morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2016-08-23
From: Zealand Hut 

To: Webster Cliffs
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: clear sky

I had the best night sleep on the dining room floor last night. We got up at 6 as the Croo were beginning to make breakfast for the guests. I packed up and brought my stuff out on the deck and sat and had a cup of coffee. Jeff had said possibly he would drive up and come find me in Crawford Notch but unfortunately I hadn't cell service to text him anything. The guests finished their breakfast around 8:30 and the Croo had me come in for leftovers. Corn bread, oatmeal, dried apricots, and sliced peaches. Delicious!! I sat and wrote my trail journals for the next day while drinking more coffee. I finished and the dining room cleared out so I asked what they needed me to do for my work for stay. They asked if I could sweep out both bunk rooms and the dining room floor. No problem that's a piece of cake I got this. It only took me about 40 minutes to sweep all three spaces. Once I was done I decided to leave my pack and hike up to Zeacliff to see if I could get a text out to Jeff. I didn't want him driving up to meet me when I was no where near Crawford Notch. Luckily I had enough cell service to get the text out no problem. I was hoping with my delay this morning Hazel would catch up to me. I told myself to be on trail by noon at the latest. When I got back to Zealand Hut I got my gear on and headed out. I had a small climb down from the hut to the side trail that leads you to the road that most people walk into the hut from. I continued on into the notch and was amazed at the beauty and the fact that the trail was flat for 6 miles. The trail wanders between Zealand Notch and then passes Ethan pond before descending down into Crawford Notch. I stopped at Ethan Pond to have a snack and to check out the view. I continued on and descended down to the road where I walked a mile up the road to the Wiley House to get food. I had a turkey sandwich, bag of chips, 2 cokes and a Powerade. I had been battling a stomach ache most of the day and I suspect it was from the curry sauce I had at Zealand Notch. I was hoping that this food would help alleviate that problem. Well unfortunately the stomach ache continued while I made the big climb up Mt. Webster. My plan was to get to the Webster Cliffs and to stealth camp. The climb up was steep but I took it slow and arrived at the Webster Cliffs. I found a great place to camp and set up. I made dinner and watched the sunset. I was passed out before I knew it.
Date: 2016-08-24
From: Webster Cliffs

To: Lake of the clouds hut
Miles today: 8.6
Weather: fog

Woke up on top of Webster Cliffs to voices. I got out of my tent and Pharmacist and another hiker were looking at the view from the cliffs. I asked him if he had seen Hazel and he had not. They moved on and I made coffee and had breakfast. I slowly packed up and more hikers came northbound. Finally roadrunner said he had seen Hazel at Ethan Pond last night and her plan was to hitch to the campground and take a shower and do laundry. Yes I know where she is now good. I packed up and headed north. Climbing steeply up to the summit of Webster Mt I had fantastic 360 views. No clouds in the sky and Mt Washington was fully visible all day. There was a small descent after Webster and then a steep climb up Mt. Jackson where the views got even better. A nice family on the summit gave me an apple and string cheese which I was so thankful for. They were gone within seconds. I continued on and stopped at Mizpah Spring Hut where I had a bowl of soup and some lemonade. I met up with Smeigal there who was the girl who I did the half gallon challenge with. We hiked the rest of the way climbing up out of Mizpah Hut, over Mt Pierce, past Eisenhower, over Mt Franklin, and the past Monroe to Lake of the clouds hut. The hut was very busy and we checked in to see if there was any work for stay available. I was one of the last two to get work for stay and they asked if I minded hanging back in the morning to clean up after breakfast. While they set up for diner and the guests ate the 10 of us sat outside and watched the sunset. It started to get cold out so we sat inside while the guests finished up. Once the Croo ate them we were allowed to get dinner. There was not a lot of left overs so the chef made us a big pot of pasta and we used the BBQ sauce from the pulled pork for sauce. It was fantastic. There was salad and chocolate chip cookies. I was content and at 9:30 they shut the house lights down after the other thru hikers did their work for stay. I went outside to watch the stars for 30 minutes as the visibility was fantastic. I crashed really quickly and was thankful to be inside as it was rather cold outside. The 10 of us scattered ourselves to the dining room floor.
Date: 2016-08-25
From: Lake of the clouds hut

To: Valley Way Tent Site
Miles today: 7.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Woke up on the floor of Lake of the clouds hut at about 6 to the sounds of the Croo making breakfast. The 10 of us packed up and brought our gear outside so they could set the tables for breakfast. Most of the hikers got an early start but I stayed to do my work for stay. I made a cup of coffee and sat outside and watched the sunrise. Breakfast finished up and they invited me and roadrunner in for some breakfast. There were left over eggs I was so excited. We also had pineapple, coffee cake, and oatmeal and brown sugar for breakfast. After we finished eating, our work for stay was to sweep the dinning room and the bunk rooms. It took no time at all as with all my years of restaurant experience this was a piece of cake. Once the chores were done I wrote up my journal and called the family. While on the phone I saw Hazel coming down the hill to Lake of The Clouds. Finally reunited at last. We went inside for a bit and Hazel got some coffee cake. We headed out after she ate to begin out 1.3 mile climb up to the summit of Mt Washington. We got to the top and there was a line to take your picture with the sign that read Mt Washington summit. We decided to say forget it and took our picture with the sign in the background. We went into the visitor center at the top to get some food. I had 2 hotdogs and nachos. They provide an area for hikers to put their backpacks so we dropped off our packs and charged our phones. We continued on and descended down Mt Washington around the the Great Gulf. We passed Adams and headed towards Mt Madison stopping at Madison Hut. I went in to ask if they had any work for stay. They told me it was too early and that they like to reserve work for stay to hikers that get there late between 7-8. Hazel and I then decided to take the .60 side trail down to a campsite. The only other option was to hike 4 miles over to Osgood campsite. The hike down the side trail was steep and we lost a lot of elevation. Argh!! We got to the campsite and had to squeeze our two tents into one site. I fell asleep really fast after dinner. Hoping the rain holds off during the night.
Date: 2016-08-26
From: Valley Way Tent Site

To: Pinkham Notch to Gram's house
Miles today: 7.8

Woke up in the tent at Valley Way campsite and no rain. ThankGod. I had service and checked radar and the rain was coming. Hazel and I made a quick breakfast and packed up. We hiked the .60 mile back up to the hut up the steep straight up trail. We stopped in the hut and filled our waters. We began the climb up Madison and the rain and wind started. It was slow going as we were climbing over slippery wet boulders. I started singing reunited and it feels so good. Hazel started to laugh. It's nice to be back together. We summited Madison and started the descent. It took us about 3 hours to get below tree line as the rocks made it slow going. We stopped for a few snacks. The trail at this point enters the Great Gulf Wilderness and has no white blazes. You need to really pay attention to trail names and know where the AT goes. I stopped at a creek crossing at washed off and poured cold water on my head. Hazel changed into shorts as I got sunny and warmer than it was above tree line. We started again and I crossed the creek and was on the other side and slipped on a rock and down I went. I crunched and the sound my body made as I hit the ground was terrible. Hazel thought that's it his hike is over. Luckily nothing broken and not cuts. Just a bit sore. We carried on and the soreness lessened. We had one small climb up and over the shoulder that the Mt Washington Road sits on. We crossed over the auto road and descended down into Pinkham Notch. We immediately went to the cafeteria and got food. While I was eating Sleeping Bear showed up who I haven't seen since Boiling Springs, PA when him Cake and I went to the pool. I was very happy to see him again. I went down and took a shower and got clean clothes on. Hazel called Stephen to let him know how she was doing. My sister was on her way up from Massachusetts to pick Hazel and I up and bring us to my grandmothers house to take a day off to rest. She arrived at 5 and we headed into Gorham to do laundry. We went to Chinese food buffet while the clothes were washing. We switched over to the dryer and headed to Walmart to pick up food for Saturday. While walking into Walmart we saw Dragon Head and Ninja. They were taking a zero after doing a brutal 21 mile slack pack from Pinkham Notch to route 2 near Gorham. Ninja had slipped and fallen and went down into a crevice that Dragon Head had to pull her out of. She was all bruised but thankfully ok. Hazel and I had debated doing the slack pack but now said no way. They headed back to the hostel. We shopped and bought lots of food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We grabbed the clothes and headed to grams. I was so happy to see her as it had been two years. We stayed up till 10:30 which for Hazel and I was like being up to 3am. We headed to bed and I fell soundly asleep.
Date: 2016-08-27
From: Pinkham Notch to Gram's house

To: Grams House
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Woke up at grams and boy did I sleep well. We got up around 7:30 and made a huge breakfast. Eggs, blueberry pancakes made by Hazel. Bacon, orange juice, watermelon. We then headed to Lancaster to go to the library so Hazel could update her journal. I worked on Ancestry.com to update my family tree with some info I got from my gram. We stayed for two hours and then grabbed coffee and headed back to grams. When we got back we ate lunch and made sandwiches of turkey, ham and cheese, pickles, chips. We stuffed ourselves and then took a walk out back to the river. The water level was low enough that we could walk across to the sandy beach on the other side which we used to do as kids. We spent about 40 minutes down by the water and headed back up to the house to relax. We then decided to go up to Christine Lake and go for a swim. The water was warm but the wind made it cold. We swam for about 30 minutes before it got too cold to stand. On the way back to the house we drove by crystal falls to check them out. I had not been there for years and it was fun to take Hazel to see them. We got back to the house and it was time to eat again. Yay!! We had spaghetti and meatballs, salad, fresh bread and cheesecake for dessert. We stuffed ourselves again. Calorie load up calorie load up. After dinner we relaxed on the front porch listening to the coyotes yap. By 9 we all were ready for bed. I was gonna sleep good tonight.
Date: 2016-08-29
From: Mt Hight stealth spot. 

To: White Mountain Hostel. 
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Woke up to a dry tent this morning. The thunderstorms last night went to our north and only gave us a little bit of rain. We camped with Mosey last night which is funny as that is what Trooper calls me sometimes. We got up and had breakfast and made coffee. We got packed up and headed out by 7:30. We had about 50 feet to go before the summit of Mt Hight. The view was really neat as a dark cloud was sitting on top of the mountain but every direction you look you could see sun on the other mountsins. We descended down to Zeta pass and passed two people tenting. We climbed up and over Middle Carter and north Carter which wasn't too bad. However the descent from north Carter down to the Imp Campsite was another thing. This was the hardest descent for me on the whole trail. The combination of mossy wet rocks, followed by wind and bad footing made for a difficult descent. Hazel went first and we both were like what the heck are we doing. We laughed a lot mostly at the absurdity of the trail layout. If there were two ways to go down a particular rock we said ok we have a 50% chance of death. It took us two hours to go 1 mile. We made it down and cheered. We kept saying "precipitous drop off" anyone? We were close to the Imp Campsite when Mosey and so-free passed us. We hadn't seen so-free since the day we hiked out of Hannover and he slack packed with us for several miles. When we arrived to the shelter it was a side trail .20 miles straight down so we said forget it we will just sit on the trail rest, and have a snack. After our snack we had one more climb up Mt. Moriah which was a gradual climb up many open rock faces. We were gainin elevation but it did not feel like it. The weather had been weird all day. Dark cloud sitting overhead became fog with mist. Then it lifted to be broken clouds and sun with high winds. We heard from a hiker that a large group of Thru hikers were stuck at lake of the clouds as the winds on Mt Washington were gusting to 100 and they decided to wait for better weather. We reached the summit of Mt Moriah and began the descent down. The guidebook said it was a gently sloping trail to route 2 but the steep trail said otherwise. We later learned the gently sloping portion did not start until the shelter. We took our time down and reached route 2. Which meant 2 things. We went under the 300 mile mark for miles left to go and we are officially done with the Whites. Hazel and I walked the .10 miles up the road walk of the AT to the hostel and checked in. We got our laundry ready to wash, took a shower and hopped on the shuttle to Walmart to pick up the few supplies we needed and to get dinner. We went back to the hostel and ate. I went outside and sat by the fire and relaxed. We have an all you can eat breakfast tomorrow morning. Wohoo!!
Date: 2016-08-30
From: White Mountain Hostel. 

To: Gentian Pond Shelter
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: few clouds

Woke up at White Mountain House Hostel at 3am and was like what the heck. I streamed law and order on my phone last night via the wireless and got sucked in. They just released the next season I was waiting to watch on Netflix. I went back to sleep and woke up at 6:45 and went downstairs and sat in the living room. Breakfast will be served at 7am and is part of the price of staying there. They had French toast, sausage, hash browns, coffee and orange juice. It was delicious and filling. We got packed up and on trail at about 8:30. We had about a half mile of road walks before we began the ascent up Mt. Hayes. The climb was not like in the Whites. It was up but at a much more manageable pace. We arrived on the rocky summit and rested in the warm sun. Several other hikers were there including Paisley. She is a section hiker finishing up the trail after injuring herself in 2014 she had to get off the trail on New York. We met her in the Whites and she has been in the same day bubble as us for the last week or so. We carried on dropping down a few hundred feet before climbing up Cascade Mountain, which had lots of ledges which gave great views back to the Whites. We had a steep climb down to Trident Campsite where we filled up on water and continued on. We passed by Page Pond on our way climbing up to Wocket Ledge. I will have to admit there was a cocky thru hiker in his 20's today that seemed to try and catch me and pass me climbing up to Wocket Ledge. I heard him speed up so I did. He was huffing and puffing but couldn't pass me. I got to the top and he came at bit later and looked like he was about to pass out. I won!! He was coughing and choking. I said to myself yup keep smoking those cigarettes. I felt great yay me. Insert little devil on shoulder. I rested and waited for Hazel has I took off running up the mountain. She wasn't very far behind and we stopped to have some snacks. We continued on dropping down and had one more climb up before dropping down to dream lake. This is where we hit the 1900 mile mark. I can't believe it we have walked 1900 miles. Paisley caught up to us and we hiked the rest of the way to Gentian Pond where Hazel and I took the double tent platform and Paisley set up her hammock nearby. We made dinner and I was ready for bed by 7:50.
Date: 2016-08-31
From: Gentian Pond Shelter

To: Full Goose Shelter
Miles today: 9.6
Weather: broken clouds

Boy what a tough day this turned out to be. This ranks up there with one of the hardest days on the AT. I woke up to that sound of rain at 5:30 and fell back asleep. Finally at 7 when I sat up it was still raining. Hazel and I made breakfast from our tents and I made hot coffee. I packed up everything I could and brought my bag down to the shelter. I headed back to the tent and the rain let up enough to let us collapse and pack up. We got on trail a bit before 8. The first climb of the day was Mt. Success which was a series of ups and downs getting you higher and higher. Lots of mud and lots of wet rocks. Made for a slow go of it. The top of Mt Success offered some views but with the clouds not as spectacular of a view. We climbed down Mt success which was steep and slippery. Slow slow slow. Once at the bottom we had several more ups and downs. Several of the downs were steep slabs of rocks with drop offs on either side. I was pretty terrified a few times due to the wet rocks. A slip could be fatal or really in bad shape. Hazel and I laughed because what else is there to do with the situation. This is a good tree, this is a good root, we would yell to one another. We would occasionally yell not a good root not a good root. A southbounder listened to us for 20 minutes coming down a particularly tricky section and laughed that we were gonna start taking up pot to calm our nerves. We made it to the shelter and saw it was .30 miles and said nah we will have our snack right here. We carried on and had to climb full goose mountain and its three peaks. We started up and had many wet rock slabs to make our way up then we got to the rebar ladder and Hazel said oh boy. I took a video of her climbing up as it was a perfect example of what we do out here. We made it to the summit of Goose eye mountain west peak and rested. We proceeded on going down and up both Goose eye east peak and north peak. We then had a very steep climb down which was slow going. We had several ladders of rebar to climb down. For being under 10 miles of walking this literally took all day. We arrived at the campsite and we're lucky enough to grab one of the three tent platforms. The double had already been taken and Hazel and I finagled a way to get both of our tents on the platform. We used a log to tie one side of my rain fly to so my tent would not flood in the rain. We made dinner and relaxed before the rain headed in. Tomorrow we do Mahosec Notch and the arm. What fun.
Date: 2016-09-02
From: Grafton Notch

To: Pine Ellis Lodging 
Miles today: 10.3
Weather: broken clouds

Well I have never slept on a privy walkway before but last night was a first. Before you go ewwww it was well away from the privy. I woke up and got up around 7:30 to a cloudy day. There were some day hikers who had slept in their car having breakfast at the picnic table as well as another 4 thru hikers who were also camped there. Hazel and I joined in for breakfast at the picnic tables and talked about the plan for the day. We decided it would be good to try and get into the hostel in Andover to shower and so Hazel could clean up her cut. We started off about 8:30 and began the climb up Baldplate Mt. It was three miles up and the trail was nice. The last mile was steep and had lots of stone steps. We rested on the west peak and I called the hostel and made a reservation. We descended and then ascended Baldpate east peak. This peak was a treeless soil less dome. We rock scrambled up to the summit and it was a bit hairy at times but we made do. We descended down to Frye Notch lean-to and ate lunch. We had a small ascent and called the hostel to arrange a shuttle to get into town. The descent down was an easy 4 miles. We arrived at East Hill road with ten minutes to spare. The shuttle guy was called Sherlock who thru hiked in 2002. We got to the hostel and checked in, took showers and headed to the red hen diner for prime rib special. It was delicious and we wolfed it down in no time. We ran across the street to the general store for super expensive resupply. We headed back to the hostel to put in our laundry and to relax. We are taking the 9:30 shuttle back to the trail.
Date: 2016-09-03
From: Pine Ellis Lodging 

To: South Arm Campsite.
Miles today: 10.1
Weather: few clouds

I slept pretty good in the bunkhouse but for hostels this one was not high up on my list. Hazel was already up and inside the main house having hot chocolate. I joined her with a cup of coffee. We headed into town for breakfast at the red hen then went to the general store for some short term resupply. This town was crazy expensive on resupply items. We bought the bare minimum as we didn't want to spend a fortune. We headed back to the house and packed up and waited for the 10am shuttle. We were back on trail the first climb of the day was a long but easy ascent up Wyman Mt. Half way up we passed surplus pond which was really pretty. We stopped at Hall Mt. lean-to which was on the summit of our next climb. We descended steeply down to sawyer notch and then immediately began the climb up Moody Mt which was an unforgiving trail. Straight up for .90 miles and 1600 feet in elevation gain. We rested on the top at a view point and climbed down the other side with the trail being gradual to the bottom. We found a really nice camp spot by the river and set up. There was even a new privy close by with a porch. While setting up Hazel was getting bite by little black insects and then I started to. We got out gear inside our tents and realized they were fleas. They were all over our netting and some were managing to get in our tent. Aaaaaahhhhh. We decided to abort the campsite and Hazel ran over to another area to see if they were over there. No fleas but this spot had a huge wasps nest and lots of wasps flying around. We broke down the tents while being attacked by fleas and headed across the road hoping something would be on the other side. The other side of the road immediately went steeply up and nowhere to camp. I walked down the road a little bit and saw a campsite in the woods that is not supposed to be used but at this point we didn't have a choice. We set up in the dark and made dinner. I immediately fell asleep around 8.
Date: 2016-09-04
From: South Arm Campsite.

To: Bemis Stream campsite
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: scattered clouds

Woke up in the flea-less campsite around 6:30. I slept really good even though it got down into the 40's. I went and filtered water, took the bear bag down and the laundry line down. We made breakfast and got on trail around 7:30. Our first climb of the day was up old blue mt. I played the soundtrack of Wicked for Hazel who had never heard it. The music gave us a nice break to the hike and we were on the summit in no time. We stopped for a snack and the view was wonderful. We followed the trail along the ridge line and summitted Bemis Mt and Bemis second peak. The trail was really nice today. We hiked with and leapfrogged old timer, red, crash and nacho. We descended down to a dirt road and camped near Bemis stream. The weather today was just perfect for hiking. Hazel bumped her knee again and tore off the scab. We need to wrap it with heavy layering to keep it safe. We made dinner, hung the bear bag and I think by 7:45 I was drifting off to sleep. Dragon head and Ninja are about 61 miles ahead of us. They just recently left Stratton, Maine.