morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-08-16
From: Hikers Welcome Hostel Glencliff

To: Old Bridal Trail campsite Franconia Notch
Miles today: 8.6
Weather: light rain

I'm sitting leaning against a rock at the parking lot for the trailheads of two trails leading to Franconia Ridge: Old Bridal Trail and Falling Waters Trail. I can see Mts Lincoln and Little Haystack rising 3500' above me. I'm munching on a sleeve of Ritz crackers dipped in PB and honey. It's about 4 p.m., 75 degrees, sunny, and life's great!We were all up at 6 a.m. -- seven of us in the bunkroom -- because people came in below us and started talking and working on stuff. Fat Chap, an employee of this place, drove me to North Woodstock where we enjoyed a great breakfast at a restaurant, and then on to this parking lot in Franconia Notch at the trailheads. I loved the bacon, O.J., coffee and pancakes. After being dropped off, I stashed my main pack in the woods and put some warm cloths, lunch, and water in a daypack. All of about 4 pounds. Then I started up Old Bridal Trail. Though the day had started foggy, it was turning sunny and positively gorgeous. The last three days had been raining and foggy on Franconia Ridge, so I was hitting exactly the right day.Now I know I have "trail legs". I blew past hikers the entire four miles up the trail (and 3500' elevation gain), doing it in just over two hours including the stops along the way. Take that you mere mortal hikers! Super Doo passing through!! I stopped along the way at Greenleaf Hut to get water. There is a system of huts in the Whites for people who want to hike in and have money to spend. For $75 you get a bunk (bring your own sleeping bag), supper and breakfast. This was one of those huts. Then on and up to Mt Lafayette, the highest peak on Franconia Ridge at 5200'. What an incredible view from up there! It's well above the treeline, and the trail follows along that ridgeline for miles with fall off on both sides. It was about 50 degrees with a constant 20 mph breeze, so the extra clothes I had brought felt great. After an hour or so I started to make my way south along the ridge over Mts Lincoln and Little Haystack, both lower peaks. On the ridgeline I met Slow and Steady who had her daughter Ashley with her. It was a neat reunion as we had shared campsites/shelters a couple times the past ten days with a lot of conversation (she's the recently widowed woman from Virginia). I came down from the ridge on Falling Waters Trail and made a tent campsite along the stream in Franconia Notch. Tomorrow will be the full pack once again and return to reality. But what a day it was today!
Date: 2005-08-17
From: Old Bridal Trail campsite Franconia Notch

To: Eliza Brook Shelter
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Aargh! I'm Mere Mortal Hiker once again! What a difference it makes to go from 4 pounds to 35 on the back.I had such a nice spot for sleeping last night along that beautiful flowing brook coming down the mountain, but then about midnight it started to rain. Drats! I hadn't planned on that, so I was sleeping out in the open without my tarp! So I had to scramble to get the tarp set up and my gear underneath it, a long enough time to get things pretty wet. Eeesh... some people never learn to be safe than sorry.But it quit raining after 30 minutes or so, and by the time I got out of my sleeping bag things were starting to dry a bit. I was off around 7:30 under chilly and cloudy conditions. I took a trail from the trailhead parking lot up to Lonesome Lake Hut, another in that system of huts I mentioned yesterday, and took a 45 minute break there. I nearly froze as the sweat dried on me. But I got to chat with several NOBO hikers who had been at the Glencliff hostel with me, especially with Stats and Mud Pumpkin whom I have been with for a long while and chatted with them a great deal. After my break at Lonesome Lake Hut, I began the arduous climb up Kinsmen Mountain, which is 4000' high. There were tremendous views from the tops of the twin peaks, though I about froze. Because it's hard work climbing, I wear just the usual shorts and shirt, sweating up a storm. But as soon as you stop, you cool off fast. Because I've lost so much fat from my body (25 pounds or more now), I chill very easily. So I stop, open up my pack, and get my hooded jacket on for warmth. Even then I have to be on my way in half an hour or so because I'm getting chilled to the bone. So I take the jacket off and put it back in the pack, get the pack on and start hiking, and in about five minutes time I'm warmed up again and starting to sweat. The trail down Kinsmen was positively wicked in its steepness and all rock flavor. People coming up it were laboring mighty hard. We didn't see trail like this in Massachusetts and Vermont! I made it to this shelter around 4 p.m., the first to arrive. By dark there were twelve of us, all men. And who showed up but D.A. and Mr. Pokie Puppy! I shared the shelter with them and three others. It was the first night I wore all my clothes for sleeping inside my bag, and I was glad to have them. Six of the guys here are SOBO thru hikers who began at Katahdin in Maine during July. I met Trash Tim today going north! I don't think he recognized me. He's the guy who has sleep apnea and is a bit wierd.
Date: 2005-08-18
From: Eliza Brook Shelter

To: Beaver Brook Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Another chilly day! Had to wear a jacket whenever I stopped for a break.I got away today at 7:45. What with the low miles, I seem to have lost my capactiy to be up at 6 and gone at 7. Too easy to roll over and go back to sleep! And the cold air outside the sleeping bag is a definite DE-motivator to get up!Today involved first going over Mt Wolf, a major disappointment but a lot of work to get over it. No views. What thru hikers call a definite PUD (pointless up and down.) The day ended with what is easily the toughest climb of the trip: 1800' foot gain in one and a half miles up the north side of Mt Moosilauke. It took me two hours to negotiate the stretch. It was beautiful however, because a cascading stream was adjacent to the trail much of the way. The trail is so steep that they have inserted steps into the granite and handrails to help the hikers haul themselves up. But as difficult as it is to go up, it's actually more difficult for the hikers going down.This shelter is fabulous, probably one of the five best on the entire AT. There is a view to the east of the Kinsmen, Franconia Ridge, and beyond it Mt Washington far in the distance. About ten days of hiking represented in that view. The day was very clear by the time I got here, so I had that view to enjoy as I sat in the shelter and prepared my supper. But was it ever chilly! I soon had all my clothes on except my hiking clothes which were drying, and by 7:30 I had to get into my sleeping bag to warm up. Brrr! What a life! In bed by 7:30! And I roll out around 6:30 a.m., meaning 11 hours in the sack! Don't sleep all that time, but it makes wonderful recovery for the aching joints (knees particularly due to the sharp downs) and weary leg muscles (due mainly to the sharp ups). Two other fellows shared the shelter with me. One of them is almost seven feet tall, so he has unique challenges hiking the trail. Also as I fixed supper, a family of three stopped in for a break. They're doing the entire trail together, and the boy is ten years old. What a neat family experience! The youngest hiker of the entire trail I've heard about is a seven year old... a woman with her five children did the AT together a couple years back. My last night on the AT! Where did the days go? I'm glad I finished in the Whites and that the weather was so good for viewing, because it certainly crowned the trip beautifully.
Date: 2005-08-19
From: Beaver Brook Shelter

To: Hikers Welcome Hostel Glencliff
Miles today: 8.2
Weather: broken clouds

Last night I wore two pairs of socks, long john bottoms, a sweatshirt, and my hooded raincoat when I crawled into my bag. I felt great! And slept great too! We awoke to a beautiful sunrise beaming right into the shelter from above Franconia Ridge 15 miles to the east.Underway by 7:30, and climbed the last 1000' elevation gain over 2.5 miles to the top of Mt Moosilauke (4802'). Another incredible view! I could see three weeks of my hike from there, from Mt Stratton in southern Vermont to Mt Lafayette on Franconia Ridge. And I could see all of the Presidential Range of the Whites to the northeast beyond which would have taken another week's hiking to get through. I spent half an hour on the mountain top soaking in sights, well above treeline with just rocks as my companions. It was too early in the day for any dayhikers to have made it up yet. The top of Moosilauke is an Alpine area with very different sorts of vegetation which are very fragile. So the rules for hikers are quite severe. No camping, no fires, and hiking only within the very strict boundaries of the paths up and down.Then I headed down for the five miles to Glencliff. It's a very significant elevation drop (3500') but stretched out over five miles, so it's not all that bad. In fact, two sides of a mountain could scarcely be any different than this: a steep and brutal rock climb on the north, and a relatively gentle rise with no major rocks on the south. Curious.Now I've made it back to the hostel in Glencliff, and my hiking is over. Tomorrow D-Train picks me up to shuttle me back to Brattleboro VT where the car has been resting for four weeks. So much to reflect on! If anyone wants to take me out to coffee and ask me questions, I'd be happy to regale you for a couple of hours. You'll be bored out of your mind, but I'll likely love it. Kind of like watching someone else's vacation video...God has watched over me every step of the way, and I can tell that a number of people have been praying for me. You're all awesome, and have been partners with me in this hike. Thanks! And now on to Taiwan and India for the next month.
Date: 2005-01-16
To: Can't think Can't sleep
Miles today: 0.0

I am having serious concentration issues. Plus sleep issues. This didn't happen to me last time. Maybe it's because I was a lot less educated about the trail and really didn't know what it was all about. So, I didn't know so much what to get excited, or nervous, about. Maybe it is because having been in the corporate world for a while, full of complexity and material trappings, I now have a better appreciation for the simplicity and freedom of thru-hiking.   Of course I am nervous too, and I have some fears. There are the standard concerns that I will get sick or injured, or that Tom will. He is so strong though that I am not so fearful that will happen. I fear that the weather will be horrible for unusually extended periods. But right now, I am most afraid that I will be so overloaded with emotion at first, that I will be numb. That I will feel nothing. That it will be so much emotionally, that I won't be able to process it and will simply feel nothing. Regardless, the fact remains that over and over each day, I count the days till this path ends and the trail begins. I am utterly consumed. I lie in bed at night, trying to imagine what I will feel when I am in the car driving to Massachusetts (where we will be leaving a vehicle with Tom's parents who live there). How will I feel getting into G14nter's (Tom's dad) little Cessna for the 7 hour flight to Georgia? How will I feel, standing on Springer, looking down at the famous plaque marking the beginning of this journey? What friends will we make, how might the trail have changed? What awaits us???I sit at my desk looking at my work on the computer and without realizing it my eyes have drifted and my gaze shifted up to the AT map on the wall of my cube. It is the map plus 12 pictures on the back of the ATC's 2004 calendar. Then, I try to focus and think of my TO DO list for work, then find myself in the back notes section of my day planner looking at the "TO DO before the AT" list.   The pictorial representation of the time zones is on the opposing page and I find myself tracing the trail with my finger on the Eastern Time zone section. I start in northern GA and run my finger through the approximate path of the trail, through each state to Northern Maine. So soon! The past four years have gone so fast and I am ready to do this, am I ever ready!!!Danger Pea
Date: 2005-01-16
To: Gravity's Peace
Miles today: 0.0

Well, not having read my wife's first entry, I don't really know what all she has said. But here goes... "Why we want to hike 2175 miles", or "What's wrong with me?"The short answer is, there's nothing wrong with me. The long answer is, well... there IS something wrong with me. But I'm not sure what... I love my job, I love my home, I love my wife, but there is something still missing. I still dream about hiking the trail. I still want this accomplishment.In 2001 we both graduated from College/Grad school. It was a huge accomplishement, and my schooling was offically at an end. It was time to enter the real world. But, I needed a transition. And, I needed to know if the woman I was with, the one that I loved, and thought would be my wife, was really what I wanted. So we planned to take a walk. We researched, we planned, we packed boxes, and we went out there and it was nothing like what we expected. Our relation was strengthened immensely, and we got engaged shortly after the trail, but we only made it to Front Royal. Crystal was in absolute pain with each step. I couldn't handle watching her cry every day after a few miles of pain She had neuroma's. A simple Metatasal pad and orthotic has fixed it, and we ran a marathon (about 500 miles of training) to check it out. We were done with hiking. But it was also the most amazing thing either of us had ever experienced, and we knew we would have to go back and finish this thing we set out to accomplish.And here we are. Super excited, trail tested (we hiked the 170 northern miles of the long trail this summer to make sure this is really what we wanted to do) and ready to live life with a vibrance that seems to escape us in our normal work-a-day life.WE ARE READY!Gravity
Date: 2005-01-26
To: It's Coming!
Miles today: 0.0

34 days!Wow, 34 days¢¦ Letting that sink in...When we first seriously started talking about trying to through-hike, it was over 2 years go. We had SO LONG to think about it and plan. We put up a map in our living room to inspire us. We read book after book by other hikers. We trained for and ran a marathon. We took a 16 day hike on the Long Trail. We hiked most weekends, wondering what it was going to feel like when we were on Springer Mountain looking at 2175 miles of trail in front of us, and dream of what it would feel like to stand on Katahdyn 6ish months later. We watched AT videos that have come out over the last few years. We dreamed and dreamed and dreamed. For 2 years we knew that with luck March 1, 2005 we would be on Springer.Now that day is just 34 days away. The excitement is immense, but what I didn¢t expect is also the anxiety. The anxiety of leaving our house alone for 6+ months, of getting health insurance before we leave, of doing our taxes, of doing the car maintenance, of leaving my job for that long, of¢¦ it just seems like there is so much to do.By nature I am a worrier. I worry a lot. Which, in many ways is why I love long distance hiking so much. Life is just so simple. While I am out there, I have a firm gasp on EVERY THING that I need to do that day. Wake up, pack, walk, eat, set up camp, sleep. That easy! But getting there¢¦ wow, there¢s a lot to think about¢¦Gravity
Date: 2005-02-22
To: Here we go!
Miles today: 0.0

This is it! My last day at work for 8 months! Amazing... I have a ton to do, but it feels good, yet strange.We give up our computer to a friend that agreed to copy our pictures from the trail (Thanks Keith!), so this will be the last update we write from the Boulder area. Tomorrow we are underways! So, this is official... we are leaving for the trail!Gravity
Date: 2005-02-27
To: Are we there yet?
Miles today: 0.0

The last five days have felt like an eternity! We got the house all closed up, the truck loaded with the kitty and extra gear. On Wednesday we were finally off! Hard to believe that the journey was commencing. What I wasn't prepared for was how long it was going to take just to get to the darn trail!!We decided to drive straight through from CO to MA, stopping only for food, gas and a couple of cat naps. The first seven hours seemed to go by at warp speed. I wish we'd saved the warp drive for later in the drive though. By PA I was wondering if perhaps I had died, unknowingly offended a decision maker from above, and was committed to a purgatory of forever driving east, the entirety of my existence encapsulated in the cab of the little Ford Ranger, never arriving anywhere. But after only one actual near death experience involving some ice and a curb, we finally arrived in Pepperell, MA to spend a few days making final preparations at Tom's parent's house.It was quite gracious of them to host us for these days. Yet these have been the longest three days I have experienced in the last 4 years!We were originally planning to fly down with Tom's dad, Gunther, in his little Cessna. But as I suspected might happen, the weather was not conducive to a small plane flight, and we were left having to figure out how to get to GA. Was that ever stressful! The thought of driving another 20 hours after the 34 hour drive we'd just survived threatened long term emotional trauma. But could we find an affordable commercial ticket at this late date? Might the weather actually take a last minute turn for the better? Decisions and Stress! So close yet so far: unimaginable agony!The stress over last minute travel arrangements was bad. But what I didn't expect but that was even worse, was the flood of emotions being in Pepperell getting ready to start the hike. Pepperell was where we went when we had to leave the trail in 2001. I was overcome with memory of those feelings of failure and shame for not perservering. What it felt like to face the dissapointment of family that had been following and supporting us. The feelings of hopelessness and ineptitude. At a time when I should have been giddy with excitement, I found my heart greyed by memory, fear and anxiety.I really don't want the 2001 hike to define this one. It feels good to be on the plane, just me and Gravity, ready to start a new hike. With some wisdom from past experience, but open and ready for all of the new ones to come. We have worked hard and visualized this for four years. So much has gone in to making this happen. It is time to embrace the reality of what we have dreamed about and worked for for so long. Time to take the first step! Time to leave behind soft beds and fast cars. Time to embrace simplicity, comeraderie, physical challenge and pure fulfillment and joy!Danger
Date: 2005-03-01
From: Springer Mountain

To: Hawk Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.6
Weather: broken clouds

Trail Magic Already!Finally warming up, watching snow flurries blow by outside Hawk Mountain Shelter. It was a restless night at the Hiker Hostel, packed full of hikers eagerly anticipating the journey to begin next morning. The anticipation was palpable making sleep almost impossible. We did finally fall asleep though everyone woke up very early. Everyone was restless way before sunrise, and after a nice warm breakfast 7 of us piled into the Suburban to head to Springer! The sky was clear and promising as sunrise broke. But, as we wound our way up the mountain the sky darkened and flurries turned to full on snow. Shockingly enough though, I was not discouraged! It was a snowy day for Springer which I was not expecting, but today I am a thru-hiker!So after a chilly trek we arrived at Hawk Mountain Shelter. A crew was taking a break that stayed at Springer last night but they moved on to Gooch Gap. That's a long day but I guess they were too cold to call it a day at 1:30 PM. We, however, decided that a 2:30 PM dinner and an afternoon cuddling in the bag was a fine way to while away the afternoon.So here we are, snuggled on our bags, cold but content. There's a big crowd here though most of us from the hostel last night including Stick, Kamikaze, Humpty, Ken, Shadow, Sassy and Farmer John. It feels so wonderful to be with hikers again! There is also a big group of spring breakers, and several other thru hikers here tonight. There must be 30 people!We are already scheming for tomorrow though, thinking of doing 12 to Woody and spending the tomorrow night at the Hiker Hostel again. Aah, freedom!
Date: 2005-03-02
From: Hawk Mountain Shelter

To: Woody Gap
Miles today: 12.3
Weather: clear sky

The Plan was HatchedOnce the plan was put forth to go to Woody and the Hiker Hostel there was little anyone could do to derail it. We were plenty warm enough in our WM Versalite Super but many people did not get much sleep. A 20 degree bag is just not enough for a March 1 start! Poor Stick froze in his WM Ultra, Kamikaze was renamed Spoonie Love because she INSISTED Stick and Sci Fi spoon her all night!The walking went well today despite going over 12 miles when we had planned closer to 7. My ankle is actually really bothering me, but I hope it is from the untested custom orthotics and nothing more serious. The weather was clear and beautiful albeit cold. Rumor has it the it was 15F in town, closer to 10 in the mountains.Tired, tired...maybe 10 to Neels if we feel like we can do that... Gravity