Date: 2016-06-03
From: Main St., Norwich, VT

To: Three Mile Road
Miles today: 9.8
Weather: scattered clouds

Today we started with a new state and a new hiking partner - One More. Now our team has 2 vehicles, so we can explore more support strategies. After a hearty breakfast this morning at our home base (the Norwich Inn), we set out in One More¢s Highlander for the end point of our hiking section today - the trailhead at Three Mile Road in NH. Three Mile Road is a gravel road, but it¢s well graded and hard packed and almost better than some paved roads around here. There was a small off road clearing at the trailhead with enough room to park 3 vehicles. So we started all our electronics and headed back SoBo toward Norwich. We had a comfortable hike with no remarkable events and about 3 and a half hours later we were back in Hanover, NH, just across the river from Norwich. I don¢t have much to say about the hike. The trail is in good shape and marked well enough. We had a couple of short ups and one significant descent near the end. At one point, One More pointed to a plastic tube that ran between a number of trees alongside the trail, about 3 or 4 feet off the ground. It was attached to the trees and he said it¢s part of a system of collecting maple sap for syrup production. I don¢t remember seeing it before, but I may not have noticed it. Sometime later, Princess drew our attention to the stand of trees that we were passing through, perhaps 2 or 3 acres of them. They were very tall pines, with only short stubby branches most of the way up to their top. The branches at the top appeared to be green with pine needles, but the lower branches were barren and almost seemed dead. We speculated that the trees may be under attack by a pest or malady that is moving up the trees. We also observed that the trees were in regular rows, apparently all planted at the same time a number of years ago. It¢s possible that this is some specific type of pine that grows this way. It was just very unusual. The downhill section late in the hike was steep, but there were enough rocks to provide footholds and even a few rock steps. The trees in this area were older pines with a thick layer of pine straw on the ground and virtually no undergrowth below the trees. When we finally emerged from the woods, we were at the edge of Hanover and came out into the Dartmouth athletic fields. The remainder of the hike was a road walk through the center of Hanover, past one entrance to Dartmouth, down a hill to the Connecticut River, across the river - which is the state border between NH and VT, and then up the hill to Norwich and our end point, the Norwich Inn. We followed the AT all the way up to the last block before the Inn, when the AT turns to go down Elm Street and on into the VT woods. While we were going through Hanover, we decided to stop at Molly¢s Restaurant on Main Street and have lunch and a beverage. It was very comfortable, the town was bustling and the restaurant was busy, but we found a nice table outdoors in the back and had a pleasant lunch. A very civilized way to enjoy a hike. Afterwards, we walked down over the river and took the necessary photos at the middle of the bridge beside the border marker. Now we¢ve finished our customary chores, washed the clothes, and have our slack packs ready for tomorrow. We had great weather today, cool at the start and gradually warming to the low 80s. The weather tomorrow should be much the same, but there is a likelihood of rain on Sunday with much cooler temps. Tonight is our last night here at the Norwich Inn and we plan to move to Dowd¢s on Saturday. We have the option of shifting the order of the next couple of hikes, and we may do a more challenging hike tomorrow when the chance of rain is low. Weather will become a more important factor as we move into the Whites later this week.