Date: 2008-08-16
From: Hanover

To: West Hartford
Miles today: 10.0

Last night was wonderful. We started out today all refreshed. Ken and Judy were planning to walk with us the first ten miles. With some masterful logistics we were able to turn that ten miles into a slackpack.First Tigger, Owl, Roo and I were dropped off in Hanover as Ken and Judy drove our packs to West Hartford to be staged for pick up later. I had some PO business to do and we planned to pick up a fresh sandwich for lunch. Owl was also in search of a new book. We managed to get it all at The Dartmouth Bookstore, a Jane Austin book for Owl and a Cranberry Walnut Chicken Salad sandwiches for lunch, which was probably the highlight of my day. It was incredible!We were all set to go and decided to start walking. Knowing how much faster Soaring hikes than us we figured they would catch up with us in no time. It's a road walk out of Hanover past Dartmouth. At first it's very quaint, then out of town, under the interstate, not so much. Then we moved onto Norwich, which was quaint again. So much so we missed our turn reading historic signs. I'd just as soon have skipped the turn. It took us straight uphill, STILL on a road walk. Pavement can be torture. There was trail magic along the way. Thanks to The Brain '07 hiker for the watermelon. Soon after we turned into the woods and on a trail.It was a stunning, beautiful trail. Hard packed dirt, little if any mud, the sun shining through the leaves. It was just perfect. The trail even followed the contour lines rather than taking us up and down pointless hills.We were getting very hungry by noon. Finally we came to Happy Hills Shelter. That Cranberry Walnut Chicken Salad sandwich was devoured in seconds. Wish I'd bought two! To my surprise the rest of the gang had not caught up with us before the shelter, but they walked in soon after.Soaring's sister Judy and her husband Ken, along with their son Sean and his girlfriend Kendra and their daughter Amy were with Soaring. Amy was going to be continuing on with us for the next three days. When they arrived at the shelter we found out that she was getting blisters from her boots. Hmmm, not good. We introduced her to the wonders of duct tape. :o)'Bout the time we were packing up from lunch to continue on we began to hear thunder. Good thing we only had three miles to go, surely we can outrun it. Yeah, right. We hadn't made it a quarter of a mile when it started. If this was an afternoon isolated thunderstorm, it was following us! It poured buckets. Then about the time I am thinking 'well at least it's just big, soft, wet rain drops, the drops begin to sting and I see them bouncing like little balls on the ground. Hail! Again with the hail! I hate hail. I've never liked hail, but in the past I've at least thought it was interesting... little balls falling from the sky. Now I hate it. Enough with the hail.It eventually ended and the sun tried hard to come out. We continued down the hill toward West Hartford. Coming out of the woods it was a little tricky trying to figure out where to go. They are very sparing with their white blaze paint around here. We finally pulled out the map to make sure we hadn't missed a turn. Nope, another road walk.This led us to a small country store. Soaring and Amy had ran, literally ran past us in the rain. They were already at the store waiting for a burger. Second lunch. The place was a bee hive of activity, locals and hikers stopping in mostly for the sandwiches. I had one later in the day and it was very good.There was some discussion about us continuing on the planned five miles to the next shelter, but with a little rational thinking we came up with another plan. Amy had blisters and we were all completely drenched. Amy¢s parents were still here with a car.My guidebook said to enquire at the store about local camping. We asked the guy making sandwiches if there was a place to camp nearby. Yes, two. We went with the first one because we realized it was a place another hiker had recommended awhile back. We walked back up the road past a couple houses and there was a home with a Sign business who allows hikers to camp in their backyard. Steve and Kathy were very nice people. He had hiked the PCT several years ago.As we arrived they were running out the door. They are on the board of the local library and it was flooding. They said, yes pitch your tent over there, we'll be back. It was a little strange, but it worked for us.We settled into their yard, pitched our tents, changed into dry clothes and hung our wet ones. Meanwhile Amy went off with her folks in search of new shoes. By the time she got back we were situated and comfortable. We had sandwiches from the store for dinner and did a little last minute resupply. Kathy even offered to throw our clothes in the drier for a few minutes since the sun wasn't doing the job.   Now we are settled in for the night with a plan for an early start. We'd like to make it to Killington in two 16 mile days. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.Speaking of the weather cooperating, Tigger left us this afternoon to head back to the Whites. Where Owl and I are content with the idea of doing the Whites next year as a section hike... the idea has actually grown on us as we've thought it through, Tigger feels a need to get it done this year. She has plans for the next couple of years that will make it impossible for her to get back to it. So she is off in hopes that the weather of the last three day (not including this afternoon) will hold out for her trip. Our prayers are with her for a safe journey.Rabbit, Owl and RooJoshua 1:9