Date: 2020-09-10
From: Hanover Co-op

To: Hanover Co-op
Miles today: 0.0

My first zero since Pennsylvania. I was up early and made eggs and waffles in the hostel kitchen. The older guest, John, turned out to be en route to Maine to buy the Stratton motel, itself an AT hostel. I'll likely be one of his first customers.Evan took me to town where at the post office I got my fourth - and hopefully final - pair of Altra Lone Peaks, a new screen protector for my phone, and all my winter gear from home. The forecast calls for a low in the 30s tomorrow night. Just in time!A huge new building is going up on the outskirts of Dartmouth campus for the engineering school. But the core of campus seemed largely unchanged since my undergrad days, except for the large Berry library addition. Russell Sage (aka Sussell Rage), my old dorm, still has the same wooden bunks and Spartan accommodations in this age of glamping student housing. Dartmouth doesn't need perks to attract applicants. As a lark I went into the campus computer store to see what today's students are using. My freshman year, 1991, was the first to require students to buy a computer. Mac only. The most common unit was an all-in-one with a 7-inch black and white screen, 20MB hard drive, and 1MB RAM. And that seemed state-of-the-art. And the campus that made us use their proprietary email (Blitzmail) and instant message service now advertises their partnership with Google for office software.After wandering around campus for an hour, not coming within ten feet of anyone, a woman yelled over to me that I needed a mask. I politely asked where I could get one. She pointed to a booth doling them out. When I asked the man there what the campus policy was, for instance did I need a mask if I was 50 feet away from you, he was friendly and said I needed to wear it in any public area, including the four acre college green. And yes, even if I'm 50 feet from everyone. So glad we have Ivy League schools to lead the way towards reason and common sense. I took note though that many of the college employees on break seemed to be exercising their civil disobedience.Back at the hostel I talked with the long-term guest, Hannah. She is a Covid refugee from Chicago, waiting to get into an apartment in the area. She didn't know this was a hiker hostel until she started seeing smelly guys with huge packs coming in. Owner Bill hooked me up with an inner tube and pointed me to a popular spot on the Connecticut River called Patchem's Point. I tubed and swam in the warm river, watching some scullers from the college. When I got back I talked with my kids over Zoom for the first time in awhile, which made me happy. Drove into town to pick up Indian food with Bill, a fifty-something New Jersey retiree doing sections to finish up New Hampshire. He cut his mileage short today and still has a few miles to finish tomorrow. He has a busy vacation schedule between a vacation home, skiing, and traveling with his wife to the Virgin Islands, Cape Code and elsewhere that prevents longer hikes.Declan came in - a tall lanky kid who worked at the Notch Hostel most of the season before starting a southbound hike. He turned 21 in Monson, but doesn't like the name he got: Mimosa.Yard Sale rolled in later, and then Stitch and Big Dog. They got separated from Irish and Felix.Sunrise came in after dark. A squarely-built young ex-Marine, he left Georgia April 28th. It was he who had pointed me in the right direction at the stream crossing yesterday. Friendly guy, I hope to see him again. We vegged and watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and a mismatched buddy comedy called Due Date. I ate so much I almost felt full. So good to just relax.