morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2012-09-12
From: Pierce Pond Lean=to

To: Pleasant Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 9.7
Weather: clear sky

Got up this morning to my first mouse incident. The little guys had eaten the mouth piece on my bladder. Good hiking this morning. I was able to make good time to the ferry on the Kennebec River. Turns out the ferry is a canoe. I helped paddle across once he found out I had paddled in a canoe before. I can see why they say DON'T ford the river. The current was quite strong. Went into Caratunk for breakfast and picked a few supplies (peanut butter, cheese). Solo and I headed back out to get in some more miles. Monson, the 100 mile wilderness, Katahdin and home are calling. Our group is breaking apart now, everyone has their own timetable/agenda.
Date: 2012-09-13
From: Pleasant Pond Lean-to

To: Moxie Bald Mountain Lean-to
Miles today: 13.1

Saw the largest black bear I have ever seen today. He/she was standing near the trail. I blew my whistle and all it did was look over at me. So I had to clack my poles together, jump up and down, sing and shout. After making a fool of myself, it finally ambled off. I still haven't seen a moose, tho everyone else seems to be seeing them. The trail is very rooty. Have to do the step between the roots shuffle. I have to mention what it's like watching the young pups hop along the rocks. They look like they are rock dancing, they do it so lightly. Pretty neat to watch.
Date: 2012-09-14
From: Moxie Bald Mountain Lean-to

To: Stealth camping by Lake Hebron
Miles today: 14.0

Solo and I are cowboy camping next to Lake Hebron. Had 2 river/stream crossings today. Switched to my crocs to keep my boots on the drier side for both crossings. One crossing involved holding onto a rope that was strung across the river. You had to reach above your head to hold onto it. The trail was following a stream for about 5 miles. At some points you were next to it, other times on the ridgeline where you could hear it. Enjoyed hiking near it. Can't believe the mosquitoes are still biting. And I pulled a woodtick off me too!
Date: 2012-09-15
From: Stealth camping by Lake Hebron

To: ME 15 (Monson)
Miles today: 3.9
Weather: broken clouds

Got up early, hiked to the trailhead on ME 15 and got there just as the shuttle was dropping off people so were able to catch it into Monson. Able to eat breakfast, do laundry and get checked into Shaw's all before 10:30 am! Will take a nero day today then head out on the final leg of my journey... 114.5 miles to go! My last resupply box was waiting for me when I got here. Need to resupply with enough for 8 days. Grocery store here I come. Things like peanut butter, cheese, thin bread...
Date: 2012-09-16
From: ME 15 (Monson)

To: ME 15 (Monson)
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Decided on a zero day. Had a good breakfast, went to church, resupplied for the last leg of the hike. Solo went back on the trail. The pack has gathered again: FM, Owf, Medicine Man, DK, Dakota Dan, Tater Tot, and lo and behold, Bubblefoot showed up. I don't think I've seen him since Harpers Ferry. Monson is a quaint town!
Date: 2012-09-17
From: ME 15 (Monson)

To: Stealth Camping
Miles today: 13.0

The hiking since Monson has been more difficult than any of us suspected. Lots up puds, ups and downs, no level stretches. It's like hiking the ridgeline on the North Shore (MN Lake Superior for those of you wondering). I forded 2 streams very carefully in my crocs, one with water up to my knees. Came across the sign warning of the difficulty of the trail you are about to enter. Please bring supplies for 10 days. If you are not experienced or not with someone who is experienced, do not enter. Yikes! I am stealth cowboy camping near a stream. I am in a depression that has a natural pillow! Most of the pack seems to be stealth camping. Our intentions were to get farther than most of us were able to get before it started getting dark.
Date: 2012-09-19
From: Chairback Gap Lean-to

To: Chairback Gap Lean-to
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Rained all night... Probably around 2". Now there is no problem finding water. I decided to stay put all day to let the streams I will be fording settle down to a manageable depth. Everyone else hung around til late morning then decided to head out to the campsite next to the stream (4 miles down the trail). I did some emergency repair on my pack. The zipper on the top pocket has decided to go kaput. Thank you dental floss! I think I got it so it isn't flopping around. New faces at the shelter tonight.
Date: 2012-09-20
From: Chairback Gap Lean-to

To: Sidney Tappan Campsite
Miles today: 11.7
Weather: clear sky

Was able to ford the stream - it was up to my knees and cold! The weather has gotten colder. I am cowboy camping. I lost the pack. They are all ahead of me now with my taking a weather related zero day yesterday. Tomorrow I get to take on White Cap Mountain. Hopefully after that things will level out somewhat. I think I am heading into no cell phone reception land...
Date: 2012-09-21
From: Sidney Tappan Campsite

To: Past Mountain View Pond
Miles today: 11.0

Lots of downfall, deadfall today. I guess the high winds the other night took their toll. Muddy, rooty, rocky trail. I saw Katahdin off in the distance... Oh Wow!!! It sticks way up!. Blue Sky and I are stealth camping. Built a campfire. It's cold at night.
Date: 2012-09-23
From: Antlers Campsite

To: White House Landing
Miles today: 7.0

Got up and to the White House landing at a decent time this morning. This is a pretty cool place. I'm taking notes on their set-up for the future cabin! Got here in time for lunch and then dinner. Only hikers staying. Guess that .9 miles was more than anyone else wanted to sidetrack to.
Date: 2012-09-24
From: White House Landing

To: Pollywog Stream
Miles today: 13.4

Left White House after getting my boat drop-off. Really liked that place. Still no moose sightings. Still rocky, rooty and mucky. Saw Mt Katahdin from Nesuntabunt Mtn. The end is in sight and I'm getting excited. The bottom of my foot is really bothering me, not that it's going to stop me from finishing! Onward. Cowboy camping with 15 degree bag and still really, really cold!
Date: 2012-09-25
From: Pollywog Stream

To: Abol Bridge Campground
Miles today: 17.2
Weather: clear sky

Relatively easy day with one mini climb. Went through a lot of bogs. Made good time. Stopped at the Abol Bridge Campstore... Not a whole lot there. I finally saw lots of moose. Of course they were laying down and gutted. It's moose hunting season out here. Decided to stay at the Abol Bridge Campground. Not much left to go...
Date: 2012-09-26
From: Abol Bridge Campground

To: Katahdin Stream Campground
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I am registered to summit tomorrow! Got in and signed up (I was the 2nd to sign up today). #557 Nobo to arrive this year. It rained most of this morning so I'm glad I wasn't heading up today. Lots of people summited yesterday. The Pack have all finished. I have had some great views of Katahdin on the hike in... Wow! Caught the shuttle into Millinocket and am staying at the Appalachian Trail Lodge. I am ready!
Date: 2012-09-27
From: Katahdin Stream Campground

To: Summit of Katahdin
Miles today: 5.1
Weather: scattered clouds

Up early to eat and get an early start. Caught the shuttle from Millinocket to Katahdin Stream Campground. Officially started at 7:20 am. Reached the summit/north end of the AT at 11 AM East Coast time. Tears were running down my face when I saw the sign at the end... It was a sunny, windy day. The climb up and down was Mahoosuc Notch on vertical steroids...tough! Got to the top and enjoyed a martini, complete with olive and martini glass with Waldo and Suds. The three NoBos stood around and took lots of goofy pictures of ourselves. Descended and caught the shuttle back to Millinocket. The lobster and all the rounds of Jack Daniel shots were excellent. Life is good! I thru hiked the whole AT!!!! I'm on an adreline/alcohol fueled high right now! I MADE IT!
Date: 2011-03-25
To: Prep #1 - So it Begins
Miles today: 0.0

As far as this journal goes, for me, I hope it will serve as a record of my immediate thoughts every day on the trail and an outlet for all my pent up energy during my planning stage. My hope is that it will be a good place for my family and friends to keep track of my progress and feel more comfortable with me being out there. For anyone who might one day attempt a thru, I hope there might be something in my journal that you will find useful. To that end I will strive to always share my thoughts and experiences honestly and fully. So be prepared for those deepest darkest thoughts that I rarely share beyond my own mind. And for anyone squeamish, just know that I lost all sense of ¢normal¢ modesty a while back so try not to be grossed out or offended by the blunt details. ?Right, so here we go. So a year and a half ago I moved out to this tiny island in Maine that has some of the best hiking trails I have ever been on and absolutely stunning views. Being here definitely rekindled a love for hiking and when my mother sent me Bill Bryson¢s A Walk in the Woods, a seed was planted. And it grew into an itch, which became an idea, and is now an obsession. This voice in my head just kept popping up and saying, ¢I want to hike the Appalachian Trail. All of it. In one go¢. That thought stewed around for a year or so before it cemented and I find myself here, a year out from my intended start date.Of course announcing this to family and friends has caused some blank to horrified faces, not a few questions and concerns, and eventual acceptance to enthusiastic support. I knew you¢d come around guys?. But just to satisfy the worry warts, here are a few answers to your questions:You can¢t do that alone!Yes I can. Many many people solo hike, women included. But yes, I will look for a partner and bring along friends from time to time. What about bears?You mean like the ones that live around my house and I chase away from the chickens?        What if you break a leg?It¢s possible. I¢ll take all the precautions I can,but I will not let the what ifs stand in the way of this dream. What about the mad eyed toothless axe murderers laying in wait?Um, the trail is a heck of a lot safer than most the rest of the world. Seriously check out the statistics. Plus they would get really bored with all that waiting. Are you bringing a Gun? A big knife? Attack dogs? Armed guards?No. No. No. How cute are they? Trust me guys, I¢m more likely to shoot my own foot off. But yes, I will be careful, choose safe places to camp at night, use this thing between my ears and the good judgment I was taught from birth.But why do you want to hike that far and that long?For the challenge. For the beauty. For the misery and the joy. Because I miss pushing my body to it's physical limits and breaking down my mental barriers. Because I¢ll remember it forever. Because I can. Because this is the perfect time. Because at the end of the day, ¢Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.¢ ¢ Mark TwainUntil next time ¢ Jess
Date: 2011-03-28
To: Prep # 2 - Making Plans
Miles today: 0.0

So when I first started planning for my thru, my time schedule was wide open. A result of being a bum no doubt. I had wanted to hike NOBO from point A to point B starting in April and taking it nice and easy with low mileage days. But now that I¢m planning to go to grad school in fall 2012 (cross fingers I actually get in) and I¢m thinking about adjusting things.In September I¢ll be moving back home to VA to spend the winter with my incredibly supportive parents. I grew up in VA and have hiked the Shenandoahs on and off through my younger years so I am pretty comfortable with that area. Plus I¢m a really short drive from the AT. So now I¢m thinking rather than trying to rush through my thru hike or risking not making it in time, I¢m going to do a weird little flip flop. I¢ll hike as much of VA as weather allows in February and early March. Then I¢ll hop down to Georgia and hike to where I started in VA. Skip over whatever I got through in Feb. and continue north to the end. Basically I¢ll be licking the frosting out of the Oreo first and then eating the cookies. Even though I¢m a little bummed that I won¢t be hiking continuously north uninterrupted, there are quite a few advantages to the plan. First off it¢ll give me a great opportunity to do some last minute shake down hikes close to home while taking down some AT miles. I¢ll miss all the summer crowds at Shenandoah National Park. I¢ll have a month of conditioning under my belt when I hit Georgia. And because I have friends spread all over VA, I¢ll have a lot of opportunities to convince my friends to come with me for some of it. Or at least meet me at the trailhead with delicious food. And the greatest benefit is a little peace of mind. I know myself well enough to know that I¢m going to want to venture on some side trails to visit lookouts or take some real low mileage days. Well that¢s the plan anyway. Or as much of a plan as you can make this far out. Here¢s praying to an early spring!
Date: 2011-04-03
To: Prep#4 - Gear testing
Miles today: 0.0

It was a gorgeous spring day today on my island with temperatures in the low 40s. mmmm warm! So I took the opportunity to try out my new boots in some excellent test conditions. We had snow, ice, flowing creeks, mossy bogs, mud pits, and rocks to play in and put these guys through their paces. After a nice 3 mile hike this is my assessment:The good news is they held up quite a ways before I noticed some wetness. So I guess gortex does something. Not that I¢m counting on it as I fully expect to be absolutely soaked during my hike. They also dried really fast. These guys were very comfortable and felt secure around my heel while allowing my toes to spread out fully. They are also soooo light! Way more than my old boots or even my cast off running shoes.The bad news is that you can definitely feel some of the rocks through the softer hiking soles. Not painful now but I¢m sure my sore feet will protest after 15 miles or so, especially once I hit PA. These boots don¢t really provide ankle support so much as they give the illusion of support. My bad ankle did flair up but luckily no ankle roles to set me back on my rehab. I guess a benefit of the softer sole is that my boot curves around the rocks a little rather than a harder sole which would tilt my hole foot on a rock. These days if the ankle goes a little bit I come crashing down and with these guys I was able to catch myself a little better on the rough ground. Overall I am pleased with the new boots; for now anyway.Just a little background: Two years ago I rolled my ankle and sprained it really badly (imagine a softball swell beneath the skin). This all happened a good week before crew season started up so unfortunately it never really got the chance to heal during the months that followed. When rowing you end up picking up a lot of weight with you legs and transferring that with your ankles to the boat i.e. constant wide range of motion and lots of pressure. You can feel all the scar tissue and tell that it set my gait off some. This might be some of the twinge I felt. I think the boots realigned my gait which stressed my ankle a little. Next time I have the opportunity to visit a good outfitter, I¢m going to invest in some good soles to replace the current thin ones. In the mean time I¢ve been doing a lot of rehabilitative stretches and strengthening exercises for my ankle and knees. I¢ve got a year to strengthen these guys up as best I can.   It felt so good to be out hiking the trails again in something other than winter weather, yay no more thick snow to trudge through.
Date: 2011-12-27
To: Prep #8
Miles today: 0.0

Whew, 6 months huh? It¢s been a long time since I¢ve posted which is not a result of waning desire, instead an indication of just how gosh darn busy I¢ve been in the last few months. I¢ve moved back to VA, applied to grad schools, found a job with weird hours that consumes my life, and generally have been taking care of all those nagging life issues that go on the back burners for too long. All done now! Which means it is full steam ahead with the hike preparation. That¢s not to say I have been ignoring this impending AT adventure these last few months. Hmmmm what¢s been going on since I last wrote?Well with all of the end of year reporting and finishing of projects for my AmeriCorps fellowship, packing for my move to VA, saying goodbye to my island friends, and doing the bucket list of all the things I wanted to do before leaving Maine, I had little time to think about hike preparation. This is not to say I didn¢t do some hiking. In august I was able to sneak away for an overnighter in the amazingly beautiful hills around Cherryfield, Maine. My good friends, the Finns, took me out to this great area where I was able to climb all over Black and Tufts Mountain. The views were spectacular as you can see from the pictures I uploaded. And I got to try out a lot of my new gear, get back into the swing of hiking with a backpack on, and generally appreciate how much joy I find in this activity and how excited I am for the opportunity to do the AT. There was nothing quite like waking up early in the morning and packing up only to find myself alone on a bare top of a mountain, looking out across the trails I hiked the previous day. It was magical, dirty, and soreness inducing and the memory certainly spurs anticipation for what is to come.My friends and family have been amazingly generous through goodbye gifts, birthdays and Christmas and I now have even more gear goodies. Rather than go into every gear item that I¢ve recently acquired I¢ll let those interested check them out in my gear section. But I wanted to give special thanks to all of my island friends who with their remarkable generosity made it possible for me to purchase a smartphone for the trail. One that is being used as we speak to update this trailjournal. I cannot express my gratitude enough but think of all of you every phone call I take and every website I check.So now that every bit of gear I could possibly desire is acquired and tried out on some mini hikes it¢s time to set my mind for some longer prep hikes in the coming weeks. I¢ll keep you updated. P.S. Thanks for all the encouraging words left in the comments, it certainly adds to the motivation.
Date: 2012-01-07
To: Prep #9 Dear god is that the date?
Miles today: 0.0

So one of the difficulties of planning such a mammoth undertaking as this hike for the last two years is that right around 6 months ago all of my pent up energy and just the simple act of waiting was driving me mad. Response? Focus on other things, try not to think about it every day, avoid all trail related crazy¢¦.and now just under two months away from it all is PANIC MODE! Okay maybe not panic but certainly a boatload of surprise as I make lists of all that still needs to get done. Just today I asked my dad what the chances were of him getting his hands on some deer meat¢¦strange things are happening to me. So yes lots of jitters and excitement and little twinges of overwhelming stress slipping in to my mind these days. On Thursday my mother, aunt, and I all piled into a van and drove up to Richmond so that I could visit n REI and use my holiday gift cards on some last gear items. (Thank you family!) I had such a great time yesterday finishing off the last of my supply shopping (I hope). I finally found pants that allow me to actually lift my leg and place it more than 6 inches vertically. (Don¢t get me started on the weird desire of outdoor stores that cut and sew all women¢s pants to be ¢fashionable¢ but fail to realize those women might actually need to climb those mountains you¢re posing them in front of for all your advertising photos¢¦no nooooo I haven¢t ranted about this a few times or anything¢¦) where was I? Right pants. So yes now I have all the clothing I need to truly simulate the trail life during my prep hikes. Or at least that's what I tell myself but from all the research I've done and past thru hikers I've talked to, I know that no matter what I'll never be truly prepared and the trail itself will demand what it needs from me.Ooooo ooo ooooo! Speaking of slick new things, it's time for a little reveal. Originally, as in years ago I had decided not to give myself a trailname and instead allow the trail to name me. Dangerous business I hear tell. But my how things change. In a way, trail prep named me early on. With every new gear item, DIY item, brushing off and spitshine of old gear, right down to selection of duck tape and rope, I found myself always drawn to the most garish, outlandish, sparkly colors. It had become ridicules to the point that I determined that at all costs this urge had to be fought and I forced myself to purchase black shirts rather than complete the circus attire look I had put together up until then. But still I covet those pretty seafoam and ruby red options. And this bandana would match my pack, and ooooo look at the way the light reflects off that! Why tell you all this? Well because I want to and I'm writing this journal. But really it's because as with all areas of my life, this hike cannot resist my magpie instincts. And so without further adieu, I reveal my new trail name, Magpie. Well until something new and shiny comes along that is.