morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-08-01
From: Little Swift River Pond Campsite

To: ME 4 / Rangeley, ME
Miles today: 4.8
Weather: broken clouds

We slept in a little knowing we had a short day into Rangeley, ME, only 4.8 miles.We got up at 6am and left at 6:55am. We did the 4.8 in 1hr and 40 minutes, it was an easy hike to the highway.Five hikers were already at the road trying to hitch into Rangeley, ME. We walked through a trailhead parking lot to get to the highway. These five hikers had arrived earlier than us and had been trying to hitch for a while. When we got to them, more cars had whizzed by. Still no ride. Cubby asked them if they had talked to anyone in the parking lot. They all said no. Cubby then said, "I'll go get us all a ride." They responded, "All of us?" Cubby then said, "I'll try." Two minutes later, Cubby came back. All the hikers were looking to Cubby for what the response would be. Cubby then happily gave them all the double-thumbs up with a big grin! They were happily surprised and asked, "All of us?" Cubby just smiled and said, "Yep!" It's nice to be the hero sometimes, even if it is just for something little.A girl gave us all a ride in a mini-van to the IGA in Rangeley. At the IGA we got ice-cream and chocolate milk. From the IGA we hitched a ride to the Village Scrub Board laudromat from Humpty-Dumpty. It is a very nice laudromat, owned by a couple, one of them a thru-hiker. They loaned us clothes so we could do ALL of our laundry. It was a nice clean place with good machines. Cubby even got to bleach her socks in the sink to kill "whatever's living in them" prior to throwing them in the washer.We then walked to the Red Onion Restaurant for pizza. After lunch, we walked to the library. The library is closed on Mondays, we will have to try tomorrow. We walked to the Post Office to mail a post card. We also figured that the post office was the best place to find locals to hitch a ride from to Gull Pond Lodge. The Lodge owner will shuttle to and from town for free, but we figured we could hitch just as easily. Sure enough, we got a ride from a nice retired guy.We got to the Gull Pond Lodge and the owner was not home so we laid out on the boat dock for about an hour enjoying the sun and water. We then checked into our own private room. It is a nice place. We took showers, and opened our supply box that had been mailed to the Lodge. We looked over maps for the next section and then called and made reservations for our next town.We are now all resupplied and ready for the next section. It is nice to get the logistics done so that our zero day tomorrow will truely be a zero day. The only things we need to do tomorrow is update our journal and RELAX!Fatty and Houdini are at the Lodge tonight, but leaving in the morning.It rained a little today, but we were at the Lodge and not on the trail.
Date: 2005-08-02
From: ME 4 / Rangeley, ME

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Still here at the Gull Pond Lodge, no hiking today. We slept in until about 8am and went down to breakfast. We had the whole house to ourselves. Bob, the owner, was gone shuttling hikers. We enjoyed a nice quite breakfast in a house with real dishes at a real table. It was REAL nice!Bob came back later and dropped us in Rangeley. We checked the Post Office for Boston's package, it still had not arrived. She is waiting on a replacement water reservoir. We did find one in a store in Rangeley, but we waited to go back to the PO to check again before buying a new one. Still no luck on the second trip to the PO. So, we went back to "The Alpine Shop" and bought a new one.We went to lunch at the BMC Diner and had a good hamburger. We then stopped at The General Store and got a strawberry frappe. While there, we got a deli sandwich to go for dinner, so that once we got back to the Lodge, we wouldn't have to leave again. We then hitched a ride back to Gull Pond Lodge with a guy who builds custom docks. He was familiar with the Lodge, since he had done service on the dock there.We relaxed in our room for a while, reading magazines and getting our feet off the ground. It rained cats and dogs this evening, we were happy to be here at the Lodge tonight, rather than out in the rain. We hope the rain quits before we leave in the morning.Lights out at 9:15pm.
Date: 2005-08-03
From: ME 4 / Rangeley, ME

To: Spaulding Mountain Lean-to
Miles today: 18.7

We got out of bed this morning at 6am and went down to breakfast at 6:30am. We had our fill of Fruit Loops, bananas, english muffins and OJ. Bob shuttled us back to the trailhead and we were hiking by 8am. We had great weather, sunny and blue skies.First we hiked up Saddleback Mountain, where we saw our first view of Mt. Katahdin. We met Stick on the way up Saddleback. Stick reminded us that we needed to call Bill & Cindy. We all met them in Georgia when we first started hiking. They have a camp near Monson, ME. We then went across and up the Horn of Saddleback and then up and over Saddleback Junior.We stopped at Poplar Lean-to for a snack break. We then hiked down to Orbiton Stream, followed by a hike up Lone Mtn. to Spaulding Mtn. Lean-to. We got to camp at 5:20pm. We cooked dinner and we were in the tent at 7:15pm.
Date: 2005-08-04
From: Spaulding Mountain Lean-to

To: Horns Pond Lean-to's
Miles today: 18.5
Weather: overcast clouds

We got up at 5:45am and we were on the trail at 6:50am. It was good weather for the day, a little hot though. We hiked by the bronze plaque dedicated to the CCC upon completion of the A.T..We hiked by the trail to Sugarloaf Mtn, we did not summit. We took our morning snack break at Carabassett River. Wingfoot says it is a ford, but we easily rock-hopped it.We hiked up and over South and North Crocker Mountains. We took our lunch break on top of North Crocker.We then hiked down to ME 27 road to Stratton, ME. We did not need to resupply, so we just took a break at the road and headed on. We hiked up most of Bigelow Mountain to Horns Pond Lean-to's. It was a long, hot climb up Bigelow. We were very happy to finally get to Horns Pond.Horns Pond has a caretaker, Alice. She told us that there is a resident moose who make an appearance every now and again. The moose likes to walk through the camp area and down to the pond. She said it hadn't been seen in a few days, so it might be "due" to make a walk through. Alice also told us that there was great swimming in the pond, no leaches. She said there are plenty of trout in the pond to take care of the leach population.We set up the tent. We then cooked and ate dinner at the overlook near our campsite. Great view. We could see Sugarloaf Mtn Ski Area in the distance.We hit a mile mark today, sub-200 miles!
Date: 2005-08-06
From: West Carry Pond Lean-to

To: Pleasant Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 19.7
Weather: clear sky

We got up this morning at 5:30am and we were on the trail by 6:20am. We hiked for a few hours and then took a snack break. We were taking our time due to the ferry schedule at the Kennebec River. It runs from 9-11am, and 2-4pm. We figured we would take our time and get there for the 2pm ferry. It was only 13.5 miles to the river.During our morning snack break, Smilin' Joe came by. After a quick discussion and decision making, it was decided that it might be within the realm of possibilities that we could make the 11am ferry and avoid a long wait in the middle of the day. After quick mental calculations, it was determined that if we made it to the Pierce Pond Lean-to by 9:50am (1 hour), we could MAYBE make it to the ferry by 11am. We all TOOK OFF like we were shot out of a cannon. We covered 4.2 miles in 1 hour and 5 minutes. We got to the Lean-to at 10:05am. That was 15 minutes later than when we needed to be there in order to make the 11am ferry. We told Smilin' Joe that we were now outside of our "window" for making it. Smilin' Joe decided that he would still try for it. He continued to fly down the trail. We slowed down and continued at our regular relaxed pace and took another long snack break.When we got to the ferry crossing at noon, Smilin' Joe was still there. As it turned out, he literally "missed the boat" by 12 minutes. We all hung out at the river and took afternoon naps. Stick and Homeboy showed up a little while later.At 2pm, Steve the Ferryman came and ferried us across the river in his canoe. Stick took pictures of us in the canoe with lifejackets on as we left to cross the river.After crossing the river, we went right 0.2 miles to Moose Crossing. Moose Crossing is a trailer that is set up to serve take-out food. We ordered a large pizza and 2 sodas. Boston also got a strawberry frappe. After the pizza, Boston was still hungry so she ordered a small pizza and ate that one all by herself. Cubby had a dish of ice-cream while Boston ate the second pizza. We ordered a couple of sandwiches to eat later for dinner, but after all the food we just ate we were too full to take both sandwiches with us. We left one with the lady who runs the place and told her to keep it in the fridge and give it to the next lucky thru-hiker. We will eat Boston's BLT wrap tomorrow for lunch.Cubby then hitched us a ride for the 0.2m back to the trail. Hey, 0.2m is 0.2m when it is not on the trail. If the miles don't count toward Katahdin, we're hitching.The 6.1m hike to from US 201 to Pleasant Pond Lean-to took us only 2 hours and 15 minutes. It was an easy hike. We set up the tent right away and then went to the stream to filter water. No dinner to cook tonight, still full from Moose Crossing. Red and August were at the Lean-to too.
Date: 2005-08-07
From: Pleasant Pond Lean-to

To: Horshoe Canyon Lean-to
Miles today: 22.0
Weather: clear sky

We got up at 6:15am and hit the trail at 7am. We knew that this would be a long mileage day today, a +20 mile day. It was warm this morning when we got up.We hiked up to the top of Pleasant Pond Mountain and then went to Bald Mtn Brook Lean-to for water and lunch. We ate the BLT wrap that Boston packed in from Moose Crossing. It was soooooo good! Wish we had two of them.We then hiked to the top of Moxie Bald Mountain. On the summit there was a 360 degree view of the horizon. We could see Mt. Katahdin from the top of Moxie Bald. An old, knowledgeable guy that happened to be up there picking blueberries, pointed out Mt. Katahdin to us. He also told us that there was a lightening strike and fire on top of Moxie Bald a few years back and that the blueberries were just coming back. There were TONS of blueberries. We picked and ate, and then picked and ate some more. Delicious. They guy also told us that there used to be a firetower on top of Moxie Bald, but about 10 years ago it was torn down. You can still see the anchor points of the tower.We hiked down to Moxie Bald Lean-to for a snack break and water. We took pictures of the pond. We left the Lean-to and headed on to finish up the last 8.9 miles to Horshoe Canyon Lean-to. On the way, we made our first actual "ford" since we began this journey. We put on our Crocs and forded the West Branch of the Piscataquis River. The water was shin to thigh deep. It was refreshing on the feet. Red and August were here also.Once across, we put our shoes back on and had a quick snack break. We then hiked the last 3.1 miles to Horshoe Canyon Lean-to. We did the last 3.1m in less than 1 hour.To get water for camp at this Lean-to, we had two choices. Other hikers had told us that the spring was dirty and not so good. They recommended the river. So, we went to the river to filter our water. The river was 0.1m down a very steep bank.We cooked dinner at the Lean-to while Rhino stoked his typical HUGE fire. Red, August, and Homeboy were all at the Lean-to also.We went back to the tent after dinner and in bed by 8:40pm.
Date: 2005-08-08
From: Horshoe Canyon Lean-to

To: ME 15 / Monson, ME
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: haze

We got up early, 5:30am, in order to get to town a little earlier.We put on our Crocs and forded the East Branch of the Piscataquis River. We took a nice snack break overlooking Lake Hebron. We then hiked up Buck Hill. Buck Hill wasn't too bad, but it was a hot morning for hill climbing -- 72 degrees in the shade at 9am.At 10:20am we got to the road ME 15. Boston looked across the road and started smiling and said "There's Bill." Sure enough, Bill B. was there. He was sitting in a lawn chair doing trail magic. He had sodas, candy, donuts and beer. We were so happy to see him, what a surprise! We gave him a big hug. His wife, Cindy, drove up shortly after in a big 4x4 pick-up. We were so happy and surprised to see them. We had left a message with them to tell them we would visit after Katahdin. They left a return message saying they would be at ME 15 to meet us, but we did not get any cell reception the last few days to check our messages. As it turned out, it was so much better being surprised. Humpty-Dumpty drove in a little while later. Cindy shuttled us and other hikers (Fatty, August and Red) to Shaw's in Monson.Boston and Cubby had reservations at Shaw's, which we ended up not needing. We did take showers there for a fee, and picked up our mail-drop package there. Cindy then took us back to Bill at the trailhead for a while. We all then went into Greenville, ME. Bill and Cindy dropped us at the laundromat while they went to the grocery store to get stuff for the next two days.It was nice to be showered and wearing clean clothes after six days. Bill and Cindy drove us to their camp. For those of you who don't know, a "camp" in Maine is a cabin on a lake or pond. They invited us to stay at their camp with them for tonight, tomorrow's zero day, and tomorrow night. What a great invitation! We also stopped for ice-cream in Greenville before heading to camp.Their camp is absolutely beautiful. The pond it is on is picturesque. At camp there were two other members of Bill and Cindy's family there vacationing. Dinner that night was incredible. We had ribeye steaks, baked potatoes, cooked carrots, and salad. Excellent! After dinner we picked up another hiker, Stick, in Monson. On the way back through Greenville, we all got more ice-cream. Brownie hot fudge sundaes.We all stayed up late into the evening talking and laughing. It was a great day, low mileage and good friends.
Date: 2005-08-09
From: ME 15 / Monson, ME

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

This is a zero day at Bill and Cindy's camp. We got to sleep in, but the sound and smell of sausage sizzling in a skillet woke us up. It still was a small struggle to get up and out of a REAL bed with REAL matress, REAL sheets and REAL pillow. Nice.Breakfast was terrific. Cheesey eggs, sausage, tortillas, toast, and OJ. Eight of us sat around and ate breakfast. It was very relaxing. A little while later, we went over our hiking plans for the next week through the "100-mile Wilderness" to Mt. Katahdin. After agreeing on a plan, we packed our food from our drop-box into our food bags, filled water, and packed our backpacks. We were then already for our departure for tomorrow morning and it was only 10am. It is nice to be 100% ready to be able to fully relax and make it a true zero day. We also packed half of our food into a bucket for a "food cache" that Bill and Cindy would take us to later in the day.Bill and Cindy drove us to Kokadjo, population "not many" and where the road "don't go nowhere, it stays right here". We went to the little store there, which is the ONLY store, we got a couple chocolate milks and some juice.We then drove down the road to find the food cache location near the A.T. We planned on leaving 3 days of food at this specific location half way through the "100-mile Wilderness" so that we would only have to carry 2 1/2 days of food to start with. Bill and Cindy also planned to leave trail magic here, sodas.Just before we got to the AT and cache location, the road was blocked by logging trucks. We decided to turn around and return later in the day to cache the food. On the way back, we spotted large bushes of ripe raspberries. We all got out and picked a lot of them. We put them in a bag and took them with us.Back at camp, Bill whipped up a homemade raspberry pie for dessert tonight. As it baked, we all hung out on the dock platform on shore and talked, relaxed and ate crab rolls. We hung out for hours as we enjoyed the water, sky, fish and loons. This camp is a slice of perfection, life at a calm pace. Boston and Cindy both took a dip in the pond. The water was refreshing.We went back to cache our food. On the way back, logging trucks were still working, but just finishing up. We watched them work for a while. It is amazing, the machinery and the speed at which they cut and transfer logs.We finally got our food cached, we hung the bucket in a tree off the road and just off the trail. Bill and Cindy dropped off the sodas at the trail crossing.We went back to camp. Stick and Humpty had just returned with some ice-cream for dessert. Cindy cooked Pad Thai for dinner and Bill cooked hamburgers. The Pad Thai was delicious. It is so nice to enjoy a good meal. After dinner we had Bill's homemade raspberry pie and ice-cream. The pie was excellent!After dinner, we listened to a Boston Red Sox game on the radio, while we sat on the screened in porch and looked out over the pond and heard the loons. We called it a night in the fourth inning.
Date: 2005-08-10
From: ME 15 / Monson, ME

To: Long Pond Stream Lean-to
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: few clouds

We got up at 6:15am at the camp. We all pitched in and got the camp cleaned up for all of us to leave - dishes, vacuum, trash.We all drove to Greenville for a good hot breakfast before heading back to the trail. We planned to go to the "Boom & Chain" restaurant, but it was closed - and we mean closed, as in for good! Since yesterday, even the signs on the outside of the building were gone/boarded up. A "For Lease" sign was in the window. This restaurant had been in business for many years, and we probably just witnessed the end of an era.We drove back a block to Auntie M's Restaurant where we all had lumberjack breakfasts and/or waffles. Afterwards, Bill and Cindy drove us to the trail where we said our good-byes and they wished us the best.We started the last leg of our journey at 9am. We had an up & down hike today, but all the up & downs were short. The weather was great to start with, just a little bit hot. Around 1pm we started to hear rolling thunder. It was just thunder with no rain for about an hour and a half. It then started to rain lightly. We put on our pack covers and picked up the pace. The rain was brief and by the time we got to the lean-to, we were mostly dry.Boston set up the tent, and then we both went to get water. Cubby cooked dinner and as we both ate under the awning of the lean-to, the sky opened up and it rained a torrential downpour for 45 minutes. Again, it is nice to be on the "dry side" of a rain storm. As we say, "It's all about the timing." Red had beat the rain also, arriving just after we did. August, Flip, and Houdini weren't so lucky and arrived about 1 hour later, completely soaked. August said that the little rivers we were able to rock-hop were now raging rivers that had to be forded.When the rain let up, we crawled into our tent. It rained so hard that some water did get into the tent through the screen sections around the base of the tent. After a quick clean up with a pack towel, we laid down for the night while hoping for no more torrential downpours.Milestones for the day - entered the 100-mile Wildnerness and we went sub-100 miles.In bed by 7:30pm.
Date: 2005-08-11
From: Long Pond Stream Lean-to

To: Carl Newhall Lean-to
Miles today: 20.8
Weather: overcast clouds

We got a late start this morning due to the rain. It rained hard off and on last night. We stayed in our sleeping bags until 7am waiting out the end of the rain. We figured that 7am was the latest we could stay in the tent in order to be on the trail no later than 8am. We had to leave camp by 8am in order to get done with our planned 20 mile day. The rain finally did stop as we got out of the tent.We finished hiking up Barren Mtn, our longest climb of the day. We then hiked up and over Fourth Mtn, Third Mtn, Columbus Mtn, and Chairback Mtn. We then forded the West Branch of the Pleasant River. The river was wide but only knee deep. We talked to a guy at the river. He offered to take any trash we had. We happily obliged.There are a lot of day-hikers in the 100-mile Wilderness, not to mention the parking lot 0.2m off the trail. We passed the trail junction for Gulf Hagas. Gulf Hagas is the "Grand Canyon of the east". It is probably where all the day hikers were going to and from.We had 5.5 more miles after the river, and they were all on a gradual uphill. These last miles were not too difficult, just more hours to end and already long day. On the way up the hill, we heard a noise from a large animal by the river that the trail was following. First we hear a large crash in the vegetation, followed by a large splash in the water. Boston saw something brown and big, but never got a full view of it. We figured it had to be either a bear or a moose.We got to the lean-to at 6:30pm, set up the tent, got water, cooked dinner, ate, and went to bed by 8pm.Although we planned on tenting anyway, we HAD to tent tonight because the tent needed to be dried out after last evening's torrential downpour.
Date: 2005-08-12
From: Carl Newhall Lean-to

To: Cooper Brook Falls Lean-to
Miles today: 18.9
Weather: clear sky

Up at 6am and on trail by 7am.We started with a series of 4 up's: Gulf Hagas Mtn, West Peak, Hay Mtn, and White Cap Mtn. From the top of White Cap Mtn we could see Katahdin. It still looked a long way away. We hiked down to the woods road where we resupplied from our food cache. Bill and Cindy helped us cache this food a few days ago. THANKS Bill and Cindy. We had looked forward to a couple of sodas for the last few days from the trail magic they had left at that same woods road. Unfortunately for us, all of the sodas were gone.We ate lunch at the road and made raspberry lemonade from water we got from a spring on the south side of the road. On the trail about a half mile north of the road, we came across a couple of trail maintainers. They are in charge of this section. They told us that hikers must have had all of the sodas. They saw a bunch of empties and packed out the trash yesterday.We figured we had a clear shot to Cooper Brook Falls Lean-to, but the profile map said differently. We had a few bumps on the way, namely a hill to get up to Mountain View Pond and to Little Boardman Mtn. After that, it did smooth out a bit. It still seemed to take a long time to get to the lean-to. When we got to the lean-to, it was full of a bunch of "flip-floppers". August, Red, Houdini, Wood, and Homeboy were all tenting here tonight also.We set up the tent, got water from the stream, and cooked dinner. We knew that the stream was actually the outlet of the pond, so we were a bit leary. We did filter though.After dinner we got into the tent and in bed by 7:20pm. We drifted to sleep while listening to the falls and hoping for no rain tonight, or through Katahdin for that matter.We did notice today that there are a lot of day-hikers in the "100-mile Wilderness". We think we have seen more in the last 3 days than we have on any other section of the trail.