morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2018-07-24
From: Carrabassett River campsite

To: Horns Pond shelter 
Miles today: 13.5

Super sunny day surprisingly! Did a big climb out of camp this morning up Crocker Mt. I was super motivated, trying to get to Stratton, ME as early as possible. I hitched into town and got dropped at a gas station to do some resupplying. That gas station got me good. I walked in there around noon and didn¢t leave until 5pm! They had food, a bathroom, outlets, and WiFi! What more could you ask for! I made some phone calls and downloaded some new music. It was SO tempting to stay in Stratton, but considering the sunny day I decided to save the money and keep pushing.On my hitch back to the trail, this mom picked me up on her way home from work. She was very nice, but she asked this super stereotypical question that I get all the time from strangers out here and at this point it¢s hard not to give a sassy response. The question is ¢So like what are you doing out here? Are you trying to find yourself or something?¢ Like god damn, why does everyone assume we¢re just a bunch of young, lost souls out here. I just hate the assumption that if you¢re young and not in school or working a 9-5 job then obviously you¢re ¢lost¢ and don¢t know what the fuck you¢re doing. Fuck that! I didn¢t come out here to ¢find¢ myself! I came out here to BUILD myself!! I did the schooling and I did the jobs. But I feel like there¢s so many alternative routes to life that don¢t involve sitting behind some kind of desk. I¢m not saying I¢ll never have another job again and pay my dues to The Man, but I¢m definitely gonna make it a priority to try and do whatever the hell I want on any given day. I¢m sorry, I¢m done. Just don¢t be the next person to ask me that. Lol At the gas station, I ran into two other hikers that I had only met briefly before in Gorham, NH - Mr. Potato and Kidska. They hitched out of Stratton around the same time I did, so we crossed paths going up Bigelow Mt. And so glad, we did. It was a five mile hike to the next shelter and 2.5 of those miles were essentially vertical. Following them up that mountain was the only thing keeping me moving. I barely know them, but since I¢ve been hiking alone for a couple weeks now, just their company was super motivating.  Even though it was just a 13 mile day, I¢m hella impressed with myself. I dipped into town for 5 hrs, hiked 2 mountains, and still got to camp before dark. That¢s a full day. It¢s just the three of us tonight at this shelter and since it¢s supposed to rain again, I decided to actually sleep inside the shelter instead of my tent. Big step for me. This will be my 2nd shelter stay on trail EVER. I¢m just happy I won¢t have to pack up my tent in the rain in the morning!
Date: 2018-07-25
From: Horns Pond shelter 

To: East Flagstaff Lake campsite
Miles today: 12.8

Super late start today. 9AM. It was hard to leave that shelter. It didn¢t rain at all last night or today really. It just acted like it was going too, so super windy and chilly. This is why as a hiker you never adjust your plans to the weather because the weather never does what it says it¢s going too. Like hardly ever. I followed Kidska and Mr. Potato for most of the day. To say we were hiking ¢together¢ is a bit of a stretch. I mainly just eased dropped on their conversations as we went up and down the Bigelow Mt peaks. I¢m not even sure if they wanted me there, but their presence was comforting nonetheless. Lol Ran into some more wild blueberries today on the peaks! They were literally everywhere this time. Definitely slowed me down a bit. Lol There was also some trail magic! Someone left a cooler in the woods full of apples! Apple magic! Best kind of magic. I took two. Camping by myself tonight in this super killer spot on the beach of a lake! Weather is too cold and misty to go swimming, but still beautiful. It looks like it¢s definitely gonna storm tonight. In hindsight, I probably should have chosen a spot with more tree cover, but whatever. Everything gets wet eventually!Just took a moment to etch out some plans for the next week and hot damn, I think I¢ll be summiting Mt Katadhin (the northern terminus) in like 11 days! That¢s less than two weeks! I didn¢t realize it was coming that quickly. It feels weird to almost be at my halfway point. I can¢t imagine being a NoBo right now. Mt Katadhin is their finish line and then it¢s done. As much of a roller coaster this trek has been for me, I don¢t want it to be over. Not yet. Still lots to be built out here.
Date: 2018-07-26
From: East Flagstaff Lake campsite

To: Pierce Pond shelter
Miles today: 15.1

The sky fell all last night and this morning. I was soaked by 9am. Luckily it just came to a drizzle after noon. I can officially say I¢m in Northern Maine now, which means a lot less mountains - Yay! The trail is still a really rooty, rocky, muddy obstacle course though, just minus the big inclines and scrambles. I can also officially say that I have hiked 1,000 miles through 10 U.S. states! Crazy cool. I¢ve mentioned before all the great, beautiful swimming opportunities Maine has to offer, but there¢s a reason why I haven¢t swam in any lake or pond yet. And that¢s because of the soul-sucking, blood thirsty LEACHES! I saw this huge, sandy pond this afternoon with really clear water. So clear that you could see leaches swimming all over the bottom waiting for some sorry hiker to jump in naked. Leaches absolutely terrify me. I can¢t look at a leach and not think of that scene from the movie Stand By Me. Terrifying! Honestly, between the ticks, mosquitoes, and leaches, there are just WAY too many things out here waiting to suck your blood. Set up my tent this evening in a nice secluded spot next to a different pretty pond only to read the shelter log book 20 mins later and learn that a guy named Clockwork (who I¢ve met a couple times) set up his tent in the exact same spot as me the night before and masterbated right outside his tent¢s vestibule... God damnit. All the things you wished you never knew. Super exited to be neroing (taking a near zero day) into Caratunk, ME tomorrow! Everything will finally get washed and dried. Also need to do a lot of logistic planning for my summit of Mt Katadhin and then ¢flipping the flop¢ and going back to Harpers Ferry, WV to hike the southern portion of the trail. Almost halfway there! Crazy!!
Date: 2018-07-29
From: Bald Mountain Brook shelter

To: Monson, ME
Miles today: 22.0

Killed it today! Did 22 miles from 9am to 6:30pm, and that¢s with an hour lunch break. When the 4,500ft mountains go away, I¢m learning that I¢m actually kinda fast. Lol Really I was just motivated to get to town. I realized that I could either nero into town tomorrow afternoon, or push hard today and then have a full zero for tomorrow. So I chose the latter. I feel like I could have finished hiking even earlier, but the trail was an absolute mess. Whenever you¢re hiking uphill after a lot of rain, the rain water just drains down the trail right between your feet. Most of the trail was in ankle deep, muddy water. So you can only slosh through that so quickly. There were also 4 different rivers to ford today. The worst of them was the Piscataquis River. It¢s usually a knee deep river, but with the rain it became thigh deep. Luckily trail maintenance people installed a big rope between two trees going over the river. So as long as you held on for dear life, you could make it across mostly dry. When I came out to the road, a nice old couple gave me a hitch into town. They actually did a complete u-turn to pick me up and take me the opposite direction from where they were headed. They were convinced that they ¢saved me¢ from the crazy locals of Maine. Lol They lectured me on the risks of hitching for the full 10 mins. What do they expect me to do though? Walk??.. Ha! I got dropped at a gas station with a deli where I got a an all veggie, hold-the-cheesy, pizza for dinner. While I was waiting for my food, a flood of hikers rolled in. All familiar faces - Kidska, Potato, Stinger, Flower, Sparky, Hot Tang, Aladdin, and Coolio. We¢re all staying at Shaw¢s hostel tonight, so it¢s a party!
Date: 2018-07-30
From: Monson, ME

To: Monson, ME
Miles today: 0.0

Today is my last town stop/resupply before I hit the ¢100 Mile Wilderness¢, so I¢m zeroing at Shaw¢s hostel for the day. The 100 MW is a well-known chunk of trail because it¢s the longest section of the AT (100 miles) where you don¢t pass any roads or towns. So you comparatively have to carry a lot of food (6-10 days) versus the usual (3-5 days). It¢s also a really shitty place to get injured because you¢d have to get brought out by a search and rescue team and it¢d take them awhile to get to you. I plan to do it in 6 days, so I¢ll be carrying about 12 pounds of food. On August 6th, the day after the 100 MW, is when I¢ll be summiting Mt Katadhin. It¢s literally an all day thing, so it gets its own day. On the 7th, I¢ll be figuring out transportation from Baxter State Park to Bangor, ME. And then on the 8th, I fly back to Harpers Ferry, WV. It¢s gonna be a full week! So today I¢m doing a lot of eating and napping. My dinner consisted of breaded mushrooms, fried onion rings, and french fries. I did actually try and order a salad first, but they told me they were out of lettuce? So I figured what the hell. One glorious, fried gas station dinner. LolPSA to family. I have zero cell reception in Maine, so sorry if you can¢t get ahold of me! I¢ll post more updates here when I get to the airport. Talk to y¢all on the other side!
Date: 2018-08-01
From: Long Pond Shelter

To: West Pleasant River campsite
Miles today: 15.2

Today wasn¢t even that big of a day in miles, but I¢m exhausted. It was just a lot of PUDs over the ¢Chairbacks¢, these steep up and down peaks. Looks like tomorrow is gonna be pretty similar, but after that the terrain gets a lot nicer until Mt Katadhin. Ran into a guy today on top of a mountain that I hadn¢t seen since New York, over 600 miles ago! Major Tom is his name. That¢s one cool thing about taking a zero day every now and then. You start seeing a whole lot of new faces, people that have just been barely behind you the whole time. And then sometimes you run into people you met ages ago, and whether you were friends with them or not it¢s still a cool surprise. One thing I¢m noticing about this ¢100 Mile Wilderness¢ business is that it¢s really not all that ¢wildernessey¢. The AT still has a lot of road crossings out here. It¢s just that all these dirt roads are privately owned and don¢t lead into any towns. But there¢s still lots of teen camp groups out here and weekend warriors. They just had to pay a fee to get on the dirt roads and access the trail at different points. So the only real difference between this section of the trail and the rest of the AT is that you can¢t dip off trail every other day and get a soda and gas station sandwich. Lol Thus the ¢ominous¢ appeal of the 100 MW has officially died.
Date: 2018-08-02
From: West Pleasant River campsite

To: East Branch Shelter
Miles today: 16.4

Super humid, muggy morning. Had to do a long and gradual 6.5 mile climb up to Gulf Hagas Mt. Then up and over a lot of peaks all day. The mosquitoes are BAD out here. I haven¢t seen them this bad since Massachusetts. I was warned and the reputation holds. Literally killing me. I checked out the tread on the bottom of my hiking boots today for the first time, and WOW. What tread? Lol. No wonder I¢m slipping all the time! They¢re smoother than my 3 yr old Converse. Luckily, I ordered new shoes online when I was in town and have them waiting for me in Harpers Ferry, WV. Most people go through 3-4 pairs of shoes on their thru-hike, so replacing them every 500-600 miles. I have over 1,100 miles on this pair of boots! Lol My goal was to only use 2 pairs of shoes on the whole trip because I¢m cheap AF. You can almost see my big toe poking through on the right one, but good god these shoes are gonna get me to Katadhin if it kills me!Oh speaking of, I saw her today - Big K. On the north side of White Cap Mt is the first time any AT thru-hiker gets a glimpse of her. It¢s a straight 72 mile line of sight to Mt Katadhin. And there¢s no question about what mountain it is because it¢s the biggest fucking mountain across the whole landscape. This view is an emotional moment for most thru-hikers. It¢s the FIRST time you can actually see the FINISH LINE. In clear view! Hikers who have literally been walking for months and months finally get to White Cap Mt and can visually see the end of their journey just a handful of days away. I didn¢t cry, mainly because it¢s not my finish line. But just standing there, you could feel the tear-soaked rocks on that peaks. Since I¢m flip-flopping, it wasn¢t a super emotional moment for me, but very symbolic nonetheless. Because I¢ve still walked a long fucking way. And to tangibly see what I¢ve been walking towards this whole time gave me goosebumps. If someone had told me a year ago I¢d be standing on a mountain in Maine basking at a view of Katadhin, I wouldn¢t have believed them. Tonight at the shelter there¢s literally no one else here, but me. I¢ve never seen this happen. I thought Potato and Kidska would be here, but looks like they pushed ahead. Since I have the entire shelter to myself, I decided to set up my tent inside of it! Lol I wouldn¢t have bothered with the tent, but since the shelters are open to the elements on one side and there¢s so many god damn mosquitoes, it¢d be absolutely suicide to not have some kind of bug net around you. So I¢m using my tent and taking over the whole place. Lol
Date: 2018-08-03
From: East Branch Shelter

To: Nahmahkanta Stream Shelter
Miles today: 23.8

Didn¢t sleep too well because there was a mouse doing laps across the top of my tent all night. I was super paranoid he was gonna chew a whole through my pack trying to get at my toothpaste or smelly cooking pot, but luckily all is well. LolToday was a big day in miles, but relatively ¢easy¢ in terrain. It was pretty flat for Maine, but not actually flat, flat. Instead of climbing over mountain peaks, it was a lot of rock and root hurdling. And it wasn¢t rainy or super sunny, but the humidity was SO high it was essentially impossible to stay hydrated. I¢ve never sweated so much on such a cloudy, overcast day.  The mosquitoes have officially reached a whole other level. I can¢t even stop on trail for a snack break without getting absolutely devoured. I spent most of the day running from bugs. It was my biggest motivator to not stop moving. There¢s nothing more uncomfortable though than trying to do your business in the woods and having mosquitoes bite your but the whole time. I have at least 11 mosquito bites on my ass!I¢m so fucking hungry. Lol I should have packed out more food instead of the absolute bare minimum. It¢s Friday and I¢ve already started dipping into Sunday¢s rations, which means I¢m just gonna have to hike further tomorrow in order to get out of these woods sooner. I¢ve literally been on an all peanut butter diet these past couple days. Mainly because it¢s filling and I have a lot of it on me. In the morning, I spread it on my granola bars. In the afternoon, I spread it on flour tortillas. And in the evening, I drop a glob of it in my instant Ramen. Peanut butter noodles. LolI caught up with Potato and Kidska mid day. We¢re the only ones staying at tonight¢s shelter. And since it¢s a brand new shelter and pretty big, all three of us are able to set up our tents inside it and escape the bugs. Several days ago at a campsite, a big group of us were talking about how weird it¢s gonna feel to adjust back into ¢society¢. There¢s so many things we do as hikers that you just can¢t get away with in the ¢real world¢. Like bladder control! Out here, when you gotta go, you HAVE to go. Like you have about a 2 minute window - tops! And since you can go pretty much anywhere, it¢s not a huge problem. But in town, it¢s a lot more challenging. Lol Also, on trail, 90% of people¢s conversations are either about food, poop, or a combination of the two. It¢s also one of the only places where it¢s acceptable to pick at the dead skin on your feet while people are cooking their dinner. Or eat over 1,000 calories before 8am without judgement. Or shoot snot rockets while hiking. Or ring out the sweat in your socks at camp. Or ask to borrow someone¢s mirror to check your nether region for ticks. Or compete with someone on who can go the longest without a shower. Or ask someone if your armpits smell like ammonia (a sign of degrading muscle tissue). Lol The list goes on.
Date: 2018-08-04
From: Nahmahkanta Stream Shelter

To: Hurd Brook Shelter
Miles today: 25.4

Slow start today because we woke up to thunderstorms. There was so much mud on the trail. Still crushed the miles though! Hiked 25 miles, 9:30am to 8pm. That¢s 2 BIG days in a row, so my body feels like it¢s dying. All day I just kept thinking, ¢Gotta get to FOOD!!¢ The 100 MW ¢ends¢ at Abol Bridge because there¢s a little camp store there that the AT passes by. It¢s only 3 miles away from where I¢m currently staying, so I¢ll reach it in the morning. The camp store is the only thing on my mind lately. It¢s probably just a hole-in-the-wall snack shack that sells soda and chips, but I would sell my soul for a family sized bag of BBQ potato chips right now. Spent the day hiking on and off with Potato and Kidska. While eating lunch, we met another thru-hiker named Bird. A third thing that hikers LOVE to talk about besides food and poop is their GEAR. Especially the ultra-light or light-weight backpackers. These are people who have a base pack weight less than 15 lbs (not including food, water, or fuel). Potato, Kidska, and Bird are these people, so they had lots to talk about. I am not that person and never will be. I currently have a base weight of 20 lbs (started at 29 lbs though) and I love all those 20 lbs. Lol I like my 20 degree sleeping bag, my two-person tent, my aluminum cooking pot, my big fuel canister, my ¢sleeping¢ clothes... I like it all!! A sense of COMFORT is gonna get me through this trail, not a super light pack. LolIt just occurred to me that I only have 2 more days of hiking in Maine! And then it¢s back to the south. I¢m looking forward to Virginia though, and the rest of the states. I¢m reallyyyyy looking forward to the trail actually looking like a TRAIL again. Like there will still be mountains and big climbs, but being able to hike uphill and have both your feet touch solid, flat terrain is gonna be AMAZING. Can¢t wait.
Date: 2018-08-11
From: Sand Springs campsite

To: Rod Hollow shelter
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: overcast clouds

I planned for today to be a short day because I knew I was gonna have to tackle the infamous ¢AT Rollercoaster¢. Lol I¢d heard about it back in May at the beginning of my trek because I had met some NoBos who had just gone through it. It¢s 13.5 miles of purposefully-planned ascents and descents. You know you¢re about to enter it because there¢s a sign on a tree that says: ¢Hiker Warning: You are about to enter the AT Rollercoaster built and maintained by The Trailboss and his crew of volunteers. Have a great ride!¢ In all honesty, it wasn¢t a big deal. It was more annoying than challenging. I mean up is up and it¢s always a bitch. But compared to everything I went through in Maine and New Hampshire, I would gladly hike this ¢rollercoaster¢ every damn day if I had too. I¢ll never again be able to justifiably complain about the trail. LolThe rollercoaster crossed several big roads and, since it¢s Saturday, there were day hikers everywhere. After I crossed this busy road, this guy ran up to me and was like ¢I just hiked to this crossing and saw you come from the other side. Does it keep going across the street?¢ I said yes. ¢And where does it end?¢ ¢Umm, Maine..?¢ Lol! Gotta love those day hikers. I will say though I saw a BEAR today and it was only because a group of day hikers were standing on the side of the trail and pointing off into the woods. I would have blazed right by it if they hadn¢t pointed it out to me. I also met a couple section hikers and a few of those backwards flipfloppers. One guywas named Sideshow Joe. I wanted to ask how he got that name, but considering the big nose and blonde Afro I figured it was self explanatory. Lol. Everyone was walking north though, so just hi and bye. No one at the shelter I stopped at for lunch. No one at the shelter I¢m staying at tonight. It all feels pretty lonely, like I¢m starting over and having to do it all by myself. No handy NoBos around to untangle my bear rope from a tree or show me how to properly stake my rainfly. Just me now.
Date: 2018-08-14
From: Gravel Springs shelter

To: Birds Nest #3 shelter 
Miles today: 17.5

Weather was super nice and cool today. And guess what, I saw another bear! They¢re very protected within Shenandoah National Park. The trail goes through the park for another 4-5 days, so I assume I¢ll probably see even more. Another thing that¢s awesome about SNP, is all the amenities that come with it! About once a day, I¢ll be passing a campground store that sells snacks or something called a ¢Wayside¢ that¢s like a short-order grill. So lots of opportunities for food the next couple of days! I stopped at a Wayside for lunch and was able to get a black bean veggie burger! SNP is gonna take all my money over the next week. LolHad to do a 2.5 mile hike up this large hill to get to tonight¢s shelter/campsite. It was technically a mountain, but compared to what I¢ve seen I don¢t think I can justifiably call it a mountain. Still exhausting though. I don¢t like doing that shit at the very end of the day. But what was even more infuriating was the fact that the water source for the shelter was 0.4 miles DOWNHILL. So once you hiked all the way up the freaking mountain, you had to take a small side trail back DOWN just to get water. That¢s a 0.8 mile round trip. Thruhikers don¢t do that shit - EVER. I was pissed. And obviously still am. LolNo one else here tonight besides me, so I set up my tent in the shelter. This shelter actually has a freaking fireplace! Never seen that before. A deer scared the holy hell out of me just now. I heard the breathing and movements of a large animal moving around the outside corner of the shelter. I beamed my headlamp that direction and saw two huge glowing eyes! Just a deer though. Lol Turns out, all he wanted was to come lick up the toothpaste I had just spit onto the ground! Haha