morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2007-08-12
From: Hotel in Littleton

To: Nauman Tentsite
Miles today: 6.4
Weather: fog

(Willie)I guess that miracles do happen after all. We were only 20 minutes behind schedule when we got back to the trail this morning, which was much better then the one or two or three hours late that we usually are. Somehow, we were able to get back to the trail at Crawford Notch at about 10:20 and we were ready to roll shortly after that. My parents had decided that they were up for the steep climb up to Webster Cliffs so we let them head up the hill while we finished getting our stuff together. Maybe that wasn¢t the best of ideas. They¢ve apparently been doing some hiking of their own and without the weight of full packs and 4 days worth of food on their back they were pretty tough to catch up to. We eventually made up the few minutes lead and soon we were all huffing and puffing our way up the 1100¢ climb together. We had some great views back to the south of the notch from the top of the cliffs, but the wind was blowing just enough to cool things down to the point where we needed to keep moving. My parents went another 45 minutes before deciding that they needed to head down and start the 5 hour car ride back home, which left us by ourselves to tackle the rest of the Presidentials. From the cliffs the climb up to the top of Webster got a bit rockier and tougher to navigate, but we made our way to the summit where we took a little break to hand feed some Canadian Gray Jays. All you had to do was hold your hand out with some trail mix and they would just swoop down and eat it all up. Tip: If you want to keep the bird on your hand a bit longer, hold the food down with your thumb so they can¢t just fly away with it.From Webster we headed up and over the 4000 foot line to the top of Mt. Jackson before heading on to the Mizpah Hut. Unfortunately there were already a couple of thru hikers doing work for stay there so we set up our tent at the Nauman Campsite right next to the hut. So, instead of sleeping inside and getting diner and breakfast in exchange for 30 minutes of light work we got to sleep outside, got no free food, and had to pay $16. Oh well, maybe we¢ll try for a work for stay tomorrow.Life Lesson: The sight of a mountain range that you have to climb opening up before you can either fill you with awe or with fear.
Date: 2007-08-14
From: Madison Spring Hut

To: Carter Notch Hut
Miles today: 13.7
Weather: scattered clouds

(Erin) After a nice night sleep on the floor in another hut and listening to the wind howl outside I am once again glad we didn¢t have to set up the tent. I slept better than expected but we were woken up at 5am by the croo starting breakfast. The wind was still blowing at 50-60mph and the mountains around the hut were completely packed in the clouds and fog. We couldn¢t see Mt. Madison that was directly behind the hut except for some white blazes leading us up into the fog. We started out getting blown around and within a few steps we couldn¢t see the hut behind us anymore. With all of our rain gear on to try to break the wind from giving us some crazy wind burn we climbed up Mt. Madison. We climbed up 1 mile from the hut to the top of Mt. Madison (5363'). The mountain was a huge pile of rocks which made the climbing and walking very slow going. To me it seemed a bit crazy to be out hiking in this kind of weather but we had to keep going. The hike up took about 35 minutes, the hike down 2 miles took 3 hours. Very slow and too slow for Will to handle. I need to try to push myself to go faster or we will be up here all day, and I didn¢t want that. Once we finally made it under the trees the weather calmed down and it was like August again. We kept going to get to Pinkam Notch and a visitors center where we had lunch. After a great lunch we had to keep going and that meant that we had to go up The Wildcats. It was a 2.5 mile hike straight up the side of a mountain. The Wildcats is a ski resort that we hike up the side of and past one set of chair lifts. Wow was it steep, and slow going of course. It was scary and I thought that we should have been in harnesses and on a rope. It took forever to go the 2.5 miles which did not make Will very happy. He wanted us to go at least a mile an hour and when we fall below that he would start to get a little frustrated. So The Wildcats is not something I want to do again. We finally made it to the top of the first peak of the Wildcats and still had peaks D, C, B and A to get up and over before the long decent into Carter Notch to the hut. We reached the hut at 8:00 just barely before pitch darkness and asked the Croo if we could stay the night with out doing a work-for-stay. We wanted to get out early so that we could try to hike all the way to Gorham, NH. They let us stay and pay a tent site fee of $8 per person and we slept on the floor again. So we made it, it was a hard day but I survived and only have one more day in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
Date: 2007-08-15
From: Carter Notch Hut

To: Gorham, NH
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: fog

(Willie)Somehow, for the second day in a row we were able to pull ourselves away from a hut before breakfast was served. Oh yeah, I remember how we did it. We knew that if we could get out early, then by the end of the day we¢d be in a hotel in Gorham. I guess a bed and a shower will help makeup for skipping out on some pancakes. It was still a little bit chilly this morning, but at least the weather starting out at 3300¢ was much much better then yesterdays start at 4820¢. I guess being able to see about 10¢ in front of us and not being covered in frost was a step in the right direction.The fact that we were leaving from the Carter Notch Hut could only mean one thing, a kick butt climb to start the day. Today¢s little warm up was a nice and gentle 1600¢ climb in 1.2 miles to get us to the top of Cater Dome (4832¢). Unfortunately, the weather decided to go down hill at the same time as we did, and a little after the summit it was raining on us. Luckily, the rain didn¢t last long and we were able to get nice views of the entire northern Presidentials from the top of Mt. Hight. For most of the rest of the day it remained overcast, cool, and windy and we only had a few drizzley stretched later in the morning.After Mt Hight, we continued the rest of the tribute to Jimmy Carter by going over South Carter (4458¢), Middle Carter (4600¢), and finally North Carter (4530¢) before heading down to the Imp Shelter for a lunch break. It would have been nicer if the shelter wasn¢t a quarter of a mile downhill off the trail, but with the skies looking the way they did we didn¢t want to be the ones who were too lazy to go to the shelter only to get stuck eating in the rain. The last mountain of the day (Mt. Moriah) came and went with out any views to show for the steep mile long slap walk we had to go through to get to the top of, but from there it was all downhill to get to Gorham. It would have been nice if it were a nice relaxing downhill instead of the knee jarring 4 mile downhill that dropped us almost 3000¢, but we survived and were able to drag out wobbly legs to US 2 by about 6:30.The hitch into Gorham was one of our easier ones, and thankfully the lady was nice enough to take us to a couple of hotels until we found one that had room. You wouldn¢t think hotels would be full on a Wednesday, but I guess all the tourist were lured here to see some moose before the kids go back to school, so we ended up at the far end of town at the Colonial Fort Inn. It wasn¢t our first choice, but at this point any hotel with a bed and hot water will do. WE SURVIVED THE WHITES!!!
Date: 2007-08-16
From: Gorham

To: Trident Col Campsite
Miles today: 6.9
Weather: clear sky

(Willie)Wow it was tough, but we managed to survive out night in doors last night. Boy did I sleep like a rock! Once we were able to drag ourselves out of bed we headed to the restaurant at the hotel for breakfast, where we discussed possible plans for the next couple of days. With our bellies full we headed out for to see if we could find our way to any store to resupply when we ran in to Mountain Squid. I¢m not sure if we¢ve mentioned Mountain Squid or not, but he¢s been spending the last couple of months driving up the east coast stopping in trail towns to help out the hikers. This is maybe the fourth time we¢ve run into him and once again he was willing to help up out in any way possible. First he took us to Walmart to pick up some food, then we went back to the hotel to pack, and then he drove us back to the trail with a short detour to the McDonalds drive thru for lunch. He really has been a huge help to so many hikers this year. If there was a trail angle of the year award, he would be a shoe in.With Mountain Squids help we got to the trail much earlier then we had planned so we decided to just start walking and see how far we could get. We spent most of the day hiking with Tarapin, Granite, and The Dude but we opted to call it quits after 7 miles and we let them push on to the next shelter. Boy was that a good decision. Just a short bit after we got to the Trident Col Campsite we started to hear rumbles off in the distance. We had just enough time to get the tent set up before the storm hit. This would not have been one that I would have like to walk through because it lasted for more then an hour before it finally let up. We only got a little wet by the water that ran off the rain fly and bounced off the ground and into the tent. Nothing a couple of camp towels couldn¢t handle. Mother Nature only gave us enough time to get out, cook and eat before the next storm rolled in. Two storms in one evening, yeah it was a good idea to stop early.Life Lesson: A thunder storm sounds a little less scary when you¢re in a tent then it does when you¢re walking through it.
Date: 2007-08-17
From: Trident Col Campsite

To: Full Goose Shelter
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: clear sky

(Erin) Today was a heck of a long day...we started at 7:30 and we got to the shelter after 8:00 with head lamps on. First we had 5.9 to the last shelter in New Hampshire. It was a wet and messy time from the huge thunder storm from the night before. I did though get my fourth and final pair of shoes when we were in Littleton, NH which are The North Face goretex shoes. So my feet stayed pretty dry through the mess. One time I went to step on a bog bridge (a man made bridge made out of two pieces of boards and to help walk across bogs) and the whole thing sank into the water and I almost went swimming, but my feet stayed dry. Anyway we made our way to the shelter and had a snack of snickers and nutty bars before our climb up Mt. Success (3565'), the last mountain in New Hampshire. After 1.9 miles we were at the Maine boarder!! Whoo hooo.. We made it! It wasn¢t as exciting as I thought because then you see the miles in Maine, 281.4 more miles to go. Oh well we are getting closer. So we had lunch on the border before moving on and doing the last 4 miles to the shelter. The next .5 mile was pretty crazy and very hard for my short self to do with my pack on. I had to have Will carry my pack over and thru some rock scrambles that were just impossible for me to do with it on. Then we had to tackle The Goose Eyes. They were I think the steepest mountains that we have had to cross so far. Another time that I wished that I was on a rope and in a harness. I¢m sure normal people would do this stuff with a rope but we are thru-hikers and we like to do it with 30lb packs on. We made it to the shelter after dark in the cold and wind, we set up the tent in the dark and made dinner shivering. I think tonight is going to be a cold one!   Life Lesson: Mountain ranges don't end at state lines, especailly the hard ones.
Date: 2007-08-19
From: Grafton Notch

To: Hall Mountain Lean-to
Miles today: 16.3

(Willie)Yeah, it ended up being pretty cold last night and that cold naturally spilled into this morning so in addition to the long johns, warm shirt, fleece jacket, and hat that I wore to bed I pulled on my rain pants and rain jacket to go to the bathroom this morning. Even though it was in the low thirties last night and it was cold enough to make my watch go berserk again this morning I¢m starting to feel a little more comfortable about not carrying our winter sleeping bags. We were chilly, but we made it through the night with only a little shivering and we still had more cloths to put on, so I think that if we can be in our tents on the cold nights we should be able to make it with the gear that we have, hopefully. We picked up the pace a bit getting ready this morning because we were in a hurry to start the climb up the Baldpate range so that we could warm up a bit. The first 2.3 miles up to the Baldpate shelter went by pretty quickly and from the register it sounded like the people who stayed here yesterday had a pretty cold night as well. From the shelter it was time for another one of Maine¢s steep climbs as we climbed up 1000¢ in about 7/10ths of a mile to get to the top of the West Peak of Baldpate Mtn. The mile hike over to the East Peak of Baldpate Mtn was mostly on exposed slabs which really got the calf muscles burning, but the stiff wind that threatened to blow us right off the mountain was cold enough to make us glad that we had kept our jackets on and it made us pull out the hats and gloves for the push to the top. Despite the cold and the wind we had some amazing views from the top of the mountain with the cloud line hovering just above the mountain. It would have been great if the weather would have cooperated and let us take a break up there. It was hard enough to stand still in the wind let alone try to take a snack break, so we let the wind blow us down the East Peak and over Little Baldpate before running back down to the tree line and on to the Frye Notch Lean-to for lunch.We shivered through our lunch break and were more then glade to see the sun come out as we started the 10.5 miles to the next shelter. It felt amazing to be able to pull off the hats, gloves, and jackets and to hike along as if it was actually still the middle of the summer. The afternoon went by pretty quickly as we soaked up the rays and rolled over some relatively easy terrain to get to the Hall Mtn. Shelter by about 6:15. We were still pretty exhausted from the last couple of days so we hurried through our nightly chores and hit the sack a bit earlier then normal.Life Lesson: If it¢s cold enough to make electronics malfunction, it might be cold enough to put on a pair of socks ¢¦ or two pairs.
Date: 2007-08-20
From: Hall Mountain Lean-to

To: Bemis Stream
Miles today: 16.6
Weather: overcast clouds

(Erin) This was yet another cold morning. I was tucked inside my sleeping bag with my head covered so my nose didn¢t freeze off; I even had my hat on. So we got packed and were rolling by 7:00am. Wow was it cold, my legs didn¢t even work right in that early cold. We had a big goal today to make it 16 or more miles, but you never know what Maine will throw at you and how many miles you can push in one day. The first mountain was Moody Mt. (1280¢) in .8 straight up over rebar and rocks. I don¢t know if I have said it before but sometimes when the trail gets really steep there is rebar put into the rock to help make it easier to get up. It¢s when they aren¢t there that things get even harder. We then went straight down 1420¢ to a road for a quick snack then went back up 900¢ in .6 to a view. Then more steep trail up the side to Old Blue Mt. at 3600¢. Can you tell that most of the day is consumed with hiking straight down just to go straight back up again, pointless ups and downs.Soon after that we finally had lunch. I can tell that I¢m starting to lost more weight with how hard the terrain has gotten in New Hampshire and Maine. After lunch we started the Bemis Range that had five peaks. It was a much more gradual range and the peaks were not very far from each other. We made it to the shelter by 6:00 for a quick sit on the privy before making a run at another 3.9 miles down to Bemis Stream to camp. We talked to some south bound people that said there was a huge camp spot just before the stream. We made it just before needing our head lamps. Pulling a bigger day means that we will be able to get to Rangeley, ME tomorrow. My body is starting to tell me that it wants a break from hiking, good thing we are getting closer to the end with only 220 miles left.
Date: 2007-08-21
From: Bemis Stream

To: Rangeley, ME
Miles today: 13.9
Weather: overcast clouds

(Erin)Today was another hard morning to get out of the tent. We knew that with an early start we could get to town and into a nice hotel room for the night. Of course first we had to hike up and out of the notch to a road. It was a dewy morning and when we got to the road we could see why. In the notch there was a huge blanket of clouds that covered up the bottom half of all of the mountains. We could see only the tops poking out of the clouds; it looked like a sea of clouds. We kept hiking pass Moxie Pond and Sabbath Day Pond to the shelter for a snack. Then we hiked another 4.9 miles to a campsite next to another pond; Little Swift River pond. We found some canoes by the pond and decided to go out for a ride around the pond before lunch. We had to practice a little before our canoe ferry ride across the Kennebec River in a few days. We ended up taking about a two hour lunch so then we had to hurry to get to the road so we could hitch into town. When we got to the road and put our thumbs up a guy stopped really quickly, our fastest hitch ever! We walked over to the car and the driver realized that he had too much stuff in his car to fit us and said sorry before pulling away. So our fastest hitch turned into our longest hitch. Finally about 20 minutes later a nice guy in a truck picked us up and took us to the hotel. At the Rangeley Inn we got all of our laundry ready and did that before taking showers. Then we went to a nice local restaurant/bar for dinner. Hopefully tonight we will both sleep better than we have been sleeping out in the cold the last few days. Its so nice to be clean again and in a warm bed.
Date: 2007-08-22
From: Rangeley, ME

To: The Horn-Saddleback Jr. Col
Miles today: 8.0

(Willie)So far Rangeley is proving to be one of our most expensive trail towns yet so to try to get a little more out of the hotel for our money we decided to sleep in, take our time getting ready and actually take showers this morning. It seems like we usually are in such a hurry getting ready in the morning that more often then not we skip the shower before heading for the trail. After the second episode of ¢Saved By The Bell¢ was done we checked out of the hotel and headed to the diner for one of the best breakfasts that we¢ve had on the trail. From there it was off to the ¢outfitters¢ which was nothing more then a cloths and crafts store with a corner full of hiking gear and no one around with any sort of outdoors experience. We grabbed some heel inserts for Erin and got out of there before the store actually sucked our outdoor knowledge and headed to the library to get on the internet. When we had our fill of the computer, or when the library lady told us we had had our fill of the internet we hitched a ride to the IGA supermarket and picked up food for lunch and for the next couple of days on the trail. Up until that point things had been going pretty smoothly, and then the big wait started. I wouldn¢t say that we¢ve been the best hitch hikers out on the trail this year, but we¢ve been good enough that we usually start to get frustrated after not getting a ride in the first 15-20 minutes. This time I thought we were golden setting up right at the end of the store parking lot. Apparently that didn¢t help us out much because we stood there with our thumbs up for about an hour before someone finally stopped and gave us a ride. Usually we would have started walking towards the trail, but this time the trail was about 9 miles away and there was no way we were going to walk that so we were very grateful for the lift. We finally got to the trail around 1:30 and head in our usual northern direction. The first shelter was only 1.5 miles from the road, which was way too short and the second one was about 11 miles which would really be pushing it. 11 miles would have been a little more doable had it not contained 3 mountains, but seeing how it did we¢d set off uncertain where we¢d end up. The run up Saddleback Mtn. (4120¢) was pretty smooth and for a change pretty fun with easy slabs and great views all the way to the summit. It was even clear enough to get our first view of Mt. Katahdin way way way off in the distance. Despite the wind that seems to be the norm for us on top of Maine¢s high peaks it was a pretty fun hike mostly above tree line from Saddleback over to The Horn (4041¢). However as the terrain got pretty rough going it became clear that dark was going to beat us to the next shelter by about an hour and a half so we started to look for a place to pitch the tent. We passed up a couple of good spots on the way down and luckily our hunch paid off and there was a great little tent site right off the trail at the very bottom of the col between The Horn and Saddleback Jr. I guess we¢ll save that mountain for tomorrow.
Date: 2007-08-23
From: The Horn-Saddleback Jr. Col

To: Crocker Cirque Campsite
Miles today: 16.9
Weather: overcast clouds

(Erin) For some reason I think we both slept better last night than we did in the hotel. We had an odd campsite on the side of the trail between two mountains but it was probable our best. We got up and packed up so that we could finish hiking Saddleback Jr. (3655¢) by 8:30, then down to the shelter we had tried to get to last night. If we had kept going last night we wouldn¢t have made it to the shelter till after 8:30pm so I¢m glad that we decided to stop. We stopped to use the privy and then kept going to a stream that we had to ford. Maine doesn¢t like to build bridges because I think they have to put lots of money into them and then either the weather or the stream itself could bring the bridge down. So Maine has a limited number of bridges over streams, especially in the 100 Miles Wilderness. We reached the river and lucky for us the water was low enough that we could rock hop across. We made it to the next shelter for lunch and met two north bound thru-hikers that we had never met before. We had been right behind them for weeks and so we knew their names but didn¢t know their faces¢¦well one of them had been doing sketches in the registers and did some sketches of him and his dog so we were able to recognize him. (Lilly, Matt and U-dog). After weeks and weeks we had finally caught up to them. Leaving the shelter we had 6.2 more miles to get to the campsite for the night. We had to hike over Sugarloaf Mt. which wasn¢t too bad of a climb at all. We actually didn¢t go to the summit so the trail was much more gradual. Until the hike down, then we had some rock slides and scrambles to get to the South Branch of the Carabassett River. It was another river we had to ford but this one had a piece of wood that was across two large rocks. That was our ¢bridge¢ to get over the raging river. From there we had .9 to get to the campsite. At the campsite we met another college group out on a training trip before the actual freshman orientation trips in a few weeks. I recognized one of the leaders as the same girl that let us do a work-for-stay at the Madison Spring Hut a week or so ago. She remembered us and said that they had plenty of marshmallows for smores if we wanted to have some later. So after only 133 days on the trail Will and I got to have some smores.