morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-05-18
From: Hoyt Rd

To: Dalton MA
Miles today: 113.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Ok, it's been a week since Friday the thirteenth when I finally started hiking. Or at least it will be a week after the well deserved zero day tomorrow here in Dalton. Right now I am laying in bed watching some corny Will Farell movie on the SyiFyi channel catching up on my blog. What has happened? Pretty much a reconnect to my 2014 hike where I got hurt. (The 2015 hike with Misty was too different to compare to this). My first mini trip was a two day hike from the CT border back to Salisbury where I had a bed in Vanessa's 300 year old house. More on Vanessa later. The hike was aggressive since it needed to cover 44 miles over unknown terrain. My enthusiasm carried me the first day, allowing me to avoid the poison ivy and ticks and make it to the Siver Hills campground amidst light rain n that had started late in the afternoon. I had the campground to myself, including the covered pavilion where I could use my stove and make oatmeal. The tent held up well and the project heavy storms and wind never hit me. I packed up my heavy wet tent the next morning and continued on another 22 miles, making it back to the house pretty beat up but happy. Vanessa was making hamburgers and that made everything better immediately. Vanessa is a trail angel and chef. She has hosted many hikers over the years and has lots of stories. She also has two dogs and at least one cat. The cat eats at the counter with us. Salibury was not the friendliest town nor the cheapest, but Vanessa was both, giving me discounts for her services at every turn. I ended up staying with her three nights: Thursday, Saturday, and then Sunday. On Sunday she shuttled me ahead to mount Everett and I walked back 13 miles to the house. Just a way to prolong my stay. On Monday morning she took me back there and we said goodbye, with 57 miles hiked. A good start. Monday's hike took me 20 miles to the Wilcox south shelter. I was having some issues with my ankles rubbing raw on my boots and I was lucky to make the shelter. I got lucky and had it to myself. It was great since the evening wing was gusting and cooling down by 7pm. I went through my shelter routine and found I still have problems eating dinners on the mountain. I did manage a few ounces of summer sausage, some sharp cheddar cheese and crackers but couldn't replace my water since the source there was dry. I spent the night worrying about my ankle sores, which hurt badly until I took off the bandages and let them air dry. I couldn't think of any remedy that didn't involve staying somewhere for days and that depressed me. Luckily, my combination of bandage, gauss and wrap the next morning worked well and gave me hope of fixing this on the go. I started Tuesday without a destination but found a cell signal and then a hotel just .1 mile off the trail. The Berkshire Lakeside Lodge turned out great. Wonderful room and very reasonable. I pigged out on cokes and Italian delivery. Left early Wednesday with my sights on Dalton and a zero coming up. A very good week. Body is working well and trail legs are improving.
Date: 2016-05-19
From: Dalton MA

To: Dalton
Miles today: 0.0

As expected there are other hikers on this section, even though we are all ahead of the bubble. At Vanessa's I met two guys. One was quitting; CT was just too expensive. He had come from GA with his pit bull dog. I never saw the dog but couldn't blame him. Taking a dog Isherwood is tough.The other guy was more complex. He told his story about starting in GA 94 days ago and doing big miles every day to get here so fast. I bought it. Later Vanessa told me she had picked him up 20 miles before Salibury and was likely not going back there. Seems like he is merely section hiking and acting like its a thru hike. I might be wrong. We'll see. I met the golden girls today, two senior women wandering from shelter to shelter. I also met Walksaround, a young gal that started where I Durand is also going to ME. She is here in Dalton also. May see more of her as the hike continues.
Date: 2016-05-19
From: Dalton

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I just got back from my evening meal, a short walk across the street to a local pub offering steamers. When I left the pub a chill hit me forcing thoughts of where comfort comes from in this mode of living. It's actually quite complex for me. In a town, like I'm in now, with people, buildings and city life all around, feeling an evening chill is a isolating sense. Knowing I have very limited clothes options and a definite near term end to my hotel stay, the primary feeling is envy. Envy for the local folks who have warm homes and family to be with tonight. It passes as quickly as it comes but is very real for a moment. It is quite a different situation out on the trail. After a day's hike my body is warmed by the effort, even after the evening chill has set in. It's not uncommon to have considerable wind as well. But the warmth will not last long once I stop. Therefore the tent or shelter routines must happen quickly or chills can set in. An extreme case could become hypothermia. The end result is a sleeping bag beckoning me. The luxury of squeezing into the bag and laying there, warming up, is wonderfully safe and satisfying. It has never been accompanied by the "in town" fears, maybe because there are no city sights or sounds.I try hard to get to hotels and towns. The combination of mixing trail nights with town nights produces a hike that keeps me sane while acting out primitive survival fantasies. It's just peculiar that the town nights can result in worse feelings than the mountain nights. Go figure.
Date: 2016-05-27
From: Dalton

To: Danby
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

It has been an eventful week and a blitzkrieg tour of multiple towns. Not quite as many miles as the first week but still good progress and good trail leg training for New Hampshire, which keeps getting closer. Moving out of Dalton I had plans for three straight shelter nights before Manchester Centre. After two nights though I found myself within hiking distance of Bennington and decided to take a nearo and grab some breakfast and then a room.The shelter experience is different here because no one sleeps in the shelter. Too many bugs. You tent next to the shelter. The first night was great because there were wooden tent platforms and a bear box. The tent stayed perfectly dry and I had the entire place to myself. The second night was also ok but there were other people and thus a bit more noise. One of them was stupid enough to leave their bear bag hanging in the shelter. Really dumb. Getting back the trail on Monday from Bennington involved a taxi and driver that could care less about schedules. 5:30 turned into 6:30 and the fifteen dollar fare did not end up containing a tip. Monday night found me at a great shelter with a cold spring for the water supply. Either a 21 mile shot at Manchester Centre the next day I was looking forward to relaxing along the way on top Stratton Mt. The visionary birthplace of the AT. Hold the presses. Tuesday brought some light rain at daybreak. I put on the pack cover and wrapped my rain she'll around my waist. As the day progressed the rain got worse and the temp dropped. It was a miserable hike to the Manchester trailhead and then, no cell signal and no pickup into town. Luckily the walk in was downhill but still added almost 4 miles to a long wet day. I took a zero in Manchester and had some good food, including a great surf and turf. I left on Thursday, paying a motel guest for a ride back to the trailhead and hiked all day to Danby and a great B&B. Is so great I have been here for four nights, taking 33 miles worth of day hikes ahead to US 4 (488.3 miles left). Tomorrow I set out for the 3-4 day stint to Norwich/Hanover.
Date: 2016-05-28
From: Danby

To: Danby
Miles today: 0.0

I have written about spatial aliasing the first year I hiked. It involves taking insufficient samples to fully capture the actual trail elevation profile on AWOL's guide. It is what turns a series of short but difficult ups and downs into a seemingly smooth flat section of trail. I have com to call these unseen disturbances undulations. They cannot be predicted and must be dwelt as they occur. To feel better about them I sometimes simply yell out "undulation" and then accept it.There is another annoying profile anomaly that can come out of the blue. Once in a while the guide text obscures the actual profile, hiding steep climbs or descents. Beakers Summit was the latest one of these, a steep rock scramble that came out of nowhere. These unseen events are happening so regularly that I am becoming numb to them.
Date: 2016-06-03
From: New Woodstock NH

To: New Woodstock
Miles today: 0.0

Several interesting hikers crossed my path on the third week. Who knows which I will see again. Bones showed up at the lookout cabin. He is a thru hiker on the trail for 100 days when I met him. We talked a bit while up in the lookout platform. He was expecting to meet up with his girlfriend in Hanover and walk the Whites. An ambitious plan, especially for the friend. Bones had his act together and obviously liked being alone. He moved on that day to get nearer to town but because I start very early he passed me again the next morning. Probably won't see him again if he has a friend in tow. The next night I met Trotter and his dog Sidney in the Happy Hills Shelter. He was joined later by One Step and Fine Tune. One Step was a large lady who you would never to expect to see up in the mountains. Their statement that they had hike part of the Whites was even more difficult to believe. But all three of them were going South to Killington so I wish them well. Coming out of Hanover on Thursday morning I met and walked a bit with Happy Feet. She was not hiking, just talking about her upcoming thru hike in a few weeks south. I will probably see her when we meet. She seemed very confident but actually lost the AT blazes while still in Hanover. I think I will give her a new trail name of Misguided. Of course there were the three women at the Ore Hill Campground. They spent some time time texting their boyfriends that they had purified water and pitched a tent. They were very pleasant and polite, even while putting their tent up right next to mine in an empty campground. They were going South to Hanover, planning on making one mile per hour. I hope they did better than that and managed getting over the two mountains in their way. On Moosilauk I met dozens of hikers. Legion ran the Hostel in Glencliff. It looked like a great place to stay. Pity I couldn't make it that far on Friday. The hikers going up and down the mountain took all its challenges in stride, just out for a Saturday stroll. Must be something in the blood of New Hampshire people. Not much obesity seen here. My present landlord Paul is taking good care of me in the Mount Liberty Lodge. Hopefully I can make it back here when I hit Franconia gap.
Date: 2016-06-04
From: Danby

To: Lyme NH
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

The journey from Route 4 to Hanover ended up taking only 3 days, with the third day being a nearo of only 4 miles. I got extremely lucky on Monday finding the Lookout Cabin to stay the night in. This is a private fully enclosed cabin that also has a lookout platform with ladder built on top the roof. Although a variety of people stopped by after I got there, none stayed and I had the cabin to myself, at least just me and some very large carpenter ants. A couple did show up around 10:30 pm and woke me up but decided to sleep up on the lookout platform in a brisk wind. I guess they were after the adventure of being above everything. I left early on Tuesday with a plan to have a lunch at a market just off the trail. I spent considerable time scheming to also buy some dinner and drinks I could carry up to the next shelter. I should have known better to get my hopes up. The market was a hollow shell of a building. I had so depended on it I had drained most of my water and needed to replace it once I hit the shelter. Not having my planned lunch I got there early in the afternoon and made an aggressive decision to push another 9 miles to the next shelter (happy hills). What a happy turn of events it was when I found a store in West Hartford open that the guide book said had closed. New management. I had my dinner and packed several cans of coke on to the shelter. It was a long 23.5 mile day but those cokes tasted great after chilling in a stream. The push took me within an easy 4 mile drop into Hanover on Wed 6/1. I had planned a zero there because the trail runs right thru it. But with a beautiful Thursday forecast I had to push forward. The nearo gave me almost the whole day to check out the town anyway. I picked up my mail drop in Norwich, which is just before Hanover, so now I had new maps, another month of meds, and some gear replacement that Misty worked hard to get in on time. Hanover is the home of Dartmouth College, and boy do those kids exude money. I ate lunch across from a table of them being indoctrinated by some smooth talking coordinators. The kids were hanging on every word like it was gold. Can't remember having that much trust at that age. After a night in the swank Hanover Inn I set out for Lyme and another B&B on Thursday. That got me to only 424 miles left to go, over 300 miles in three weeks! Very satisfied.
Date: 2016-06-05
From: Lyme NH

To: New Woodstock NH
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Safe in Lyme for Thursday night, the weather reports forecast hard rain for Sunday. This is a problem because a conservative hiking plan would have me going over Mt Moosilauk that day with its precipitous north side descent, one of the steepest and treacherous on the whole AT. After considering some complicated options involving various shuttles and extended hotel stays, I decided instead to make a mad dash over it on Saturday. This required two long hiking days, both with more climbs than I had ever done this year.In many ways I hated leaving Lyme so soon. The birthplace of Lyme disease, the small town had only one general store but it always seemed to be busy. Downs Country Inn was a cool place and the owners were very helpful doing some laundry and helping me get back in the trail early Friday morning. I had 18.5 miles to go and Smart and Cube mountains to traverse. Both turned out to be tough climbs with boulder fields but I finally made it to the Ore Hill Campsite. I had only seen about four hikers all day. Until I started putting my tent. I heard the giggling as the three Dartmouth (formerly I'm told) gals showed up and proceed to pitch their tent 6 feet from mine. Their conversation was hilarious. Coming from Hanover I had just heard every coed talking exactly like them. I tried to enjoy the humor of it but needed ear plugs to fall asleep. Until about 9:30 pm when the skies opened and it poured in us for about an hour. They may have kept talking but the rain drowned out all other noise. The tent worked great and I stayed dry. Saturday arrived early for me. Up at 3:30 am and packed and out by 4:40 am I had 7 miles to go before even hitting the base of Moosilauk. There was supposed to be a hostel there and there was. I chugged down a few sodas and packed three more to drink on my way up the 4000+ ft climb. This was a critical test of my trail legs. The mountain was very popular that day; people and dogs of all ages and sizes were going up the southern side, which was an ever increasing pitch to the bald summit. My legs did great and the sodas helped. Now to go down. I did not expect much traffic on the extremely steep descent trail. Was I ever wrong. A steady stream of mostly young men and women acted it was no effort at all to scramble up or down the nearly vertical pitch. They were doing it for fun. My mind was working constantly to keep from taking the one misstep that would kill me. I got tired of descending way before the descent was over. The body worked well but the mind was weak. Much of the descent followed a cascading creek down the side. We are talking thousands of feet of drop. Impressive but too scary to spend time watching it. Since I'm writing this I did make it down, and then on to my present home at the Mt Liberty Motel, where I will enjoy a zero day on Sunday while it pours.
Date: 2016-06-10
From: Bretton Woods Lodge

To: Bretton Woods Lidge
Miles today: 0.0

I did meet many hikers this week but the common thread seemed to be how casual and easy the locals here make these mountains appear. It is impressive. Even up on Mt Lafayette, in gale winds and rain, with no visibility, walking a ridge with fig obscuring the drop off on either side, I met a guy without poles in minimum weather gear just strolling south. Just a walk in the park for him. I also met other locals in the huts who were hiking just for fun, ignoring the icy gusty conditions. Enjoying there day hike. Amazing and impressive. If they are going my way they pass me in moments and I never see them again. I will not forget this state and its hikers.
Date: 2016-06-13
From: Lodge

To: Lakes of the Cloud hut
Miles today: 10.0

Tomorrow at 5am I expect to leave the lodge and resume my hike. The next leg should be a 2-3 day one over Mt Washington to Pinkham Notch and a hostel. The first stop should be the hut near the summit but the other stops are not yet determined. The weather will not be ideal; it may be raining most of the first day but it should be the leading edge of a high pressure period which will hopefully stay for both Mt Washington, the Presidentials, and Wildcat. Hopefully it will hold until I get to Gorham in a week. I have scheduled a taxi to get back to the trailhead ( 8 mi), and have committed to the hut with a nonrefundable reservation. I am definitely leaving, even in rain or wind. After being here for 5 nights, there are mixed feelings about leaving. Have my legs lost some of their tone? Probably not. But I'll find out immediately on the first 3000 ft climb. There I almost 5000 total ft of climb the first day. I have depended on my legs thru the Whites and they have not disappointed. They will work tomorrow. Will there be high water? It has rained here for 6 days straight. The is the Saco River to cross almost immediately. Hopefully there is a bridge. It would be extremely irritating to be stopped immediately by rushing water. It has been a mixed blessing waiting to start again. My meds are slowly being depleted. I may need another mail drop before the end. Too early to tell. Each morning I get up I can look at the summit of Washington and see the extreme fog and dark clouds. It is forbidding. The summit weather reports continue to predict snow and ice and winds exceeding 60 mph. Not a pleasant thought, especially after the recent experiences of last week above treeline. Even during the upcoming week the winds are expected to be gale force. It's hard not to worry about making this transit alone. Even though the hut is expected to be nearly full (90 guests), probably very few of these are thru hikers doing the Presidentials the next day. Plus, I usually leave very early. I will be alone. Me and my Gaia gps trail app. There are myriad trails at the summit. Plus, for some reason there are no blazes on the back side of the mountain; due to some defined wilderness area. Could be tricky staying on the trail. I am excited to get back on the trail. I am not excited about getting wet and beat up but that will almost certainly come along with this segment of the hike. I have found that the fear factor of what could happen exceeds the fear of dealing with situations when they occur. When something happens on the mountain I simply deal with it. I know what resources I have and have not spent too much time feeling sorry for myself, up to now at least. There is only one direction to go; forward one step at a time. Even traumatic events fade quickly from my mind after they pass. These blog entries record some of the feelings but almost all thought is directed towards what's ahead. I bet that will also apply to this second half of the Whites.
Date: 2016-06-14
From: bretton woods lodge

To: Lakes of the cloud
Miles today: 10.0

Tuesday I left to go up to the hut just below Mt Washington summit. It was not a nice day, windy cool and raining. But the day had promise because a high pressure front was coming. You couldn't tell by the fog and you couldn't see anything at any of the views along the Webster cliffs trail. All I knew each time I came out of the trees was I was perilously close to the edge of a big drop off. The climb up to the hut was only 10 miles. Normally not a hard day. Today it was for me. I stopped at Mitzpah hut on the way up briefly, just to check summit conditions. It still said clearing. Hard to believe at the time. In fact I ran into two guys who had stopped and decided to return to Mitzpah to wait for better visibility. I kept going. I then met a gal trotting down the mountain. She was one of the crew at Lakes, just out for a stroll. Made me feel better about being out there in the alpine zone in the fog and wind. A few times in the afternoon the cloud I was in blew clear and the valley below magically appeared. I could see the cog railway and the Mt Washington Resort way down there but before I could get a photo the fog returned. This happened several times. Each time it lifted I could also see others on the trail. Lakes of the Clouds holds 90 people and it was supposedly booked solid for the night. Guests can get there via many trails, including the cog railroad but it felt reassuring to see others up there. I finally made the hut and saw the two lakes it's named for. Inside guests and crew were lounging around like it was a hotel. Someone saw a bear cub on the slope. Not me. Scott from Galehead hut was there also except his name was Justin. I came to believe that there is a Scott at each hut, a young lanky bearded kid who is environmentally conscious and could care less when he hears complaints about a lack of meat in the meals. The dinner was vegetarian lasagne. Couldn't believe I struck out again. I had every intention of leaving at 5am for the summit and prepared accordingly. The night was cold but with my ear plugs in I slept ok, even with a full bunkhouse. I fell asleep wondering what the morning would bring.