morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-06-26
From: Bear & Honey's Hostel

To: Bemis Lean-to
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Slept great & belly full of wonderful food: blueberry pancakes, tropical fruit, bacon, biscuits & gravy, and eggs. I felt like I was being spoiled like I do at my Mammaw's house with all the wonderful variety of great food. The fun thing about it was that everyone pitched in and cooked. Tried talking Norm into staying another night, but I knew that it wouldn't be a good idea to since we were pressed for time. Thanks for all that you do Bear & Honey!Stride, One-Flop, and Hurricane decided to stay another night, but they are going to slack pack doing "half" of what we'll be doing. Slack packing meaning that they will not be carrying everything on their backs...just what they need for that day before going back to the hostel--food, water, jacket..whatever. Strides,Norm, & my self will be moving on to the shelter.As we were headed back to the trail head listening/singing to Alabama (country music), Bear said "Do ya'll know this fellow?" We looked out of the window. Loan behold, it was Just Hiking and his dog! Everyone yelled out the window with excitment. He was headed to town to resupply. Bear told him that after he drops us off that he'll come back and pick them up. We haven't seen him since Rutland, VT.My day started off good, but then "turned to worse". I banged my knee. Had a bad belly ache (not from food), and my body was really drained, hot, + sweaty. At one point, I was having what seemed to be "panic attacks". I was moving really slow. About 5 miles away from our shelter, we heard thunder. By this point, I was feeling alot better. So we hiked as fast as we could (almost running on the last 2-3 miles) to try to beat the rain and all. The mountain that we climbed had the most moose poop than any where else on the trail so far. Never seen so much in my life. Unfortunatly, no moose. We were able to beat the rain...here at the shelter with Strides and two other thru-hikers Crazy Legs + Marathon. The roof had a slight hole in it..so we had to bunch together in this small shelter. Off and on, I still felt "sick". I couldn't really eat anything.
Date: 2008-06-27
From: Bemis Lean-to

To: Route 4
Miles today: 0.0

Woke up with still little energy...just hoping that I'll be able to move at my regular pace. The trail is still muddy and over grown. There is no way around it. Both Norm and I fell on the trail. ...Now, Norm has little energy too. We're both tired, frustrated, and sore. The couple of good views with lakes helped make up for it. 3 quarters into our hike, we heard thunder. We started picking up our pace once again. Today just felt like it was repeating yesterday all over again..by the way we felt, how the weather was, and everything. Kinda ironic. Didn't really rain though. Stuck our thumbs out once more hoping for a ride into town before it poured. A guy and his watwiller (?) stopped and said that he normally goes into town, but that day he was only going a mile down. We said thanks, but no thanks. Not because of the dog, but because it was better to stand where we were to get a ride. A nice lady in her catillac picked us up and drove us all the way to the hostel that we will be staying at. There, we met 2 SOBO's with their pitbull and ran back into Charley (NOBO). He is one of the 3 Canadian brothers. He said that his two younger brothers was way too fast and he was tired of trying to keep up with them. Even though we ran into Charley, he is actually ahead of us. He hiked further up and had someone bring him back down to stay at the hostel. It was really neat seeing him again. We haven't seen him since February or March.We went to this wonderful pizza place and pigged out...and went back to the hostel and crashed. Didn't really stay up to chat with anyone...we were too pooped.
Date: 2008-06-28
From: Route 4

To: Spalding Mtn. Shelter
Miles today: 0.0

Over all the terrain was "easy". Still rocky, rooty, and muddy, but actually had more solid ground to walk on. Clumbsy me...fell twice today. I once face planted and scraped my palm...the other time, I just fell on my butt. Had a semi-similar moment like One-Flop..slipped of the plank and my foot went in the mud. Luckly, I didn't have mud going up my leg like One Flop. Ended up having another panic attack for some odd reason. Through all of that...we still made excellent time. Surprisingly, we flew like never before. By the end of the night, we had a total of 8 people squeezing in a small shelter. One of them is a SOBO name Mercury. He was carrying a pair of tennis shoes for his camp shoes and a bear barrel which that alone weighs like 3 lbs! But hey, hike your own hike..right?...and if that is what works for him...more power to him. But we've all been there and learned the hard way of what to carry and what not too carry...and it's funny looking back at those moments saying to our selves, "What the heck was I thinking?!" Hope he finds out sooner than later. Heck...I am still carrying my moisturizer...even though it doesn't weigh much and I don't need it, I'm still have it. (LOL)
Date: 2008-06-29
From: Spalding Mtn. Shelter

To: Horns Pond Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Started right off the bat hiking in the pouring rain. Came across a forward and knew that there's no point taking my shoes and socks off to cross it, but at the same time didn't want to forward the creek with my shoes on. I hate when my feet are soak. So I decided to face my fears and cross the 2x4 (?) board like Stormennorm did. One side of the board is just lying on top of the rock while the other end is chained down to the rock. He made it look so easy, but I could tell he was alittle nervous himself...just not as much as I was. Any other day, I could probably take 2 normal steps, but considering the board was slippery and my nerves was getting the best of me, I skooted my feet across. All I kept noticeing was the rushing water flowing by picturing in my head only bad things. I faught my thoughts and told my self that I can do this. After everything else that I've experienced, this is "nothing". My body felt numb and also felt as if I stopped breathing. "I DID IT!!" (I shouted) What a wonderful feeling that was... As the day progressed, the rain started to clear up. I felt alittle naucious at one point, but no breathing problems (anxiety). Got to the road and started hitch for a ride into town to resupply. About 5-10 minutes into it, a guy that was sitting in a graveled parking area offered us a ride. He is the driver for this group of people that was out about and said that he had 45 minutes before they had to show up. He took his offer and went 5 minutes into town to this little convenient store and resupplied and drove us back up. He, Johnathon, is from Montreal, Canada. Says that people help him out when he goes bike riding and all..and just sharing the wealth. Thanks Johnathon!Here at the shelter with Strides..drying our socks by placing it on the roof. Hurricane and One Flop isn't hiking together any more at this point. One Flop decided to stay in Rangely or the shelter after that.
Date: 2008-06-30
From: Horns Pond Shelter

To: Little Bigalow Shelter
Miles today: 0.0

Sunny warm day.Another morning of not wanting to get up. I was sore and tired. I had a stomach ache.Got on top of the Bigalow's and had didn't really have much of a view for we were socked in. But was able to have some nice views during lunch further down from the Bigalow's. Parts of the trail was really overgrown and wacking me in the face with it's limbs. Before we reached the shelter, Stormennorm fell hard on his left side on a slippery huge rock. He's ok...just alittle sore. We're starting to see more and more SOBO's coming through. Almost all the ones that we met, were unsure about them selves. They kept saying "We're going to try". I just know that when we started along with the people we were around...NONE of us said that we were going to try to hike the whole thing. We were just out there talking about everything else. I just found that interesting, but anyways... GOOD LUCK and have fun to ALL the SOBO's. May you all have a wonderful safe journey.Considering Stormennorm is usually the one who decides what to do and where to go (whether I like it or not), I FINALLY got to decide whether to stay at this shelter for the night or go on to the next one. It's not that I won't/can't make a decision..it's just I rather him do it because he enjoys it and I don't really care. LOL, but when I do "care", it doesn't go the way I would like it to have gone. However, I am TRUELY happy over all with everything. Strides is planning on staying with Stride and Hurricane. Our original plan was to go to the next shelter and then meet everyone else the following day. I decided that we should just stay here with our group of friends and enjoy the "tub" area. Tub meaning a deep area on the creek where you can clean up in. By the end of the night, we were both happy with my decision. While we were at the shelter, Norm blamed me for breaking his glasses. I told him that if I stepped on it, I would have noticed. Whatever happened, luckly Norm was able to fix it enough to see. Hopefully, it will hold up for the remaining of the journey.WB 66 VS MTNS 65
Date: 2008-07-01
From: Little Bigalow Shelter

To: Pierce Pond Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Around 5am, Mosquittos, minges, and black flies kept waking us up. So we decided to just go ahead and get ready to hike. The terrain was easier. Every now and then, we'll rock hop and dodge the mud.Swam and had lunch at one of the ponds. Seen some cedar trees. Got alittle aggraveted with Norm hiking right on my butt, that I took off running. I think it is just one of those mood swings that I was going through at the time. Through my stupidity, I fell down. Not just a typical fall, but a "home slide"--face planted. I didn't learn the first time, that I took off running again. Slowly came to a normal hiking pace telling my self that I need to cool it. At least by running alittle got some steam off of me.Enjoyed Pierce Pond Shelter alot! We arrived early because of the "easy" terrain...swam in this huge pond that looks like a lake...and just hung out/relax while taking in this gorgous view.Tried cowboy camping (sleeping under no roof), but the bugs were kinda bad. So I slept in the tent.
Date: 2008-07-02
From: Pierce Pond Shelter

To: Bald Mtn. Brook Shelter
Miles today: 0.0

Went to this special place, Harrison's, that not just anyone can go there..and ate some pancakes, eggs, and sausage...cute little place. Thanks, Tim!After a nice cooked hot breakfast, Stride, Strides, Hurricane, Stormennorm, and myself hiked down to the Kennebec River. Depending on the current and everything, you may have to wait days before crossing on a canoe. Luckly, it was good to cross today. A guide will have you sign a form stating that you they are not held responsible for your own safety. We put on our life jackets and went across. I got to enjoy the ride. The guide and Norman paddled all three of us (which can only be no more than 3 at a time)across the Kennebec River. At this point, our whole group got split up. One had to go into town to resupply, Norm & I had to pick up our package at the P.O., and everyone else just went on the all of ours destination.Well, that didn't happen for us anyways. It started to thunder as we were forwarding another river that was up to our knees. The current was pretty strong, but not too bad. The hardest part was finding the footing without falling into the water. Once we made it across, we just booked as fast as we could. Then it started to down pour. Norm was getting tired. He ended up falling twice. We made it to the shelter before the one that we were orinially going to meet everyone, but decided to stay. It was getting dark. And after all the climbing and dodging mudd, we thought it was best to wait til day light. Now our plan is to get up at 4am to be able to get to meet back up with our friends. By the end of the night, I had like 50 bug bites on each arm and leg.Full house at this shelter that we are staying at for the night.
Date: 2008-07-04
From: Shaw's in Monson

To: Long Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Got to eat the famous either 1,2,3,or 4 breakfast. It's all you can eat breakfast for the same price. You can order seconds if you wish. Norm and I started out with 3 each of everything which includes: 3 blueberry pancakes, 3 eggs, 3 sausages, 3 bacon, and a serving of homefries. All together, I ate 4 of everything and Norm had 5. Our friend Strides, however, ate 10 OF EVERYTHING!! This is the way I would describe him for those who don't know what he looks like...he's tall and thin like a basketball player...and hiked without any problems that day. Talked with some nice people there and found out from this one guy rocked hoped the area that I about got swept down at. I was shocked! He said that he barely got the bottom of his boots wet when he crossed and here the water was up to my waist. I would have like to have seen it like that when he was there in the past. After the crossing yesterday and all day today I was really nervous about the other forwards. People tried to help me from not worrying.Before we headed back on the trail, they took us to the market to resupply. I had to also prepare my self for the 100 mile wilderness that we'll be starting today. I bought myself a bug jacket because I was determine not to get eaten' alive any more. And considering it is 4th of July, I bought sparklers...had to celebrate it some how.Ended up waiting in the parking lot waiting for a south bounder to finish his shopping. Once he was done, the car wouldn't start and the parade already begun...so we were stuck in the crowd. By the time we got back on the trail, it was just about lunch time. We didn't really care that much about getting back on the trail early. We believed that things happen for a reason..good or bad. Strides started hiking before Stride, Norm, Hurricane, and myself got out there. Trail so far wasn't too bad with mud. Crossed the 1st forward and it was upto our thighs, but it wasn't bad. The 2nd forward was also upto our thighs, but the current was alittle bit stronger, yet still wasn't bad.As we were going down this big bolder (no steps), my left leg got caught behind me and I landed on it while my right leg kept sliding down the bolder. Luckly, I got myself enough to were I didn't hurt myself too bad. Besides that incident and my left toe hurting, I am holding up just fine.Here at shelter with a girls camping trip. So far the 100 miles isn't horrible...lets hope it stays that way. We all including the group celebrated the 4th of July with the sparkelers. Of course, we were careful and carried out our trash like we always do. The group was kind and shared the extra food that they had with us. THANKS Ya'll!WB 68 vs MTNS 67   (how I am winning...I don't know)
Date: 2008-07-05
From: Long Pond Lean-to

To: Carl A. Newhall Lean-to
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Norman & I headed out sooner than the rest of our group. Within 200 yds from the shelter, we seen a moose. Like the last one we've seen, it too stormed away. 2nd day in the 100 mile wilderness with dry socks & shoes! The terrain + the bugs wasn't that bad either.    My toes felt alittle numb after some of the forwards.Took our time out on the trail, but the last 5-7 miles, we picked up our pace. Thank goodness we did! Otherwise, we wouldn't had a spot to set up our tents. There was 2 other large groups of people that was hiking that day. The shelter was full and every where else near by (for tenting) the shleter was full too. At least everyone out hiking that day were able to stay. What kinda bothered us was the fact that one of the groups tents was up against our tent. They were so close that their line/stake was underneath our tarp. There might not have been too much room for any more people camping out, but there was plenty of room for them to tent alittle further away from our tent. Stride, Strides, and Hurricane teased us all night about that. Once again, my knees woke me up in the middle of the night. They were very sore. Words couldn't describe how it felt. Even though some things were bothering me...I didn't let it get to me for I just want to enjoy whats left of me being out here with my friends.
Date: 2008-07-06
From: Carl A. Newhall Lean-to

To: Cooper Brooks Falls Lean-to
Miles today: 0.0

Sunny & HotStarted off with a big climb. Some places had mud pits, but over all the trail is still lookin' good and dry. I couldn't be any happier when saying..."3rd day with dry feet!! WOOO-HOOO!" Sweating like a big and still gettin' eatin' up. Got to see Katahdin, again! Each day it keeps getting bigger and bigger. Sometimes, I can't believe my eyes. Boy am I getting anxious! (in some ways)Went to Sandy Beach. I didn't swim for a group of hikers were here swimming too and I knew that we should really get goin' to get a camping spot. Stride and Hurricane enjoyed themselves though. As soon as Norm caught up with me, we left to go get us a spot for our tent before the big group gets out of the water to get it. 2 miles later, the shelter is full and we were able to get our camping spot. There was plenty of room for the other group to camp with us too.You know...what I viewed the 100 mile wilderness to be..is actually not what it is at all. (good thing) I pictured it to be more wilderness, not as much people, and such. There are tons of people and the trail is more maintained and not as difficult. It's hard to explain it...it's just all good though.Once Hurricane, Stride, Strides, Norm, & myself got our tent set up we enjoyed our selves in the swimming area that was in front of the shleter. It well over 6 feet deep of water. What made it nice was that there was a water falls leading to it. We all washed up there and just goofed off in the water as if we were little youngsters. Trying to enjoy our selves before "the clock strikes midnight". Kept talking how it's getting closer and remembering all the good/bad times that we went through...what we'll be doing once our journey "is over". Kind of felt like we were in high school saying bye to all of our friends before we graduate. It's a horrible/wonderful feeling all together.For months now, we've been dreaming of the 1 lb burger and how we're just going to demolish it. In order to get there in time for the mouth watering burger, we would have to leave no later than 5am. WB 69 vs   mtns 67
Date: 2008-07-07
From: Cooper Brooks Falls Lean-to

To: Wadleigh Stream Lean-to
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Got up at 5...as we were getting closer, we realized that we have plenty of time...so we stopped and swam for a bit. The trail is still rooty just like it has been, but still pretty easy. Still pooped as all get out. When we were able to see Katahdin again...it's been the prettiest view yet.Done 14 miles before lunch...Got to the path where the 1 lb burger is...we hid our packs in the woods for it is a mile to get there (and a mile to get back). Normally when you get there, you would blow the horn and wait at the dock for the boat to come across and pick us up, but there was 2 ladies & their dogs who was out for the week who already blown the horn. We enjoyed the boat ride over. It was like a mini vacation. People may think that our hiking trip is a vacation, but it really isn't for we are working to better our selves each and every day. As we were riding over, we found out that they were out of hamburger meat and his wife is at the store as we speak. She may or may not get back in time before they close. This place is also a hostel, but when they serve food is only for certain hours. We were hoping and crossing our fingers that we'll be able to have a hamburger. That was all that has been on our minds for the past week. It takes 45 minutes for her to go to the store...so they have a long drive. Not too much longer, she pulls up. We were so excited. I had a the 1 lb burger, chips, soda, and cookies and still wasn't full. I was satisified, but not full. Thanks Bill & Linda for such wonderful joy ride and the burgers!After a happy tummy, we headed back. Swam some more...and later found a good camping spot on the "beach". Built us a fire and enjoyed the rest of the evening. Not for too long for the bugs started to come out. It was a sad moment...this is our last time out "in the woods". The last two days will be at camp grounds.
Date: 2008-07-08
From: Wadleigh Stream Lean-to

To: Abol Bridge Campsite
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Started the day out in a hot difficult climb. I was in a good mood and then it turned sour. I was irritable and cranky because it was 'about that time of the month' + being hot, tired, and thirsty. I needed to be away from everyone because I know that I would only take it out on them...so I hiked the last half of the hike for today by myself. Todays terrain was worse than any other part in the 100 mile wilderness. It was alot of mud pits, rocks, and roots...that's pretty much all Maine really is. However, the last 3 or 4 miles of the day were better. My mood got alot better once we got to the campground. We could see the whole mountain of Katahdin in perfect view. It's a beauty! I still can't believe that we have made it this far, and that we are only a short distance away from being on top of Katahdin. At the campground, we hate the little store "out of business". I had 3 icecreams, 4 hotdogs, a whole bag of chips, 2 sodas, & a sub sandwich.Today is our last day to shower out on the trail. Believe it or not...We really wanted more of an outdoors experience considering our hiking journey is "about over". But instead, we had showers that you pay quarters by the minutes and actual toilets that flush.For some odd reason...after hiking over 2,100 miles, my feet are just now bothering me. My skin is rubbing raw. Tried washing my socks out in the sink and putting powder on my feet to help hold it up for the last climb. I'm planning on saving my good actual clean pair of socks for the last day of climbing Katahdin.
Date: 2008-07-09
From: Abol Bridge Campsite

To: The Birches lean-to
Miles today: 0.0

Slept good and finally got to sleep in--til 7:30! Woke up to Hurricane singing/talking. We took our time leaving..bought ourselves (each) a half gallon jug of milk and a box of cereal. Cereal has never tasted so good! Trail was enjoyable and easy. Each chance we had, we were out swimming. Sweating like a pig as usual. As we were rocking hoping at one of the creeks to get to the other side on the trail..Stride slipt off a log and went in..it was hilarious! It was all slow motion too. She fell to her knees...then to her side...then on her back..LOL. She just rolled around in the water trying to keep from her ipod from getting wet.Got to the the Birches and signed in to stay at the lean-to/climb Katahdin the next day. It started to thunder...we quickly filtered our water and carried it to the lean-to for it is a 1/4 of a mile to get water from the lean-to.Having no idea who all was behind us nor how close...2 other thru-hikers caught up with us that night. (Hampton & Nitro) We had a big celebration before our final finale for the next day. Mixed in many emotions...hard to deiscribe how I feel at this moment in time.