morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-09-05
To: Mrs Yolanda Vega-Gorp LT '97, "01 and '08
Miles today: 0.0

Hey folks, I uploaded a video of Stumpknocker's final steps on the Long Trail at Willard Gap/Maine Junction. Check it out by clicking on the blue video button on the left column. Or by clicking this link Stumpknocker completes the Long Trail 2008 Hammock Hanger's humble replacement ;-),
Date: 2008-09-09
From: Kinsman Notch on Trail via Glencliff, NH

To: Kinsman Notch, North Woodstock, NH
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

I woke up at 4:45 and crawled out of my tent, walked into the hostel and got my cell phone that I had charging overnight. I went back to my tent and brewed up 24 ounces of coffee and wrote yesterday's journal, so I could get it sent in when Phat Chap took me to the Trail at Kinsman Notch later this morning. I had lots of pictures I sent in with that too. I packed up all my stuff, took my tent down and waited on Hell On Bad Wheels to get ready. I checked the weather and saw a whole mess of storms coming in...and just about ready to hit. In half an hour it was raining and thundering out. My plan had been to go into North Woodstock tomorrow, but I decided to do that today and spend tomorrow climbing out of Kinsman Notch. :-) Rain and Barley decided to wait and walk out tomorrow too, so we all rode over to North Woodstock and ate breakfast at Peg's. It was a hard and cold rain and supposed to last most of the day, so I know I made the right choice. :-) Dark skies over Lincoln, NHI enjoyed the Hungry Hiker Special, then we took Hell On Bad Wheels, Rain and Barley over to the Comfort Inn. I checked on a room, but they wanted $152.00, so I went over to The Carriage Motel for less than half that. I thanked Phat Chap for all his help. He's been a good friend now for 5 years, so it's always great to see him along the Trail. The rest of the day was a perfect zero....I took a shower, a nap, ate a very good hoagie from Wayne's, watched The Weather Channel, ate dinner and spent the evening going through my gear and food. I've decided that I am going to walk right through Franconia Notch without going to Indian Head Resort like I had planned. That means my next stop will be the Wiley House at Crawford Notch for a sausage hoagie before walking on. :-) I may hitch into Gorham in 4 or 5 days from Pinkham Notch for my next stop and shower...and to recharge my cell phone. I'm hoping to have cell and data reception so I can keep my journal going. I did meet two nobos in town today...Rocky and Rootsy. Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)
Date: 2008-09-15
From: US 2, Gorham, NH

To: US 2, Gorham, NH
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: fog

Today was exactly what I needed! I didn't wake up till about 6am after a great night's sleep.I made a pot of coffee and caught up on the news and watched The Weather Channel. Today was a good day to rest...it's going to be the wettest and most humid day in the next week. In fact, it looks like MY kind of weather is on the way with below freezing weather by the end of the week. It looks like 30 degrees overnight on Friday in the valleys, so it should feel great in the mountains.I went to a very good little cafe for breakfast...but I didn't get there till almost 10am.I resupplied with enough food to get me to Andover, ME, then went back to my room and acted like a vegetable. IT WAS GREAT! :-)I'm at the Gorham Motor Inn. I usually stay at Northern Peaks, but thought I'd try out a different place this year. It's fine for the price.I ate dinner next door at a Chinese buffet.A perfect zero!Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)
Date: 2008-09-16
From: US 2, Gorham, NH

To: 1/3 mile south of NH/ME Border
Miles today: 16.2

I woke up at 6am and started gathering all my stuff and packing it away in my backpack. I decided I was ready to walk. :-) My original plan was to stay at the motel till the 11am checkout time, then eat lunch before I hitched back out to the Trail. My new plan was to get going early! I felt great and wanted to get walking, so I left the room and walked a mile to Moonbeam Cafe where I ate breakfast yesterday. It is closed on Tuesday¢s, so I walked over to Welsh's. They had been closed for a few years, but are open now. I ended up having a really good breakfast there and plenty of coffee. I started walking and hitching a ride. I usually go to the far end of town and hitch there. A guy by the name of Paul pulled over and gave me a ride out to the trailhead. He said his son did 500 miles of the Trail this year. I started walking north on the Appalachian Trail at 8:40am. My first climb was about 1,700 feet up the summit of Mt Hayes. That was about a four mile climb. It's a nice morning with the temps in the upper 40's. I was climbing and heard blue jays scolding me, I heard crows and geese flying up above. Sure does feel good to get back in the woods. :-) I was on the top of Mt Hayes by 10:25am. My original plans had me still in my motel room. Sure am glad I'm walking! I descended about 500 feet, the climbed 600 feet to the summit of Cascade Mtn. I ran in Pepster, a guy that¢s section hiking the whole AT and he only has Maine left to do. It was lunch time, so I sat down and we talked about half an hour. It turned out that he was the only person I saw on the Trail all day. I passed by the side trail to Trident Col Campsite without stopping. I walked downhill and lost 600 feet in elevation, then climbed 900 feet up to Wocket Ledge. Kenny B, a friend had emailed me telling of a good tentsite at Wocket Ledge. I had planned on stopping, but because I left town so early, I got here at 1:30pm...way too early to stop walking today. I walked by Dream Lake. I looked around for moose, but didn't see any. I got to Gentian Pond Shelter and decided to go ahead and cooked dinner. It was just 3:30pm. I got my stove out and boiled water, then stuck some angel hair pasta in till it was done. I drained that and put in some white clam sauce. That's my favorite meal when I'm in the woods. I had the shelter all to myself. I sat there and ate and enjoyed the long range view in front of the shelter. I walked on at 4pm and climbed about 1,400 feet in the next few miles to the summit of Mt Success. I had been checking all day to see if I had data service, but didn't. :-( I walked on and it was just about ready to get to dark to walk without a headlamp. I found a nice flat spot just 1/3 mile before I hit the Maine border. I'll save Maine for tomorrow. :-) I set up my tent and crawled in for the night. It's getting pretty chilly already, so it will probably be cold by morning. Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)
Date: 2008-09-16
To: Mrs G reporting from Saddleback & The Horn, Maine
Miles today: 0.0

9-22-08Today, on the first day of fall, Stumpknocker is traversing Saddleback and The Horn. What a great day to be up there!!! Lots of blue skies and endless views.He hasn't had data service since leaving Gorham, NH.Maybe he'll have better reception when he gets to Stratton.Only 214 miles to Katahdin!!MrsG
Date: 2008-09-16
To: Rumored Reports from Monson Maine
Miles today: 0.0

9-27-08Stumpknocker's dear friend and hiking buddy "Frogcaller" rescued him from the rain today when he reached Maine 15 outside of Monson.He's recuperating at her home in Greenville with a case of the sniffles that only chicken noodle soup can cure.Send him your best wishes for a speedy recovery so he can go hike the next 115 miles while Hurricane Kyle creates some dicey weather which may, or may not, influence when he decides to return to the Trail. Besides....Frogcaller doesn't want him there FOREVER! She said, "Real hikers hike in hurricane force winds and the rain that comes with it!"
Date: 2008-09-16
To: Frogcaller
Miles today: 0.0

9-29-08Our pal is off, all cured up. Sun threatening to shine - He's got his fried chicken in his pack - doesn't think it will make it to suppertime. All clean, dry, and smells good!! Chief - you really shocked him w the mp3 and headphones - We expected it to blow up or ooze! He'll try to hike 19+ today.
Date: 2008-09-16
To: MrsGorpinski
Miles today: 0.0

9-30-08Got a chance to talk to Stumpknocker while he was having lunch at Chairback Gap Lean-to.He spent a wet night tenting near Cloud Pond Lean-to. Well... what do you expect from a place called "Cloud Pond"?He'll be 77 miles from Katahdin if he makes it to his planned destination of Sidney Tappen Campsite this evening...and it looks like more rain is in the forecast............with CLEARING for the weekend!
Date: 2008-09-16
To: Mrs Gorp
Miles today: 0.0

10-02-08Stumpknocker made it to his favorite place on the Appalachian Trail, White House Landing. He ate a one pound hamburger for lunch and he's still hungry. 46 miles to Katahdin! 2006 Group at White House Landing; Kahuna, Mrs Gorp, Hula Bug, Stumpknocker, Zulu and Frogcaller
Date: 2008-09-16
To: Stumpknocker
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

10-5-08Only 5.2 miles left!! I'm at Katahdin Stream Campground on the Trail and the next 5.2 miles is all uphill. The problem is that Katahdin has been closed for five days now (including tomorrow) because of snow and ice all the way down to 3,500 feet and the mountain is over 5,200 feet high. I'm waiting in Millinocket, ME right now. I found out the mountain is closed for Monday, so I'm going to go find something to do. Hopefully the sun will come out and melt some of the ice so I can climb on Tuesday.I walked the 10 miles between Abol Bridge and Katahdin Stream Campground today and ran into Bluebearee twice...an '02 thru hiker and the local ridgerunner and friend.I still have no data service. I haven't had any for several weeks now. The cell phone has worked great all year...up till I walked into Maine anyway. I haven't had any data service in Maine. :-( I do plan on updating the last few weeks of my '08 walk as soon as I can. Got a few other things to talk about too when I wrap up this year's journal. I also have lots of photos to upload when I get a chance.
Date: 2008-09-21
From: Near Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to, ME

To: Gull Pond Lodge, Rangeley, ME
Miles today: 9.4
Weather: overcast clouds

I must have been really tired because I woke up at 5:50am and realized I wasn't quite ready to start my day, so I laid down for just another couple minutes...then it was 6:45! Wow, I couldn't believe an hour could go by so fast. :-)I brewed my coffee and ate two Poptarts for breakfast while I caught up on writing yesterday's journal and got to listen to a loon again this morning while I was writing...I love Maine!I got packed up and started walking north on the Appalachian Trail at 8:22am. It was cool, but there was humidity in the air and it was overcast. I'm guessing it was in the 40's. I only had about 9 miles to walk to get to Rt 4 and head into Rangeley. I made about a 600 foot climb, then just small ups and downs for the rest of the day.There were lots of muddy areas. Some had puncheons to walk over and some didn't and some of the puncheons were completely rotted out and of no use anymore, so I made my way as best I could through all the mud.When I got to Little Swift River Pond Campsite, I sat down for a break. I only had a Milkway bar left in my foodbag, so I had that for an early lunch, then I made some lemonade from the nice spring water there and sat looking over the pond. I've seen a bull moose in the pond a few years back, but nothing today other than a few fish hitting the top of the water grabbing bugs for their breakfast.I headed on after about 10 minutes....walked by South Pond, then descended to Rt 4.I had left a message at Bob's place that I would be at the trailhead at 12:45pm. If he wasn't there by then, I would hitch into town and get in touch with him later. He wasn't there, so I hitched and got a ride right away with a nice family who dropped me off at the IGA. I had rotisserie chicken on my mind...and I had rotisserie chicken in my belly not long after that. It was delicious! :-)I was sitting outside the IGA eating when I saw Bob pull up to the gas pumps. He had taken a hiker on a long shuttle today and hadn't gotten my message yet, so I walked over and put my pack in his truck and we headed to Gull Pond Lodge. It's amazing how things always work out. :-)I got a room, a shower and lots of rest.There are six other hikers here tonight...Flip, Flop, Sgt Pepper, Homeward Bound, The Weatherman and HB's dad....Jesse.I'm having no luck at all with data service, so it may be a while before I can post again. That's too bad because this cell phone thing has worked well up to this point in the hike. Oh well....what is it that Verizon says....."can you hear me now?" ;-)I keep loading an average of about 10 pictures in the "photos" section with each of the journal entries I'm posting. I'm also posting each journal entry as I get time...I have lots of work to do on each one to post and I've had very little time since I got done with the Trail....went to the Gathering in WV and now preparing for a bicycle ride I'm starting in a few days. I'll keep posting till I get all this year's entries up, but it will still take a little time....Thanks! :-)Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)
Date: 2008-09-23
From: Near Spalding Mtn Lean-to, ME

To: Stratton, ME
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: clear sky

Today started at 5am. It was a chilly morning, but I wanted to get an early start because it was a town day. :-)I brewed my coffee and had two fried apple pies for breakfast. I also wrote yesterday's journal while I enjoyed my coffee, then packed up and stopped by the spring to fill a couple water bottles. I was walking north on the Appalachian Trail at 6:35am.I started out with a 1,000 foot climb to the summit of Spaulding Mtn, then descended about 600 feet and walked on a fairly level trail for a couple miles. I passed by the side trail to Sugarloaf Mtn and got into some mud shortly afterwards. I've been in lots of mud for the last couple months, but this mud was frozen! I haven't walked through frozen mud for a while. :-) I love this weather!I started descending the steep down to South Branch of Carrabassett River. I ran into a hiker I'd heard of but never met before...Spiritual Pilgram. We talked about 15 minutes before I walked on. Near the bottom of the descent I ran into Zenon. He said he almost froze last night. That really surprized me because I was so nice and toasty all night.I crossed the river and sat down on a rock on the north side and ate an early lunch while watching the river flow by. There were some nice colors in the leaves, even though they're not peak yet.I had a 2,300 foot climb up Crocker Mtn next. I passed by the side trail to Crocker Cirque Campsite without stopping. The trail got much steeper after that. I kept walking slowly and eventually got to South Peak, dropped down 300 feet and climbed 500 feet to North Peak. I had a 3,000 foot descent in the next 5 miles to Rt 27.I didn't see another thru hiker all day. I did see lots of moose tracks again, but no moosies. :-(I got a quick ride to town with a guy that works at Sugarloaf. He dropped me off at the Stratton Motel, but Sue, the owner, wasn't there. I walked across the street to the diner and had a hamburger and fries.Sue still wasn't back, so I checked myself into room #5. It was good to see Sue when she did show up. We ended up talking for about an hour...catching up on all the news since last time I was here.I ate dinner with Weatherman, then called it a day.Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)
Date: 2008-09-26
From: Caratunk, ME

To: North of the West Branch of Piscataquis River, ME
Miles today: 24.7

I woke up about 5am and wanted to get my pack put back together before breakfast, which started at 6am at Northern Outdoors.I was downstairs at 5:50am and the waitress was already on duty, so I sat down to some good Carrabasset Coffee and ordered and omelette, homefires, bacon and toast for breakfast.There was a computer in the lobby, so I went over and checked email and weather before I finished getting ready for today's walk.Northern Outdoors provides a shuttle back to the Trail at 9am. I looked at my map and saw that with a good day today, I could be in Monson tomorrow.Rain was predicted for later on and for all day tomorrow and the next day from Huricane Kyle.I got dropped off and started walking north on the Appalachian Trail shortly after 9am.It was mild out and overcast when I started my 2,000 foot climb to the summit of Pleasant Pond Mtn. It was an almost 7 mile climb with half the elevation gain in the last mile...so it got fairly steep there.I passed by Pleasant Pond Lean-to side trail without stopping and got up to the summit of Pleasant Pond Mtn.I had packed my pockets with snacks today so I could walk like I used to when I wanted to make some miles. I walk and don't stop all day...reaching into my pocket for a small snack every hour. I love walking like that and the small hourly snack keeps my energy level racing on high...even getting better as the day goes on.I had a 1,500 foot descent in the next five miles and then a 1,700 foot ascent in the following five miles to the summit of Moxie Bald Mtn.I had passed by the side trail to Bald Mtn Brook Lean-to without stopping, summited Moxie, then descended 1,400 foot in the next two miles to Moxie Bald Lean-to.That's where I orginally had hoped to get to for the day, but it was only 4pm as I passed, so I kept walking. I figured every mile I walked today when it wasn't raining was a mile I didn't have to walk in the predicted heavy rain tomorrow.I passed by Bald Mtn Pond and walked across a stream crossing on a downed tree.I knew there was a double ford coming up at the West Branch of the Piscataquis River. I was hoping to make that ford today just in case we had heavy rains tonight.It did start sprinkling at 4:30pm. It would sprinkle a while, then stop, then rain a little harder and finally it set in. I got my rain coat out for the last part of the walk.I made the double ford right at dark and found a flat spot to set up my tent along the north side of the river.I crawled in and snacked on dinner for about an hour before falling asleep to rain on my tent.Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)
Date: 2008-09-28
From: Frogcaller & Lew's, Greenville, ME

To: Frogcaller & Lew's, Greenville, ME
Miles today: 0.0

What a great day for a zero! Hurricane Kyle was just off the coast of Maine and it brought lots of rain.I heard Frogcaller upstairs about 6am and I went up to investigate if there might just...maybe be some coffee ready. There was! :-)That's a great way to start the day...to see Frogcaller's smiling face and to see the pot of freshly brewed coffee. :-)Lew got up and we had a good breakfast and watched it raining out the window overlooking Lower Wilson Pond.They have one of the nicest views I've seen and it's right on the pond.I was still sniffling with this cold I came down with yesterday. I made sure I kept taking Zicam every three hours and by 2pm I was feeling better.Forgcaller made a delicious chicken dinner. We ate at 3pm because it was Sunday.Lew had to go to the market, so I rode along and resupplied with enough food to get me to White House Landing, 70 miles into the 100 Mile Wilderness...my favorite place to stop along the entire Appalachian Trail.We stopped by Flatlander's on the way back and I picked up some broasted chicken for tomorrow's lunch. :-)I unpackaged all my food and repackaged it into Ziplock baggies. It's amazing how much garbage wrapping comes with the stuff we all buy.Lew said Sunday night is ice cream night. I said that sounded great to me....at least until I saw the bowls of ice cream! They were huge! :-)I finished mine and started getting sleepy...mighty sleepy....I think it was "ice cream overload". ;-)I'm hoping to be on the Trail tomorrow before 9am to start the last 114.5 miles of this year's walk.It sure has been great seeing Frogcaller and Lew again. They are such great friends! :-)I also started feeling so much better. I think this cold is almost over with. I started feeling it about 48 hours ago. That's plenty long enough for anyone to suffer with a runny nose.Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)
Date: 2008-10-06
From: Katahdin Stream Campground, ME

To: Katahdin Stream Campground, ME
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

The mountain is closed again today. :-( .....BUT, we decided to go visiting some friends. :-) I called Frogcaller and Lew to see if they were going to be home. They said yes and to come on over.Mrs Gorp and I made a road trip out of it. After another good breakfast at Appalachian Trail Cafe in Millinocket we drove around the long way to Greenville, ME where they live on the beautiful Lower Wilson Pond. They have one of the nicest views from virtually every window in their log cabin that I've ever seen. It was nice going through Monson because I ddn't get there when I walked through this area. I saw the Pie Lady's old place is back up for sale again. We basicly just rode through town to get to Greenville. It was nice to see Frogcaller and Lew again...even though I had just been there a week ago, but Mrs Gorp hadn't seen them since last year. We hung around visiting for a while, then decided that we had better get going because we still had a long drive to get back to Millinocket with high hopes of Katahdin opening up for hikers tomorrow.We headed on....taking the more direct way of the Golden Rd from Greenville back to Millinocket It's a lot of gravel and a fairly rough road, but Mrs Gorp had never been this way. It passes through the extremely small place called Kokadjo, ME. There's not much there....maybe half a dozen houses or so. It must be a beautiful sight in the winter.We passed by Abol Bridge on the way, but didn't see any hikers, so we headed on to Millinocket and ate dinner. Mrs Gorp called Ol' Man to see if he had heard whether or not Katahdin was opening up tomorrow. It wasn't. :-( That will make six days in a row that the mountain has been closed.Mrs Gorp really needed to get back home for a Green Mountain Club meeting. She's on her local Killington board and has missed a few of the past meetings because she is always out playing. :-)We checked around and decided to get her down to Bangor tomorrow, so she could get a one way rental car back to Rutland, VT Darn....she won't get to climb Katahdin with me.. :-(   I was really hoping she would. I'm in nobo shape for mountain climbing right now, so I'd have a pretty good chance of keeping up with her. ;-)I may be having to wait on Katahdin to re-open, but this is by far my favorite time of year that I've ever been in this area. It's just plain beautiful everywhere you look up here! My plan to slow down and summit in October was an excellent plan. I only uploaded one photo today, but go take a look at yesterday's photos if you missed them. There's lots of beautiful shots of Katahdin that were taken mostly from the Abol Bridge area. Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)
Date: 2008-11-14
From: THE SUMMIT OF KATAHDIN, ME!!!!!!

To: Heading North
Miles today: 0.0

I wanted to do a quick update to let everyone know that I haven't forgotten about my wrap up entry on this year's walk...I just haven't had the time to sit down and give it the thought and the time I need to write it. I should have some time in another week or so. I have put about 8,000 miles on my truck since I summited Katahdin a little over a month ago. Been visiting family and friends mostly.I just left the home of some very close friends, Goosebump The Snow Princess and Rainbow Slick, who hiked in '03 and part of '04. Their lives have changed just a little since then....Baby Bump showed up, then Little Jack Spencer and lastly, Joshua Tree was born on Monday, 11/10/08. Their family of two grew to five REALLY quick!! :-)I think they all have civilian names, but I'm not sure what those are. Ha!!Okay....I will write that post hike entry soon....very soon. I should have a place to live early next week and should have time to catch up on a few things....finally!! :-)