Date: 2011-06-26
From: Hanover,New Hampshire

To: Ore Hill Shelter
Miles today: 7.6

Start NH 25, mile 1782.6Stop Ore Hill Shelter, NH, mile 1775.0Hiked 7.6 miles SouthboundSleep shelterCell minimalOld Goat's notes:Today started with a long out of the way trip, fortunately it was in the car. I set the GPS destination for Warren, Vermont instead of Warren, New Hampshire. My mistake added 40 miles to our trip. The real trip should take 45 minutes and I added another half hour. We actually arrived in Glencliff, NH but the GPS didn't recognize that name. We have one car in Glencliff and one in Hanover. It was smarter to go southbound and we'll drive the second car up to Glencliff after we hike into Hanover. I think we did rather well in our hiking today, I think we hiked a 1.5 mph pace. There was enough ups, downs, and flat terrain to allow us to have a good pace. The sky was cloudy most of the day with occasional spots of sunshine and fortunately no rain. The trail is wet and muddy in spots which slowed us down from time to time but all in all okay. We started at 10:05 am and finished at 3:10 pm with a nice lunch break near a stream. Breaks happen so much better when the weather is nice. Check 6's notes:On the Saturday before we came back to the trail I helped trim bushes and trees along a gravel road on my sister's property. In doing so I did a real stupid thing. I completely disregarded what I was stepping in and dealing with - poison ivy! (Janet - it was completely my stupidity! No guilt allowed!!) I've never reacted to poison ivy before more than just a few tiny itchy spots, so I wasn't concerned. I wasn't so lucky this time! I came out with a full blown case. Old Goat gets it really bad when he gets it so I did everything to avoid the chance of getting the poison ivy oils on him. It worked. He hasn't come out with any spots, thank goodness! I, on the other hand, have not fared so well this time. I finally saw a doctor about it yesterday and now am taking Predisone and already feel a difference. This sure has given me a greater appreciation for what Old Goat and others go through with poison ivy. It's awful!!We were lucky about seeing a doctor about it. Being a Veteran I get my care at our local VA hospital. There happens to be a VA hospital across the street from the hotel where we stayed last night. By the time I finally gave in and said I wanted to see what they could give me (and since it was Saturday), any sick call or urgent care offices were closed. So we went to the emergency room. (I don't feel this is an emergency room Issue, but that was our only option at that point.). Luckily it was very slow, so we were only there for about 90 minutes. What was fun was that most of the time was spent talking to the doctor about the AT and what we're doing. He asked a lot of questions about the AT. Another interesting thing happened yesterday after we were off the trail. We discovered my Camelback had a leak. We bought it at the EMS in Rutland, VT, but don't have the receipt with us. So we took a chance and brought it to the EMS in West Lebanon, NH. We ended up getting money back. VT has tax, NH does not, plus the same Camelback was 20% off in the NH store! Cool!By the way, it's quite a while after Old Goat typed his notes. He mentioned it was sunny. It's pouring out now! OG had started a fire...the rain put it out. Oh well, it was nice for the few minutes it lasted before the rain started. (The rain surprised us.)I know I'm writing a lot today, but one interesting thing happened when we were eating lunch. I was looking at the stream and saw something bobbing up and down. It lasted so long and was so consistent that I thought it might be a sprig of grass that was caught in the water. We went to look closer and discovered it was a large dragonfly dipping his tail (?) in the water. What was he doing? Drinking? Or was it a female laying eggs? Sent from my iPhone