morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-07-16
From: Rock Lake

To: Canary Pond
Miles today: 5.0

We had a leisurely morning ¢ made pad thai (some prepackaged backpacking bag meal) and the best damn instant coffee ever! After experimenting with many we settled on Pilon espresso for me and believe it or not Sanka won the decaf taste test (at home) so Turtle drank that. Wow, pad thai and coffee is just such a delicious combo!WOW! I didn¢t forget why I backpack, but if I had Canary Pond would have reminded me! We have the absolutely most perfect campsite here! It reminds me of some of the BWCAW (Boundary Waters in MN) campsites that we have stayed at¢¦or maybe even some of our Oswegatchie Canoe trip sites (here in the Adirondacks) we stayed at a few years ago. It¢s a very open site with tons of big boulders to sit and frolic on both at the waters edge and in the water¢¦.then just off the shore pine needles abound on the ground with lots of open space to camp. BEAUTIFUL! It was love at first site! I am in heaven here! Another short and sweet hiking day. We stopped along the way to swim in one of the deep inviting pools of the Sacandaga River (just like the guidebook says). THAT was ICY! I mean I-CY! But so fun and refreshing. Canary Pond felt like bath water in comparison and in an uncharacteristic moment I dove right in! We had lunch today on the familiar shores of Silver Lake. We had done a weekend in and out trek a few years ago that took us to Silver Lake and back¢¦ it was oddly comforting to be somewhere familiar. However, now we are on to explore new terrain...so far so good!We saw just 2 people so far - a mother and daughter duo (so it seemed though Turtle thought they might be a couple, I thought the one looked a bit too young...either way , nice to see women on the trail!) They passed as we were throwing a rock/rope for the nightly bear bagging ritual. Oh, my ultra light bear bag sack was an utter failure and ripped last night but still seems serviceable. We should have stuck with our tried and true. Hmmm¢¦or should we have brought the Bear canister? That was a hard call but we decided to leave it at home. Turtle did a phenomenal job of throwing the rock over a very high branch! Those acrobatic classes are really paying off, I¢d say! (Crazy arm muscles!)Tonight we had ¢instant¢ wild rice (that I ordered online) with a cream sauce and veggies. Good but it really takes a damn long time. I would make it at home but not bring it again. Looking forward to the ease of the bag meals but we decided not to have them on these short days¢¦In other gear/food reports:-Tortillas with cheese and re-hydrated salsa just never fails to be phenomenally delicious! (Lunch)-The 34 length thermarest is taking a little getting used to. Last night I used my pack to go under my legs ¢ tonight I will try some bags of clothes and the tent stuff sack etc¢¦I slept fine, though, as I am a good little sleeper!-Our 6 oz Big Agnes chair converters are FAB! So great to have a chair in the eve and the 34 length pad even works out fine! Could not be happier¢¦
Date: 2008-07-19
From: Fall Stream

To: Spruce Lake Lean-to #3
Miles today: 6.9

So, yesterday as we approached the area where the trail re-entered the woods we met a man, a woman and a dog. This was good because due to complete crazy-brained-ness we thought this was the area where we had to trespass on John Macalusco¢s private land. Chatting with these folks eased our worries even though we were shocked and appalled that as day hikers they were passing where supposedly only thru-hikers could go. Bumping into them was bad because (as I mentioned in yesterday's entry) I had to PEE and was sure I was doing so in my pants - I therefore wanted to get away from all of civilization including them so I could do my thing.Then, the man started going on and on about how he and a million other folks were going to run tomorrow morning starting from the Piseco trailhead and all the way to Wakely Dam the next morning. A marathon in the woods! Wow, really? Apparently yes. There are really so many approaches to doing these things.So, we positioned our tent last night to watch the runners this morning and watch we did. Fascinating! There must have been 30-40 people slogging though the rain in various get ups of day packs and camelbags and fanny packs and gaiters and shorts and even a few skorts!? And some of them were hilarious! I mean considering the hour it was actually obnoxious how loud they were. But, listening to the guy talk abut how he got kicked in the goggles during a triathlon once or the one who announced triumphantly as he approached the steam ¢I am going straight though!¢ to his companion who replied ¢Straight through!?¢ was actually quite fun!Then it was up and at ¢em and on to Spruce Lake. We saw a ranger at lean to #1 and he said #2 was full so we went to #3. We had contemplated heading on to the next set of lakes but it was SO GORGEOUS at Spruce Lake, that we had to stay! And, it looked like rain. Ahhh, bliss! Our home for the night and again we were in love ¢ with each other, yes, but also with this gorgeous body of water. Expansive, beautiful, eerie in the impending air of the storm, and with loons! Loons! And a chipmunk and a butterfly! As soon as we saw the site we knew that we were staying!
Date: 2008-07-20
From: Spruce Lake Lean-to #3

To: No where!
Miles today: 0.0

The perfect "layover day":10:00 wake up without alarm10:30 drink hot coffee and eat mashed potatoes with veggies and cheese powder for brekkie, watch rain11:30 stretch, do handstands (Turtle) and plank position (me)12:00 Turtle makes us chocolate pudding pie for lunch, detox tea a surpisingly delicious accompaniment, i swear i can feel the sweat and toxins pouring out of my pores...2:00 eat ramen pasta salad with ranch dressing and veggies for lunch, set edamame aside to rehydrate for later...3:00 watch rain, stretch,read,watch loons and frogs and newts and leeches and our chipmunk and deer across the lake6:00 watch rain, eat edamame appetizer while cooking Lipton parmesan noodles with mushrooms and broccoli for dinner, watch rain9:00 stumble to bed satisfied and with a big belly
Date: 2008-07-22
From: Cedar Lake lean-to #2 or tenting nearby

To: Wakely Dam campground
Miles today: 10.4

A bit of a slow start this morning. Cloudy, though it never actually rained once we got up. Took some beautiful pictures over brekkie and as we got ready and enjoyed the loons.Note: (if you are interested) the tent site after the last Cedar Lake lean-to, on right hand side of the trail near the cedar lakes damn looked pretty nice, though not good for swimming. We left reluctantly this morning, as it was so beautiful and we new we had the road walk and camping at the public campground at wakely Dam ahead of us. We weren¢t sure what to expect, which is probably good because it was worse than I iexpected! (Though, it got better.)Wakely Dam: At first seriously sucked. Creepy men making comments to us, and we could not find the spring, and the camping sucked. Then, we asked the lovely folks camping for the summer at one of the sites and they directed us to the spring and gave us Poland Spring water to hold us over. YAY! Turtle says, ¢Sometimes people are wonderful!¢ We then moved our tent to site #6 right near the spring and with a lovely view of Cedar Flow. We are ever cautious so we filtered it ¢ but it was so easy we didn¢t mind. #5 was also a decent site. Its pack it in and pack it out even though it is car-camping, so our hopes of losing some garbage here were dashed. Another lovely sunset as we ate our delicious Ziploc mixture of Adventure Foods black beans, Betty Crooker instant sweet potatoes and Just Veggies corn all mixed together. Yuuuuummmmmeeeers!
Date: 2008-07-24
From: Stephens Pond lean-to

To: Long Lake Village
Miles today: 6.4

Writing from Motel Long Lake tonight and couldn¢t be happier about it! We stayed here 4 years ago after our 7 day Oswegatchie canoe trip. We woke to the rain today and quickly decided to head to Lake Durant campground with the goal of walking or hitching a ride to the town of Blue Mountain Village and then figuring out how to get a ride to Long Lake. Over breakfast we read the guidebook and I kid you not but every single paragraph but one describing the journey between Stephen¢s Pond and Long Lake talks about wet this, muddy that, washed out this and that ¢ and that¢s without 5-6 days of rain!!!!!!!!! All our socks are wet and we are done walking through marshes that have become lakes and so we are going to skip a section of the trail as we dry out here in Long Lake for not one night but two! Whoo-hoo! I am not a purist so I am fine with skipping 11 miles of the trail! Just so glad for the opportunity to do laundry tomorrow! I SERIOUSLY enjoyed our salad (especially) and pizza and draught Ubu (Lake Placid) beer tonight at the Hotel Long Lake. Yum yum yum yum! And, so fun! It is so whacky to be back to this little town and to go to the same place for dinner and have the same lodging. We are having a ball and purchased some new clothes so that we can wash our one camping outfit each tomorrow. Who would have thought I would ever be so glad to be dressed in an outfit that says Long Lake both horizontally (T-shirt) and vertically (cut off sweat pants made for a 14 year old girl but turtle says I can get away with it). Turtle will look cute in swim trunks and a new Long Lake t-shirt at the Laundromat tomorrow. I never have loved a small town (and a motel bed!) so much as I do today.
Date: 2008-07-26
From: No where!

To: Long Lake btwn Kelly's Pt and Rodney Pt-beach site
Miles today: 7.5

I¢ll be honest, heading back into the woods this morning was hard. First, not only did we just re-supply our food but we realized that we would be camping on Long Lake which has motor boats and we didn¢t know if there was another water source so we filled both our bottles and our camelbacks and we were seriously weighed down. Ugh. Walking uphill on the road in the sun (sun? only while we are on the road, of course) with all that weight was pure torture. And, it just felt hard to go back into the woods knowing that more grey days and rain were predicted. And/or maybe it is just hard to go back. At one point Turtle bumped me in the nose (clearly an accident!) in our motel room as we were getting ready this morning and it through me over the edge momentarily and I burst into tears saying, ¢I don¢t know if I want to go back.¢ We sat there a moment together, acknowledging our conflicts, contemplating the decision, all the while knowing we were going to continue. And continue we did...though it was hard to get our groove on. I was seriously dragging. There were humans and/or evidence of humans at all of the lean-tos on Long Lake. Sometime around 3:00 p.m. a thunderous storm began just as we were approaching the lean-tos at Kelly Point. There was a family of 10 there on their annual canoe trip, huddled in the lean to at the picnic table that they had somehow managed to fit in the shelter. They graciously let us join them to avoid getting soaked and offered us starbursts and water and a rejected hotdog that lay in the firepit. We stayed for awhile and then when it let up and was only drizzling we headed on¢¦.Within a 14 mile we investigated a side trail that led to the most amazing tent-site! We ate dinner on the sandy beach ¢ seriously sandy! ¢ and then went for a little swim. We have our own little brook/waterfall pouring into the Lake that we will filter water from tomorrow (there were many that crossed the trail today so the worries about water other then lake water were all for nothing!). And we sat and enjoyed the most beautiful sky ever tonight! First, looking across the lake it was like an icy winter scene ¢ the water and trees and mountains in the distance were shades and layers of grey. It wasn¢t actually cold out ¢ just the mist on the lake. Beautiful! At times there was one loan canoe on the beautiful still grey water and it was such a magical scene. Then, the bright orange sun began to burst through the clouds as it set and it was just phenomenal! We got some great photos and it made everything so worthwhile. Aaaah¢¦.
Date: 2008-07-27
From: Long Lake btwn Kelly's Pt and Rodney Pt-beach site

To: Seward lean-to
Miles today: 11.5

I will be honest it was another tough day today. Yesterday I was lethargic today I was achy. It POURED and THUNDERED last night and apparently Turtle could barely sleep I was awake a few times but also got in some good zzz¢s. We had a charming incident this morning as we packed up. A little salamander crawled into our mesh toothbrush bag as if wanting to come with us. We took some pictures and then Turtle helped ¢Sally¢ to get out and put her on a rock. She hung out with us a bit longer though, along with our little tree-frog friend who seems to have a cave-like, tree-root home right near where we camped. We see these newts/salamanders (?) constantly on the trail and are always talking about them so it just charmed us to know end to have this little interaction....hard to explain...We¢re at Seward now, camping in our tent, a solo guy camping at the lean-to. Its beautiful here! The rushing river and waterfalls. We found a little out-of-the-way-spot to cook dinner on the rocks, not wanting to have to chat it up with our new friend over dinner. We will cook breakfast at the main waterfall viewing point tomorrow. Our tent dries almost instantly so that is great. We had ¢comfort casserole¢ for dinner tonight. A bag meal recipe I got from either Lipsmacking Vegetarian Backpacking or the Freezerbag Cooking book. It was tasty (cream of spinach soup, minute rice and some other stuff) though it could have been spiced up a bit I would say.Before dinner we did the daily chore of finding a suitable spot to bearbag our food. Truly, this is the worst camping chore of the trip. We agonized over the decision of whether or not to bring the bear canister and decided against it due to the added weight. But, I think if I had it to do over again I might change that decision (eat less, hike barefoot, there must have been another way to save that 2 12 pounds or whatever it is!). At home we had rationalized that the hanging-the-food-bag-chore would just be part of what we did each day and it wouldn¢t take so long (whereas hiking is often an all-day activity and thus the weight of the canister would affect us for many cumulative hours). HOWEVER, what we didn¢t count on was how few of the trees in this region seem to have any low-ish horizontal-ish branches! I mean never mind about getting a good enough throw to get the rock over the branch! It is finding the branch that literally eats away minutes and minutes of our precious evening in-camp time. SO frustrating! I am not even going to get into the fact that the guy at the lean-to says he just keeps his food in his lean-to but when other campers are around he does it the ¢right way¢. Anyway, next time I think I would bring the bear canister.
Date: 2008-07-28
From: Seward lean-to

To: Duck Hole lean-to
Miles today: 8.0

Still don¢t quite have my groove on. If the last two days issues were lethargy and aches today¢s issue was shear lack of motivation. Its pretty here, it will be pretty there. I have been hiking for days so I know I can do it and despite the aches I feel fit and healthy (sort of). Whereas I usually love the exercise I am just not feelin¢ it lately. Yet, we also are not inspired for a backwoods layover day. It is beautiful here¢¦and, now that we have seen the other side (motels) we have decided that we would rather push on and take our layover day in a Lake Placid motel! What's become of me!? My attitude seems to bring my identity as a camper into question! Sigh. maybe its just the rain...Yes, A motel - Whoo-hoo! Another 2 nights in a town means a full day of lounging and having someone else cook for you! So, that¢s our new plan, to arrive in Lake Placid on Wed rather then Thurs and thereby have 2 days to frolic before we head to our friends¢ wedding in the Catksills on our way home. We are both psyched for this new plan. Of course we could have hiked all the way out today, as some folks do (?!) but that¢s not our style and we still do want to linger and enjoy these beautiful places. Tonight we are at Duck Hole, camped at the lean-to furthest from the dam. It is gorgeous here, though hard to see the expanse of the water from the direction the lean-tos are pointed and since there are not a lot of clearings on the shore. More beautiful skies just before bed! And, as has been the case every time we have stayed in or near a lean-to we entertained ourselves with reading and writing in the lean-to journals. A solo camper came in just as the sun was setting and is camping at the other lean to. I had a bizzare amount of fun watching him settle in ¢ it was like back woods TV since you have a clear view from one lean-to to the other. While Turtle was busy writing I provided a voiceover, narrating as the other camper: went down to look for a place to get water, didn¢t seem to fret or care that there was an old pair of jeans and other trash in his lean-to (which is partly why we rejected it), almost bumped his head because the lean-to was so low-hanging, and made a fire. Then the TV show ended since the change in natural light precluded my viewing!A good day, really. And a beautiful camping area. Turtle was again a dynamo with throwing the rock to hang the bear bag ¢ it¢s a little closer to us than we would like, but beggars for a good branch cannot be choosers...
Date: 2008-07-29
From: Duck Hole lean-to

To: Wanika Falls tent site
Miles today: 5.5

It¢s the last night! We are both relieved and sad. We are camped at an established site along the side trail to Wanika Falls, just after you cross the river. A bit further up the trail from us is the most beautiful camping area ever imagined! Right at the waterfall! Unfortunately, it was already taken by some guy. Not sure if he was alone or not. We didn¢t see anyone else but he seemed so seriously set up with gear and it was such a romantic spot I was convinced that he had a lover hiding somewhere. (Am I being couple-ist?)Another hellacious night finding the bear-bag branch. I won¢t bore you with the details. I guess we are just tired and have no patience for it any more.Dinner was fun though. On some rocks by the river, relieved to be done with the camp chores. We had some hot cocoa with dinner and I made iced coffee for the morning so we could get right up and on our way. One of our jokes on this trip, which I think started at Stepehen¢s Pond is that each morning over brekkie (or sometimes at dinner the night before, if we are tying to have a super-quick brekkie) I say to turtle, ¢Okay, it¢s the time of the day affectionately known as pick¢¦..yer¢¦.snacks!¢ Then, we each pick which bars and fruits and nuts, etc, we think we will want for the day¢s hike. (Note: We quickly realized that there should ALWAYS be peanut M & M¢s available because if anyone ever has any sort of physical or emotional meltdown or anything approximating a meltdown it turns out that this singular food item is always the cure!) Anyway, I announced tonight that there would be no picking of snacks ¢ as there is no need. We only have a few snacks left as our trip is almost over! All snacks can easily go in the accessible side pockets of our packs. Oh! No snack-picking! Sad! Yes, we are eager to enjoy Lake Placid for a few days¢¦.and, this has been such an amazing experience and I am torn and sad about it being almost over¢¦..
Date: 2008-07-30
From: Wanika Falls tent site

To: Trailhead/Trail-end on Averyville Road 
Miles today: 7.7

No room at the inn¢¦.at Art Devlin's, that is. Art Devlin¢s is where we have a reservation for tomorrow night (and where we had shipped our clothes for the wedding and for bumming around in Lake Placid). They had nothing for tonight, but they suggested the Northway which was just across the street and down the road. It has all worked out, and, I think the $15 extra we will pay at Art¢s tomorrow will be well worth it ¢ this place is cute outside, but a bit seedy in the rooms. In any case everyone has been nice and helpful. Okay, and we actually had a lot of luck today! When we got to the trailhead we discovered that we had: CELL RECEPTION! And, so we could call a taxi! I had gotten the #¢s online and wrote them in our journal prior to the trip. We thus avoided the 1.5+ mile road walk into Lake Placid! And, we were able to call the motel to ask about vacancy before getting there. Once we got to the motel we SHOWERED (words cannot describe how good that was) and had a FABULOUS afternoon eating burgers and fries and salad at the Lake Placid brewery. We did the beer-taster thing where they give you a few ounces of 8 beers to share. FUN! Ubu is still our favorite. Then, we walked around town, shopped, got a crazy ice cream sundae, and brought salads from the crepery back to the motel to eat for dinner while we snuggled in the bed and watched TV. A perfect afternoon/evening. Our plans tomorrow include possible massages and mini golf! ?As for the hiking today: Well, I always find hiking out on the last day hard. I am always just sort of ready to be done, and if it is 1-2 miles it is nice, but 7.7 (which we did today) is just more then I need on that last morning and as expected it dragged on. But, it was fine and good and easier at times than much of the hiking on this trip has been (read: drier). And we were in good spirits and Turtle helped me to remember to stop and notice the newts and the trees and all manner of beautifulness. I love the Adirondacks. What a gift this has been. And, there is no one I would rather be here with. If you are contemplating the NPT ¢ do it! You won¢t regret it! Even if it rains¢¦.
Date: 2011-01-18
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Well it's snowing and the kids are off from school, so I thought it would be a good day to start my journal. My name is Alan, and I'm a retired firefighter/EMT of 24 years. I always knew I wanted to thru-hike the AT, I just didn't know when I would get the opportunity. When I retired 2 years ago in August, I decided the time was right. Actually my wife suggested it.(I suspect she was tired of hearing me talk about it for the last 10 to 15 years). The last 2 years have been spent working as a handyman doing odd jobs, not wanting to commit myself to employment long term as I knew I would be leaving in the spring of 2011.    I plan on leaving nobo from Springer March 15, after an overnight stay at the Hiker Hostel. Like everyone else I've spent the last couple of months stressing over gear and what I should bring and what should be left behind. On top of all the normal anxiety, I'm dealing with a hamstring injury that has been nagging me since September. At first I thought it was soreness from roadracing this fall, but as I've curtailed my running and stopped racing it has lingered on. I've seen a couple of doctors and have another appointment coming up so hopefully I'll be able to shake it. I'll keep you posted when I know more.   Until then thank you for visiting my journal and please sign the guest book. I can't wait to get on the trail and meet all the other 2011 hopefuls on the trail.Alan