morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-07-05
From: Redington Campsite

To: Rangeley, ME - Lake & Town Motel
Miles today: 8.0

We got started this morning with a quick climb to The Horn, it was early when I summitted so I was just chillin' in a cloud! That's always a good start to the day =) Between The Horn and Saddleback, I lost the trail on the rocks (in typical Chaco fashion). Once I found it again, I dominated the climb up Saddleback and realky enjoyed it; 'twas like walking straight up a rock! For a while. It was still cloudywhen I summitted, but coming down the shoulder, the sun was coming out and the clouds were clearing and ut was a perfect moment in time. It was completely awesome in the most literal sense of the word. I couldn't take more than 5 steps without stopping to look around at how beautiful the world is. It was yet another moment where I just had to thank God for this opportunity. It was a hreat moment, realizing that THIS is my life right now and it's freakin' amazing!! After that it was an uneventful 4 mile descent to the road into Rangeley. I managed to lose a bit of my dignity when I butt-slid down a wet rock section about 20 feet and realized a dayhiker had watched the whole thing. I got over that real quick though! In town it was a typical town day, tons of food,shower, more food, and a bed. Back at it again tomorrow!
Date: 2013-07-06
From: Rangeley, ME - Lake & Town Motel

To: Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 9.4

Ate a great breakfast this morning, walked around town before everyone was out and about, and then went to the outfitter and grocery store. I bought waaaaay too much food on my resupply - only needed 3-4 days worth, got about 6. So my pack was pretty heavy hiking out of town. The hike wasn't bad, was pretty uneventful. But there was a group of summer camp hikers and they shared their leftover shepherds pie with those of us staying at the shelter so that was pretty awesome! Uneventful day, but it's always a great day on the AT. I somehow dislocated my thumb while cooking dinner... not sure how that happened, but once again Dr. Scholls proved to be good to have around and he popped it right back in.
Date: 2013-07-07
From: Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to

To: Stealth site
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: moderate rain

Rough day today, but as always, still a good one because being out here is pretty amazing even on a bad day. It helped that there were some cool views along the way of mountains that I've already climbed! The actual hiking was pretty boring today, but Doc and I found an awesome stealth site that had barely enough space for our tents, much less for both of our rainflies. So, we made an awesome fort to where we could barely get in to our tents, but we draped both our flies and Doc's rainskirt over our tents (it's supposed to rain tonight), and had to crawl into a shared vestibule to get in to the tents. It was pretty epic. Sounds dumb, and maybe it is... but it's a fort! We call it Fort Daco. Or Doco, we didn't discuss how to spell it. Unimportant. Good thing we rigged that together because it rained pretty good.
Date: 2013-07-08
From: Stealth site

To: The Cabin - Andover, ME
Miles today: 4.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Well, apparently whenever we stealth camp, we get lazy because Doc and I always sleep in when that happens and talk ourselves into allowing for a late start. Today it was because of the rain and our fort was so awesome we wanted to take advantage of it. So, we decided to split our planned mileage into 2 days and do 2 low mileage days before Andover. I'm glad we did that because going over Old Blue Mountain was a LOT more difficult than I anticipated. But, our plans changed anyway again. Seems to happen a lot! We got a really late start, but this morning while eating breakfast, I was being a little dumb cutting an apple, and sliced my thumb open with my knife. Now, I know how to cut an apple w/o cutting my hand, but I was in my sleeping bag and on my sleeping pad (inflatable) so I didn't fancy the idea of either of those things getting a hole in them. Anyway, it didn't really stop bleeding all day and since it was raining most of the day, it got really dirty and it was deep enough that I couldn't really keep it clean on the trail. So, when we got down Old Blue, we were both pretty tired and our crap was soaked and my thumb was messed up so we called for a ride into Andover to stay at The Cabin. Best. Decision. Ever. It was cheap and the couple who owns the hostel is SOOOO incredibly nice, I could have stayed a lot longer. We had homemade lasagna, salad, veggies, garlic bread, brownies, and ice cream. Also laundry, a ride from the trailhead, wifi, and a bed for a night were all included in the $20. AYCE breakfast for $5 and it was DELICIOUS. I was able to clean my thumb out and Doc superglued it back together for me. Once again, glad he's around for now haha. Good change in plans, good day, awesome people =)
Date: 2013-07-09
From: The Cabin - Andover, ME

To: Stealth site- Dunn Notch
Miles today: 10.9
Weather: clear sky

Today was a fantastic day! AYCE breakfast at The Cabin included coffee, OJ, blueberry pancakes, French toast, bacon, biscuits and gravy (which they specifically learned to make for us Southerners that come through), and skillet potatoes. All homemade. I almost literally ate myself sick. When we couldn't eat anymore, they brought out some ziplock baggies and told us to pack some out. Which we did. Definitely glad we stopped here! Then, back on the trail. I climbed Moody fairly quickly, but have been absolutely dreading the descent off the south face of it - 1500 feet decrease in elevation in only 0.8 miles. STEEP. Especially after the descent off Old Blue yesterday sucked so much and it looked like it was supposed to be gradual. But, it actually wasn't bad and was pretty fun! Which I NEVER say about descents! It didn't feel good, but it was fun nonetheless. I made a quickish climb up Hall Mountain where I ran into Lady Grey. She's a NOBO and immediately asked if I was Chaco and informed me that my mom commented on her Trail Journal (thanks Mom...). Doc and I had a good chuckle about that at lunch because both our moms had commented on her journal. It's pretty amusing. Though it is nice to know that my mom is so invested in this journey =) At the lean-to for lunch we were joined by Up, Patches, and Polechar! It was a happy reunion! The last few miles were actually a trail instead of just mud and rocks and what we're used to, so that was quite nice. Up, Pactches, Doc, and I had the coolest stealth site in Dunn Notch by the falls. It's beautiful here. Today could not have been better! About to fall asleep to the sound of a waterfall. Life is good =)
Date: 2013-07-10
From: Stealth site- Dunn Notch

To: Grafton Notch
Miles today: 9.5
Weather: light rain

We woke up this morning thinking we'd have a great view from the Baldpates by the time we got up there. We were wrong! The weather was good at first, I stopped for a snack before the actual climb up the 1st Baldpate peak. Doc was there and we decided to stay together for the hike up. Good thing because w/o him, today would not have been NEARLY as fun. As soon as we left the lean-to we'd take a break at, it started raining pretty hard. We stayed wet the rest of the day. The climb up was slippery, but not awful and we were having fun. The summit was EXTREMELY windy and we were in a raincloud, I'm not sure if it was actually raining while we were up there, or if it was just really wet from being in a cloud and really aggressive wetness from the wind. Doesn't matter, it was pretty miserable conditions. I wiped out quite a few times and we were going really slow over the peak, but as much as it sucked, we were laughing the whole time and it was really enjoyable! All the NOBOs we passed looked miserable (understandably so) and just scowled at us like they couldn't understand why we were having fun. Though I was glad to get below treeline and out of the wind after losing the trail fro a while and falling a ton. It stopped raining and we stopped at the next lean-to to eat, then decided to go down to camp at Grafton Notch where Polechar and Up also were. It poured of course as soon as we left the shelter to descend to the Notch. So now all my stuff is wet, included a lot of my dry and warm clothes, which will make my pack pretty heavy tomorrow. Oh well - always a great day to be an AT hiker =)
Date: 2013-07-11
From: Grafton Notch

To: Sudbury Inn - Bethel, ME
Miles today: 0.0

Woke up real early this morning and was pretty hyper - I sleep well with rain. I was ready to go and packed when Doc came by my tent, but I was still just sitting inside the tent. All my clothes and EVERYTHING was soaked and cold! I had no desire to come out haha. It was starting to rain again. Since we'd camped right by the road, when we started talking about town food, it was real easy to talk ourselves into hitching into Bethel for a cheeseburger. The plan was to come back out and hike an easy 7... but of course, once we got to town and were eating a ton of food, the bartender told us they'd give us a good deal for a room if we wanted to stay...so it turned into a very awesome unplanned zero! Lots of food, a bed, shower, and got to hang up all my stuff to dry out! It was a great day, but clearly Doc and I are a bad influence on each other when we start talking about food... Oh well! Definitely no regrets. Back on the trail tomorrow - and the weather is supposed to clear up!
Date: 2013-07-14
From: Goose Eye Mountain East Peak - cowboy camping

To: Dream Pond - stealth site
Miles today: 9.5

Today I was still high on life from yesterday! It was too cloudy to catch an awesome sunrise, but that's OK. We crossed into NEW HAMPSHIRE today!!!! 1 month down and 1 state down! So much excitement for one weekend!! And the hike was again beautiful, plus the motivation of getting to town tomorrow made it a fun day. But what really made today amazong was...I FINALLY SAW A MOOSE!!!! =) Many of y'all know that all I really wanted from Maine was to see a moose, well today I got to se not just one, but THREE! Near the campsite was a pond right across the trail, and right across the pond was a cow moose! I was ecstatic of course and watched it just stand in the water for a long time, and THEN a BABY MOOSE joined her!!! I almost peed myself from excitement like a stupid little dog that gets overexcited when the doorbell rings. It was perfect. While eating dinner, we heard a pretty loud, close splash in the pond and a large animal shaking itself off. So naturally, I dropped everything to run back to the pond and got to see ANOTHER MOOSE!! Welcome to New Hampshire =) So much excitement lately, and town tomorrow! Haven't stopped smiling for probably the last 36 hours at least. God is good =)
Date: 2013-07-17
From: Dream Pond - stealth site

To: Gorham, NH-White Mountain Lodge
Miles today: 9.7

We (Blue, Dr. Scholls, and myself) got into Gorham around 1:00 with plenty if time to get settled in, shower, and get some town chores done. We went straight to the hostel which is run by a couple, Greg and Geri, who are absolutely wonderful! Later that day Blue, Doc, and I played mini golf while in town! It was a lot of fun in general because who doesn't love putt putt? But it was made better by the fact that I finished 2 under par...and Blue and Doc were 28 and 25 over par respectively. I found hat extremely amusing =P It has been a good couple days in town. I took 2 full zeroes here to rest up and plan for the Whites and, of course, gorge on town food. That included eating at the AYCE Chinese buffet where I ate a disgusting amount of food and managed to impress my fellow hikers, and the next day I proceeded to eat one of everything off the dollar menu at McDonalds. That was easy. The rest of the time was spent hanging out at the hostel sith a great group if SOBOs! It's been a restful 2.5 days, but I'm definitely getting antsy and a ready for the Whites!!
Date: 2013-07-20
From: Gorham, NH-White Mountain Lodge

To: Still Gorham...
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Just kidding, got up to hike out after two zeroes. After breakfast I fell immediately back to sleep. I'd been feeling a little unwell since hiking into Gorham, but I figured it was from eating a ton of crap amd just being lazy for two and a half days. But my tiredness wasn't normal sleepiness, it was an overwhelming fatigue. So I slept through a third zero. Tricked myself into thinking I was better the NEXT morning and decided to hike out - at that point I was completely sick of town! But I quickly realized that was a bad idea and after barely 3 miles, a lot of exhaustion, and a little nausea, Doc helped me set up camp and I slept through the rest of the day and through the night. The next morning I still felt miserable and at this point the symptoms had been present for about a week so I decided to backtrack the easy 3 miles into town to go to the clinic in town...which was closed since it was Saturday. So I found a place to stay and immediately fell asleep. So essentially, I just spent a week zeroing in Gorham. I love town days, but not this many in a row! Hopefully tomorrow I feel betterbecause I think I'm done with zero days in town for a while!
Date: 2013-07-21
From: Still Gorham...

To: stealth site
Miles today: 8.3
Weather: moderate rain

I woke up this morning feeling MUCH better. The "Negative nero" yesterday was extremely frustrating since apparently I could have just zeroed in place in my tent and had the same results. Oh well, the plus side is that a diner in Gorham has AYCE breakfast for 10 bucks on Sundays so I went ahead and took advantage of that! Then I got on the trail and climbed some mountains! I got a late startbut it was a good day up and over Mt. Moriah. So glad to be back on the AT and I'm super excited for tge White Mountains! ALSO - back in Chacos today! Between that, feeling 100%, and starting the Whites, today's been a great day! And I saw a snake kill and eat a frog. That was pretty cool! Tomorrow, the Wildcat Range, should be fun =)
Date: 2013-07-23
From: stealth site

To: Pinkham Notch/Gorham
Miles today: 13.1

Today was a great day, mainly just the morning. The afternoon was rough and frustrating, but it was still a good day. Started with a climb over the Carters. It was beautiful!! And a really good and enjoyabe climb. The descent into Carter Notch was rough (I really hate Notches I think), but there was a hut there where we stopped to refill on water and eat lunch. The croo there was super nice-they offered us some soup and there were free leftover pancakes from breakfast! I guess I should explain the hut system: This section of the trail (The White Mountains) have huts run by the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC). Guests pay a ton of money to stay there in a bunk (dinner and breakfast included) and I guess hike around during the day either to other huts or returning to the same one if they want. Moat huts will take in 2 thru-hikers each night to do work for stay (WFS) so that the hikers have shelter sincd the Whites are known for the dramatic weather changes above treeline. You can't camp above treeline. Mainly because it can be very risky and dangerous, but also up here I believe it's illegal and you can get fined. Don't quote me on that. Scoring a WFS deal is apparently an art because if you arrive at the hut too early, they will tell you to keep going yiu can make it to the next one or to a campsite/below treeline. But, if you get there too late, they may have already taken in some hikers. But, we were just stopping in this one for lunch. We got moving again to traverse the Wildcats and the clouds started moving in. The terrain was very rugged and I was moving slow even though I was feeling pretty good, there were no views because we were in a cloud so the hike was getting frustrating. The descent into Pinkham Notch was probably the worst yet and by the time we got t the road, Doc and I were both frustrated and in pain and a bag of ice sounded real good. So, naturally, we hitched into town..which from this road is also Gorham again! =P We ended up zeroing the next day because it was raining pretty hard and since I actually want t enjiy the Whites, it is very worth it to wait a day because the next four are supposed to be sunny! Zeroes are definitely nice...but I feel like I live in Gorham now! I probably should just rent an apartment here.
Date: 2013-07-24
From: Pinkham Notch/Gorham

To: Madison Spring Hut
Miles today: 8.8

We got out of town early this morning and this is the first hitch that I was relieved to not be by myself for! The guys were nice enough, but the driver kept talking about all the tickets he has gotten and hiw he tried to get out of them and how he hates cops and a lot of other sketchy stuff. All this started because when he pulled over to pick us up, a cop pulled over behind him with his lights on. Anyway, the day started with nice weather, but while climbing Mt. Madison the weather changed, the cliuds moved in and it was extremely windy. So the clouds were moving by FAST. (Found out later that the windspeed was consistently 30-40 mph while we were up there!). I got blown over a couple times with some of the strong gusts and it got kind of cold and wet, but it was AWESOME! Pretty sure I've never felt like this much of a badass in my life, it was pretty epic. Should have been miserable, but I was loving it! We made it to Madison Hut though and realized we wouldn't be able t make it further to a safe campsite or hut in this weather safely and before dark. The croo let us d WFS even though it was only 3:00 since the weather is so bad. They also let some NOBOs stay for cheap. We got awesome dinner leftovers then slept on the dining room floor. It's cool to see how the huts are run - it's almost like being a camp counselor but without having to be responsble for your campers!
Date: 2013-07-25
From: Madison Spring Hut

To: stealth site
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: few clouds

Today's weather was the complete opposite of yesterday's! I woke up pretty early to a breathtaking view - the sun was coming up over Madison, the sky was clear and beautiful, and below, the valley was blanketed by a sea of clouds, but not foggy clouds, nice fluffy ones! Our WFS duties were to make sure all the blankets were folded correctly on the bunks and to sweep the bunkrooms and sining room. That is a downside to WFS because you have to wake up early since you're on the floor, but you have to wait for breakfast to be done, then do work, then you get kind of a late start. But it turned out fine! We were out of there by 9:30 and started our hike with a gorgeous view climbing a couple smaller Presidential peaks. We then climbed Mt. Washington which is overrated because of all the tourism. There's a TON of people up there, most of them drove up or took the train. So that was that. Still cool to be on the second highest peak of the AT though and the climb was beautiful! The descent and the ridgeline the rest of the afternoon was my favorite part of the day and one if my favorite parta if the trail so far! It was clear and you could see so far! I could see where we'd been the last couple days and where I'll be the next couple! It was absolutely amazng and the hike was very easy. We stealted out past the Mizpah hut. Today was an awesome day! Also worth noting, it fetgood to actually do some higher mileage today and end where we had planned...that hasn't happened in a long time! We don't normally care when our plans don't work out, but it was kind of nice for once =)
Date: 2013-07-26
From: stealth site

To: Doc and Llama's house- North Conway
Miles today: 5.2

My morning kind of set the tone for the rest of my day: not bad, but a little frustrating. The frame of my pack broke right at the lumbar support, both my shoes have holes in them ( not even 300 miles n them yet), and my water bladder leaked about a liter which wouldn't be bad but it was in my pack...which was in my tent. So my pack was soaked and I woke up in a lake. But it's just water, nothing too bad. So, once again we couldn't resist a town day. Typical Team D0C0. BUT this time we aren't zeroing or paying for it. I did something to my knee yesterday coming down Washington and it's pretty swollen, and the descent down Crawford Notch was brutal (agan with the notches!) and took much longer than expected, add my morning to that and it makes perfect sense that when we saw a sign for "trail magic" of a free stay n town at some fellow thru-hikers' house, we took it as a sign that we were supposed to go to town. The couple (Doc and Llama) are really cool, they've thru-hiked the AT twice and the PCT once. Super chill people! Their generosity and hospitality helped turn a not-so-great day into a pretty good one. I was able to hang my tent up in their garage to dry, and it started raining, yet we were sleeping dry! Plus we got to shower and do laundry. And eat town food. Good decisions.
Date: 2013-07-28
From: stealth site

To: stealth site
Miles today: 10.2

Another beautiful morning, so we did get to see a sunrise over Mt. Washington from the overlook by our site! Super awesome! We climbed South Twin which was another good view, then the clouds and winds came. Luckily the rain held off until bedtime. Today wasn't really a good day, but at the end of the day it's easy for me to remember that I'm exactly where I want to be doing exactly what I want to do, and the company isn't too bad either, so really, there are no bad days. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow though - Mt. Lafayette and Franconia Ridge, then town day!
Date: 2013-07-30
From: stealth site

To: Lincoln, NH
Miles today: 8.6
Weather: overcast clouds

We hiked up Lafayette in the clouds this morning, I was worried I wouldn't get to see anything up there which would have been bad only because Doc had talked this section up so much since it was his favorite part of his NOBO. BUT, along Franconia Ridge, the clouds started burning off like they did on Saddleback that one time. And even though we didn't get the "perfect" view of everything off in the distance, it's just as cool to have a view of the valley unveiled as the clouds go by. It was amazing to see the close mountains and Franconia Notch framed by the clouds as they rolled by. The descent into Franconia Notch wasn't actually bad at all - the only mishap was we thought it was 1.9 miles when it was really 2.9. But, it was easier than we thought so we still made it to the road at the same time we'd predicted. Our timing was impeccable actually; it started pouring right as we got to the road. So, we got soaked, but we were already down the mountain and didn't have to slip and die anywhere. AND a nice couple actually picked us up, soaked through and all! We offered to ride in the bed of their truck instead of in the back seat that they told us to ride in since we were already wet, the rain wasn't going to hurt us or anything. They were really cool, they stopped to get gas on the way into town and gave us a couple drinks that they had with them and were very interested in our hike! It was a really cool experience! We zeroed the next day and relaxed, did town chores and whatnot. Doc creamed me at darts (though in my defense - I just learned how to play and I'm used to sports where I kick things... not throwing things). And, since we had access to a grill, we got some real food and Doc grilled out steak, asparagus, and corn on the cob. Best meal I've had this trip! It was delicious and a nice change from trail food and greasy town food!