a couple out on a Labor Day hike. Their stuff alone could have filled the shelter. They didn¢t say much, but their dog, Thor, barked the entire time we were there. We pumped some yummy pond water. We hurried four more easy miles to East Carry Pond-lunch. There was a nice sandy beach, and Chicken waded out to fish, no luck. I tried to give her some pointers to no avail. We had to get going before too long, there were more ponds to fish. Six more easy miles and we made it to the Pierce Pond. I was feeling nauseous after lunch, but I felt alright by the time we got to the shelter. There was an older fellow from Maine with his two kids. He was sure to inform Chicken of the fishing regulations. Two other northbounders, Bag and Pez, rolled in too. We went to the other side of the pond and found a spot to tarp¢¦.and to fish. We cooked on the beach again. It was quite cloudy, so we weren¢t expecting a good sunset. Just before dark, Chicken peeked out to see a pink sky. We got up and watched the sky change for ten minutes, then it was bedtime.                                                         Flanders
Date: 2003-09-02
From: Pierce Pond Lean-to

To: Pleasant Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 9.7
Weather: broken clouds

We got up pretty early. We snacked for breakfast. I wanted to borrow a canoe for a morning paddle, but of course reasonable Flanders said we¢d get a canoe ride at the Kennebee River Crossing. So, we got to the river crossing at 9:00. We probably could have forded it-the water was low, but according to signs the dam can let loose at any time, and you don¢t have time to make it before the water rises 2-4 feet. A guy drowned trying to ford it once. So we waited for the ferry woman. She was nice, but did not seem to enjoy her job. I fished in the river while we waited. Pez talked about catching fish while I failed at it.         Soon we were across the river and in Caratunk. We picked up Snappy¢s wingfoot which was pinned to the trail board-he had left it at Steve Longley¢s (the traditional Kennebee Ferry Man) store. We went to the post office to get our water filter and then decided to resupply. We had two choices-one place with short term resupply, and Steve Longley¢s Store, 1 mile down the road. We¢d heard great things about Steve¢s so we wanted to go there.   Instead of hitching a mile (or walking a mile on the road) we decided to continue a mile on the AT where our book said there was a trail three tenths of a mile to Steve¢s store.         This is where everything went terribly, terribly wrong. First, we decided that the path to Steve¢s was not the right path and kept walking. It wasn¢t blue blazed like the book said it would be, but after a while, we turned away from the road and began to suspect we¢d gone too far. So, we turned around, and took the poorly marked trail STRAIGHT down the side of the mountain what seemed to be much longer than .3.        Finally we reached Steve¢s store. We were trying to cope with walking back up that side trail when we saw that it was closed for the day. We despaired and eventually decided to raodwalk back to Caratunk to resupply. There was supposed to be a snack bar past Caratunk, so we walked all the way there to find it closed as well. Even more frustrated and downtrodden, we walked back to the Caratunk B&B and found DejaVu, Songbird, Zapman, and Sparky. They had already slacked 12 that day and were chilling out on the lawn. We ate hotdogs and resupplied and then headed up to walk the same 1.5 miles and then another 4.5 further to Pleasant Pond Shelter. It was frustrating and somewhat humerous to be rewalking this part of the AT, but finally we made it to new territory, and surprisingly, Fremont.        We sat by the pond and ate dinner there, then joined Fremont back at the shelter. Then Flo showed up and there was much excitement. We watched the clouds turn colors by the pond and then slept in the shelter after exhausting the shelter tabloids and people magazines. We know more than we ever wanted to about J.Lo and Ben Affleck.                                                        Chicken Feet