morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-07-01
From: Crawford Notch, NH 

To: Madison Hut, NH
Miles today: 18.1

As the youth minister at Our Lady of Grace likes to say ¢God is good¢¢¦ ¢All the time¢(response). Today was without a doubt a perfect example of that. I think that today has a very good chance of being the high point of the whole entire trip! I wish that everyone could experience a day as great as the day that I had today. We got an early start since we were aiming for another big day. Right off the bat we climbed 2000¢ in under 2 miles to Webster Cliffs. When we got to the cliffs I knew that we were in for a special day, at 7:30 am we had bright, blue, cloudless skies all around us, which provided great views of Crawford Notch and of where we had hiked yesterday. After that we half hiked and half rock climbed up and over Webster and Jackson Mountains to get us to the Mizpah Hut for snack. We finally got to a hut early enough to get some really good chocolate cakes left over from the night before. The weather report at the hut called for a nice morning followed by clouds in the afternoon and thunderstorms by late afternoon so we decided that we had to push it so we could get clear skies on top of Mt. Washington. A little past the hut we popped out over the trees and the views were just inspiring! There laid out in front of us was mountain top after mountain top all in the alpine zone. We could see the path we would be taking all the way up the ridge to Mt. Washington. It was truly breathtaking; it was almost like we were on a different planet or at least in a different country. After sprinting through this paradise we finally reached the high point at 6288¢ with clear blue skies around us, warm temperatures, and almost no wind at all. From what I hear the chances of having a day like this on top of Washington are pretty much slim to none! After an hour on the summit, a chilly dog, and a pint of Ben and Jerry¢s we decided to start down because the clouds were starting to roll in and we didn¢t want to get caught up there in the middle of a storm. From Washington the hut was only a 6 mile rock hop away. I can¢t even begin to express how awesome it was to be completely above the tree line on a perfect day for over 12 miles in a row! At the hut we were told to chill out for awhile and that we would be told later what kind of work for stay we could do. So far we have just about mastered the stay part but we are still waiting for the work part of the deal. We finished just about all of the leftover chicken, potatoes, corn, bread, soup, and dessert from diner without a problem. The storms that we were expecting eventually arrived around 8:30. I don¢t think that I have ever experienced a thunderstorm at 4800¢ but man was that cool. We could see the storm all around us and bellow us. It was so strange to see lightening strike from clouds bellow us! Not only did we have an unbelievable day of hiking, but we also had a full meal and a roof over our heads during a nasty thunderstorm. ¢All the time¢¢¦ ¢God is good¢.
Date: 2004-07-02
From: Madison Hut, NH

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

That was by far one of the best nights sleep that I have gotten on the trail. With a long hard adrenaline filled day and a soft mattress, I slept like a rock last night. In the morning we helped clear the breakfast tables before we were allowed to dive into the leftover pancakes. After breakfast we finally were give the work part of our stay. The three of us had to sweep the floors and change all 56 pillow cases. Not bad seeing that it was in exchange for a $75 night stay. Our hike started off with .5 miles straight up to the top of Mt Madison, which was still packed in the clouds. I¢m sure glad that we hiked Washington yesterday because the visibility up there today was only suppose to be about 200¢. On the other side of Madison we dropped bellow the clouds, which gave us a good view of the 2.5 mile exposed ridgeline that we would be following. I just wish that there was some way to hike above the tree line without having to do so much rock hopping. But hey it didn¢t take long after getting back down into the trees for me to realize how much I appreciated the lack of roots over the previous 13 miles. We got down to Pinkham Notch and the end of the Presidential Range around 1:00 which was a nice time for a lunch break. But to all the hikers to come let me tell you, just because the Presidentials are over doesn¢t in the least bit mean that NH is done because of Pinkham you get smacked with a long, hot, steep, and rocky ascent up Wildcat E, D, C, B, and A. Man, that was tougher then I thought it was going to be. Instead of trying to tent up on top of Carter Dome we opted to work for stay at the Carter Notch Hut. To our surprise the caretakers at the hut told us that they only ran a ¢stay¢ program so we got to stay there without paying the $23 or doing any work! Not a bad program if you ask me.
Date: 2004-07-03
From: Carter Notch Hut, NH

To: US2, NH
Miles today: 15.2

At last and unfortunately we have come to our last major day in the White Mountains. Like I said before, my legs may be glad that our week in the Whites is almost over, but I don¢t think that too much else of me is glad that the end is near. Like every other day in the Whites we had a nice big, steep climb to start our day. This time it was a 1600¢ climb up Carter Dome in just about 1.2 miles. On the summit I really appreciated out decision to stay at the hut because the winds at the top of the dome would have made last night a very loud and uncomfortable night. Our guess was that the wind was gusting at around 50-60 mph up there. Yeah they were just a little bit stiff. Following the dome we got to climb Mt Hight, South Carter, Middle Carter, and North Carter. It made for an interesting morning because the tops of the mountains were all in the clouds and really chilly but each time we dropped down between the mountains it was warm in sunny. We met Mr. VerPlanck and the dogs at the top of Mt Moriah for lunch then they hiked the last 5.5 miles with us the route 2. When all was said and done we climbed something like 18 of the 48 height peaks in NH during the last week. Not a bad week if you ask me, now all that I have to do is find a time to do the other 30 of them.
Date: 2004-07-04
From: US2, NH

To: Chocorua House, NH
Miles today: 0.0

Our 10 th and hopefully our last zero day of the trip. It¢s hard to imagine that we have been walking for over 3 months and this only the 10 th time that we have taken a day off. I guess that that is for the best because I would think that the more time you spend off the trail the harder it will be to get you butt back out there each time. We pretty much just did the same things that we¢ve done on every other zero day. We did our laundry, ate a lot of food, we went shopping, and relaxed. It ended up working out really well that we were able to get off the trail for the fourth of July because it allowed me to play a little badminton and to go see some fireworks with the VerPlancks. It just wouldn¢t be the 4 th without badminton and fireworks!
Date: 2004-07-05
From: Chocorua House, NH

To: Carlo Col Shelter, ME
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: light rain

Well the big news for today is that we have officially moved on to our 14 th and final state. ¢Welcome to Maine!¢ However getting there today really wasn¢t that pretty. For starters Mr. VerPlanck became the newest member of the ¢Relatives Who Dropped Us Off in the Rain¢ club. It was only sprinkling when we got started but the rain got a bit heavier shortly there after and it rained on us for about 3 12 hours, which took us all the way to our lunch break. It rained just enough to ensure that all of the rocks and roots were nice and slippery. On top of that it really didn¢t help that we were walking through the land that the AMC forgot. It was without a doubt one of the most poorly maintained sections that I¢ve seen in a while. The blazes were so spread out that we were constantly questioning if we were still on the trail. Granted the maintainers can¢t do much about all of the roots, rocks, and dirt mounds that we ran into, but they can do something about all of the vegetation. One guy described it as getting a car wash because of the wet ferns, leaves, etc. that were all about shoulder high and hanging over the trail. We were getting soaked long after the rain stopped. The tallest mountain that we climbed today was appropriately named Mt. Success because it was the last mountain that we hit in NH before crossing into Maine. We even had to navigate around a charging mother chicken in order to get to the top. Hopefully things will dry out in the morning or else the Mahoosuc won¢t be too much fun tomorrow with slippery rocks.
Date: 2004-07-06
From: Carlo Col Shelter, ME

To: Frye Notch Lean-to, ME
Miles today: 19.9

One thing is for sure, George Lucas doesn¢t have a thing on me because I finished my trilogy of trilogies much faster then he did. Heck he¢s still working on his and with today¢s performance I capped off my third day with three falls. With yesterday's rain the conditions were right but I wasn¢t sure if I had the skills to finish off my hat trick of hat tricks but I guess I did after all. But hey since I passed this milestone, maybe that means that I won¢t fall again for the rest of the trip. Aside from that our idea about ME being easier then NH couldn¢t have been more wrong! I would say that today was one of if not the hardest day of the entire trail. Heck, it took us about 13.5 hours to go about 20 miles! The day started off just as nasty as yesterday. We didn¢t get any rain but everything was still wet from yesterday so we still got soaked. With in the first 4.5 miles we climbed 4 peaks; each one had a rocky, wet, exposed, and windy summit. There were a number of times that I had to hang on to my pack cover to prevent it from flying off my pack. After our morning break it was time to tackle the Mahoosuc Notch, which is hands down the hardest, most fun, and the most interesting mile on the trail. It took us 1.5 hours to traverse the 1.1mile section. The whole time we were squirming around, over, and under these huge house sized boulders. There were even a couple of cases where I had to crawl on my stomach to squeeze under/between these beasts. We would just sit there looking at the blazes thinking, ¢you¢ve got to be kidding me, we can¢t go through that!¢ The strange thing was that it was really cold in the notch, there were even a bunch of places that were still covered with snow because there is no way for the sun to get down between the rocks. After the notch it was straight up the Mahoosuc Arm, which was a wet, slick, and steep rock face. From the Arm it was back down for lunch, then back up Old Speck Mtn, then down to Grafton Notch, and then over the Baldpate Mountains (west, east, and little) and then finally down to the shelter. I think that you get the idea. When all was said and done we climbed about 6800¢ today and lost a couple hundred more feet then that all in one day! The kicker was that most of it was all up and down steep rock faces. The good thing was that the clouds started to break and the sun came out to give us just enough light to get down to the shelter. I have a feeling it is going to be a long hard couple of weeks to get to the finish line.
Date: 2004-07-07
From: Frye Notch Lean-to, ME

To: Bemis Mtn Lean-to, ME
Miles today: 23.3
Weather: few clouds

Besides today being long, slow, rough, hard, and tiring it was a pretty good day. Weather wise the sun and the warm temps were much improved over the last couple of days. A few people have told us that the first 50 ¢ 100 miles in ME is the hardest section of the trail and I am starting to believe the rumors. Even on the ¢easy¢ sections we are struggling to hit a 2 mph pace. It is a good thing that we are meeting Sam¢s parents on Friday and we have no way of getting in touch with them before that because it is forcing us to push ourselves and believe me 23.5 miles on this terrain was really pushing it. Most of the morning was all right but things started to get rough again after we dropped into Sewyer Notch. After that it was straight up Moody Mtn. The climb was steep enough for the metal rungs drilled into the rocks to be necessary. Then it was up and over 4 more peaks before we got to the shelter. Man, my legs were like jello by the end of the afternoon. To make things worse the shelter was full of 10 SOBO¢s so after a long day we had to tent it. In addition to the tough terrain I also jammed my toes a couple of times today. Usually my feet are fine but these root and rocks are just at the right height so that they are above the rubber of the sandals so they bash into my toes. I didn¢t want to take off my socks today in the fear that I would find some bloody toes. I didn¢t find any blood but my toes were pretty red and swollen. On a positive note, there were a couple of gallons of drinks at two different road crossings today. With a day like today it wasn¢t hard to appreciate the trail magic.
Date: 2004-07-08
From: Bemis Mtn Lean-to, ME

To: Piazza Rock Lean-to, ME
Miles today: 19.5
Weather: moderate rain

Today was just one awful and depressing day, well at least the morning was. For starters I woke up to the sounds of rain pitter-pattering on the tent. I guess that we won¢t be able to get through the trip with out taking down or putting up the tent in the rain. Luckily it wasn¢t raining too hard and we had some descent tree cover. To start the day we had to go up and over the rest of the Bemis Range (3 peaks yesterday, 2 peaks today). With all of the rain the rocks were just one big slip n¢ slide. What really sucked was that just about everything hurt this morning. I have 3 cracks that opened up on my right foot and a bashed up toe on the left foot, which caused pain just about every step today. For some reason my shoulders are also starting to hurt. I think that having to catch myself every time I slip and having to rely on my poles all the time is just starting to wear everything down. I really don¢t know if I would still be out here if I had a stretch of days like this at the beginning of the trip. The rain continued most of the morning and the weather stayed overcast and cool the rest of the day. The only good part is that the trail finally gave us a break today. If the conditions had been dryer it would have been a real easy walk today. We got to the shelter just as it was starting to sprinkle again and we saw a crowd of people already there. I really didn¢t want to tent in the rain again. Luckily most of the people were part of a girls camp who were out for a week and they were staying in tents. Finally we had a chance to get done early so we could rest a bit.
Date: 2004-07-09
From: Piazza Rock Lean-to, ME

To: Caribou Valley Rd, ME
Miles today: 22.1
Weather: light rain

Another long hard wet crappy day to cap off a long hard wet crappy week. I guess that they whole day wasn¢t a wash out, we did have an hour or so of hiking before it started to rain on us but then it rained for most of the rest of the day. Ok yeah, now that I think about it the day was pretty much a wash out. But at least it started off in a good privy. Although I was kind of confused as to what proper etiquette was for a privy that has 2 seats, I decided to lock the door even though the cribbage board between the seats suggested that 2 people could be in there at one time. In the morning we summated Saddleback Mtn and The Horn, which were our first 2 4000¢ers in ME. From what I hear Saddleback has some of the best views in ME but seeing that the visibility was around 100¢ and we had winds and driving rain we opted not to say long to enjoy the views. The afternoon was just long wet and annoying. I say annoying because we climbed 2 or 3 mountains but didn¢t summit any of them. I guess that the climbs were just for the fun of it. We even skirted the summit of Sugarloaf, which is one of the tallest mountains in ME. We got to the road around 7:00 where we met the VerPlancks and went back to their camp on Maranacook Lake. On the way we stopped at the Toothakers (sorry if I misspelled the name and thanks again for all of you help) house for a shower and to do laundry before Mr. VerPlanck ferried us to their island camp. Less then 200 miles to go!
Date: 2004-07-10
From: Caribou Valley Rd, ME

To: North Crocker Mtn, ME
Miles today: 3.1

I guess that today was pretty much a nearo day for us. Actually 3.1 miles is pretty much near a zero day. As a matter of fact this is and will most likely be the shortest day of the trip just barely nudging out our 3.2 mile day going into Hot Springs, NC. Our schedule for the next couple of days has pretty much been set by the ferry that we¢ll have to take across the Kennebec River in a couple of days since it only runs from 9-11 am. Basically every mile we did only shortened our day for tomorrow so we just decided to get a couple of mountainous miles out of the way today. Anyway, the day always seems a little brighter when you wake up in a bed to a pancake, egg, and bacon breakfast! Being able to come off the trail last night really felt great after being damp and cold for the past week. After breakfast Mrs. VerPlanck and I took a boat ride around Maranacook Lake, which really made me start to miss being up to camp since I haven¢t been there in a really long time. Of course just before we headed back to the trail it started to rain but thankfully it had stopped before we started hiking. In a short 3.1 miles we climbed from 2200¢ up to South Crocker Mt at 4010¢ then up to North Crocker Mt at 4228¢ where we decided to pitch the tent. It¢s kind of exciting because this is the first time I¢ve slept on top of a mountain. To make things even better, North Crocker is one of the tallest mountains in Maine!
Date: 2004-07-11
From: North Crocker Mtn, ME

To: Little Bigelow Lean-to,ME
Miles today: 20.5
Weather: few clouds

Welcome to the 2000 miler club! About a mile before the shelter we crossed the 2000-mile mark! Wow, I can¢t believe that I¢ve walked over 2000 miles. Only 172.5 miles to go! Things got off to a brisk start this morning because it was pretty windy and chilly on top of North Crocker Mt. But that same breeze sound helped me sleep last night so I can¢t complain too much about it. After a 5 mile hike down North Crocker the rest of the day was spent tackling the Bigelows. By lunchtime we had climbed 1700¢ to the Horns Pond. After lunch and a quick chat with Jen the caretaker we started our ascent up the rest of the mountains. First we hit South Horn and then it was down and back up the West Peak of Bigelow at 4145¢. After that we climbed along the ridge to Avery Peak, which was another 4000¢er. The naming convention here in Maine is kind of strange. They seem to call an entire range one mountain even though there are a couple of different peaks that are all considered different mountains. For example the whole range today was called Mt Bigelow but there were 4 different peaks. Anyhow, according to the book Mt Bigelow is the last set of 4000¢ers before we hit Katahdin so hopefully things should go a little smoother from here on out. If this was the last tall range we hit for a while then we finished off on a good one because the peaks all had exposed summits that provided great views of Sugarloaf and Flagstaff Lake. I¢d like to write more but the bugs are beginning to eat me alive so I have to get under the sleeping bag, even though it is still warm out.
Date: 2004-07-12
From: Little Bigelow Lean-to,ME

To: Pierce Pond Lean-to, ME
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Well to continue where I left off last night, the bugs were absolutely terrible last night. The only layer of close that they can¢t get through is my rain gear. Unfortunately, I don¢t have anything strong enough to protect my feet from those blood suckers so the mosquitoes had a feast on my feet last night, right through my socks! Not fare I tell you, not fare at all! And to get my complaining out of the way, I¢ll just say that the bugs were bad all day long today as well. It is twice as hard to negotiate roots and rocks when you are trying to swat mosquitoes at the same time. Not even the DEET seems to be able to slow them down. As for today¢s hike it was advertised to be a smooth and flat stroll in the woods. Well the flat part was right seeing that the highest we got to was 1900¢ and the lowest point we hit was 1150¢, which was at the end of the day, but it was anything but smooth. The trail was covered with roots and rocks for most of the day and with bashed up toes on both feet just about every awkward step hurt. In addition to the roots and rocks we were also tip toeing around mound after mound of moose poop. I¢m not sure why they insist on making their deposits on the trail but it is just plain annoying. Besides the bad footing I think that we are finally starting to get in to the beautiful Maine woods that everyone talks about because we hiked past a couple of really nice ponds today that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Boy did it feel good to soak my feet in the East Carry Pond during lunch today. The sun was shining, the breeze was peaceful, and there were no signs of civilization what so ever. However it felt even better to go swimming in the Pierce Pond, which was right in front of the shelter this afternoon. There was even a little rock ledge that you could dive off into. It was nice to have a relaxing afternoon for once.
Date: 2004-07-13
From: Pierce Pond Lean-to, ME

To: Moxie Bald Lean-to, ME
Miles today: 22.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Alright, I think that it¢s safe to assume, unless I say otherwise, that the bugs are really bad every day for the rest of the trip. We tried to sleep in the shelter last night but the bugs got so bad that we had to put up the tent. Luckily we were the only ones in the shelter so we were able to just set up the tent in the shelter. Those little buggers can bite right through the sleeping bag! I¢m sure that that has to be illegal in most states. They even managed to be annoying once we got in the tent. There must have been hundreds of them flying/buzzing around the tent. Hey at least they couldn¢t bite me from there. Tonight we didn¢t want to deal with that so we just set up the tent. I¢ll be glade to be able to eat dinner inside in about a week. Once we got away from the bugs we were able to sleep in a bit this morning since the ferry didn¢t start until 9:00 and it was only 3.4 miles away. When we got to the Kennebec River Steve the ferryman paddled his canoe over to get us and bring us to the other side. There was even a white blaze on the canoe marking it as the official AT route. After that the day just sort of dragged on since the miles were fairly flat and uninteresting. We had lunch on top of Pleasant Pond Mt (2480¢), which was one of 2 climbs that we had today. By the time we got up Moxie Bald our feet hurt too much to really care so we took a quick glance at the views and continued down to the shelter. I¢m kind of disappointed that I chickened out of going swimming in the pond tonight, but maybe I¢ll be able to work up the courage in the morning.