morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2013-09-09
From: Bemis Mt Lean-to

To: Little Swift River Pond campsite
Miles today: 12.9
Weather: light rain

Nobody was up when I left, so I don't know who was camped on Bemis Mtn. In addition, there was no register (except in the privy). Later, I was passed by NOBOs Danger Dave & Turbo and met slack-packers: Grey Wolf, Red Tail, Airborne, Fresh Prince, & Star Fail. I met SOBO Fireman at Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to.Getting down from Bemis Mtn. involved a lot of rocks faces (ledge) ¢ not too difficult; just hard on the feet. I went over West Peak & 3rd Peak yesterday, 2nd & 1st today, tho 1st peak doesn't amount to much. When I got to the bottom, I found a couple of cases of ginger ale ¢ Trail magic!Then I proceeded up to Rt. 17 to meet Susan for re-supply. While we ate lunch, we enjoyed the view over lakes to the West & spoke with a couple from Massachusetts who were doing a section up here & hoping to do a thru-hike next year. The wife seemed more enthusiastic than the husband. From observing others, I've concluded that a couple has a much better chance of successfully completing a thru-hike if the woman is the one pushing the idea, rather than vice versa.Heading on North, I passed Moxie Pond & Long Pond (there are bigger ones with those names farther North). I was passed by a hiker I'd met briefly a couple of days ago, who wanted to lecture me for carrying too heavy a pack. I feel I'm doing what I can by carrying less food per segment. Anyway, he definitely was traveling faster than I & might be almost my age. I passed him when he stopped to take a nap by a lake, & then he passed me again just before the campsite where we both stopped.I've mentioned some things that had changed color & other signs of the end of Summer. Today, walking around the ponds, I became aware of crunching on fallen birch leaves. They turn yellow, then brown, & in many places around here are the only deciduous trees. Sometimes it gets a little disorienting when the Northbound Trail goes South & West, as it does along Long lake. Then it reverses again to go around Sabbath Day Pond. I believe the name comes from a former Shaker colony that lived there many years back.
Date: 2013-09-10
From: Little Swift River Pond campsite

To: Redington Stream campsite
Miles today: 12.8
Weather: light rain

About 5 miles of moderate ups & downs got me to the highway to Rangeley. On the way, I passed Little Swift River Pond (Now I could see it in daylight) & South Pond. After getting some supplies from Susan, I walked an easy couple of miles (part of it with her) to Piazza Rock lean-to. Crowd Control [a mother & three kids], Shadow, Slider, & Olive Oyl were there. Olive Oyl & I climbed up around the top of Piazza Rock. From below, it's a rather spectacular shelf of rock sticking out from the hillside; from above [after some difficult climbs], it's not much. The word among the hikers was that there were thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon. After I fixed lunch at the shelter, the light rain stopped, & I decided to go on. It just didn't look that bad to me [tho there would be lot of unprotected trail up on top], & I heard no thunder. All of the others stayed.On the way up the Mtn., I met SOBO Smoke Break [symptomatic of the excessive amount of smoking among the young people on the trail], saw some fishermen in a boat on Eddy Pond, & was passed by Ursa Major & Minor. The area between the shelter & the pond was mostly under water the last time I came by here, but this time it was pretty dry. Most of the afternoon was spent climbing up & over rock ledges to get up the two peaks that form the "saddle". There was no visibility anywhere on the Mtn., which meant there was also no view of the Saddleback ski area. Just fog tho ¢ no thunderstorms [or other rain]. After being down in the trees again for a little while, I came to the much harder rock climbs of the Horn [of the saddle]. Some of the boulders were just too high to get over very easily, & coming down was even worse. Just past the bottom [guidebook isn't very clear!}, as it was getting dark, I came to Remington Stream campsite ¢ something new since last time. I had wanted to go farther (2 mi to next shelter), but my legs were just too tired, wobbly, in fact, from coming down those rocks. It was hard to figure out where the tent sites were ¢ I had to come back to the Trail to look again at the site map. It would be nice if they'd post one at the privy or somewhere convenient. Ursa major was there in her tent & offered me some help finding a place. I hope it's not raining in the morning.
Date: 2013-09-11
From: Redington Stream campsite

To: Spaulding Mtn lean-to
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: clear sky

The first thing today was to get up & over Saddleback Junior. The morning was warm & very windy. At the summit I met Sampson, whose hiking partner disappeared in this area, almost 2 months ago. She was re-visiting the area to get some closure. Nobody seems to know what happened to "Inchworm". It's a reminder that altho most of us have a wonderful experience in hiking the Trail, things sometimes can go wrong.In the course of the day, I met SOBOs Lucky & Double-Take, & section hiker Hiker-Boy. I was passed again by the Ursas, & at Poplar Ridge lean-to I met BP, whom seemed to be taking a zero day at the shelter. This is one of the shelters in Maine which still has the old "baseball bat" floor, made up of a bunch of 2" saplings laid parallel to each other [not real comfortable to sleep on!]. After a snack there, I went over Poplar Ridge & down to Orbeton Stream. I spent some time at the stream, remembering floating down the stream when I tried to ford it in 2008. The water was 2-3 feet lower this time ¢ you could actually see & walk on the rocks to get across ¢ & many of the things that were at water level then were now considerably above the water. By the time I started up Lone Mtn., I was really sweating from the heat. The Trail was not difficult, tho; in fact, it seemed like a new type of Maine trail, pretty smooth & well-graded.   Still hard on the feet but not on the knees. 1.8 mph is a nice way to climb mtns., compared to what I've been doing! Still no thunderstorm. As I approached Spaulding Mtn lean-to, I spent a little time clearing a blow-down that was sending people on weird detours. I thought this shelter should have a baseball-bat floor [it doesn't], since Spalding is a maker of sports equipment, including bats! I managed to get to the spring & get my water just before the storm started. It was certainly a nice night to be in a shelter. First there was a bunch of good-sized hail that made a huge racket on the metal roof. Then there were several hours of some of the hardest rain I've seen on the Trail. Most of the hikers who had stayed at Piazza Rock yesterday were here tonight. I can't seem to stay ahead of anybody!
Date: 2013-09-12
From: Spaulding Mtn lean-to

To: Maine Rt 27
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: broken clouds

Altho I heard rain most of the night, it seemed to have stopped by morning. However, there was rain off & on most of the day. Yesterday afternoon & today, the Trail seemed different in many ways ¢ not at all difficult. Up & over Spaulding Mtn. was fairly easy ¢ then a pretty level Trail along the back of Sugerloaf Mtn., tho it was pretty wet today. That's a section I skipped last time thru by taking the old AT much closer to the edge of the Mtn. I had done that unintentionally because, coming up a rock scramble from the North, the Trail takes a sudden turn that was not marked as well as the old Trail straight ahead. This time, I was happy to see the nice big arrow just after the turn, tho a double blaze BEFORE it would be nice too! Then I noticed the rock with blazes on it straight ahead. If a person coming up did NOT see the arrow off to the side but looked straight ahead, they WOULD see these blazes (similar to what they've been following up the hill) sending them off on the old Trail! I didn't check, but I'm willing to bet that they would also find more blazes on rocks every 30-50 feet for a while. I really think it's time to get rid of these misleading markers.The old AT here is really a more pleasant trail than the new one, except for feeling exposed on the edge of the Mtn. & at one point in danger of sliding down the cliff. I couldn't help thinking about "Inchworm", the hiker who disappeared somewhere in this area this year. How easy it would be, at a place like this, for a hiker to take the wrong turn & end up falling off a cliff. I'm sure all that has been checked out in the search process, but it's a reminder that badly-marked Trail can be dangerous.Aside from the NOBO hikers who stayed at the shelter last night, the only hiker I saw on the Trail today was a SOBO named Parches. The Trail goes down about a thousand feet to the Carrabasset River (the one you cross on a plank), then up Crocker Cirque. I remembered that as quite a rock scramble, but it didn't seem too bad going up. The rest of the way up South Crocker seemed pretty easy too, so I gave Susan an estimate on my arrival at Hwy 27. Coming down North Crocker was much slower, tho. It had started to rain quite hard by then, so the Trail was flooded most of the way down, as it kept getting darker. It's a very gradual slope, which shouldn't be a problem, but the trail runs along the side of the hill, so [especially in the dark] I was in constant danger of slipping off the side. That made it very slow & tiring [ & batteries were getting low besides], so I was really glad to get to get to the road & get a ride to the cabin Susan had rented in Bingham [South of Caratunk].
Date: 2013-09-13
From: Maine Rt 27

To: Horns Pond Lean-tos
Miles today: 5.1
Weather: scattered clouds

This is NOT the day I expected [Don't ask what I should expect from Friday the 13th!]. Forecast was for 30% chance of rain, decreasing as the day went on. That sounded pretty good for getting up Bigelow Mtn & camping at the top, an 8-mile day. I had a big breakfast at the highly-rated Thompson's Restaurant in Bingham, re-packed my gear (many things got wet last night), & we drove to the trailhead. It rained on the way, not totally unexpected. I put on my poncho & started at 11:20. Pretty soon I put the poncho away, but it wasn't long before I had it out again. The first mile or so was on nice, smooth, level trail -- I made almost 2 mph & was feeling good. It seemed like a long time (Central Virginia?) since I've been able to lengthen my stride & feel that all my body parts were working properly. Then it got much steeper & rockier. The first 5 miles, up to Horns Pond Lean-tos, took 5 hours, even with that speedy beginning. Part of that time involved taking a wrong turn & going about 0.8 miles out of my way. Maybe that was a good thing on the long run, tho it felt dumb at the time. I stopped at Horns Pond to cook a meal, thinking I'd go on. Even if I could go 3 mph up the rest of the Mtn, I'd be trying to set up camp in the dark again -- not too smart on the last 4,000-footer till Katahdin. The wind picked up & was blowing mist into the shelter while I ate. Sitting still, it began to seem colder by the minute. Soon it just didn't make sense to go up that Mtn -- maybe in the morning! So I changed clothes & got ready for bed. It started to rain in earnest just as some week-end hikers from CT came to the shelter. I felt sorry for them because so much of their stuff was soaking wet, including one guy's sleeping bag. Now it has been raining for 2 hours straight; maybe it will be fine soon. I didn't see any thru-hikers today, tho I did see two section hikers coming down within a mile of the road. Two week-Enders from Quebec arrived at the shelters after me.Time to get some sleep & get up early.
Date: 2013-09-15
From: Long Falls Dam Road

To: Pierce Pond lean-to
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: broken clouds

Susan fixed a big breakfast at our cabin. Then we went to the "congregational" church nearby. It turned out to be quite different from the Congregational churches that belong to the United Church of Christ. Susan liked the organist & the choir, but the preacher talked mostly about himself. On the way back to the Trail, which took a while, I got & ate a half-gallon of ice cream & a liter of pop. Long Falls Dam was built in 1949 to create Flagstaff Lake & hydroelectric power. The lake is quite large & covered two villages & lots of farms.I started out going along the lake & up Roundtop Mtn. (not much of a Mtn. compared to the Bigelows) & then on to some pretty easy, level trail, which continued the rest of the day except for one hill. I stopped to eat at West Carry Pond lean-to. In that vicinity, I met Care Bear, Bear Snack, & Alpha Dog. The Trail passes around or near West, Middle, & East Carry Ponds, once part of a portage route used by Native Americans, trappers, & explorers. Part of the time the AT coincides with the Arnold Trail, commemorating Col. Benedict Arnold's unsuccessful expedition in 1775 to attack Quebec City. As I neared East Carry pond, I met flip-flopper "45 minutes" & was passed by Aquaman, Home Brew, Lone Wolf, & Lumber, & I saw them again a little later as they camped along the shore. I went on the rest of the way around the lake, stopping to eat before dark, & then continued on in the dark. I was determined to get to Pierce Pond lean-to: I remember a pretty lake (even if a hiker drowned in it last year). I wanted to be in position to get to Harrison's Camp for the big breakfast; & then to the Kennebec before the canoe ferry stops at 11:00. I slogged on even tho I kept getting slower. The Trail wasn't all that difficult except the last mile, but crossing rocky wet spots with an inadequate headlamp did slow me down. I didn't get to the shelter till almost 11:00. There were only 3 people in it, so there was room for me. I tried to get ready for bed as quietly as possible, but it seemed everything I did made noise that disturbed someone. I had switched to my Big Agnes air mattress, which requires a lot of blowing to inflate, & also to my heavier sleeping bag, because I'm expecting colder nights ahead. I couldn't seem to get the sleeping bag arranged properly in the dark, so I ended up sleeping mostly outside of it to avoid any more disturbance. It wasn't really cold or buggy, so that worked.And so, to bed ¢ a successful day overall. I just should have started earlier.
Date: 2013-09-16
From: Pierce Pond lean-to

To: Pleasant Pond lean-to
Miles today: 9.7
Weather: broken clouds

Tho I had been the last one in, I was the first to leave the shelter in the morning. There wasn't much view of the pond. I wanted to get to Harrison Camp for the breakfast. It's an old-time fishing camp along Pierce Pond Stream, just 0.4 mile down from the shelter. I didn't remember exactly how far & didn't want to be late for the 7:00 serving. The Trail goes across the dam where rocks had been added to raise the lake level, then down along the stream.I got to the camp in plenty of time & found I was the only one who had signed up for breakfast today. It's a good meal with nice presentation, & I got to talk with the owner while I ate. I found out that the other half of the year he works in a group home for people with mental problems. I left about 8:00, being told I could get to the ferry in 1.5 hours. I remembered the Trail down the hill to the Kennebec as being more difficult than that, so I hurried thru all its ups & downs along the stream & got to the river just after 10:00. Then I tried to call or text Susan to let her know I'd be earlier than I had predicted. I hoped she could take my picture coming across on the ferry. I could have crossed immediately, but I let other people go ahead of me while I waited. There ended up being 6-7 of them plus a flip-flopper, "45 Minutes", going the other way.I was surprised to see poison ivy along the river bank ¢ hadn't seen any since Vermont ¢ the ferryman, Hill-billy Dave, assured me that in Maine it only grows along rivers. This is the canoe ferry that has a white blaze painted in the bottom of the canoe to signify that this is indeed considered the official route of the AT. It's such a wide river with such variable water depth & velocity (due to dams upstream) that hikers have died attempting to wade across; so for 24 years, the ATC has paid someone to provide this service free to hikers. When the current is strong & the wind adverse, it takes a lot of arm strength to paddle back & forth. When I handed Dave my overweight pack, he just grabbed it with one hand at arms length to put it in the canoe.Susan arrived a little before 11:00 (when the ferryman stops for a long lunch break), but without her iPhone, so if I wanted a picture, I had to send my camera over with another passenger first. Dave was very patient with all that, & we got out pictures. She & I walked the short distance to the trailhead together & then tried to figure out where I would be in the next few days. Meanwhile, it started to rain, so we went up the road a little to a restaurant for lunch. About 8 other hikers were there too. I even took a little nap after lunch, then started out again.I was passed by 3 hikers, Genie, Duffle-miner, & Smack, who also ended up at Pleasant Pond lean-to with me in the evening. I was the only one in the shelter, tho.   After supper, I went down to look at the pond, which seemed a lot farther than 0.2 mi., & took a few pictures before it got too dark.
Date: 2013-09-17
From: Pleasant Pond lean-to

To: along the river
Miles today: 16.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Starting out a little cold (tho not down to the 20s as some had predicted), it was a beautiful, sunny day, with lots of views from the mountaintops. I especially liked looking back at the Bigelows & seeing the 2 horns as well as the 2 peaks. On my previous trip, I came over Pleasant Pond Mtn in the rain & found it to be made of rock that is slippery when wet. Today it was dry, so there was no slipping problem.I didn't see any other hikers all day, except Ursa Major & Ursa Minor (her dog), tenting partway up Pleasant Pond Mtn., & then passing me after the summit, as I stopped for my second breakfast & a phone call to Susan. I stopped at 2 shelters for later meals, so other hikers could have passed me during those times I was off the AT.The Trail was really easy to walk on all morning; I began to think of going farther than Moxie Bald lean-to, so that I could get to Monson earlier & buy myself a zero day without adding to my completion date. I didn't make as good time as I'd hoped because the trail changed as it got dark. It became very rocky, with so many springs along it that water was running down the trail. Where it wasn't rocky, it was muddy. Slow going! Then I came to the old dam at the exit of Bald Mtn Pond. I couldn't see well enough by flashlight to feel confident trying to ford at the dam, which was under water, with a considerable current going over it. So I bushwhacked a bit downstream, where there were more rocks above water, & waded across there. This was the second time for wading a stream today -- it's the standard method for the AT in Maine. When I got near where I'd have to ford another major stream, I decided it was late enough & that I ought to find a campsite. Just then, the AT went up a little higher (& dryer) & I was able to make camp off to the side of the Trail.Because she is now in a place with neither cell service nor WiFi, I devised an elaborate way to communicate with Susan. I didn't think I had enough reception for a phone call, but I figured I could text Mark & Katy with a message for Susan, & one of them could then call her on her land line. When I tried getting that number off my phone, I accidentally dialed it & she answered. So we were able to have a direct conversation about when I'd arrive. One bar won't usually do that.
Date: 2013-09-18
From: along the river

To: Shirley-Blanchard Road
Miles today: 8.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Only 120 miles to go!I started early again, so that I could get to the next road before noon. The Trail was nicer than last night, except for major fords, wading across both the West & East branches of the Piscataquis River. The first one had a rope to help hikers not get swept downstream by the current. The only trouble with that is that you don't always want to follow a straight line in fording a river. The Trail followed the river thru its canyon, which was very scenic, but I had very low power, & it was hard to get in a position to take a good picture anyway. The river has many twists & turns, including the one that gives its name to Horseshoe Canyon lean-to. I stopped there briefly, meeting a section hiker just getting up. One more ford & a hill-climb brought me to Shirley-Blanchard Road, where my faithful driver awaited. Blanchard is a small village near Monson where Susan had rented a house a mile or so off the AT. We went into Monson for lunch at the Lakeshore House. It was good, so we came back for supper too. In the afternoon we drove around quite a bit to neighboring towns (Susan has already done a lot of exploring of the area) for various items not available in Monson. We also found out that the proprietors of Lakeshore House will do a drop-off for re-supply in the middle of the "Hundred-Mile Wilderness", so I had lots of sorting to do: what do I want to carry, what to put in the container for drop-off, & what to leave behind? One thing I left was my heavier sleeping bag ¢ it just seemed too bulky & heavy to carry in what was turning out to be fairly warm weather. Since I had originally stopped carrying it after the Smokies (with another month of cold weather to go!) & had gotten along by wearing all my clothes in the lighter bag, that seemed appropriate. It provided a little weight relief, tho my pack still ended up too heavy.
Date: 2013-09-19
From: Shirley-Blanchard Road

To: Leeman Brook lean-to
Miles today: 9.3
Weather: clear sky

I've now entered the "100-Mile Wilderness", which means communication will be more difficult. I'LL GET THIS ALL UPDATED NEXT WEEK WHEN I FINISH THE HIKE. After a good night's sleep, Susan fixed me a special Breakfast: vegetable omelet, bacon, toast, juice, topped off with a big brownie covered with raspberry ice cream. Then I finished packing, & she took me to the trailhead. At that point, I had 6 miles to go till the actual beginning of the 100 miles. Along the way, I was passed by StarFail, Lumber, Fresh Prince, Danger Dave + Gravy & Honeysuckle, all of who intended to stop in Monson for longer or shorter periods of time. I didn't need to, of course, so I continued on when I got to Rt. 15. I was surprised to see Susan's car at the trailhead, but no sign of her. About a hundred yards after the Trail enters the woods, there is a ford of the outlet stream from Spectacle Pond. I didn't suppose she would have gone any farther [she doesn't like to get her feet wet or muddy], so I stopped to fix lunch, thinking she'd probably show up soon. A little later, I texted her, & she replied that she was up the trail at the second lake. After a little confusion about where that was, I moved on down the trail [as soon as I could put my hot stove away] & found her near a pond where she thought it would be nice for us to have lunch. She wanted to surprise me ¢ & she did. Getting quite adventuresome! So we had a little more time together before I hiked on."Wilderness" doesn't mean the Trail itself is much different; it's the fact that there are minimal opportunities to re-supply, so you have to carry a heavier pack. I think my knees were unhappy with that [also with all the sharp slate rock], so I 'm stopping at the first shelter rather than going farther. It's a pleasant place, which I seem to have to myself, except for the squirrels. I only see a few oak trees around, but they have assembled quite a pile of acorn parts around the shelter. Mud fairly dry on the trail today.