Monday August 18 – Thursday 21. Sherburne Pass Trail – NH10, Hanover, NH. (Mile 1743.1 since Springer Mountain and only 442.2 miles to Katahdin)

This is a bit of an experiment, as I’m trying to post using my iPhone instead of my iPad. If it works out, the iPad goes home and I save about 1.5 lbs in my pack. Every little bit helps!

After staying overnight at the excellent Inn at Long Trail, I had to hike for 0.5 mile to get back to the AT. I knew that I’d be crossing the 1700 mile barrier within a mile or so, though physical markers had been missing for the past 400 miles. Of course, this time, there were 2 markers, about 200 yards apart and I snapped pics of them both for Facebook.

The magnificent Kent Pond was my companion for about 30 minutes early on this day, as the trail curled around it, affording me some glorious shots of what the Brits would call a lake. I have constantly been struck by
how the beauty of everything is magnified by sunshine; it’s like nature’s own Windex, washing everything to a sparkle.

Leaving the pond and starting to climb, I ran into a young guy, Dude, having a cigarette on the trail. He started June 9th (yes, that is 78 days after me!) and is averaging over 25 miles a day! You’d be surprised by the number of smokers (both fragrant and non-fragrant) on the trail; it is an oddity that surprises me every time I see somebody light up.

We were spared a boggy walk soon after by a magnificent, clearly fairly new, wooden path through fields. These can be of dramatically varying degrees of disrepair, but this was almost pristine and very welcome.

Shortly after, I ran into Stardust, a young woman I’d met a few days before, crying on the trail. She sobbed that she is homesick and wants to go home, having lost her group and is scared to hike and camp alone. She thought she may have contracted Lyme Disease and had gone into Rutland to check. That had proven to be negative and now she was scared and alone. I really felt for her and tried to help her think rationally about it.

I talked to her about heading back to the Inn at Long Trail and waiting for another group of friends to catch up, while she asked me which shelter I was heading for that day. I told her, yet she was still undecided on what to do as I left. I doubted if I’d see her again.

Towards the end of this excellent hiking day, during which I covered 18 miles, I stopped to get some water from a stream and couldn’t find my filter. Panic quickly set in, as the water looked a little doubtful and I searched my entire pack before finding the filter precisely where it was supposed to be! Everything has to be in its place and, when something seems to be missing, my reaction is immediate and negative.

I reached Wintturi Shelter and met a section hiker, Papa, who started hiking the trail in sections on his retirement at 60. He was very chatty and eager to ask about doing the whole thing at once. There was another thru-hiker who’s name I can’t recall, and we were all chatting amiably when Stardust turned up, grinning, about 15 minutes later. She was clearly much happier and thanked me for “talking me off the ledge.” We were all happy for her continued adventure.

I slept far better than I had of late and woke to my 5.35am alarm, yet I was still last out of camp, as usual. I had a chatty breakfast with Papa and we were joined at the shelter for breakfast by Giblets, a section hiker I had met the previous evening, camping about 3 miles before the shelter. He’s a vegan and he showed me his breakfast, a combination of hydrated dried pineapple and bananas from Trader Joes. Over 1100 calories!! He and I left the shelter together and saw each other several times through the day; indeed, he even managed to catch up with me as I was filming another beautiful panorama.

There were some great breaks when the trail passed through such meadows, though I was pretty much unaware of how far I’d gone, so different did the terrain seem compared to my guide.

I stopped at a farm shop, which was just 0.2 miles off the trail, where I ran into three SOBOs and Giblets. I had a blueberry and pecan pie with ice cream after a breakfast burrito. I also bought some cheese for later. My hunger is constant and never fully satisfied. In speaking with others, it seems this lasts for about a month after the hike, so I expect to be a fat bloke again by my birthday at the end of October.

Soon after lunch, struggling up another hill, I ran into two familiar faces, Songbird and Bypass. I had last seen them about 1000 miles ago and here they were, coming towards me. They had flip-flopped, which means they had reached halfway, then gone to Katahdin and hiked south. They assured me that, while they were tough, Maine and New Hampshire were eminently “doable” and glorious to hike. It was great to see them again and reassuring to hear their assessment of my finishing states.

Soon after meeting the two of them, I left the woods onto yet another meadow and, even though I’m now not sure that this is actually Thistle Hill, it is still gorgeous.

I got to the Thistle Hill Shelter, after a less than 12 mile day, to meet more SOBOs, Spot, Chin Up and Pickles. We were later joined by Giblets, Sonic and Froggy Fellow, with his dog, Rocket Dog.

Everybody enjoyed a friendly evening and Giblets, who seemed to cater like a Puerto Rican (carrying more food than he could ever eat), gave me a meal of black beans and rice, as well as his breakfast combo of bananas and pineapple, which I gratefully accepted and hydrated overnight.

It was a gorgeous following morning, as the sun slowly, and blazingly, lit up the east facing shelter. As usual, I was awake and out of my tent first, while the others gradually came to. Astoundingly, once we were all awake, we noticed that Giblets was still snoring in the shelter, with everybody, laughing, talking, cooking and packing around him. Indeed, he only woke just as I was about to leave, this time second from last.

Without going into too much technical detail, my hydrated fruit breakfast decided that it wanted no further part of me after about an hour and I quickly lost 1100 calories in the bushes. Enough said!!

I got to West Hartford, a tiny Hamlet directly on the trail, and was crossing the bridge, when a woman pulled up in her car, pointed out her house across the bridge and told me I could get coffee there. Never one to refuse, I walked up to the house, to be greeted by a jolly guy called Randy. He and his wife, Linda (the lady in the car), welcome hikers to their home for coffee and breakfast if they’d like. Of course I would!! I stayed for about an hour, while Randy told me that his village had been hit devastatingly by Hurricane Irene a couple of years ago when the river burst it’s banks and Randy’s house was under 5 ft of water. It was a dramatic story, imbued with hope by Randy and Linda’s kindness to hikers.

I now had to pick up my pace in order to get to Hanover, NH in order to meet the son of my friends, Brian and Dee Scott. Stewart had kindly agreed to meet me there and take me to their house. While still undulating, the terrain proved to be reasonable and I got to the appointed place in good time, even finding more trail magic of a cold coke on the way.

There was one spot at which the trail closed in on me quite dramatically, so I took the chance to film it.

I have now moved into the second from last state and know that the challenge only increases from here, so it was great to be able to chill out for a zero day today with close friends while preparing for my resumption tomorrow. It has been a blessing to spend the day not walking and I’m raring to go again. Thanks, Brian and Dee.