morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2007-07-21
From: Chairback Gap Lean-To

To: Long Pond Stream Lean-To
Miles today: 10.9
Weather: overcast clouds

mi. 10.9Dest. Long Pond Stream Lean-tosleep. hammockDay 9I am writing yet again a day late so I am going to keep this short.I woke up to the sound of a squirl chewing on my foodbag. I managed to chasehim away. I was laying there trying to decide whether or not to get up. It waskind of cold and still derry. Blue Bird said a few choice words about theweather and I agreed. So back to sleep. It was only around 6:30. I woke up alittle while later to the same sound and chased it off yet again. This time herdog gave chase and I did't see it again.I finally got up and made coffee. With some extra to shae. She was prettysurprised to see me make that good of coffee. I offered her some of my gorpthat I have not been eating. After I gave her the bag I got the repsonse of whyare you giving me the bag that got chewed on.I didn't notice before then that it gotten through. By this time it was staringto get a litle sunny out. I wasn't too surprised to see her let out more than alittle yell. I felt the same way. Getting really sick of the rain.The hike to the next shelter wasn't bad. I passed 3 more day hikers. Yes lotdsof people in the 100 mile wilderness.I got to the shelter and was sitting there when 4 northbounders pulled up. Pretty nie people. One was an older couple who hiked half the trail last yearand the second half this year. They were telling stories about when they werein the peace core together and when they lived in south america. All 4 seemedlike interesting people.I thought it was pretty cool too that the older guy checked out and really likedmy hammock setup.Just before bed too to keep up the streak, it rained a little. I think I amsitting at all but 1 day witout any rain.
Date: 2007-07-24
From: Shaws

To: Shaws
Miles today: 0.0

dest. shaw'smi. 0sleep hostelday 12Well as you can see I am still at Shaw's. I woke up and went for a little walk. That was enough to tell me that I needed 1 more day. So today is a zero day(day with 0 trail miles walked). I made it a point to walk as little aspossible,I resumed my role as the man on the couch. Today, James got off th trail. Ifigured from the way he was talking he was going to. His knee was hurtingpretty bad. It would take a couple weeks rest for it to heal. Then there is nogaurenttee it would not come back. We were talking and it wasn't his goal tohike the whole thing anyways. Just get out and d some hiking.He lucked out and the 2 section hikers that where staying there where heeded toBoston and he needed to get to Mass. So it fit together right for him to leave.Jason and his friend rolled in today. I hadn't seen them since my 3rd day. Igot put to work so to speak. The ladies at the hostel had to take a car in toget fixed and put me in charge of answering the phone and checking people in. So if anyone called and got an I have no idea call back later response, that wasme. I had a few of those.The only person to show up was Clay. Jason made the joke that I was moving in. I was there 2 days and already was put to work. Thought that was funny.I tried to keep today as cheap as possible. I did however choose 4 on the aycebreakfest. You order by giving them a number. Then they bring out that anyeggs to order, home fries, bacon, sausage, and pancakes. Plue lots of coffeeand OJ. I made it though almost all of it. Then a couple hours later eat halfa pizza james left and the other half of my sub from yesterday. Glad to see myhiker hunger is in full force.I managed to keep it low key to tv and talking most of the day. I did have agood conversation with a couple from Switzerland hiking the 100 mile wildernessstarting tomorrow. They are in for a big surprise.I lucked out and hit up the moblie gas station deli for dinner. If anyone isgoing to stay ther Diana the night lady makes a dinner run around 7pm. If youcatch her in time yo can order yours to and she will drive you there and back. Milked that ride both nights. Just to keep it going I had a large cheezestakeand more ben and jerry's.All in all not bad. I managed to eat alot for $20 for the day. The other 3southbounders headed to the pub. I decided it was best not to make the walk orspend the money. I knw that there was no way I could go without dropping $30 onbeer and food.Sorry for all the money talk today. I made a pretty tight budget that I need tostitck to. I think that even with this I should be fine.Tomorrow the plan is to pack up and head south again to Caratunk. It is only 38trail miles away. I am planning on taking 4 days of food with me. That shouldbe plenty and give me enough to take my time and not push my ankle.
Date: 2007-07-29
From: Pierce Pond Lean-To

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

So I gave her some of my mole skin and corona antiseptic cream. For those whonever heard of it, it is basically utter cream. It is the only cream thatworked on hands for blister's when I was rowing. I'm glad to give it some use. Luckily I haven't had any blisters as of yet. My feet are pretty tough.I got to talking with them too and they actually have a condo petty close to theAT in N.H. They said if the cards align they would meet up with me when I getthere. That wouls be pretty cool if it works out.At the very end a french Canadian group showed up. They are tenting reallyclose to the privy. Can't say that would be my first choice.Clay, Clint, and Jason never did show up. I left them at the shuttle thismorning. They were going to the post office to pick up a mail drop. The onlyproblem was no one realized it was Sunday. Last night one of them lost hiswallet with his ID and credit cards. I think they might be staying anothernight at Northern outdoors to wait on the post office and maybe find his ID.Today turned out great with good food and great conversation. I'm glad Idecided not to go any further. Camp fire worked great and lit really nice withgas.Now off to sleep after typing thise by campfire light to the sounds of looms onthe pond. Today was one great all around day of hiking and relaxing.I had to chime back in. My hanging spot is great. I am 10 feet away from theedge of the lake. I was going to go tarpless, but a couple of the clouds lookiffy. I hang my tarp pretty high. I then used my trekking poles to prop up theside of my tarp facing the pond. I now have a great view of the pond layingcomfortably in my hammock. I tired to take a pic, but there is no way it willcome out. I can even hear a waterfall off in the distance. This has to be mybest hanging spot yet. Sunrise tomorrow is going to be great.Gear note:Not actually gear but the ID problem has me thinking. You are pretty screwed ifyou don't have one. I think it would be a good idea to get a duplicate licenseand keep it at home along with copys of your credit cards just in case.Secondly on my next tarp I am going to put something on the cornerreinforcements for my tapr to hold my trekking poles. It only needs to besomething small to hold the handles. It would make propping up the sides a loteasier.I think I am going to pick up a camera case and mount it onto my shoulder strapon my pack. That will take it out of my pocket and make give me easy accesswhile I am hiking.
Date: 2007-07-30
From: Little Bigelow Lean-To

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Some appartently got pretty descriptive. I thought that was pretty good. Ithink I may have to start a southbound addition.I did give one of the beers to the 2 northbounders. I was going to give bothminus a little bit in my cup for me. But they insisted since I carried it upthere I have the second one. If they didnkt show up I was just going to go soakin the tubs here and drink them. They are just deep pools in the stream next tothe shelter.But off to bed. The sky looks iffy, so no question about using the tarptonight.
Date: 2007-08-01
From: Straton Hostel and Motel

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Well I'm off to check in on what all my cyber hanging buddies are doing and tospend some time catching up with my family and friends on the phone.There are 2 other hikers here tonight. One a flip flopper head south. Theyhike north to a pont than go to Katadin and hike south until they end up wherethey left off. Another is a section hiker who is going a long multi-month section and isgoing to finish up. He is a pastor from a church in Indiana. The Lillyfoundation is actually paying him to hike. They determined that the best use oftheir money to better IN was to donate to churches to help the pastors travel. It makes sense, they have a big effect on a large number of people. He washiked Isreal and a couple other countries. He said they paid something like$45k for his hiking, travel, expenses, and any expenses that this would causehis chuch.Something else. He is from Lima, OH. Which is just an hour from my hometown. He said he drove through there all the time. Crazy how small the world is.I saw that Certain got back on the trail after taking sometime off. I spentsome time on a car ride with her to Hot Springs and back last year. I'm stillplanning on metting up with her if she doesn't flip. If she does I can help herwith any details of Maine. Good to see she is still hiking and enjoying thejourney.Gear notes:I finally finished my first jetboil canister. I am using the smaller jetboilone that has 3.53oz of fuel. It ran out just as I was finishing cooking mydinner at the little bigelow shelter. That is about 16 trail days. Each with 1diner at usually 1 or more coffees. Probibly close to 40 boils. I should addthat I did not boil for very long. Usually just getting a boil is enough. Ifinally used the full canister I picked up in Monson. The large ones wouldprobibly last over a month.My pocketmail finally ran out of batteries today. I was using the litiums thatI used in my headlamp for awhile before I started. I just put in newalkoline's. I post on how long they last. I should note that I type a lot andsend other emails to people. I also journal a lot at night from my hammock anduse the backlight. All of which doesn't lead to long battery life.
Date: 2007-08-04
From: Gull Pond Lodge

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Bob did one more thing here that cracked us up. We were talking about thekatadin sign. He asked us if we wanted to see his pic ontop. He showed us apic of the sign with his picture photoshoped next to it with the back of his SUVnext to it. He said that he took the easy way up. He really is a cool old man.The hostel here had a really good hiker box. It is basically where people leavesomething they do not need for someone else. I made a major score and helpedClay with an even bigger one. I scored some olive oil for extra calories andsome aquira mira part A that I just ran out of. My water treatment is a 2 partchorine solution. Part A always seems to run out first.The biggest score was something I found there and showed Clay how to use. Someone left a jetboil there. Yep a $100 stove. It needed to be cleaned up alittle. But after that is good as new. There was also a partially used fuelcanister. He cleaned it up and we fired it up. Works great. Best of all ithad a black cozy on it. I swapped out my camo cozy for it. We all know howmuch I love camo. Good thing to, I think it was spoiling the taste of my coffeeand giving me a rash.Anyways off to bed. Way past my bed time.
Date: 2007-08-09
From: Baldplate Lean-To

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

The walk down the second peak was pretty bad. There was a lot of ersion damage to the trail. It was similar to walking down a steep, damp river bed. Kind of fun though. I caught up with the other 2 and talked with them rest of the way down. The shelter was pretty full. I rolled in before 6 to 3 northbounders and a MATC trail crew. The trail crew was setup in some tent sites. I got some great trail majic from them. A roasted hot dog over the fire. After a while 6 or so other northbounders rolled up. I found a great hanging spot that all my hammocking buddies will get a kick out of. I hung from the tree that had the sign saying tent sites. I thought that was pretty funny myself. There were lots of roots underneath me, so no one would tent there. I did get a hammocking partner. I northbounder by the name of Hangman setup next to me. A nice guy using a henessey. I talked with him for awhile about hammocking and things in general. He gave me some good compliments on my tarp. I always appiseate that. Well onto bed. Big day tomorrow. Going to try to do the Notch. It would mean a 12 mile day over a decent mountain, then finishing with the hardest mile on the trail.
Date: 2007-08-10
From: Speck Pond Shelter

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

part 2.... Budget Update: I am trying to stay on a pretty modest budget. I originally budgeted $115 a week, not including emergency or gear replacement. Week 4 ended yesterday. I am only $8 over budget. That is after lowering my budget to $100. I should add that it is not including my food starting out, transportation to the trail, katadin stream fees, I also got a maildrop in Monson, and swapped out some gear and got a maildrop in Andover. Basically only money I spent after leaving for the trail. I think that it is still reasonable if I hadn't gotten mail drops. My second night in Monson or beer money could have covered the difference. I haven't completely lived it up in every town, but I have had a couple drinks, good food, and stayed in everyone. I am planning on staying in Gorhem and celebrating my 1 month on the trail, and my finishing Maine. By celebrating it will probibly only be a huge dinner out or made in the hostel and a couple drinks. I only need to add 4 days of food, and it will be my only town stop. I may have some more AMC fees, but after tonight I am going to try to skate them when I can. I am replacing my coffee press, maybe my foodbag, and hopefully adding hiking boots. But that comes out of my gear budget. I think on my next trip I am going to work harder to save up a lot more. That way I can really live it up without thinking about money. It's not a big concern on this trip, but it is a concern none the less.
Date: 2007-08-11
From: Carlo Col Shelter

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

part 2.... I went on to the next shelter thinking about what I wanted to do. I wasn't feeling too bad. I got there and they were cooking luch. I stopped and had some lunch. I decided to hike on. This one also had a fee and I didn't feel like paying to sleep in my hammock for a second night. The next shelter was only 5 miles away. Just up and over another 2 mountains. The climbs where not bad at all. I was felling pretty good. The first one was really cool it was bald with a long exposed ridge walk. Great views all around. The wind was blowing probibly 20 mph +. It remined me of the movies you see of Scotland. Something I'll have to hike at some point. The second mountain was Mt. Carlo. Now the AT is famous for this. You go all the way up something just to come .1 miles away from the summit. There was a side trail. I decided to drop the pack and check it out. Man I feel light without the pack. The views where great. Except for the fact that you can see the clear cutting from logging on the far side. The climb down was a little crazy in places. Always nice to see a ladder. There were a couple places to go down backwards withoutthe poles. Maybe I should consider rock climbing when I get back. I got to the sign for the shelter to see Jason sitting there. He passed me a few miutes eariler. We were decided whether to press on or stay here. I really wasn't feeling 5 more miles and it was 5pm. The other guys rolled up and we decided to hit up the shelter. It kind of sucks because we are about half a mile from the N.H. border. I was so wanting to et out of Maine today. Especially after it got it's one last kick in nuts today. But without knowing there are good sits up ahead, it is the best decision. I found a good spot to hang close to the shelter. There is a little moose poo under the foot end of my hammock, but it looks pretty old. I think I either setup with my tarp stakes in a water channel or an aminal trail. I'll see if I see anything tonight. There is another group from a camp here. I really can't get away from these people in Maine. They actually are cracking me up. They were placing the card game ***hole, followed by spoons, and then B.S. I had to ask them if they play any card games that weren't drinking games. One chimed in go fish. I had to repkly, well actually. I think i did a few times. They were playing a pretty intense game of lasertag. Instead of lasers they would yel out the persons initial. To top it all off, one of the conslors walked by with a star wars light saber on his belt. That thought was funny. And yes I got a pic. Hopefully I'll get into Gorhem tomorrow. If not early the next day. Well todays damage. Maine 3, Nate .5. I'm pretty sure I bursed my tail bone. I hurts it sit on it, but not to walk. It does hurt to lay on it on my back. My arms and legs are pretty cutup too. The third one is when I burned my liptons in my jetboil. There is now a hard black crush on the bottom. Sorry for the long entry. Just today was a crazy day. At some point I will do a long one wit my thoughts on Maine, and a few other things I have been thinking about.
Date: 2007-08-12
From: Gorhem

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

part2.....He went in and talked to the owner.   I don't want to get into the details or talk bad about someone. Maybe we just caught him on a bad day. But he was pretty rude to us. Plus he said we couldn't do laundry past 7pm. It was almost that time now. We decided to go elsewhere. I hear he is a good guy, but I try not to spend my money at places where people are rude to me. We priced a few places and ran into Jason who got dropped off farther in town. Then Clay shows up getting dropped off by a section hiker who stayed around to do some trail magic. The 4 of us ended up splitting a hotel. It came out to cheaper than the hostel. It didn't take long before we all decided to take a zero here tomorrow. Everyone is pretty beaten up from Maine. After showers we headed for food. Everyone was starving. The Mexican place we heard was pretty good was a ways down. On the way we passed by a McDonalds. If it wasn't late and the place was closing in an hour or so we would have stopped in for a snack on the way. The food was great at the Mexican place. Once again though, the service was horrible. Karl and I are former waiters. We don't expect much. Just what we ask for on time. All of us are betting 1000 on bad service and bad looking waitresses. For an appitizer I did score a Margaretta, Barrito, rice, side salad, chips and salsa, and a pint of Dos XX. On the walk back we couldn't pass up McDonalds. So for the main course of the evening I had 2 double cheeze burgers, 2 apple pies, and 3/4 of a extra large choclate shake. Did you know they put the nutrition info on the back of the tray covers. I consumed about 2000 caloried here. I think that makes a good 6000 on the day, at least. I'll have to do better tomorrow. After that it was sleep. Funny thing was on the walk back all of us smelled food and considered eating more. I was stuffed but for the first time when I was this full, more food didn't sound bad. I am writing this on the 13. But I just realized this was my longest day todate. Pretty cool. Kicked my butt though.
Date: 2007-08-14
From: Rattle River Shelter

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

part 2.....It was a train wreck I couldn't put down. I read it even after I was done eating dessert until after someone came up. Speaking of dessert it came out really well. I think it would have gotten even harder if I put it in the stream. It was a little runny, but tasted great. I dipped some vinella cookies from my gorp bag in it. Definitly something that I am going to put in the food bag more often now. The person that rolled up was a women by the name of Jane-Sarah. I ended up talking with her for quite awhile. It was 1pm or so when I stopped and just after 4-ish when she got here. She started on Saturday at mt Washington and is finishing up where I got on. She is thinking about doing a thru hike in a couple years. We had a good talk about that and just life in general. A truely wonderful bit of trail magic came my way. After talking and soaking our feet in the stream for awhile, I made some coffee for us. We were talking and after we finished she asked me if I wanted some choclate covered coffee beans. She gave me a small bag of them. They tasted great. Thanks again. They are going to give me that extra boost up and over the whites when I need it. I have been wanting to get some of these since the wilderness. It's funny how much I am starting to appisheate the little things that come my way. After that a few northbounders rolle up. I talked to them about the usually stuff. They said the work for stays at the huts were pretty easy. I'll find out. That is my plan for tomorrow night. I am trying something out tonight that Pan, one of the JacksRBetter people, suggest as a short term fix for me. He suggested to cut a hole in my sit pad and put that under my hind parts. Basically an hermia pillow. I'm laying on that now in the hammock. It feels a lot better, but still not good. I can't wait until I pick up the new hammock in a week. Now off to bed. Tomorrow I start my first climb of the white mountains. Gear notes: The hole coffee filter thing failed miserably. Luckily I tried this at the hotel. Now I am just using th coffee press as a strainer. I hold it over my cup and pour the coffee into it. I think it works better than the ofer way. My next coffee making option when I get done might be to make a small strainer. My new hydration system works great. It is made by a company called Ultimete Designs. I didn't realize it until after I filled it. But it is clear with volume markings on it. It looks like a cathider bag. It looks like something you would find hanging on a wheelchair. I got a good kick out of that. But hey, I like it.
Date: 2007-08-16
From: ????

To: ????
Miles today: 0.0

part 2.... I just remembered something funny about the day. I was talking to a northbounder about whether or not it was going to storm. He said there was a 20% chance. They post the weather in every hut here. I said that means it was going to storm. Everytime it said even a smallest chance, I got it on this trip. He said the opposite. Needless to say my streak is still in tack. I forogt to mention it, but I even got rained with a little sleet yesterday. I think I have seen rain 16 or so days so far. It says unknown on y location because I am at a random campsite without a name. Kind of not sure where it is. hammocking note: I was thinking about adding a pocket or something onto my tarp that would hold the handle of my trekking pole. Today I had a daah moment. I took off the straps on the trekking poles and added 5mm rope. All I had to do is tie a small loop in the rope to the D-ring on my tarp tie out and it worked like a charm.