morvasaaty/AppalachianTrail-LD-Hikers-Blogs-and-Weather-20-years huggingface dataset:
Date: 2007-08-24
From: Crocker Cirque Campsite

To: Horns Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: overcast clouds

(Willie)After being chased by overcast weather all day yesterday, it finally caught up with us last night, and boy were we glad we were in a tent when it did. It started to sprinkle around midnight and you could kind of tell that it wasn¢t going to stay a sprinkle for long. We jumped out of tent to empty our bladders before things got worse and then zipped up the rain fly and hunkered down. Shortly after that the down pour arrived and it stayed with us until about 6:30 in the morning. Luckily we were on a tent platform and above the ground so we stayed a little dryer and cleaner then we would have otherwise, but we still had to deal with taking down a soaking wet tent in the morning. But hey, after 1990 miles I guess my legs should be strong enough to carry an extra pound or two of water right?Even though it stopped raining awhile before we started walking, the wet leaves and bushes kept us soaked all morning as we scaled over the Crocker Mountains. ¢Scaled¢ isn¢t really a word that I use too often, but when the day starts with a 1000¢ climb in the first half a mile, I think it¢s worthy of steeper word then climbed. With every slip down a wet rock, we wished we could have gotten the climb up South Crocker on a dry day, but we managed to claw our way to the top and were very relieved to find that the climb over to North Crocker wasn¢t nearly as bad. No matter how unpleasant walking up a mountain after it rains may be, we had the next 5 miles to remind us that walking downhill over wet roots and rocks is even worse. The saving grace for the way down was when a guy named Bloody Nose caught up to us. We hadn¢t seen him since he passed us our first or second day in Vermont, but we apparently jumped ahead of him when he took some time off to visit his ¢lady friend.¢ Having someone new to talk to and share stories with really takes your mind off of things and before we knew it we had finished the monstrous downhill and were at ME 27 where we stopped for a rainy lunch break with Bloody Nose and the Maine-iacs.Thankfully the rain was short lived and by the time we started the climb up the Bigelow Range the sun was even starting to come out a little. However, just like this morning we were left dealing with some wet and nasty terrain as we climbed up 2000 hard and rugged feet before getting to the Lean-to. We decided to call it quits a little early today so that we could set up our tent and try to dry things out from last night. Yeah, that plan backfired. We had the tent set up, and the rain fly hanging on a line when it started to pour. Of course neither Erin nor I were anywhere close to the tent then the rain came, but we sure got back in a hurry. We did the best we could to get the fly on before retreating to a day use only shelter near by. We cooked and ate in the shelter and waited out the rain. About 2 hours later we returned to tent to find that it far from dry, so we lined the inside with an emergency blanket and settled down for a calm night and hoped that tomorrow would be a dryer day.
Date: 2007-08-25
From: Horns Pond Lean-to

To: West Carry Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: light rain

(Erin) Man does it suck to have to put away a wet tent in the morning. But we did it and now its time to face the Bigelow Range! The last set of 4000¢ range until Mt. Katahdin. We climbed up West Peak and then started to climb down to where there was a trail off the AT called ¢Old Man¢s Head¢. It was tempting to check out the old mans head but we had to keep going. Later we climbed Little Bigelow at 3025¢ and on to the shelter right afterwards. We made it in time for a quick lunch and then we had to keep moving to the next shelter, 7 more miles! We had been told by south bounders that after the Bigelow¢s that the trail would get much easier and that¢s what we were hoping so that we would get to the shelter before dark. The miles to the next shelter did end up being much easier and we were able to pick up the pace. We passed the 2000 miles mark which was painted on a road. It was nice to see because now we only have 175 miles to go! I am officially a 2000 mile-er. We made it just before dark and to see Bloody Nose naked!! He didn¢t expect us to make it all the way and was thinking he would be all alone¢¦.he was wrong! We had just enough time to quickly take a dip in West Carry Pond before a huge thunder storm hit. It was nice to be in a shelter for once to watch the storm come through. Tomorrow we have 14ish miles to make it to the Kennabeck River for the ferry service to take us across the river to Caratunk, ME.
Date: 2007-08-26
From: West Carry Pond Lean-to

To: Caratunk, ME
Miles today: 14.0

(Willie)Pushing extra miles and being chased by a thunderstorm yesterday was far from ideal, but boy was it nice to sleep in a little this morning knowing that we only had an easy 14 miles to do today. Right from the get go, you could tell today was going to be a better day. When we got up the sun was shining and we had that nice after a storm breeze the kept the weather nice and enjoyable all day long. We hiked with Bloody Nose all day today, which kept the mood light and made miles go by faster than normal. A lot of people have told us that the Bigelows are the last big obstacles in Maine and so far the rumors have proven to be true. We were all surprised at how fast we covered the first ten miles so we stopped in at the Pierce Pond Lean-to for a longer then normal lunch. From lunch we only had four miles to go to get to the only stretch of the AT that we don¢t have to walk. We got to the Kennebec River at about 3:15 and signaled for the ferry, which was on the other side of the river to come pick us up. If it wasn¢t for the ferry, the Kennebec would be the widest (about 75 yards) and deepest river that we¢d have to ford. Bloody Nose had this vision that he¢d ford it, but when Hill Billy Dave told us that at the deepest point the river was about 12 feet deep he decided that he would be better off taking the official route across to the other side. There is actually a white blaze on the bottom of the boat so that the purest among us can feel comfortable about going across on a canoe. When we got across the river and into Caratunk it was business as usual. First we hitched to the Northern Outdoors Center for lunch, and then we caught a ride to Rivers and Trails to re-supply before heading back to Northern Outdoors to get a place to stay and relax a bit. Erin and I got a cabin tent for the night, which ended up being a lot nicer then we thought it¢d be. The big canvas tent had two beds in it and was big enough for us to let Bloody Nose crash there as well. I guess I can swing 9 bucks for a tent with beds and electricity, showers, a pool, and a hot tub.
Date: 2007-08-27
From: Caratunk, ME

To: Bald Mtn Brook Lean-to
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: clear sky

(Erin) Today we woke up in the platform tent. I think all three of us slept pretty well even though the cars on the road were pretty loud and the drunks coming into the campsite make quite a bit of noise. I put my ear plugs in and didn¢t wake up till morning! We packed and headed up to the lodge for the breakfast buffet. It was great! All you can eat goodness!! We ate and ate and ate a little more and then asked for a shuttle back to the trail. Along the way we met a section hiker name PA Bluebird. A 55 year old women that is out to finish her thru-hike that was cut short from an injury last year. She has a trail journal as well if you want to check her site out. The trail wasn¢t too bad, the hills seem to be coming back and we had a bit of a climb in the middle of the day up Pleasant Mt. Not too pleasant if you ask me but then it was mostly down hill and over some rocks to get to the next shelter for the night. Time for bed, tomorrow will be either a BIG day of 20something to get to Monson, ME or another relaxed day to get to a shelter 9 miles outside of town.
Date: 2007-08-28
From: Bald Mtn Brook Lean-to

To: Horseshoe Canyon Lean-to
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: broken clouds

(Willie)Let¢s see, what to do today? Push 22 miles to get into Monson a day early or kick back and have a relaxing day and get into Monson tomorrow. Well, that decision was made right off the bat when neither one of us got up early this morning. Camp was pretty much deserted by the time we got out of the tent so we opted to take it easy today. Man, I wish I knew that Erin was going to bring her magazine to the privy so that I could have brought my book. The current plan only called for 13 miles today so we took our time getting ready and didn¢t hit the trail until almost 9:00, which was one of our latest starts in a long time.We got the only hard part of day over with first with a 1400¢ climb up to the top of Moxie Bald where the exposed summit and the gorgeous weather just screamed at us to take our time. After about a half an hour of fooling around on the summit and soaking in great views back to the Bigelows and a head to Katahdin we started to make the muddy climb back down Moxie to Moxie Pond where took our shoes off and put our feet in the water for a nice hour and half lunch break. It really felt good to be able to sit back and do nothing but fool around and watch the time tick by. Knowing that our trip is almost done, it kind of made me wish that we had spent more days like this, but I know that if we had we probably wouldn¢t have enjoyed it nearly as much, so who knows what would have been better.Around 1:00 we decided it was time to start our slow march to the next shelter about 9 miles up the trial. Yeah, it was clear that we still weren¢t in much of a hurry, because we stopped and played around just about every chance we got. After doing a tight rope walk across the Bald Mtn. Stream we spent most of the rest of the afternoon walking along side of the stream until it merged with the West Branch of the Piscataquis River where we had our first Maine river fording. On a nice hot day, the shin deep water really felt good so we opted to take another snack break before moving on the rest of the way. We got to the shelter around 6:00 and found that Blue Bird was the only other person who decided not to make the running to Monson, so we spent the rest of the evening kicking back and chatting with her. So yeah, it turned out to be a pretty relaxing day. The good part about this schedule is that we only have 9 miles planned for tomorrow, so we¢re not quite done with the relaxing. Hopefully this will give us the energy we need to enjoy the final stretch of trail when we leave Monson in a couple of days.
Date: 2007-08-29
From: Horseshoe Canyon Lean-to

To: ME 15, Monson 
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: few clouds

(Erin) We woke up earlier today so we could get to Monson, ME by noon and be able to relax for the rest of the day. We had been at the shelter with PA Bluebird and walked with her for most of the day. We had another river to ford, the east branch of the Piscatagous River. It was a pretty easy day walking in the woods alongside rivers and streams. We made to the road that led to Monson by 12:00 and started walking towards town with our thumbs out. Will was starting to think that we were going to have to walk all the way into town but then a guy with an F150 let us jump in the bed of his truck. In town we first re-supplied for what we would need in the 100-mile wilderness. We have planned on taking 6 nights and 7 days to get to the campsite at the base of Mt. Katahdin. Then we went to the Lakeshore House where we got a room for the night. It is sort of a funny place. It looks like a normal house or B&B but this one is special. It is also a bar/restaurant in the back and a 24 hour laundry mat with a coin operated shower in the front. We got a room in the ¢hotel¢ upstairs and shared a bathroom with another couple section hikers that were there for the night. Then it was finally time to find food for us to eat! There is not much in Monson, ME beside a few gas stations and general stores. So we went to the gas station to pick up a pizza and a bag of chips. We sat on the back porch looking out at the Lake Hebron and filled our bellies with food. It¢s crazy to think that this is the last town that we are going to be in before the finish line. We have been talking about this moment for weeks and weeks and now it¢s finally here. When we leave Monson tomorrow we will be 7 nights away from finishing our 5 month long journey! Later we took showers and then went down to the pub downstairs for dinner before going to bed.
Date: 2007-09-01
From: West Branch of Pleasant River

To: East Branch Lean-to
Miles today: 16.6

(Erin)We woke up early but we still did not start hiking. There is always too much to get done before we can leave, even though it has been the same stuff every morning for almost 5 months! First we had to ford the Pleasant River, which wasn¢t so pleasant so early in the morning in the cold water. Than I tried to book it up the trail to warm up my cold, wet feet. My shoes and socks were still wet from the last two days of rain so my feet look like they have been in a bath tub for hours. We seemed to be getting up the bumps today fairly quickly, the trail followed a stream most of the way to the shelter which was nice. We made it to the shelter by 10:00am and had an early lunch. While at the shelter I really needed to dry out my shoes and socks from the last few days of rain. After lunch we charged up Gulf Hagas Mt. 2680¢ than down, then up to West Peak 3178¢, then down and up again to Hay Mt. 3245¢ and down again. We had one more significant mountain to hit in the wilderness, White Cap Mountain at 3100¢. On top we had another great view of Katahdin which was now only 72.8 miles away. From White Cap Will was able to use The Green Lady and Sir Wooden Knee¢s cell phone to call his mom on her birthday. I called my parents to tell them that we were still on schedule to summit on Sept 5th. This phone call was only our second cell phone call made in the woods, the first time I used a cell phone I called my brother on his birthday.So we kept going to the next shelter which was down some man made stairs that led all the way to the shelter. Some amazing work had gone into building those steps. We decided to push on to the next shelter which was only 3.6 miles away, of mostly down hill. We made it to the next shelter is great time and ended up being the only ones there. While putting up the tent we could see the mice and chipmunks are already starting to come out, hopefully they don¢t bother us tonight.
Date: 2007-09-02
From: East Branch Lean-to

To: Potaywdjo Spring Lean-to
Miles today: 19.5
Weather: clear sky

(Willie)I¢d like to say that we both woke up raring and ready to go this morning because we still have a lot of ground to cover and not a lot of time to cover it in. Instead, we both struggled to pull ourselves out of our bags at some terrible time in the morning so that we could be walking by 7:00. Why were we so tired this morning? Because we spent the night fighting the mice and the cold that¢s why! We may not be camping at high elevations anymore, but it still is getting quite cold at night. It wouldn¢t have been that bad if we could have stayed tucked in to our sleeping bags all night, but we had to get out a number of times before we found a mouse hang on the outside of the shelter where mice could get our food. The mice have just been absurd since we entered into the wilderness. I think we might be tenting and putting our food in the trees from here on out.Somehow we managed to pull our selves together and hit the trail as we always do, despite the lack of sleep and the numb fingers and toes. The morning could have started out much worse, but we were relieved to see that there was a way to rock hop across the East Branch of the Pleasant River. There was no way things would have warmed up enough in the three tenths of a mile to the river for a river fording to be remotely amusing. Thankfully we stayed dry, and by the time we had gone 2.5 miles to the top of Little Boardman Mt., which at 2017¢ was our biggest climb of the day, we were back down to our base layers and sweating. Little Boardman Mt. seemed to be the start of the ¢100 Mile Wilderness¢ that everyone raves about. After 50 miles of rougher the expected stuff, we finally made it to easy street. The rest of the day was flat as a pancake. We couldn¢t even find a root or a rock to trip on if we tried. The miles sailed by so fast that a number of times we had to take the book out because we didn¢t believe how far we had gotten. To make things even better, we were blessed with trail magic not once but twice today. First, in the morning we stumbled upon a bag of zucchini bread hanging in a tree after a dirt road. Then when we took our lunch break next to the Jo-Mary Road, two fishermen came by and gave us a large bag full of rice crispy treats. They said that it be great to know that they¢d be helping out thru-hikers for the next couple of days, good thing they didn¢t know that they¢d be gone by dinner time.We rolled in to the Pataywadjo Spring Lean-to around 5:30 and decided that 19.5 fun miles were enough for one day. Besides, this spring was one of my favorite water sources on the trail last time, so we had to stop here. The spring is literally a 3 foot wide puddle or crystal clear water. You wouldn¢t even know it was a spring without the stream flowing from bottom of the ¢puddle¢. Could we be lucky enough for the rest of the Wilderness to go a smoothly as today?
Date: 2007-09-03
From: Potaywdjo Spring Lean-to

To: Rainbow Spring Campsite
Miles today: 22.0
Weather: scattered clouds

(Erin)Today we woke up early, earliest in a while so that we could a big day and get to the Rainbow Spring Campsite. We got ready and packed up by headlamp but it started to get light out once we started hiking at 6:20am. We said goodbye to Lady Green and Sir Wounded Knee, they were going to White House Landing (hostel) for a short day and a day off for Lady Green¢s birthday. We passed a lake while the sun was still coming up and had another great view of Katahdin! We seem so close now, it¢s amazing! I have been trying to picture what Katahdin would look like and even though it looks amazing, it is like nothing I could imagine. We took pictures of Katahdin with the sparkles on the water, maybe we should have gotten up more often this early to see views like this¢¦I don¢t think so. We did the first 7.5 miles to a campsite in good time and stopped to use the privy and snack. We ran into some people out for the holiday weekend so of course we chatted with them to try to get some of their food. (no luck) We went back to our packs to eat what we had in our packs and the wife came back over to us and asked if we needed any food or a soda, of course we do! We gladly walked back to her cooler to grab some apples, fruit cups and a diet coke. Its amazing how much we appreciate it when people give us food. We then kept going 2.5 to the next shelter for a quick look and then we started the climb up Nesuntabunt Mt. Not too bad of a hike up considering what we already did in New Hampshire. There has been a lot of work done on the trail out here in the 100 mile wilderness. More rock steps were put in to make it easier to walk up the trail. We made it to the top and we through down our packs to go over to another view of Katahdin. This time clouds were covering the upper half. We know some hikers that are finishing their thru-hike today, amazing that we will be up there in only 2 more days. From there we hiked down and to another pond where we had lunch. From there we had 7 more miles to get to the campsite that we wanted to hit today. The miles weren¢t too hard, more roots and rocks but we seemed to be rolling pretty well. We hit one more shelter before the campsite and still had 3.8 miles to go but we were determined now, we booked it and made it to the shelter just before dusk. We are now almost done with our 5 month long journey. This is our second to last night in the tentTomorrow we hike out of the 100 mile wilderness over Abol Bridge where we will call our folks again to tell them where to meet us. Oh yea! Not sure if I told you guys out there reading this¢¦but my appetite has sky rocketed. Since we reached New Hampshire my weight has been dropping much faster and I am much hungrier. The Whites really kicked my butt and so far I have lost 30lb. I eat anything I can get my hands on. For dinner I have been eating a package of Roman Noodles with a Lipton noodles and I¢m still hungry. I won¢t mind putting on some weight when I get home, and I¢m sure I will.
Date: 2007-09-09
To: Will's Parents house, New York
Miles today: 0.0

(Erin)I wanted to give a bit of insite as to how I felt the day we summited Katahdin! Over the last few days in the 100 Mile Wilderness and getting to see the huge mountian getting closer and closer i was actually getting very nervous. I knew that I was going to have to climb to the top of this mountain to finish and I wasn't sure I was looking forward to it. Its looked hard and crazy, and I was going to have to do it with my full pack on. So as you can tell I was not looking forward to the last 5.2 miles up to the top of Katahdin. I had asked Willie Goat all kinds of questions about what it was going to be like, if it was harder then anything else we had done on the trail, if I could do it. For all of my questions he would tell me that I could do it, that I was a thru-hiker and had done harder sections on the trail already. This was the end and that I just had to do it.The hike to the top wasn't as bad as I had imagined. Having Will with me to help me up some of rocks that had bolts to high for me to reach made it a little better. Once we reached the table lands I wondered what I had been so nervous about. It was a piece of cake walking the last 1.1 to the end of the AT and to hit the sign at the top. We took our pictures that I had been dreaming about for months. The pictures of Will and I standing on the top of Mt. Katahdin and the final day on the trail. All of the thoughts I had along the trail about wanting to be at home all disapeared. I was done and was most likely never going to feel like this again. The feeling of acomplishment and pride over what I had done. I had acomplished something that very few people in the world ever do. I had done something that even fewer women have ever done. I was now a 2007 thru-hiker. I did it!!
Date: 2008-02-15
To: Update
Miles today: 0.0

(Erin)I wanted to send out a short update for anyone that is still reading our journals. Willie Goat and I got engaged!! He popped the question back in October and ever since we have been emerged in wedding planning. While on the trail we talked about when and how we were going to get engaged and how and when Willie was going to ask me. He did ask if I wanted him to ask when we were up on Mt Katahdin...but I said no. I wanted to be clean and showered, I wanted to not have a backpack on, I wanted to be able to wear the ring. So we plannned a dinner out to a nice fancy resturant. I thought it was an excuse to get dressed up and go out to a nice place. Willie had a different plan and had the ring in his pocket all night untill the end of dinner when he sent me a text message. I said yes and then we went home to start calling family and friends. We have set the date to be October 18, 2008. And so after 5 months and 1 day on the trail Willie and I have decided that we want to be together forever, and if we can make it on the trial we can make it in the real world. I will try to post some pictures soon.