July 28, 2017
10:07 PM
Total Miles: 1747
Day 118
Linda the trail angel we stayed with had fruit out and coffee ready to go as soon as the rooster started his morning call.
We were settling on her front porch gathering our packs/eating breakfast and she brought out plates filled with eggs and sausage. Wow. What a sweetheart. I was grateful.
We planned 10 miles to get to Hanover so we could resupply on food and head back out for 5 miles. A short stop in town.
We first arrived in Norwich, Vermont. The trail takes you through a neighborhood on streets and then into Hanover, so you are on the roads for around 3 miles or so.
Walking down the neighborhood in Norwich we had trail magic on top of trail magic.
The first was a cooler loaded with sodas, then we spotted another cooler waiting for us, further in town there was a container with banana bread, all welcoming thru hikers into their town.
Woodpile and I even walked past an older couple where the woman called out “Welcome to Norwich!” to us.
Well… Hi! I naturally immediately liked this town.
We walked through Norwich and then into New Hampshire.
Hanover, New Hampshire…I have walked all the way to New Hampshire. haha…wow.
I had no idea that the college of Dartmouth resided here. The town was popping with people. Whoa, it was a little bit of an overload.
The town was super friendly to hikers though and there were multiple businesses that let thru hikers have free food.
I got a free donut from a place called Lous..It was to die for.
I get why they give out freebies…beecause I bet more than half of us hikers buy another…and then another. They were that good.
There was alot to do in town, it was a really neat place.
While sitting on a bench going through my resupply box, a hiker I had met earlier named Blink came up and told me about a list of houses that allow hikers to stay at their place for free.
Huh? Say that again?
He gave me a list of numbers and the place that he stayed at… “There are actual beds you can sleep on, you can do laundry, take a shower, and he has netflixs….all for free”
My inner “Take a Zero” god was smiling. DO IT DO IT DO IT.
Almost at the same time, Planner texts me letting me know that she was not feeling the best and that her legs felt depleted. She was already considering taking the rest of the day off.
A free place, plus it keeps raining off and on…How do I say no?
I couldn’t pass it up.
So we started calling people on the list once we all decided to go ahead and stay in town and then our excitement started to become nervous. Every where was filling up.
Oh crap.
Finally, one house had a cancelation and we were in!
The house was the house of the first trail magic we hit in Norwich. It was absolutely beautiful. The whole basement was for us. It was the best set up we could of asked for.
How nice are people? I mean seriously.
So we hung around, ordered pizza; two mediums, two boxes of cheesey bread sticks, and order of brownies and us four ate it all within 15 minutes in addition to ice cream Warren’s wife brought out.
Hiker Hunger is no joke.
We got comfy in our beds and put on Moana on Netflix.
It was a fantastic day.
Day 119
Woke up slowly and almost instantly knew that we are going to be taking a zero here.
Slacking on the miles this week but making sure our bodies are ready for what is claimed to be the hardest part of the trail.
We lounged around today… this is the view from the back of warren’s house…
Yeah…it is a pretty awesome place.
Around lunch time we decided to go back to Hanover for some lunch and then hit a movie.
Lunch occurred at a place called Mollys, I ordered a delicious chicken sandwich loaded with guacamole.
They also served bread as appetizers.. We had our waitress on a constant run of filling our basket up. It was as if we had never eaten.
Full to the brim after lunch we walked around Dartmouth to kill time before the movie.
It was a gorgeous campus, it also made me realize how happy I am to be done with college. 🙂
We went to the theater and saw The Big Sick.
It was a cute movie but not one of my favorites.
After that we headed back to Warren’s house to watch some netflix and get a full nights rest.
Tomorrow we will head out for real and slowly but surely finish this adventure. I am excited for what is to come!
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 