morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2007-09-09
From: South Arm road

To: South Arm road
Miles today: 0.0

With the weather predicting rain and copious amounts of football and a U.S. Open Tennis final to be watched, it wasn't hard for me to convince myself that a zero day was in order. I really didn't do much all day but watch football and tennis. I did take a trip with Rookie (who has his car here somehow) and the rest of the nobos to Bethel. We went to an outfitter that was quite pricey and eventually went to the local IGA. I only needed a few items since I still had a ginormous amount of food. I did buy a one-pound steak, an onion, and some mushrooms and a half-gallon of ice cream for that night. It was a pretty standard zero day doing nothing at all.
Date: 2007-09-10
From: South Arm road

To: Frye Notch lean-to
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: light rain

I headed over to the P.O. right when it opened this morning only to have yet another disappointment - they sent the wrong box. Gorham forwarded the box I sent from Monson rather than the one I needed. My camera battery has surprisingly held up to this point, but that thing is bound to die soon. I grabbed my long johns out of the box, resealed it, and sent it to Gorham. I was depending on getting a new fuel cannister in my drop, but fortunately Rookie gave one that was 3/4 full. He wouldn't accept any money for it, saying it was trail magic. I eventually packed everything up by 11 and headed toward South Arm road to hitch back. After 20 minutes, a pickup came along and I was hiking by noon. The climb out of South Arm was the toughest part of the day; I have to stop smoking so much when I'm in town. It was kind of foggy throughout the day so there weren't many views. I didn't stop much today because of my late start and I would up rolling into the lean-to as the sun was setting. The three section hikers there made room for me, and after some dinner, I was out like a light.
Date: 2007-09-12
From: Speck Pond lean-to

To: Carlo Col lean-to
Miles today: 9.5

Speck Pond was one windy shelter. It was a damn cold night and an even colder morning. The rain stopped overnight, but the fog was fairly thick at 3,500 feet. Speck Pond is Maine's highest body of water and might well be it's coldest. I couldn't drag myself out of my bag all morning. Nice was in a similar shape and we were still tucked in our bags at 11 a.m. when a nobo couple came rolling through. They had camped on the north end of the notch and had just come up Mahooosic Arm. They informed us the weather wasn't too bad to hike in as the wind was drying everything out. Apparently the shelter was in a bad spot and the wind wasn't nearly as bad on trail. Encouraged by the news, I eventually crawled out of my bag and packed everything up. I hit the trail at 11:45 and scooted the last couple hundred feet up the arm. The descent was steep, but the exposed rock was dry and I had little problem negotiating my way down to the notch. The 1.1 mile long Mahoosic Notch, considered by most to be the toughest mile on trail, was nearly dried out as well. I didn't have a problem with the notch in 2000 and this time around was no different. I had a blast bouncing from rock to rock, using footholds and handholds I knew I would never have been able to use yesterday in the rain. I'm glad I called it an early day. As I was going through, though, my stomach started feeling pretty queasy. I had taken a pretty nasty shit that morning, and combined with my present nauseous feeling, I figured the nasty ass water at Speck must have been tainted. I breezed through the notch and took a 20-minute break at Full Goose shelter before pushing on for Carlo Col. As I was climbing Mt. Success, the last mountain in Maine, it felt like there was a midget in my stomach practicing karate. I was ripping some hellacious farts, and unfortunately as I was ascending the mountain, I went to rip a fart that turned out not to be a fart. I actually stopped walking, tilted my head to the side and said to noone in particular, "I just shit my pants." Unfortunately I was on a rather long bog bridge at the time and there was nowhere I could go to address the situation. Seeing no way out, I just hiked on with shitty shorts for another quarter mile until I was out of the bog. Boy, was that ever pleasant. I went off trail a ways, dug a hole and finished the job. I put my shorts in a ziplock, sacrificed my bandanna for the team, and put that in a ziplock. I double bagged them both and proceeded on my way, cackling at the predicament I was just in. Every fart from that point on was was slightly test-fired before full launch was allowed and I made it to Carlo Col without further incident.The water there was barely flowing, but I dipped in and filled up. An AMC crew came in shortly after me. They were marking the AT corridor boundary lines so the loggers would know when to stop. One of them, an older fellow, offered everyone some irish whiskey so I drank a nightcap before turning in. If anyone needed a drink at that moment, it was me with my shitty drawers.
Date: 2007-09-14
From: U.S. 2/Gorham

To: U.S. 2/Gorham
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

During the night, some random dude showed up and crashed in one of the bunks in the hostel. He didn't have a pack so I don't think he was a hiker, but he didn't bother me and he took off early this morning, so, whatever. Maybe he was a tourist and wanted to save money by sleeping in a bunkhouse, or maybe he was a transient who knew the place existed and how easy it was to walk in and crash. It kind of reminded me of a semester I spent at a branch campus of Penn State when I chose to be "homeless." The campus was located about a mile or two from the A.T. in southern PA, and I spent many a night sleeping in a shelter that was about a quarter mile hike from a road. I used my car as a makeshift closet with a clothes trunk inside and a couple of backpacking stoves as a kitchen. I'd also find ways to stay in some of the campus buildings after they were locked for the night. My favorite spots were the auditorium and the library, and all I'd have to do was dodge whoever was on duty before the place closed. There were classes in each building and one time while I was racked out in the auditorium (sleeping right on stage of course) the curtain opened up while I was packing up my gear. The prof. operating the curtain was speechless with a stunned expression on her face as the curtain opened on me. I calmly finished packing my stuff in front of her and about 20 students, nodded a goodbye and went to my morning class. Another time, a security guard caught me using one of the library computers at the ripe hour of midnight. He asked me what I was doing and I nonchalantly told him I was writing an English paper, which was a half-truth. I was also gambling online; I'm quite the multi-tasker. I wound up having a pleasant conversation with the state police that night, and having another pleasant conversation with the woman in charge of Student Affairs who recommended a homeless shelter in nearby Waynesboro. I still chuckle when I think about that semester.After packing up at Hiker's Paradise, I strolled down to the hotel Ragnar and Highlife were staying at and mentioned splitting a room with them. They said Spyder was about to roll in so we got a room with two double beds and my zero day was well under way. I caught the public transportation up to Wal-Mart for some supplies which included a pair of womens Secret Treasure brand fuzzy flip-flops to use as camp shoes and a sippy cup for tea. Eyebrow raising purchases to say the least, but incredibly, Wal-Mart had no other cheap plastic cups that I saw would work for tea, and their selection of flip-flops was virtually non-existent - it not being the season and all. Those flip-flops sure were comfortable, though, so screw what they look like. I showed my purchases to Highlife on the trolley back to the motel and he laughed his ass off. Ragnar did the same and Spyder had a similar reaction when they saw what I had bought. Unfortunately, I spilled half a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon on one of my flip-flops during the night and my new trailname Fuzzy Beerfoot was born.
Date: 2007-09-15
From: U.S. 2/Gorham

To: U.S. 2/Gorham
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

It was raining in the morning so it wasn't hard for one zero to turn into two. The flip-flop crew was waiting for Otter to roll in so we rented the same room and did pretty much the same thing as the previous day - watch t.v., drink beer, smoke cigarettes, and eat copious amounts of food that would make an average person throw up, shit their pants, or both at the same time. Ah, what a great day. But Otter didn't show up. Spyder called him on his cell and he said he didn't hike too far in the rain and was camped at Carlo Col shelter, 17 miles from Gorham. He'll be lucky if he makes it to Gorham tomorrow.
Date: 2007-09-16
From: U.S. 2/Gorham

To: U.S. 2/Gorham
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Yea, I kind of get sucked into towns rather easily and Sunday turned into another zero day. When I hiked most of the P.C.T. in 2004 during an academic summer, I took over 22 zero days in the less than 3.5 months I was on trail. It just so happened that when I was hiking then I tended to grind out 30-35 mile days. I wound up 150 miles short of finishing before my time ran out, but those zeros were great. I haven't been doing near that mileage out here so the zeros are a little more costly in terms of finishing before the heart of winter is concerned.I had planned on hiking out today, but Spyder said he didn't feel like going anywhere and since it was Sunday with a full schedule of football to be watched, we split a room. Ragnar and Highlife hung out for a while before hitting the trail at 5 p.m. to hike a daunting 2 miles to the next shelter. Spyder and I bought some more beer and sat around drinking and watching the games all day and night. Funny how we thru-hikers like to get to the wild to "get away from it all" and the first thing we do when we get to a town is cram as much "civilization" into ourselves as we can. It makes me question my own motivations for hiking long-distance trails. Certainly part of my desire to hike is to get away from society for a period of time, but the bigger reason is that I just like everything about hiking. The good and the bad. It's good to relax in town, but these have been three seriously unproductive days and I'm definately getting back on trail tomorrow.
Date: 2007-09-19
From: Carter notch hut

To: N.H. 16/Gorham
Miles today: 5.9
Weather: clear sky

Before the day was underway, I had a feeling I might wind up back at a motel room. Spyder had to hitch into Gorham to resupply and Ragnar was going to go with him to pick up a few supplies. Highlife and I had maildrops at the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center and were going to pick those up and either hitch into town for some food or get some food at the visitor center and wait for Spyder and Ragnar. Things didn¢t exactly go as planned.After leaving the hut in the morning, I cruised the three miles to Wildcat peak D where Spyder was waiting to catch the gondola down the mountain. Washington is damn near within spitting distance of Wildcat and it looked like it would be a perfect day on the summit. There wasn¢t a cloud in the sky and there was no haze. Hopefully that¢s the case when I¢m on the summit. Ragnar and Highlife showed up within 10 minutes and we all took the gondola down to Rte. 16. When I thru-hiked in 2000 I was a purist, but when I decided to hike this year I was going to take a few blue blazes and a gondola ride seemed like a good place to start. Highlife and I crossed the road and starting hitching for a ride up to the visitor center while Ragnar and Spyder tried their luck into town. They got a ride within five minutes while car after car passed Highlife and me on the other side of the road. After 20 minutes with no luck, we said screw it, crossed the road, and started hitching the other way. Sure enough, we caught a ride within five minutes. Go figure.Our hitch let us off at Crabby Jacks and we caught the tail end of the lunch buffet, soon gorging ourselves. What a mistake ¢ the tail end of a lunch buffet, especially a Mexican food lunch buffet, is a bad idea. The food had must have been sitting out for quite some time and we quickly felt our stomachs flipping around. We staggered over to a spot in the grass outside the restaurant when I noticed we were right next to the Royalty Inn. I had read in a register that a bunch of nobos had stayed there for $60 with like eight people and I told Highlife as much. He was instantly curious and went inside to inquire about a price for the evening. Sure enough, the $60 figure was the rate for hikers. We went and sat on a bench outside the Gorham Congregational Church across the street (the only shady spot within reasonable distance) and waited for Spyder and Ragnar, the entire time slowly convincing ourselves staying in town another night was a good idea.It didn¢t take much to convince Spyder and Ragnar and we were soon in another hotel room cleaning up and putting our brains to rot with some t.v. We decided to get an early start and hike the nearly 15 miles from the visitor center in Pinkham Notch to Lakes of the Clouds hut to take advantage of what was supposed to be another clear day on Washington.
Date: 2007-09-21
From: Lakes of the Clouds hut

To: Lakes of the Clouds hut
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Spyder and I thought about hiking a meager 4.8 miles to Mizpah Spring hut, but since both of us felt like two tons of shit after the previous day, we decided to zero right there at Lakes. We chilled out, hung our stuff to dry (the condensation was quite bad overnight) and made a packless trip back up to Washington for some food. We each ordered an entire pizza. Spyder ate half of his and scooted back down the mountain with the other half because he was worried about all of the gear he left at Lakes. It was a pretty busy place with all of the day hikers around, but I didn't think anyone would mess with anything. I ate five slices of my pizza and a giant chocolate whoopie pie. Mmmm whoopie pies - pure sugary deliciousness. I wrapped up my other three slices in my whoopie pie wrapper, refilled my water, and headed back down to the hut. Instead of getting hit with some more overnight dew, we set up our tents by one of the lakes and relaxed for the day. Ragnar and Highlife showed up around 6:30, having called it a day at Madison Spring hut yesterday. Ragnar pitched his tent near ours but Highlife elected to take his chances in the dungeon, the hut's emergency "basement" that held six bunks. The bunks were just slabs of wood to sleep on but the place was just too damn cold for my liking. Today marks the completion of one month on trail for me. 335 miles in a month isn't quite what I expected to be doing, but I'm having a great time out here and I'm confident once I hit Vermont, the mileage will increase. I've also taken six zero days so my average hiking day is about 13.5 miles. I may or may not hit my goal of finishing before Christmas, only time will tell.
Date: 2007-09-22
From: Lakes of the Clouds hut

To: .5 beyond Ethan Pond
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: fog

The condensation at Lakes is quite a pain in the ass. i woke up at about 8 and popped my head out of my tent to find myself in a cloud. Eventually the cloud clover started to burn off and we all hung our stuff around to dry. My bag wasn't too wet since my rainfly took all of the condensation and once it was reasonably dry, I packed up and hit the trail at 10. The hike to Mizpah Springs hut was all above treeline and fairly level - only a couple of mild climbs and a small drop to the hut. The clouds rolled in and out and the wind picked up, certainly a change of pace from the past week but still nothing to complain about. I rolled into the hut at noon, sat down and drank two quarts of water. Spyder showed up 15 minutes later and Ragnar and Highlife were 15 minutes behind Spyder. We all ordered a bottomless bowl of soup for a two bucks and went to town on some sort of barley based soup. After four bowls and two candy bars, I packed up and followed the flip-flop crew out to the trail. They all said they were taking a side trail into the visitor center at Crawford Notch to pick up some food. Highlife said he was going to check into a motel a few miles up the road from there. Ragnar and Spyder weren't sure about where they wanted to stay that night but I figured once they hit civilization, they would opt for a motel room. As they turned right down the side trail, I stood by the split for a few minutes weighing my options. Eventually I decided not to follow them and headed down the A.T. They're a fun group of guys to hike with, but I really do need to make some miles some time and I can't see that happening hiking with them.I knocked out the six miles over Mt. Jackson and Mt. Webster and down the steep ass Webster Cliffs fairly quickly. I ignored the urge to hitch into town when I got to U.S. 302 and proceeded up the hill toward Ethan Pond campsite. As I drew near, i could hear all sorts of activity around the site and realized it was a Saturday and that my chances of finding a spot in the shelter were pretty slim. My fears were soon realized because as I approached the shelter I could hear sounds of young boys coming from within and an adult with a Philmont shirt who I assumed was a scoutmaster came out and informed me there was probably one last place I could set up my tent on a platform. I took that as a hint that he didn't really want me setting up in the shelter even though there was probably room. With the commotion of a scout troop, I didn't feel like trying to find a spot in the shelter anyway, so I just used the privy, filled up my water, and headed down the trail. About a half-mile past the shelter I found a small animal trail that crossed the outlet of the pond and set up my tent in a reasonably flat spot. I cooked dinner as darkness fell, rolled a cigarette and settled in for the night with mixed feelings about not following the flip-flop crew into town.
Date: 2007-09-23
From: .5 beyond Ethan Pond

To: Galehead hut
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: clear sky

There were a few rain drops overnight, but the skies pretty much cleared up by morning. I slept in until 9:30 and took my sweet time packing up since I knew I was only hiking 11 miles to Galehead hut. As I was rooting through my foodbag, I noticed I was missing two liptons and a 1-pound bag of gorp. Either I left them somewhere or someone ganked them when I left my shit unattended at Lakes of the Clouds. Oh well, I have enough food to get to Franconia Notch for a resupply in Lincoln tomorrow.i finally hit the trail at 10:45 to another beautiful day. It was about 10 degrees cooler than the previous week and the wind was blowing steadily, but the skies were once again crystal clear and I couldn't help think how lucky I've been weather-wise the entire time I've been in New Hampshire. The trail was nice and smooth with a nice gentle downhill grade for the entire four miles to Zealand Falls hut. It was a madhouse when I rolled into that place. Poeople, kids, and dogs were all over the place. It was 12:30 and most of the people were eating lunch inside or out. I waited for the inside to clear out a bit and then went in for my $2 bottomless bowl of soup. I limited myself to three bowls and headed up the falls a bit to get away from the zoo. I chilled up on a rock out of sight smoking a cigarette and just watched the traffic moving back and forth along the trail. I'm glad it's Sunday which means the trail should thin out in the next couple of days. These areas get hit hard with dayhikers and weekenders and I really can't say I blame the AMC for charging at eveery site. I know I won't spend a dime while I'm out here, but I'm also content with camping in out of the way spots.I soon packed up and headed out to hike the 7 miles to Galehead, stopping once on Zeacliff to admire the view and once more onthe way up one of the twin peaks for some food. I would have lingered on North Spur, but the wind must have been pushing 50 mph and I was too cold to stop. Besides, I could see the hut in the distance and wanted to get there at a reasonable time to secure a work-for-stay. I needn't have worried; the place was bare. When I got there, I found out only six people were staying there, none of them thru-hikers. I got to eat some stroganoff, rice, some sort of Mexican corn, and a bowl of soup. I probably could have finished the leftovers but didn't want to overdo it. I capped off the night by scrubbing some pots and pans with steel wool for an hour or two before turning in. I'm surprisingly fairly beat for a relatively short day, and I'm looking forward to a shower and some laundry in Lincoln tomorrow. A bunch of nobos have been talking about a new, free hostel called Chet's Place in Lincoln and I'm definately going to have to check it out.
Date: 2007-09-28
From: U.S. 3/Lincoln

To: Kinsman Pond Campsite
Miles today: 4.8
Weather: broken clouds

I finally broke out of Chet's place in the afternoon with Spyder. Ragnar had left earlier in the day and we figured we would catch him sometime during the day. Surprisingly, it was a really easy hitch out of town; the first pickup truck out of town picked us up. We soon caught up to Ragnar who had to walk pretty much the whole way out of town. We all rendezvoused at Kinsman Pond Campsite for the night. Rangar had enough for the day after walking damn near 5 miles out of town and Spyder and I had such a late start that we figured Kinsman Pond was a good spot. Ragnar said he had sprained his ankle and didn't think that he could pull big miles. We were all looking to try to catch Highlife before he reached Hanover and flew home. We figured he was about 2-3 days ahead of us and we would need to push hard to catch him by Hanover. Spyder and I were also looking to catch Wicked because he had mentioned the possibility of hitching up to Canada to catch the northern end of the long trail. I had hiked the LT in 2005 and it sounded like a solid plan to pursue this year. Why not tack on another 160 miles on an already great trip?We took a blue blaze trail into Kinsman Pond campsite that cut off about a half-mile on the day. It wasn't bad hiking and the shelter at the campsite was under construction when I rolled into it. Spyder was already there and we said fuck the signs that said the place was going to be complete in a few days and we set up camp. Ragnar rolled in about a half hour later, having missed the blue-blaze and having to walk the A.T. the whole way. It was a good day and I'm looking forward to getting the hell out of New Hampshire and into Vermont.
Date: 2007-03-16
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I decided rather suddenly this past week that I am going to attempt a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. I have just over two weeks to plan, as I will be starting on April 1st. My fiance, Carter, thru-hiked the AT in 2003, under the trail-name of Pile Up. We attempted a thru-hike of the PCT last summer, but ran out of money and got off the trail after 1000 miles, at Sonora Pass. Now, since I'm starting grad school in the fall but not doing much at the moment, and since we're living a mere 20 miles from the AT in Virginia, it's an excellent time for me to try again, this time on my own.