Date: 2005-07-12
From: Thistle Hill Shelter

To: Velvet Rocks Shelter
Miles today: 16.6
Weather: clear sky

Miles hiked today : 16.616.1 AT miles hiked + 0.5 miles of side trailI woke up this morning at 5:00 a.m., packed, and hiking with Opa at 6:00 a.m. Before leaving, I had filled Michael's water bladder so that he wouldn't have to hike down to the water source before leaving to meet his brother. I'd also heard him moving around before I left, so I figured he'd be okay to hike 1.5 miles to the next road.I was moving quickly and arrived in West Hartford at 7:55 a.m. and stopped for a 10 minute rest and water break in front of the now defunct general store before continuing on. 4.0 miles later, I arrived at the Happy Hill Shelter at 9:45 a.m. and stopped for a 25 minute rest break. The mosquitos were quite vicious and as soon as my water was treated, I headed out. With 5.3 miles to go to the New Hampshire state line, I was surprised when I reached it at 12:00 p.m. It may have been because I reached Elm Street at 11:25 a.m., where upon the trail followed a series of roads through Norwich, VT, across the Connecticut River, and into Hanover, NH. I reached the Dartmouth College campus at 12:15 p.m. and stopped for a rest and water break, having covered 5.8 miles in just over 2 hours. I downed a liter of water in roughly 15 seconds, checked the data book to find out where the Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) office was, which I had heard was very accomodating to thru-hikers. In the basement of the building that housed the DOC ofice, I saw that other hikers had stashed their packs there. There was also internet access terminals available, so I updated my trail journal and checked my e-mail.Since the last shelter, I'd nurtured the idea that I was going to consume an entire Vermonster by myself at the Hanover Ben & Jerry's. At 1:30 p.m., after using the internet, Opa and I walked to Ben & Jerry's and I discovered that their credit card machine was down. Since I didn't have enough cash to cover the ~$33 cost, I opted for a pint of Dublin Mudslide. I tried the "white blaze" Ben & Jerry's thru-hiker "password" and received a 10% discount. It's probably a good thing that their credit card machine was down, because the liter of water I'd earlier consumed had definitely taken the edge off my appetite. The fact that The Vermonster is 20 scoops of ice cream, 4 cookies, 4 bananas, 4 ladels of hot fudge, with whipped cream on top makes me believe that I would have wasted some ice cream.Leaving Ben & Jerry's, we went to Subway but quickly left when we met by the employee who is best described as "death warmed over," due to her attitude. She was obviously not thrilled to be a "sandwich artist." We went to a restaurant called Molly's Balloon and had excellent sandwiches and were joined partway through our meal by Tomcat, a hiker from Colorado.After eating, we returned to the DOC basement and lounged around until 4:10 p.m., at which time we headed to the local movie theater. Tomcat accompanied us and we saw "Dark Water," which was a mediocre suspense film, though much better than the last 2 films I'd seen.After the movie, we returned to the DOC basement again, only to find Shades of Blue and Cocoa Bean lounging. There was also a section hiker, Skittles, on site who accompanied Opa and I to dinner. We'd originally planned to go out for Indian food, though I'd spotted a Thai restaurant, which sounded much better. Dinner was excellent and I had a bowl of yellow curry and split an order of pad thai with Skittles.After dinner, I spoke with Turtle via cell phone and learned that she is 18 miles behind with Street Fighter, who caught up to her at the lookout cabin. I tried calling Sean's friend, Jeremy, to find out how Michael is doing, but reached a voicemail recording. Returning to the DOC one last time, I updated 2 more trail journal entries.At 8:30 p.m., Opa, Skittles, and I headed back to the trail. It was only 1.7 miles to Velvet Rocks Shelter with a minor climb and I arrived at 9:20 p.m. It was necessary to use headlamps, though the brief night hike was pleasant due to the company and the fact that the temperature had dropped to the high 70s. Upon arriving, I pitched my tent, finished journaling, and hit the hay.Hanover was a fun town to visit and had there been reasonable lodging available, I might have stayed the night and done a short day out tomorrow. As it is, I'm happy with today and glad to be back in the woods after both spending a good deal of time in town and having hiked a full day over relatively easy terrain.Bedtime at 11:00 p.m.