morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-07-28
From: Vt 12 The Red Barn

To: Happy Hill Shelter
Miles today: 16.6
Weather: few clouds

I didn't get started out of The Red Barn until 9:30 because all my stuff was wet, especially my shoes, and I wanted to walk in dry shoes. The sun didn't come up fully over the mountain until 8:30, but when it did, it rapidly dried my stuff out. In the meantime, I sewed some things and cooked breakfast. Vern went ahead and elected to walk out. He got up late, considering we normally get up at 5:00. He got up at 6 and left at 7. It was an easy day. I walked slow. I made a long stop at the Thistle Hill Shelter to cook up some Ramen noodles. Last night at The Red Barn, besides OC1 and myself, were Naked Sun, Jersey Fresh and South Shore. Besides OC1, all 3 of the guys showed up at Thistle Hill Shelter and we hung out there for about an hour. We went on to the Happy Hill Shelter. This is the last shelter right before Hanover, N.H. We all wanted to get in there early. I set my tent up inside the shelter, Vern set his up outside. The other 3 guys shower up and slept in the shelter.That's it.
Date: 2005-07-29
From: Happy Hill Shelter

To: Velvet Rocks Shelter
Miles today: 6.8
Weather: clear sky

We got a 6:30 start this morning and made it very quickly to the road. It¢s a long road walk. You go through Norwich, Vermont first. Very upscale community. Very expensive houses. Million dollars each, easily. Quite some interesting architecture.We were having breakfast at Lou¢s Diner in Main Street, Hanover by 8:30. I ate some really good corned beef hash with eggs on top of it. Then we did our rounds through town, stopping at the drug store. We went to the post office. Vern elected to walk out. I decided I was going to stay in town all day, and make it a short day and eat as much as possible. He left around 11:00. He planned on doing nine more miles.I went ahead and hung out; worked on my gear; bought some more stuff; repacked; and went over to Molly¢s Bar and Diner. I sat there and had a couple Long Island Iced Teas; a really huge sirloin steak with sweet potato fries; good stuff; very good. Then I went to see the 4:20 showing of ¢The Island.¢ It was not great. Not enough to sit through two times, for sure. Then I went ahead and got my pack. The guy at the movie theater, because it was so empty, let me take my pack in with me, and sit it on the seat next to me in the movie theater. There was a couple in there that asked me some questions about hiking the trail. It was the only other couple that was in the theater with me.The movie got out and I started walking out of town. I made a quick stop at a gas station to pick up a pint of Ben and Jerry¢s Pistachio Pistachio Ice Cream. I was at the Velvet Rock Shelter by 7:30.I woke up at 11:30 at night to hear someone walking through. It was three guys with head lights on; no backpacks. I guess that¢s what they do around here is the college out of boredom is walk through the woods.
Date: 2005-07-30
From: Velvet Rocks Shelter

To: Trapper John Shelter
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: scattered clouds

I elected this morning not to go to the Firewarden's Cabin, which would have been 22 miles. OC1 is probably staying there. I have said it before and I guess I'm going to have to start sticking to it, this is the end of the line for the long days and days over 20 miles. I'm just taking my time, looking after myself, and looking to survive. OC1 has his destiny in finishing by August 31st. I have no such compelling reason to do that. I have been running for 4 months and I want to enjoy what little is left here. I figure I will finish the 1st week of September. A couple of days here and there will not hurt anything. It will just make it more pleasureable for me. I walked a fairly decent, easy pace today, and still got into the shelter at 1:30. I decided to stay. I could smell myself really badly. Since the shelter was empty in the middle of the afternoon, I went ahead to the water source, I grabbed a big bag of water, went behind the shelter and hung it to take a full shower with some peppermint soap. I took all of my clothes and washed them as well, then hung them out to dry. Somewhere between all that, a southbounder walked in, his name is P.J. We talked for a while. One of the things he was telling me was that Maine was more difficult than The Whites. I had heard all of this before. I think part of that has to do with conditioning. When southbounders start in Maine, they are still out of Trail shape. Of course, it's going to be rough on them. By the time they get to the Whites, they have some miles under their belts, and it seems a bit easier. Just like when you start in the south, the first 38 miles to Neels Gap are incredibly hard. In retrospect, if you went back to walk them, it's some of the easiest stuff on the Trail in the south.I elected to sit here, took my shower, did my laundry, and cut and sewed new padding to my waist. The waist belt, once again is too small. I can't keep weight on, I'm losing it. I'll go into town, I'll eat and try to gain weight and within a couple of days I'm back down in the danger zone of the low 140's. This is another reason I have to take it easy, I have to keep on the weight if I don't want to get myself in trouble. I worked on various things here today, lots of sewing. I worked on my fanny pack, where lots of stuff had come off. I had to waterproof it again. At around 3 o'clock, a group of around 8 kids walked in. A little later, the 2 group leaders came over and talked to me. It turns out they are from a high school from New Hampshire, and whenever they get new students, this is how they initiate them. They take them out for a week on the Trail. What a cool way to say, "Welcome to our High School". Other than that, they were talking away, they actually came over to me to make sure they were not bothering me. I told them to go ahead and have a good time. That's it for today.
Date: 2005-08-02
From: Glencliff, New Hampshire

To: Kinsman Notch, N.H.
Miles today: 9.5
Weather: clear sky

I woke up early this morning. Tinkerbell and I got a ride from Fat Chap to Kinsman Notch and we hiked back to Hikers Welcome Hostel in Gelncliff. We ran with short packs. Before we started off this morning, we drove all the way to North Woodstock again. Fat Chap, Stump Knocker, Tinkerbell and I had a great breakfast at Peg's. We picked up ham and cheese subs to go over Mount Moosilauke with.What a wonderful day. I remember this fondly from doing it last time. What a fanstastic, exciting hike to be on. We went over Mount Moosilauke, free from the weight we normally carry. I actually ran it in 4 hours of walking time, but we spent an hour and a half on the top of the exposed ridge with all the rocks. We really had an excellent time. It was also very uplifting for Tinkerbell, who has been kind of down. I think he's having a hard time on the Trail right now and it was a reinforcing thing for him. Even he said so. Being in such a beautiful place and knowing that this is what we will be seeing from now on for the rest of the trip - magnificent views, wonderful places in New Hampshire and Maine. I pretty much flew off that mountain, back to the hostel. I left the top of Moosilauke at 11:45 and at 1:10 I was walking down the road to the hostel again. When I got to the hostel, on the way down the road, I passed Naked Sun, South Shore and Jersey Fresh. They were all coming from having stayed a day in Hanover with Baltimore Jack. It turns out that, before they left town, Baltimore Jack had hooked up with them and let them stay at the place he was staying at. A few southbounders have walked in here. I haven't even met all of them yet. I'm relaxing. There's dogs running loose, barking at each other, sounds like they are having a good time. I have to get my pack all ready to go. We are getting dropped off again tomorrow at Kinsman Notch. We are walking to North Woodstock. From then on, to the rest of The Whites. I can't wait. It's going to be an exciting month on the Trail.
Date: 2005-08-03
From: Kinsman Notch, N.H.

To: Franconia Notch
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: scattered clouds

I got up early this morning and Fat Chap once again drove us to breakfast in North Woodstock. There were quite a number of us this morning. There was myself, Fat Chap, South Shore, and these two gals who were doing a week out, and Tinkerbell. Tinkerbell and I were going to be dropped off at Kinsman¢s Notch to hike back into North Woodstock. We went to breakfast and they dropped us off.Fat Chap claims that this section is the hardest 16 miles on the entire Appalachian Trail. I take that kind of statement with a grain of salt, and I¢m sure that a lot of people are going to disagree about that. We haven¢t even entered Maine yet, which many people say is the hardest part of the A.T. I don¢t think there are many who are going to disagree, that for a North Bounder, the part from Kinsman¢s Notch to Franconia Notch is the hardest piece they¢ve come across so far. It's very, very vertical stuff. Big, huge climbs. Very technical climbs as well. You go all the way from the bottom up this long, long, long climb up and then back down again; back up again; back down; back up. And the footing is just relentless with the rocks, boulders, steps, roots. There are no more switchbacks. Everything goes straight up the mountain. One piece, the southern 200 vertical feet before you reach the top of Kinsman¢s Notch is highly technical climbing. You stand there scratching your head for a long time trying to figure out if you made a mistake. It¢s just a vertical wall in places. You have to use your hands and your feet. You¢ve got to grab hand holds on the rocks and cracks. It wears you out. OC1 and Easy Goer took twelve hours to do this sixteen miles the other day with full packs and I believe it. Regardless, I¢m slack packing this one section also. I was intent that, since I wasn¢t carrying a full pack, to get as much work out as possible; keep the conditioning up. I managed to do the run in six and a half hours. Full blast. All out the whole way.I got back out on the road at North Woodstock at 3:30 in the afternoon. I called the shuttle connection who apparently were changing shifts, so it took a while for them to get to me. I still made it into town in time to get to the post office and pick up my box there. I showered and did the laundry in the bathtub. I stuck the laundry out front to dry. Then I went out to dinner with OC1 and Easy Goer for another round of sirloins, lobsters, and Margaritas. Tinkerbell walked in, in the process. We ate, went back, and went to bed.
Date: 2005-08-04
From: Franconia Notch

To: Guyot Campsite
Miles today: 15.8

Long day today, and boy, was I pissed. I actually felt great today, for the most part.The first part of the morning was good. It was a special day, we went over the whole Franconia Ridge today, starting from the Notch. Once again, a horrendously long climb up to the Ridge, and then walking for hours along the totally exposed, barren Franconia Ridge. Just unbelievable views. There were quite a few big mountains of note: Little Haystack, Lincoln, Lafayette, which is at 5,249 feet and Garfield, which is one hell of a steep climb both up and down.We did really well the first part of the morning through the heavy climbing and got up on the Ridge by 11:00. We spent several hours up there, walking along. I don't even know what to say about it, there's no way to describe it. As the day progressed, we got off the Ridge and I ended up starting to run ahead. I was following Easy Goer and OC1's game plan to do 16 miles today to the Guyot Campsite. For me, it was a big mistake because, doing 16 miles over this kind of terrain is just too much, and the Guyon Campsite was a hard 8/10's of a mile off the Trail. It took us a full 40 minutes to get to the campsite. It turned out to be an 11 hour day, something I said I would never do again. I was pretty upset that I had ended up doing it. I blew off alot of steam about it, which I probably shouldn't have. To top it all off, when we got there, it looked like all the tent platforms were full. You have to understand that there are no tenting areas in the Whites. There is nothing flat to tent on. They actually have to make tenting areas. There are some stealth sites around, but, obviously I haven't found them yet.We found the caretaker, Molly, she told us that there was one tent platform left. We set up our tents on the one platform left near the bathrooms. We sat there and cooked. OC1 and I walked in there together at about 6:30. Easy Goer, who is a little slower on the rocks, didn't get in until 8:00. For him, it was a 12.5 hour day.They were planning on running 18 miles tomorrow, I told them that I wasn't going for that. I'm going to take a short day, walk down and maybe go to the Willey House, or into the campground and eat, shower, and relax. We went to bed, and in the middle of the night, I awoke to feel wetness in my tent. It was 1:30 in the morning, and I found out that the 2 liter bag of water that I use for a pillow, had leaked out into the tent. I had to get my towel out and mop that up. Luckily, the sleeping bag only got mildly wet on the edges.That's it.
Date: 2005-08-09
From: Lost Pond Trail

To: Imp Campsite
Miles today: 0.0

Rough day. Only twelve miles, but hard, damn miles over Wildcat Mountain. It had a number of peaks on it. And then, just rough assed stuff in Carter Notch. A lot of rocky, bouldering kind of stuff. A couple of stops along the way and all I can say is just a rough day and a low energy day.Ended up at the Imp Campsite at about 4:00. I said, ¢screw it¢ and pitched camp there for the night.It¢s about all I¢ve got to say about that day.
Date: 2005-08-10
From: Imp Campsite

To: Gorham, N.H.
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: few clouds

I walked down to the road, I made it by 10:00. It took a while to get a ride. The guy who finally did give me a ride, dumped me off at the post office at 10:45 or so. I figured I had better get a hotel room before I got my boxes. I had about 4 boxes here, and I didn't want to be carrying my backpack and 4 boxes worth of stuff. I started walking down the street in one direction, looking at all the hotels. There were about 4 or 5 of them. This truck drove by and beeped at me. I just kind of waved, I wasn't really paying attention. About 5 minutes later, as I was heading back, the truck pulled up next to me. It turned out to be OC1, Easy Goer and Maniac with OC1's friend, who had picked them up in Gorham. They asked if I wanted to head off with them, but I declined because I had too many things I wanted to do. They were on a different agenda. They were taking a zero day. They had gotten in yesterday. They were all clean and were on their way to get lunch. I had too many things to take care of. I had a hotel to find, mail drops to pick up, shower, eat, and do laundry. I told them to go on ahead. OC1 asked me if I wanted to meet them for lunch, I said, "sure, as soon as I find a hotel."I ended up going to the Northern Peaks Hotel. The gal there gave me what I considered the best room in the place. It was just a single room, but it was directly above the office with a huge porch. I proceeded to take care of my business. I actually waited until 1:00 on the front porch for OC1 to spot me. I stuck my poles and my bag up on the railing, thinking if he saw them, he would know where I was. He never did. At 1:00 I gave up and called him up and left a message telling him where I was.I went off to shower. Rather than waste time going to the laundry, I just borrowed a bucket from the owner of the hotel, dumped my clothes in there with some Dr. Bonner soap and washed them. I put them out to dry on the upper deck, which was scorchingly hot. It was very hot today, in the 90's. My clothes were dry within 20 minutes.I put my clothes on and went to get my mail drops, then I came back and sat on the porch in the afternoon. South Shore and Naked Sun walked in and they got a room there as well. We went out to eat later. We had plenty of beers. We hung out. I made one last run to the post office because I called up The Cabin in Andover, Maine and who should answer the phone but Wandering Bull. I told him I wanted to get picked up and slack pack when I got close. We made all the arrangements. All I need is 2 days worth of food, and I had 5 days worth. So, I went back to the post office and mailed the 3 days worth of food to The Cabin in Andover so I didn't have to carry that extra weight.   The only thing is, I need to make it there in 2 days and now I have to push it. I made sure I packed all my stuff up and had it ready, all I have to do is put my pants on in the morning, get ready and haul ass out of here. That's it.
Date: 2005-08-11
From: Gorham, N.H.

To: Carlo Col Shelter and Campsite
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: broken clouds

Long day. I did as planned. Got up and was out by 6:00. I got a ride almost immediately to the trailhead. I was on the Trail and walking by 6:40. It was a forever thing today. I got here about 4:30, so we¢re talking ten hours to do 17 miles. For someone who got used to, a long time ago, being able to pump it up and do three miles an hour, I¢m working twice as hard now to a lot less mileage. I¢m lucky to get two miles an hour. Obviously, 17 miles in ten hours is 1.7. Just rough. There weren¢t a lot of big hills today, but they all totaled out to a pretty good distance; somewhere in like the 6,000 foot range of total climbs today. Just up, down, up, down, up, down. Once again, some pretty rough terrain and rock scrambles. Things where you just sat there and scratch your head on how to get down. The exciting thing is, at 4:00 this afternoon I crossed into Maine. I crossed my last state line. So I did a little bit of a celebration dance there, and then walked in to find the shelter. I did manage to get a hold of The Cabin at Andover from the top of Mt. Success, although it didn¢t seem like I was going to be able to for a while there. I told them that I expect to be out on the road at Grafton Notch tomorrow where they¢ll pick me up. I told them that if they didn¢t hear from me because I¢m going to try and call them again from the top of Old Speck, which is the third highest mountain in Maine, then as a default time, to come get me at 5:00. My cell phone may not work. I¢ll make sure that I¢ll get there. That¢ll give me ten or eleven hours to do this fourteen miles, which doesn¢t sound like much, but that is probably the toughest, single piece of trail on the A.T. or is reputed to be, which is Mahoosuc Notch or Mahoosuc Arm. Mahoosuc Arm is a scramble through house size boulders that you go over, under, around; you crawl through them. It¢s supposed to be an amazingly difficult one mile section. There¢s actually permanent ice under the rocks there that is frozen year round. So, tomorrow is going to be quite an adventure to try and make it to Grafton Notch by 5:00. I will do the best I can.
Date: 2005-08-15
From: South Arm Road

To: Maine 17
Miles today: 13.3

I saw my first moose today. Earl dropped me off. We travelled down this road with a very steep bank coming down at us on the right side and a very steep bank going down on the left side. We were going about 45 miles per hour behind a Toyota. This moose came FLYING out from the uphill side. It was coming right at the Toyota. AT the very last second, just before he hit the driver's side, the moose turned with the car, and started running along side the car at about 40 miles per hour. It was incredibly fast, the moose seemed to be racing the car. The driver must have about died when he saw the moose coming at him. The driver finally slowed down and the moose ran in front of the car, down the other side without ever breaking stride.
Date: 2005-08-16
From: Maine 17

To: Rangeley, Maine
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: broken clouds

My intention was to run into Rangeley and get food and drink at Sarge's, a pub. When I came out of the parking lot, Don from the motel here, handed me a candy bar and said he would give me a ride in. I accepted that, thinking I was going to come back in, and of course, Tinkerbell showed up. That changed all of my plans, and we decided to hang in town and maybe do a little slack packing.
Date: 2005-08-17
From: Rangeley, Maine

To: Perham Stream
Miles today: 0.0

I¢m laying back in a field far away from the road house in Rangeley, Maine.I¢ve been skipping a bunch of days here on the journal, mainly because I¢m just too damn lazy and they build up. I¢m three days back now, so I figured I¢d better record something today and then I¢ll just go back and fill in later. That¢s the way it will be. Basic information for what I did those days. I¢m just not going to stress out about it. Let¢s concentrate on today.Today was a good day. We got up and had breakfast in a small place in Rangeley. Susan dropped us off at Parham Stream, and we hiked south. We did a southbound hike today for a good 14 miles over Saddleback Mountain and quite a few other pretty steep little places. I say ¢we¢ because Tinkerbell is with me again. I walked into this town last night thinking that I didn¢t walk into the town. I walked through the trailhead, which is nine miles town. Thinking that I was going to hitch in, eat, and then come back out again and keep on going to Stratton. It doesn¢t seems like it doesn¢t matter where I go because the same guy who I¢m renting a room from in Stratton is also the guy who runs stuff here in Rangeley.Tinkerbell walking in last night made all the difference in the world. I was about to walk out. Wasn¢t worth it to get a room. Wasn¢t worth it to see about slack packing. I was just going to hike. He walked in so we talked for a few minutes and made a game plan. Suddenly, we¢re in town again. It¢s been all good. It¢s been a good day. A good day of hiking through some awesome stuff and great views. Saddleback and Little Saddleback and that whole area there is wide open exposed above the treeline. Amazing views.I didn¢t really pay enough attention; didn¢t really notice enough, but up on the top of Saddleback I could have looked and seen Katahdin almost 200 miles away if I knew what to look for and I didn¢t.Tomorrow, supposedly I will be able to see, once again, Katahdin and Mt. Washington; a distance of like 400 miles, and it¢s going to be a clear day. 1/8th of the trail, I think. I don¢t know how it calculates. If you stand in a certain place you can look to the south and see Mt. Washington, which I did a couple of weeks ago now, I think. And you can look north and see Katahdin, which is where I will be in a couple of weeks. That¢s a pretty stunning thought to look that far ahead into the future and far back into the past.Goodnight.
Date: 2005-08-18
From: Perham Stream 

To: Maine 27
Miles today: 13.8

I jave kind of prided myself in not falling and being sure footed, but, on a steep downhill today, I took a total, full, complete dive. I went downhill, throught the rocks, worst fall I think I've ever taken. I don't know how I didn't break anything, but, my entire right side seems to have made contact with every rock along the way. I twisted my ankle, screwed up my knee, bruised the hell out of my ribs, wrist and elbow. The only thing I didn't hit was my head. I was walking pretty funny for a while.