Date: 2017-07-10
From: Hanover

To: Stealth camp one mile past Cloudland Farm Rd
Miles today: 17.4
Weather: few clouds

What a great day. I don¢t think I could come up with one negative thing to say, even if you twisted my arm behind my back. Although I guess there are those that might say hiking 17 miles with a pack is a complaint-worthy experience.Starting in a bed at Andy and Annabelle¢s, breakfast of toast, butter, and lingonberry jam, more time with Franky, Dot, and Buck, and then Andy dropped us all off in town. They are doing a full zero today and I hiked away from the Dartmouth College Commons. Here¢s the face of trail angels: http://www.trailjournals.com/j...I didn¢t even get emotional when I walked across the New Hampshire ¢ Vermont state line. It¢s not that I am any less sentimental or moved ¢ a second state done! ¢ but there was no sign, no marker. Deep in the Maine woods there was a sign, but on the wide bridge over the Connecticut River there was no marker.I hike beautiful trail for 9.5 miles into Vermont. Such ladylike ups and downs (Frodo: What¢s THAT supposed to mean? Women can¢t handle steep trail?? Ah, I¢m just giggin¢ you!), the path well suited for a country club. I walk through the tiny townlet of West Hartford and I have a delightful lunch, nay, a picnic, laying out my groundsheet on river-edge grass. It¢s early enough that I even take a 15-minute nap.As I¢m packing up, Moose walks by. I¢d met him once before on a day when he was slackpacking 21 miles northbound from Pinkham Notch to Gorham, and Sean and I were climbing Wildcats A, B, C, D, and E and then precipitously dropping into Pinkham Notch to meet Frodo.Moose and I strode out of town, matching pace and telling trail stories. Then it happened for the first time. ¢Are you Scout?¢ from a northbounder. ¢There¢s trail magic ahead and they¢re waiting for you.¢ And again, and again, and again. Who is doing this? We get details. ¢It¢s at Cloudland Farm Road.¢ ¢There¢s chili, pizza, cornbread.¢ ¢They have watermelon and wine.¢  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...Almost 17 miles from our start in Hanover, we step out onto the dirt road, see the two cars parked, the table, Coleman stove, cooler, and folding chairs. I am almost immediately hugged. Or is it a wonderfully-enveloping gang tackle? Early Bird and Hog met at our house the day before they started the PCT. Frodo picked them up. ¢It was my first exposure to the generosity of the trail community,¢ said Early Bird. They'd been reading my trail journal, figured I¢d be here today and had been sending messages up the trail most of the day, like smoke signals. And they fed 35 others. Here we are: http://www.trailjournals.com/j...More NOBOs came out of the woods. Cornbread slathered with butter passes my lips. Pizza. Wine. Wine! With Early Bird, Hog, and the NOBOs, we are seven. Moose mentions the AT tattoos. I give them out. It depletes my stock. One gal put hers on her forehead: http://www.trailjournals.com/j...Mandrake put his on his chest.After two hours, first dinner, more hugs, thanks flowing both ways, Moose and I, too, disappear into the forest. We stealth camp a mile later. I eat dinner #2 and now I write to you.Tomorrow is a big day.  I'll give you a hint.  It¢s the 69th ____ of ____ and ____. I better not forget.