Date: 2015-07-23
From: Norwich - trail angels

To: 3 Mile road
Miles today: 10.8

We should have had a good night's sleep. But... there was a snorer among us. And, this made it very difficult to sleep. In fact, we probably only had four hours of sleep. Not a good way to start the hiking day. And, on top of this, Count has blisters on his heels again, both heels. He was hurting badly.   We were in no hurry to hit the trail. And, we took it easy this morning at our trail angel's home. We left around 8:30. The first 1.9 miles were on streets, on the streets of Norwich, VT. We popped into a store for a bit of resupply. At the end of 1.9 miles, we crossed into New Hampshire!!    Yes, we are in New Hampshire. We didn't see the state line and were a bit disappointed with this. But, we weren't hiking back to see where we missed it. Now, we were in New Hampshire and the first 1.3 miles in New Hampshire were street walking in Hanover, NH. Our first stop was Lou's Bakery for our free thru-hiker donut. Add a coffee and soda and we had our morning break. We stopped into the Coop to pick up a sandwich for lunch.    And, so, the trail hiking started at 10:53. The trail was a steep climb out of Hanover, NH. There were some rocks. Thankfully, the rocks were dry. Count was having a very hard time hiking. His feet were hurting. With every step, it hurt. But, we hiked on. The trail turned nice and easy. It should have been an enjoyable easy hike. But, not for Count. His feet were getting worse.   So, he was walking to avoid stepping on his heels. Now, the balls of his feet were hurting. We stopped several times to allow his feet to rest. He even tried lancing his blisters on the trail to alleviate his pain. This helped a bit. But, now he was shuffling. We had to get off the trail. We turned our cell phone on. No coverage.   We hiked on. Finally, coverage. We called a hotel to see if there was a room available. There was one. But, we were still 2 miles from a road crossing. We had to get to a road crossing to get into town. We wanted to call a trail angel. But, we didn't know how long it would take us to go the 2 miles. We pushed on, Count cringing with every step.    We made it to the road crossing. It was a dirt road. Not very conducive for hitching. We turned our phone on. No cell phone coverage. Now what?? The next blacktop road was 5.6 miles ahead. There was no way we could hike that. Should we tent for the night and try more hiking tomorrow?    Wait! Do we hear a car?   Yes, a car was coming! We stuck our thumbs out. The car stopped and backed into the parking area. We asked him for a ride. He couldn't take us for a bit as he was waiting for someone as he was going to hike. But, he had a different cell phone service and he had coverage. He allowed us to use his phone. We called a trail angel. The trail angel could pick us up and take us to a hotel in about 20 minutes. He asked if we minded waiting. Are you kidding? We would wait an hour if necessary.    The trail angel arrived earlier than 20 minutes. He took us to a hotel. He said he had to work tonight. In fact, he was on his way to work when he picked us up. He said he could take us to urgent care tomorrow. We will certainly be calling him tomorrow morning. Amazingly, things worked out to get off the trail when we needed it. Now, we hope and pray Count's feet start to heal.