Date: 2015-08-02
From: Gorham, NH

To: Gorham, NH
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

I awoke just after 7:30am after what I considered a morning of sleeping in. A few others hikers had packed and left during the morning and it felt refreshing knowing I wasn't one of them. I spent the morning hours doing nothing in particular - watching TV, finishing my laundry, etc. Escaping to the upstairs loft for a private place to change into my hiking clothes, I found a corner of the loft out of sight of the street-facing window and changed clothes. Somehow I managed to miss a lumped figure under a blanket in the opposite corner no more than 10ft away. Although he remained motionless as I giggles to myself after the realization, whether or not he saw a show or not will remain a mystery.I had to leave The Barn Hostel at 11:00am so that Paul could get busy preparong the hostel for the next round of hikers to stay. I thanked him again and told him to continue what he's doing and that word will spread regarding his hostel. For future hikers, I highly recommend you drop in and pay Paul a visit - he's a class act and is on your side. Having just heard from Burnsides that he wasn't planning to return to the trail for a couple more hours, I needed a place to chill for a while so began heading into Gorham to McDonald's. A couple blocks from McDonald's, a truck drove by and I heard familiar voices calling my name - Yoohoo, Huey, and Rabbit in the bed of a truck. I jokingly cursed them out as they drove by, but the truck soon stopped and pulled over for me. As I thanked the driver and climbed aboard, exchanging greetings with the guys, they informed me the driver, David, and his wife were from Georgia, not too far from Spring Mountain, GA. We quickly covered the last couple blocks and were dropped off at McDonald's to a farewell of good luck's to completing our journeys.Once in McDonald's we did our usual damage control with our orders, but kept it to a relative minimum compared to past visits. A large Big Mac, fries, McChicken, and fry would do the trick. We spent the next ~45 minutes catching up on our respective treks through the White's. As we were leaving, 2 kind older women called Huey and I over, asking questions about our trip. We'd spend the next 10 minutes speaking with them before heading out. Yoohoo, Huey, and Rabbit, having just covered ~8 miles into town, planned to take the remainder of the day off. Expecting to hike out today, the seed as to taking a zero was quickly planted in my mind. As I headed towards the nearby Royalty Inn where they planned to stay, a car pulled over in front of us and a familiar face was at the wheel. Double Back, who I haven't seen since my first 2 weeks on the trail, sat smiling and welcoming after recognizing me as she drove by. She was only able to hike the trail for 6 weeks while in between jobs and has since been relocating between Montana, Virginia, and New Hampshire as she begins her job as hut master at Greenleaf Hut in the White's in a couple weeks. We briefly exchanged pleasantries and caught up, and we parted ways with an offer from her to help us in any way she could in the upcoming days as we pass through the area.Moments later as we continued on, another vehicle with a familiar voice drove by - Burnsides and his mother, Caroline, who were dropping by the post office nearby. We crossed the street to them, caught up regarding our evening's, and I discussed hiking or resting with Burnsides. With temperatures around 90 degrees and rain expected in the forecast later in the day, we considered the idea of zeroing, but decided to let each other know later. As we parted and continued down the street, Double Back was pulling out from a store and, as Burnsides drove by, I pointed her out to him and they were able to exchange hellos in passing. After the funny series of run-ins, we finally reached the Royalty Inn where I decided to simply take a zero and enjoy the day with the group who I hadn't seen since before the White's. I later informed Burnsides of my decision, but never heard back from him, leaving me unsure of whether he hiked out today or not.After checking into our rooms, Yoohoo and I together and Huey and Rabbit in the other, we opened our joining rooms and spent the next couple hours being lazy, taking showers, and chatting. We eventually coordinated with Wilson who was zeroing in town and his sister frm yesterday evening returned and would take us to Walmart across town so we could resupply. She kindly waited for half an hour as we searched the aisles of the store in search of new goodies, but ultimately leaving with the same crap. She returned us to our motel, we took a couple pictures, and we would return to our coma-like state for the next few hours. At 6:00pm we made our way through the light rain of an approaching thunderstorm to Mr. Pizza for dinner. Through a series of texts, phone calls, and in-person run-ins, your dinner group quickly grew from 4 to 11 as we were joined by Double Back, Wilson, Wilson's sister, ISO, Outlier, Rosey Eagle, and Bad Hiker. We squeezed in around our 3 tables pushed together and would enjoy a couple hours of good company, cold beer, and decent food. As we enjoyed the evening, a thunderstorm rolled through with heavy rain, lightning, and thunder.Just after 8:00pm, Double Back headed out to return to Pinkham Notch to finish up work-related stuff. She insisted that we'd see each other again over the upcoming days as we continue northward. I really hope so; it was a pleasure being able to connect with a nice person I hadn't seen since the beginning. We all eventually headed out and made our way back to the motel - everyone crambing into a vehicle to avoid the rain except for Huey, Rabbit, and I who walked back. It's now closing in on 9:30pm and Yoohoo and I have no plans to call it a night yet. With 2-liter of Coke and a box of Fruit Gushers to finish before bed, the night has the possibility of getting away from us. Needing to average only ~16 miles a day to finish in 3 weeks, our plans tomorrow will most likely be to start at a time that would allow us to accomplish just that. We'll most likely end just shy of the border to Maine, crossing on Wednesday instead. However, the trail has taught me the meaning of remaining flexible so the miles will unfold as they should. For now, here's to another comfortable night before wrapping up New Hampshire and entering the difficult terrain of southern Maine.Here's to Paul and The Barn Hostel, a post-White's day of rest, and reuniting with Double Back and the crew of the USS Bennington.