Date: 2018-06-21
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Miles today: 0.0

Thurs Day 130 6/21More beautiful Vermont hiking. Vermont has moved into being my favorite state so far for pleasant hiking. I'd come back here any time to hike. We were heading into New Hampshire. I set getting to New Hampshire as a goal before I left for Alaska back in February. I really didn't think two months ago that I had much of a chance getting to New Hampshire before Alaska. But today the goal was to cross the Connecticut River and go in to Hanover, New Hampshire. We hiked over a river where there used to be a little hiker resupply store. It had been flooded out during a hurricane and never reopened. As we hiked across the bridge a woman on the porch a bit away hollered "do you want coffee or soda?" These Trail angels are all over the place. You never know when they're going to pop out and be there for you. We were in pretty good shape to get into Hanover and didn't need anything. So we said thank you and hiked on. We did a certain amount of road walking because we were going under Route 93. We passed some very nice Vermont architecture. I also got a picture standing in front of the Podunk road sign. As we hiked down to the town to cross the Connecticut River into Hanover, we came to 2 Trail Angel roadside places. The second one had cold watermelon and some kind of pumpkin walnut bread. We talked to the fellow in the yard for quite a while. We also took a picture of 15 or so homes in Hanover area that would put up hiker for free. There's also free shuttles. It's a special kind of culture along the trail did I just don't see replicated very many times. There are just hundreds of people along the 2000 miles that are just willing to help total strangers as they walk through town or walk by. It's very nice to be on the receiving end of so much love and support. It just makes your day so worthwhile. We then hiked into Norwich, Vermont. Which is the corresponding town to Hanover. The term Norwich has always stood out to me as a military term. I got an education as to why that was from the Town Square. This is a very old American town and some of its residents have had a huge impact on the military education and development of our armed services. So we walked across the Connecticut River. Wow, we made it to New Hampshire. I wouldn't have bet money on getting to NH before leaving for Alaska with my sister. We hiked into Hanover. I asked a fellow on the street where should you eat. He said Molly's. We continue down the main street of Hanover, home of Dartmouth College. We found Molly's right next to town hall. We went in and ate so much food it was ridiculous. The bread-and-butter there was absurdly good. We had two baskets of bread to start. I staggered back out into the street. It had gotten very hot. The plan had been to hike into to Hanover, eat, do a quick resupply and be out of there in an hour. I was so full I couldn't walk across the street. I laid down on a shady small piece of grass in front of the Town Hall and fell asleep. There were a couple street vendors there. Everybody was so pleasant and welcoming. I called my sister Susan to touch base. In this town if you go to the pizza shop as a hiker you get a free piece of pizza. I went to the bakery. I got a free baked good for walking in the door. They go out of their way to welcome you to Hanover. Ulysses came by and we talked for a while. He's taking it double zero. He says the next 40 miles are fairly doable. Then you get to Moosilauke and you're in for real climbing. Eagle came by as well. He wasn't emotionally bearing so well. We had a good talk. He hiked on. By 4:30 we had to make a decision are we leaving this town or staying in this town. It was very hot. We decided to hike on out of town. We needed to go make some miles in New Hampshire. We met John up from Tennessee to hike up to Katahdin from Hanover. He just got into town at 4 pm. We ended up hiking out of Hanover with him. We connected so he decided to just hike with us for his first day. We had some steep sections and one section had a rope with knots in it draped over the rocks. It would have been quite a difficult challenge without the rope to give you a little hand hold to get up. 4 miles out of Hanover we came to our water source. So we cameled up, drank a liter and a half, carried a liter and a half and commenced to hike on and look for a stealth spot. John, it turns out, is quite the athlete. He's a heavy-set guy who was a state finalist wrestler and now is a big-time weightlifter. He has a food sponsor that provides him all his food. He was really quite an enjoyable guy to hike with and talk to. We invited him to stealth with us which he gladly accepted. Phone reception is always a challenge on the trail. In the guide book it said phone reception on the western edge of the cemetery out of town. We were just walking by the cemetery. I thought it was pretty cute to mention where phone reception might be. We must have been on the Eastern side because there was no phone reception. So probably a half a mile after getting water we found a almost perfect stealth spot. You could hear the road so it wasn't perfect. By the time I got my tent setup it was already getting dark. That means it's a couple hours after hike their midnight. That means I'm not getting as much sleep as I would like to be getting. oh well that's what happens when you take a 4-Hour break in Hanover and enjoy the local culture. These last couple days I've been moving in a slightly different pace. I've been enjoying the moments. I haven't been on quite they got to make my miles schedule that I've been on. I've traveled 600 miles in the last 35 days which included four zeros total. That's a lot of miles everyday. I think that's what gets to you, is the cumulative effect of every day every day every day.