morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2009-07-27
From: Glen Anderson Shelter

To: Upper Goose Pond Cabin, MA
Miles today: 223.2
Weather: clear sky

Yikes, I've skipped two full weeks of journal entries! Rest assured, I'm not dead. Things are actually moving along quite well, all things considered. I think we may have passed through a bit of "3/4ers done doldrums", but a mental-health break in town and a change in planning strategies seems to have helped cure that.The three of us are still moving along on pace to our September 5th deadline, and all three families have their travel plans in place.Let's see, any other news... Physically I'm holding together, for now. Got a look at myself in a hotel bathroom mirror the other day and was shocked by how skinny I looked. We haven't passed a reliable scale in a while, but I'll post an update when I can. The feet, ankles, knees, etc are all doing their jobs without complaint, for the most part. A few days ago I recieved my most serious injury to date, and even it wasn't too bad: I fell, sliding my palm down a rock face and ended up with a series of parallel scratches down the palm. Kinda looks like I got high-five'd by a raccoon. It's annoying, due to it's location, but not serious.If you haven't looked recently, there's more pictures posted at the link below.And I promise I'll be more diligent about the updates.
Date: 2009-07-28
From: Upper Goose Pond Cabin, MA

To: Dalton, MA
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: clear sky

It's late, so this will have to be a brief one. We're staying at trail angel Tom Levardi's house here in Dalton. We rolled into town about 8, got showers, dinner, and then hung out at the local tavern for a bit. Tomorrow it's off to walmart for resupply.
Date: 2009-07-29
From: Dalton, MA

To: Chesire, MA
Miles today: 8.9

Shorter mileage day today than we had planned, but the town errands took longer than expected this morning (as always) and we didn't get hiking until after 2 pm. We hiked most of the miles here to Chesire in a thunderstorm. The forecast calls for severe storms overnight so we are making use of the kindness of the folks at St. Mary's church here and sleeping in their parish hall tonight. We may have only hiked half a day, but I'm exhausted. Dry clothes, some pizza, and into bed.
Date: 2009-07-30
From: Chesire, MA

To: Sherman Brook Campsite
Miles today: 16.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Mount Greylock, the highest point in Mass., was the big accomplishment for today. We even lucked out and had nice weather for the climb. Pickle and I got to the top around 1:30 and stopped for a lunch break at the lodge cafe.We're camped a couple of miles past the road crossing to North Adams. Snarky rolled in around 9pm with word that Skunk had pulled up short today and ducked into North Adams to get a hotel room for the night. Not sure what's up.
Date: 2009-07-31
From: Sherman Brook Campsite

To: Bennington, VT
Miles today: 16.6
Weather: moderate rain

Happy Birthday to Pickle! As a gift she got to hike into our 11th state! Woohoo! As a downside, we got to hike all day in the pouring rain. It started raining around 9, and didn't stop until after 5. The trail was more stream than footpath, complete with waterfalls where rock steps used to be. Where it wasn't flowing water the trail was mud covered, in places shin-deep. In conditions like that you just give up on avoiding the slop and resign yourself to just plunging straight through.We decided that after a day like today that we deserved a motel room. There's a free trail-angel hostel here in Bennington, but we opted for a run-down motel on the edge of town. We certainly don't need fancy accomodations, but having the room to spread everything out to dry is worth the money. Pickle and I split a large pizza for dinner since there's still no sign or word from Skunk. But on the plus side, having just the two of us here means that everyone gets a great big bed to themselves. We rolled in too late to get any town errands done, so the resupply and laundry will have to get done tomorrow morning before we hike out.
Date: 2009-08-02
From: Goddard Shelter

To: Stratton Pond Shelter
Miles today: 19.3
Weather: light rain

Had a good hiking day today. We got rained on, of course, but still made decent time. We even got treated to some excellent trail magic courtesy of Green Lantern and Short Job. Sandwiches, soda's, cookies, fruit, even chips & dip! And perhaps best of all: a big tent to get out of the rain for a bit. Big thanks to them for coming out on a cruddy day to spread some kindness to fellow hikers.I think we're headed into town tomorrow for resupply. Haven't decided yet if we'll stay overnight there or move on a bit.
Date: 2009-08-03
From: Stratton Pond Shelter

To: Bromley Shelter
Miles today: 12.7
Weather: few clouds

Rest easy faithful readers, the Skunk Ape has rejoined us. He had to do three 20+ mile days to make up for his zero at North Adams to catch us. But......the reunion is destined to be short lived, I'm afraid. Pickle and I are pushing back our finish date by a week, to September 12th. The realities of us doing 16+ mile days, everyday, from now through the end has turned out to be a bit more than my body could handle. In the first half of the trail we took 15 zero's. To make the September 5th deadline we would have realistically have been looking at taking 2 zero's, the ones we already took back at Pickle's house. We just haven't been able to string together enough big mileage days to earn more. And those zero's were already 450 miles ago; we'd end up doing 960 miles without a day off.So, for physical and mental health reasons, the date's been pushed back. The downside is that Skunk doesn't need the slowdown, and it's much more difficult for his family to reschedule their travel plans, so he's going to leave us behind eventually. For at least the next few days we'll be hiking as a trio again though.Today's actual hiking was uneventful. We ducked into Manchester Center for resupply, and ate dinner at a Friendly's. We got back to the trail after 6 and went just a couple of miles to the next shelter.
Date: 2009-08-08
From: Bromley Shelter

To: Winturri Shelter
Miles today: 67.7

We crossed the 1700 mile mark today, putting us at just 468 miles to go. Pickle and I took a zero day yesterday at the fabulous Inn at Long Trail, our first day off since the visit to her house back in PA. I think it works out to being just over a month of hiking every single day. Skunk stayed at the Inn with us night before last, and then he was off back to the trail yesterday to keep on track with his schedule. I'm definitely sad to see him go, although at least I didn't cry, unlike some people who were present (ahem, Pickle)In other news, Pickle and I are going to be famous. Well, maybe not "famous", but we did get interviewed this morning for the Rhett Palmer Radio Show. It won't be aired for a while, since he is up in Vermont on vacation. I'll post the link to the online listening option for it once I have the details. We were certainly outside our usual comfort zones, but Rhett was very nice, and genuinely very interested in hearig about the hikes.
Date: 2009-08-17
From: Winturri Shelter

To: Zealand Falls Hut, White Mountains
Miles today: 115.3

Pickle and I are spending our second night in a row at one of the AMC huts here in the Whites. Last night we stayed at the Greenleaf Hut, which was a 1.1 mile downhill trek off the trail, and today we hiked 13.6 miles here to Zealand Falls. We were lucky enough to get to do Work For Stay at both: last night we scrubbed out their ovens, and tonight we chiselled the ice out of the chest freezer here at Zealand. In exchange for our labors we get all the leftovers from dinner and breakfast that we can eat, and we get to sleep on the floor of the dining hall. By contrast, the paying guests (36 here, and 48 at the last hut) do not have to scrub anything but do have to pay $87 each for their bunkbeds. All-in-all, I think we thru-hikers get the better deal.We're in the midst of a run of near perfect weather. A little warm and humid, but plenty of sunshine. And it looks like we may get at least a few more days of this. Woohoo! And a good thing too, as the hiking here in the Whites is kicking our butts. We hiked from 8:30am to 7:30pm and only covered 13 miles. That's barely 1 mile per hour, about half our usual pace. I'm very thankful now that we pushed our finish dates back. A 13 mile day is exactly what we need to average for the 12th. If we were still shooting for the 5th we'd need to be doing 17's through here.We heard from Skunk yesterday. All is well, and he's flying along. As of then he was 47 miles ahead of us. He went through this part at twice the speed we are: 20's instead of 10 mile days. Crazy.
Date: 2009-08-18
From: Zealand Falls Hut, White Mountains

To: Mitzpah Hut
Miles today: 14.1
Weather: few clouds

Another big, tough, beautiful day in the Whites. The first 7 miles were the easiest we've had weeks. From Zealand Falls the trail follows the railbed of a 19th century logging railroad, so it's flat and more-or-less rock free.Pickle and I lucked into another work-for-stay at this hut tonight. We thought for sure we'd be out of luck: there were 9 other thru-hikers here when we rolled in. The offiicial policy is that there are two WFS spots per hut per night. The past two nights Pickle and I have been the only thru-hikers there, so we got the spots by default. The hut staff can bend the rules as they wish, but with 9 people in front of us we weren't hopeful. But the croo here has been totally awesome, and not only invented a dozen jobs for us all to do, but they even cooked extra food just for us to be sure no one would go hungry.For the family and non-hiking friends reading, some explanation of the Huts. The AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) maintains this chunk of the AT, and in additon they operate a series of 8 huts spread through the Whites along the trail. The huts are part bed & breakfast, and part campground lodge. They'll shingle style lodge type buildings with hardwood floors and lots of knotty pine on the interior. They sleep 40 to 90 people in twin bunkbeds, have a staff (called the "croo", mostly college age) that cook full breakfasts and dinners served family style. The huts have restrooms with running water and composting toilets. But it's what the huts don't have that is significant, things like road access. Everything and everyone who comes to a hut comes here via the trail. The croo hauls in all the groceries by backpack, and hauls out all the garbage te same way. The huts are also "off the grid", with solar panels and windmills to provide power for refridgeration and lighting. So from a guest perspective some of the typical hotel things are missing: there's no electrical outlets in the bunkrooms, no linens besides a blanket (no electricity to do laundry) and no trashcans anywhere in the public spaces. (you carried it here, you carry it home) The regular guest price is $80-100 per bunk per night. And they're booked solid months in advance.Tomorrow it's up and over the famous Mt. Washington, home of "the worst weather in the world". Should be fun
Date: 2009-08-19
From: Mitzpah Hut

To: Carter Notch Hut
Miles today: 5.9
Weather: fog

We lucked out and got one last work for stay here at Carter, the last of the huts. And we deserved it: we made the climb over the last of the Wildcat Mountain peaks in a thunderstorm, and had to slip-and-slide our way down into the notch. Pickle and I were the third and fourth thru-hikers here, behind O.G. and Toothpick. The hut crews have just rotated to the fall crews, and the new hutmaster here at Carter was working at Zealand Falls when Pickle and I work-for-stayed there. I cleaned out the refridgerator while pickle washed dishes. For our labors we received ham, lentil soup, salad, homemade bread, corn, and chocolate cake. And tomorrow, apple pancakes!
Date: 2009-08-25
From: Carter Notch Hut

To: Gentian Pond Shelter
Miles today: 26.6
Weather: clear sky

Back on the trail after a day off in Gorham. We had wanted to get a little further, but 11.8 miles was all we could muster today. The day off didn't do as much to ease our sore knees as we had hoped. Oh well, we'll march on. While we were in town we took the bus to walmart for resupply. Due to the bus schedule we ended up with some time to kill there, so I tried on some jeans. Before the hike I wore a 36x34. As of yesterday I fit into 30x32's! I have no idea how I got 2 inches shorter, but 6 inches narrower is pretty awesome. We'll see if I lose anymore in the remainder of the hike. I also bought some new shoes at the Gorham outfitter/hardware store. I had been planning on trying to keep the old shoes for the rest of the way, but they had the exact same ones there (not to experiment with different ones at this late date) and they were on sale. At least this way I'll end the hike with shoes that I can still wear once I get home. I had to go up another half size on this pair too. Over the course of the hike my feet has lengthened by a full size.Speaking of remainders: we're down to just 286.1 miles to go! And we'll be in Maine tomorrow! Woohoo! We also may hike through the famous/infamous Mahoosuc Notch tomorrow. The notch is a mile-wide trench filled with a jumble of boulders that the trail leads over, around, and even under. It's billed as "the hardest mile on the trail". There's a chance of thunderstorms tomorrow, so we may pull up short to avoid having to navigate the notch in a downpour.
Date: 2009-08-26
From: Gentian Pond Shelter

To: Full Goose Shelter
Miles today: 9.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Maine. I have walked from Georgia to Maine. Pickle and I paused for pictures and lunch at the signpost. Now all we have to do is hike those pesky remaining 276 miles.Mahoosuc Notch will have to wait till tomorrow afterall. The weather was miserable most of the day: fog, drizzle, and lots if wind. It was windy enough up above treeline to almost knock you sideways. The clouds did break while we went over the north peak of Goose Eye Mountain and the sun has been shining ever since, but by then we had lost too much time to climbing the slippery rocks to push any further than here. Oh well, the notch isn't going anywhere.
Date: 2009-08-29
From: Full Goose Shelter

To: Hall Mountain Lean-To
Miles today: 6.0

We were the only ones to opt to leave the hostel this morning. Everyone else decided to wait out the weather indoors. We didn't go far though, just to the first shelter out of town. Too cold, too windy, too wet to go much further. Supposed to get a bunch more rain overnight.
Date: 2009-08-30
From: Hall Mountain Lean-To

To: Bemis Mountain Lean-to
Miles today: 12.8
Weather: broken clouds

A frustrating day. We had intended on making a lot more miles today to start making a dent in the huge number we need to tackle before the 12th, but we just couldn't seem to get moving fast enough. It didn't help that I was fighting an upset stomach all day either. The weather improved greatly, at least. I don't think it ended up raining any more last night. Hopefully we'll have a few days of sunshine to dry out the trail."The Plan" for tomorrow is to try to get to Rangely, about 18 miles.And we heard from Skunk today. He's in Monson, about 120 miles ahead of us, and he's headed into the 100 Mile Wilderness. He's right on schedule. (unlike us)
Date: 2009-08-31
From: Bemis Mountain Lean-to

To: rangeley, ME
Miles today: 17.7
Weather: few clouds

We did very well today, hiking-wise. The trail is nicer, which helped, and we kept up a decent pace all day. The only frustrating part of the day was at the very end when we had to hitch into Rangeley. We stood there in the cold for an hour and a half gamely waving our thumbs at passing cars. Eventually Pickle and I gave up and starting walking towards town, partly to break up the group of 5 of us that were hitching in the same spot. Too many hikers trying to hitch scares off the rides. After just a few minutes a pickup that was headed the wrong direction turned around and gave us a ride all the way to the doorstep of the motel. She said, "the voices in my head told me to pick you guys up." Hey, I'm not one to argue with anyone's voices, especially if they're getting me out of the cold.
Date: 2009-09-01
From: rangeley, ME

To: Poplar Ridge Lean-to
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: clear sky

Shorter day than we wanted, largely due to delays in getting out of town, again. We missed closing time at the outfitter by 2 minutes last night so we had to wait around until they opened this morning. We were both out of stove fuel, which made the outfitter stop quite important. Thankfully getting out of Rangeley was much easier than getting in. We had two people offer us rides before we were even ready, and once we were ready the very first car that drove by us stopped. I don't think we even fully got the hitchhiker thumbs deployed before she pulled over. These Mainers are a friendly folk.In camp tonight Pickle and I plotted out the schedule for every day's hiking from here to the end. All we have to do is hike to the goals every single day, no matter what. We even bought new batteries for our headlamps, just in case.
Date: 2009-09-02
From: Poplar Ridge Lean-to

To: White Wolf Inn, Stratton, Maine
Miles today: 21.5

We are not "wet baby birds" afterall. Big tough day, but we stuck to the schedule and ended in Stratton as planned. We're running out of mountains to climb on this trail, finally. We knocked off three four-thousand footers today, leaving only 3 left. Two of those will be tackled tomorrow. The last one, of course, is Katahdin, which we are only 9 days away from now.Stratton is a neat little town full of friendly folk. We had two people competing to give us a ride into town. That balances out the frustration we had getting into Rangeley.
Date: 2009-09-03
From: White Wolf Inn, Stratton, Maine

To: Little Bigelow Lean-to
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Still on schedule. The long day and late arrival into Stratton yesterday didn't give the knees much time to rest overnight, and they made their displeasure known today. But we still made it to the planned destination, just a little later than we would have liked. Pickle and I rolled in about 7:40. Much later and we would have had to dig out the headlamps to see the trail.Climbed the four peaks of the Bigelow ridge today. Rough trail, but we were rewarded with some excellent views from the top. We only get above 3000 feet one more time before the very end. If my knees had hands, they'd be clapping.In "exciting Big Round Number" news, we crossed 2000 miles hiked today. Woohoo!
Date: 2009-09-04
From: Little Bigelow Lean-to

To: Pierce Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: clear sky

Still on schedule. In fact, we could have gone a bit further but we decided that the view from here was just too good to pass up. We may be on a schedule, but there's no point in taking all the fun out of the trip if we don't have to. We're camped here tonight with Hitch, Soundtrack, Scooner & Ferdie, and Toothpick, and a sobo thru who's name I didn't get. And about a dozen college kids out for the weekend. Quite the group.All of us Thru's are headed into Harrison's Pierce Pond Camp tomorrow for breakfast. It's only a tenth of a mile from here, and for $10 you get a dozen pancakes, eggs, bacon, juice, and coffee. That should fuel us up for the hiking tomorrow.
Date: 2009-09-05
From: Pierce Pond Lean-to

To: Bald Mountain Brook Lean-to
Miles today: 18.7

Breakfast was outstanding this morning. The 12 pancakes did not disappoint. They were nice, big 6-7" ones too, not wimpy little silver dollar pancakes. I finished all 12, with about a cup of syrup, my 3 strips of bacon, 2 eggs, a big cold glass of milk, and a little glass of orange juice. That's not a breakfast I'll be able to eat a week from now. Or at least, not one I should eat, if I don't want to put all this weight back on.After the morning feast we walked the remaining few miles to the Kennebec river to catch the ferry. The ferry ride was a lot of fun. I sat up front and paddled while Pickle sat in the middle of the canoe and enjoyed the view. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. Even our one little mountain to climb was over faster than we expected. Tomorrow we have 22 miles into Monson.A Skunk Ape update: Ol' Skunky has completed his thru-hike! He even finished a day early. I got a text message from him that said he was hiker #219 for the year. Excellent. Turns out Skunk tried repeatedly to catch us today to spread some trail magic cheer, but kept missing us. He got to the road crossing at the kennebec after we had gone through, and was at the road at Moxie Pond too early, and had to leave before we got there. But he did leave us a nice note, and a couple of cans of Dr. Pepper, which was excellent. Hopefully he will catch us tomorrow in Monson.
Date: 2009-09-06
From: Bald Mountain Brook Lean-to

To: Greenville, ME
Miles today: 22.0

Big miles today, but we're still on schedule. Skunk met us at the Monson road crossing and we all went in to town for dinner at Shaw's. Had an excellent time getting to talk to Skunk's family. It was a little disturbing to see him in jeans and a polo shirt though. Almost looked like a different person. At least he still had the beard. Wouldn't have recognized him without it.Everyplace to stay in Monson (both of them) was full, but we located a motel 15 miles down the highway in Greenville. Skunk's sister gave us a ride there before they made the trip back to Millinocket for the night.The motel is right across the street from a grocery store, so hopefully we can get resupplied early and catch a hitch back to the trail. Being this far from the trail hitching might be tough.
Date: 2009-09-07
From: Greenville, ME

To: Long Pond Stream Lean-to
Miles today: 15.1
Weather: overcast clouds

We are now in The Hundred Mile Wilderness, and are on schedule with less than 100 miles to go! Woohoo!The hitch back to the trailhead was super easy after all. A nice young couple picked us up after just a minute or two with our thumbs out.The first day's hiking in "the 100" was tough, rugged trail. The second half of it should be easier, so we've planned for shorter days now and longer ones later.
Date: 2009-09-08
From: Long Pond Stream Lean-to

To: Carl A. Newhall Lean-to
Miles today: 20.8
Weather: scattered clouds

This is going to be another short entry, I'm afraid, since it's late and I'm beat. But everything is well: we're sticking to the schedule even if it meant hiking till near dark tonight, the weather is still great, and nothing hurts too much. At this point that's all I can hope for. Tomorrow we have our last real mountain to tackle before Katahdin at the very, and then we're off to the races. Pickle and I have to cover 73 miles in 3 days. Flat trail or not, that's a lot of hiking.
Date: 2009-09-09
From: Carl A. Newhall Lean-to

To: campsite along Cooper Brook
Miles today: 22.6

We are, for perhaps the first time ever, ahead of schedule. We pushed on a few extra miles beyond the lean-to we had been planning on stopping at. It was only 5:30 when we got there and we figured we could cut down tomorrow's 30 miler a little.
Date: 2009-09-11
From: Rainbow Stream Lean-to

To: Millinocket, ME
Miles today: 24.9
Weather: light rain

We're in civilization, more or less for good this time. The big summit day is tomorrow, but that's basically a day hike for us now. We were up and hiking nice and early this morning and made really good time. My parents met us at Abol Bridge, about 15 miles into the day's hiking, for lunch. Having them there gave us the luxury of slackpacking the final 10 miles in the state park. We're all going to go out to eat tonight, and then to bed early. We will be leaving Millinocket at about 4:00am to get into the park early and make the final climb. Woohoo!