Date: 2016-08-01
From: Hanover

To: VT 12
Miles today: 22.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Slept well and up at 5:45 to get ready for a shuttle pickup at 7 am. GoldieLox was still sawing logs so I tried to be quiet. I hydrated my oatmeal overnight in a Talenti ice cream container, a trick I picked up from GoldieLox. Made coffee the night before too using my Nalgene bottle. This is a practice that I will use moving forward so I don't have to use my stove in the morning. Ate breakfast and got the few things together that I would need for the day, since I would be hiking north from VT 12 back to Hanover today. Picking up my pack I realized that my camera was missing again. This time the case I carry it in was still on my pack, the camera just wasn't in it. Thinking back, I realized that I left it in the pizza restaurant on the previous day. I used it to take a photo of top3 and GoldieLox, ate lunch, hit the rest room and walked out without going back to the table we were sitting at. I prayed that the restaurant found it. GoldieLox was waking up as I was ready to leave the room and I mentioned to him that I left my camera at the puzza place. It opens at 11:30, so I didn't think they would be taking calls until later in the morning. I walked out of the room worried and got my pick up shortly after 7 am. I told Steve, my shuttle driver about the camera and he looked up the phone number of Ramunto's, the pizza place, for me. My drop off point was a 35 minute drive and was walking some time before 8. There were two Nobos at the trailhead taking a break, talked to them for two seconds and started my hike north up Dana Hill for a 600' for 3/4 of a mile. The two Nobos passed me going up the hill and I caught them going down. Up Bartlet Brook and I lost the two again. About 4 miles in I was walking down through a farm pasture in light rain towards South Pomfret Rd and stopped under a tree to call Ramunto's. A gal answered the phone and I asked if they found a camera at a table near the men's room the previous day. She said, "you lost a hammer?", "no I left my Fuji Xpro2 camera yesterday", "ok, let me check". She put the phone down and was gone for a minute. Back, "what kind of camera?", "a black Fuji Xpro2 SLR", "yes we have it, looks expensive, I'll put it in the safe and let the manager know that you will come by to pick it up", "Praise the lord, I'm hiking today and will be in this evening to pick it up, thank you". The aprehention that I was feeling was vanished and I was ready to take on the rest of the day. 100' further down the hill I met a Sobo hiker at a cooler with water and bananas. He asked if I wanted to split a banana, "sure" and I picked out one that looked like it was in decent shape, pealed it, offered him the top half and ate the bottom half. The banana was over ripe and under normal circumstances I wouldn't eat it, but my hiker hungry had a grip on me and I scoffed it down. We looked at each other and both said "juicy". With that I took off with a greating of happy trails and a light heart. The day would be a series of 200' to 800' rolling up and downs. Somewhere between the next climb up DuPuis Hill and it started to rain hard. I got totally soaked including my shoes which started to make squishy noises as I walked. Before coming to the shelter I crossed a patch of blackberries and raspberries, and stopped to eat a few. I crossed paths with Bright Eyes again (seems always when I'm slacking north) and we talked for a few minutes. A few miles later I stopped at Thistle Hill Shelter for 2nd breakfast where I met YooHoo, an interesting guy with a well worn western style cowboy hat. There was a second Nobo with his rain gear who stopped because he was wet and freezing, and was trying to warm up. There was also 2 other in there sleeping bags who never said a word. It was just after 10:30 now with 7.8 miles into my 22 for the day with my next milestone at VT 14 and the White River crossing. This was a 5 mile stretch with rolling up and down over blackberry/raspberry fields separated by patches of pine and maple forest. The trail was a muddy mess. I was pushing to make time and fell down a few times slipping on rocks or roots or a slick hill side. On my way to the White River, I passed a beautiful stretch of lodge poll pines, but spent most of the time zombie hiking. Crisis the the bridge over the White River is Ted and Linda's house, a couple that supports hikers with some hot coffee, food, a dry porch and a portopotty. I saw GoldieLox there and the two Nobos that I saw at the start of the day. Stopped in for a rest and ended up eating a fresh cucumber, hard boiled egg, scrambled eggs with bacon and peppers, and finished it off with coffee and a donut. Linda was a really nice woman, very encouraging to the hikers. I left after my 40 minute break with just under 10 miles left in the day. I had about another 1500' of climbing over the next 3 miles followed by a steady downhill for the rest. On my way up Griggs Mtn I met BigFace, another Sobo and exchanged greetings before zooming off. It was dark in the woods and raining hard again, and I wanted the day to be over. I was hoping to make it to Hanover by 6 pm. I reached Norwich 2-3 miles from my end point and started the last leg of my day, road walking through town to the Connecticut River and the Vermont/NH boarder and then finally the last mile into Hanover in NH. I had officially finished my second state and made a beeline to Ramuntos to get my camera eat dinner and get back to the motel to shower and dry off. Dinner of pizza, beer and a caprese salad, and the off to hitch a ride to the motel. My ride was a nice young gal who told me that I was her first hitch hiker pickup. She thought that I didn't look creepy and made a split decision to pick me up. I thanked her and talked about the AT for the duration of the short ride. It was just before 8 when I got to the motel, showered, packed my gear up for the next morning, got my oatmeal and coffee ready and called it a day.