Wednesday, 15 August, Day 36, 18.8 miles, The
Johnson Family, Hanover NH…WOOHOO!!, by Crocadilly - I woke up at 0530 this
morning and along with several of the others made coffee and heaved myself up
the ladder to the look out to enjoy the sunrise. It was a little cloudy but
still stunning and certainly worth getting up early for. Actually I love
getting up this early and being awake before the rest of the world. It is
amazing though how cold it is starting to get already in the early mornings and
evenings - you can tell we are headed towards the autumn and before we know it
it will be here. Every time I think about the changing temperatures it brings
me out in a cold sweat thinking of all the extra weight I will be carrying with
my winter gear! This is why I am determined not to slack pack too much despite
having that option because there will be times in the future when it is not
feasible and having a full pack again will come as quite a shock!! The morning
walk was quite tough going with some steep hill climbs. These are the ones that
always take you by surprise. Hiking up peaks like Killington I guess you are
mentally prepared or the climb is so high that the switchbacks you walk along
are more graded. But with these shorter summits they often feel like you are
walking straight uphill as opposed to be taken up gradually. There were quite a
few hill climbs today and Papa Wolf was having a day like I had yesterday. I
was feeling great and although it was tough going I was enjoying the challenge
the walk was providing. We summited one
particularly tough going hill which afforded great views of the valley below
and was a great stop for a snack and some photo opportunities. The day was
quite hot and very sunny. As we were breaking for lunch, we received a phone
call from Thirty Pack saying that he was in Woodstock with Papa Wolfs Mom. So after
lunch Papa Wolf decided to head to Woodstock with Tailbone to see his mother. I
carried on and hiked with Rampage, Apollo and Weezy. Apollo took the lead and I
was third in line and determined to keep up with the guys! This is the first
time I have followed someone else's pace and not hiked on my own terms (Papa
Wolf and I hike at our own paces or I take the lead and he hikes behind me!) We
only had about nine more miles to hike and after one initial climb and few
further more gentle climbs the rest of the way was relatively easy going and in
the shade of the wood. They introduced me to a great game…"I am going on a
trip and I am going to take with me…" you go down the line and have to add
an item you are taking after repeating without slipping up what everyone else
before you has mentioned in terms of their items. It’s essentially a round
robin memory game and you keep going until someone messes up! - this is the
type of game that at the best of times I am crap at, let alone when I am hiking
and concentrating on keeping up with the pace and not tripping over roots and
stones!!! I normally struggle to hold a conversation whilst hiking…not because
I am antisocial but because I just tend to concentrate on the job in hand and
get immersed in my own thoughts. So here I was hiking with others and having to
use my brain but it was a great afternoon and I thoroughly enjoyed hiking with
the guys and managed to keep up! And managed to play the game! It was really
enjoyable and you can imagine the random stuff we came up with! So I managed to
walk and think all at the same time woohoo!! We stopped for a couple of rests,
one on top of a hill and the other to gorge on more blackberries! The final 4.7
miles went really fast and we managed to hold down one whole game for that
entire length of the hike without dropping a go! Pretty impressive! Tonight we
are staying with Tailbone's dads best friend and his family who are kindly
putting us all up - several in the garden and us in the house! So we got to the
cars and drove to their house which is in the delightful town of Hanover. This
is an awesome town and incredibly hiker friendly - a lot of the stores give
free sandwiches and drinks and other food stuffs to hikers. Families in the
town leave hiker boxes with cookies and drinks and other good stuff at the
edges of their driveways and some even provide free lodging! We got to our
destination for the evening and walked into Hanover. I was shattered! We were
pleased to see some of our friends who we haven’t seen in a while including
Yukon and Boomer! We had a great meal at a pizza place which gives hikers a
free slice each! I had two on top of that! I have never eaten three slices of
pizza that big before - we are talking those big New York slices that you only
normally eat one of…sometimes I disgust myself! Papa wolf only managed two as
he had had lunch in town earlier. I managed one beer before I felt totally
sleepy and had to toddle off to bed at the grand time of just gone ten pm! I
had wanted to stay up and see the bars aswell…maybe tomorrow.
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