morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2004-08-31
From: Rough Camp, West Branch Pleasant River, ME

To: Logan Brook Shelter
Miles today: 12.7
Weather: light rain

"YOU IN THE WILDERNESS, BABY,YOU GONNA DIE"!!!Well, that's what Rock Steady wrote in the first register out of Monson and when I saw how swollen West Branch Pleasant River had become this morning I began to have an idea of what he was getting at. At first it seemed uncrossable, at least 30 yards wide, a swift, raging current. Impossible to gauge the depth.I sat on the bank and mournfully reflected on my predicament whilst a couple on the other side did the same. Just then, Chi and Over Under appeared, they had crossed over last night and reckoned the water level only knee deep at the time. I could hang about all day or plunge in, so I plunged in. When I got to the middle and water gushed around my waist it was obvious there had been a storm surge overnight. It was hard to keep the poles straight, I inched over the slippery rocks, the swirling current inspiring nausea. Almost at the other bank, I fell. It took a while to get back up with the pack on, luckily I was firmly rooted to the river bed with my head sticking out of the water. I reflected if I drowned at least Over Under would have a good photo. I made it.When I looked back Bearbag (The Good Doctor) was on the far bank hovering like a tubby guardian angel. He'd come by one of the few access roads here to deliver a food drop to Cimarron, the 82 year old man hiking aout 1000 miles of the trail this year. I knew he and Chigger, who is all of 5 feet nothing, were back at the last shelter. I didn't think it advisable for either of them to cross this river today. But I knew both were posessed of tremendous self-belief, and stubborn bastards to boot, who would probably chuck themselves in with only a moments hesitation. Luckily, Bearbag went to work with his maps and soon devised an alternative route involvng a car ride, a blue blaze and bridge crossing 2 miles down. Cimarron and another older hiker appeared at the bank in about an hour, Bearbag shuttled them with the intention of returning for Chigger who'd got a late start that morning, apparently. I thought I should wait and tell her so settled down for an early lunch, even though I had hiked all of 200 yards since breakfast. She eventually arrived and agreed waiting for Bearbag was the way to go. I didn't get going 'til around 12.30.I crossed Whitecap, the highest mountain in the Wilderness and one of the few before Big K. I was alone all day and got to appreciate some wilderness quality time. The skies were clear, the storms had removed all humidity and it was great walking. From the summit of Whitecap there was a sweeping sunset: erratically drawn lakes of tiny islands; humpback mountains in cloud; dense forest to Canada. And far, far, away the conical 'spire' and squashed sugarloaf of Katahdin, like a tiny stone age church
Date: 2004-09-01
From: Logan Brook Shelter

To: Antlers Campsite
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: broken clouds

It seems I've hiked more miles than I thought! Ever since I washed my data book a while back, I've been flying blind in terms of miles, everything really. I'm very dependant on borrowing other people's Wingfoot just to find out where the hell I am. Well, it seems the miles have been bigger than I imagined.Today was something of a watershed in that the trail suddenly got a hell of a lot easier. The last few miles to this camp were amongst the flattest and most hikeable on the entire AT. It has been warm, sunny and a pleasure to be out in the hospitable lowland forest, shadows and light playing through the trees. Hell, I even got some decent trail magic!I caught up with Optimus, Kaloogi annd Slainte at Antlers. It was good to see them and have a roaring fire with a bunch of very young looking college kids. I'd thought earlier I wanted one more good fire before all this ends. But those guys are not going to White House Landing tomorrow which I wanted to visit as it's supposed to be beautiful and, reputedly, does the best cheeseburgers on the trail. I also thought hanging out there a while would give Chigger a chance to catch up. She hasn't been seen since taking that diversion by the river yesterday.
Date: 2004-09-02
From: Antlers Campsite

To: Nahmakanta Stream Campsite
Miles today: 7.8
Weather: broken clouds

The other guys left early this morning, especially Slainte, who must have set some sort of record. They have bees in their bonnets about reaching Katahdin fast now. It's so close, we might as well just finish. The AT is so long that distance is an entirely relative matter, we might as well finish right now as hike another 500 miles. But I wanted to go to White House Landing, buy a little more food, eat that famous 1lb burger. Try to chill a little - after months of relaxed living there's a tense vibe in the air. Are we all scared of returning to the humdrum? Of making decisions more profound than whether to have the Lipton Sides or Ramen tonight?Antlers Campsite is perhaps the most beautiful spot I've camped on the entire trail, especially on the end of the promontory, the isthmus, whatever, where I was. The conditions were clear and sunny and, save for a stiff breeze, it felt like a tropical atoll, like Fiji. My tent conveniently broke the wind, so I opened up one side and lazed around for ages in the sunshine drinkng coffee and imagining it really was a desert island.Just as I was about to leave Chigger showed up. She'd finally caught up after that diversion for the flooded river. On the way out, I grabbed a snake by the tail Steve Irwin style and Chigger got a photo. On closer inspection it seemed to have a flatish, pointed head that made it look decidedly viperish, yet I was under the impression there were no venemous snakes in Maine. Was I foolish? You bet! I let the snake go, it struck my hiking poles a couple of times.White House Landing is a great stop beautifuly located on yet another perfect lake lost in the wilderness, trees growing down to the waters edge, pink rocks. It's necesary to sound an airhorn, the owners send a motor boat down to get you. We had to wait for dinner to get started at 4.00PM, so I had a swim in the not freezing water and we took a canoe out past the rocks to the lake's centre where there was the most amazing view of Katahdin so close I could touch it. How did it creep up like that? As the crow flies it must be less than 15 miles away.There are no other mountains.The burger was awesome.
Date: 2004-09-03
From: Nahmakanta Stream Campsite

To: Rainbow Stream Campsite
Miles today: 17.7
Weather: scattered clouds

Not an early start, 9.40 AM, but the terrain was pretty flat and, apart from the ever present rocks and roots, easy going.Now the WHL stop is out of the way I'm hard pressed to come up with reasons to delay The End. I am going to press a final 20+ mile tomorrow and, with luck, make it to The Birches, the final campsite before Katahdin. Chigger and I should be able to meet up with Slainte, Optimus and Kaloogi and hike up together on Sept 5th. Yes, the day after tomorrow. That's a couple of days earlier than most of the projected plans I've had flying around recently, but it's just the time it's taken.What comes after that is a mystery.
Date: 2004-09-04
From: Rainbow Stream Campsite

To: The Birches Campsite, ME
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: broken clouds

long walk to The Birches today but easy hiking, especially by Maine standards, even the ever-present roots were in short supply. Along the way, we passed one Southbounder who closely resembled the old man burdened by sticks on the front cover of Led Zeppelin 1V. He had a full- sized guitar flapping alarmingly, a huge sleeping bag out of the stuff sack and carried exposed to the rain. Curiously, he was packing 20 days of food. When I asked him how long he reckoned it would take to reach Georgia he replied about 3.5 - 4 months. We wished him well.I'd eaten virtually all my food in the 100 Mile Wilderness, so it was good to finally come out the other side, at Abol Bridge. There's a store there and even microwave burgers which weren't as bad as they sound. Burrito and Free Radical were there, even Bearbag turned up. I ended up hanging out for over an hour going back to the store for one more coffee.The last 10 miles flew by as the day began to fade in to a soft, half-seen sunset. It was probably the fastest 10 miles I've hiked on the entire trail, I came in at just under 3 hours. I felt proplelled by some desperate force towards the foot of that great mountain, now so close there was no perspective of its peaks despite the fine weather.Just as darkness fell, I caught up with Slainte, Kaloogi and Optimus at the The Birches, the dedicated site for thruhikers beneath Katahdin. There was already a fire roaring and a peculiar, pensive atmosphere at this final camp.I'll miss these camps.
Date: 2004-09-05
From: The Birches Campsite, ME

To: Mt Katahdin, ME
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: overcast clouds

There was quite a little crowd of thruhikers assembled at the Birches for the big push to Katahdin this morning. Burrito and Free Radical left in the middle of the night to make the summit for sunrise. Slainte, Kaloogi, Optimus and Chigger got up at 5.00 AM. I, however, refuse to get to get up in the dark, it's unatural. I'm sorry, but there's some things I just don't do and getting up before the sun is one of them. I rose at 6.00 AM, left at 7.15 AM and was on Baxter Peak by 9.45 AM, pursued by a host of French Canadians.It was a great day. The climb was shorter than expected but I was in a driven, single-minded mood on my way up and didn't really notice the difficulty of the terrain. It's the highest elevation gain in the shortest time on the AT and there were some tricky sections over granite slabs and rebar. The weather was calm with a little low cloud and fairly warm, even on the summit. However, on Baxter Peak any cloud was far below and the sky above clear blue. As I reached the end, the others spotted me and started cheering me on. I broke in to a run and sprinted the last 100 yards to the annoyance of the few Quebecois ahead.It felt amazing to be next to that lonely, weathered sign I'd seen so many times in the summit pics of others. I felt very excited to be there. I had expected it to be anti-climactic but everyone was in a celebratory mood, we'd even packed a beer in each, the party mood was infectious. It took ages to do the round of individual and group pics.There's a famously scary route down from Katahdin known as the Knife Edge. It's along a jagged ridge that snakes up and down from Baxter Peak like the back of a dinosaur. Most don't take it as it comes out on the other side of the mountain from where you set off, but we'd already arranged transport with Optimus' parents. It was a great hike along a blue blaze and, though it was was never really narrow, was a constant scramble over piles of boulders with sheer drop offs on either side. I was very glad we took that route. It ends at the peak of Pamola where we spent ages over lunch. All the clouds cleared and there were views in every direction.It was a strange, empty feeling at the end of the day to be holed up in a pokey room at the AT lodge in Millinocket with no more hiking on the agenda. Over all these months I've felt that the white blazes surely must go on forever, but they don't, the road has ended. One of the greatest things about the trail is it's simplicity, just follow the markers and they'll guide you through the darkest forests. You'll be OK. Now I have to paint my own white blazes.
Date: 2004-03-15
To: Newark, DE
Miles today: 0.0

Lots of last-minute errands: to drop off my cat Tobey with my friend Tricia, leave my food drop boxes with another friend Kath, deliver my house keys to Heidi, who is going to water my plants while I¢m gone ¢ these are three of my off-trail angels who are making this journey possible. I called to suspend my phone service before I left, thinking it wouldn¢t be disconnected for at least a few hours; but when I tried to call a taxi to get to the train station, the line was already down. Stranded! Thanks to my neighbor Timm, who got me downtown without managing to get a speeding ticket, I made it to the train with only minutes to spare. My plan to get my taxes done on the train was ill-conceived, to say the least, as I couldn¢t think about anything but the journey ahead.
Date: 2004-03-16
To: Gainesville, GA
Miles today: 0.0

A jazz combo in a place with a vinyl-padded bar, a punk rock club, and Pabst Blue Ribbon with bourbon chasers. I visited overnight with a friend, checking out Philadelphia night life, before heading south again. My pack weighed in at 57 pounds ¢ without water ¢ at the Wilmington Amtrak station baggage check; and that didn¢t even include the contents of a full-to-bursting day pack and a canvas bag with my hiking boots in it. I had packed in a hurry, throwing in nearly the entire contents of my bathroom shelves and drawers ¢ just in case there was something there I might need ¢ with my new tent, new stove, new sleeping pad, three or four books to read during what I (incorrectly) assumed would be many hours of solitude over the next six months.
Date: 2004-03-18
From: Springer Mountain, AT southern terminus

To: Hawk Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Josh started us off with another hearty breakfast then drove us to the parking lot below Springer at 10:30 a.m. in a light mist. We eschewed the 9.5 mile approach trail as an unnecessary effort, though some A.T. purists would scoff at our laziness. Rob and I stopped beside Three Forks Creek for lunch. I had brought half a dozen hard-boiled eggs with me, along with celery and carrot sticks ¢ unusual hiker fare I was to discover later, because of the water weight these items contain ¢ and devoured them along with a protein bar and some beef jerky.I reached the shelter before Rob, and was a little cowed to see a line of bearded, rough-looking men perched at the edge of the shelter, watching the newbie¢s arrival. (Where were the women?!) I greeted them with as much confident cheeriness as I could muster, dropped my pack at the picnic table, introduced myself around ¢ to Rael, Pirate, Doyle, Fast Eddie, Andrew, and a father and son team of dayhikers -- and waited impatiently for my bodyguard to arrive, breathing a sigh of relief when he appeared. Even with the shelter looking not quite full, we decided to set up our tents behind it ¢ whew -- as the idea of laying down in my sleeping bag among this crew of strange men did not appeal to me. (Of course, I found out later what sweethearts they all are, and hiked for several weeks with Rael, a wise and wonderfully wry gentleman of a hiker from the Boston area.)Rob helped me to figure out how to set up my tent ¢ I had exchanged an eight-pound tent with fly sheet for this four-pound two-person GoLite Den only a few days before my departure -- it¢s roomy! We had showers overnight and lots of wind, so I made the mistake of zipping the tent flaps up all the way; by morning the tent was as wet as a cloud forest inside from all of the condensation of my breathing.I also used my MSR Whisperlite stove for the first time. Pirate, one of several genial trail hoboes I was to meet, showed me how to light it. He also suggested that if I was going to make a habit of eating lentils for dinner (I was ¢ they¢re cheap and nutritious) that I should get a container in which to soak them during the day so that I don¢t use so much stove fuel to cook them.So this was my first day on the trail ¢ learning how to use my equipment, learning how far I can go in a day, and learning that the rough-looking characters I will meet along the way are just that: rough-looking, but underneath the exterior are kind, helpful co-hikers. I also learned how to use the bear bag cables. In the twilight, the silhouetted bearbags have the slightly sinister look of a gallows.
Date: 2004-03-19
From: Hawk Mountain Shelter

To: Gooch Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.1
Weather: clear sky

On the trail at 9:30 a.m. My first oatmeal breakfast on the trail ¢ I made far too much, and ended up giving half of it to Fast Eddie, the hiker from Galliano, Louisiana. The best part of breakfast was the Nestle coffee-paste-in-a-tube; which is basically just sweetened condensed milk flavored with coffee. Mmmm, sugar¢¦.Had three more Power bars today, leftover lentil curry, another hard-boiled egg, celery, and then a dinner of rice, dried mushrooms and one of the vegetarian curry MREs I got cheap from Ocean State Job Lot.I was too cold to sleep last night, despite the 70-degree daytime temps. I need a warmer sleeping bag; this one has lost any warmth it may have had once.Neat shelter! Keep meeting nice people everywhere. Howard and Gwen ¢Bearbait¢/ ¢A Boy Named Sue¢ have been about a half hour behind us on the trail fairly consistently for the past two days. Lovely men. Gwen has made it his goal to quit smoking cold turkey for this hike. Also met ¢Full Moon¢ with his dog Jesse. Nice to have dogs on the trail, though I know it¢s a topic of debate on the trail websites (trailplace.com and whiteblaze.com), both of which I read selectively before I started the trail ¢ excellent resources.
Date: 2004-03-20
From: Gooch Mountain Shelter

To: Jarrard Gap
Miles today: 10.6

On the trail at 8:30 a.m. Our first 10-mile day. Arrived at camp around 6 p.m. with raw feet. Ate much the same today ¢ oatmeal, ¢coffee,¢ Power bars, hb egg, tuna, and a curry of rice, peas and mushrooms.Thunderstorms arrived just as we finished hanging our bear bag from a tree branch; the cable systems are only available at the shelters. At campsites you need enough cord to hang your own, and this task can get quite comical for people like myself who ¢throw like a girl.¢   We got inside our tents just before the first rain. Exciting! The storm sounds would have lulled me to sleep if only I hadn¢t pitched my tent on a slope; as it was, my sleeping bag kept sliding down my mat. High winds all night. Keeping my tent¢s ventilation flaps open slightly prevented the condensation build-up overnight. I¢m looking forward to a shorter hiking day and another night at the Hiker Hostel tomorrow! Rob and I have decided to take up Josh on his offer to pick us up at Neel¢s Gap so that we have a chance to rethink our packs before moving on.
Date: 2004-03-21
From: Jarrard Gap 

To: Neels Gap (to Hiker Hostel, Dahlonega, GA)
Miles today: 5.4
Weather: clear sky

This morning, there were tent stuff sacks, bandanas, pack covers and other blowable hiker items all over camp, some wrapped around trees. The winds were still strong enough that I was able to fold my tent in mid-air.On the trail at 8:15 a.m. Reached the top of Blood Mountain, 4461 feet, by 10:30 a.m., and Neel¢s Gap at 12:30 p.m. Before I put my boots back on tomorrow, I need to put duct tape around my toes to stop them from curling under and into each other ¢ hot spots are forming.Also this morning, I broke a crown on a Power bar. Will have to find a dentist in Dahlonega.At the Neel¢s Gap outfitters, I invested in a new sleeping bag ¢ no more cold nights! ¢ a lighter pair of camp shoes than the clodhoppers I brought with me (Toby & David were right), sock liners (supposed to prevent blisters), SuperFeet insoles (supposed to provide stiffer support for hikers¢ feet), a pack cover for rainy days, a lighter ground sheet to put under my tent (or under my sleeping mat in the shelters), and a Platypus to hold an extra liter of water. I had not budgeted for these expenses ¢ ack! ¢ but warmth, a dry pack, and foot comfort are not luxuries.It was great to see Josh¢s smiling face at the Mountain Crossings outfitters. He seems harried with the pace of hostel life, but still cheerful and chatty.FANTASTIC to get a shower AND a bath, cut my hair, eat a hamburger, drink a beer, do my laundry, and pick up all my necessities at Walmart -- ziplock bags, celery, carrots, garlic, powdered soup, more eggs, packing tape for my bounce-box-to-be and for the box (of cotton clothing, compass, GPS, etc.) that I¢m shipping home.Dinner with ¢Ready¢ ¢ a friend of Josh and Leigh who is an AT hiker alum ¢ was lovely. Inbetween juicy bits of light-hiking tips (I don¢t think I¢ll exchange my toilet paper for a pee rag just yet, but at least it¢s an option), she validated my choice of trail name, ¢Sanguine,¢ even though Rob feels that a trail name should be given, not claimed. Ready thinks choosing a name is a best-foot-forward move. I had considered Sunflower, because it¢s my favorite flower ¢ tall, bright, cheerful, sturdy -- and of mathematical interest to the Greeks! -- but ultimately it seemed too saccharine a name, maybe even too girly.Tomorrow a.m. I need to call Josh & Leigh¢s dentist to find out if he takes my insurance so that I can get my crown replaced pronto. Spent a good part of the evening rethinking and repacking my backpack contents ¢ I¢ll need lots less food than I had originally planned.
Date: 2004-03-22
From: Hiker Hostel, Dahlonega, GA

To: Hiker Hostel, Dahlonega, GA
Miles today: 0.0

Dr. Chipps fixed my crown all in one sitting! Very high tech computer imaging equipment; I even got to watch my crown being carved by two electronic drills in a back room of his facilities. Awesome! Had Indian food at the restaurant on the other side of the Halaal butcher in the strip mall. Another southern stereotype busted to pieces.Josh drove me there and Leigh drove me home after work. Is there nothing they won't do for their hiker guests?