Date: 2015-07-18
From: West Hartford

To: Lyme, NH
Miles today: 15.7
Weather: light rain

7/18, 15.7, Lyme, NHNew Hampshire!!! Yeaaaahhhhh!!!! We entered our second to last state today and officially started watching miles to go which is currently down to 436. Otter and I rose early and hiked out of West Hartford at 6 thus morning in order to be sure and get to Norwich, VT before the post office closed. I was able to verify that my boots and my next resupply, sent by my beautiful wife, were waiting to be picked up. Right away we noticed that it was very muggy even beyond the moisture left from overnight rain. We had a couple of smaller hills to climb over, otherwise the hike was pretty gentle. We stopped for one break and arrived in Norwich at 9:15 to a welcome of trail magic left at the end of several driveways as we entered town off the trail. We had soda and homemade cookies and lemon poppyseed muffins. Some even left dog treats for "four legged hikers". After sampling the local fare we continued into town stopping at the post office just off of the trail. As I dropped my pack at the post office to go in I realized my back was a little out of sorts. I picked up my boxes but by the time I opened my boots and put them on, my back was trying to lock up tightly. The arthritis in my lower back seems to catch and when it does not let go, the muscles spasm and that is when I need an adjustment. I need an adjustment. I muddled through checking my resupply and we decided to hike across the border 1 mile into Hanover where we would wait for IB and JP. The hike over was moderately painful with each uphill step but manageable on the level. We dropped our packs at the park and looked at the city map. We planned to meet IB and JP near the Hanover post office in a cafe. Otter and I found a nice spot with outside seating, coffee, sandwiches and pastries where we sat down to wait and sort my resupply. IB and JP joined us around 11:30 after picking up their packages and we each fanned out from the cafe to take care of different things. IB was inside uploading photos, JP went to a Dartmouth library to print out a form for his bank to report some errant charges on his card and Otter and I made a CVS run. These things need to be done in town but can consume a fair amount of time so it was 1:30 when we all were back and ready to decide the plan to finish the day. Hanover is a wonderful trail town and the angels there would have put us up for the night but we needed to cover some miles to maintain progress toward our goal. Therefore, we decided since we could not make 11 more miles today that we would accept the offer of an earlier pick up from our planned Sunday night trail angels David and Lisa. David picked us up at near the halfway point, after we hiked seven miles out of Hanover, and brought us to their beautiful home in Lyme. We were able to take showers and then sat visiting with David until Lisa came home. When Lisa arrived she was in possession of the ingredients for a fine backyard feast of Salmon, steak, grilled veggies and rice. Once again we have been treated like royalty just because we decided to take a walk! We have spent a very nice evening now visiting and laughing and have decided to slack pack the remaining eleven miles into Lyme tomorrow. Lisa may regret it but she let it slip that she would love to hike with us for a bit, so she will join us for tomorrow's trek. Silverback