morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2019-08-26
From: Speck Pond shelter 

To: Frye Notch lean-to
Miles today: 10.4

Day 147Got on to trail by 7:25am. It was nice walkable trail for a while till I got about 500 vertical feet from the Old Speck Summit. It then turned into an easy rock climbing route with exposure on a granite dome. The views was great on the route up. Low clouds filled the valley like a layer of pure white liquid. A sea of green hills spread out from my feet, forming layers after layers of mountain waves - green in front of the blue, blue in front of the gray. A few hikers in front of me looked like little ants crawling hand over hand on the exposed slope. From a far, it looked scary and risky. But I loved this type of climbing. I got excited every time doing this, as I did a few times in Yosemite NP. The dry rock gripped very well under my hiking boots. Not even slightly slippery. My hands touched the cracks and notches on the rocks too. I felt at home with the rocks. Three and half hours later, I reached a nice creek and filled my water bottle with sweet clear stream water. By noon time I reached road 26 and had a lunch break there. Someone left cherry tomatoes and a bottle of grapefruit juice at the parking lot. I assumed it was for trail magic and had some of each as part of my lunch.After lunch, the climb to Baldpate mountain was over 2200ft. But the trail was in excellent condition with well constructed stairs. Even though it took time to reach the west peak, it was a smooth sailing. From the west peak, I can see the bald east peak, not far from me, with all the exposed dome shaped granite. I felt alive again and enjoyed every step on the exposed rocks. A wind farm was in the view as I walked. The blueberries were everywhere on these peaks, bearing large ripe sweet berries every where my eyes can see. Right after the east peak, there was the Little Baldpate mountain, with exposed top, only a little lower. From the east peak, this little bald looked like a cream colored chess play area sitting in a green carpeted field, a chess board played by giants. I enjoyed all three baldpate peaks. They were my favorite things on A.T..Getting down from Little Baldpate mountain was a little nerve racking as the slope was steep and not many good things to hold on. The going was slow from there. By the time I reached Frye Notch Lean-to it was almost 6:30pm. Another day that was short of planned distance. It has been really hard to plan for any day since the Whites. All depends on the trail conditions.
Date: 2019-08-27
From: Frye Notch lean-to

To: Black Brook campsite 
Miles today: 14.6

Day 148After I emailed my friends that I have hiked into the last state Maine, a lot of support messages came in. I was so blessed and moved by their encouragement and support. Hey, all of you, thanks so much! I really cannot do this without you!Finally Maine showed its gentler side, or took a mercy on me. Today¢s trail was so lovely: mellow rolling hills, no rock scrambling. Some sections even have lots of soft spongy dirt, smooth as dirt can be. Plus the low humidity cool air for most of the day. I could not ask for better condition. The easy strolling in the morning made me sing along with a Taiwanese campus song that was popular in the 80s after I saw a few fall colored leaves in the otherwise green forest. It translated as this: ¢I walk on the side of fields. The fields are filled with fall color. ... How big is the blue sky, floating a few white clouds. Blue mountains have no boredom, flowing clear brooks in them...¢. These mellow trails gave me a feeling of wellbeing, a feeling of making good progress towards my (goal) destination. I was not as helplessly weak as a couple of days ago when the hard trail beat me as bad as it could. I could set up my goal for the day and got it accomplished. I made 14.6 miles today, back to my normal range. Two thing on trail had my attention today. In a section about half mile long, it was full of moose droppings. I named it moose privy section. The droppings were dry and old. Moose was nowhere to be found. Where could they hide? Another thing was the lovely neon green moss under trees. Uniformly carpeted the forest floor, not leaving any tiny area uncovered, dry to the touch, spongy when pressed. It gave me the desire to walk on them bear feet.I have to admit that the last hill Moody Mountain was no joke. Somehow I miss read it and thought the climb would only be 500ft. It was actually about 1500ft, and very steep. It was also in the late afternoon, when my body was already tired. So  I dragged and dragged, kept wondering why this 500ft was so hard and so long. One section of the trail was a mess. Trees were in every direction, alive and dead. Rocks were in every form but flat, dirt was dusty and loose. It looked like bombs were dropped here not long ago. My hiking buddy commented the metal bars were nice to have. But I looked at her blankly: ¢Bars, what bars? I did not see any.¢ By 6pm, I reached Black Brook campsite ready to catch the morning shuttle from a near by road  to a hostel tomorrow for resupplies of the next five days of food and Advil! The campsite looked very cozy with warm late afternoon sun next to the quiet brook in a young hemlock grove with straight trunks.
Date: 2019-08-28
To: Human Nature Hostel 
Miles today: 0.1

Day 149I got to Human Nature Hostel for a zero day, relaxing and getting resupplies. It didn¢t have to be a full day off. But the weather was expected to be bad for the night and taking a day off after hard sections was so appealing. I am glad for this decision now. As I am writing the journal, the outside just pouring with cold water from sky.The hostel was very nice. Unique design of a dome shaped three level house with so much detailed craftsmanship inside, from the restored cool stove, customized counter tops and tables, posts and stairs with sailers rope railings, to hand made pouches and necklaces. Very artistic and in great taste. Even the pancakes had ¢AT¢ symbol to decorate. The owner has plans to make here a full service resort. I wish him success.A true zero day, not planned, but worked out this way due to shuttle schedule.
Date: 2019-08-29
From: Human Nature Hostel 

To: Bemis Stream
Miles today: 12.5

Day 150I got a late start since the hostel shuttle only reached the trail head a little before 9:00am. One SoBo hiker said Old Blue Mountain was the toughest for him in Southern Maine. I found it was quite manageable. The climb was 2200ft. But I was well fed in the hostel with gigantic pancake, blueberry source, maple syrup, butter, biscuit, meat gravy and sausage in the morning. So the hike to the top of Old Blue was pretty easy. Once I got to the top, I was above the clouds and had a great open space with flat rocks to sit on. I took a snack break there.By lunch time I came to a view point before Bemis Mountain. There is even a bench to sit on for the lunch break. That was a rare find.The plan for today was to hike to road 17 and camp near the overlook point to watch sunset. However from Bemis Mountain the trail gets a little more challenging. There were lots of muddy pockets which needed extra attention. Then the down hill got worse with long slippery slopes had nowhere to hold on. These trail conditions slowed down my pace considerably. At the end by 7pm, I was tired, didn¢t want to climb the 700ft on to road 17, but ready to camp by a nice creek, one mile short of my planned destination.
Date: 2019-08-30
From: Bemis Stream

To: Hiker Hut
Miles today: 13.9

Day 151The first thing in today morning wa to climb up 700 ft to reach the Height of Land scenic overlook. Last night I cannot reach the point to watch sunset. This morning the overlook was gorgeous. It lined with lots of flowers. The lake of Mooselookmeguntic sprawls under the overlook to the right, the hills I hiked yesterday stands on the left. The sky was filled with cotton ball clouds. The morning sun moved the shadows of hills gradually to reveal the green of the trees and bright yellow and pink of the flowers. Cool winds brought the freshness of the forest to fill up the air. A sight of paradise might be similar to what I saw this morningFor the whole day I had fairly mellow trails today. It was a great break for my tired body. It was not the type of smooth trail where one can walk fast and worry free. There were still many bog/muddy pockets to watch out, still many gnarled roots that could cause one to fall unexpectedly. But by Maine standard this was as good of a trail as it could got. Especially the last mile before reaching road 4. For a while it was very smooth and very pleasant to walk on. I even purposely slowed my pace just for enjoying it longer. By the end of my hike, I had done almost 14 miles in 10 hours including all the resting times. Knowing there will be another 5 days of tough mountains ahead of me, I was very happy with today¢s progress.I met a group of trail builders. They were setting rocks for a water runway on trail. They told me it would take them 2-3 days to build a  ten feet length of stairs for trail. I was shocked to hear it would take that long for just 10ft. That¢s tons of work to make the trail safer and ¢easier¢ since I noticed how many spots on the trail would be better for hikers with heavy packs if there were stairs. For the night I checked into Hiker Hut with tenting. They provided warm outdoor shower by the creek ( or sandy river), hot dinner and tea, solar powered charger for my phone. The property is off grid, and well kept with beautiful flowers, campfire ring and picnic table. I loved their outdoor shower. The water was from the creek. You use a bucket to fetch water and put into a container. A tankless water heater heats the water when it is turned on. Then you¢d get warm water for shower. The dense trees along the road blocked view from the passing cars on the road when you take the shower.
Date: 2019-08-31
From: Hiker Hut

To: Old rail bed
Miles today: 13.5

Day 152I left Hiker Hut at 7am. The owner Steve filled me with hot tea, eggs & cheese sandwich, and a sweet donut. I had full of energy to climb the Saddleback Mountain - a very challenging one according to many hikers I had talked with. It turned out not as difficult as people said. Even though the route was steep and climb was high, nothing was hand over hand. I ended up to the Summit by 11:15am, still felt energetic. The weather on the exposed ridge was another beast. The wind blew so strong and so cold. I kept moving to keep me from freezing. There was a rock formed circle for wind blocking. I went there for the lunch break, put my fleece jacket and down jacket on, as well as gloves. There had been lots of blueberries on the ridge above tree line. I gather some berries and made blueberry trail mix wraps with tortilla wrappers. They were so delicious. I finished 3 for my lunch.The next peak was the Horn. It¢s lower than Saddleback mountain but I expected getting down from it could be hard as it¢s profile indicated. Unfortunately it was true. Getting down from the Horn took a pretty long time than I liked due to larger rocks. Also between Saddleback and the Horn, there were many mud pits. While trying to avoid getting my shoes wet at one of them, I lost my balance and fell backwards into the watery mud! As the result my clothes were dripping wet as well as my boots and socks. In the howling wind, I had to change into dry socks, t-shirt and pants - not a pleasant thing to do. Good thing that I had all my stuff in waterproof bags, so I had enough dry clothes to keep me warm and comfortable before getting to town in two days.After tackled the Horn, there was still a Saddleback Junior mountain to go over before the day. Someone told us it was all stairs going up to this peak. It was not. The last mile had lots of gnarled rocks. Going down from it was also slow going since I need to figure out where to put my feet down. By 5:20pm I reached a shelter. Still had energy I pushed for another 2 hours to the river down almost 2000ft. I was glad to complete this section today and saved the time tomorrow.
Date: 2019-09-01
From: Old rail bed

To: 1.5 miles north of North Crocker Mountain 
Miles today: 15.1

Day 153Click can only click her iPhone today. The camera has been dead since yesterday late afternoon when it was accidentally submerged partially in water/mud. I thought it would be ok since it was water proof. I was wrong. Because the camera was more than 6 years old, som e seals already not working properly. So when I get to town, the camera will be sent to home. But in just a few days, my husband will be re-join me for the final walk on A.T.. I am sure we¢ll have a good big camera by then. Today I was easy sailing. Going up to lone mountain and sprawling mountain in the morning took some effort but without any difficulty. Even in the afternoon after 3pm I did much better when going up to the two peaks of Crocker Mountain. After I was going down from Crocker, two sighs arranged with stones were there, pronouncing mile 2000! I was very excited to see them! Earlier there was a sign telling us that there was only 200 miles left to Kathadin! How cool is that! Near the last 2000 miles sigh, there were some flat spots in the woods. Because the sun would be setting soon, I wanted to investigate tenting place. Big mistake! Looking down most of time, I didn¢t notice there was a huge wasp nest hung over my head. In a buzz sound, a wasp followed me and later stung my right ear. Immediately, I reached my Benadryl. Hopefully the swallow would not be too bad and no other medicine would be required.
Date: 2019-09-02
From: 1.5 miles north of North Crocker Mountain 

To: Stratton motel and hostel 
Miles today: 3.7

Day 154Oh babe, the rain is cold. So come here, we¢ll snuggle together.Oh babe, the wind is strong. So come here, let me hold you tight.It¢s September, and we¢re still in the woods of Maine.Oh babe, the trail is long. So hold on and be strong.Oh babe, the cliff is high. So hold on and I¢ll pull you up.It¢s September, and we¢re still in the woods of Maine.Oh babe, I felt the cold air on my face. So end is near for us to touch.Oh babe, I saw red leaves falling by my feet. So autumn is near for us to celebrate.It¢s September, and we¢re marching to the end of A.T. in the woods of Maine.I marched on the trail this morning in the cold rain to road 27. The wet shiny leaves were not all green anymore. Some had turned yellow, orange, and even red. The wind blew, carried colorful leaves swirling down beside my feet. Each rain drop felt colder than the one before. At road 27, the chill drifted deeper into my bones after I stopped moving. Under the cover of the roof on information board in the parking lot, with another hiker¢s Verizon service, we were connected to the owner of Stratton Motel and Hostel. Chris came 15 minutes later, shuttled us into town. Away from the cold rain, dry, warm, resupplied and well fed. Ready to be back on trail tomorrow.  188 miles from the finish line!P.S. After carefully checked my camera in the hostel this afternoon, I found the main function of the camera still working. So it will stay with me and continue the journey together!
Date: 2019-09-03
From: Stratton motel and hostel 

To: Stratton hostel 
Miles today: 16.7

Day 155Biglow mountain after the rain is slippery. So I was happy to participate in slackpacking today. Total 16.7 miles. The hostel shuttle brought us to the North end of the mountain and we started hiking backwards towards road 27 by 7:30am. The fog was thick and full of water. I could feel the drizzle in the fog. But it was very pleasant drizzle, it kept me cool without feeling wet. There were many large rocks on the side of trail. Many of them had green moss grew on then. Making them so green and soft to touch. Most of the rocks just lay on the side of the trail. They don¢t block any traffics on the trail.At near noon , l reached the Avery peak of mountain Biglow. As I sat down for a lunch break, the clouds started to drifting apart. I surprised to see there were lakes behind the clouds curtain. It was a paradise slowly revealed it beauty. It was a perfect place to have lunch break at a perfect time.The excellent views accompanied me through the multiple peaks on Biglow Mountain range. In the afternoon, the trail dipped into green forest again with fresh scent of Christmas trees and green moss on giant boulders.We managed to finish the hike by 7pm before it¢s dark. It¢s a great day to give my back and shoulder a rest while still get the mileage done.
Date: 2019-09-04
From: Stratton hostel 

To: West Carry Pond shelter 
Miles today: 6.3

Day 156The weather report for today was really bad. 80% chance of thunderstorm and possibly hail in all afternoon. So I decided to hike only in the morning to the first shelter 6.3 miles away and stay there to wait out the storm. I arrived at the shelter by 11:30am. It rained hard for about couple of hours. Then strong winds just blew the dark stormy clouds away from our area. I felt like being chickened out this time since I really didn¢t want to get my boots soaked wet. They just dried last night after they were wet in Monday rainy day. After 6:00pm all of a sudden a  hiker said That she heard thunders. In couple of minutes the storm hit our shelter hard with pouring rain. You never know when it could hit you, really!Now I had passed the most difficult part of the trail. Today and tomorrow are ¢easy¢ sections. Saying it easy is the expectation from looking at its flatter profile in the guide book. But I can only find out the truth after I finished this section. There will be lots of roots and bog areas on the trail which could be hard when they are wet. On the trail I noticed more leaves changed colors or fallen. Each day the Nature is trying to give me hint about the autumn coming up. Keeping warm will be my concern from now on.
Date: 2019-09-05
From: Stratton hostel 

To: Caratunk Hiker B&B
Miles today: 19.3
Weather: few clouds

Day 157I fell to sleep before the rain stopped. Sometime in the night the wind started to howling loudly. I opened my eyes but couldn¢t see anything. It was pitch black. I couldn¢t see even my hand in front of my eyes. The backpacks hanging in the entrance of the shelter showed nothing was there. The blackest black I had experienced. The whole world was just wind and tree branches dropping on to the roof of this tiny shelter. I felt the cold air on my head. I buried my face deeper and deeper into the soft warm cozy envelope of my quilt, dozing in and off sleep through the windy night.When the daylight broke before 6am, the wind was still vey strong. I was glad that the wind had dried everything. In the chilly morning I got dressed quickly, had a warm breakfast of oatmeal and started hiking by 7am.Along the edge of the pond, the wind was very strong. It made the pond into a little ocean with waves pounding and splashing the rocky shore. As soon as I turned away from the pond, the wind had disappeared all of a sudden. The forest became so peaceful that I heard bird chips but nothing else. It was a fast march to complete the 13.7 miles before the man powered canon stopping the official A.T. ferry to cross the Kennebec River at 2 pm. For almost 7 hours I walked and walked fast on unstable single boards, on wide boards, on rocks and over mud. I only took the heavy backpack off my aching shoulder once for 7 minutes. I reached the ferry crossing location 20 minutes before the official closing time. Brave Heart was waiting for me about 10 minutes. She was very happy to see me made it. And we ride the boat to the other side of the town. Till then, I felt relaxed and relieved.We walked a short distance to Caratunk Hikers B&B. In there I learned that they off a slackpacking for about 5 miles to the north for free if I stay in the hostel. After a milkshake and pulled pork sandwich, I was on trail again to slackpacking the 5.3 miles. It was a pleasant walk. No big ups and downs. And in the cool forest, I didn¢t feel any humidity nor hot air. A perfect hiking condition. Before 6pm the hike was finished and we were shuttled to a local restaurant for dinner.
Date: 2019-09-06
From: Boise Cascade logging road

To: Bald mountain stream road
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 158Instead of having a tasty breakfast in Caratunk House B&B, I opted out to have an early start hiking. Before 7am, I was on the trail to climb the mountain. Halfway up, I stopped for a break to cook my oatmeal breakfast. I got more food than I can finish before entering next town Monson-my last full resupply location on A.T..The going was smooth. Even though I was tired from yesterday¢s big miles, I was still going on a good 1.5 miles per hour pace. There have been so many variety of mushrooms today. I found a perfect huge orange red one with yellow speckles on it. The one came from Alice in the wonderland mushroom. The yellow speckles looked like sesame seeds on a bun. So the mushroom looked like the top of a giant cheese burger. There were also so many different shapes and colors of mushrooms, some were really cute, some were impressively huge. I also saw three grouse today morning. One of them was a chick. The mom was trying to protect her child by acting stupidly in front of human. It felt like I can catch her with my barehand. In the evening I saw a few moose tracks in the mud. But still I Jane not seen a moose yet.In the afternoon I climbed on top of Moxie Bald mountain. There were many glacier polished rocks. The open summit was long with great views in every direction. There were also lots of tasty blueberries on the summit.Back down from the summit past Bald Mountain, there were many rocks lined perfectly on trail to form a rock hoping path. This path made walking on trail so easy. Thanks a lot to all the trail builders.
Date: 2019-09-07
From: Bald mountain stream road

To: ShawÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: clear sky

Day 159As usual I started hiking at about 7:00am. I want to reach Monson, ME - the last resupply location on A.T. As soon as possible. My husband should have arrived in town yesterday, but I haven¢t been able to contact him yet. There were small ups and downs on the trail. Nothing was really hard. However after more than five months of walking day in and day out, my body was tired. Plus it is approaching the end of the journey, psychologically my body gave out signals to slow down. It¢s now more than ever for me to focus on my goal and mentally reminded myself to hold on and be tough.On this section of the trail there were even more interesting mushrooms as yesterday. Some were mother/baby pairs, some were as round as pearls, some were upside down bowline pins, some were silvery gray, and some were orange red. They were everywhere in abundance. I noticed big moose footprints, still no sight of the shy giant.There were two places that hikers need to ford river where the water level could be high. The west and east branches of Piscataquis River. Some hikers left comments about the water could be as high as their waist. Those comments made us nervous. I crossed the river with water level below my calf. The water was cool but not too cold. I actually found it was quite nice to have my feet soaked for a while.When I reached the shore of the east beach, someone was calling me from across the river. I looked up, on the bank of the river my husband was smiling and waiving at me! It turned out that he had arrived in town yesterday afternoon. This morning he has walked 6 miles to meet me. It was such a happy surprise to me! With him leading the way we walked together back to town. When we were still about a mile away from the town, a red pickup stopped next to us. They offered to gave us a ride to Shaw¢s hostel. We were gladly accepted their offer, climbed up the back of the pickup, sat nervously with our packs on the borderless pickup.In Monson we did resupplies, find out hiking in Baxter SP information, had a late but tasty dinner. Tomorrow after breakfast we¢ll be set our feet in the 100 miles wilderness!