Date: 2005-08-28
From: Happy Hill Shelter

To: Hanover, NH
Miles today: 5.8
Weather: light rain

Started @ Happy Hill ShelterDestination: Hanover, NHMiles today: 5.8Total Miles: 1729.9Stayed in shelterDay 170By 7am we were on the trail. I am totally out of water but Toto had completely refilled yesterday at our trail angel, Spencer's, home and store. I did not want to get any because I did not want to have to carry the extra weight. Since there was little water at the shelter and it was a ways away and he had enough to get us these almost 6 miles Toto just shared his with me. We had been told by Jimbo, the south bounder that stopped by the shelter last evening, that it was to rain this afternoon. It was cloudy and humid this morning but not too awfully warm until we started hiking. Every time we stopped to rest a bit I got cool, though. Just over half way here it started sprinkling a little bit. By the time we got to the town of Norwich, NH. It was raining harder but it was not too cold. We went into the general store there to get a couple of breakfast sandwiches and juice and took them outside to eat. The only place to sit was on a step that at one time must have been in front of a door but now there is no door. I'm sure we looked like 2 homeless people sitting there almost inhaling our food and drink. Everyone spoke to us and asked about our hike. They were quite surprised to hear we had started in Georgia. By this time it was raining harder and we were both a little cold. One young man offered to drive us the 1 mile we had left of the road!Walked across the Connecticut River into Hanover. He gave us a driving tour of the campus of Dartmouth College and gave us a little trivia about the town. First, one of the frat houses is famous because it is where the movie, ANIMAL HOUSE, was filmed. Second, this is the only school district in the country that is in 2 states--VT and NH. They are building more dormitories to increase enrollment to 6500 (I believe he said) students. Norwich, from what I saw, is a beautiful town with beautiful homes and businesses. Once we had our tour, our chauffeur dropped us off in the center of town where Panda had gone on for breakfast when we chose to go to the general store. The cafe where he went was very crowded with a long line. So we went outside where the same cafe was selling coffee and pastries (the business is also a bakery). It was delicious coffee and felt so good because we were cold from the rain. By this time it was after 10am and the bookstore across the street was open and they have tables for eating since they also have a cafe. It was a wonderful bookstore and I could have spent hours in it but it was air-conditioned and I was freezing. When Panda was finished with his breakfast he came over to the bookstore and we soon called a cab to take us the 2 or so miles to the motel. It was not check-in time but we were able to get in since our room was ready. Before we had our packs out of the taxi the owner of the motel drove up with 2 hikers in it--Not Guilty and Eagle Foot. Eagle Foot has since hiked on but Not Guilty stayed. He is from Alabama so maybe he is watching to see what Hurricane Katrina is going to do. It is supposed to hit the coast near New Orleans between 5 and 8am tomorrow. We plan to hike out in the morning after we go to the post office and get breakfast somewhere. Somewhere before we hike out we will stop to pick up some snack foods. I guess we will be passing stores to buy whatever we need. Most of our time will be spent at the PO repacking Toto's new pack and my pack after getting our winter gear and bounce box with raingear in it. We need to send the old pack back and I'll need to send my old shoes back since I will be getting my new shoes as well. Our winter gear will take up more space so we will need to send as much as possible home. We were allowed to do our laundry here this afternoon so now we have clean clothes. Toto and I ordered a pizza and had it delivered here to the motel. Panda took a taxi to the outfitter a couple a miles away and then was going back into Hanover to an Indian restaurant. Panda is an Englishman and started the trail in New York. He has been waiting for another hiker he had been hiking with earlier to catch up. Panda is from Oxford. As with Snowman, we have been hearing about his perspective about the differences between America and the UK. We've done a lot of resting today as well as a lot of work to get ready to hike out tomorrow. I have thoroughly cleaned our water bottles and pack bladders, laundry, e-mails, ID-ing our pictures on the camera card we'll send to our son, and filled our water containers. So rain or shine we are ready to hike after the town chores in the morning. We are hoping that even if we hike in rain over the next 3 days we will have better weather for the White Mountains once we get to Glencliff. We saw a great coffee table book of the White Mountains in the bookstore today and if the views are anything like the pictures in the book we have some great sights ahead.