morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-08-28
From: Zealand Ridge

To: Dry River Campground
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

I am very thankful for the "easier" trail today. This is the first time since I started that my legs have actually been sore from climbing. The trail in the Whites gets really technical and difficult to maneuver. I hiked with Starfail all day. We stopped by one of the huts to see if they had any food we could get in exchange for work. All they had was some leftover oatmeal. It's the same thing I had yesterday when I stopped at a hut. Cold oatmeal with maple syrup. It's really not that good, but it helps me conserve my food I'm carrying. Getting a resupply here is really hard. It's not like the trail was in the previous states. I got so use to crossing a road every day or two. In the Whites you might go 4-5 days without getting anywhere near a road. So, I can't afford to mismanage my food and run out. We were planning on hitching to a campground to take showers and do laundry. It's been 6 days since my last shower. It was pretty bad.When we got to the parking lot an older couple started talking to us. Their daughter is thru-hiking and they were there to meet up with her. The man gave us apples (I love fresh fruit on the trail)! We told them our plan and they offered to drive us to the place. Starfail gave directions thinking the place was about 5 miles away. Unbeknownst to us, we were about to go on a wild goose hunt. Finally, after about 10 miles we decided to turn around because we couldn't find it. They were so nice about it and didn't seem to mind the long drive to nowhere. We eventually found a campground, but not the one that was in out guidebook. We saw some other hikers, Garbear, Bear Snack, Alpha Dog, and Hawk Eye. We all split a campsite. The guy only charged us $25 instead of the usual $10/person. I took my first pay-by-the-minute shower. I also did laundry. Starfail and I hitched the 10 miles back to town because we saw some restaurants on our ride earlier. It was so easy getting a hitch. Two pretty girls are guaranteed to get a hitch in no time at all. We are hoping the weather will clear up for Mount Washington. It's the next big mountain I climb at 6288' elevation. I am really excited about it!It started raining, so Starfail is sleeping in my tent with me. It sucks setting your tent up in the rain. I set mine up before it started. I know I have a 2-person tent, but it is still a tight squeeze. We're definitely spooning tonight haha!
Date: 2013-08-29
From: Dry River Campground

To: Dry River Campground
Miles today: 0.0

Dang, it's almost September! This summer is almost over. I can't believe how much has happened. I'm afraid I'll never be able to top this awesome summer. I've experienced something amazing every single day. It's incredible to see something that takes your breath away (in a good way) at least once a day. I'm not looking forward to going back to a normal life again. We laugh about it, but we all know that we're going to experience some form of post-trail depression. It's weird how everything out here has become so second nature. Sleeping in a tent every night, cooking meals on a cat food can stove, setting up/breaking down camp, getting water, etc. are all routine activities for me now. Living in a house alone is going to be weird. I can count on one hand the number of times I have slept in a room alone on the trail. There are literally people with me every single night. Ok, enough talk about all that. The weather never cleared up today. So we decided to take a zero. We're getting up early tomorrow to start hiking Mount Washington. It's suppose to be a nice day weather wise. One of the guys who works at the Dry River Campground is letting us camp here for free tonight. We just have to wait until after dark to set up out tents. He's a really cool guy! And he loves hikers. All the people camping here are very interested in hearing our stories. I get asked, "are you a thru-hiker?" so many times. It's kinda fun being the center of attention :-) I've notices there are tons of Canadians here. I'm really close to the border. A lot of the cars have tags from Quebec. I've been trying to brush up on my French with some of them. Ugh, the biggest downside of camping at a campground is how loud people can be at night. All the thru-hikers are in bed by sunset. But these people are here to party and vacation. I'm going to need my earplugs tonight. I'm having shoe problems again. Vasque is sending me my 4th pair is shoes. Free of charge, of course. I can literally see my socks through the holes in the sides. It's bad. I will never buy another pair again. I'm praying this will be my last pair and will get me to Mt. Katahdin.
Date: 2013-08-30
From: Dry River Campground

To: Perch Campground
Miles today: 0.0

Today was horrible. I climbed Mount Washington alone. I didn't start alone, but got separated from my group early on. They were ahead of me and took a wrong turn. I stayed on the right path. I went a few miles before I realized they weren't ahead of me anymore. I kept hiking anyways. The weather was terrible. The fog clouded up every possible view. The rocks were slick and dangerous. The higher I climbed the harder the wind blew. At one point, I considered going back down because I was scared of falling or getting hurt. But I decided to push on. I finally made it to the top. I found some other hikers inside of the summit building. I sat there waiting for like an hour for my friends to catch up. Everybody else had left at that point and I was sitting there alone. We all departed to go down the mountain. It was like 4:30 at that point. The weather has gotten even worse than before. We stopped and debated turning around. Lately, we've been reading stories in a book about people who died in the Whites. We call them our "ghost stories". I told everybody this is how people die. There are signs posted warning hikers about the dangers of bad weather in these mountains. I thought we were going to die. It was terrible. At one point I slipped and fell. It didn't really hurt, but it was the last thing I needed. It was the straw that broke the camels back. I started crying, and then laughing at myself because it was so ridiculous that I was crying. Giggles was with me, and she felt so bad for me. She started telling me blonde jokes to cheer me up. She's awesome. Starfail and Fresh Prince were further down the trail from us. We finally made it to the spot that we were originally planning on stealth camping, but it was too dangerous. It was on an exposed ridge line above the tree line. So we hiked on. It was getting dark. I was starting to freak out about night hiking over these rocks. It was hard enough in the daylight. We ended up going to a campsite a mile off trail. It was pitch black by the time we got there. Giggles and Fresh Prince decided to try going to the shelter that was 1.5 miles away. Me and Starfail took a side trail .9 miles off the trail to a campsite. I'm in my tent now. It's 9:20, and I'm exhausted. My feet and legs are beat. The rocks really did a number on me. It's gonna be another rainy day tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to it.
Date: 2013-08-31
From: Perch Campground

To: Pinkham Notch
Miles today: 0.0

8-31-13I had a pretty good day I guess. I had to work really hard to stay positive though. I started out the day going a mile in the wrong direction. Two "idiot miles" round trip. That's what I get for night hiking...nothing looked familiar in the daylight. Starfail was ahead of me and made the same mistake. Glad I wasn't the only one. I stopped in at Madison Hut, which is the oldest hut in the Whites, built in 1888. I filled up my water and talked to a guy in the porch for a while. He had a ton of questions about thru-hiking. I had just missed Starfail and the rest of the gang. I packed up and left. I had some incredible views from the ridge. I could see a storm off in the distance. I prayed for the rain to hold off until I got below tree- line and off of the treacherous rocks. God heard my prayer! The rain started the moment the rocks ended. I got soaked. But I didn't mind. All day I had been planning on meeting Starfail and heading into town. But the 3,000' decent from the mountain took forever. It literally took me 3 hours to go 3 miles! Slow-going! By the time I reached Pinkham Notch, she was gone. I called the hostel to see if they did shuttles, and found out they were full. I went into the visitors center and saw Gray Wolf and Red Tail. The people they were talking with had just dropped Starfail and Old Boy off in town at a different hostel. I decided to skip town. I saw Wet Bag in the parking lot. He said he found a stealth campsite with Olive Oyl across the street on the trail and there was room for another tent. So I am camping with them tonight. Hog Grier is here too. I have no service on my phone, so I can't even let them know I'm ok. I spoke to my mom earlier. She was at the vet with the family dog Dolly. They put her down today. It's so sad. Dolly was 16 years old. I remember the day my mom got her. I was in middle school. Mom was too upset to talk on the phone. I am glad they are watching my dog Pinky. She'll help them through the grieving process. Praying for them as the cope with the loss of Dolly.
Date: 2013-09-02
From: North Conway, NH

To: Need to find somebody with a car
Miles today: 0.0

I woke up in a good bit of pain this morning. The nurse warned me that I would feel like I was hit by a mack truck the next day. I am staying with Faith and Judy again tonight. There's no way I can hike right now. In addition to the pain, the weather is a mess. There was a flash flood warning on my phone when I woke up this morning. It's best to take it easy today.Giggles posted an ad on Craigslist to see if we can find somebody with a car who can help us slack-pack this week. If you are reading this and think you can help, let me know. We are hoping to start at Pinkham Notch, NH and hike to Rangeley, ME over the next 7 days. The only way I can do this is if I can slack pack. I am too close to the end to stop now. I am determined to make it all the way, even if I have to drag myself over these mountains!LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT TO HELP :-)Don't forget to sign my guestbook! I love getting your messages!
Date: 2013-09-05
From: Need to find somebody with a car

To: Gorham, NH
Miles today: 0.0

I've been resting my shoulder at the White Mountain Lodge & Hostel in Gorham. This is the nicest hostel I think I've stayed at on the trail! The family running it just bought it a month ago. Their son is thru-hiking this year. Marni is his mom. She is awesome! My first day here she and I went to the nail salon for mani pedis. She has been super nice about me taking a few zeros to heal. Giggles has been staying here too. I've been having such a good time hanging out with her. We can't stop laughing when we're together. Tomorrow morning I am getting picked up by some other hikers who have a car. I am skipping ahead to grafton notch state park. Starfail's dad and brother are there. I'm going to meet them and camp until everybody catches up. I am really upset about missing so much. I'll miss crossing the state line into Maine and the Mahoosucs. I have to come back to finish them soon. Funny story...Giggles and I posted an ad on Craigslist asking for help hiking. A guy responded offering to carry some of my gear. Then, he asked if he could share our tent. We explained that he would have a tent all to himself. He said he was hoping to share one because we were hot. CREEPY! Needless to say we did not pursue that opportunity. I think he was looking under the wrong category on Craigslist lol!
Date: 2013-09-11
From: Grafton Notch

To: Poplar Ridge Lean-To
Miles today: 1111.0

Today was my first day back on the trail since I dislocated my shoulder. I had such a great day! The weather was beautiful and so were the views! I climbed a really hard mountain, Saddleback Mountain. It felt so good to sweat and get dirty :-) My shoulder gave me minimal problems. I hiked about 11 miles today. Not bad considering I was out of commission for 10 days. I'm camped at Poplar Ridge Lean-to with a bunch of people. Giggles and I hiked together for most of the day. Starfail and her brother stopped early to camp. I decided to go on since there was still a few more hours of daylight. The weather tomorrow is suppose to be bad. In fact, it's storming right now while I lay in my tent. Loud thunder and driving rain!! So exciting :-)The past few nights I could hear wolves howling. It was pretty neat.
Date: 2013-09-12
From: Poplar Ridge Lean-To

To: Stratton, ME
Miles today: 0.0

The thunderstorm last night was WILD! Giggles, Turbo, and I all decided to sleep in our tents up on a hill by the shelter. We had no idea the weather was going to be so bad. It was still dry when I got into my tent. Off in the distance I could hear the low rumble of thunder. I realized I still needed to brush my teeth and pee before calling it a night. So I put toothpaste on my toothbrush, grabbed some TP, and threw on my rain jacket. As soon as I stepped outside, the hardest rain began to pelt me. I was drenched in less than 10 seconds!!! Great. I crawled back into my tent, mad about the bad timing with the weather. The weather continued to get worse. The thunder was deafening and I could see the sides of my tent bending with the pelting of the rain. I eventually fell asleep and prayed that my stuff would stay dry. As a precaution, I put everything I wanted to stay dry in my sleeping bag with me. Around 11:30pm, we were all startled awake by the sound of CCCRASHHH! Large hail was now pelting our tents. In the bright flashes of lightning I could see everything in my tent...getting wet. I yelled out to my friends, "is everybody okay?" Giggle's said she was scared. So was I. I've never been more scared of a storm in my life. I was convinced we were moments away from getting struck by lightening. I kept thinking, if I stay on my sleeping pad I'll be safe because I think its made of rubber. The storm was so close I could feel the charge in the air.The next morning we all woke up to assess the damage. The floor of my tent was soaked through and through. I think my sleeping pad was actually floating on the water! Giggles and Turbo were both soaked as well. It was a bad start to the day. We all decided we had to go to town to dry out. The rain continued off and on throughout the day. According to the guidebook, there were 2 rivers we had to ford. I haven't forded a river since elementary school when I used to play Oregon Trail on the computer! I didn't know what to expect, but was excited about the adventure.The first river was really high from all of the rainfall. I walked right through it. The water almost hit my waist in a few spots! The second river was even more dangerous. There was a long 2x4 board across two big boulders in the middle of the river. Water was raging between the rocks. You had to walk through knee deep water before crawling up on the boulders to walk across the board. I was terrified. Wet boards can be very slippery. And slipping on this could only end badly. Thankfully, we all made it across safely. Whew!At the end of the day, we were all cold and wet. We made a phone call to a lady who runs a hostel in Stratton, ME, and she came to pick up 8 of us on a dirt road. She dropped us off in town at the White Wolf Inn. I'm staying in a room with Giggles, Turbo, and Zorro. I hope the weather clears up tomorrow!
Date: 2013-09-13
From: Stratton, ME

To: White Wolf Inn
Miles today: 8.0

We were getting ready to hit the trail for a short hike, when a guy introduced himself to us. His name is Iceman. He said he follows my journal! It was cool to meet somebody who has been following me on this adventure. He gave us a ride to the trail head! It was really nice of him! Thanks again, Iceman! We all did an 8 mile slack-pack today in the rain. In typical AT fashion the trail was a creek bed for the majority of the day. As we were hiking, I noticed one of my teeth was sore. It only hurts when I put pressure on it. Not sure what's going on with it, but definitely going to keep an eye on it. Zorro said I could use some of his dental floss. Maybe I got a piece of food stuck in it and its getting irritated.We all decided to stay at the White Wolf Inn for a second night. Nothing like a dry and warm bed to sleep in after a cold rainy day of hiking.
Date: 2013-09-14
From: White Wolf Inn

To: Tom's House
Miles today: 0.0

I woke up this morning with a swollen cheek. Apparently I have an abscess tooth :-( It hurts soooooo bad! I am really down right now. I just can't seem to catch a break. I finally recover from a dislocated shoulder, and then this happens!Thank God Starfail's dad was in town and staying at the same hotel as me. He offered to drive me wherever I needed to go. Unfortunately, the nearest pharmacy is over an hour away! I called my Uncle Rick, who happens to be a dentist, and explained to him my situation. He called in a prescription for some penicillin. It was so nice that I didn't have to pay for a doctor visit. Jinken drove me to the Rite Aid in Farmington, then back to the hotel. I am so grateful for his help! Such an angel!I was not looking forward to hiking out. I was in a lot of pain and discomfort from the swelling. We were all about to try hitching to the trail head when a car pulled up and asked if we needed a ride. This guy had heard about my toothache, and was happy to know that I was okay. He invited us to stay at his house for the night since it was getting late. He hosts hikers at his place often. His name is Tom. He is such a nice guy! Once we got here, he cooked us dinner and let us shower and do laundry. I am looking forward to a relaxing night and a comfy bed :-) Giggles and I are sharing a bed upstairs. The boys have twin beds downstairs. I think we are going to watch a DVD in a little bit.
Date: 2013-09-17
From: Tom's House

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Let me tell you about Tom Dickey. He is one of the most generous, hospitable trail angels I've encountered. He lives about 5 miles from the town of Stratton, ME. Every day he drives through town looking for hikers to help out. He has a few "rules" for those who choose to stay with him. Your stay must not exceed 30 days, you have to be okay with dogs and cats, and you must not like scotch (apparently a hiker depleted his scotch collection once). He cooks dinner for the group every night. Well balanced meals are hard to come by on the trail. His meals include fresh vegetables, protein, and dessert! Usually, dinner is followed by gin and tonics and a DVD. In the morning, he rises at 6:00am and begins the routine of preparing breakfast for the hungry bunch. Breakfast includes eggs (poached, scrambled, fried, etc.), sausage, buttered toast, and coffee. I've thoroughly enjoyed my stay with Tom! He even let me drive his car to church on Sunday! It's been almost 5 months since I last drove a car! He has a 4-wheeler that he lets hikers ride around on as well. I didn't ride it, but the boys did. If anybody deserves a medal for being a cool guy, Tom does!
Date: 2013-09-18
To: Beautiful Pond
Miles today: 11.0

I finally left town. It was hard to say goodbye to Tom. He's been so nice to us. Yesterday, he drove me like an hour and a half to the hospital. My abscess wasn't getting better. The swelling was starting to spread in my face. All the doctor did was stick a syringe in my gum to suck some stuff out. Not much came out. But it must've worked because I feel so much better today. We (Giggles, Turbo, and Zorro) stopped by a really pretty lake surrounded by mountains. We ate lunch and played on the rocks for an hour. I got a message from Jabberwocky and Occupy the other day. Both of them summited Mount Katahdin. I'm happy for them! I'm about 11 days away from the end. It kind of stresses me out to think about life post-trail. I have no idea what my life is going to be like. I'm also going to miss all of the friends I've made. The good thing is I'll have a friend's place to crash at in almost every state should I chose to travel there. Tonight, we are camped by a beautiful pond. We watched the sunset while eating our dinner. Very clear night tonight. I don't get to do this for much longer. I don't want to miss out on anything.
Date: 2013-09-19
From: Beautiful Pond

To: Caratunk, ME
Miles today: 17.0

We hiked into Caratunk today. Originally, we were just going to resupply and then hike out. But the lure of a hot tub and warm bed was too much to pass up. So we decided to stay at the Northern Outdoors lodge. We crashed in a room with 9 other hikers. I shared a twin bed with Giggles.
Date: 2013-09-20
From: Caratunk, ME

To: Moxie Bald Mountain
Miles today: 0.0

I hiked with Giggles, Turbo, and Zorro today. We have been working on a video montage for one of Giggles' friends. She's going to send it to him for his birthday. We pick random places along the trail and have a dance party. She records the video and sends it to her friend back home to edit the clips. Today, we had a dance party on top of a mountain. It was a lot of fun. As the day went on, we decided to cowboy camp on top of Moxie Bald. But it was getting dark fast. We hadn't even made it to the base of the mountain and the sun had already gone down. We all put our headlamps on and kept hiking. As we got higher up the mountain we could look down and see a few flickering lights from campfires. The sky was clear and the moon full and bright. It was a perfect night to hike! Once at the top of the mountain I felt like I was walking on the moon. The entire mountain top was rock. In the dark it looked like craters and strange plant life. Zorro let me listen to a Radiohead song that completed the effect. The top was pretty windy, so we went down a little further to a ledge to set up camp. All 4 of us are sprawled out in our sleeping bags. We're stargazing and sharing stories now. It's gonna be a great night! I can't believe this trip is almost over...it's moments like these that I will miss the most when I'm off the trail.