morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2006-09-26
From: Safford Notch

To: Carrying Place Stream
Miles today: 19.2

Nice long day today. Passed the 2,000-mile mark as well! It¢s hard to believe that I¢m finally so close to the end. As I mentioned yesterday, the terrain has eased up tremendously, allowing for long days here and there once more.        I was actually going for 23 miles today, but towards the end, I found such a great ¢stealth¢ campsite that I decided to call it early. I¢m only about 5 miles from Caratunk, where I have a maildrop, and right now the plan is to go in, get my drop, and hit the trail again that day. That¢ll help me get to Monson faster, and after that Katahdin.        Again, not a whole lot else to report. There¢s not a lot of other hikers around at the moment, so not much has been going on. I think they¢re mostly a day ahead or a day behind me.
Date: 2006-09-27
From: Carrying Place Stream

To: Northern Outdoors Lodge #1
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Shorty day today. I wasn¢t planning to stay in Caratunk, and only am by accident.        It was super-cold last night. I had to get up in the middle of the night and put my bag liner in to make it warmer. I woke up and there was frost on the ground. It took me a bit longer than I wanted to get going.        The hike today included the Kennebec River, the largest unbridged crossing on the entire trail. Instead of a bridge, the ATC pays a ferry man to canoe hikers across. The ferry operates 9am to 11am, and 2pm to 4pm. Due to slightly rougher trail than I was expecting, I got to the river at 11:15 a.m. Thus I had to cool my heels beside the river until 2 pm.        It worked out, however. I had been planning to just blow on through Caratunk, grab my maildrop, and keep hiking. By the time I got across the river, got my drop, and sorted everything out, it was too late to make the six miles to the next shelter. I decided to hitch down to Northern Outdoors to stay the night.        As I was walking through Caratunk, I heard a woman say, ¢It¢s Wooly Bear!¢ I look over and there¢s ¢Rocky¢ and ¢Swamp Fox¢ sitting in a car beside the road. They had asked me to call them when I got to Hanover, but when I did, they were out hiking. It was a nice bit of trail magic to run into them again. They were in Caratunk looking to buy a place for a hostel. Unfortunately they were on their way home, but they did give me a ride to Northern Outdoors.        So, only because I was late did I see old trail friends. It¢s great how things work out like that.
Date: 2006-09-28
From: Northern Outdoors Lodge #1

To: Moxie Bald Shelter
Miles today: 18.8

Big mile day today. All the weather reports are calling for major rainstorms tomorrow, so I wanted to get over the two big steep climbs while they were still dry. This actually puts me on track to hit Monson tomorrow, another bonus when it¢s going to be raining. Plus, anything that gets me closer to being done is a good thing.        I didn¢t want to set up my tent tonight, but the shelter here is tiny and I didn¢t want to crowd in with the others who were already here. Among the others is ¢Eagle¢, whom I last saw in Hot Springs. He¢s already finished and is hiking southbound now as part of a yo-yo hike. He¢s crazy. I¢m eager to get the heck off this trail.        I can barely fathom how I¢ve managed to make it this far. There were so many times that I¢ve wanted to quit. I¢m amazed that I¢m still out here. I¢m just stubborn, I guess.
Date: 2006-09-29
From: Moxie Bald Shelter

To: Shaw's Lodging
Miles today: 17.9

Monson at last! The gateway to the Hundred Mile Wilderness. At the end of the hundred miles is the Big K itself! It¢s all very exciting.        If only the weather wasn¢t so god-awful. It poured down rain all day today without much relenting. It made for pretty miserable hiking. It wasn¢t helped by the generally poor condition of the trail in this area, or the fact that I had to cross three unbridged rivers today, each with no way to cross except to wade through them. It was a wet day all around.        The only real bright spot in all this was that I managed to pack up my tent dry. I woke up at 5:30 a.m. this morning and it hadn¢t started raining yet. I hurried to get everything packed and ready. By the time I finished all my morning chores, it was 7. Right after I got my waterproof pack cover in place it started raining and never stopped until a couple hours ago. Still, everything was packed up dry, and that¢s what matters.        Tomorrow is supposed to be a better day, but unfortunately there is more rain coming throughout next week. Just great. Thank God this is almost over.
Date: 2006-09-30
From: Shaw's Lodging

To: Long Pond Stream Shelter
Miles today: 15.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Less than a hundred miles left! It¢s really counting down fast now!        My first day in the Hundred Mile Wilderness was extremely obnoxious. Lots of mud, wet rock, and FOUR unbridged river crossings. Each one of the crossings requires you to take off your shoes and wade across. They claim the massive spring thaws wash away any bridge they build, but I think they could make it work if they really wanted to.                The weather today was pretty nice. Lots of sun to dry things out. Too bad it¢s supposed to rain a gain tomorrow. It shouldn¢t be as bad as the storms yesterday, but rain is unpleasant in any amounts when you can¢t get out of it.        Tomorrow I start up the Barren Chairback Range. It¢s the second to last mountain before Katahdin itself. After that I do Whitecap the next day, and then it¢s almost flat for the last sixty miles. I can hardly wait. Joe is scheduled to come pick me up on Monday, October 9th, but if things go well, I may actually be done a few days sooner than that. A nice buffer to either wait for good weather before hitting Katahdin, or for partying afterwards in Millinocket.
Date: 2006-10-01
From: Long Pond Stream Shelter

To: West Branch Pleasant River
Miles today: 15.3
Weather: moderate rain

Another fifteen miles closer to Katahdin, and a hard fifteen miles it was, too. Lots of bogs with rotted out, or no bog bridges at all. Also a bunch of steep climbs. I fell several times today as everything was slippery and the footing was terrible.        At least the rain held off. It has yet to actually begin as I write this. A couple of day hikers said that the chance of rain is slight and that it¢ll be mostly overcast. NPR begs to differ and says that it¢ll rain tonight and tomorrow. I hope the day hikers are right.        First thing tomorrow I¢ve got to ford the Pleasant River. I¢m getting very sick of all these fords. At least I have an awesome campsite right here. We¢re on nice flat ground next to a tributary of Pleasant River. There are a ton of hikers here, the people that wouldn¢t leave Monson in the rain all left at the same time and are now all clumped together.        It makes it hard to determine if there¢s going to be a place to stay at any given shelter or campsite. It¢ll also be a problem if we¢re all still clumped when we get to Katahdin where there is limited space for thru-hikers to stay.
Date: 2006-10-02
From: West Branch Pleasant River

To: Carl A. Newhall Shelter
Miles today: 5.5
Weather: light rain

Super-shorty day today. It started raining last night right after I finished writing my journal. It didn¢t stop until around 7 a.m. or so. Thus was I left with a wet tent to carry around all day.        It was wet and miserable hiking today as well. Lots of mud and wet plants hanging in the path. When I got to the first shelter, I decided I¢d had enough. I¢m already ahead of schedule, my ride home coming two days after I expect to summit now, and I have plenty of food. I also want this huge hiker bubble to get ahead of me. I don¢t really like having so many people around.        I spent the rest of the day with another hiker, Brock, who I¢ve seen off and on since the start. He stayed here last night and decided not to leave. We spent the day building a fire with wet wood. We actually did a pretty good job of it, and by the time other hikers arrived it was burning merrily away.        The sky completely cleared just after dusk, and NPR says a high-pressure system is moving in. This should bring us warmer and dryer weather for the rest of the week. My tent is hung up now and is already almost completely dry already.        I just now heard on NPR, the next few days are going to be bright and sunny. Thursday and Friday nights; however, will be below freezing. Yikes.
Date: 2006-10-03
From: Carl A. Newhall Shelter

To: Mountain View Pond
Miles today: 12.7

Finally over the last big climb before Big K! From here on out the trail is nearly flat right up to Katahdin itself.        Today was a good day, weather-wise. It was warm, relatively clear, and most importantly was dry. The climbs over White Cap Mountain were fairly strenuous, though nothing as bad as other areas of Maine. Tomorrow I intend to start pushing big miles to get to Katahdin as soon as possible.        The weather over the next few days looks pretty good. There¢ll be rain tomorrow night, but the next two days after that are supposed to be completely clear. After that I have no news. Hopefully the weather will continue to be clear for Saturday or Sunday, which is when I expect to summit.
Date: 2006-10-04
From: Mountain View Pond

To: White House Landing
Miles today: 20.0

It¢s my six-month anniversary here on the trail. It¢s looking like I¢ll only have three more days after this one, and I couldn¢t be happier.        Today was a damned fine day too. I flushed a pair of moose right as I started hiking. A great big bull and a cow. The cow ran off immediately, but the bull just stood in the middle of the trail and looked at me. I got a couple great pictures of him before he moved off down the trail. I was pretty relieved when he did, though. It¢s their mating season, and bull moose are very unpredictable at this time. Given that the thing was two feet taller than me and had a huge set of antlers, I didn¢t really want to tangle with it.        Hiking today was cake. Aside from some slippery bog bridges that sent me for a fall several times, I had no problems. The rest of the trail to Big K is reportedly more of the same, which couldn¢t please me more. The weather report is in, and it says that after rain tonight, it will be clear and cool all weekend. I should have great weather for my finish.        Tonight I am staying at White House Landing, the only hostel in the Hundred Miles. To get here I had to hike a mile down a side trail to a dock on Lake Pemadumcook, then sound an air horn they have hanging there. The air horn summons the proprietors who come over in a boat to pick you up.        It¢s a great place. Hot dinner, showers, AYCE breakfast. I¢ve had a 1 lb. Burger for dinner and am feeling might good about it.        Almost done!
Date: 2006-10-05
From: White House Landing

To: Rainbow Spring
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: scattered clouds

Almost there!!!!        Today was one of my ¢I Hate Maine¢ days. The trail was particularly obnoxious. They insisted on running us along the shores of lakes and rivers all day, which means that the trail was little more than roots and mud. It was very reminiscent of Pennsylvania, except that unlike the rocks, roots are like little slides. Combine a trail consisting largely of roots with unending mud to coat the soles of your boots, and you never quite know if your foot is going to stay where you put it.        The worst part was that all day long while I was slipping and stumbling over muddy roots, there was a nice level low dry ridge not fifty yards away. Why they couldn¢t just route the stupid trail over the ridge instead of down in the swamp is beyond me. To top it all off, I didn¢t see a single bog bridge all day. Brilliant,         Nothing can subdue my mood, though. Only 26 miles left! Tomorrow if all goes as planned, I will be at the base of Katahdin ready to summit on Saturday morning!        I say, ¢if all goes as planned¢, because there is a small wrinkle. There are only twelve spaces for thru-hikers at the base of Katahdin. There may be more hikers than that between here and there. I can¢t be sure. I¢m concerned that the massive bubble of hikers that left Monson when I did might be camped at Abol Bridge right now and will take all twelve slots before I get there. If all the slots are taken, you pretty much have to wait until the next day to enter the park.        The plan right now is to get up really early and try to beat as many people to the sign in at Abol Bridge as I can. Here¢s hoping for a bit of luck
Date: 2006-10-06
From: Rainbow Spring

To: The Birches Campsite
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: clear sky

After six long months, here I finally am, at the base of Katahdin herself. Only five more miles lie before me and I¢m so excited I don¢t know if I¢ll be able to sleep tonight.        My previous fears were not without foundation, it would seem. There¢s at least sixteen hikers summiting tomorrow. Fortunately many of them had reservations at Katahdin Stream Campground or had friends or relatives take them into Millinocket for the night. There¢s eight hikers here at the Birches tonight.        The weather for tomorrow is supposed to be crystal clear. An absolutely perfect day to summit. It¢s clear right now as well and the full moon has it almost as bright as day out here. It¢s also rather cold, but we have a nice warm campfire going which is keeping things nice and warm.         Hiking today was fairly easy, even if the miles were rather long. I got up at 5 a.m. and was on the trail by 6. I got here in pretty good time.        Tomorrow I plan to get up at around 4 am, to be on the trail by 5. There¢s no real reason to start so early, but I¢m eager to finish this! Also, it¢s a weekend during leaf season so the mountain will be swarming with tourists. The earlier we get up there, the better.        Anyway, I¢d better at least try to get some sleep. More tomorrow.
Date: 2006-10-07
From: The Birches Campsite

To: AT Lodge
Miles today: 5.2

DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!        It¢s still hard to believe that it¢s over, and I¢m writing this a week later. It¢s definitely a relief that I can sleep in a bed without paying an arm and a leg, and it¢s a novelty that I just don¢t care if it¢s going to rain.        I started up Katahdin at around 5:30 a.m. after getting up at 4 am. There was ice on my tent and it was freaking cold outside but with all my layers on, I was warm enough. The sky was perfectly clear and a full moon was so bright that I almost didn¢t need my headlamp.        The first mile up Katahdin was actually very easy. After Katahdin Stream Falls, the trail grew steeper, but was still a normal climb. A mile after that; however, you hit the Hunt Spur and it becomes hand-over-hand climbing for a mile. Then you hit the tablelands and it becomes a more normal trail once more. It wasn¢t quite as hard as advertised really, but it was definitely a difficult climb.        Right at the end you can actually see the summit sign up on the ridge. As soon as I saw it, my heart started to race. I practically ran the rest of the way to the top. When I got there, there were already a number of thru-hikers up there, many having stared early enough to watch sunrise from the summit. One of them handed me a bottle of champagne and the party started.        I was up there for hours. The view from Katahdin was spectacular, and there were a ton of thru-hikes up ¢ here. Nobody really wanted to leave. We¢d all been hiking for so long to get here that we all wanted to cherish the moment. Eventually we had to go down, though, as Katahdin is not a place you want to overnight.        I got to talk to a few day hikers on the way down and ended up getting a ride with them into the town of Millinocket. I stayed at the AT Lodge hostel with a few other hikers and on Sunday my friends; Nik and Joe came to take me home.        So now I¢m home and don¢t have to sleep outside, hike in the rain, worry about supplies, or any of that. Surprisingly, though, I kinda miss it all. I certainly don¢t miss the mud, pain, suffering, etc. What I miss is the sense of a traveling community that developed on the trail. I miss the fact that no matter where I was, there was someone I knew.        I certainly have no plans to do anything quite like this again, but I do vaguely miss it. Ah, well. It¢s been a great adventure, and I¢m glad so many people have enjoyed it with me. I hope some of the people reading this, gets the urge to go out and do it for themselves. It¢s definitely an experience worth having.
Date: 2006-02-19
To: at home
Miles today: 0.0

   I have been planning on hiking the Trail for some time now and have planned on taking advantage of the opportunity to use Trail Journals to document it for other to read. Now that the time to kick off the hike is approaching I feel that it is real enough to start the journal. I always have a hesitancy to claim that I am going to do something like this too far out as I always feel kind of foolish if something unexpected comes up and the new situation cancels the whole endevor.    My wife has even started to refer to all the things she is planning on doing while I am gone. She has been very supporting in this adventure from the very beginning. She comes home with stories from work about it all the time. Everyone at her office thinks that I am crazy and they have offered endless advise on how to best survive the whole escapade. Foremost from the men is that I really need to carry a big pistol to fight off the voracious bears. They are convinced that my survival is in doubt and I must improve the odds a bit. They are completly unconvinced by my explanation that Eastern bears are wimps compared to those where I grew up (Wyoming! in case you had not figured it out) and are quite timid; excepting if you accidently wallk in front of a mom and her cub or foolishly try and get your wayward food bag back from papa bear once he gets his paws on it. All the women are concerned about the crazy people I will have to deal with (I guess I am in danger of being molested or something) and the lack of daily showers (sort of a yuck factor there). And lastly, but not the least obviously, are what are you going to do about the wolfs!? Hmmm...I am still thinking up something good for that one. Well that is enough for today I guess. Wyo
Date: 2006-02-20
To: at home
Miles today: 0.0

   Well I just recieved my new Pocketmail Composer in the mail and am trying to learn how to use it. The keyboard is challenging for a poor typer with big fingers. But, it is pretty slick all in all. Being able to write e-mails while in the field will be great.   I intend to write all my journal entries while I am between towns. Then send them to my account on AOL for uploading by my scribe (any errors or insults will of course be the responsibility of the SCRIBE....HA!).    It will be a good thing that I have 6 months to hike the trail, because it will probably take me that long to learn to type on this thing without looking at the keys.   I can tell that it is time for me to get to hiking, I am sitting on the couch typing and arguing with the Scribe about American Idol. I am clearly on my last legs! I hate TV.    Well that is enough for tonight I guess. Wyo
Date: 2006-03-02
To: at home
Miles today: 0.0

I have been thinking about how I should approach writing this journal a lot lately. I have read a significant number of journals on the Trail Journals web site over the last couple of years and see that folks have approached this task in a number of different ways. Among the approaches that have caught my attention there are those where the authors are abrupt about it and up front in their intent to use the journal for the minimal purpose of just providing basic location information. This may be because they realize that keeping an in depth journal takes significant time and the effort to keep up with journal entries will become increasingly difficult over time.   Or that they have minimal interest in such activities and are more performing the function in order to satisfy those they have left behind. Also some of folks just see to wear out over time. Tiring may, of course, be due as much to the writing becoming tedious as due to physical exhaustion.Others provide a running description of the trail. Many times down to a pretty fine detail. Some are able to write so well that they can actually make it interesting doing this, but that is rare and most authors seem to tire of this approach over time. I must confess that this approach wears on me and I have only read through all the entries of one writer who primarily took this journal approach (this was the rather well known Then The Hail Came). A more unusual approach is oriented towards entertaining the reader and, in some cases, challenging the reader with potentially controversial opinions. The later is my favorite overall and I would love to be able to emulate this style, but I am afraid that I am just not very funny. But I do definitely have the ability to provoke with strong opinions. A great journal of this type is Break-A-leg's from 2005 on the AT and Buddha's from 05 on the CDT.So, what to do?   I guess I will have to think about it some more. There are a number of people who have asked me to keep a journal so that they can see where I am and to hear what is going on. Maybe I will invent a new style. More later....
Date: 2006-03-15
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

   Well we progress towards the kickoff day. Slowly, or at least much slower than I would like. Time drags during the day while I am at work. Then, when I am at home I am anxious that I will not have time to get everything done that I need to do before I can leave.    It has become clear that I will not accomplish all preparatory work that I had planned. Foremost among those will be finishing remodeling the final room of the house we have been restoring for the last nine years. Actually I will not even be close to accomplishing that. The pasture fence MUST be repaired and rebuilt or I cannot leave. The Scribe will not put up with having to recover lost cows.   They are not high on her list of hobbies. Then I really need to replace the boards on the balcony floor as they are shot and water leaks through when it rains.   Another item that the Scribe probably thinks is a showstopper. So I guess I will have to get it done as well. The front end of my old truck is now rebuilt. Still have to get a new set of tires, but that is easy. This will be the Scribes spare vehicle, but as it has 175 K miles on it I figured I better fix it up a little for her.    This weekend we will start the Scribe' lessons on how to start all the equipment. And most importantly, how to do basic troubleshooting when something is not working. That will be the hard part. One just does not learn that stuff other than by working through the problems while being guided by a basic set of principals and theory. It will be interesting to see if she can change a drive belt out by herself. When she is really stuck she can call my buddy Brett over to help her out.   As for the hike I can sometimes feel that kernel of tension starting to build in my stomach that I get before any big undertaking. I welcome it and feel a certain kind of comfort in feeling it again. It has been a long time since I have felt this way. Years in fact. It used to be one of my main goals in life to generate that queasiness. I realize that I have missed it tremendously. I will have to be careful that I do not grow dependent on it. Again. In the past I have slid into an addiction to such things. But it does make me feel young again and that kind of rejuvenation is part of the reason for this whole adventure.   Which way is North?