Date: 2014-08-03
From: Gorham

To: Norwich, VT
Miles today: 0.0

It's fitting that I am finally posting an entry from here: the Dartmouth Outdoor Club's home in Robinson Hall on the beautiful campus of Dartmouth University in Hanover, NH, as its members have helped make this town the most hiker-friendly I have encountered thus far.I am tempted to take a zero here, as my accommodation last night (and tonight, if needs be) is on a "donation" basis, my pizza dinner last night at Brick and Brew and bacon-and-maple-syrup donut today at Lou's are gratis for thru-hikers, and I haven't even had to stick a thumb out to be offered rides all over the area. The town even publishes a list of "trail angels" who house and shuttle thru-hikers.Still, the town is so ivy-league that I have to push on, and plan on re-supplying in Norwich this afternoon and sleeping tonight by the Happy Hill Shelter...that's Norwich, VERMONT, YO! RESPECT!! My third of 14 states starts today, day 38 of my ME>GA attempt.Hanover proves the point that it is the people and community of the AT that makes it so rewarding. The long green tunnel itself would not keep my interest for much longer; already the land has changed from wilderness in Maine to cultivated property in NH, and while the trail in the latter is still hilly and muddy and a challenge, nothing comes close to the epic encounters I had with Maine's 100-mile wilderness and the White and Mahoosic mountains. I covered over 40 miles in 3 days to get to Hanover, over hills that NOBOs complained of; I didn't have the heart to remind them that Mt. Moosilake and the rest here are merely warm-ups. I seem to be in the thick of the NOBO herd these days, and met, to name just a few, Allie Oops (a mere fbf prior to Franconia Notch trail), Plantman (who is offering to shuttle Karyssa to the trail around Bear Mountain, NY), Squirrel, Crispy (so named for being a mortician), Money-maker, Wormwood (or Longwood) Short-stop, Spiderman (a Rus), Handsome (a flip-flopper I may see again after Harper's Ferry), and even caught up with a few SOBOs (Rickytickytock, or some such) though they remain thin on the ground.The people off the trail are incredibly supportive and positive, such as the Arkansas State Lit prof (researching the Robert Frost archives at Dartmouth) and his wife who scooped me up, unsolicited, at a trailhead and drove me to Etna general store and back only after having used me as "cover" to get free ice-cream at the Ice-cream Man's house; "Ice-Cream Man" is a retired Harvard psychiatrist named Bill Ackerley, 86 years young, whose house remains open, literally, for any thrus to crash or just pick up a soda or ice-cream sandwich. Some undergrad members of the DOC passed "Shortstop" and I at Trapper John's Shelter (which is on a part of the AT which they maintain) and later returned from their shelter, at least a mile down the hill, with apples and raisins for us. Locals here rarely pass you on the trail without offering a bottle of water, at least. It's really humbling, but I hope it continues.There is so much of interest to see that is just off the trail, that I worry about stopping at all! The gravitational pull of all of the upcoming trailtowns is also a worry, as I use towns to fill the void left by family and friends. (I came close to asking a very refined 65 year-old female NOBO whether we could spoon the other night in a shelter...jk, but not by much.) I still feel really lonely out here, and my cynical misanthropy is definitely, if perhaps temporarily, "cured" by AT-culture. Better ATT mobile coverage certainly helps. I am hoping that family and friends solidify plans to join me on the trail, though I realize how hard it is to get out here. It would mean the world to see a familiar face, or spoon a complete stranger.One last note: Gregory packs sent me a replacement Z65 when I e-mailed them a pic of a torn shoulder strap, and I wanted to give them a shout out to all my trailjournal buds.All the best for now, and remember: all that is noble is as difficult as it is rare.Spinoza (P.S. I left the DOC to get lunch, and a local insisted on paying for it.!)