Date: 2015-07-08
From: Main St., Norwich, VT

To: Grafton Turnpike, NH
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: scattered clouds

This morning was the end of our third stay at the Norwich Inn. We have our favorite places and we tend to return to them. One of our objectives this year was to try out some new places, and we've found a few we like. But it's hard not to return to a place you like and where you feel comfortable. The Hanover area is a pricey place - Dartmouth influence, and rooms at many places are out of our range. Norwich is just across the river (a short walk or a free bus ride), and accommodations are a little less expensive there. One drawback for us is the lack of laundry service, but the Inn is large, has meals, comfortable rooms, a microbrewery next door and an attached ale house. So we came back again. We got an early start this morning. We picked up breakfast munchies last night and the inn has coffee available all the time. There was no evidence of overnight rain, but it was hot and very humid as we set out at 6:30. We expected a front to move through within a few hours, rain, cool things off and drop the humidity. That's exactly what happened. The first mile or two was a road walk from Norwich into Hanover, across the Connecticut River which is the boundary between Vermont and New Hampshire. So we are now in our penultimate state, #13, NH. Arguably the toughest state on the AT. Once outside town, we headed up and over a ridge. Not long after that the rain started and lasted for most of the morning. In the beginning we could hear it in the tree canopy above us, but not much got through. Before long it started to penetrate and drop off the trees. We put on our ponchos for a while but the rain never got really heavy for very long. I was already wet with sweat from the humidity in the first hill, so the ponchos really didn't do much. After a bit we stowed the ponchos and just pushed on through the rain. The temp and humidity did drop and when the rain finally quit near midday it was more comfortable. But the rain made the footing much more slippery, especially on the downhills and rock hopping across streams and mudholes. By the time the rain ended we were starting up Moose Mountain, a modest peak at about 2300 ft. It's actually 2 peaks, about two miles apart and about the same elevation. After reaching the north peak of Moose, we headed straight back down the mountain. At the bottom, we crossed a brook and a road and then headed back up again. This time it was a steeper climb than before to almost the same height. The AT Guide identified the top as "Holts Ledge", with views from a precipitous drop-off. There were several good views of the surroundings. About all we could see were forested mountains stretching off into the distance. About as soon as we reached the top, we headed sharply down. The only noteworthy feature was one point where we really had a hard time following the trail. We went for a long time without a blaze and began to wonder if we missed a turn. Eventually Focus checked his Guthook app on his phone and it indicated that we were in fact on the trail. And we finally started picking up white blazes again. This time, the road at the bottom of the hill was our end point. Princess had called our shuttle driver from the ledge and he drove up a few minutes after we arrived at the trailhead. Today was our first day of hiking with Ranger (Princess' brother) since the Smokies. He has been prepping at home and had no problem with the terrain, in fact he was the first one down the last hill. We're glad that he's rejoined us, but one condition was that he wants to camp whenever possible. So when the driver, Patrick, picked us up this afternoon, he only took 4 of us and Ranger stayed out in the woods to camp tonight. It complicates the logistics a little. Patrick picked up all of our backpacks earlier at the Norwich Inn and brought Ranger's backpack to the trailhead. So Ranger traded his slack-pack for his backpack and headed out to find a campsite. Tomorrow when Patrick brings us back to the trailhead, Ranger will meet us and swap packs again so he can hike with the lighter slack-pack. Its complicated, but Princess has been working out all the arrangements for over 1700 miles, she's good at it and this is just another constraint to take into account. So after leaving Ranger, Patrick drove the rest of us about 3 miles down the road to Lyme, NH where he brought us to Dowd's Country Inn. Spartacus described it as "parachuting into paradise." The Inn dates back to the 1700's and is now an 'events center' for weddings, meetings and the like. Lyme is a picturesque small town and the Inn sits between the Lyme Country Store and Deli, and Stella's - a top-notch Italian restaurant. I wouldn't suggest Dowd's as a good option for the low-budget backpacking AT hiker. But it's ideal for us slack-packers who are looking for a quiet, comfortable, restful place to stay. If you're interested, be sure to call ahead since they are often filled when they host events. Unfortunately, I ate too much at the country store and was too full to really enjoy our Italian dinner. We'll take my leftovers to Ranger for his dinner tomorrow night and I'll do a better job at saving some appetite for dinner tomorrow evening. Tomorrow won't be quite as long as today, but the mountains will be much tougher. This stretch is really a good prep for the White Mountains that we'll meet next week. The only bad news today is that Alan, our trail boss back home is having some serious health issues and is headed back into the hospital. He had a tough time last year while we were on the trail and his problems seem to be persistent. We wish him the best and hope for a speedy recovery.