morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-09-04
From: Tent, Moxie Pond

To: Tent, Piazza Rock Lean-To
Miles today: 13.2

My poor baby got his 101st fall today. Actually he got falls 99, 100 and 101 today. The slimy slippery mud of Maine is not being friendly to him. I am at 23 falls and Troll is still at 4.   Today was very traumatic for Oblivious. He saw his first leech. Someone had told us to watch out for leeches in the ponds in Maine. Oblivious thought that was really funny. He was positive that there would be no leeches. So when he saw 5 just swimming in the water like eels do, he was freaked out. Troll pulled up a leech attached to and eating a dragonfly. Oblivious immediately decided that he could no longer swim in any water other than saltwater. Troll taunted him mercilessly for a while until mom intervened. I said I would go into the water with Oblivious and be the leech magnet for him. I think that Oblivious is much more understanding of my rattlesnake fear now.   Today we went into Rangely and resupply. These days resupply always includes a town meal as well. I think that our backpacks are now at an all time heavy weight. We bought extra food for our meal tonight and tomorrow morning. We need all of those extra calories for our mountain climb tomorrow. We have 3 significant mountains between here and Stratton, our next resupply point.   We had fairly easy hitching. We got a ride in from some summer kids in town for their grandmother's birthday. One of our rides out was an old deaf guy with a cat who rode on the front dash.   While we were in town we tried some Moxie. Moxie is a Maine soda product. It tastes like a cheap cola mixed with molasses and cough syrup. The after taste is indescribable. It certainly stays with you for a while. Yuck... I recently tried birch beer, another New England soda. Birch beer tastes like root beer with a wintergreen undertone and it is clear. There seem to be all sorts of odd regional products in this area.   It rained this morning but cleared up as the day went on. Of course the rain only added to the mud and standing water on the trail. Oh well. My feet will dry later. I gave in and got some balm for our feet. That should keep them from drying out and cracking at night.   Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-09-05
From: Tent, Piazza Rock Lean-To

To: Tent, Orbeton Stream Old Woods Rd
Miles today: 11.7

The day started off well. Oblivious and I shared the privy. It was a two seater. We however did not play cribbage in spite of the built in cribbage board between the seats. The privy was named "your move". Troll thought that one deserved a picture.   The day continued in fine fashion. The climb up the Saddleback Mt and the Horn wasn't that bad. We had some awesome views. We could see Mt Washington in the distance and what we think might be Mt Khatadin in the other direction. I actually think the views were prettier than those in the Whites. In the Whites, you could pretty much just see the Whites. The view from the Saddleback also included numerous lakes and ponds. It was really spectacular.   On the way up the Horn, I took a tumble off of the top of a metal ladder. I stopped myself by landing my head on a moss-covered rock and by scraping my right shin across the top of the ladder. Fall number 24 was not particularly kind to me in the bruise category. Of course shortly after that I scraped my knee while climbing up a rock face. We stopped for lunch at that point to give me a chance to regroup before I killed myself.    After a nice little break we continued our hike. At that point the trail went to crap. The nice steps and trail that we had used to climb the Saddleback went away. The trail was either a steep jumble of randomly placed rocks or it was a gravel scramble. If you can imagine climbing through a gravel pile at a gravel yard but with the gravel pile located on a cliff - you pretty much have the trail we had. Like I said it went to crap.   Oblivious now has 104 falls. I really would like for him to quit falling any day now. It is starting to really worry me. How many bruises can one little body have?   We seem to be back to smaller miles until after we are through this next set of mountains. We have 2 serious sets of mountains before Stratton and 1 immediately following Stratton. We hope we can up our mileage after that. We'll see.   Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-09-06
From: Tent, Orbeton Stream Old Woods Rd

To: Tent, Stream before Stratton ME
Miles today: 16.6

We have less than 200 miles left!!! We actually only have around 189 miles left. If we only did 10-mile days from now to the end we would be on the 24th. The trail is running out of torture time.   Today was pretty awesome. The weather was gorgeous. The trail was fairly decent. It seemed like we were just able to pound out the miles. We passed a group of freshmen from Harvard who are out on an orientation hike. They were very impressed by Oblivious. I know I'm his mom, but he is a pretty impressive kid.   We actually completed almost 2 significant mountain ranges today (Spaulding & Crocker). We are camped 2 miles away from the road. We will be able to get up early and go into town for breakfast, mail, 1st lunch, and re-supply. Then we will head out and attack the Bigelow Mountain range.   It seems like we are almost to the point where we can count up the mountains that we have left. It seems so hard to believe. We look at our mileage each day to see how much we have left. Then we take that mileage and see how far that put us along the trail back at the beginning. For example, today's remaining mileage puts us about 30 miles north of Fontana Dam. It is one of the things we do to stay motivated. Good hiking days like today also help.   Oblivious is up to 108 falls. I'm holding steady at 24 and troll still only has 4.   Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-09-07
From: Tent, Stream before Stratton ME

To: Tent, Avery Memorial Campsite 
Miles today: 10.1
Weather: clear sky

Less than 180 miles to go! Tomorrow we will pass the 2000-mile mark. Today we had an excellent town day. We were in town by 0900. We were in the zone. Mail was picked up, groceries were bought, food bags were arranged, Internet chores were done, meals were eaten, friends were visited, and rides were hitched. We made it back out to the trailhead by noon.   This was when we discovered that our plan to carry 5 days of food to Monson really sucked. 5 days of food for 3 people is exceptionally heavy. Our bags were exceptionally heavy. I cannot overstate how exceptionally heavy our backpacks were. I mean they were really heavy.   We stopped at the 1st campground just out of town. We stopped at the next campground to eat. The Bigelow mountain range has 5 campgrounds in 20 miles. Apparently this seems to be a heavy use area. Believe me, we were grateful for the frequent break locations. Did I mention that our packs were really heavy?   We took a long break at the top of the West Peak of Bigelow Mountain. It was awesome. The views went on forever. There are so many wonderful lakes and ponds in Maine. We could see water and mountains as far as we could see.    There are 2 peaks to Bigelow Mountain. This of course inspired jokes about Deuce Bigelow - Male Gigolo. Obliviously Deuce meaning 2 Bigelows, therefore the mountains must be named after him. Then we laughed about yesterday's Crocker Mountains being named after Joe Crocker from Miami Vice. Yes, our brains have turned to complete mush.   We are at one of the coolest campsites so far on the trail. We are right between the 2 peaks of Bigelow Mountain. We are at 3815 feet and it is very chilly. Thank goodness my mom made those fleece liners for us. The water source is a very slow spring in a small cave. Oblivious helped everyone get water. He crawled in the cave and scooped water. He passed out cupfuls of water to Ug and Professor Nutbag. They strained the water through a bandana into containers. It was a community effort. Sometimes there actually are advantages to being small. And apparently every community needs some small people.   Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-09-08
From: Tent, Avery Memorial Campsite 

To: Tent, East Flagstaff Rd
Miles today: 8.7

The best laid plans... Today we intended to get up early and make it up and over the the Bigelows. Of course it didn't quite work that way.   We got up and summited Avery Peak early. This just left Little Bigelow (where we would pass the 2000 mile point) to go over before good terrain. Of course the trail then went to crap. It took us about 7 hours to go the next 7 miles.   We did however get trail magic. Pretty damn good trail magic. We walked into the parking lot as groups of people were unloading a rental truck. We almost immediately had beer in hand (soda for Oblivious) and burgers followed shortly. There were all sorts of goodies.   As we were there people started showing up. Squid Jerky came rolling in. We hadn't seen him since the Blue Ridge in Virginia. The Muppets (Beem, Hemlock, and Birdy) were there. Fig and Just Visiting. Buttah, Leviathan, & Proteus (minus their 4 Square Ball). Team Slug Bug (Low Bridge, Ug, & Professor Nutbag). Many Names and Wildcat. Paul (the Canadian). Lion King. Wilderness Bob. One Way and Stranger. It was cool. We all ate and sat around and visited. Guitars were played and songs sung. It had the feel of a family reunion.   Tomorrow we will get up and put some miles in. Today it was good to see friends. We have walked over 2000 miles and have 171 left to go.   Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-09-09
From: Tent, East Flagstaff Rd

To: Tent, Kennebec River, South
Miles today: 19.5

Today was a good day. The hiking went well. It was one of our fastest days ever. We started at 0800 and had already done about 16 miles by 1600. The trail was nice. Really nice. It's funny, how much nicer and easier the walking is when the trail is good.   Today was also a day for falls. I got fall number 25 as I lost my balance crossing over a blown down tree trunk. Luckily I was able to grab onto the log with my legs and kept from falling into the water we were crossing. I only sustained a few scratches from the tree bark. Oblivious is now at 109 falls. I don't know how he keeps managing to fall. Troll got fall number 5 today. He could have broken his ankle with that fall. He slid off of a bog board and fell. When I looked back at him his foot was under an adjacent log and his leg looked like a lever trying to snap off the end portion (you know - the portion with the foot and ankle). I don't think he can handle any more falls. Oblivious and I seem to be much more fall tolerant.   This morning we had a wonderful breakfast. We spent the night at the trail magic. Ray, Roland, Hydro and Mike did such a wonderful job. Eggs and toast and coffee in the morning like real people. Wow.   We will cross the Kennebec River tomorrow via canoe. The ATC contracts with Steve the ferryman to haul people across the river. There is a power dam upstream that causes the river to suddenly increase depth and current with no warning. I guess a hiker drowned and they started this system. Tonight I'm not so sure about it due to timing. The canoe ferry operates from 0900 - 1100 and 1400 - 1600. That is all well and good but on Saturdays the post office in Caratunk opens at 0730 and closes at 1115. Am I the only one who notices the mismatch in schedules? We'll see how it goes.   We are getting sooo excited. Each night we do our math. If we only did 10 miles day from tomorrow to the end, we would summit on the 25th. We will do more than that and we will summit before the 25th. But who knows when. I don't think it will be long before the adrenaline starts to really kick in. We really don't have that much more to go.      Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-09-10
From: Tent, Kennebec River, South

To: Tent, Rivers & Trails Hostel
Miles today: 0.4

Well, we certainly put in some big miles today. I think we set a new personal record. The problem is that this is a new record low, not a record high. I figure that the friends and family back home yelled when they say today's mileage. It doesn't help them figure out their bets for our summit day.   We started the morning off with a nice sunny wait for the canoe ferry. Troll, Oblivious & Fig took the 1st canoe across. Myself, Just Visiting and Many Names were on the next canoe.   We walked into town and picked up Oblivious' shoes at the post office. We had to pick up just one or two little things at the only store around. So off we headed to rivers and trails.   This is where it all started to go awry. There was a phone for pocket mail updates and that had to be used. There were outlets for recharging the cell phone and the batteries. Of course all recharging had to be done. But worst of all, WhiteBlaze.net was putting on a hiker feed. They had soda, burgers, and corn on the cob, chili, hotdogs, chips, and fruit. Obviously that stuff had to be eaten. I mean really, any fool can see that food has to be taken care of. And there were also friends to be visited with.   We really intended to hike today, it just never happened. More people kept showing up and it kept getting more fun and more fun. We definitely had that family reunion feeling going on. There was even a 2-man film crew from New York shooting a documentary called Trail Angels. They interviewed us about trail magic.   5 people who summited 2 days ago showed up. Scared of the Dark, Clockwork Orange, Rocky, Bullmoose, and Lightening Rod. They were still basking in the afterglow of their summit. They glowed and had a radiant look about them. Rocky and Bullmoose started in Harper's Ferry and went north and now have to go back to Harper's ferry to go south. They said they were actually glad that they still had half of their hike left. Being done just seemed to be too overwhelming.   Today you could really tell that everyone was getting antsy for their summit. It now seems a likely reality instead of an unlikely possibility.   Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-09-11
From: Tent, Rivers & Trails Hostel

To: Tent, Bald Mt Brook Lean-To
Miles today: 14.7

This morning was bittersweet. I think that this is the last time that I will see some of these people. I know them. I mean I really know them - hopes, dreams, families, etc. But I don't know their real name. It doesn't matter; some of them know they are welcome at our home anytime anywhere.   The hiking was pretty good today. Actually it would have been a lot better if I didn't have a hangover. 2 and 1/2 cups of homemade cider and a Guinness the previous night did not help my hiking. Sweating excessively and upset tummy was the majority of my day. Luckily the hiking was good.   We had our 1st confirmed Kathadin sighting today. We could see Kahatdin from the top of pleasant pond mountain. It was pretty exciting. Just the fact that it was close enough to see was just too exciting. It was as close as other mountains that I've already climbed.   We are still waiting for our first moose sighting. I think that we will try a new technique. We are going to fool the moose and try looking for other animals. Then the moose will feel safe to come out. Oblivious is looking for red spotted giraffes and I'm looking for meewkats. Papa Razzi tried looking for spotted leopards and then he saw his first moose. We are hopeful this will also work for us.   Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-09-12
From: Tent, Bald Mt Brook Lean-To

To: Tent, Shaw's Hostel Monson MA
Miles today: 18.7

We are still without a moose sighting. I'm beginning to think that these moose are magical mythical creatures like the unicorn. We all think we know what they look like, but they don't really exist.   Today seemed really draining. It took forever to make the miles today. The trail was bipolar. It was either awesome or crap. Frustratingly enough it seemed to switch between those extremes every 20 yards or so.    We had 3 fords today. 3 different times I had to sit down, take off my shoes, put on my camp shoes and cautiously pick my way across the river only to put my shoes back on. The 1st ford was the most stressful for me. I did it, but I didn't like it.    This is the last town before Kahtadin. Monson is the last town on the trail for us. It all just seems so unbelievable. This will be my last journal entry until the end. There are basically only 2 unreliable phones left along the trail. Neither of them is rumored to be able to transmit data quality phone signals. Terri, my trial angel back home, is moving and I don't want to continue to impose on her during her transition time. So just hang in there and wait. The journal will get updated after we finish and are back home.    Until then, take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-09-13
From: Tent, Shaw's Hostel Monson MA

To: Shelter, Wilson Valley Lean-to
Miles today: 13.7
Weather: broken clouds

Can't seem to get any energy. Batteries slowing draining and light fading away. That's how our bodies feel. You would think that a breakfast at Shaw's would fix that. But I think we are too far gone for even that nectar to do much.    Breakfast at Shaw's is something else. Long version. Everyone sits at one of the tables. Your silverware and napkin are in your glass. There are pitchers of orange juice and gallons of milk. The 1st two people are asked what they want - 1 by or 2 by or 3 by and so on. A 1 by means you get 1 egg, 1 piece of bacon, 1 link sausage, 1 serving home-style hash browns and 1 pancake or French toast (depends on the day). A 2 by means 2 of each of those yummy bits of calorie goodness. And so on and so on. Troll had a 3 by, I had a 2 by and Oblivious had a 1 by. Short version - It was yummy.   Monson is a great hiker town. Everything is within 3 blocks. The laundry is open 24 hours a day. There is a library with 2 internet connections. It is a really small town but it has all the stuff.   Oblivious got an AT patch from a trail legend today. Baltimore Jack gave Oblivious his patch at breakfast. I thought it was really cool.   I felt like I was jumping hurdles today. I can't even tell you how many blow downs (blown down tree) that I climbed over today. My favorite was when I laid on one log to roll over it. I could see no other way to get under the logs just above the low middle one. Oh and there were 2 river fords. Oh well tomorrow is another day with different trail. I even hear that there might be switchbacks.   Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-09-15
From: Tent, Chairback Gap lean-to

To: Tent, Logan Brook lean-to
Miles today: 17.1
Weather: clear sky

This was the last day of our 6th month on the trail. The trail gods were kind to us and the hiking was awesome.   Around 0500 it started raining. It was pretty much a drizzle. What can you do? At least the rain seemed warmish. We started the day with a hellish downhill rock climb. We had been warned that going down Chairback Mountain would be very dangerous in the rain. Ok, it was dangerous but it was only about 250 feet of rock over less than 1/4 mile. Fourth Mountain the previous day had been at least twice as bad.   Three miles later we went onto another map. The cartographer for this map apparently realized that he was doing his elevation profile in 250 foot increments. All the little bumps on the map corresponded to the bumps on the trail. And there weren't that many bumps on the map. It was awesome. In fact, it started creeping me out because it was accurate. I didn't even care that it was raining.   It kept looking like the rain would go away. It would drizzle, stop, rain harder and stop. Repeat. Finally it stopped raining. Obviously a good time for us to eat our 2nd lunch. We cut our lunch break short as it started to pour COLD rain from the sky.   The Whitecap Mountain range has the best stairs I have seen on the trail. There were steps going up West Peak and random stretches of steps going down Whitecap. These steps were flat, short and extremely well made. They were so good that the makers of these steps have probably guaranteed good karma for themselves and at least the next 3 generations of their families. This good karma is due the blessings being heaped upon them by any hiker with knees who is walking up and down these steps. They were amazing.   I was done by the end of the day. I was cold and wet and just done.    Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-09-16
From: Tent, Logan Brook lean-to

To: Tent, Antlers Campsite
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: overcast clouds

The start of our 7th month on the trail and we are still having awesome hiking. The trail gods are still happy and kind. Yesterday's rain is gone and it was mostly sunny.   It is hard to find much to talk about today. We hiked hard and fast. We started at 0800 and finished at 1800 with breaks. The trail was good and there were no climbs.    Tonight we are at the most beautiful campsite I have seen on the trail. Antler's campsite is in a little point of land into a large lake. There are beautiful tall pine trees that the map identifies as red pine. It almost looks like home (Washington). The loons are howling their lonely song. Oblivious is howling at them and they are answering him back. It's very cool. Lower Jo-Mary Lake is not too cold to swim in. I could definitely see spending an entire summer in exactly this location.   Take care and we will see you on the trail.
Date: 2005-09-17
From: Tent, Antlers Campsite

To: Hostel, Whitehouse Landing
Miles today: 5.9

Well no one can say that we are rushing the end of this trip. Actually it is pouring due to tropical storm Ophelia. We had to resupply for the last 2 days. Whitehouse landing serves 1 lb burgers and has basic resupply. Most importantly they have heat and dry warm buildings.   I am sitting here next to the woodstove with my Troll family, Wilderness Bob, Squid Jerky and Pickwick. We all got here by hiking a long ass blue blazed trail and sounding the air horn. Then a boat came to pick us up. Hopefully the rain will be gone or at least less tomorrow.   This morning while we were sitting inside our tent, the back pole broke. I guess we will be shelter rats from now on.   Tonight at supper Pickwick asked Oblivious his age and how long we had been on the trail. Pickwick blew us all away when he told Oblivious that Oblivious had been on the trail for 5% of his life. Wow. We had spent the day reminiscing and had not done that kind of math. I've spent 50% of my Navy retirement on the trail. Troll and I have spent 1/30th of our married life on the trail. It's been 6 months and what a long strange trip it's been.   Take care and we will see you on the trail.