morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2007-09-05
From: Gorham, NH

To: Gorham, NH
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

My turn for medical problems!We were forced into a second zero due to the cyst on my neck swelling up and getting infected last night. I started the trail with a small sebaceous cycst on my neck that I didn't have time to get removed, and true to form, it finally gave me trouble. We tried to get an appointment at the county medical center across the street from our hotel, but they couldn't fit me in. Instead, they sent me to their office in Berlin, 6 miles away. That's a problem when you don't have a car. Fortunately there is a trolly service (a.k.a. bus service) in town. It killed our entire afternoon, but it was interesting to get the tour of Berlin. It's a town that's seeing hard times due to the paper mill closing. This weekend, they blow up the smoke stacks on the factory (there is a raffle to be the one to press the button!). The doctor lanced my cyst, put in a drain, and gave me some antibiotics. Hopefully it will clear up in a couple of days.
Date: 2007-09-06
From: Gorham, NH

To: Gentian Pond Shelter, NH
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: few clouds

Our last full day of hiking in NH!We got a ride back to the trail with Little Bug Shoes (L.B.S.) and Scruffles, twin girls from Florida who arranged for a shuttle to get back to the trail. We hiked with them for most of the day and they are a blast. Scruffles is like Bonnie on the hard places and Bonnie now has her muttering, "This is not hiking." L.B.S. is like me and says, "This is cool."There were a lot of ups and downs today, but it wasn't too brutal. Once again, we saw lots of moose poop, but no mooses. We slept in our tent for the first time in over a week at the Gentian Pond Shelter. There was a freshman class there from Harvard on an orientation hike and the things we overheard were pretty amusing. Apparently they go through life getting lines like, "Lets ask Mr./Ms. Harvard," etc. It must be a lot of pressure being a Harvard student.
Date: 2007-09-07
From: Gentian Pond Shelter, NH

To: Full Goose Shelter, ME
Miles today: 9.6
Weather: haze

We're in Maine! What an introduction to Maine -- the hiking was brutal. We went up and down a lot of steep climbs with lots of rock faces to scale. The talk of camp was how difficult the hiking was. Everyone thinks that the A.T. is almost over once you hit Maine, but there is almost a month of tough hiking left. We heard of someone making it all the way to here from Georgia and throwing in the towel today. There were at least two steep descents where we took off our packs and slid them down the rocks. We then slid down on our butts behind.I did a number on my left knee today. My right foot slipped going down a steep rock, and my left foot stayed behind to allow my knee to buckle and twist. Bonnie said it wasn't pretty from behind. I have a lot of soreness, but anti-inflammitories seem to be keeping it under control. Bonnie did a slide to her butt on one of the decents as well. We did less than 10 miles, but didn't get to camp until almost 6:00.
Date: 2007-09-08
From: Full Goose Shelter, ME

To: Speck Pond Campsite, ME
Miles today: 5.1
Weather: haze

We went through the Mahoosuc Notch today which is considered to be the "toughest mile on the trail." The notch is a series of boulders and rock formations between too ridges. In some places, you go under the rocks and through little openings. We really took our time and did it with L.B.S., Scruffles, and a guy we just met named Safari. We actually had a great time and went really slow. Because you're in a notch, it's not as scary as some of the steep climbs we've done. And doing it with 3 other people made the sections where you have to pass your pack through small openings a lot easier. It took us a little over 2 hours to complete the one mile.The 1,300 foot climb up the Mahoosuc Arm on the other side of the notch was really steep and difficult. We heard a lot of "Oh craps" from Scruffles and a lot of "This is not hiking" from Bonnie on the way up. My knee is sore, but felt okay once I warm up.We ended the day at Speck Pond and went for a quick COLD swim! We shared one of the group tentsites with the twins and had a lot of fun. It seemed whimpy to do only 5 miles today, but a lot of thru hikers did the same after another tough day.
Date: 2007-09-09
From: Speck Pond Campsite, ME

To: Andover, ME
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Just when the hiking gets a little easier, it rains all afternoon!We started with a hard 800 ft. climb up Old Speck Mountain, but from then on, the steep hand-over-hand rock scaling ended for the day. Unfortunately, the roots and rocks got really slick once the rain started in the afternoon. Bald plate mountain was really cool and consisted of a huge rock slab over the entire peak. Without the rain, the view probably would have been great. We ended the day at about 6:30 with a shuttle to the Pine Ellis Hostel in Andover -- the only place we could get a room. Everyone is trying to get a room to get out of this rain.We've been really fortunate with the weather for the last week. The rain was pretty cold today, but for the most part, it's been warm. We were a little freaked out at one of the views today -- THE LEAVES ARE CHANGING! We started the trail with no leaves on the trees, and we've been out so long were seeing the full leaf cycle!
Date: 2007-09-10
From: Andover, ME

To: Andover, ME
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Andover is a nice little town for a zero. You'd have to wait a long time to get hit by a car on the main street. I'm not sure why you'd want to do that, but it would take a long time.We managed to re-supply through the two "grocery stores" (a.k.a. convenience stores) in town. We ended up getting some heavier things than we normally would, but we gotta eat! We moved from the Pine Ellis Hostel, where we were stuck in the bunk room last night to the Andover Road House, which is a bit more B&B like. The place is pretty much closed for the season, but they let us in due to Bonnie's sweet talk. The owner Joel is a consultant for the Aerospace Industry and is certified to fly quite a few airliners. He knew a lot about the companies where I spent my career and was interesting to talk to. After a nice dinner at the gas station/convenience store/diner/liquor store, we watched the video of the Avengers.
Date: 2007-09-11
From: Andover, ME

To: South Arm Road, ME
Miles today: 10.1

We have been seeing the poop, and today we saw the pooper!We saw our first moose! It was a medium sized bull about 50 yards off the trail. He had a beautiful set of antlers and slowly moved away from us. There really are mooses in New England! After 20 plus years of coming here, we finally saw one!We treated ourselves to a slack pack today. Joel, our inn keeper, drove us to a road crossing 10 miles down the trail, and we hiked southbound to our road crossing from 2 days ago. We started with a fairly steep 1,000 foot climb to Moody Mountain, descended about 1,200 feet, and the climbed about 1,800 feet to Wayman Mountain. The climbs were fairly hard, but they didn't have the nasty rock slab climbs from last week. The rebar steps mounted in the rocks made the steep sections a little easier. It was slippery all day; the rain started out light early on and became heavier as we finished. It was nice for Bonnie to be slack packing since she is breaking in her new boots. It was also nice to end the day at the Inn where we could shower, dry out, and do wash.We ran into Otter on the trail and his dog Max. We met them going southbound when we were north of Hot Springs, TN. Back then, we gave him an ace bandage for his ankle when he realized his "ace bandage" was a roll of gauze. Max is the dog that holds your arm in his mouth while you pet him! Otter recently flipped to Katahdin and is now headed south. He said we saved him twice: once by giving him the ace bandage, and again by giving him Bill's phone number for when he reached Waynesboro. We also met the twins again, and saw them later at the diner in town.
Date: 2007-09-12
From: South Arm Road, ME

To: Bemis Stream, ME
Miles today: 12.5
Weather: light rain

Where did we pack the waders?The trail was a stream up Old Blue Mt. ¢ there were even waterfalls to hike through. The rain yesterday really got everything soaked. It was a little tough to keep dry and we¢re wondering if we¢ll ever hike in dry boots again.We started the day with a huge breakfast at the Andover General Store. Bonnie had the eggs, bacon, doughnut, etc, and I had the three plate sized pancakes ¢ it was good hikin¢ food. Never complain to the waitress that you¢re having trouble keeping weight on. We had stunning Maine views for the whole day. There was hardly a house in sight. It was the usual challenging Maine hiking, but we ended with some awesome trail magic. We met a woman named Sue McPhee and her German Pointer Jake on a dirt road, and she said she always wanted to give home made cookies to thru hikers. So she hiked down the road to her car while we waited and drove back up to give us a huge bag of freshly made oatmeal cookies. What a treat; we finished the whole bag by 10:00 the next day. We still are amazed at the kindness of strangers on the trail.We camped by the Bemis stream for the night.
Date: 2007-09-13
From: Bemis Stream, ME

To: Piazza Rock Lean-to, ME
Miles today: 15.7
Weather: scattered clouds

Maine is full of gorgeous lakes. We saw Rangeley Lake, Moxie Pond, Long Pond, Sabbath Day Pond, and South Pond on our hike today. They are all crystal clear and just beautiful. If it were a little warmer, we would have spent a lot of time swimming! Unfortunately, it was really cool. This is the first time since April that we spent the day spent the day in long pants. The terrain really eased today for the first time in a while, but it was slick. Bonnie slid to her butt twice, and I slid to mine once. We saw our first small snake since VT, and Bonnie saw a moose running away from us.
Date: 2007-09-14
From: Piazza Rock Lean-to, ME

To: Orbeton Stream, ME
Miles today: 11.7

About a half-mile from the shelter this morning we walked by a big owl in a tree overlooking a pond. He was only about 25 yards away and gave us a couple of good looks before going back to scanning the pond.The hiking took us back above tree line today. We climbed about 2,000 feet to the top of Saddleback Mountain (4,120 ft.), and then on to the Horn (4,041 ft.), and Saddleback Jr. (3,655 ft.) mountains. The views were beautiful on the way up, but the peaks were in the clouds. Clouds on a mountaintop look so majestic and gentle from below. When you are in them, they are pretty fierce. The wind really whips over the peak and the cloud forms on one side of the mountain and dissipates on the other. We spent the night at a campsite next to a beautiful stream just after finding some trail magic of Pepsi and Nutty Buddies.
Date: 2007-09-15
From: Orbeton Stream, ME

To: Crocker Crique Campsite, ME
Miles today: 11.4
Weather: moderate rain

The rain started as forecasted around 2:30 a.m. and continued to about 5 p.m. It was a cold 50-degree day of hiking and it reminded us of the start of our hike in March and April. We had rain gear on all day with hats and gloves. All day we dreamed about climbing into our sleeping bags!Our biggest peak of the day was Sugarloaf Mountain at 3,650 feet. The terrain wasn¢t bad until we hit the descent; it was rocky, steep and really slick in the rain. The South Branch of the Carabassett River at the bottom was supposed to be a ford, but fortunately someone put a big board across the rocks. It would have been a cold ford!We hit trail magic of apples at the bottom of the descent. Fresh fruit tastes so good when you¢re on the trail!We ended with a short climb to Crocker Cirque Campsite, which we had to ourselves. It was nice to be on a tent platform after hiking in the rain all day. Shortly after we arrived, the rain finally stopped.
Date: 2007-09-16
From: Crocker Crique Campsite, ME

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

It was cold last night! We woke up to a damp 40-degree morning and it was hard getting out of our sleeping bags. The real torture came when we had to put on our wet, cold boots (it only hurts for a while!).We had a short 7-mile hike to the town of Stratton that went over South (4,010 ft.) and North Crocker (4,228 ft.) Mountains. Once again, we hit peaks in the clouds. The climbs and descents weren¢t too difficult by Maine standards. We got to the road crossing for Stratton by noon and got a ride from the third car that passed. The guy that gave us a ride was a riot; it appears he is collecting recycling on the floor of his pick up truck, but we managed to squeeze in!We had a big lunch at the White Wolf restaurant and checked in to the Stratton Motel.
Date: 2007-09-17
From: Stratton, ME

To: Stratton, ME
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

We enjoyed our second last zero on the trail in Stratton, ME, which rates as one of the most convenient hiker towns on the trail. The small supermarket, restaurant, and post office are within a couple of blocks of the little hotel and the hotel has a washer and dryer. It made the day off so easy.THANK YOU BECKY AND TONY, LAURA, AND BILL FOR THE FOOD DROPS! We are set for our next leg with the addition of only a few fresh things from the market. We have one of our best food re-supplies and it's light as well. Our day went so fast that we actually started to work on some minor post trail issues such as, "When does our health insurance run out?" Our boots finally had a chance to dry out and I doused them with water proofing. Hopefully we can keep some of the wet Maine muck off them for the rest of the trail.
Date: 2007-09-18
From: Stratton, ME

To: Safford Notch Campsite, ME
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: clear sky

We got a ride back to the trail with Susan the hotel owner and sat in the back of her SUV with her poodle Knucklehead. Knucklehead ate half my doughnut and was grunting with happiness.It was a day of hiking the Bigelow peaks. We started at 1,400 ft. and climbed over South Horn (3,085 ft.), West Peak of Bigelow (4,145 ft.), and Avery Peak (4,088 ft.). The last two were above tree line and we took time at the tops to enjoy some of our last time above tree line. The weather and the views were spectacular all day. We believe we saw three Golden Eagles soar overhead (we needed you Bill!). It was warm enough to hike in shorts and t-shirts again, but once that sun went down, it got cold. We switched to long underwear to sleep. The trail to the campsite went over and under boulders. It was the coolest entry to a campsite on the trail.
Date: 2007-09-19
From: Safford Notch Campsite, ME

To: West Carry Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: clear sky

TWO THOUSAND MILES!!!!We hit the 2,000 mile mark about 4 miles into our hike today! It's only 174 more to go!We did one of our final big climbs of the trail before Katahdin today. Little Bigelow (3,025 ft.) was another climb with a spectacular view that we did right out of camp. The rest of the hiking for the day was fairly easy by Maine standards and we spent the night at West Carry Pond which was just beautiful in the sunset. Another hiker from Maine named Unicycle Pirate was there as well and he was a really nice guy to talk to.Unfortunately, we got word of a petty thief on the trail today. Among other things, the guy has apparently stiffed a hostel and has stolen some food in towns. We met the guy a few times and pegged him pretty quickly as being a con-artist. He is not a hiker, and hitchs from place to place. Fortunately, word is out about him all over Maine, in both towns and on the trail.
Date: 2007-09-20
From: West Carry Pond Lean-to

To: Caratunk, ME
Miles today: 14.0

We had an easy day of hiking today -- probably the easiest since Mass. Only the last two miles got into the rough Maine roots and rocks.We left West Carry Pond and the loons that cried out all night at 7:00 a.m. just to make sure we had enough time to make the ferry. The ferry is actually a canoe that takes you across the Kennebec River. You use to have to ford the river, but since a hiker drowned in 1985 fording it after an especially rainy period, they added the ferry. They actually have a white blaze in the canoe designating it as the official route across the river. It's the most photographed blaze on the trail. We had lunch on the way at Pierce Pond, which is another one of those picturesque Maine lakes. Every one would make a perfect post card.We spent the night at Northern Outdoors, which mainly caters to rafters. It's the perfect lodge; they brew their own beer. We got a ride there from two very nice women that are hiking with another woman we met named Ameoba.
Date: 2007-09-21
From: Caratunk, ME

To: Bald Mtn Brook Lean-to, ME
Miles today: 14.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Ameoba was nice enough to give us a ride back to the trail on an absolutely beautiful day. The maple tree leaves are now either a brilliant red or orange. They look incredible with their background of green pines and bright blue sky. The trail is very dry by Maine standards; we hit only a few places with the famous Maine muck that you sink in up to your ankles.We had a beautiful climb to Pleasant Pond Mountain (2,480 ft.) and saw 3 mooses along the way. We finally got a good clear view of one on the edge of a swampy meadow. They are a lot blacker than we imagined and they seem to have great hearing since they run at the slightest sound.We ended the day by Joe's Hole Brook and camped right next to the trail at a campsite. Bonnie refused to drink water from a place called Joe's Hole, so we were a little dehydrated by morning.
Date: 2007-09-22
From: Bald Mtn Brook Lean-to, ME

To: Horseshoe Canyon Lean-to, ME
Miles today: 13.3
Weather: overcast clouds

We were awakened in the middle of the night by the breathing of a moose right outside our tent. They suck in a lot of air! Our quiet whispers scared him off. In the morning, we saw his footprints about 20 feet from our tent.It was cloudy all day and we were completely fogged in at the top of Moxie Bald Mountain (2,629 ft.) which normally has spectacular views. We should have had another river ford today, but with the dry weather, we were able to jump across the rocks and barely get our boots wet. A portion of the day's trail was very easy. It's so nice to be able to cruise again on easy terrain.We ended the day at Horeshoe Canyon Lean-to and shared the shelter with only the resident tame chipmunk. We decided to stay in the shelter rather than tent because of the expected thunderstorms; they never came.
Date: 2007-09-23
From: Horseshoe Canyon Lean-to, ME

To: Monson, ME
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: clear sky

Happy Fall!We're now into our 4th season on the trail!We headed out to another beautiful Maine day. Most of the trail boardered the West Branch of the Piscataquis River and the terrain was easy enough so that we could maintain a little better than 2 miles per hour. Our ford across the river was a rock hop again due to the low water level.We got to the road crossing for Monson, ME by 11:30 a.m. and hitched a ride to town within 5 minutes with a couple from Connecticut. We're staying at the Lake Shore House Hostel and our room has a window overlooking Lake Hebron. The sunset was spectacular over the lake. The place has a great little pub downstairs where we had lunch and dinner. We keep running into Amoeba and her two friends on the trail and had dinner next to them in the pub. We've been having a lot of fun with them and will miss them since they head back home tomorrow.
Date: 2007-09-24
From: Monson, ME

To: Monson, ME
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

It's our last zero on the trail!Thank you Becky and Tony, Bill and Sandy, and Dave and Sue for the food drops! The food selection in Monson is rather limited. Tomorrow we head out to the 100-mile Wilderness, our last section of the trail! If the weather and our bodies hold up, we will get to the base of Mt. Katahdin on Tuesday October 2nd, and climb the final 5.2 miles and 4,000 ft. of Katahdin on Wednesday, October 3rd. This may be our last entry before we finish since there may be no more internet connections. We'll try to get our final journal updates in on Friday, October 5.Here's to a great finish to a great adventure!!!!
Date: 2007-09-25
From: Monson, ME

To: Long Pond Stream Lean-to, ME 
Miles today: 15.1
Weather: scattered clouds

Our first river ford!After a huge breakfast of eggs, potatoes, French toast, white toast, bacon, coffee, and juice from Buddy at the Lake Shore House, we got on the trail around 8:30 a.m. It was a day with a lot of ups and downs and it was exhausting. We passed some beautiful water falls, streams, and ponds. We ran into about 6 other thru hikers during the day; last week, we were mostly alone.The Big Wilson Stream was the first river where it was too high to jump across the rocks! We put on our crocks, carefully forded the knee deep stream being careful not to get wet, threw down our packs on the other side, and then jumped back into the water to cool off! It¢s hard to believe it¢s late September in Maine and we¢re sweating so much we need to swim.It took us all day to do the 15.1 miles, partly because we had to run back and find our sitting pads that fell off Bonnie's pack. We ended up eating in the dark. After a quick swim in Long Pond Stream, we camped near a very nice woman named Peach from Michigan who was hiking with Edge from Maryland and another guy named Gnarly.
Date: 2007-09-26
From: Long Pond Stream Lean-to, ME 

To: Chairback Gap Lean-to
Miles today: 10.9
Weather: few clouds

It was another day of tough hiking. Everyone kept commenting on how the trail was kicking their butt! We climbed to the top of Barren Mtn.(2,672 ft.), Fourth Mtn(2,383 ft.), Third Mtn.(2,065 ft.) and Columbus Mtn.(2,326 ft.). We thought the numbered names were kind of dumb for mountains, but after climbing them, we figured no one could come up with a name for them that could be put in print.With the forecasted scattered thunderstorms and the fact that we were beat, we pulled up after only 10.9 miles and stayed in a shelter with Edge and a section hiker Don from Massachusetts. They had a bit of a snoring contest during the night.
Date: 2007-09-27
From: Chairback Gap Lean-to

To: Logan Brook Lean-to
Miles today: 17.1
Weather: clear sky

We heard a real bummer story about a woman thru hiker named Tumbleweed today. She apparently slipped on a log over a stream, fell off and got a compound fracture of her arm and had to end her thru hike. She is such a nice young woman, and a great hiker. Hopefully she is still going to be able to skip ahead and hike at least part of Katahdin.After a steep boulder scramble down Chairback Mountain, the terrain really eased for the morning. We had our second river ford of the hike across the West Branch of the Pleasant River. It was only about a foot deep, but it was a bit cold!We had 4 climbs for the afternoon: Gulf Hagas Mtn. (2,680 ft.), West Peak (3,178 ft.), Hay Mtn. (3,245 ft.), and White Cap Mtn (3,654 ft.). None of the climbs were brutal, but we were pretty beat by White Cap. About a thousand feet after the above tree line peak of White Cap, the thunder started. We were happy to be over the peak! We flew to the shelter, and the heavy rain started 20 minutes after we arrived.We spent the night with Dutchy, a thru hiker from Lancaster, PA, and two section hikers.