morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-06-02
From: Pawling, NY

To: Mt. Algo Lean-to
Miles today: 20.7

So the luck didn't carry over to this morning, and I walked the three or four miles back to the trail from where I had camped - I think I started a little too late to get a hitch. Oops. Things started to pick up after a beautiful lunch at Ten-Mile River. But after some long walking and deciding to do a 20 instead of a 28, my day went much better, especially since when I got to the lean-to a guy had brought up a bunch of Long Trail Ales and we sat around enjoying them for a while. The guy who brought the beer is planning on attempting a thru next year, and the other older guy who was there with us was doing a section (though I forget how far he was going.I left my pack at the lean-to and walked the mile down and into Kent, NY where I got a senior at the Kent School to let me use his computer to check my email, and started to use the payphone in the hall before being kicked out. That was ok, except that the only public pay phone in town was occupied by some guy for the next hour. ::sigh:: what can you do? Talked to Liana and tried to contact Linda Johnson, who had offered some hospitality to me and I would be passing by there tomorrow. But she wasn't home, and I couldn't seem ot get ahold of my parents in order to get my dad out for a day hike this weekend, so we'll see what happens.It was deffinately late and very dark by the time that I got back to the lean-to. Oh well, so much for that short day and the early bed time.
Date: 2005-06-03
From: Mt. Algo Lean-to

To: Falls Village
Miles today: 25.5

What a perfect day! After the first while of hill climbing there is a lovely river walk in this section. I had enough food in me that ehe energy output went well, even though I sweating like crazy. What can you do? Quite a few people out walking along the Housatonic on that river section of trail - flat, fast and every pleasant. Pulled into Falls Village round Eight o'Clock, after a long section of roadwalking. Life is good.Camped in back of the Toymakers Cafe, where I plan to eat breakfast in the morning. A good night's sleep, and an early bed time at last!
Date: 2005-06-04
From: Falls Village

To: The Hemlocks Lean-to
Miles today: 21.6

Well, I'm currently sitting in the Library of Salisbury, Connecticut. A very nice library, and happy fast internet. Woke up early this morning and called home. Dad is going to come meet me tomorrow at Jug End Road in Massachusetts (yes, I'll be sleeping in my home state tonight!!!) and do a day hike with me. I'm excited.After the phone call had a nice omlet at the Cafe with a good cup of tea and a fresh from the oven cinnamon roll. Yum! Well, since I have FINALLY caught up on my journal (with lots of days you'll just be left guessing, and which I will soon have forgotten completely) people will have to find something else to nag me about. ;-) There are also some newly uploaded pictures on this site with some annotation. Enjoy, and thanks for your interest.Again, if people have questions about the trail or my trip, I'd love to entertain them!Later that day: I did in fact make it to the Hemlocks where I spent the night with Boomerang and Biscut. Yay. The hike was BEAUTIFUL!!! If anyone wants to do a spectacular day hike go from Salisbury, CT to Jug End in MA over Bear Mtn, through Sages Ravine, across the cliffs of Race Mtn and finally up Mt. Everett. AWESOME!! YEAH!!!
Date: 2005-06-05
From: The Hemlocks Lean-to

To: Camping North of Shaker Campsite
Miles today: 26.2
Weather: few clouds

Today was a smashing day if you don't think about bugs. I woke up early and had perfect timing meeting my dad and mother down at the Jug End Road. Dad and I hiked 18.2 miles together to the Beartown Mountain Road on the north side of Mt. Wilcox. It was a great little hike. Not as spectacular by any means as the hike yesterday, but good enough dispite the bugs. Ended up camping just north of the Shaker Campsite in a gas line clearing. It was a lovely evening.
Date: 2005-06-07
From: The Bird Cage!

To: Zero in Dalton
Miles today: 0.0

Well, I got convinced to zero in Dalton. It really wasn't that hard, but it took my by surprise. It was good. After an extremely lazy morning of eating eggs and toast, Rob took us to the favorite local swimming hole, and then to the mall where Pacer, PJ, Free Spirit and I went to see Star Wars. The good news is that the third one is better than the first two. The bad news is that the first two were so bad, it wasn't hard to make a better movie. Did some small-time resupplying and then went back to the Bird Cage for some more R&R.
Date: 2005-06-08
From: Zero in Dalton

To: Wilbur Clearing Lean-to
Miles today: 20.3

Hiked with Free Spirit for a while today, it was cool hanging out again since we hadn't walked together since New Jersey. Some good catching up was done. PJ and Pacer were also in the area and we got to The Cobbles in early morning and had a nice snack on a hot summer day looking out over Cheshire and Mt. Greylock to the north. We went into Cheshire and were greeted by a wonderfulk sign - Icecream! Had lunch ouside the icecream place and then slowly wandered towards Greylock.After crossing through some pasture land I found myself in amongst a herd of the most beautiful cows that I've seen yet. And we had a nice chat. They soon became my friends and tried to follow me up the mountain but were blocked by the stile.Got to Greylock, and were immediately attacked by the black flies. The guy in charge of locking the tower let us in, and told us to just close the door tightly behind us - so we had it all to ourselves. The view at this point, however, was not spectacular. OK, it was really nice, but we could see the huge rain storms off to the west, northwest. And they were coming this way. Instead of cooking dinner and watching the sun set we started a mad dash down the mountain, and got caught in an outright downpour. Which was OK, because it was warm enough and it ensured all the bugs would go away.
Date: 2005-06-09
From: Wilbur Clearing Lean-to

To: Melville Nauheim Shelter
Miles today: 23.0
Weather: clear sky

Got up early this morning and went into Williamstown to resupply and to check email and forward the bump box. The grocery is only .3 off the trail, which is soooo nice. Got a great ride to the PO from a guy who was a williams grad from a long time ago and he put me in the passenger seat of his Mercedes convertable. Rockin' ride.The rest of the day devolved into what would soon become the norm in VT. Mud. It was sunny, hot and muddy. But, I was in VT!!!Free Spirit was going to meet her friend Brian in Bennington, but he stood her up, and so we made our way to the Melville Shelter and I once again cooked in the dark. We talked with a while with a young couple who were just starting to hike north on the Long Trail. Great folks.
Date: 2005-06-11
From: Story Spring Shelter

To: Manchester Center, VT
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: broken clouds

So, this was the best day ever. Free Spirit and I hiked together for most of the day, through the mud, and through the rain, and the non existant views from Stratton Mtn, and through the bug fields of Stratton Pond, and did I mention the mud?BUT! It had warmed up a bit, and was quite lovely when we reached Prospect Rock, which just so happens to be the 3/4 of the way mark on the trail. So... to point out the obvious, I've gotten 3/4 of the way exactly 3 months after I've started. Wow.But the day gets better. F.S. and I go into town - we got in fairly early after getting a ride from two young women who had just spent the afternoon quarry swimming. They dropped us off at Ben and Jerry's where we were served (and given a great discount) by a former thru-hiker Bug ('02). We inquired whether there was any place cheap to stay and she said no. BUT - as we sat down to eat our ice cream Alexa and Mike came over to us and said that we could stay in their mother-in-law appartment in the back of the house. Dang!! We did our grocery shopping and they brought us back to their old 1890's farm house. Hot shower, towels, laundry, cooking dinner, real bed. Everything any thru-hiker could ever imagine. They are true angels!!
Date: 2005-06-16
From: Wintturi Shelter

To: Hanover, NH
Miles today: 26.2
Weather: light rain

Rain, more rain. More mud. My boots and socks have been soaked for a week. This is the lesson of VT. Be prepared for soggy feet - there's nothing you can do. All summed up VT was a lot of clouds, no views and mud. If it weren't for the mud the walking would have been really pleasant. Or if it weren't for the clouds the views would have made the mud worthwhile. But no such luck.Anyway, I've passed into New Hampshire. I'm meeting my dad on Sunday to hike Moosilauke with me, so I have to move my butt to Glencliff for Saturday night. It can be done. Another 25 mile day and then a 20 no sweat.There is, of course, no place to stay in Hanover. Someone had mentioned that you can camp on the edge of the soccer field next to the forest, but I didn't get that far because on the way down the road to the field I passed the Friends Meetinghouse. I ended up getting to crash on the floor in a very nice little meeting house. The caretaker (who after I reflected for a bit, seemed really familiar) was wonderful and although I got to bed a lot later than I had wanted to, it was a good nights sleep and I didn't have to get my tent all wet in the rain. Yay!
Date: 2005-06-17
From: Hanover, NH

To: Smarts Mtn. Cabin
Miles today: 23.4

Well, it's drizziling this morning in Hanover, but he forecast looks like it's going to get better maybe by Sunday. Let's hope! Had a huge breakfast at Lou's cafe and am waiting for the post office to open. I guess it is by now, so maybe it's time for me to head out.This day turned out to be quite an adventure. The drizzle went away, until the afternoon, and provided some good hiking. Passed through the last big section of pasture and field land around Etna, NH. Really nice section. Passed Nightlion and Burger. Terribly, I didn't even recognize them and just kept on trucking.Saw some falcons nesting on Holts Ledge - very cool. Then came the great struggle of Lambert Ridge and Smarts mountain. This is a really nice hill - with some open granite ledges at the top of the ridge and a our first good smooth granite incline on the way up Smarts. It would have been great had the afternoon thunderstorms rolled in about the time that I got up to Lambert's Ridge. I ended up counting seconds between flash and boom and sprinting on and off for about a mile. It was deffinately the most intense and heart-thumping experience of the whole trail. Added to the excitement was the hail which came down and covered the bare rock, dropping the temp considerably.But, when I arrived at the Smarts mountain Firewardens Cabin there was a whole crew of people there: Java Pete, Vince, Chino, PJ, Scrubs, Runningmoon, Odyssa and Jukebox. It was good to finally see them again!
Date: 2005-06-18
From: Smarts Mtn. Cabin

To: Glencliff Hostel
Miles today: 20.0

Waking up to a cool morning with wet cold clothes was fun, but the sun kept peaking out and never really taking hold. I was the first one by a bit of a margin out of the cabin, and quickly made my way to Hexacuba where I found JR making a very late start to his day and mixing up some instant breakfast. Just then the rain came down quite a bit harder, and I sat around for a while longer. Had a very long lunch at Ore Hill with Runningmoon, Jukebox, and PJ. More showers came in, and more sunshine. Just kept alternating.Caught up with Chino near Wachipauki Pond, where he had missed the trail and ended up walking around the pond, which was at least 0.2 off the trail, and we walked the rest of the way into Glencliff together.Had a big crew again in Glencliff, and we all stayed at the hostel there. Great place. Phat Chap told us some good stories and exagerations about the trail, and lent me some clothes to go out to dinner in while mine were in the wash.Chino, Scrubs and his friend Jay, JR and PJ and I all piled into Jay's car and went to N. Woodstock and the brew pub there for dinner. My mom and dad ended up finding me there and bought all of us dinner! JR and I split a pitcher of very delicious stout and most of us went for the Eggplant Parm. special - for only 5 bucks! Delicious!!Peace,
Date: 2005-06-19
From: Glencliff Hostel

To: Kinsman Notch, Chuck's Place
Miles today: 9.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Well the whole hostel crew rolled out as one this morning - quite impressive! My parents and family friend Kristina Suddard arrived too, and she and my dad hit the trail with us. Phat Chap had warned us of the difficult stream crossing immediately after leaving the road - it didn't exist: there was a huge tree one could easily walk across the entire way! Once on the other side we all had to put our shoes on, having left them off to keep them dry.The big pack pulled ahead and Kristina, Dad, and I enjoyed a nice hike up Moosilauke. What a great mountain. I had tried to climb it last winter but it was snowing, and really windy so didn't end up venturing up to the treeline. Today was a differnent beast entirely. When we reached tree line, the clouds became an in-and-out thing and we were beautifully undercast to the south and west.Up the top the big crew of us all ate lunch together, and I relaced my totally falling apart shoes. JR had lent me an extra pair of socks to double layer them, so that the the bloody mess that was my ankles wouldn't hurt or get too much worse before my new shoes arrived in N. Woodstock.At the top there was quite a crowd of dayhikers but we paid little attention to them and them to us. Occasionally we got a few glimpses to the east and the mountains south of Lincoln, but they weren't great views. We couldn't see Franconia or anything really in that direction.On the way down Dad Kristina and I stopped briefly at the shelter, and it was a good thing that we did - it had cleared out and Franconia Ridge was clear as day in front of us as I paged through the register. Sweet!At the bottom my mom was there and had given the boys her trail magic, and we sat around and talked for a while. I think she was glad to meet people, as she has been following a few peoples' journals religiously (mostly Chino and PJ I think). Mom and Dad went home, and the rest of us made a phone call and Scrub's Mom's hairdresser picked us up, cramed us into his car, and brought us to his rockin' place for the evening. There we had a nice fire and some beers and resupplied in the little local market. Good times!
Date: 2005-06-20
From: Kinsman Notch, Chuck's Place

To: Zero on the Pemi
Miles today: 0.0

So, Chuck is the man. After hosting Chino, JR, PJ, Scrubs and I last night, Chuck was happy to let Scrubs and I take a zero at his place so that we weren't all one big squeeze going through the whites trying to get work-for-stay. Basically we hung around in the morning, dried gear, went to the P.O. to see if my shoes were in yet (which they weren't). Then in the afternoon we went canoeing down the Pemigewasset River for seval hours - about 8 miles of leasurely paddling and lounging about. It was awesome!
Date: 2005-06-22
From: Lonesome Lake Hut

To: Greenleaf Hut
Miles today: 9.3

Suffice to say, Scrubs and I were both really really tired today. We didn't get up untill, I think, around 11. I just crawled into bed when I got back to the Hut, and slept. We had a lazy mid-day, eating, then playing the guitar on the steps up to the hut in the lovely sunshine. Heather, the cook for the day, came out and hung with us for a bit. It was a good time.Around 1pm we decided we should probably start walking, so we headed down into the notch, and up the Liberty Springs trail. We stoped at Liberty Spring and had some food, and chatted with several people including Sarah who worked for AMC.Next stop was to take the side trail over to Mt. Liberty, to get the classic view looking north along the ridge. Scrubs took a picture of me which duplicated a photo in the ATC calendar from a few years back, standing on a ledge looking at the ridge.By now it was getting late. We passed one day hiker who was coming down, while we were still in the trees, but other than that we had the whole ridge to ourselves. What an incredible feeling. I had hiked all the way from Georgia to get to this place - I had looked up at this ridge for years skiing in the surrounding places and driving through the Notch. I was here last July with Liana on a three day trek.The sun was beginning to set as we got to Lafayette, it was a little chilly and quite windy but almost crystal clear. We spent quite a bit of time up there, as it was a fairly sacred place for both of us, before heading down to Greenleaf hut where we joined the croo and their friends on the roof to watch the sun set. It was spectacular.Peace,
Date: 2005-06-23
From: Greenleaf Hut

To: Guyot Campsite
Miles today: 9.4

The best part about staying at Greenleaf was that we got to climb Lafayette twice! I love that mountain. We had a fairly late start, because we were working. I did quite a few dishes before breakfast, and we both swept out the whole hut before we left. We met T-rex up the top, and headed down the north side towards Garfield. A rather uneventful day.Scrubs and I met our first southbounder on the top of Garfield, which has the remnants of an old fire tower on the top of it. Garfield has a great view south into the heart of the Pemi. Wilderness area, and to the west Franconia ridge. After a long snack break we continued on towards Galehead hut. It was nice to be there in the day light and be able to see what I was missing two nights before - but truely it was beautiful that night in the moonlight which kept being partially clouded over. Very erie and quiet.Scrubs and I sat in the dining room for several hours and consumed an inordinate quantity of soup. Nate, thanks for keeping it hot! Soooo good! And we played, for the first time, "Trail Magic" the Appalachian Trail board game. It was pretty sweet. We knew most all of the trivia, except the leaf identification. We didn't have any instructions so we made up our own rules.It getting very late in the afternoon, we headed up South Twin - a climb dreaded as one of the roughest on the tral. From Mt. Garfield you can see the trail up S. Twin - it's just a straight line striaght up the side of the mountain. In otherwords, this was a trail I liked. We got up there in no time, saw Washington in all it's glory, and headed to Guyot. On the top of Guyot we cooked dinner and then headed to the Guyot campsite where we arranged to do work-for-stay in the morning and slept well in the very very cute shelter before the boyscouts woke us up being rather loud in the AM. Ah well.
Date: 2005-06-27
From: Lakes of the Clouds Hut

To: Madison Springs Hut
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: fog

Woke up this morning with a bunch of other people sleeping on the tables in the dining room of Lakes of the Clouds. The funny thing about sleeping in the dining room is that when you wake up, there are often guests who are up sitting at one of the tables like zombies because they haven't finished their cup of coffee yet - it's kind of a wierd experience = folks who aren't used to the schedule.After a solid breakfast in the kitchen, Scrubs and I took of again for Washington. The weather wasn't quite so beautiful this time, and the peak was sort of in-and-out of the clouds. But that gave more of a sense of normality than anything else. Back into the visitors center to make another phone call. Today, however, we were early enough that the place was not yet filled with fat train riding or gas guzzling tourists. It was almost nice. If you could ignore the TV towers and the constant drone of generators, and the big mass of concrete and glass, and the huge plume of coal smoke rising from the cog railway.We journeyed on and continued our blue-blazing extravaganza over Mt. Clay and Mt. Jefferson and then whiteblazed it around Adams. By the time we got to Jefferson, it was clouding over and drizzling and there was the distant rumble of thunder, so we decided to head for the hut. We downed a lot of soup and hung out for a bit, digging through old hut logs, and Scrubs was trying to find his entry when he was there last. He was there the same weekend as Baltimore Jack - who was in the Presidentials on labor day weekend for about 4 years running.We got to the hut in time to miss the big rain storm that came through, and we dis out work for stay - washing the windows - before heading out for what I think was the most spectacular hike of my whole AT experience. We went down the Airline trail and down into King's Ravine, then hiked up the Ravine through the "Subway" which is a trail through the boulder caves of the ravine floor. Then came our ascent up the Great Gully Trail. I can't recommend this trail enough. If you're out for just a day hike (don't have a full pack) GO UP THIS TRAIL. It is spectacular, with a good section of hand-over-hand climbing along side a beautiful waterfall. Sooo sweet! By the time we got back up to the ridge another thunder storm started rolling through and we hi-tailed it back to the hut under a brilliant setting sun. The guests were in the middle of dinner already, so we didn't have to wait long to eat, and we had a good time haning out with the croo and Beth from Lakes, playing the guitar a little. Good times. Great oldies.
Date: 2005-06-28
From: Madison Springs Hut

To: Pinkham Notch - Joe Dodge Lodge
Miles today: 7.8
Weather: broken clouds

Things cleared out by this morning, and our hike over Mt. Madison was spectacular, with an undercast view of the Mahoosuc range to the norhteast (in the picture here). Wow. Brilliantly sunny and warm. On the way down the Osgood trail we chatted with the leader of a SCA group who was hauling rocks up from the West branch of the Peabody River to maintain a section of trail. Cool folks.We got down to the Pinkham Notch Visitors center where Scrubbs' Dad and Aunt were waiting. We ran into Shatter and Sarah. I had met Shatter in the Smokies where he was ridge running with a double headed axe and clearing blowdowns. He was working for AMC again this summer as the Mahoosuc Rover. I had met Sarah at the Liberty Springs Campsite on my way up Franconia Ridge, and then we ran into each other again on the top of Washington, and now again. They invited us to go swimming with them, and we went to the beautiful narrow and deep gorge across the road from the Ninteenmile Brook trail to the north on 16. Wicked cool.Wes, Scrubbs' dad, had gotten a room in the Joe Dodge Lodge in Pinkham and we all stayed there for the night, had dinner, and passed the guitar around and shared some songs. It was a good time. Thanks Blausses!.
Date: 2005-06-29
From: Pinkham Notch - Joe Dodge Lodge

To: Carter Dome
Miles today: 7.1

After a nice breakfast and a bit of a lazy start, Scrubs and I took off up Wildcat. The views were mostly gone. When we got to the end of the Wildcats, jsut before going down into Carter Notch, we leaned the camera on a tree trying to replicate the photo on the front of the 2005 databook. It didn't work so well, but that's OK. There was no view, and we headed down into the notch passing a good sized group of southbounders. Scrubs' dad and aunt had come up the 19-mile brook trail and were already at the Hut when we arrived. We had lunch, and then took a walk around the pond in the notch. Then the elders departed, and Scrubs and I did our work-for-stay: scrubbing the floors! It was fun! As the afternoon when on more people were piling into the hut, and I was feeling a little ill. The combination, and the fact that I'd been sleeping in huts for a long time, really made my feet itch. So I took off up Carter Dome, and passed another group of young kids. Glad that I kept going! I found a discrete campsite and set up the tent and cooked. It was a bit chilly, but was SOOO nice to be out by myself on the top of a mountain. And the passing rain and thunderstorms made the evening interesting.