Day 34: Crossing into Vermont

Our decision to sleep in the shelter paid off. There were some big thunder booms, strikes of lightning, and buckets of rain throughout the night. The bears did not revisit our campsite, thankfully.

Although it seemed super sunny, the gray fog obstructed any views as we ascended our first couple of mountains.

We were to cross into Vermont today, finally. Although the overwhelmingly beautiful mountains of New Hampshire and Maine have treated us well, we were ready to give our bodies a bit of a break. We met a lot of NOBOs today who said congratulations for making it out of the Whites, and that felt really good.

The clouds started to recede, and we had a few views between the trees on Moose Mountain. On our way down, we met a dog named Moose from Pennsylvania hiking up his own mountain!

Our goals were clear today, and we had town food waiting for us on this Fourth of July. We would have to stay in town tonight because we didn’t exactly time out our post office arrival in a graceful manner. Fortunately, there was a list of trail angels that we could contact for free housing for the night.

Our timing was marvelous, and we made it into Hanover, NH, before 2:30 pm. The majority of our miles were completed for the day. We stopped at a diner called Lou’s with just enough time for them to put our order in. I hate arriving at places just before closing, and we didn’t realize this. Our waitress was super kind about it and helped put our smash burger order in right away.

Because we are thru-hiking, we also got to pick out free baked goods from Lou’s. I got a huge cream puff with fresh strawberries, and Nick chose a Whoopie pie. We both drank two root beers each and were satisfied.

We completed our resupply at CVS, which was ultra stocked in this college town. We began walking back on the trail, which is essentially a sidewalk for 5 miles. There was a protest happening in the town square, and we stopped to admire these senior citizens for a moment. We ended up getting distracted and missing our turn. We were walking toward a library when a man shouted at us. It was one of the trail angels we spoke to on the phone yesterday! He gave us some local town history, apparently Dr. Suess and Mr. Roger’s both went to school here.

We were granted a postcard of the area, and he sent us in the right direction. We walked over the Connecticut River, which is also the VT/NH border. We made it!

The rest of our evening was filled with a wonderful neighbor cat, a friendly and philosophical conversation with a man who helps out at the church, and a short walk through town. Norwich would be a great stop for a real town day if we had the time.

Tomorrow is new shoe day! We’ll be getting a late start to hiking.