Date: 2005-08-27
From: West Hartford Vermont

To: Norwich, Vermont
Miles today: 8.3

The sounds of contented chickens clucking woke me up this morning. We had slept for almost ten hours. At one point last night a train came through and for a moment I thought this would be my last day in this life as I know it. The building shook, the windows rattled and my heart stopped! Talk about an emergency trip to the potty!! Except there was no potty! Only the great outdoors behind the building! The skies were grey and overcast as we headed out of town, but by 9:00 the sun finally made it up over the mountain and brought with it some warmer breezes. We are both so sore that every step takes all the effort we can muster. Neither of us are in great shape, but we figure a week or so on the trail and the trail will beat us into shape. In fact I feel pretty beat right now! We finally saw our first north bound thru hikers today. We must be between groups of them on the trail. The majority of the streams and creeks are dried up, making drinking water a real issue. We stopped at the Happy Hill Shelter for a hot meal. The bag with the dehydrated ravioli in it broke, so we decided to cook and eat it. That was far better than chasing the pieces around in the bottom of my food bag. Quite by accident though we found out it wasn't bad tasting, in fact it was far better dried than cooked. After lunch the inviting shelter floor was too much so we spread out our sleeping pads and stretched out for a siesta. We were awakened an hour later by two thru hikers looking for a nice quiet place to smoke some weed. I guess we did not look like the type they wanted to invite to their party, as they made a hasty retreat. We found them lying beside the trail later feeling no pain. The lunch time rest proved to be a rewarding time out as we had a bounce to our step and made pretty good time to the town of Norwich. We were completely out of water, hot and tired and headed down a long paved road into town. The very first house we passed provided some trail magic in the form of cold glasses of water and ice cream cones. An elderly lady was in her yard holding a dog lease with one hand and an ice cream cone with the other. She seemed to be so enjoying the ice cream that I couldn't help but ask her if it was as good as it looked. She said yes, then asked if we wanted one. She did not need to ask twice. We set our packs on the lawn and followed her inside. Her name was Rosemary Riesar, her son was working on the house but stopped long enough to chat with us as he dished out ice cream. Rosemary took us on a delightful tour of her home. The second oldest house in town. A big huge barn was attached to it which had been turned into living quarters. The house was like a museum and we wished we could have stayed longer. I know there were some wonderful stories to be told by a " genuine" old fashion lady. Refreshed and ready for a room we headed down the street, once again following the white blazes. As we approached the interstate I knew we were headed in the wrong direction. We had planned to stay in Norwich tonight rather than hike into Hanover. For one reason, the motels in Hanover are all quite a hike out of town, and for two our feet hurt, or as Papermaker said, "Everything including my hair hurts." I reminded him of how little hair he had to hurt, to which he replied, "Well, what little I do have hurts." We stood there along the side of the road, him wanting to go ahead, me knowing we had missed the Norwich Inn. Did you know that even if a man is hiking he still will not stop and ask directions? I did what any woman does when they need help, I asked some passing cyclists which way to go. They were moving so fast all they colud do was pointup the hill from where we had just came. We only had to backtrack a couple blocks and we were soon settled in a quaint room at the Norwich Inn. I swallowed hard at the price. It was much higher than the price in Wingfoot's book, but since when has he been up to date with his information anyway? We both showered, first with our clothes on, to get then somewhat clean, then a longer shower to wash away the sweat and weariness from our bodies. We have already picked up that hiker hobble when we try to walk without a pack. The fact that our room was on the second floor only exagerated our gait. We went down to the pub since we felt drastically under dressed for the dining hall, besides we did not have reservations. I ordered a cup of Lobster Bisque to start folowed by pan seared scallops in cream sauce with fresh fettuchini. It was heavenly! Papermaker ordered Walnut crusted trout and garlic mashed potatoes, his meal too was wonderful. Norwich is the richest town in Vermont and you could definately tell it. These two country bumpkins were out of their element. As funny as we looked, the people here were too classy to stare at us. Next door to the inn is Dan and Whit's Country Store. It is perhaps Vermont's largest old time general store. Their motto is "If we don't have it, you don't need it!" It was facinating to walk around listening to the old wide plank boards creaking under our feet and savoring the smells of thousands of different items all mingling together. Jack Fraser whose father Dan first opened the store was more than happy to fill us in on the store's history. Of course he first had to make sure that I was not some secret employee from the state or IRS snooping around, but once I convinced him of my innocence(ha ha ) he talked freely to us. The pride in the store was evident in his voice. He is also the town's fire chief, and like most small town officials he is on top of the latest happenings.The original store was built in 1890 then burned in 1895. It was rebuilt in 1898 and has been added to time and time again.It is 23,600 square feet and every nook and cranny is stuffed with items. The average customer count in any given month is 45,400. That's alot of bags of groceries. The store has been featured on television several times. Jack says everytime a Home Depot or Walmart opens up down the road, it makes it harder and harder to stay in business. It was a definate treat for us. Just another side adventure on the Appalachain Trail. Bumpkin                           5 Million Steps for PolioAppalachian Trail GA-MA BumpkinMore in 2005