Date: 2015-06-28
From: Hanover

To: Etna
Miles today: 5.8

I hiked only 5.8 trail miles today. It was still more miles than I expected to do when I woke up this morning to see heavy rain outside the windows. I was glad that at least I wasn't camping, but I knew trying to leave town would be extremely difficult. Again, Sally made me a nice breakfast and again took me into Hanover. Before any attempt at hiking, I had to finally book my return flight to England. I'm now officially leaving on August 13th, so I am confident that I will have plenty of time to complete the trail. But this also means that I am officially counting down to the end, when I have to leave the country that I have been living in for months. And of course, the end of the trail.So I booked my flight and then spent a while with Sputnik, just generally avoiding the rain and messing around on the computers inside the Dartmouth Outdoor Club building. Eventually I left to go to the Indian buffet. It was quite disappointing, there were only two kinds of meat and literally four other dishes. I wouldn't recommend it. The rain had stopped by then, so I knew I would have to leave town eventually. But first I tried to get some energy and went to Starbucks. I promptly lost momentum and stayed there for a while too. I was joined by a couple other hikers. I eventually left, and immediately bumped into Big Ben. Then I bumped into Sputnik again. This town is just full of hikers. I walked past three people, and I guess one was a tourist because another pointed to me and said "And here is a thru hiker" as I passed. I said hello and carried on. I didn't want to be a completely passive tourist attraction. After all that, I went to the Hanover Co-op to resupply. This is not like an English Co-Op. It was really expensive, had lots of organic and fresh food but was absolutely useless for resupplying. I couldn't get anything for dinners, so I'm carrying angel hair pasta and a sauce instead. At 3pm, I was back on the trail. It was as wet as I expected. I had to do a lot of little detours around giant puddles. The section wasn't very well blazed, which was annoying. There isn't much to say, other than it had more climbs and drops (though short) than I would have liked. And it was also just extremely wet. I got to the road crossing of Etna about 5ish. I walked 0.8 miles east to the General Store to borrow their phone and call the place I was planning to stay. The number didn't work. The woman behind the counter knew the owners and called their mobiles, but no answer. The store was going to close in 15 minutes. The nearest shelter was 5 trail miles away (plus 0.8 off trail), and it would be dark well before then. The woman at the store was really trying to help me, and let me use the phone and sit around. I eventually pulled out the trail angel list that I had picked up in Hanover. I was lucky that I hadn't thrown it away already. My luck continued. The woman I called lived nearby and picked me up. She had just gotten back from a trip, so I called at the perfect time. She drove me to her house, and showed me around a cottage that I would be staying in that was a distance away from the house. The cottage is still being worked on, but has all the amenities - shower, kitchen, laundry. It also has some giant but not venomous spiders. I did also find an acorn in the bed, so I wonder if there are mice. It's still very nice though, and I think that a lot of hikers would want to stay here. I showered and joined the family for dinner. It was really spectacular. The wife had made pasta with lamb and salad. For dessert was watermelon and chocolate lava pudding. It was just so incredibly delicious that I ate even more food. I have eaten a huge amount these past few days. I'm in the bed now and I'm relatively certain there are mice here. At least I'm used to that from the shelters, and the dinner more than made up for it.