morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-08-29
From: NH, Kinsman Notch at NH 112, 1799.7

To: NH, Franconia Notch at US 3, 1816.0
Miles today: 16.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Last night, we stayed at "The Notch" hostel. We were delighted to see a few familiar faces, including Dancing Moose, who now calls himself Mosse Dancer. We last saw him in Tenessee just before Devils Fork. He was going really fast and seemed determined to reach Katadyn early. He met a girl on the trail the same day we last saw him. He seems content with a slower pace now and is still hiking with her. They call this pink blazing. There may be a correlation. The march up from Kinsman notch was like stair master on steroids. No switchbacks at all, just a stone path vaguely resembling stairs. After a couple mile repute, the stairs returned with a vengeance, taking us to the top of Mt Wolf. After making our way down, we traversed a lowland that had a beautiful pond. Unfortunately, views were hard to enjoy sitting for lack of scenic overlooks. We settled for eating lunch under some power lines with a view of a valley and lake. On the way up to Kinsman mt., the trail followed beautiful waterfalls during the initial ascent. The climb up seemed to go on forever, but the reward was worth it. A hiker at breakfast this morning complained that it was like going up a really steep broken escalator. We agree with their assessment. Thankfully, we are not carrying our packs yet. The Notch offers slackpacking very cheaply. Unfortunately, we missed our pickup because we didn't realize there was a .7 mile sidetrail to the parking not lot and spent too much time on the mountain. Thankfully, there wee some bikers in the parking lot that graciously agreed to ferry us back to the Hostel.As we hiked, we chewed on some morsels of spiritual food. Lately, it has been our custom to read a chapter from the book of Proverbs each day. Since there are 31 chapters, it allows you to do the whole book each month. Today we talked about proverbs 29 as we hiked. Speaking of the 29th, today is our 6 monthiversarry. Time flies! especially, when you are with the right one. Poor planning almost led to staying a night in a bunkhouse style hostel. By the crisis was averted and we stayed in a hiker friendly hotel called mount Liberty lodging that even offers hikers free shuttles to the trail.
Date: 2016-08-31
From: NH, Franconia Notch at US 3, 1816.0

To: NH, Garfield Shelter, 1826.3
Miles today: 10.3
Weather: few clouds

This morning, after a continental hiker box breakfast at the hotel (abandoned oatmeal packets), the owner of mount Liberty lodging drove us to Franconia notch and we once again put on our hiking backpacks. We climbed a fairly steep trail for a couple hours in light rain before having lunch at Liberty springs campground, which is a few miles in. We then continued our climb to Mt Lafayette. This must be the most beautiful place on the Appalachian Trail yet! The approach is a ridge above tree line with dropoffs a thousand feet down on both sides that slowly makes its way to the peak while allowing for 360 views. The wind was blowing really strong. Just before we reached the top, the sun began to pierce through the overcast day, offering spectacular lighting.   The top was beautiful, and just a few minutes after we started our descent, thick dark clouds rolled in and concealed the top.As we continued to hike, we decided to push for the garfield shelter 3 miles away. These are the kind of miles you really feel like you earned. Just a small bump on the map, the hike up and down Mt Garfield, which poked its head above tree line, was very difficult way to end our first day back on the trail. On our way up, we met a hiker who was exhausted, out of water, and had a hurting knee. We felt bad that he was camping for the night with know water and gave him a litre. His name was Tao. We made it to the top just as it was getting dark, but now didn't have water to make dinner. We quickly did a night hike down to the Garfield camping area which had water. We actually stayed in the shelter, which was a first for us. It was fairly empty because most thruhikers would rather "stealth camp" (camp off the trail)!then pay the $10 fee imposed by the AMC to camp at their maintained backcountry facilities. Happy to report there were no mice bothering us. We shared the shelter with Conor, Tony, and Chris, locals enjoying the mountains. They were farmers and hiked in with fresh vegetables and meat. After 3 days without refrigeration, we were afraid to try their bacon and sausage filled dishes, even though the carrots, onions, and potatoes looked great.
Date: 2016-09-01
From: NH, Garfield Shelter, 1826.3

To: NH, Ethan Pond Shelter, 1840.8
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: clear sky

Today we left the Garfield shelter at 9AM with hopes of reaching he galehead hut, about 3 miles ahead, for breakfast. Some faster thru hikers had beat us there and ate it all, so instead we ate lunch, bowls of homemade soup. Between us, we ate 5 bowls of lentil soup and one bowl of potato dill. We are ready to hike! The white mountains have a series of huts with little cafes and hotel rooms in the backcountry that are only accessible by hiking. They serve full meals to their guests, and offer leftovers and soup to hikers. Future family vacations? It is so beautiful here!From the hut, there was a 3/4 mile steep climb to south twin peak, and from there, the rest of the day was generally downhill. The end of the day was the flattest 5 miles we have seen in a long time. About 2 miles were a boardwalk through a swamp. When we reached our destination, we gladly slept in the shelter, which had room for us.On the hike, we chatted awhile with Toa, the hiker who we had given water two yesterday. He has an interesting story. He walked out of seminary and left following the Lord to seek truth elsewhere and has been wandering ever since, synthesizing his own religion out of the many sacred texts of the world. He heard a quote that he adapted as his motto. The original quote was "Follow those who seek the truth and run from those who have found it." He modified it to say "Join in the procession with those who seek the truth, and love all the more adamantly those who claim to have found it." Stephen R. Burchett (Tao). There are lots of seekers on the trail, unfortunately we concluded after lots of conversation that he was not one of them. He is a lonely wanderer who has created his own way, speaking of love, while sporting a kilt instead of a robe, his modern monk attire.
Date: 2016-09-02
From: NH, Ethan Pond Shelter, 1840.8

To: NH, dungeon at the Lake of the clouds hut, 1854.8
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Staying in a shelter made our morning activities take less time because we didn't have to hassle with a tent. We were on the trail before 8AM. The first part of our hike was a 3 mile descent to a road crossing. This was the only easy part of our day. As we made our way down to notch, we stopped for water. As Sherpa filtered the spring water, a friendly chipmunk was happy to help himself to a few nuts from our packs. Our goal today was to reach "lake of the clouds hut". They charge around $100 per person for guests, but allow a small number of thruhikers to stay free in a small area with 6 bunks known as the dungeon. Even with our early start, there were 4 hikers ahead of us. On top of that, we ran into Thor, who was waiting at the bottom for Rocket, who had stopped to pick blueberries. They are very fast, and we didnt have much of a chance of reaching the shelter before them, but we held out hope. Over the next three miles, we climbed right back up to the elevation that was lost over the previous 3 miles, reaching a steep area called the Webster cliffs. We then scrambled up rocks for about a mile before having a long snack with a phenomenal lookout at the top of the cliffs. We had gotten some good news along the way. We passed 2 of the 4 hikers that were ahead of us and learned that they were stopping before the lake of the clouds hut. In addition, we were told that there are 4 work for stay spots also, meaning there is room for 10 total hikers. We optimistically pushed forward.We reached the mizpah hut 3 miles further (about nine miles total) around 3:30pm and bought lunch. They were serving southwestern pork and bean soup and creamy potato beef soup with the best corn bread we ever had. We also had some chocolate cake. Yum! We chatted a bit with a few other thru hikers. One guy was asking to help in the kitchen in exchange for food. He said, jokingly I may look homeless but I'm not! Another of them named Bailey said "we aren't homeless, we are home free!" quoting her brother. We liked the quote. Right before we left, Tao showed up and said to Porter, you are always smiling. Her reply was "there is always a reason to smile".We then pushed on up the last 5 miles to the lake of the clouds hut. We took our time and enjoyed the views, catching sunset as we got to the hut. It felt like another planet with incredible views. When we reached the hut, there were tons of thruhikers, but they had all opted to do a work for stay. We were the only thru hikers who chose the dungeon, which we shared with a couple section hikers. It was fun seeing Thor and Rocket here as well. We got a nice bowl of chili and pulled pork for dinner from one of the workers. We made a point to give her a good tip for taking care of us. She was so caught off guard, she said, "wow! I've never been tipped by a thruhiker before!"
Date: 2016-09-03
From: NH, dungeon at the Lake of the clouds hut, 1854.8

To: NH, Dolly Copp Campground, 1865.5
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: clear sky

Today, we woke up in "the dungeon." The experience was about what you would expect for a place with that name. It was dank, stale, and cramped. They have six plywood platforms for placing your sleeping bag and sleeping pad on. This presented a challenge for us because we have one double sleeping bag. Sherpa used a wool blanket that was left in there by the staff. Two hikers doing the presidential traverse came in as well. One was bragadocious and told of how he used the room to escape a blizzard while doing ice climbing nearby. He also was proud that he got eye infections from leaving his contacts in overnight frequently and tried to convince his friend to do the same. The friend wasn't buying it. They had some leftover breakfast at the hut which sustained us up Mt. Washington. There really could not have been better weather for the hike. It was crystal clear with no winds. We had a leisurely break at the summit, eating snack, writing postcards, using our phones, etc. The top of mt Washington was another high pointer in the bag for us, the highest point in New Hampshire.The descent really took a lot out of us. The trail was basically a rock scramble all the way to the bottom. Along the way, there was a group from a university doing research. They asked if we felt like it was too crowded and recorded our answers. We told them we were happy lots of people were using the parks. They asked during a busy holiday weekend which was undoubtably skewing their answers. We stopped for a snack at Madison springs hut, which is the last hut before getting to the road. They gave us chicken Parmesan for free to strengthen us for the rest of our hike. We were so grateful. We had originally wanted to get to the Pinkham notch (the road) by dusk, but ran out of light and ended up camping on the way down. There is a AMC maintained campground called Osgood that we planned to camp in. When we got there, it was completely full with weekenders enjoying Labor Day holiday. We sat down for dinner anyways and then Continued in the dark. Our guide book gave us no hope, but we prayed that God would bring us to a campsite.   Thankfully, after about a half mile, we came to Dolly Copp, a campground that was not on our map. They even had a bear box for food storage. God is so good to us! We camped next to Crusher, a younger thruhiker who really doesn't like to be in the woods by himself at night. Can't blame him.
Date: 2016-09-04
From: NH, Dolly Copp Campground, 1865.5

To: NH, Carter Notch Hut stealth site, 1875.6
Miles today: 10.1
Weather: clear sky

After tearing down our tent, we had a nice breakfast before hiking down to the notch. We were coveting a hamburger so bad and were disappointed when we were informed that the grill was shut down because they did not have enough staff today. They then proceeded to go in the kitchen and make themselves lunches. We later found out that they were very unfriendly to some of our fellow thruhikers. They had a sign out that said ask about how to get a free lunch. When our friends inquired, the worker instead of explaining that it came with a membership, went on to complain about thruhikers being on an endless vacation. She was very grouchy around us too so it wasn't really a surprise. It was so out of place for the AMC out here. Everyone has been so kind to us, especially at the huts. It felt like we were gipped! We had really wanted to hitch in to town and find a church, but it took us too long to get to the notch from where we camped and church would have been over.We took our time climbing out of the notch up wildcat ridge because we were still tired from yesterday. After a long break we found our steam and easily made it up to the top, where there was a gondola. We resisted the temptation to ride it down and pressed on to the next hut which was a three mile ridge walk thru trees.The trail then descended to a hut. The huts allow works for stay options to thru hikers, including leftover dinner and breakfasts from the paying guests. We were hoping to do this but faster hikers beat us there and took up all the slots. The hut workers were really nice about it and gave us food anyways. We backtracked a third of a mile to a really nice stealth site we had passed and setup camp.
Date: 2016-09-05
From: NH, Carter Notch Hut stealth site, 1875.6

To: NH, US2, hikers paradise hostel, 1890.8
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: few clouds

After waking up at our stealth site, we headed back to the nearby hut. They gave us breakfast, which included eggs, oatmeal, and pancakes. Super nice group. We helped sweep the floors, filled our water bottles and said goodbye to our last hut.The hike this morning was not bad at all. Weather was perfect and carter dome had great views of Mt. Washington. We feel so blessed to have had such good weather through the white mountains. Really the whole experience has been very positive thru New Hampshire. The only unnecessary challenge was trying to stay on the trail. Here we Join the chorus of hikers lamenting the lack of white blazes in New Hampshire. Many of the trails that the Appalachian trail tags along with predate the AT and have their own rich history which is why following the AT markings sometimes felt like chasing an afterthought. We leap frogged with Captain Planet today several times. He had a really good analogy for the trail. He said that hiking the trail was kind of like eating a meal. The beginning, Georgia thru Virginia is like the meat and potatoes. The middle section including Pennsylvania is like the vegetables. The Northeast is like dessert! It is so beautiful out here. We met 3 southbounders today, which is what spurred the conversation. Starting at Katadyn is like eating dessert before your meal, you haven't earned it yet, and what's left isn't going to compare...Porter, having now gone 6 full days without a shower, found a burst of energy. Sherpa did his best to keep up as they flew the remaining 8 miles over Mt Moriah and down to US2. We stayed at hikers paradise because white mountain lodge, the popular hostel with great reviews, was full. The place we stayed definitely was not paradise, with elderly owners looking to sell and barely keeping it going. The shower was a letdown because there was no shampoo. The best part was grabbing dinner at a delicious wood fired pizza restaurant. Just as we got there, Thor and Rocket were finishing supper. It was nice to see them one more time, although they are so fast we expect it was farewell.
Date: 2016-09-07
From: NH, stealth site near wockett ledge, 1899.3

To: ME, Carlo Col Shelter, 1907.8 
Miles today: 8.5
Weather: clear sky

We woke up on a cliff to a beautfiful view. Cranberry came while we were about to have breakfast and said good morning. Cranberry is a Swiss hiker we have been passing on and off for about a week that Porter has really taken a liking to. Maybe if we go to Switzerland some day we will visit her. We started our hike still thirsty from the day before. It seems like the options for water are either dust from dry streams or pond runoff which is not very clear. We filled up on green water but headed over to gentian pond shelter to see if there were moose and clear water. We found neither. On the way, we made it to Maine! It was a journey getting here but the big thing is we made it! Maine gives us a nice welcome and everyone else a kind farewell. The first mile was much easier than the one in New Hampshire leading up to the border. Unfortunately, the terrain was still very difficult. The trail has been getting more beautiful lately, as leaves have begun changing colors.As we continued hiking, we saw Goat gas again. He is a hiker that we first met in the smokies. We really were impressed at the time with his commitment. He is a scuba diving master and retired firefighter whose body has been abused by his past. He is now carrying his pack despite a bad back and makes very slow progress of a few miles a day. He started in January and flip flopped at macafee knob in Virginia. He hasn't quite hit a thousand miles yet but hopes to finish this year. We were glad he made it through the Mahoosic mile safely and that he was still pressing on.We decided to call it early because yesterday really wasn't as restful as we hoped. We stopped at Carlo Col shelter early and got clean water and a good nights rest. At the shelter, we chatted with "Fine line", a young Southbounder girl. She updated us that Polar bear and Odiga, the two travel nurses flip flopped and are already past us on their journey south. We were disappointed because we were really hoping to run into them one more time. We also shared the shelter with cranberry.
Date: 2016-09-08
From: ME, Carlo Col Shelter, 1907.8 

To: ME, Speck Pond Shelter, 1917.3 
Miles today: 9.5
Weather: few clouds

This morning, we woke up feeling refreshed. It is amazing how good you feel when you've had a good nights sleep and lots of water. Our morning hike included summitting 3 mountains before lunch. The trail here requires arms, legs, and often a dirty butt. There are steep sections that are much easier to climb then descend. Not sure what grade of mountaineering this is, but it definitely requires more than just feet. The trail is following something called the Mahoosic trail, which seems to be much more difficult than the rest of the trail. Glad we are going northbound instead of southbound. It seems like the majority of the steep parts are on the way up for us and there are ladders on some of the ways down. The big thing today was the Mahoosic notch. Touted as the most difficult mile on the trail, it is basically a rock scramble over boulders. We took about an hour and a half to pass through it. We put our trekking poles away. There was only one place where we took our packs off to squeeze through something. It was actually quite a bit of fun. We got a few scrapes, but the real tragedy was that the bottom of Sherpa's pack got a small hole due to scraping on the rocks. Definitely could have moved quickly without packs. We really enjoyed it, but suppose if we came back in our sixties to do this section, we would probably think it was really difficult. We had heard so many stories about the section. One person told us of 100 foot crevasses that you could fall into that were filled with lost trekking poles. We never saw anything like that...The Mahoosic arm, which immediately follows the notch, is a very steep climb out of the notch. It was no joke either. Very, very steep. After finishing both of them, we were exhausted and stopped at a nearby shelter. We were the only ones in the shelter because it is a pay shelter and thruhikers like to save money by camping in the woods. We were happy to have it to ourselves with a bear box and the cleanest privy on the whole trail a stones throw away. One hiker put an entry in the log book at the shelter, calling them the "Mahoosic crotch and armpit" to let everyone know what they thought about it.
Date: 2016-09-09
From: ME, Speck Pond Shelter, 1917.3 

To: ME, East B Hill Road, 1932.2, "The Cabin"
Miles today: 14.9
Weather: overcast clouds

This morning, after sleeping in the shelter alone, we got breakfast ready and prepared for an easy day. The clouds were low so we had no views from old speck, the first mountain we climbed. Then after hiking 4 miles to a road crossing, we had the folks at the Cabin hostel in Andover, ME pick up our packs so we could slackpack the next 10 miles without carrying the weight.Before leaving the campsite, we chatted with Allison, the AMC shelter host, while eating our breakfast and learned that she worked teaching English in Peru before this season of being a shelter host. When asked what she is going to do next, she answered that perhaps she'll work at a ski resort or go get her EMT certification so she can be a ski patrol. At the bottom, "Hopper", a former thruhiker met us from the cabin to pick up our packs, and brought us Popsicles. Porter has been craving Popsicles for weeks and was very excited! Thankfully, the clouds lifted and the rest of the day was beautiful. The hike took us over bald pate, a mountain with spectacular views because it had no trees. It was a rock slab that we hiked up. We were thankful that it was not wet.When we finished, the cabin picked us up and brought us back to their hostel. They cooked hamburgers for dinner. Sherpa had been craving burgers for the last week and was thrilled. We had arranged for private accommodations. The family that runs this hostel, honey and bear, are a really sweet couple in their 80s. They have set up a bunk room downstairs and about 6 pop up campers in their yard. The camper we were supposed to stay in had a bunch of mice move in right before us! One dropped into our pillow as another climbed into the bedding. The couple relocated us to the bunkhouse and set traps immediately. It did make for an exciting evening. After we were in bed, an older hiker from Switzerland named Cranberry showed up. We had been seeing her on an off the last week and were wondering how she would fair across the Mahoosic mile. She came in with her shirt and pants covered in blood. Apparently she had fallen and hit her head and then bled a lot. She seemed to be alright after getting cleaned up.