Date: 2015-07-17
From: Winturi Shelter

To: West Hartford
Miles today: 16.4

7/17, 16.4, West Hartford; The HartsAs we were packing this morning No Rush rose from his slumber, cleared his eyes and looked out. "Let's see" he said, "Sunny skies. Perfect temperatures. I wonder what I will do today? I guess I will walk." That sort of frames it all for us everyday as we begin and often say, lets walk. We started at 6:45 today planning to cover 21 miles but the terrain was a bit of an unknown. The profile we have in our guide that shows us climbs and descents had a sawtooth looking challenge for us today so we hiked on with flexibility in mind. We hiked well today, up and down the rises and runs, enjoying the very nice trail conditions and talking of reaching the end of our journey. Hopefully we haven't started that too early with 452 miles to go, but it sure feels like it is getting close. The guide highlighted a market just .2 off trail that was in a good spot for a lunch break so we headed for that road crossing, arriving at 12:15. We hiked up the road and discovered that it was a small market that only sold fresh cuts of meat from the farm, ice cream by the pint and a local soft drink in four flavors. I was disappointed but glad to have a soda with lunch so I bought 2 and headed outside. I made my usual tuna wrap and ate some trail mix figuring others would do the same but shortly after Otter informed us that the sandwich maker was coming in and would make sandwiches for us by 1:15. Fresh food is hard to find so we decided to wait. The sandwiches finally showed at 1:40 and were very good, but now we needed to modify our plans. Starting at 2:00 we decided to hike the afternoon as quickly as possible and see how far we could go hoping to make at least West Hartford. Little Miss Sunshine had told us about a local trail angel there and it sounded like a possible overnight. As we hiked the afternoon away the sunny skies we had became overcast and we pondered the possibility that we would be tenting in the rain. As we reached West Hartford we crossed the bridge, and there on his front porch was Mr. Hart. After greetings he invited us to sit on the porch, have a free soda and a bag of chips, and rest a bit. When I asked about places to stay or tent he said, "You are welcome to put up a tent in the yard, but you can also stay on beds or cots in my garage." We chose the garage. The Harts have been flagging down and hosting hikers, for a donation, since 2001 and last year had 1100 hikers stay with them. This year they expect many more and are glad to be extraordinary trail angels. They lost their house when the hurricane devastated the northeast a few years back but the garage was left standing after the flood waters receded. They have built a new house now, and enjoy the company of hikers. After we found our places above the garage Mr Hart asked if we would eat some hot dogs if he grilled them. He should probably have known the answer, but we reminded him in the affirmative. Three or four hot dogs each, with more free soda and chips, and we were a pretty happy bunch. After dinner IB decided to take a brief swim in the river to rinse off and the rest of us settled in to sleep, read or call home. I will be heading to sleep, as Otter has already done, since he and I will be trying to hike out of here at 6 in the morning. I have my new boots to pick up at the post office in Norwich, 7 miles away, and want to be there early so I can repack and send my old boots home. IB and JP have a package in Hanover, just across the border, but they can pick up there as late as 3 pm so they are staying a bit tomorrow for the free breakfast offered by the Harts. Silverback