morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-08-19
From: Cloudland Road Shelter

To: Podunk Brook
Miles today: 6.2

It's a 0.6 hike just to get back to the shelter cut-off trail. It's Grampies 2nd day to hike, and we rest for a bit at Thistle Hill Shelter. It's a nice place, vistas, nice tenting sites, but we hike on. Grampie is full of information about this place and that, where he stopped before, and what happened. It's good to be back hiking with him again and the Pomfret Stagecoach Roadbed lets us stroll along a fairly easy Trail between twin stone walls.We pass through several sites that could only be forgotten communities or small villages. Everywhere there are these rustic stone walls. What a huge investment of human labor to have to leave behind! Finally, we cross the White River at VT-14. Rick and Tina's Country Store bids us welcome. Cheeseburgers and Mountain Dew, that's what I order. There's a small deli there and a pound of deli ham and a pound of cheese and a loaf of bread. We head out. Eventually, we find a tentsite at Podunk Brook off Podunk Road. There's a great place in the brook to take a bath, and I wash out my sweaty sox and hiker stuff. Perhaps it will dry overnite? One bear bag line for the bear bags, one for a clothes line. It's a starry nite, and we both sleep the sleep of the hiker...we snore up a storm.
Date: 2003-08-20
From: Podunk Brook

To: Hanover, NH
Miles today: 8.4
Weather: clear sky

Well, I hadn't mentioned it before, but the boots that Cousin Jon helped me get back in New York are coming apart. This is the sixth pair that's done this. Guess I'm hard on boots. When we get to town, I have to find some of that boot goop to patch 'em back together again. Guess it's fairly important, but first Grampie and I have to cross the Connecticut River into New Hampshire. What a relief. Only 2 states to go!! Danged if I might not actually get done with this never-ending-hiker-odyssey. If I can get the boots fixed.We find the Goop at some grocery/hardware/general merchandise store that we hike past. While we're at the store, someone tells us that the bus system will take us to a motel for free. Well, that sounds good to us. So after we get a milkshake at the Ben and Jerry's ice cream store, we catch the bus in Hanover to take us out to West Lebanon to the Airport Motel. Well, it lets us off early at the Sunset Motel, which is full of mostly hikers. Rats!! Grampie has the manager reserve us a room at Airport and we walk on out to the road to hitch hike over. Who should stop to pick us up but Play and his dad, who is down to visit Mike while he's on the Trail awhile. Bless Him. Grampie and I are glad for the ride and they, too, are headed to the Airport Motel.Besides, I have to patch the boots. Before long I've got 'em gooped up, taped up, and wound around with bear bag cord. Also, I'm trying to fry 'em dry with the hair dryer from the bathroom. In a couple of hours, they look like they just might hold. Hope so. We eat the Subway sandwiches that we each bought over in Hanover, then we're done for the nite, 'cept every couple of hours I have to get up and heat up the "cure" with the hair dryer. (The stuff hikers got to go thru to be hikers.)
Date: 2003-08-21
From: Hanover, NH

To: Etna-Hanover Center Road
Miles today: 5.9

By the time we get out of the Airport Motel and catch the bus back into Hanover, it's almost 11:00 a.m. We get some light re-supply at the Grand Union Supermarket and tell our hiker story to the cashier and several customers who seem impressed that we're both hiking the A.T. It isn't necessary to explain to everyone that Grampie is only along for moral support THIS year. We stock up on sandwiches and head out down the A.T. and around the Dartmouth College football field (the A.T. follows the treeline down the football field) and then we climb up and away from the town of Hanover. Except for the Trail Runners whom we encounter for several miles up into the hills (a pox upon them!!!), it's an uneventful climb thru the forest. Along about 4:30 p.m. we stop for the nite. Grampie almost pitches his tent on a yellow-jacket nest in the ground. At the last minute, he notices the stream of hornets coming out of a hole in the ground. We take care not to disturb THEM! A cup of hot tea and the grocerystore sandwiches make fine dinners for the two of us and we tent without rainflys tonight so we can see the stars. I believe that we camped at Etna-Hanover Center Road, that would be in the woods at Etna, NH.
Date: 2003-08-22
From: Etna-Hanover Center Road

To: Trapper John Shelter
Miles today: 10.8
Weather: scattered clouds

In the morning, hot coffee and we meet the land owner who is out walking his two dogs. It's a fine day to hike, but the heat and the humidity is hard on us. Grampie has heard the weather report calling for a cool front to come in. We both hope for the best, but until then, hiking in the cool morning seems to bring some welcome relief. Partway thru the day, I feel the first cool breeze of fall. It feels like someone has opened the refrigerator door and a whisp of cool air has escaped. Can it be? Is this the end of summer? All these Yankee hikers hope so. This heat is hard on them. I hardly notice...just sweating along looking at birds and mushrooms. Mushrooms! Yes. All this heat and rain has mushrooms sprouting up all over. Finally, I spot some fresh Oyster mushrooms. Hurray! Finally, something I'm sure of! I wouldn't touch anything if I wasn't 100% sure, but Oyster mushrooms are too good to pass up. I pick about a pound and a half of them and carry them in my ballcap until we get to Trapper John Shelter.This shelter was named by the Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC)for Trapper John on "Mash", who supposedly graduated from Dartmouth College. He and Hawkeye certainly provided everyone with many hours of fine entertainment of the TV series "Mash". Therefore, they named the shelter for him. Anyway, the shelter is full, so Grampie and I tent out in back. I cook up the mushrooms with some Ramen Noodles and some powdered milk and they taste just fine! Grampie is not 100% convinced that I know what I'm doing here, but he dutifully "tastes" a bite of my concoction, and then asks me (hypothetically, mind you) "what are the symptoms of mushroom poisioning, just in case...?" So I tell him that he'll probably die a long, slow, lingering death, but so will I. But we don't. I think he might be just a tad disappointed...that he didn't eat more. Heh, heh!
Date: 2003-08-23
From: Trapper John Shelter

To: Smarts Mt.
Miles today: 6.7
Weather: clear sky

Well, Dang! It's turned off downright cool! And the wind is blowing, that makes it even colder. We spend all afternoon hiking up a perfect beast called Smarts Mountain. The pay-off is supposed to be a sunset (or sunrise) view from the fire tower up next to the fire wardens cabin. They use the cabin as a shelter. There's no one but myself and Grampie and Apollo there. She has slowed down to wait for her sweetie, Snuggles, to catch up from Hanover. I remember her from Goddard Ski Hut outside of Bennington. She runs up into the old fire watch tower to go watch the sunset, but, to tell the truth, it's a bit too high for me. I takes me several trys before I actually make it to the top, and then I'm not comfortable about it. I finally loosen up enough to take some pictures of the sunset, then I get on down to the ground. Yeah, yeah, I know, fireman and all. Well, all those years I squirted water from ground level. I never made a secret of the fact that heights make me uncomfortable. I mean, ya never can tell when one of those old fire towers might fall over, ya know?That nite it gets COLD! Apollo only has her summer sleeping bag. Same for Grampie. They both freeze their rears. I, however, have my winter bag and am glad of it!
Date: 2003-08-24
From: Smarts Mt.

To: NH-25A, Wentworth, NH
Miles today: 10.2

It's a wonderful, cool, brisk morning and we have a four mile downhill to start off the day. By 1:00 p.m. we are working our way up Mt. Cube. It's an absolute beast. The day is broken up with any number of spectacular vistas where you think you've gotten to the summit, only to find out that there's yet another hard climb still to come...then, finally, over the top, only to face several miles of knee-jarring drops on the way down. When we come out of the woods at NH-25A in Wentworth, NH., I am ready to catch a ride into the Hiker's Welcome Hostel which, it turns out, is 20 miles away. As luck would have it, I yogi a ride for us with another hiker who comes out of the woods at about the same time Grampie and I do. She's a Dartmouth co-ed out for a day hike. She drops us off at the door of Hiker's Welcome in Glencliff, NH.Hiker's Welcome is an absolute gem. Pack Rat owns it and he's shuttling hikers around all day. First to breakast in Warren, then to slack pack Mt. Moosilauke or any one of a half a dozen other drop points. This sounds great to me! Grampie and I make arrangements to be dropped off in the morning at Kinsman Notch so we can slack pack (walk back south to Hiker's Welcome without having to carry our heavy packs). Several hikers have told us that this is the best way to hike Mt. Moosilauke.
Date: 2003-08-25
From: Kinsman Notch

To: Glencliff, NH
Miles today: 9.5

It turns off cold and windy this morning. The Trail takes us over several bare rock escarpments that have steps drilled into the rock. In a light rain, the footing is...well, it's not an easy climb. We are both glad to reach the summit, only to find out that I have no more film in my disposable camera...Rats. But Wait! Another couple comes up and offers to take our pic at the summit, and email it to Grampie at AOL. Then I mention that my trail name is Texas Jack and it turns out that the lady who calls herself Popsicle is from Oklahoma and has been reading Texas Jack Journals on Trail Journals.com. Who would have thunk it? I am just more than a little flattered at finding a Texas Jack fan on the top of Mt. Moosilauke. Well, whadda ya know?Grampie and I get back to Hiker's Welcome in time to get a shuttle to the grocery store and dinner at the Garlic Clove cafe in nearby Warren. Thanks Pack Rat. This nite there is a fire and some guitar playing and beer drinking out in the back yard! Great evening!
Date: 2003-08-26
From: NH-25A

To: Glencliff, NH
Miles today: 9.8

Grampie is going to take a zero and rest his knee today, but I have Pack Rat drop me off back at NH-25A so I can slack pack back in from the south this time. Without a pack, it's an easy day. My boots are shot, though. The patch job I did in Hanover has not held up. Gonna have to do something. It occurs to me that I already have the phone number of L. L. Bean, also the stock number of the boots that I almost bought 2 yrs. ago. It's worth a try! I get back to Hiker's Welcome and find a public phone in order to give them a call. It's too easy. The man takes all the info and promises me that the boots will be waiting for me when I get to North Woodstock on Saturday. It sounds too good to be true, but I put my faith in a sackfull of L. L. Bean promises. The boots will be there in 5 days. That nite there's another great campfire out in the backyard and some more of Pack Rat's musician friends drop by to jam. One local fella brings along his Diggery-doo (it's the Aborigine music instrument from Australia). Another great nite is had by all.
Date: 2003-08-27
From: Kinsman Notch

To: Eliza Brook Shelter
Miles today: 7.5
Weather: few clouds

Pack Rat shuttles Grampie and myself back to Kinsman Notch. This time we hike north again, with full packs. It's a stiff climb up and out of the Notch and then we face Wolf Mt.   It's a tough day all around. Grampie is supposed to go home from North Woodstock. Donna will be there to pick him up on Sat., but we have 3 days to hike only 15 miles. Hooray!We both are relieved when we get to Eliza Brook Shelter after one of the hardest down hill days I can remember. Grampie stays in the shelter, but I tent out back. A sponge bath to get rid of the sweat, and I'm down for the nite. This has been a hard day!!
Date: 2003-08-28
From: Eliza Brook Shelter

To: Kinsman Pond Shelter
Miles today: 4.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Today is a "no sweat" day. We stroll across South Kinsman Mt., then North Kinsman Mt. Nothing bad happens. Grampie is almost in hiker shape. At least his legs are. We decide to "pay to stay" at Kinsman Pond Shelter and campsite. Brrrrr....it's getting colder. Where did summer run off to? The views north are spectacular and Grampie points out items of interest on Franconia Ridge and Mt. Washington. He will be long gone by the time I struggle up those! The weather is windy, cold and clear. Visibility is over 100 miles. Spectacular!That nite a warming trend begins and my leg brace is stolen out of the shelter by a Pine Martin. (Pine Martins are exceedingly rare, and a member of the "Fisher" family.) Other than that, it looks like a 20 pound ferret with the face of a cat, and they eat mice like a mean machine! In Ireland and Scotland they were kept as semi-domesticated pets for their superior mousing abilities. Well, don't ask me what it wanted with my sweaty old knee brace, but it took it off into the woods. Grampie said it was probably a mother Pine Martin who needed the knee brace for one of her babies. It's as good a reason as any, but now I need a knee brace. I already tried hiking without one, but something in my left patella would pop every step I took Anyway, I'll just add this item to the list of "things to get" in North Woodstock. Maybe Donna won't mind too much carrying me around before she carries Grampie back to Connecticut. That evening a gaggle of Brown University students shows up in front of the shelter to make dinner for their last nite on the Trail. Whatta hoot!! Texas Jack has them all laughing at funny jokes and dancing in the streets with his harp music. We all had a great time, but it sure was cold. Nite, nite all.
Date: 2003-08-29
From: Kinsman Pond Shelter

To: N. Woodstock, N.H.
Miles today: 4.8

Dang! It got seriously COLD last nite! My little pack thermometer (whut I finded somewhere in a shelter) says it got down into the low 30's and the caretaker says it was into the 20's over in the Presidential Mts. Something else, too. During the nite, a Pine Martin entered the shelter where Grampie and I were sleeping and made off with my sweaty, neoprene kneebrace. (Pine Martins look like 20 lb. ferrets with a cat-like face.) God only knows what it wanted with my brace, but Grampie said it was probably a mama Pine Martin whut needed the kneebrace for her young 'uns. Sounds right to me.The weather is excellent, but windy and cold. The front that cleared everything up is making us pay for the views of dreaded Franconia Ridge across Franconia Notch. Grampie is busy filling me in on inside info regarding the hut system, how it works, what to expect.Speaking of huts...breakfast is served when we reach the first hut. Lonesome Lake Hut is where you can buy in on breakfast left-overs. All you can eat for only $1.00!! mmmmm! Homemade bread and cinnamon rolls, hot coffee and orange juice. This'll work! Grampie and I kick back and fill up on cinnamon rolls and coffee. It's been a modestly difficult hike in from the Kinsman Pond Shelter. I'm looking forward to getting into North Woodstock, N.H. 'cause that's where the new L. L. Bean hiking boots are supposed to be waiting. Also, Donna is coming to pick Grampie up. This is where we part company, but not yet! Grampie has been hiking Moosilauke and the Kinsman's for the last 11 days and he's almost back in trail shape. Even at that, he admits that going home with Donna looks like a lot more fun than what I'm about to do (climbing the Presidentials.) We are just cruising when we hike past a group of "Hoods in the Woods" (inner city types sentenced to a character-building stint, far away from basketball courts.) These dudes are having a tough time taking orders from a really chirppy female camp counseler type. I guess it doesn't help anything (heh, heh!) when I hike by and ask four or five of 'em, "Dudes! What did you do to get sentenced to this??" (We get several thin grins and rolled-back eyes with this line) and finally get to Franconia Notch at the Flume Visitor Center.A coke for Grampie and a Mountain Dew for me while we wait for the shuttle from Cascade Lodge to pick us up out in the parking lot. The sugar rush has me feeling more perky when we arrive at the lodge. It's modestly (read real cheap) priced, and next door to a restaurant, a coffee shop, and a brew pub. What more can you ask for? A shower and clean sheets are worth every cent of the $18.00/nite charge.My boots haven't arrived at the Post Office yet, (hmmm...) Well, anyway we get cleaned up, have a meal and a couple of beers next door at the pub. Badda-bing, badda-boom! We're down for the nite.
Date: 2003-08-30
From: N. Woodstock, N.H.

To: N. Woodstock, N.H.
Miles today: 0.0

I can not tell you how nice it is to have coffee and bagels absolutely at my doorstep in the morning! I want to live here forever! Meanwhile, I am on the computer at the coffee shop while I wait for the P.O. to open. People that I have met on the Trail have signed my guestbook on Trail Journals.com, so I send a few notes and then Grampie shows up. We have a fine breakfast at Peg's Place and the Post Office STILL doesn't have my boots. A call to L. L. Bean customer service finally finds out that the order has NOT been shipped. For reasons that no one can explain, my boot order has not been shipped. I don't gots no boots. I think back to when I hung up the phone after placing the order a week before, outside of Hikers Welcome in Glencliff, and I remember thinking that I had just bought a sackfull of promises from L. L. Bean. Well, sure 'nuff, they screwed it up. No where to get boots in N. Woodstock, but next door in Lincoln...hmmm. Donna! Where are you? It's not long till here she comes, cadillacing down the main drag of N. Woodstock and lookin' like a million bucks! She's come to get her man!Before we let her carry Grampie off, tho, we have a great lunch out on the patio of Woodstock Inn, and then run around to see about getting another kneebrace and hiking boots that fit. Thank goodness, I find boots at the outfitter in Lincoln, N.H....they look sturdy enough to last 268 more miles. This will be my seventh pair. I don't weigh as much as I used to, but I'm hard on boots. These Hi-Techs only lasted from Bear Mtn, N.Y. I wave good-bye to Donna and Grampie as they finally leave. There's a sort of a cold, empty feeling in my gut once more. I'm on my own again, with the absolutely hardest part of the whole Trail in front of me. I want this to be over with. I'm tired of this already. I want this to be done. I'm gonna have to grind out this last 268 miles so I can put an end to this odyssey. I get the room at Cascade Lodge for another nite. I'm over at the brew pub until about 10:00 p.m., then there's nothing for it except to end up under the blankets.
Date: 2003-09-01
From: Greenleaf Hut

To: Garfield Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 3.9
Weather: overcast clouds

It's a three day weekend, Labor Day. That's what all these section hikers are doing out here. I had heard that reservations at the huts were booked up for months in advance. Baltimore Jack referred to 'em as "Patagonia clad yuppies" and "not what I go to the mountains to experience." There are a bunch of 'em all right. As I hike away, the next shift seems already to be trickling toward Greenleaf. It's the current days allotment of yuppie hikers.I pass Mud Butt and Bumpkin. They have tented the nite up on Lafayette. It got down into the teens with wind gusts to 55 mph. There was no way they could have made it to the hut, so they just tented where dark found them (illegal but not to be helped). Anyway it gave them a jump on me this morning. It sure was cold (down into the 20's) as I hiked across Mt. Garfield. I was glad to drop down into treeline again, as the trees break the force of the wind.I know it doesn't seem like much, but with the 1.1 miles back to the Trail from Greenleaf, I've put in a bit over five miles by the time I get to Garfield Ridge Shelter. I am ready to call it a day next to the only water for 1/2 a day in both directions. I only want to tent, but that costs $8.00, too. I don't care. Water, a tent platform, and a good dinner and I'm ready to go to sleep for the nite. Mud Butt, Bumpkin, and Paper Maker have finally made it in, to the platform next to mine. We are all beat, and Mud Butt decides that she is thru hiking. (Too steep and hard on her knees.) Even so, she will still have to hike for eight more miles to get out. The good news is that the ATC Hut people will have a shuttle meet them at the parking lot to take them to the nearest town, in this case, N. Woodstock. Anyway, this was what I heard before sleep carried me away.
Date: 2003-09-04
From: Ethan Pond Shelter

To: Mizpah Springs Hut
Miles today: 9.3

Dawn breaks, wet and crisp. Only a couple of leaks in the shelter, but BOTH of the other guys have spilled their dinner while cooking. Exactly the kind of thing that attracts bears and porcupines. These guys are nice enough, but they seem pretty inept. When the rain slows down, I am on my way to Crawford Notch. Sure enough, the Trail is one big puddle and the bog bridges are welcome as I hop from one to the next. The 3 miles to Crawford Notch are easy, if wet. Two different waterfalls greet me on the way down to the Saco River. There is a hiker pick-up station for the ATC shuttle that stops at the road. For a long tme, I stand alongside U.S.302 reading the shuttle schedule. All I need to do is to get on the bus and it will all be over and I'll be on my way back to Texas. No more hiking, no more 'skeeters, no more killer climbs three times a day...but no, I guess not.I find some Trail Magic left in the campground. Almost a whole box of instant mashed potaotes. Looks like breakfast to me! I plop down next to the river and cook up a panful of 'smashed taters and they wuz good! God bless Trail Angels!Well fortified, I start the climb up and out of Crawford Notch (and the bus stop). Other folks had said this was a tough section, and they weren't kidding! Two hours later, I'm only part way to Mizpah Hut. Mt. Webster was bad enough, but Mt. Jackson was a series of "false summits" and the wind was blowing at gale force.The Trail follows the exposed spine of Mt. Jackson, and the handbook cautions against doing this part of the climb in seriously bad weather (ice). As it was, it was tough enough, and the wind gusts tried to blow me off the peaks. Got some pics of the cloud cover closing in BELOW me on the mountain. When Mizpah Spring Hut finally showed up, I was ready. No work for stay tonight! The credit card works it's magic and I am now officially a guest of the hut system. It doesn't matter what it cost! A good meal, some coffee, and a bunk is worth a lot. Pics of the evening followed some great guitar-playing by a thru hiker name of Loser, whose great original "The Bullfrog" song and the "Ice Cream" song, just brought the house down. That, and a visit by a three-legged fox was the highpoint of the evening's entertainment.