Date: 2015-08-23
From: Hanover

To: Hill beyond West Hartford
Miles today: 11.0

Christie fixed me a nice breakfast, & then they took me into town. They were going to the Episcopal Church 8:00 service. I thought I'd go to the 9:00 at the Lutheran Church & then go to the Episcopal 10:00, which I figured would have better music than the 8:00. They had told me that the priest had done the Santiago pilgrimage trail on Spain & suggested I talk with him about it.When I got to the Lutheran church, I discovered it was an outdoor service, actually at 9:30, led by a clergy couple who also do campus ministry. From having asked directions, I had to tell them that townspeople don't seem to know there is a Lutheran church in Hanover. It was a good service, & the people were friendly [I missed seeing a lawyer I had known in Ohio who now belongs to that church but was gone this week]; but I pried myself away to get to the other end of town for the end of the Episcopal service. It turned out that they were doing a wedding as part of the Sunday liturgy ¢ something I'd heard of but never seen. With all the extra guests, I only got to talk to the priest for a few minutes about his hike, but I got a copy of how he had written it up as a sabbatical & gotten outside funding for it. The organ was a hybrid: part pipes & part electronic.Then I headed out of town, across the river, & thru Norwich, Vermont. There I had to stop in the very-general store [Motto: "If we haven't got it, you don't need it!] to get a fuel canister. That wasn't easy to find, back behind the garden center, after going thru 6-8 rooms of a very large old house that housed parts of the store.By this time, it was getting very hot, & I was faced with a long uphill [23% grade, I think they said] road-walk past two houses with trail magic. That was nice, but I couldn't stay long. I did learn that the woman driving a van with hikers was "Miss Janet", famous for helping hikers all along the AT. I felt bad that I didn't recognize her. NOBOs I met today included P-Funk, East, Mezla, Bludo, Lorax, Wind, Fox, Cricket, Sweaty Yeti, & The Mooners, who are thru-hiking on their Honeymoon (still together -- good sign!). I met a few others whose names got erased, plus some day hikers (including a man I met at church this morning). Lots of things seem different on the Trail now. Obviously, the people are different ¢ I 'm meeting a new group of hikers in both directions. The blackberries have come & gone. Most of all, it's getting dark much earlier!!The woods were a good maple forest [with some tubing for sugaring], ups & downs, but not too high. It's too bad the deli in West Hartford is closed, but there is a place up the road that provides water & a campsite for hikers. 2 years ago, the library was up on blocks ¢ now it has a new foundation & has re-opened [but not on Sunday].I probably missed my last chance to jump off White River bridge [about 30 feet] at West Hartford. Several hikers were just finishing, so I would have had suppprt, but I chickened out. Besides, I wanted to get up the next hill to camp before dark [& not be wet when I got there]. At the top, I met SOBO Emersion, who was "cowboy-camped" in a bald area. There were other grassy spaces where I could have camped, but I was concerned about ticks, so I went back into the woods & found a space. It rained during the night. I didn't do any trail work but observed logs .5 S of Happy Hill & .5 S of Podunk Rd (2).