morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2006-07-26
From: Melville Nauheim Shelter

To: Story Spring Shleter
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: few clouds

I woke up early this morning and left by myself- it's amazing the things thatrun through my mind while hiking alone. Time flew by and I had done the first8.5 miles before I even noticed I was moving. So I took a long break at GoddardShelter- a beautiful place with spruce pine all around and an amazing privy. Istayed there over 2 hours, eating lunch with Jay and Tortoise.Jay and I hiked to the top of the mountain together where there is a firetower.Man was it beautiful up there! I simply love evergreen forests and we weresurrounded by them. These are the mountains I've been longing to see. I made it to our home for the night quick a a flash, and am now just hangingout. Time for supper!"Even when you've paid enough been put upon or been held up with every single memory of good or bad faces of love dn't loose any sleep tonight I'm sure everything will end up alright you may win por lose but to be youself is all that you can do"
Date: 2006-07-27
From: Story Spring Shleter

To: Bromely Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 23.1
Weather: overcast clouds

I think something must happen to thruhikers after 5 months in the woods. Todayis Tortoise's five month anniversary (I know anniversary means year, blah blah.) I say people crack after this long because when Tortoise arrived at the shleterwe planned on staying at, an 18 mile day, she wanted to move on and was happyabout it! This has never happened to us before- usually on days like this she'sdragging by the time we're done. We did the extra miles, including a stop in town for steak, and are very happyand sleepy.I wonder, will I crack like this on my 5 month?
Date: 2006-07-28
From: Bromely Mountain Shelter

To: Little Rock Pond Shelter
Miles today: 18.2
Weather: light rain

I think my entries of late have been rather mundane so I'm gonna try and stirthings up by writing down a thought of the day or describing one of my hikingbuddys. Not today though, I'm worn out after hiking in the rain and walkingthrough streams and a pond (literally, it was a beaver pond) all day. More tocome.PS- It's about an hour later and I thought I would write a thank you to my AuntBobby- the bloodsucking bugs here are HORRIBLE and I would not be able to sleepwithout your homemade bug repellant. Thank you!
Date: 2006-07-29
From: Little Rock Pond Shelter

To: Rutland, VT
Miles today: 5.9

I think that we haven't been eating the proper nutrition lately. What with doingbig miles, not staying in towns much and trying to save weight, we haven't paidmuch attention to food other than to get enough calories. Mostly I'm worriedabout protein, I know we haven't been getting enough of that. (Until thismorning for me- I had a huge thing of whey protein) Tortoise went to eat lunch at the lake this morning. I had to do laundry so Iwas gonna meet her at the stream .9 miles north. I had a good 30 minutes to sitand relax and watch the stream go by in the early morning sun. I thought aboutthe trip- everything I've learned, what's to come, and what I could do to avoidfeeling as run down as I have been. Tortoise showed up, with a look on her faceof such tiredness I thought she had done a 20 mile day. We talked about why wefelt run down and decided we needed a few things- more protein in our diets-better food in towns- and to catch up with a few friends so we have morethruhikers to talk with.I suggested we just do the 13 mile day and that we stop at Wallingford and getsome pizza. With the thought of food we were now a very determined pair ofhikers. Even so, it took us awhile to get to the road as tired as we were. Ittook awhile to get a hitch but when we did he took us straight to Sal'sPizzaria. They wern't open but let us hang out the bar and watch TV. (Hook wason, and was awesome!)We ordered lots of food and decided to watch the whole movie. Bad idea. As itwas ending we were tired and sleepy and didn't feel like hiking anymore. Wethought we would have to hike anyways since the town doesn't have any motels,but the bartender offered to give us a ride when he got off shift to the nexttown. What could we do? Of course we accepted. Stayed at the Red Roof Inn, wherewe played Zelda and watched TV till midnight. Even though we didn't do the mileage we had decided on we had fun. It's allabout the smiles right?
Date: 2006-08-01
From: Stony Brook Shelter

To: View Entry
Miles today: 9.9

I almost died today- haha- heres how.Today we woke up to a big thunderstorm. Not in the mood to go out and get wetafter we had spent the last day drying out, we decided to sleep in. Rainmakersaid it would pass late morning, and he was right on target. We were able to leave around 10:30 The sun had come out and turned the daysuper humid and hot. I'm not sure if we made good time in the morning, becausewe came to a bridge that had been removed and we had to ford around. A signread: "So and so bridge was removed because it was unsafe. It will be replacedduring the hiking season. We apologize for any inconvenience." The was nomention of a secondary route or any sort of path to follow. So Tortoise and Ihad to find our way around ourselves. I chose to climb down the side of the bankand rock hop across. About half way down the bank rocks gave way and I wasstanding on nothing. I twisted my torso around and grabbed a large boulder so Iwould'nt fall. Apparently the boulder didn't like that idea because it cameloose as soon as I touched it. If I hadn't of jumped away the boulder would hasfell on me and pinned me under water. I did jump away in time and only had tofall six or seven feet down to the stream. It was quite the scary moment.The day became HOT. I know I've said that before about other days but this wasawful. The humidity made even just breathing seem like work. (We learned laterthat the heat index was 107) At that temperature I could dry my own food, just by leaving it outside.So we stopped early. Between the late start and the heat neither of us wanted togo on. Doing this means we may have to finish later than planned- but its betterto stop than to just be miserable. Goodnight!
Date: 2006-08-02
From: Story Brook Shelter

To: West Hartford, VT
Miles today: 16.4

HOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOT up to 110 HOTHOTHOT and humid. Tortoise found what she saysis the best cola ever on sale at a farm. The day would have been really prettyhad it not been so hot. Low and behold though- we caught up with Crake! We were planning on making it toHappy Hill Shelter, but Crake surprised us by being in West Hartford. Sumo waswith him too so we celebrated by eating dinner at Friendlys. The cab ride backto the hostel we stayed at cost more than our dinners- we couldn't help itthough, the cabbie pulled a bait and switch. No tip for you!
Date: 2006-08-05
From: Hanover

To: Moose Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: few clouds

All those beers I yogied did the trick- slept like the dead. Still half drunk Iwalked up to the first shelter to see what Tortoise was doing. Instead oftalking to her when I got there, I just passed out. Again, slept like the dead. Man, hiking with a hangover sucks! I think I was sweating pure grain alcohol.Every step was a battle- I guess going a month without drinking and hiking everyday lowers your tolerance. O well, I'm not one to turn down free beer.Didn't make it as far as Tortoise, guess I'll play catch up. Supernova, asouthbounder, Crake, and the parents of an 06' hiker named Pinky are heretonight. Crake and I are going to bed early because of all the ruckus lastnight. A strange thought has been going through my head all day- we're gonna finishin one month. Soon my trail friends and I will part ways. Some of us will neversee each other again. You become such good friends with people so fast. I guesssharing the same experiences (good and bad) will do that.
Date: 2006-08-06
From: Moose Mountain Shelter

To: Hexacuba Shelter
Miles today: 17.7
Weather: clear sky

Last night was just beautiful. An almost full moon was out illuminating thebeautiful New Hampshire mountains. I woke up early to watch the sunrise...fromthe privy..it was great! I ate quickly and got moving, I knew this would be agood day.I thought I might catch Tortoise if I moved fast enough, but when I got to thenext shelter I discovered that she had went to the shelter after the day before.Inconcievable! (Pronounced like in "The Princess Bride.) Tortoise doing a 21 oddmile day without provacation. I fear she may have been kidnapped and replacedwith an imposter.The climb up Smart Mountain was the hardest we've had in 1000 miles, but I didrun into Herme's and another thru (sorry, forgot your name!) They had bothsummited Katahdin 2 days ago and were out for a day hike. Lunch was awesome, I ate in the firetower at the top of the mountain. so mycompany for lunch was a view of the much talked about White Mountains! Includingthe imposing Mt. Washington. I was both excited and scared by the site of thosebeautiful steep slopes. As I was leaving I ran into Tortoise- an 04' Thru hiker that I had met on my 04hike. She had just seen The Tortoise a few hours earlier and said I might catchup. I think I could have caught up today- the hike down went fast and I onlystopped once for another beautiful view from Eastman Ledges, but I love my quietafternoons. So I stopped at Hexacuba Shelter- named for the fact that its shapedlike a hexagon and sits on Mt. Cube. I wanted to finish my book so I can get ridof it- as well as a few other things to save weight for the Whites. (The easyterrain since The Shennies has left me with more crap than I need.) Heading intoGlencliff tommorow- shower and a night in the hostel will be nice.
Date: 2006-08-12
From: Stealth Camp

To: Green Leaf Hut
Miles today: 13.6

The word for today is: Beautiful! I thought I had trouble yesterday describinghow pretty the ridgeline was. Today makes it look like poopies. We didn't get upto see the sunrise because I noticed that we were covered in clouds. So we wokeup at a normal time, ate breakfast and left. (After watching a funny version ofPeter Pan by the Croo.) The weather forcast said the temperature was to be in the mid 40's with wind chill in the teens. That means some strong winds right? Wrong! It means winds that can almost knock you over. We're hiking above treeline through this pea soup thick fog freezing our butts off. I had to alternate putting one hand under an armpit to keep my hands working at all. The wind was fun for a bit- but quickly we were ready to be below treeline where it wasn't so bad.Then it happened. The clouds parted for just a second, revealing the beautifulday the valley was having. A few minutes later it did it again. We weresurrounded by such beauty that words once again do not do it justice, I tooksomehwere around 30 pictures in 45 minutes because everything was so amazing. When we made it to Garfield Ridge Campsite I met an old friend. First Light thruhiked in 04 and was one of the ones that Kristin and I put up in our apartmentafter my slackpack over the Roan Highlands. He's working for the AMC now,caretaker of that campsite. After a few climbs we made it to Galehead Hut, where we stuffed ourselves with 2$ endless soup. Although we were both tired we decided to push on to the next hut. Partly because the hike was suppose to be easy and partly because the Croo said no one else had passed by, so we would probably get work for stay. Although the hike was easier than some of the Whites, it definitely wasn't 5 miles of flat downhill that the croo described, and it definitely took longer than 2.5 hours. So we got in around 8:00, hoping there was still food left and that we could dowork for stay. (I was worried about sleeping outside since I had my summer bag.)Imagine my disappointment when I learned they wouldn't accept any moreThruhikers! There were already 4 others there. Thankfully, Tortoise pulled a very dejected me along to a stealth campsite,where we ate ham given to us by the Croo. I set up my tent and she her hammock,and we weren't even able to finish our dinners before we got so tired we had topass out. Thanks Tortoise for your yay saying!
Date: 2006-08-13
From: Stealth Site

To: Mizpah Spring Hut
Miles today: 14.1

Man did I sleep good! I was worried I'd get cold, but using my kilt as a linerworked really well and I stayed warm until the coldest part of the morning.After a breakfast of leftover sour cream pasta and ham we got going.A weekender told us it was nice easy and flat the rest of the way to CrawfordNotch, bwah! What chance was there that there was flat parts in the Whites? Westarted hiking and lo and behold he was right! We were walking through beautifulterrain and not climbing strait up and down mountains!The wind kept us really cold so we only stopped for one break at Ethan PondCampsite.I had been kinda stressed out the last few days. I had recieved an incrediblyawesome job offer working at a camp with great pay and good friends. In orderfor me to finish in time to get the job I would have to do strait 15 mile daysfrom Gorham, NH to Katahdin. Granted, I could easily do it, but it wouldprobably mean leaving all my friends behind. I was kept up at night thinkingabout it. I "decided" what I was gonna do five or six times. In the end, Idecided that I wanted this trip to last as long as possible, so I would have toturn down the job. We soon found ourslves at Crawford Notch. I had to hitch in to call my UncleTom, who is gonna visit in a few days. We ended up sitting at the side of theroad for over hour trying to get a hitch. This is a really busy road too, wewere probably passed by one hundred cars. New Hampshire is so far dead last inthe running for good hitches. When we did finally make it down there we ateourselves silly and made our phone calls, somehow taking up three hours of ourday. So we had 6.6 miles to do in the Whites starting at 4 o'clock. Thankfully Ithink our muscles have finally adapted again to the ups and downs. The 3000 footclimb didn't bother us- in fact- it was invigorating because of the beautifulviews from Webster Cliffs. Because we were getting in so late and had alreadyhad one speed demon pass us, we decided to look for a stealth site so wewouldn't have a repeat of last night. No stealth site presented itself, so weended up making it all the way to the hut. Work for stay was availible! Thespeed demon had moved on and Sanford was the only one there. (He lucked out, hiswork for stay was talking about his thruhike.) after an awesome supper oflasagna, it was time for some well earned rest.
Date: 2006-08-14
From: Mizpah Spring Hut

To: Lake of the Clouds Hut
Miles today: 4.8
Weather: broken clouds

Wait... what day is it? I think I mislabeled my last few days...oh well!We did a short day today- one of Tortoise's friends told her she had to stay atLOTC Hut because it was so cool. So we took our time, not even leaving the firsthut till 10. We would stop for a break at every nice view that wasn't coveredwith weekenders. (Although we had met some really nice ones last night, I stillfeel kinda out of place with them.) Even with breaks every 5 minutes we stillmade the easy hike to LOTC by noonish. I hadn't planned on work for stay butthey offered it to us..yay! We dropped off our stuff and then did somethinguncanny- went for a hike for fun!We knew it was gonna be cloudy tommorow on the summit so we wanted to see theview today. I have been able to see Mount Washington for about 50 miles now, andwalking closer and closer to it is simply amazing. The mountain is huge, goingup for what seems like an eternity strait up. The hike up is amazing, views, notrees, steep but fun. I've been waiting to climb this mountain for years- I had heard that getting tothe summit is a letdown for hikers. After all this hiking and beautiful views inthe Whites- you get to the top of the tallest New England Mountain...and aregreeted by hundreds of people. With a road and train both going to the top thesummit of Mt. Washington is like a mini Gatlinburg (see my entries for that tolearn my feelings on that issue.) They have a summit sign that people can take a picture at- three feet away fromtheir cars. They also sell T-shirts that say "This body climbed Mt. Washington."Which I saw being purchased by an extremly heavyset lady eating a candybar whoobviously hadn't climbed the mountain.I know I'm being a bit mean. Everyone deserves to enjoy the beautiful viewsoffered by this great mountain. I guess it was just a bit of culture shock thatshook me up. (Strange that the culture shock came from my own culture.)To end, I would just like to mention to amazing chicken supper the Croo cooked-it's the best hut meal I've had yet.
Date: 2006-08-15
From: Lake of the Clouds Hut

To: Madison Spring Hut
Miles today: 7.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Ahhhh August 15, the day we're summitting Katahdin!!....maybe not. Tortoise andI started together so we could motivate each other to hike. It appears thatneither of us are good at modivation. So here we are, in New Hampshire, today isTortoise's 170th day on the Trail. So what though? I've made it this far and amamazed with myself and all others who have done this.The day started off depressing, cold rain, strong winds, big climb. The climb upWashington is much different when you can't see anything and are carrying apack. I got there first aand ate some snacks in the snack bar. Glo-worm wasalready there and Tortoise showed up soon. None of us wanted to leave and goback out into the cold wind. So we sat around talking and watching the funny"Breakfast of Champions" video over and over again. Glo-worm eventually left-which prompted us to do the same.Forty steps out of the door you can reach the summit of Washington, we barelymade that far. The wind was freezing cold and blowing with gusts up to 60 mph.Thats hard enough that with a pack on you can barely take a step forward. So werushed back inside and decided to try again when it was warmer.We ended up leaving aroud one oclock, it had cleared up a bit and was warmer.The wind was still blowing tremendously hard, which made it really hard to stayupright on all the rocks. And when I say all the rocks, I mean it was hard to stay upright anywhere. ThePresidential Range has enough rocks to make Penn look like a kiddie trail.Although we had great views, the Trail is extremely poorly marked, and hard todo any sort of speed over. It took us 4 and a half hours to do 5 miles. We saidwe would move on to the campsite if we could, but by the time we got to MadisonSpring Hut we were done in.I didn't feel too bad though, we weren't the only ones. All the other hikers wehad started with this morning hadn't made it any farther. Thank god we all gotwork for stay at the hut.
Date: 2006-08-16
From: Madison Spring Hut

To: Gorham, NH
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: fog

I am a silly silly man. I thought the rocks yesterday were hard. The climb upand over Mt. Madison and the 2.5 miles after it were the hardest miles I've doneon the AT. It wasn't particularly steep or long, it was just rocky as all getout. Soaked in a cold fog, it took us over 3 hours to do 3 miles. It wouldn't of beenas frustrating if everytime the clouds parted we didn't see the top of Mt.Wasington one mile away. We're used to challenges, and this one wasn't going toslow us down..until I remembered I was suppose to meet my Uncle Tom thisThursday in Gorham around 2 or 3. There was no chance in hell that I could makeit there on time. We had planned on zeroing in Gorham already so we could see"Snakes on a Plane" so we decided to hitch in to town from the notch and zerotommorow instead.We're staying at "The Barn" a B&B/Hiker Hotel. Gonna meet my Uncle tommorow thenhopefully have him drop us off back at the trailhead.
Date: 2006-08-20
From: Trident Col Campsite

To: Gentian Pond Campsite
Miles today: 4.9
Weather: light rain

Can't write much, pocketmail hates wet weather and I can't see much. Waited mostthe day for Tortoise, but I must of misjudged where she was because she nevershowed up. If she doesn't come into the shelter by 10 tommorow, I am going tojust wait in Andover. Things are going good- running low on food, but shouldhave just enough to get to town. MAINE TOMMOROW BIOTCHES!
Date: 2006-08-22
To: Frye Notch Lean To
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: clear sky

Wow, today whipped me. I originally planned on going the 20 into Andover- I wasalmost out of food so had to hurry. Too bad that between Andover and me was acouple thousand feet of climbing- including the hardest mile on the entireTrail- the Mahoosuc Notch. I got going fairly early, it wasn't hard because theday was absolutly gorgous. The notch was as hard as everyone said, but it was a lot of fun too. Bouldering,scrambling under house size rocks, jumping off precipice (or is it precipices?)It took me over an hour to do the one mile. Then came the climb up Mahoosic Arm-don't even get me started on how hard that was. *wink* About halfway through the day I started getting really hungry and tired, I couldmake it to Andover- but I'd be miserable. So I made the drastic decision tohitch 20 miles off the Trail to the town of Bethal.I call the decision drastic because it was a small road and the hitch would behard...or so I thought. A single hitch took me all the way to where I needed togo. Then two quick ones brought me back to the Trail before 3:30. Since Crakeand Glo worm were running out of food as well, I bought some extra liptons andleft them at the Trail head for the others to find. The hike up and over Baldpate was amazing- rock scrambling over an entiremountain.
Date: 2006-08-23
From: Frye Notch Lean To

To: Andover
Miles today: 4.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Hey thruhikers! Do you ever think about how far you would have gotten withoutyour family? My family have helped me out so much it's incredible. I wouldn'thave made it 1 mile without them. I'm not talking about financial help (althoughthats a big part) I'm talking about emotional and spiritual support. Where wouldany of us be without our families? Think about it.
Date: 2006-08-24
From: Andover

To: Andover
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Taking it easy today to recover from the Mahoosucs. I didn't write about one ofmy days in Gorham and something cool happened so here it is: My Uncle Tom and Aunt Laura (Auntie in Law- Tom's Wife, who I haven't been ableto see much over the years, drove all the way up from Boston just to visit me!Tom is awesome, he knew immediatly that food would be on the top of my list. Sowe went to eat at The Fortune Cookie- where I stuffed myself silly on ribs androot beer. (Afterwrds I wish I would of shared a real beer with Tom- manlystuff- yah know?) So thanks Tom! You made my day!
Date: 2006-08-25
From: Andover

To: Andover
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I'm doing work for stay at the hostel to save money, but first thing in themorning I went slackpacking! Yay for not carrying a pack! The miles flew by andnext thing I knew I was back in town. Dinosaur, Hellbender, and Yukon Corneliusshowed up. They want to join he S15 Team and finish with all of us. Lookslike we'll have a good group when we get there. (So far we have Tortoise, Crake,Leprachaun, Dirt, Dinosaur, Hellbender, Yukon, Low Gear, Tex, myself andhopefully Ms Parkey and Parkay.) Only 21 more days of hiking, I'm happy and sadat the same time. (And hungry.)