morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-08-21
From: Madison hut

To: Lakes of the clouds hut
Miles today: 7.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Got up nice and early after sleeping off on to a duet of professional snorers on the mess hall floor. The hut twit was making breakfast and before I could ask him how he slept he spewed some disdain about better start waking up your bum friends. Whatever, I gotta start not dwelling on the bad apples. I stole some coffee and we were out by 630. It was a little nerve wrecking because it was before the weather report and we couldn't get service to check. It was not quite white out conditions, just morning fog, but the wind was whipping and the close to no visibility was a bit scary considering we were about to climb mt washington which prides itself on having the worst weather in the world. We checked our side trail bail out options and pressed on. Eventually the fog cleared and we got some sweet views as we skirted mt Jefferson and clay. I'm curious about the presidentials handle, because I don't think clay was president, and I know Franklin wasnt. But whatever most of the peaks were. We were encouraged by some other hikers out there, although none that we asked had checked the weather either! By the time we were up above 5000 or so the gusts were pushing 70 and starting to give us unfriendly nudges to and fro. We were walking like sumo wrestlers. The terrain was actually not steep at all, just the weather that made it a continuous adrenaline rush. We made it uneventfully to the summit and waited in line to take our picture with train and car riders in pajama pants and flip flops freezing their asses off. The observatory snack bar was awesome and I gorged heavily. The radar was looking like a big storm coming through so we decided to just go to the next hut and shell out 10 bucks to sleep in the "dungeon", which is aptly named. 6 bunks in a dank damp dorm suzed underroom with large stone brick walls and no light. The croo at this hut were awesome though. They let us have all the leftovers and because there were so many hikers they said they'd cook extra food until everyone was fed. The storm never ended up showing until late but we enjoyed the short day and pigging out on veggie lasagna. We
Date: 2016-08-23
From: before Crawford notch

To: past Zealand falls hut
Miles today: 9.6

We got a solid 13 hour sleep in and I finally rolled out if my hammock a little past 9. What we thought was going to be a slow, steep descent into Crawford notch was actually really tame and I made it to the road in about 20 minutes. It took a surprisingly long time to get z hitch to the AMC highland center considering how busy that road was. We could've waited for the AMC shuttle since the trailhead is as stop, but awol lists a ride at 23 dollars! 23 bucks for 3.5 miles. I hope that's not true bug when we go t to the center you can see where the money goes. That place is crazy nice. To be fair, for a lot of families the AMC system is a perfect, albeit expensive vacation that gets them out in wild terrain. But their mission is clearly for profit, and I don't think they should be allowed to monopolize the shelters on forest lsnd. Let the MATC do their thing right next to all the pay sites and everyone's happy. But I digress. None of the kids understood English well enough when I asked for leftovers on th he cheap in three different ways. So I dropped 40 bucks on lunch and take out. It was delicious. I got a 15 dollar hiker meal to go and then we loitered around on the lawn soaking up the beautiful day and setting. It took another really long time to get a hitch back to the trail, but from there the trail was the easiest I think we've seen yet. So despite my 11am start and dilly dallying at the center for a couple hours, we made it to Zealand falls hut by 6 and found a nice stealth spot just past the hut protection zone.
Date: 2016-08-24
From: past Zealand falls hut

To: base of mt lafayette 
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: broken clouds

Got an early start an this was an easy mileage day with great weather. Couple ups and downs over mt guyot, twin mountains, and mt garfield. We made it to the gale head hut by 11 for lunch. Btw fellow hikers, if the hut is serving potato soup, save your 2 bucks . I stocked up on some more snacks and we chatted for a bit with some other hikers. A couple of them were southbounders. One of which had flown past us on the way down the mountain. I assumed we'd never see them again but then learned they started a month before us and are planning on finishing by thanksgiving. And who knows, I've heard crazy ways to hike this thing that all seem like fun flavors. They explained that a wero is a week of zeros. Met this character Nemo in the dungeon who basically hikes the world and within 2 minutes of meeting him explained he's independent of the labor market and quoted sartre. He takes weros and then hikes 30 to 50 mile days and so is ahead of the bubble and knows everybody. So thoroughly in fact that when we met him he was like yall must be sobo because I don't know you. He's got an 8 lb base weight, nbd. Anyway, we'd planned to do mt lafayette too but didn't wanna commit to getting back below treeline so set up camp early in this mossy, marshy, boreal forest. It was super pretty but all of a sudden there were bugs! They weren't biting at least just annoying little things mostly with a couple mosquitos and mini black flies for good measure. They'd been non existent for so long I'd been thinking I'd bounce my bug dope in hanover even. This wasn't even alpine bog really so who knows. Instead of playing guitar in an early camp we retreated to our hammocks and will prob be asleep before the sun sets over the mountain. It's working on a nice sunset color now
Date: 2016-08-25
From: base of mt lafayette 

To: north woodstock
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Mt lafayette, mt lincoln and Franconia ridge were all great. We up there pretty early so the fog was still burning off. But still we got a lot of sick views with the valleys and ridgelines popping in and out of the clouds. I recognized Franconia from the pictures. It's kind of a trail icon and has that NH man in the mountain profile. I saw a lot of faces in the cliffs and rocks, but can't say for sure if I saw that one. I cooked lunch at liberty springs campsite since I'd heard it was rough to get a hitch into town, and Kate went on ahead. I must've been bit by something in the meantime because when I caught up to her and some nobos she was chatting with they all were like dude, what happened to your eye?! I had no idea what they were talking about but my upper eyelid gad swollen up really big. It didn't itch or hurt at all so I had no idea. We were down by the trailhead and pretty confused at the 3 seemingly terrible spots to get to a hitch. Luckily a dude from white mountain hostel came by and gave me good advice, also expressing concern for my eye. We walked out to one of the route 3's and a nice old fella picked us up within minutes, so I don't know what folks' deal was. He's a two time thru hiker with a thick maine accent and gave us the full tour of woodstock, lincoln, and chet's place. he was out getting spring water because he hates the tourist town treated water. Apparently it's a great place to live because the tourist season is long, it's kind of an orthodox Jewish resort town plus working class mass and Canada folk with Jewish heritage maybe? There's a bunch of mansions up on loon mountain resort with people who are never there but pay property taxes and don't have any kids in the schools. So that plus NH no income tax means they almost owe him money in taxes. They do still tax the shit out of lodging and other services though, which is annoying for the traveler and poor folk I suppose . We were jonesing for a private room at ended up at the woodstock inn, which is really cute and old and turns out us one of ghd oldest breweries in the state. I'd had their beer a bunch o fb times already. With a 20% hiker discount it ended up being 100 bucks including a gourmet breakfast, so definitely not bad for what we got. Plus the staff were really cool and hooked us up with some free beer. The place is full of old maps and pedal pianos and antiques too. We did our chores and such and got ready for heading out tomorrow.
Date: 2016-08-26
From: north woodstock

To: north woodstock
Miles today: 0.0

Well today I woke up with my eye basically swollen shut. With the Internet explaining all the worst case scenarios we thought it'd be best to zero and make sure I wasn't going to have to surgically remove the eye. It was raining too so that made the decision a little easier. We went over to the only game in town and hoped if I sat there long enough looking at them through my qiasimodo eye they'd take pity and let me see the doctor. They did, and a nice British man got my height, weight, pulse and said he thinks it's just a black fly bite whose itchy juices had no where else to go. Weird since I'd been massacred by black flies previously with no reaction, but I guess nit in my eyelid. That was great news because with some roids I'd be back to normal in no time, and we can use the hot tub at loon mtn! The woodstock inn has some deal with them where you get access to their pool and spa, but not very nice to use the tub if I'm spreading ifectioys eye eating bacteria. And bonus the real grocery store was on the way to pick up my roids so I got some tofu for the trail. Gotta get that protein, and so delicious in ramen and on bagel cheese sandwiches. We hung out around town a while t hen got a shuttle up to loon mountain hot tub, which confirmed the assessment of the town as a working class, Jewish vacation spot for mass and ca folk. Place was crawling with kids but the hottub and setting were great. We obviously didn't fit in and when word got out we were hiking the trail we suddenly had an audience and were blasted with questions. They were all good folk and I shared my beer with them, since one beer and a hottub and I'm wasted anyway. Apparently that's illegal in NH too, beer and pools or hottubs and a staff lady came by to point us to the many signs indicating that, but then she was cool and said Jyst don't make a habit of it and left with a smile. I think if I hadn't have shared it it would've been confiscated, as is their right by law according to the signs. But she would've had to clear the whole hottub and had a mini riot on her hands potentially (yanks and Canadian jews are a bit crass with the language ). Again though, this is NH. Everyone has a gun, fears the government yet it's illegal to bring beer to a hottub. Live free or die yall! C'mon now. In fact one guy in the tub would not let it go how he ghought we were insane for not carrying at least a .45. I was like, that's your small gun? We fret over ounces, so 10 pounds of hardware and bullets not so much. It was all well and good til the Canadian said thank god no one's talking politics, because yall are crazy americsns, and then started talking politics and the gun lover was more than happy to jump in and say it all goes back to the degradation of the family unit and poor people just don't understand the historical basis of the Constitution etc. We took our leave at that point. Got some food at the brewery then hit it. My eyes looking better already so well hit the road tomorrow morning.
Date: 2016-08-27
From: north woodstock

To: near mt wolf
Miles today: 11.4
Weather: overcast clouds

We got another great breakfast at woodstock inn and checked out round 10.    Saw marmalade as we were trying to hitch back to the trail. He was jonesin for some soccer and beer and was not going to be disappointed. I liked that town. A nice older couple picked us up pretty quick and brought us to where we hitched from but a slightly different side trail entrance. It ended up being a little shorter, maybe 3/4 mile back to the AT. we went under some huge highway underpasses and I was glad we hadnt tried hitching from thete. It was a gentle climb past the last AMC hut on lonesome lake before starting the climb up kinsman. That was a great swimming lake and it was hot enough that we really wanted to, but we got such a late start we had to keep on keeping on if we wanted to get over the kinsman and close to moosilauke. Met a nice nobo keg legs whose doing this whole stretch sobo and hiked with her off and on all day. Also ran into zappy tendrils, formerly beaver, who we hadnt seen since the wilderness like 5 days in. Keg legs got a kick out of us reuniting because apparently that happens the whole trail long. The descent off of South kinsman was a bit of a scramble but not too bad. Tomorrow we're hoping the rain holds off until we're off of moosilauke. That's our last epic mountain for a little bit I think. Right now we're hanging near the peak of mt wolf, which is just a mucky swamp for the most part. It was pretty gross mud bogs coming up here and finding just a halfway decent site to hang was kind of a challenge. There were a bunch of these Indian pipe flowers with no chlorophyll that are somehow still plants at our site. Unfortunately I accidentally murdered one shown here.
Date: 2016-08-28
From: near mt wolf

To: Jeffers brook shelter
Miles today: 13.3
Weather: scattered clouds

We climbed mt moosilauke today and that was the last of the big white mountains. The signs have changed over to big orange ones from the Dartmouth outing club. My day started out kinda rough. Just wasn't feeling it plus a wasp sting. I've met three other people today stung in that same spot too, just a little south of mt wolf summit near the stream.   Then near the base of moosilauke I got some nice trail magic from a cute older couple who I think this was their first time doing trail magic. I met ms janet too when she rolled up in her big at angel van.     The climb up was pretty sweet. Steep trail following this huge cascade falls that went on forever. We kept hearing about storms but they still haven't hit. It was just foggy up at the top, but did clear up a little bit and we got some views from our last white mountain. The trail actually emptied out into a few fields before the shelter. We've been in the forest or alpine for so long the long grass fields were a nice change.
Date: 2016-08-29
From: Jeffers brook shelter

To: Brackett brook
Miles today: 12.4

We're hanging at a great brookside pseudo stealth site all to ourselves and falling asleep to the babbling water. It's a lot easier to cruise on this section with the gentler elevation changes and way less roots and rocks. Its a welcome change in forest type and kind of reminds me of raleigh area firests with thicker pines. We did today's miles at close to a 3 mph pace and set up camp early around 430 after taking a couple hours to hitch into warren, nh and resupply. It was really nice to actually hang out for a while after dinner. Play some backgammon and guitar. I found a flat pick in my case I didn't know was there, which was nice. I haven't played with a pick since starting the trail and it was good to get those muscles going again. It took us close to an hour to get a hitch into town around lunchtime, and only after I added some pleading theatrics to the thumbing did a nice lady take pity on us, turn back around to chat, then turn back around to give us a ride. Tedeschi's is a decent chain that's kinda like sheetz or wawa but slightly more grocery storeish. It seemed like the small town hub because we ate our pizza with a small crowd if locals, their dogs and children at the one picnic table outside. Them and everyone coming and going and working at the store knew each other.   I got a large iced coffee after we'd eaten and packed up expecting to wait another hour or so to hitch back to trail, but a few sips in a Plymouth state student skipping her first class on the first day back to school picked us up. Her folks had just finished nobo thru. It was more open, sparse forest where the footing was easy enough you could actually look around while walking. There's a little permanent trail magic station not too far in that welcomes the nobos to the whites. Apparently it's manned on weekends with a guy making omelettes and on off days there's bananas and muffins strung up in bear buckets. Those were all gone too when we got there, but we weren't disappointed being pretty overstuffed from pizza at lunch. I'm sad to be leaving the whites (although technically I think we're still in the white mtns national forest) but I'm really digging the easier trail and new scenery right now. It's a good wind down before our triple zero coming up! We're driving up to montreal for a couple nights from hanover to celebrate the end of the hard part and getting to vermont. I've always wanted to visit montreal and have made several failed attempts over the last decade. It'll be Kates first time to Canada ever! Besides good music, it's gonna be pretty sweet visiting an awesome city while used to eating 5000 calories a day too.
Date: 2016-08-30
From: Brackett brook

To: grant brook
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I got glitter bombed today. I was walking up smarts mountain while two girls and a guy were going nobo. When they saw me they threw down their poles, the girls formed a tunnel over the trail with their hands and started screaming while the guy threw up a cloud of glitter as I passed under. Earlier I had heard some hooting and hollering and thought I was hallucinating monkeys or something, but it was them doing the same thing to another guy ahead. I knew exactly how far he was ahead of me when I passed over a glitter puddle on the trail. Definitely leaving a trace but I enjoyed it thoroughly, not gonna lie. Kate also got glitter bombed as well as another sobo we had just met, although he got the glitter free experience. When I opened up the log book in the fire warden's cabin, a pile of glitter fell out. I'm curious to see how far back the trail of glitter goes.  The fire tower atop smarts mountain was another highlight. It was a tall one with 5 flights of stairs of so anf you could see the whites and vermont's peaks too. The beginning part if the day was climbing mt cube, which hosts hexacuba shelter with its pentaprivy (Dartmouth named) and a privy we didn't see later that I hear is shaped like a castle with a throne and is Harry potter themed. The mountains aren't as big and the trail is nicer, but we're both still worn out pretty good after 13 miles.
Date: 2016-08-31
From: grant brook

To: before velvet rocks shelter
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: broken clouds

We're stealthin a little under 4 miles from hanover. It'll be quick enough well probably get some town breakfast, which is exciting. We've pretty much got a quadruple zero/Nero coming up, which is also exciting. Today I had a rough start, but was otherwise nit too bad. This morning after kate left, I was following the brook back to the trail when I turtled on a slippery rock and fell in a little pool. I was basically sitting down in the water and so started off fresh with wet feet and a soggy bottom. It must've happened right by the trail intersection because I totally missed the turn and kept byshwhacking on down the brook. I got the feeling I'd missed it but wanted to make sure so I wasn't endlessly doubling back. I ended up in somebody's backyard, with a hottub. Considered poaching it as it was 930ish on a weekday, but thought this is NH, might get shot. At least I knew for sure I'd passed the trail and bushwhacked back up the brook and found it. The whole ordeal wasted about 45 minutes. Luckily it had felt like rain so I'd put ny pack cover on and at least my pack and guitar stayed dry. We had a couple climbs today so I t wasn't long before I'd sweated through all my clothes anywsy, it was Jyst a bummer to be soggy from the first steps out and have damp feet all day. It did end up raining a bit off and on, but nothing that would've wet my socks. It was actually a good day overall. There's a lot of Dartmouth orientation groups about. Packs of 10 to 20 kids marching single file getting oriented before starting their freshman year. Must be pretty cool for those kids. I remember Penn gad something like that and I think some people I know met and are still friends from it. I'd prob join the Dartmouth outing club if I went there. Pretty cool to have the trail right through town. It's a mixed bag of groups out too, some I've had to ask every single person in it if I could pass, and some when they've seen us coming have yelled "hiker!" And they army maneuver to the side of the trail to let you through. We cane across a flip flopper headed north wearing a Bengals hat who told us of a tea party coming up at the road but forgot to mention it wasn't for us. We got there to find a few upperclassmen I suppose dressed as alice in Wonderland characters throwing the hatters tea party. Unfortunately it was for the pre freshmen only. Understandable. Only other episode of note today was we almost saw a bear. I saw a man filming the bear, but apparently I scared it away. I did get to see the instant replay though. Man they can get up and down a tree fast! Still bearless and mooseless. Did get to see a bunch of blaze orange salamanders tho
Date: 2016-09-01
From: before velvet rocks shelter

To: hanover
Miles today: 4.2
Weather: broken clouds

The last miles of the day, or I suppose the last few miles before town, always seem to drag on. I remember looking at the elevation profile into hanover and thinking nice, this is a smooth downhill. Well there's a lot of uphill in that downhill, at least when I'm mentally already at a diner drinking coffee and OJ. I could've had a better sleep last night I suppose too because our stealth site was crawling with porcupines. It was cool to get to see them finally though. They don't give a shit. And they're big! Not exactly a breadbox, more like 2 breadboxes. They shuffle around eating bark and breaking branches. At first kate and I mistook them for bears stealing our food. But they're just pretty big clutzes that sound bigger. they're funny things. They can't jump apparently. And I had 4G so I looked them up and they're the only animal with antibiotics in their skin. This is because they sometimes climb trees but shouldn't, and then fall and impale themselves with their own quills. So frequently that evolution helped them out. The trail finally emptied out on some Dartmouth practice fields and a big co-op grocery. We got some donuts, a big baguette and cheese and hung out outside. Both toothless and macroman showed up which I wasn't expecting. I thought they were a couple days ahead but it's nice to see familiar faces. Hanover has a lot of nice businesses that offer free stuff to hikers, one of which is a great diner called lous that gives a free twisty donut called a kruller. Love that place. It's fun to walk around main street, so obviously a hiker among boat shoes and ivy league freshman pretense. Little do they know that I too went to an ivy league school, and also couldn't get in to yale.  there's great free buses around and we rode down to the fantastically filthy sunset lodge and cleaned up. They let you do laundry at least, and it's on the beautiful Connecticut river, with vermont just across. We rode back into town and met toothless at the salt hill pub where he made good on his lost beer bet coming down the Webster cliffs. And we were chatting with a Dartmouth senior math major at the bar! My people. I think she had no idea the trail went through town and was asking all the questions. Plus trying to get in toothless' pants. He either didn't notice or expertly maneuvered out of it because neither one of them got laid. all the while we were treated to some fantastic Irish music. A fiddle, squeeze box, drum, bagpipes and guitar. I loved their setup too. Just a few dudes around a single table drinking, with a tip jar on the fringe.