morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-09-01
From: Shaws hostel in Monson, ME

To: Long pond stream lean to
Miles today: 15.1
Weather: clear sky

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Im headed out into the great 100 mile wilderness!!!!! No resupply is available while you are in this section (except for this place called white house landing that is some dudes house that they serve 1lb hamburgers and a little snacky stuff, you go a mile off trail and honk a fog horn they come across the water to get you etc...i dont think we are going there) Our packs are pretty heavy with about 5 or 6 days of food (we usually only carry about 3 or 4 with us at one time) and maxed out, bulging at the seems, who put that huge rock in my pack??? At about a 1/4 of mile into the trail there is a warning sign making you aware of the section you are about to hike through, to make sure you have about 10 days of food etc.... then at the end says "Good Hiking". So quaking in our boots we walked past into the WILDERNESS (not really quaking but it sounded dramatic, really though I was a little nervous that I may not have enough food) We gotta few more maine mountains to climb, but today our terrain is pretty flat. So after today we have just under a 100 miles left till Katadin(the northern end of the trail) Below the shelter there was a beautiful waterfall and swimming hole area! So much bright green moss on the big rolling rocks, i ve decided that when i get a house im going to have one room that will be huge rocks with moss all over everything. Forded the big wilson today, the fords are not really that high at this point havent had much rain for a few weeks so they have gone down since a lot of southbounders have come through. So on to the next set of mountains tommorow...
Date: 2008-09-02
From: Long pond stream lean to

To: stelth camoing by the river
Miles today: 0.0

Challenging...climbed the chairback range, mostly all up and down today, hit barron mt, fourth mt, third mt, columbus mt, and chairback mt. there was bout 2 miles between each one which was interesting because you werent exactly sure when you were starting to go up to the next peek, there were a few sections that were tricky you would start to go up quite a bit then go right back down...tricky mts....good to be with snake whisperer for encouragment to keep giong. always great to think back on the day and see how much you accomplished, all the hard work you've done. I love looking at the contour map at the end of the day to see all that I have done. so tommorow we have white cap mt range, just looked at this contour for tommorow, seems we keep going up for about 11 miles then pretty much all down hill, should get our first look at the big Katatdin tommorow from white cap. so snake, creekdiver and pacer and I stelthing it tonight, so relaxing to hear the water from the river right in front of us. havent been in my tent for a long time...nice for a change from the shelters.
Date: 2008-09-03
From: stelth camoing by the river

To: east branch lean to
Miles today: 16.5

so are you ready for this? ARe you sure??? maybe you should sit down first...IM HALF WAY THROUGH MY HIKE TODAY!!! I hit my official half way mark today at Hay mt. since Im flip flopping there is not offical trail marking my half way point but from my number crunching (stayed up all night figuring it out, haha) I have gone half of the 2176 miles. Seems crazy, I met most of the hikers I am with at their half way point way back in June, so it is weird to just now be at that point. I remember just starting and thinking that 100 miles was insane. So we conquered the white cap range today. not nearly as bad as i thought it would be, we got a GREAT view of Katadin today, seems so huge. Meant a lot for creekdiver and pacer i think as they were not able to see their finish line point. For me I think it will seem to be just another point in my hike as my finishing point will be at springer mt in georgia, which is where most people begin their hike. the last 3.5 miles today was flat and beautiful, like a kiss on the lips from Maine. Great time sitting at the shelter tonight, shootn the breeze with pacer and creekdiver.
Date: 2008-09-04
From: east branch lean to

To: Potaywandi lean to
Miles today: 19.5

So we are getting further and further into the wilderness, most of the climbing is done until Katadin. funny to think about hiking 19 miles now vs when I first started, the first week we hiked a 19 mile day and when i got to the shelter I was so dead and achy, hard for me to crawl up into my sleeping bag and didnt wanna hike the next day vowing to never do such a long day again, now...the mileage went pretty fast and in general didnt seem like anything out of an ordinary day. Now I sit and watch pacer chase after creekdiver some how she seems to always be going in the 0pposite direction...haha. So...I also wanted to let you all know that I have not had a shower in september yet, the last one i took was on aug. 31, smelling ripe as it has been humid, only 2 more days till i getta wash some stench off in a coin opperated shower at abol bridge. met a guy today from indiana of all places, he is out here bear hunting, he where the trail crosses a loging road, we were hoping for trail magic but to no avail... BUT about 1 mile later i got another type of trail magic of which i am really greatful, another backpacker had extra food from a resuppy and asked me if i wanted it, "for sure!" TRAIL MAGIC for me! so about 3 days to Katadin another kiss on the lips from maine today as the trail was pretty level, heres to another night in a shelter.
Date: 2008-09-06
From: rainbow stream lean to

To: Abol bridge
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Yes, we DID stay on the AT ALL day long. Another fast day 11 or so miles in by 11:15 lunch break and to Abol bridge by 1:15 so we made it outta the 100 mile wilderness!!! 5 1/2 days with out a shower and today we scrubbed the stench away in a fancy campground coin opperated shower, washed our clothes in the sink and dried them by the fire in the sprinkling rain as we roasted marshmellos on a real fire (not my alcohol stove)creekdiver and pacer snakewhisperer all dying for a soda as soon as we saw the capmp store, which they dearly missed those 5 days out on trail, creekdiver said on day 3, I wish I had a coke, Im so depresssed-we all laughed. so others experience on the 100 mile wilderness seemed to set up a certain feeling about the wilderness that you would drown in the mud as you sunk in, moose all around, hard to find blazes, fording high streams etc...the trail had time to dry up quite a bit before we got into this area so while there were muddy areas it wasnt quite as bad as what others had experienced. the moss was about 2 inches thick in some areas and would squish down and bounce back up when you stepped on it, there were trees growing out of rocks, a huge tree I saw had been knocked over with moss growing on its side and its own little ecosystem growing on top of it complete with another tree growing on it. It was really enjoyable and went by pretty fast. At each end of the 100 mile wilderness there is a sign that wans hikers there isn t nay chance for supplies for next 100 miles to take 10 days of food ect...the sign brought about a little anxiety when I first saw it on day one and the last day as we came out seeing the sign brought about a since of releif, we had made it conquering the 100 miles, excited for Katadin which would come in 2 days!! so at Abol we set up camp and ate pink/red hot dogs (little bit suspicious of those red maine hotdogs)now in our tents at 7:30 as it is raining and it gets dark now around 7:15, remember when it was still light at 9. so tommorow is 10 miles to the birches right before the hike to katadin starts in baxter state park and on monday we nake the climb up the big K at our tentsie here we can see katadin, just cant get over what a huge accomplisment it is for creekdiver and pacr to have made it this far from GA!   FROM GA!!! so many days thiknking of their goal to get here and today coming outta the wilderness with only a few miles to go. there is a map of the whole AT in the camp store and it is amazing to look at where you have come ffrom espcially for those who will be finishing their hike at katadin. for me it still is cool to see,k as it seems like a good distance. I remember when I didnt wanna look at that map as I had only gone about a cm in distance now Im proud to look at what I have done by Gods grace.
Date: 2008-09-07
From: Abol bridge campground

To: Birches campground/baxter state park
Miles today: 10.0

long night of rain last night, leaking tent and packed up to keep stuff dry, pretty little sleep. short day into the birches nice ot have time to nap, relax, get ready for the big day tommorow, summit day on katadin! nice big fire tonight, little sad thinking this is my last night on trail with nobos , gonna be wierd giong south lot less people around and not knowing anyone, but all things must come to an end
Date: 2008-09-08
From: birches campground

To: katadin
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

what??? we climb katadin today??? what creekdiver and pacer have been moving towards for over 5 months and what Ive been walking towards for 3 months, it is the northern end of the trail, the end of the journey for the north bounders! today we climb a little over 4000 ft in about 5.2 miles. a little bit unreal that this day has come, we wake up early at 5:30 pack up and head down the road about .25 mile to the ranger station to sign in fill up on water and start down the trail. bundled up in my rain gear and hat sign in at the begining of trail at 6:50 up we climb, strip down to shorts and short sleeve shirt. we are in treeline for about 2.5 miles or so, stop for short snap right before leaving tree line, as there is about 2.5 or 3 miles above treeline and we can hear the wind whipping around. Seems like a class 2 day to hike up there, as soon as we get above treeline it is freezing cold with the wind whipping around like crazy so throw back on the rain gear and hat put away the hiking poles and start scrambling with hands first over huge rounded boulders and on up to more jagged rocks, with white clouds all around there is no view, just crazy wind and whiteness, you can see one or 2 blazes in front of you that go straight up. trying to stay low as i feel like the wind will soon blow me away(i know it wont but it sure does feel like it) with all my heart wanna make it to the top but also cant wait to get back down to tree line, you really can learn that you are nothing in comparison to the power of the wind. so make it to the tablelands (flat for little while after most of climb)and then up last little climb. lots of fog so cant see very far ahead of you, wondering if you will see the katadin sign before you get there or if you wont see it until you are practilcally on top of it b/c of fog. anticipation as you get closer, knowing you are within a mile. man what a dramatic mood the wind and fog set as you hike on. finally I see the sign that famous sign that ive seen in so many pictures, the real thing before me, pacer and creekdiver already there congratulate me on making it up. then pose with the sign hugging the dang thing. dude it was COLD up there and not just my cold real cold so throw on the down jacket as we each lunch and wait for snakewhisperer. eventually heading back down the mt. the view clears just in time as we face it coming down the mt! cant even describe its beauty!!! it was a lotta fun coming down, so we did it, we finished the northern half of trail alive, but I almost didnt make it alive out of baxter park, pacers dad almost ran me over as i was sitting on the side of the road. anyway celebrated our accomplishment in milinocket, one last night with out crew! Oh yeah it is my 3 month aniversary on the trail!!
Date: 2008-09-10
From: bangor, me

To: portland, me
Miles today: 0.0

sad day, had to say goodbye to creekdiver as she flew out today to vacation in Hawaii, im going to miss everyone so much! the crew bear pack, bear bait, pacer, dust, creekdiver, whisper, flamethrower, lotus, thinker, peanut, wrongway and many others had so many great times with you all, makin me laugh non stop, thankful for my time with you all! congrats to all you northbounders who have finished, what a huge accomplishment!So I guess I am now offically turning into a southbounder...looking forward to all the new adventures ahead and the great people we will meet down south, for now enjoying my vacation away from my vacation. visiting portland tommorow during day (went to school here so great to come back and visit) meeting up with some friends also!!! next few days we will slowly be taking about every type of transportation possible to harpers ferry, walk, bus, rented car, plane, train etc...RELAXING!!!
Date: 2008-09-13
From: Harpers Ferry, WVA

To: David Lesser Shelter
Miles today: 9.5
Weather: few clouds

Hey, we made it back to Harpers Ferry!!! The place where it all started...the same heat and humidity that we started out with greeted us once again. Once we got all our errands done, pixs at the ATC (saw everyones photos you all are so cute at your half way point), outfitters we headed out for a late start around 2:30. DUDE, i turned into a big fat baby on my 4 days off, it was a struggle to get going again with the humidity, heat, bugs flying in my ears and eyes, new shoes that suck...but we made it and met some cool peeps at the shelter. So wierd the sun doesnt come up here till around 6:30 or so and I mean it is black until then...up north it was about 5 or so that it started to get light. Sobo we are...
Date: 2008-09-14
From: David Lesser Shelter

To: Bears Den Hostel
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Hey hey whatta ya say?? yep you read it right two amazingly huge mile days outta harpers ferry a big 9.5 and 11, but we heard so much about bears den we had to stop short and stay, also the heat makes it easy to justify the stop! So I also made a pit stop back into harpers ferry outfitter to get another pair of shoes, i tried to make the shoes work that were sent but they hurt my feet soooo bad so back to the amazing montrail hardrocks, thanks to the caretakers at blackburn!! they shuttled me in to get them, I am so incredibly thankful! It was also great to go to the outfitters and see Laura and maryann, they were there when we first started in june and set me up with a new pack and got us all situated to go, it felt good to go in and say I made it halfway!! They were so excited for us!! they are so great there...there was also a guy who was planning on thruhiking next year and it was great to talk with him and answer some questions!   met a few southbounders today, seems like most are flying through at this point. another hot day today, but a shower and laundry makes it all better. So hoping tommorow I'll be back up to par, seeing as yesturday I felt like i had never hiked before. And so we take off on the rollercoaster tommorow (it is part of the trail that gets its name from all the little ups and downs that are pretty close together) Thanks to everyone who has called, texted it is great to hear from you all and really encouraging!!!
Date: 2008-09-15
From: Bears Den Hostel

To: dicks dome shelter
Miles today: 18.4
Weather: overcast clouds

And we're back in the game...finally a normal day, feeling great in my new montrail kicks! okay so you have to be prepared to read this and interact...sit up straight throw up your hands and scream, what do you feel like your on? no not crack, on a rollercoaster...thats what we finished today (13.5 mile section with lots of up and downs) though not quite the same thrill as a real rollercoaster. Beautiful weather today wonderful breeze sunny blue skies, low humidity, seriously pleasant day! left pretty early today to try to beat the heat but turned out there wasnt much heat today! so just another day on the AT! so we've gone about 1203 miles!!
Date: 2008-09-16
From: dicks dome shelter

To: front roayl, va
Miles today: 15.0

So...after a hard stretch of one night in the woods, I'm back in the comfort of a real bed, but this crazy stretch of staying in hostel/hotel will soon end as we enter the Shenandoah (i dont really know how to spell it) national park. So after a stop here for resupply on food, laundry we head out. spent the night in my new tent last night (my old tent likes to have pool parties inside when it rains...) its like i moved into a new house, but not much room for my queen size bed (for those of you that might get confused by this, no I dont have a bed for my tent). As for the trail today...we passed by a long fence that is labeled as belonging to the USA, no trespassing. What could be going on behind that fence?? we think probably dangerous biological testing of toxins on animals, or not. i guess it really is a national zoological land or something, who really knows? Other than that we saw large trees, all taller than me, dirt, rocks, sticks, flowers, bees that sting my right leg, and lots of green things! I was one with nature.
Date: 2008-09-17
From: front roayl, va

To: Gravel Springs Hut
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Shennys! greeting us both with animals all over ->7deer, 1 bear cub, 1 turtle. The lil bear cub started to run up to us but thankfully turned back as I wasnt to keen on spending any quality time with the mamma bear. The deer are so tame here...within 6 ft or closer of 2 deer on trail. Miss'n the views from up north. we came up on some pretty big boulders today I looked at them and thought if we were in Maine we would climb directly olver it, but down here we climbed steps switching back and forth on our way up. We're in a full shelter tonight, unexpected. I thought down south there wouldn't be many people. There is a group of sectioners from Indiana (i keep meeting peeps from Indiana, so wierd) and one other thru hiker. Still feels little odd not knowing the hikers around us, seems like a different trail. We have been met about 6 or so hikers that have just started around harpers ferry or in PA heading south to Springer. I wasn't expecting this. Thinking today about hiking being physical and mental...times when physically body doesn't want to climb, feeling tired, pain, etc...but setting that aside mentally overcoming those feelings knowing dont have to give into the physical complaints. Divorcing the mental and physical, controling your thoughts, your body. Trail seems littel hum drum but nicely graded, cute little toe path with green grass lining each side.
Date: 2008-09-18
From: Gravel Springs Hut

To: Pass Mt shelter
Miles today: 13.5

quick 13.5 miles today. Early into the shelter, nice to relax and read in the afternoon. Dude, we saw 2 bears today before 10am!! One of them was in the tree and backed down it sooo fast butt first. It was crazy to watch I had never seen anything like it before. still lots of deer, 2 right be the spring when I was making a water run. The weather is begining to cool down quite a bit seeing as just a few days ago I was writing about how unearthly hot and humid it was!! Met a hiker, Blue, today who is having a great time hiking and has a different philosophy about hiking than most I've met, he started in April and has only been through 900 miles or so and will only make it up to Harpers Ferry this year, he loves taking his time and enjoying what is around him. I think it is refreshing to meet people like this as the trend on the trail tends to be quite the opposite as far as rushing through things...At this point I find myself complaining to myself about even the smallest ups how it is hard and I know that there will only be more climbing in the south, little overwhelmed by how many miles I have left, about 928. catch is I wanna do less miles each day and enjoy things more but the slower I go the longer it will take and the colder it will get. I guess right now I have the worst attitude, I just wanna be done...
Date: 2008-09-19
From: Pass Mt shelter

To: Lewis Mt campground
Miles today: 27.5

Wellll you ever have those days when you wake up and you know your going to accomplish a goal that once seemed far off???? (like running 12.5 miles one day when you usually run 6?) today was one of those days. We set out to do 20 miles but in my mind it was the perfect day to do the hike your age challenge. Shawna is 2 years older than me so we had to go little further than my age. So we set off at 6:50am when it was barely light enough to see took and hour and half lunch which included an amazing BROWNIE! (at another amazing wayside) got our 20 miles in by 3;30 decided to push on and accomplish our real goal getting into camp at 6:40pm, bought sodas and treats at the camp store just before they closed quick dinner and ran for our tents as it was freeeezing, seriously! It was even cold foggy mist around noon today. there was a couple next to us at the campground who were so generous and kind! they helped shawna set up her new tent let us put our food in their van safe from bears cooked up some pancakes sausage and coffee for us in the morning and made us feel really welcome. I guess the womans family lived in the surrounding mts and were some of the people asked to leave their homes in the mts when they were making the area into a park. Her grandfather was the minister for the mt people there and some of her family is buried in a grave yard we walked by today. Great to hear the personalized history of the area. So I guess our campsite didnt quite look like anyone was occupying it with us not having a car and our tents were off to the side due to the less than amazing tenting area. So around 10pm or so we had people pull into the campsite and take a tour of it trying to figure out what exactly was going on with it as we had marked it occupied but i guess it didnt seem occupied to them, they were talking in a different language I guess they decided to drive around and think about it and then came back again and then finally decided to leave. Then anther car pulls up about 15 minutes later also confused, so after they pulled in and out a few times and walked around I finally had my fill of listening to it all so I opened my tent and said I dont care if they tent there as long as they were quiet, which they were thankfully. the next morning they apologized for the weirdness and offered to pay us for the tentsite, so we ended up camping there for free! I guess I never realized that walking into a car campground with out a car could cause such confusion among the masses! And we HIKED OUR AGE! (this will never be done again, little sore in the am)
Date: 2008-09-20
From: Lewis Mt campground

To: Pinhut shelter
Miles today: 20.1

Great views! lttle sore as we started to climb little this morning. After yesturday 20 miles didnt seem that long. got into camp did the "chores" and headed for my sleeeping bag for warmth. started little late today but bfast was worth it. at shelter met 2 guys who recently started the trail, one of them saying how he started the trail with no food other than a 10 lb bag of white rice and once on trail quickly discarded it. He had now discovered ramin noodles...the other dude just bought a head lamp from the camp store that looked like a playschool toy. the lady at the counter told him he needed 4 aaa batteries so he carried all that out tried to put the batteries in it after dark and couldnt figure out why the light wasnt working, so the other guy took hold of the light and shook it you could hear the batteries gostling around inside. He opened it up and said are you sure you werent suppose to use aa batteries??? so we all donated a few batteries and magicallllly solved the headlamp mystery with 4aa batteries. His response, "the lady at the counter should have been paying more attention to my batteries instead of how tall I was". So I know I did my fair share of rookie mistakes on trail and still continue to make rookie mistakes at times but I was just tickled to see it from the other side, being the hiker who had been out on the trail for awhile. PS most of the southbounders we have met at this point are flying through and doing 20pluses everyday (see ya lata). So we get trail magic and Pacer is coming to visit tommorow for a visit!!!!!!!!!!! We are both really exicted.