morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-05-25
From: NY 22 (Wingdale)

To: Bulls Bridge Road
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: few clouds

We did a short, hot hike today from the AT Railroad Station near Wingdale, NY to Bulls Bridge Road near Kent, CT. It was cool when we started, but climbed quickly from the 50s to the 80s by the time we finished and it¢s currently 91. Summertime has arrived with a vengeance.We cleared out of the Quality Inn in Fishkill, NY and we¢ve moved camp to the Fife & Drum in Kent. We stayed here in 2014, then we tried the Cooper B&B in 2015 (which is a couple of miles outside town) since they will shuttle. The Fife & Drum Restaurant is a favorite of ours and we don¢t need a shuttle this year, so we decided to return there. Kent is a cute little town, with a number of nice shops on the main street. But it doesn¢t have a reputation as a trail-friendly town, and I¢m not sure it wants that. I¢ve heard there¢s plenty of money in the area, and some hikers are not very respectful of property. I know that the laundromat in town has had some bad experiences with hikers. However, I¢ve also heard recently that hikers have been able to find some campsites in town, so maybe things are improving. Anyway, we¢ve always like it here.Today was a double key swap day. The first segment was from NY 22 (Wingdale) to CT 55, so the second was from CT 55 to Bulls Bridge Road. Both NY 22 and CT 55 have off-road parking areas (as opposed to road-side parking on the berm or a pullout). Bulls Bridge Road has a road-side area at the AT trailhead with space for 3 or 4 cars. It¢s not designated as a parking area, but it appears that hikers and fishermen use it and there are no signs that prohibit parking. There is a day parking area on the other side of Bulls Bridge, but that¢s much farther away from the AT.We both enjoyed the hike today a lot in spite of the heat. The woods was pretty, the trail was well-maintained, lots of twists and turns and small challenges along the way. There were plank-walks, meadows & pastures, stiles, lots of small streams, sharp ups & downs, a walk along the Housatonic River with lots of rapids, and Bulls Bridge is a covered, one-lane bridge that is very close to our end point today. We also passed by Wiley Shelter that¢s maintained by Martin, a friend we had dinner with several days ago (I included a photo on Friday of Martin and his wife Donna who helps with the maintenance). The shelter is really nice with a mortared fire pit, several tent platforms, a separate campfire site and a library. The ¢take a book, leave a book¢ library is on a post. And it also has a set of pots & pans on the side of the shelter. At the southern end of the hike, near Wingdale, there is a wooden water tower in a field that is very picturesque. So we had a great hike today in spite of the heat. We¢re staying here in Kent for 2 nights, then moving on. And it looks like we¢ll be joined by a couple of other hikers in a few days. We¢re working on arrangements for that now. It¢s hard to get connected with other folk¢s schedules, but if it works out it¢s a lot of fun sharing the experience. More on that later.
Date: 2016-05-26
From: Bulls Bridge Road

To: Skiff Mountain Road
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: light rain

Another short section today from Bulls Bridge to Skiff Mountain Road. In the past, we¢ve always finished hiking at CT 341 which goes directly into Kent 0.8 mi east. Having a car changes some things. Bulls Bridge Rd to 341 is pretty short and we wanted to extend today¢s hike to reduce the mileage on tomorrow¢s hike. It would have been great to add 4 to 6 miles past 341, but the access roads to get to those points on the trail require a more rugged vehicle. So we settled for Skiff Mountain Road which added 2.7 miles.Today was hot and humid. We did a double key swap again today (we find an intermediate road crossing where we can break the day¢s section into 2 subsections and thus do 2 key swaps). We used CT 341 as the intermediate point. Both Princess and I had steep climbs at the start of the first (longer) section. By the time that we met in the first section, we were glad that we didn¢t plan many more miles today. There was a pretty good breeze on the mountain that helped cool us a little, but it was well into the 80s when we finished (and after the hike it peaked over 90 in Kent) and very humid. We both drank a lot of water and I downed 2 bottles of water when she picked me up at the intermediate point.The hike today was nice, it seems like an old forest with big old trees, but there weren¢t many features. A lot of sharp ups and downs without many flat spaces in between. There were a couple of openings in the woods that offered good vistas across the adjacent valleys, but no remarkable landmarks. The most interesting aspect of the hike is that we passed from NY into CT. Both Princess and I felt that the trail markings (blazes) could be improved in this section. At one point, I got off trail and resorted to Guthook to help get me going again in the correct direction. Blazes can be hard to spot early in the morning when the sun is at a low angle, especially if they¢re old and faded.The blaze discussion is interesting, particularly since I just read that a number of documents relating to the disappearance of Geraldine Largay from the AT in Maine in 2014 were just released. They suggest that she was alive for 26 days after she disappeared, and well after the authorities had given up the search. So far, Guthook has done a remarkable job of telling me how to get back to the trail when I¢m uncertain.
Date: 2016-06-04
From: Grafton Turnpike

To: NH 25A
Miles today: 16.1
Weather: overcast clouds

We had a great day today, good weather, good hike, all is well. I mentioned in yesterday¢s notes that we might change the order of hikes this week due to weather predictions, and we decided to do that. So today, we skipped over a relatively easy section and did a longer hike over two mountains while the weather was good. We think it was a good adjustment, the weather was ideal and it was a tougher hike. But it would have been much more difficult in the rain. The major targets today were Smart Mountain and Mt. Cube. We¢ve done these peaks twice before and both times NoBo, but this time we decided to hike SoBo. In retrospect, that may not have been the best choice, both have steep downhill sections on the southern sides and we usually prefer to go uphill on steep sections. Regardless, we drove both vehicles to our endpoint at Grafton Turnpike and then drove with One More to our starting point at NH 25A. We left his vehicle there and headed southbound up Mt. Cube. Both Cube and Smart Mountain were very long, mostly steady climbs. Cube was about 3 miles up and Smart was over 4 miles for us. That¢s a pretty long time to be doing nothing but climbing. We know there will be climbs later this week that will be higher and tougher, but we had to work at it. The downhills were more challenging - steep and some were wet. We all managed to slip at some point. The trees opened up for some good views along the way and I took some photos. We met Quaker as we started down from Mt. Cube. Both Princess and I remembered him from sometime in the past 2 years, and he also thought he remembered us. He says he plans to go all the way this year, so this will be his last section. He wished us well and gave us a blessing before we moved on. We also met Wolfman, Rambo, Mad Dog and Bones later in the hike. We encountered a number of section hikers as well and the trail was quite active. One couple we met had a very small, cute puppy. We asked how old it was and they said 5 months. Later, One More said that 5 months was too young to bring a puppy on a long hike, that their bones aren¢t fully formed that early. Next time we¢ll have to find a way to tactfully advise the owners of the problem without offending them. So, now the forecast for tomorrow is 100% probability of rain in this area, and we¢re expecting to get wet. At least we have saved a shorter, easier hike for tomorrow, so we won¢t be miserable for quite as long. We¢ll do the stretch from Three Mile Road to Grafton Turnpike. If we can get an early enough start, we could finish as early as noon. The fun never ends on the AT.After our hike we checked into Dowd¢s Country Inn in Lyme, NH. We stayed here last year and it was great. This year we have a larger room to include One More and Howie, when he arrives tomorrow. We had dinner at Stella¢s, just a few feet down the road from Dowd¢s and it was really good. Stella¢s is Italian and our dinners were spot on. Now it¢s late and time to turn in. I¢ve had 2 really good IPAs tonight and I¢m sure I¢ll have no trouble sleeping.
Date: 2016-06-05
From: Three Mile Road

To: Grafton Turnpike
Miles today: 9.2
Weather: light rain

The weather weenies said it would rain today. It was still dry when we woke up and we had hopes that it would stay that way. Anticipating rain, we rearranged our schedule so that we had a shorter, easier hike today instead of a longer hike with steep climbs and rocks. We decided to hike NoBo, so we pre-positioned One More¢s Highlander at the end point on Grafton Turnpike and then drove back to Three Mile Road, our starting point. Still no rain. We set out just before 8:00 am and our first target was Moose Mountain, 2290 ft elevation. The climb started after less than a quarter mile and continued for a mile and a half, all the was to the top of the south peak of the mountain. It started as a gradual slope, but quickly changed to a moderately steep slope the rest of the way up. And somewhere along the climb, the rain started. It rained for most of the remainder of our hike, mostly a drizzle, occasionally heavier, but it hardly ever stopped. The trail must have been very dry, it absorbed a lot of the water and we continued to have good footing until much later in the hike when we made the final descent. Moose Mountain had 2 peaks (north & south), both about the same elevation with a saddle in between. After the second peak we started a descent and we were worried that it would have a lot of large, smooth rock faces that would be very slick when wet. The descent did have some tough spots, but we were able to pick our way around the wet rocks. After dropping to less than 1,000 ft, we started another long fairly steep climb to the Holts Ledge area. The peak didn¢t have a name in AWOL¢s book and shortly after we went over the top we reached the ledges. It appeared that the AT paralleled the ledge drop-off and there was a screen of bushes that blocked the view. At several places there was a side trail to the edge of the ledge and it was only a few yards away. Unfortunately, the clouds & mist prevented any views and I only took one photo of a mountaintop sign. The last descent was wet and slippery, I managed to fall once (actually twice). It was a good hike, albeit wet - but I was happy to see the car at the end of the trek.Tonight is our last night here at Dowds, so we¢re starting the packing process. If we do it right, all we have left to do in the morning is to put on our hiking gear and head out. We¢re too early for breakfast here, so we picked up sandwiches for the morning. We just got a nice tour of the new tavern that the Dowds family is building on to the complex. It looks absolutely beautiful with incredible woodwork and several dozen British custom-built hand pump taps. Too bad that we¢re about a month too early to sample. But who knows, we may be back next year?Howie arrived earlier this afternoon and he¢s settled in with us. Tomorrow is Mt. Moosilauke, a really tough hike. Too bad that Howie¢s first hike is a big one, but the weather has dictated it. It is what it is. PS: Howie's trail name is Greatness.
Date: 2016-06-07
From: NH 25A

To: NH 25A
Miles today: 9.8
Weather: scattered clouds

I think we¢re having too much fun. Princess, Greatness & I are sitting here in our room at the Woodstock Inn laying out our plans for the next several days. It¢s pretty complex. Tomorrow is simple, we¢re going to do a zero day here in North Woodstock. Earlier it looked like rain would be a problem, that may not be the case, but we have already booked one more night here at the Inn. So we won¢t hike until Thursday and then we have a tough one. On Thursday, we¢re starting at Franconia Notch, crossing Mt. Lafayette and Mt. Garfield, then stay over at the Galehead Hut. Then Friday we cross South Twin Mountain, Mt. Guyot and eventually stay at the AMC Highland Center. So we have a lot of planning to do and arrangements to work out for our cars. So even though tomorrow is a zero, we have a lot of work to do.The probability of rain was 100% today, so we planned a short and easy hike and it started raining while we were loading the cars this morning. We did a section that we skipped a couple of days ago in order to get good weather for Mt. Moosilauke. We went from NH 25A to NH 25, crossing Ore Hill and Mt. Mist. There were virtually no significant highlights, Greatness and One More took one photo of a blue-blaze view point and I didn¢t take any photos at all. The whole hike was in the woods with a lot of stream crossings, plank and puncheon walks, roots and mud.It doesn¢t sound good, but overall it was a nice walk. There were a few sprinkles of rain as we drove to the trail, but they stopped and it didn¢t start raining again until we reached the cars at the end point of our hike - so we stayed dry. The sun actually came out several times and the temp was cool and very pleasant, although I did get a number of but bites. One More¢s internet research suggested that blue shirts attract insects, so I wore grey today and I can report that it didn¢t help. I just hope this weather continues for the rest of the week. There was one interesting event that occurred as we were driving to our starting point, but you¢ll have to ask one of us about it.We made it back to the Inn by mid-afternoon and of course, that¢s when the rains showed up. They were spotty and most of the rest of the day was quite nice here in North Woodstock. We had a good outdoor dinner at the Inn, I got a free growler of Woodstock Brewery IPA and we exchanged stories this evening.All for now.
Date: 2016-10-17
From: TriCorner Shelter

To: Davenport Gap
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

You could likely tell that we¢re not enthusiastic about staying in trail shelters. It usually takes several hours for everyone to get settled, cook, eat and ready for bed, so it doesn¢t get quiet until 9 or 10pm. Same in the morning. Early risers may wake and start packing as early as 5, while others may try to sleep for several more hours. Once someone wakes up and starts cooking breakfast and packing, it never really gets quiet again. Today we got a reasonably early start, but I never move fast in the morning so we probably didn¢t get leave the shelte until 7:30 or 8. We did have motivation since we were finishing the northern section of the park and heading to a motel the day¢s hike.The weather was just a little warmer and a little clearer than the previous day, so hiking was more comfortable. We had some uphills, but the latter part of the hike was a very-long and relatively steep downhill. Generally speaking, I don¢t like long uphills. It¢s tough cardio exercise and I really get winded and slow down. But Princess would rather go uphill than downhill and at the end of the day I agreed with her. I think our final descent was over 3,000 feet, a lot of it over rocks and it was painful. The constant hammering is hard on knees and hips, but I think my toes suffered the most and I¢m going to lose a big toenail as a result. As before, there were some very dramatic views from the peaks and the trail was in great shape. Lots of reds and yellows in the trees and when the sun came out the landscape was ablaze. Some leaves have fallen, but many are still on the trees and the color of light passing through the canopy changed as we passed through groves of different types of trees. And the fragrance of pines at the higher altitudes is fantastic. It¢s quite an experience.This was one of our longer days of hiking and we were grateful when we finally spotted the car at the end and had a chance to pull off our boots. It was a long drive back to Newfound Gap where we picked up our car and then headed to the south end of GSMNP to pre-position a vehicle at Fontana Dam where we would finally finish the trek through the Smokies after 3 more days of hiking. But before anymore hiking, we had one evening in a motel to shower, wash clothes, pick up some fresh supplies and get a good night¢s sleep in a bed before starting back on the trail the next morning.
Date: 2016-10-19
From: Silers Bald Shelter

To: Russell Field Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

As I described previously, the shelter was not conducive to sleeping and when 2 other hikers rose and started packing, we did the same. Since we were about an hour earlier than usual, it was still dark when we started hiking. We haven¢t had much experience with night-hiking, but it went pretty well. The trail was relatively benign in the area and our night-lights were adequate to spot roots and rocks. It also helped that we were following another night hiker who seemed to have no problem with the darkness. We could see the horizon after 30 min and after an hour we didn¢t need our head-lamps at all. Much of the first half of the hike was downhill. The weather was a bit warmer than yesterday and scattered clouds provided a beautiful day for hiking. We stopped at Derrick Knob shelter to fill up our bottles in case water got scarce down the trail. We met 3 section hikers from New Jersey last night at the shelter who were pretty much keeping pace with us and we leapfrogged them several times. They were headed to the same shelter we were targeting.The high point for the day was Thunderhead Mountain and Rocky Top. Rocky Top in particular provided some spectacular views. A number of hikers were resting on Rocky Top, having a bite and enjoying the scenery. We took some photos, but didn¢t stay long. We passed Spence Field Shelter on the way down. We heard there might be water there, but way off the trail and sketchy at best, so we didn¢t stop. About 3 miles further we made it to Russell Field Shelter and were the first ones there. This shelter had a decent water source ¢ a small pool, but large enough to provide adequate water for the shelter crowd. It was 0.2 mile downhill, so it was important to get enough water for the evening and next day¢s hike in one trip. This shelter ended up being the most crowded of all that we used. We chose the lower platform again (important when you might have to get up during the night). Several late arrivals filled it to capacity. There were several SoBo thru-hikers in the crowd and they traded stories until about 9. Then things settled down and I slept better than previous nights.
Date: 2016-10-20
From: Russell Field Shelter

To: Fontana Dam
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Our 3 new friends rose early (5 am) with the loud alarm again and we climbed out and packed up at the same time. I was surprised to see several tents set up in front of the shelter, so it was a busy place. Breakfast went smoothly and we set off in the dark again. Today was our last day in the Smokies and except for a couple of climbs most of the trail was downhill into Fontana Dam. This was the first time that we did this section southbound. There are several unique features that we recognized in spite of the fact that we were going in the opposite direction. One of these is a short stretch, maybe 30 yards of ridged stone ¢ possibly shale ¢ and the trail seems to be notched out of the stone. Another landmark is a jumble of stone nicknamed ¢The Throne¢ that seems to form a seat. The first year we hiked we missed this entirely. This time we took pics of both of us sitting in it. Otherwise most of my photos are woods photos. The sun was bright and the light streaming through the trees was spectacular. The trees are changing colors and everything seemed to be more vivid in the light, the reds in particular. Yesterday we got our first long-range view of Fontana Lake from Rocky Top. Now as we began the long descent we began to get glimpses of the lake through the trees and finally it was in front of us as we emerged from GSMNP. Cloud shadows were playing along the shores emphasizing the contours of the slopes down to the water. The long-term drought was evident by the water level in the lake. There is a wide band of dry stone and soil between the edge of the forest and the water all around the lake. A small island near the dam looks like a small group of trees sitting on a pedestal sticking up out of the water. After we retrieved both cars, we drove back to Blue Ridge, GA and spent the night there. We decided to take a zero day, sleep late, rearrange our gear and then make the long drive back up the trail to Erwin, TN. This is the point we reached last spring when we decided to jump ahead to West VA. We plan to stay with Peggy and Mike at Cantarrosa Farm. We¢ve stayed with them several times and absolutely love it. It¢s a great place to stay in a beautiful setting with lots of amenities.
Date: 2016-10-22
From: Beauty Spot

To: Erwin, TN
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: heavy intensity rain

The forecast today was colder than we¢ve been accustomed to, so we slept in a bit before we headed out from Cantarrosa Farm to the trailhead. Our plan was to park our car at the Indian Gap trailhead and hike back to Erwin from there. It was definitely cooler and I had to make some glove adjustments to keep my fingers warm. The trail was in excellent shape. Although there wasn¢t as much sun, I still enjoyed all the color along the trail. This section of trail is mostly downhill into Erwin and passes through some extensive rhododendron groves. And there is actually some water in the streams, a definite change from the situation in GSMNP. About the only significant landmark was Curley Maple Gap Shelter that is located directly on the AT. It¢s a very inviting shelter and we remembered seeing Mobley there last year. The long downhill was hard on the feet until it leveled out as it reached the Nolichucky River. The AT narrows and climbs a little along a steep hillside as it parallels the river on the way into Erwin. Eventually the trail drops back down, crosses a railroad and then follows along the riverbank. We called Mike for a shuttle back to our car at Indian Gap and on the way we asked him to take us just a bit further on a gravel road to a point on the AT called Beauty Spot. We still had some energy and hiking back from Beauty Spot trimmed about 4 miles from tomorrow¢s hike. There was a small parking area just below Beauty Spot where he dropped us off. Beauty Spot is a grassy knoll above the parking lot with some great views and a small group of hikers was setting off from there. I didn¢t linger long since the wind was gusty and it was much colder on the exposed knoll than we had just experienced down near Erwin. So we moved quickly and made short work of the 4 miles back to our car. As we dropped below the knoll, the ridge blocked much of the wind so it wasn¢t that unpleasant.