morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-07-08
From: Three Mile Road

To: Firewarden's cabin shelter
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: light rain

Hot! hot! and humid.... hot and humid...Gobbles update... still has lyme. His headaches are gone, but his neck is still a little sore. He also tires out quicker than normal at the moment, but that is to be expected. He doesn't think he should be weaker, so he is concerned at the moment about the upcoming climbs in the whites. We all think he will be fine. knuckles said she was weaker for the first 4 days after getting the antibiotics, so he should be fine in a day or two.Today was a tough day, and i am exhausted. We had 3 good climbs today, and by good, i mean they were long, and steep. They kicked my butt.I got up about 5am, and got my stuff packed up, and then went down to the kitchen to help make pancakes for our group breakfast. We made chocolate chip, blueberry, and a both pancakes. They were good. So then we cleaned up the "cabin" and were on the trail about 9am. Late for us, but early for snake eyes and trust me. We knew today was going to be hot, and therefore tough.We started with a climb, and then a steep down, then a 1000 foot climb, which was steep, but stopped for lunch on the way down at the trapper john shelter. After a nice hour break there, we continued on....The hardest climb of the day was getting up smart mountain, to get here. A nice 2400 foot climb for this one. The last piece was a 900 foot climb in 3/4 of a mile. owwwww....So i drank 10 of my water bottles (28 oz each) and a 32oz gatorade at breakfast. I was very thirsty today. I am still probably dehydrated. I soaked my shirt and shorts to the point i could wring them out... yummy.It was fun hiking with a bigger group.Conversation was fun with new people to direct the talk into weird and interesting places.As always, it was hard leaving the comforts of civilization. There were many times today where i was wishing i was sitting on a couch drinking a cold soda.Tomorrow we will pull a 20 miler into glencliff, and i hope we get there fairly early. It's supposed to be hot again tomorrow, so the more miles we can do in the morning, when it's cool, the better. It looks like the hard part of the day is early, so that is better.Time for sleep. i'm tired....
Date: 2008-07-10
From: Hikers Welcome Hostel, Glencliff

To: NH 112, Kinsman Notch
Miles today: 9.5
Weather: broken clouds

Happy birthday to gobbles!We got him a beer to drink at the top of mt. moosilake, and some oreo cups and a card for his birthday. And, trust me and thud hitched a ride into town to go to an atm, and got mcDonalds for everyone... especially for gobbles birthday. mmmmm... mcdonalds.Today we had low miles. But we had a big uphill climb, and a big downhill. The uphill was long, and it was steep, but it wasn't crazy dangerous or difficult. It was just long, and steep.... and long...but the views from up top were great. It was very windy once you got up there, and due to that, it was cold up there. But it was nice... 360 degree views. Worth the climb....The climb down was ridiculous. It was steep, and hard, and if it was wet, it would have been scary. I would have had to butt-scoot my way down the mountain. Basically, it was 1.4 miles of picking your way down through large rocks. The trail maintainers have actually done a great job making it a decent trail, but it was still crazy. It took us 2.5 hours to go down the last 2 miles.Tonight we are stealth camping by nh112, and we are hoping to make it to either lonesome lake hut, or down into franconia notch tomorrow. It is supposed to be raining all day, so the idea of being someplace dry at night is very appealing. You know how much i like hiking in the rain.My feet still stink. I don't know if it's my shoes, my socks, or me. I hope it isn't me, because that means i have to live with it, and find a cure. I'm hoping it's the boots or socks, so i can just be rid of them, and be free from the funk. I have put baby powder in my shoes, and i will try baby-powdering my feet in the morning. Hope that helps....my socks are in here with me right now, and i think the smell is making me go cross-eyed.Oh yeah, so thud and i swapped tents for the night. He had hammock envy- he sleeps in one at home, and has been wanting to try one out here hiking. I don't like it so much - it sways and i get a little motion sick, and i wanted to see what one of these one-man tents were all about.. so we swapped. So far, so good... i think i could use a little more sit-up room, but other than that, it's cozy.Time for sleep. Long day tomorrow, and i need to get an early start to make it to either goal point at a decent time.zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......
Date: 2008-07-12
From: Franconia Notch

To: Galehead hut
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: broken clouds

I do not like new hampshire. I am in a bad mood tonight, so i will keep this short, to minimize the whining.There are three types of trail here...1. straight up, through rocks2. straight down, through rocks3. flat, through rocks.and when i say straight up or straight down, i mean that the trail really should have ladders.This is annoying me... and leads to the second thing i will talk about in my journal, which is another reason i do not like new hampshire.Today, on one of my decents, my trekking pole broke. This happened at a most inopportune time, since i was attempting to head straight down at that moment. Luckily, i stopped my fall with my face. Okay, actually, i somehow managed to not break any bones, and i somehow avoided falling on any large rocks... i just ended my fall with my face banging into a rock. I walked away with a bruised ego, a scratched up face, scratched up hands and arms, and i think i banged up some ribs on my right side, because they are becoming increasingly sore. I was incredibly lucky with that fall. If something had happened any differently than it did, i might have been coming home 360 miles early. I am afraid i just cashed in all my "good luck" points on that one. I might have a few points left, since it was seriously unlucky that my pole happened to break right then.Up until this moment, the day was going okay, we got up to ridge line today with good weather and good views, and that was fun. The climbs are still exhausting (try doing a stairmaster, where your steps vary randomly between 6" and 24", you have 40lbs on your back, and you can't get off the stairmaster for 2 to 3 hours).The hut is good. loud, but good. We did a work-for-stay.I will stop now, because all i want to do is whine. I will say that i have been having serious thoughts about calling it quits, and taking what money i have left and going to do something fun with my wife. Let's hope that tomorrow is better.
Date: 2008-07-13
From: Galehead hut

To: Crawford Notch campground
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: fog

I should start out by saying that despite my negativity of yesterday, the whites are very beautiful, and the views are outstanding. But the a.t. in the whites is really difficult and exhausting. Apparently, there are easier trails up these mountains, but the people who laid out the trail must have purposely avoided them...knuckles and i got started by 5:45am, and we missed out on the breakfast leftovers. Bummer. The scenery was blocked by clouds, so there were none of those. But it was super windy this morning, so it was kind of cool to watch the clouds whipping past as i hiked. The trail was kind to us today, we had some wicked climbs and decents, but there were only one or two, so it wasn't too bad. There was a lot of flat trail towards the end of the day, that missed the worst patches of rocks, and some crazy cliffs. We were all curious as we walked past, what was wrong.... but yay! I liked the trail today. However,i discovered that i also missed lunch at zealand falls hut, since i got there at 10am, but apparently they gave thru hikers cookies and other treats... boooo! sad i missed that.I got down to the road around 2, and scored a ride right away with a really nice family who took us to North Conway. thanks! Actually, marcia and rich (a pair of other hikers out for the weekend) also offered a ride, but it turns out i didn't need it. We actually ran into them at EMS - fun, AND they gave us a ride to a sub shop after EMS. Thanks guys!In North Conway, I got new poles at EMS - an expense i didn't want to have... they didn't exchange them out like at the NYC EMS for Gobbles...they told me that i have to deal directly with Leki. ugh.After the subs, we got a ride up to the campground with a local taxi service, and were here by 6. Enough time to resupply, and get some supplemental dinner treats. Tonight we are in the bunkhouse, and its pretty nice.Gotta run to do laundry and take a shower before bed.Stay tuned.... tomorrow we enter the presientail range... supposedly the best part of the whites....
Date: 2008-07-14
From: Crawford Notch campground

To: Lake of the Clouds hut
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Wow. The views from up here are amazing. So far, the best on the trail. The weather this afternoon cleared up and let us see for miles.Today was another tough day out here in the whites. I climbed over 4000 feet today, and a lot of it was through the typical rock scrambles/cliffs. My ribs on my right side are pretty banged up from my fall, so it made climbing painful. It was raining all night, so the trail this morning was wet, and the rocks we had to climb were nice and slippery. It was a tough and exhausting morning. So my mood this morning was one of anger - i was angry at the trail people for finding the most ridiculous route up the montain, and making sure we were on it, i was angry because the rocks were slippery and treacherous (thank goodness i was mostly climbing today, the small decents we had were scary enough), and i was angry because got up early and tried to get an early start, but couldn't get a hitch. It made me sad to watch about 10 suv's and station wagons drive by with only the driver in the car.So i was not in a good mood early today... and oh yeah, i was first up the trail, so i had all the underbrush dropping the collected water on me as i walked through... made me freezing cold and dripping wet.but... the day got better....I got up to mitzpah hut about noon, and sat inside and ate lunch, and had gobbles, bleach and knuckles catch up. We talked for a while, and then i took off to get here. I had a hard climb out of the hut, and hit the ridgeline. (angelic music)As i traversed the ridge, the clouds cleared out, and i had views for miles. Wow. It was amazing. And the terrain was level, and the trail was free of boulders (mostly) so i could look around while i walked.I still dislike new hampshire for backpacking. Dayhiking would be amazing, but doing these climbs with a full pack is a little crazy.We got work-for-stay again here, but this time, all of us get to stay. So this time i washed dishes and swept the floor in exchange for the leftovers from dinner, and a place to sleep on the floor, and breakfast in the morning. This hut croo (correct spelling) is cooler than the last one.The views from this hut are crazy, but i missed the sunrise, since i was working. I hope that mt. washington is clear in the morning... i want to see the views from there.Today was trust me's turn to fall. he tripped and banged up his shin wicked bad. Lots of blood, but nothing broken or damaged too bad. He put a big bandage on his leg. yikes!!So it's 10pm and half these people are still sitting in the common room, despite the fact that they turned the lights out. Obviously, they haven't hiked far enough, or they would be tired and they would go to sleep. I want to go to sleep....Tomorrow should be a decent day - mostly ridge walking and a huge decent. I hope it goes well. I'm sure it will exhaust me no matter what.
Date: 2008-07-15
From: Lake of the Clouds hut

To: Osgood tentsite
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: fog

Oh man... only 10 miles. A tough ten miles though. Because of work-for-stay, we didn't get going til 9 or so, which was fine, because the top of mt. washington was fogged in. We got up there around 10am, and waited in the snack bar till 11 to see if it would clear out. It did not. bummer....so at 11 we took off down the trail. It was cool to climb out of the clouds to discover that the only cloud in the sky was sitting on top of the mountain....The hike down took us past the little cog railway that runs up and down the mountain, so that was fun to watch as we came down too. The views were incredible as we hiked the ridge, and i can see why everyone says that the whites are the most beautiful section of the trail. They forget to mention that the section we just did has rocks just like PA, and it's slow going, because you are constantly looking down to make sure you don't kill yourself. But the views are beautiful.... i think if i ever come back, i will hike from hut to hut with a daypack, and do some research into the easy paths i keep hearing about, but are not the a.t.Of course, as we hiked down, we looked back, and the summit of mt. washington had cleared up. d'oh!The climb down from the ridge was intense. Lots of rock scrambles to the treeline, and then decent trail, but just super-steep. My feet felt like hamburger by the time we reached the treeline from the scrambles, and the pounding down the mountain made them hurt... my poor feet were hurting by the time we got to camp.The 10 miles took us till 6pm... which is why we stopped at osgood. We had been hoping to get as far as pinkham notch.Things i want to remember - lake of the clouds wads a really cool hut. madison hut was cool too, but not as good as lake of the clouds. No matter what people say about the views, remember that new hampshire is really hard, and anyone hiking it should expect a good butt-kicking.Off to imp campsite tomorrow. 17 miles across wildcat mtn and carter notch. It's going to hurt.
Date: 2008-07-17
From: Imp campsite

To: Gorham
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I'm writing this journal on the 18th, a day late, because i'm trying to catch up....The hike down to gorham was uneventful, we got an early start, and the terrain was good. some steep sections, but not too bad. We got down to the road by a little after 1, and had trouble getting a hitch. We sat there for about a half hour with cars zooming by. Luckily, a group of dayhikers came out of the woods, and gave us a ride. yay!gobbles and snake eyes took a side trail to town, and were there ahead of us, so they got rooms at a local hotel. So we're set. I did my chores at the post office and then went to burger king and then to the hotel to shower and nap. knuckles and i went to do laundry and we ate at the mr. pizza while the laundry was going. The rest of the crew ordered pizzas for delivery from mr. pizza because they were too lazy to walk down there.The food was pretty good... so then we walked back to the hotel and sorted laundry, did chores such as cleaning my water bottles and eating utensils, and then i did school stuff on the phone with my wife.It was a pretty good day. I'm glad to be thru the worst of the whites. The terrain has mellowed out, and it's good to hike on trail that resembles what i am used to.It feels good to shower and be clean, and to sleep in a bed. We were supposed to take a zero, but the gang wants to push on, so we are back out in the woods.Time to write the journal for today...
Date: 2008-07-18
From: Gorham

To: Gentian Pond shelter
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: heavy intensity rain

A short day. I was supposed to go to the next shelter, but today is rainy/yucky, so i called it a day early on. So, when looking at the weather channel this morning, today looked decent, and tomorrow looked bad. It turned out that today sucked, so i have no idea what will happen tomorrow. It pretty much downpoured on us for 3 hours, with lots of thunder to go with it. I was a very unhappy hiker earlier today.A cold, wet hiker with squishy boots.I got to the shelter around 2, 2:15 or so, and ate lunch with bleach and gobbles. They continued on to the next shelter... and knuckles and i stayed here. We saw skofield and his girlfriend here, and they pushed on too. sleepwalker just got here... so that is fun. And there are 3 sobo hikers here too. Just waiting for trust me, snake-eyes and thud to come wandering in also. They didn't get their food boxes in the mail yesterday, so they were late getting out of town. I hope their boxes showed up for them.I had lots of negative thoughts as i hiked, since i was all wet and cold. I am ready to be done, and so is everyone else. So it's easy for these thoughts to sneak into my head... or fester in my head. Either one... This is a great adventure, but i'm struggling coming out of the whites. They beat me up pretty bad. Physically i'm slow and worn out (and still sore from the tumble) and psychologically, i'm excited to almost be done, but i want to go home.Now i am really glad i stayed at the shelter... it's POURING out there right now, with thunder and lighting (it's very very frightening). aiya!Tomorrow we will get an early start, and try to be at the next shelter by 8am, to meet up with gobbles and bleach, so we can all go through mahoosic notch together. It's 5:20 now, and the other guys haven't come thru yet, so maybe they will end up here after all...Time to make dinner...mmmmmm... mac and cheese....
Date: 2008-07-21
From: Speck Pond shelter

To: Maine 26, Grafton Notch
Miles today: 4.6
Weather: broken clouds

Another light day... sigh. We only came down to the notch, rather than try to get all the way to east b. road. So we are staying at pine ellis hiking lodge. This place is pretty cool. We are going to slackpack for the next 2 days to try to rest up and get our energy back. We are hoping that if we take it easy for the next few days, we'll be good to go. By then, we should be through the worst of the terrain in maine, and can start getting our mileage back up.Good news for today - the trail down from speck mountain was awesome. It was trail!! I was so excited. I kept telling myself that it couldn't last.. but it did!! All the way down the mountain. It was so nice... so nice. If only the trail would stay that way.Other good news... snake eyes, trust me, thud and champ caught up to us again. rat sandwich, who we met back at the monastery in new york came in with them today too. snake eyes isn't feeling good, so he's off to the doctor tomorrow, but thud and trust me will do the slackpack with us.My ribs are still hurting. But only if i laugh, or hiccup or sneeze or cough. I hope they heal up soon. Today i stuffed my face with food, so i am hoping the extra calories help the healing process too.Okay, time to jump on the google machine to do some stuff for school.Then time to sleep.ahhh... sleep.
Date: 2008-07-22
From: Pine Ellis Lodge, Andover

To: Pine Ellis Lodge, Andover
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: light rain

:DTrail.... sweet, beautiful trailWe got to hike on trail for 95% of the day.... so nice... so very nice...I forgot how nice it was to open my stride, and cruise through the woods.gobbles says "i forgot how nice it was to hike" and trust me said "i forgot how much i enjoyed hiking"...We all noticed the difference. It was a good day....I woke up at 5:30 this morning, because i had to pee, but i didn't want to get up. So i laid there until sleepwalker started moving around at 5:45. I ate my breakfast and got all my stuff ready for the hike while everyone wandered off to the diner to get breakfast before the hike. 6 of us did the slackpack - thud, sleepwalker, knuckles, trust me, gobbles, and me. thud and sleepwalker are still trying to be purists, so they brought their full packs. The rest of us need to corrupt them and lure them to the dark side of slacking....snake eyes stayed behind to go to the doctor, and bleach had to go back to boston.   We're hoping he jumps back on the trail with us when he gets done with his stuff in boston.We were on the trail by 8:40, and we were able to talk while hiking, and make good time, and enjoy ourselves for most of the hike. Just like it used to was, before the whites. fun...We did have some super steep parts on the final ascent to the top, and some bald rock face (wet, of course, so slippery) on the way down. But it seemed so minor to the overall day.   Maybe my euphoria about having trail to walk on has affected my memory though, so i hope i'm remembering it right. The top of baldpate mountain was above treeline, and it reminded me a lot of yosemite. It was pretty. We had sun for most of the hike, but up top, we were in the clouds as they were blowing around.The trail down was steep and slippery at first, and gobbles slipped at one point. That was scary, because he almost took trust me and thud down with him. Thank goodness he was hanging onto a tree. From trust me's perspective, it looked like gobbles was trying to drop-kick him off the mountain. It made for some entertaining conversation for the rest of the hike. The trail after a while became safe again, and we were able to cruise again. Good times, good times...sleepwalker and knuckles fell behind for most of the hike, but they flew up from behind us at the very end... so we all finished together. the shuttle came and got us at 3, and we were back here early enough for me to get to the library and get some groceries to make dinner tonight. I made cheesy-eggs with green peppers and onions. And i made them into sandwiches using hamburger buns. I am full.Now we are all just hanging out, and resting up.A good day.Rumor has it that it is supposed to rain 3" or something in the next day or so. yuck. I hope not.   The rain puts me in a crabby mood. But it looks like whatever weather pattern is currently going on isn't going to change. So i guess i will be in a crabby mood a lot in the future. I am hoping that we would get a lot of sunny days for our finish. Well, no sense worrying about it now....Time to eat ice cream and then go to bed.
Date: 2008-07-24
From: South Arm Road

To: Sabbath Day Pond lean-to
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: light rain

Wow... what a miserable day.It feels good to get the miles in, but this was a tortuous way to get them.Let me describe the trail today - wet.If we were hiking uphill, the trail was a stream rushing towards us.If we were hiking downhill, it was a stream rushing past us. If it was a flat area, it was either a 8" deep puddle, or mud, or some mixture of the two. Oh yeah, and we of course had the obligatory maine rock scrambles at the top of the mountains as well. And it rained on us the entire afternoon, which just makes things more wet. aiya!!! Maine is not a friendly state for us.So i don't have much to write about except the trail conditions, since i spent most of the day staring down, trying to figure out where to walk. I got some glimpses of views as clouds would break, and i think that if it wasn't pouring down rain/foggy/yucky weather, this area would be very pretty.We had a river ford today, and i tried to walk it, but the current was too strong, so as i turned back, i lost my footing and went down. Somehow i kept my backpack dry, but in the process of trying not to get washed away, i lost my wedding ring. That just pissed me off even more at maine. I feel naked without my ring. grrrrrr!So i've been to maine 4 times, and only once i had good weather. That was for my friend's wedding. All the other times, the weather has been bad. Is the weather always bad here? Why do people come here to vacation? ha ha... just kidding, but the weather really is bad. It has rained every day since i've been in this state. I hope the weather pattern changes soon. I need to dry out my socks.Time for sleep. I am currently warm and dry in the shelter, so that is good. Not looking forward to tomorrow, when i have to leave.sigh....