Date: 2016-07-31
From: Foot bridge stealth tenting site north of Hanover

To: Hanover
Miles today: 9.0

I was up at 5:45 and boiled water for breakfast of shepards meat pie and coffee. The shepards meat pie is one of my dinner options, but I like it for breakfast instead - potatoes, ground beef and peas. I was up and out of camp at 6:45 and left to GoldieLox stirring in his tent. No privy at the stealth site so I had to dig a cathode out in the woods. Not my favorite thing to do, but part of the thru hiking package. It started to drizzle shortly after I started to walk and I stopped to put my pack cover on and change the battery in my camera. I was moving a little slow, but walking through a really nice forest and saw maybe 6-8 white tailed deer 20 minutes out of camp. 2-3 miles out of camp I noticed that a large group of trees were strung together with plastic tubing and realized that this was a maple syrup farm out in the forest. The 8 miles into Hanover was a really nice walk through the forest of rolling up and down with an overall downward trend. GoldieLox and Top3 passed by at the 4 mile halfway point, but I caught them at the Velvet Rock Shelter 2 miles later and we hiked into Hanover together. In town, the guys went off to the library where there was a list of contacts in town who would support thru hikers. I sat in the Starbucks to charge my phone, drink a grande americano, find a place to stay as well as a shuttle service. With my tent out of order, I decided to slack the 22 miles just after Hanover walking back into Hanover north from the shuttle drop off location. I found the Sunset Motel and reserved two nights as well as a shuttle service scheduling a 7 am pickup for tomorrow morning. I also made reservations at the Greenbrier Inn for the night after leaving the Sunset. That would give me a 22 mile slack back to Hanover followed by a 20 mile day to the Greenbrier just before the climb up and over Killington Peak in Vermont. Top3 and GoldieLox found me at the Starbucks after an hour or so and said that there was a freshman orientation going on at Dartmouth College in Hanover and all of the hiker support people were out of town. It was now about 11:30 and the three of us walked over to the local pizza place for a free beer and slice of pizza. I ate 3 slices and took a photo of Top3 and Goldie Lox at our table. After about 30 minutes eating lunch, I hit the head for a pee and walked out with Top3 and GoldieLox. Top3 was off to spend a few days with an uncle who lived near town. GoldieLox didn't have a place to stay and was picking up new shoes shipped into the post office the following day so I offered to let him share my room. He thanked me and took me up on my offer and we split up to get a desperate set of chores done. I stopped at the local drug store for a few things and then got a ride the 2-3 miles down to the motel. The motel owners were very nice and did my laundry while I showered and got my gear ready for the next days hike. GoldieLox came in an hour or so later and we hitched a ride into the town south of Hanover where there was an outfitter that GoldieLox wanted to go to and to eat dinner. We got there after the camping outfitter store had closed, and had dinner at a local Italian restaurant. We tried hitching back to the motel, no luck, so I called a taxi for the ride back. At this point it was pushing 9:30 and I was ready to call it a day.