morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2014-08-13
From: Eliza Brook shelter

To: Eliza Brook shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: moderate rain

We had decided last night to sleep in this morning, obviously we weren't the only one with this plan. The first hiker moved probably around 10am. Shortly after everyone was awake making breakfast. No one really wanted to hike today. Spikes and Rarebreed left the shelter at 1pm, they were the only ones for the rest of the day! Their spots were taken by Achilles and Al. They had stealth camped last night and just hiked 4 miles to get here. They were really happy to get the last spots in the shelter. We decided to take a zero here and just eat and sleep all day long. It never stopped raining today so I'm sure we made the right decision. I finally wrote the post cards I'm carrying since Virginia and we did some planning. But most of the time we slept. Obviously our bodies needed the rest. We had a really good vegetable beef soup for dinner by the brand Bear Creek. We can definitely recommend their freeze dried food, even if it is a bit heavier than mountain house, but it serves for two! En Guete!
Date: 2014-08-14
From: Eliza Brook shelter

To: liberty springs campsite
Miles today: 11.5

We got some thunderstorm last night and hoped that would be it with rain. Unfortunately it wasn't. It had stopped raining in the early morning but by the time we left the shelter it just started again. It rained more or less all morning and we hiked in our rain gear. This morning we climbed another 4000 feet mountain. The other way down was fortunately a bit easier and half way is the lonesome lake hut (like a SAC H14tte). There we had a bowl of soup, hot tea/coffee and pastry. It tasted quite good and was surprisingly cheap. I guess they make their money with the people who stay overnight, one night costs 125$/person! We haven't planned to stay overnight at one of those huts, except for once where they have a cheaper room (the dungeon) for thru hikers. In the afternoon the sun came out and we started to get warmer and our gear started to dry. Then we had to hike over a river which had a lot more water than usual. Toasted toad crossed it first and fell on a rock, luckily he could hold on before he slipped into the water. It looked really bad for a moment. Then he had the great idea to pass him our packs so it would be easier for us. He almost fell again when Marco handed him his pack. Even Marco was a bit afraid of the jump. I decided to get my other shoes on and walk through it. It took me a while to find a place where I could walk through it where the flow wasn't too strong and too deep so it wouldn't pull me down. I hated it! Toasted toad told me we will have more streams like that without bridges in Maine! I don't look forward to it.Today I hiked a mile per hour, great like that we never make it to Maine in time!
Date: 2014-08-15
From: liberty springs campsite

To: Garfield ridge campsite
Miles today: 7.7

We made not a lot of miles today but tough ones. We hiked mount Lafayette and Mount Garfield. The views were amazing, finally we get rewarded for all the hiking! We have met a group of hikers who originally come from the Philippines. They have grown up together and by now all live in different parts of the US. We have hiked with them today and tonight they had invited us to their dinner. Very good Asian food with real vegetables. We exchanged email addresses/phone numbers. One of them plans to visit Switzerland, we hope he takes up our invitation and comes to visit us. Two of them live in or close to New York and told us to call them when we get there on our way home so they could show us Manhattan!Our tent got wet last night so when we heard it should rain tonight we decided to go to the shelter instead of stealth camp further down the trail. Unfortunately this means tomorrow and the day after we have to hike about 15 miles! In the white mountains this is tough. We will try to get up early in the morning. Shouldn't be too difficult since the nights have temperatures around 0? Celsius and I will be cold all night anyway. Yes, the temperatures have dropped rapidly since we are in the whites. We are back wearing our winter gear, or at least what we have of it. I just hope we don't get any snow and ice!
Date: 2014-08-16
From: Garfield ridge campsite

To: Ethan Pond shelter
Miles today: 14.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Last night the campsite got visited by a bear, the day hikers freaked out completely. I would have slept through it if the other people would not have been running around screaming. Anyway it ruined our good nights sleep. We had decided to get up at 6am since we had a long tough day ahead of us. But first we hiked to the nearest hut, which was luckily along the trail, to ask for leftover breakfast. We got scrambled eggs, oatmeal and a spicy bread, all really good! Maybe this sounds weird, us going to ask for food but here its normal. Thru hikers usually can't afford to stay in a hut. A night in the bunk room costs 125$ per person! But the staff at the hut knows about us and they safe the leftovers. Sometimes we have to work a little, for lunch we can buy a bowl of soup for 2$ and a hot drink for 1$. This are fair prices and we are happy about the change in our food plan.The first 10 miles were a lot of uphill and downhill. By the time we had them done it was late afternoon. We came by the next hut and got some baked goods and a hot tea. The last 5 miles were in my opinion the prettiest we have done so far. It was almost flat land, really wild and swampy. A lot of board walks and jumping from one stepping stone to the next. A fairy land far away from any road or civilization. I let the guys go ahead and enjoyed the quiet hike. Alone in the wild, solitude pure - finally! I could have stayed there forever but I wanted to get to the shelter before it got dark. But this is a place I would not mind to go back to. The shelter was really old and small, and like all the shelters in the whites we should have paid for staying. The caretaker was busy with partying all night and not interested in collecting money, we don't mind!
Date: 2014-08-17
From: Ethan Pond shelter

To: Lakes of the Clouds Hut
Miles today: 14.2
Weather: overcast clouds

It rained last night and it was cloudy when we got up. This is probably why we didn't realize how late it already was. We had wanted to get up at 6 am again since we had another day with lots of miles planned. By now we know that here in the whites we often hike a mile an hour and not faster. So ax soon as I had packed I left knowing the guys are both faster than me downhill and would easy catch up. The downhill was a lot easier than expected and I was able to take a break after 3 miles on the bottom of the hill. I should probably just have hiked on since what came then wasn't a pretty hike. I knew the all the miles from now would be uphill, hiking the Presidential Range. I didn't know that the first 3 miles were horrible. We often thought we were on mount Webster, the first peak of the Presidentials, but we weren't. It took us a lot longer than expected. All day we had a cold wind a little rain on and off. The trail was wet and so were the boulders we had to climb. By the time we got to the first hut we were two hours behind our "schedule". It was already 4pm and we had hoped to get there at 2pm to get a bowl of soup. We got a hot chocolate and a piece of cake. Then we asked for work for stay. Most huts take 2 to 4 thru hikers a night, let them stay for free and give them the leftovers and the hikers have to help a little, like wash the dishes or so. The girl was really unfriendly and told toasted toad that we were too early to ask. Even so the weather was bad and I wouldn't have recommended to anyone to go hiking above tree line this girl didn't offer us to stay. I was surprised since we had heard differently from anyone else. Anyway not having another choice we hiked on. We did the miles we had originally planned and hiked to the lake of the Clouds Hut. We had hiked in heavy wind, fog and little rain and we were really cold when we got there. We were happy we had made it there just around 7pm, before sunset! They had already enough hikers for work for stay but let us stay for 10$. We sleep like the other hikers in the dining room and get the leftovers. But it's a dry place and that's all that matters!
Date: 2014-08-18
From: Lakes of the Clouds Hut

To: Osgood tent site
Miles today: 10.1

Today is our 5th wedding anniversary! The weather was horrible when we got up this morning after a short night. We had to wait for breakfast until the other people where done and by then there wasn't enough left for all the hungry thru hikers. So we left and hiked to the summit of Mount Washington. The weather was still bad and we didn't have any view. But in the summit restaurant we got hot dogs, Chili and hot drinks. It was hard to leave this dry place and go outside into the fog and ice cold wind. The trail was difficult, fields of rocks for the rest of the day, no clear path. We hurt ourselves several times and my knees hurt. The trail made us angry and we didn't have a peaceful hike. Nothing like we planned our big day to be! We made it to the tent site just when it got dark and had to put up our tent on a wooden platform, something almost impossible with our tent. We had to use our shoelaces to tie the tent to the platform. Marco made a mistake and made a hole in the tent. I'm sure we can repair it. This wasn't a great day and we hope we can celebrate our anniversary when we are in town.
Date: 2014-08-19
From: Osgood tent site

To: Gorham
Miles today: 4.8

We got up early and hiked the last miles to the road to town. It was almost impossible to get a ride so we split up. Toasted toad hiked further down the road to try alone. Finally we got a ride and they didn't mind to stop and pick up toasted toad as well. Gorham is one of those towns which are built stretched out along the main road. We got off the car at the beginning of the town where the outfitter was. Then we walked up the road, went for lunch, got to the hotel, dried our things out, fixed the tent, made the first laundry, went to Walmart for resupply, went for dinner and now are tired enough to go to bed!
Date: 2014-08-20
From: Gorham

To: Gorham
Miles today: 39.0

Marco and toasted toad decided to slack pack the wildcat mountain range today. It's a tough hike and since my knee hurt with every step I take, I decided to take a day off. I slept in till 10am, went to dunkin doughnuts for breakfast, went looking for trail maps for Maine, googled possibilities for Canada. I did several loads of laundry including our sleeping bags. Tried to find the hole in our mattress (again no luck). Now I will check my email, update the trail journal and try to get free replacement for some of our gear. Here its normal to contact the gear producer directly when you aren't happy with something. So I will try to get new hiking poles since mine aren't keeping up like they should, the same with Marcos shoes and my rain pants. Maybe we are lucky and get them replaced. Since we are staying two nights in the hotel they give us a voucher for a moose tour. Toasted toad gave us his since he has seen many moose and isn't interested in doing the tour. So tonight Marco and me will go on a moose watch tour! I'm really excited! Just realized that the miles aren't correct, I couldn't find the entry where they are missing so I add them to today's miles and then the trip miles should be correct again.
Date: 2014-08-21
From: Gorham

To: Bemis mountain
Miles today: 60.2

Last night on the moose tour we saw 2 foxes and one deer but unfortunately no moose. According to our tour guide/bus driver this was the first time in three years since she does those tours that she couldn't find one moose. Oh well, after 3 hours of driving through the country side we were tired and just wanted to go back to the hotel. But not our driver, she just went on, searching for the moose. The other guests started to fall asleep and finally one lady asked if we could go back to town. We were back in our hotel at midnight. Fortunately toasted toad was still awake and we could agree on what time we would go for breakfast. We have decided to skip a few miles ahead and took a shuttle to Andover in Maine. This mainly because my knees hurt extremely and I have hiked the whites in pain even so I took painkillers. I know I can't hike 15 to 20 miles a day but have to be able to hike smaller miles. Like that we couldn't finish in time to get out of the US (visa) and we will need some spare days on our visa so we can get our flight from new York. So counting all this in it didn't leave us much choice. So we crossed the boarder by car, not how I wanted it but oh well. We had hoped by doing so we would skip also the last bad hills. But today proved us wrong. We didn't do many miles but they were tough and took a lot of time. Every downhill step hurt me, but I don't like taking painkillers during the day while I hike. But I took a strong one now so my legs can relax during the night. I just want to get done with the trail so my legs can relax. Marco booked a cabin in nova scotia, Canada for a week after we get done. Luckily the owner is flexible about our arriving day. I can't wait to be there and just enjoy my vacation, this trip has become more like work than I like!
Date: 2014-08-22
From: Bemis mountain

To: campsite
Miles today: 12.9

Maine has hills, mud, roots, ponds. The trail isn't bad just really muddy and the roots and rocks are slick. Today we didn't have any bad climbs but already the little downhills hurt my knees. This didn't improve my mood as you probably understand and I was just really happy when we made it to the camp site. We were able to set up our tent and eat dinner before the bad weather headed our direction. The campsite is at a big pond and we could see all the moose prints everywhere but no moose. We keep hoping! We also saw big bear paw prints in the mud on the trail, this didn't make us happy. We hope they don't come to visit us tonight. Just now the rain starts and we hope our tent is waterproof after we fixed the hole. We are both really tired and can't wait to start the 100 mile wilderness, but we have more than 100 miles to go till we get there. Tomorrow we have to climb sattelback mountain, I hope my knees keep up. It's only 8pm, yes 11 hours of sleep!
Date: 2014-08-23
From: campsite

To: Redington campsite
Miles today: 12.8

We slept great last night but didn't hear or see a moose. Getting up in the morning is getting harder and harder, the same with hiking. It's like been there done that and just want to finish now! We would love to be able to hike 50 miles a day just to get done. That's mainly why we hoped to be able to do more miles today than planned. Unfortunately toasted toad had a bad fall this morning down the first hill and hurt his knee and his shoulder. He didn't want to really admit to his pain but it slowed him down. We hiked Saddleback mountain and the horn. Uphill we had really good trails and we thought we could push further but hiking down the horn my knees started to hurt again. It was only .7 miles down but tough. At the bottom was the tent site we originally had planned to go to and since it looked pretty good and toad and me hurt we decided to stay. The shelter or lean to how they call it up here in Maine would only have been 2.4 miles further but mount Saddleback junior in between. I guess we have to stick to our planned short days as long as we are hurt and as long as we have mountains to climb. Sooner or later we get there!
Date: 2014-08-24
From: Redington campsite

To: Sugarloaf mountain ridge
Miles today: 12.2

We felt good this morning and decided to stealth camp tonight on a mountain ridge. Today the trail passed many beautiful wild spots, nature pure. Even so it is Sunday we didn't see many people, I guess today the trail was just too far from any road. If we wouldn't have already hiked over 1800 miles and can't wait to finish we probably would have really enjoyed the hike today. Yes, I can recommend to go hiking in Maine, it's great!
Date: 2014-08-25
From: Sugarloaf mountain ridge

To: stratton
Miles today: 12.0

We made it to town today shortly after noon. It's stratton in Maine. We had thought about tenting behind one of the stores but when we saw the place it didn't seem a great idea anymore. We just wanted to check out one of the hotels when a guy pulled up. 19, another hiker, already sat in the truck and the driver offered us to stay at his home for free. We had some stuff to do so we told him we would call him. Its small town with a private grocery store with lots of tasty local products but also all the hiker food we needed. Jeff has sent our last resupply packages here which we had stored at his house so we got everything we need. Then we went to the diner for a good lunch and to use the wifi. Marco and I decided to stay with the man who had offered it, toad preferred to stay at the hotel. We called the man, Tom, and he came to pick us up. He lives outside the town in a quiet place on the hill. He has a great view over the valley and from one spot on the hill you can see mount kathadin in the far distance! Tom lives with his dog and his cat and enjoys to put up hikers since many years. Marco and I have a private guest room, 19 sleeps in the "bunkroom". We took showers, were able to do our laundry and Marco cooks dinner for everyone. Tom and 19 are excited to get a meal cooked by a swiss chef!
Date: 2014-08-26
From: stratton

To: long falls dam road
Miles today: 19.5

Today we are 5 month on the trail! Tom cooked a great breakfast this morning and offered us to slack pack us today and let us stay another night! We couldn't say no to this offer. We hiked the Bigelow mountain range, I had planned to do this in two days but slacking we were able to do it in one. My body was happy not to have to carry a pack and the trail was maintained well. We passed the 2000 miles marker early in the morning, yes, only 185.3 miles to go! We had beautiful views over the valley, lakes and to the hill where Tom lives on. As far as I know this were the last mountains which we have to hike above tree line till kathadin. It was a bright, hot, sunny day and already at lunch I got this headache. It didn't go away and I was more than happy when we finally made it to the road where we met Tom after 9.5 hours of hiking. 19 was already there and they had picked up a Southbounder (sobo) too. He had some ibuprofen he could give me. I went straight to bed while Marco cooked a walliser Roesti with fried eggs, bratwurst, onion gravy and a vegetable soup for the whole crew. Tom agreed to let me stay tomorrow during the day and bring me to where Marco is hiking to. This two days of slack packing brings us far ahead schedule! Thank you Tom for being a trail angel, you are awesome!
Date: 2014-08-27
From: long falls dam road

To: holly brook
Miles today: 20.1

Marco left around 7:30am, Tom brought him and "19" back to the trail for another day of slack packing. I slept in till 11am, I obviously really needed the rest. Even then I didn't feel great and my head felt under pressure. I had breakfast, rested some more and finally felt like I could get up.I offered Tom to do some chores. He didn't really wanted me to do anything. But he let me change the bedding in our room and I cleaned the bathroom we were using. So in case he would pick up other hikers everything would be ready for them.In the afternoon Tom drove me to where the guys had hiked to. It was a two hour drive! I saw the beautiful state of Maine through a car window. Since I like road trips I didn't mind at all. Marco and 19 were already waiting for us, they had hiked 17 miles in 6 hours! They had been running down the trail and both seemed to have really enjoyed it. We met them at the parking lot in caratunk, just after they had to ride a ferry to cross a river. Then we had to say goodbye to Tom. Thank you again, you are amazing! We had known about the ferry since it had been part of the documentary. I had really looked forward to this part and Marco had told this to the ferry man. He didn't mind at all to go with me back and forth over the river. I was really happy, I was able to do the ferry part! Oh, and just to let you know, it is still the same ferry man as when the documentary was made 7 years ago. Then we had to take our packs and start real hiking again, the packs never feel as heavy as when we have done a resupply and had enjoyed slack packing. It felt like they pulled us to the ground. We hiked 2.5 miles more to a creek, found a stealth campsite and decided to stay. We are 1.5 days ahead of schedule and have way too much food and in Monson we have another food package waiting. I guess we will give some food to hiker friends. Paying forward
Date: 2014-08-28
From: holly brook

To: bald mountain brook
Miles today: 12.1

I had a bad night, I kept tossing and turning and couldn't rest. I guess I haven't hiked far enough yesterday and wasn't tired enough. By the time we got up, 19 was just ready to leave. We decided to do a short day and agreed to meet him at the shelter. We had a small mountain to climb and a long not at all steep downhill. I really enjoyed the hike and the good trail. At one break Marco got hit by a falling branch and it hurt his shoulder. It hurt him to hike with his pack on and I was glad we had only 3 more miles to hike to the shelter. We got to the shelter by 3pm, one of our earliest arrival at a shelter. We put up our tent, made a fire and had 3 dinners. We just kept eating one after the other and then had each a snickers and a cereal bar. It's crazy the amount we eat and still don't feel full. Toasted toad showed up at 6pm, he had done some big miles. He told us he just wants to get done as fast as possible. We'll see if he wants to keep hiking with us or go ahead. I would like to take my time through the one hundred miles wilderness and enjoy the nature, this will probably mean that we go less miles than what he plans. Oh well, we'll see.
Date: 2014-08-29
From: bald mountain brook

To: Monson
Miles today: 18.9

We hiked up Bald Mountain early this morning and we had a beautiful view over Maine. We would probably have seen Mount Kathadin if we would have known which one of the peaks it is. 19 got phone service and found out that his pension has come early. This meant that he has money to go to town. This gave us a reason to speed up and try to hike all the way to town. We wanted to celebrate his birthday early since we will not have much once we are in the wilderness. The trail was pretty smooth and we were able to keep up a good pace. In the afternoon it got harder because of the heat, yes we got the summer back for a few days!We got to the trail head early, got a shuttle from a former hiker, got a room at a hostel and got our food package. We have way too much food so we gave toasted toad and 19 what we don't need. Later we had dinner at the bbq place. We were up for a long time trying to find out what we do after the trail. I guess we have it all in our heads now and I just hope it works as we think. Tomorrow we will take a zero at a cabin at the trail head, it doesn't have wifi! So next time you read from us we should be done! If everything goes well you hear from us when we are in Millinocket, after completing our hike! Keep reading!