June 1
End: Hexacuba Shelter, NH
Miles: 34.5
Total: 3633.1
I was up pretty early and back on the trail. I needed to get to town and get a couple of tasks done quickly in order to stay on schedule for the day. In just a few miles I was walking the road in Norwich, and then heading for New Hampshire.
As I crossed over a river on a bridge I left Vermont and entered Hanover, home to Dartmouth University. Sadly they were in between semesters, so I couldn’t stop to take any classes. Instead I found a Subway inside of a fancy miniature mall, and sat down to eat and charge my phone.
Once done there I went to the bank to deposit my tax return and a gift, get some cash, and ask about Canadian currency. On my way out of town I saw a few other hikers, but didn’t stop to talk. The trail went right past the university campus and up a steep hill, where I stopped to eat a sub I had packed out of town. On that hill I met D and Bluegrass who had seen me in town and had raced there to catch up. We hiked together a bit off and on, but we were all doing different paces and didn’t exactly form a group.
The trail continued to be wooded hills until Holt’s Ledge, which was fenced off for an endangered species. Close to there I lost the trail at a ski slope and couldn’t figure out exactly where it went. I just walked the slope down to the road and talked to a dog walker who pointed me in the right direction.
I uncharacteristically passed up on free ice cream at a house near the trail because I wanted to stay on pace. As I started up a huge mountain I was caught by Drop Out, who I was happy to see. Two other thru hikers I had met that day, Goose and Maverick, had told me he was in the area. Drop Out now was carrying an infant-sized pool over his pack which he found sitting next to the trail just outside of Boiling Springs. I had seen it as well, but hadn’t thought to pick it up (rookie mistake).
We did the climb up Smarts Mountain, which was no joke, and checked out the Firewarden’s Cabin. It was decent, and we met Groundhog there. I cooked up dinner for myself so that I could hang out with the others, who were planning on staying.
It was quite chilly on top of the mountain, and I was happy to get dinner over with and get down off of the mountain. Dinner had put me a little behind schedule, but when I got to the next shelter I could go to bed immediately.
The hike was not difficult, but I was impatient and ready to be done for the day. I had to get my headlamp out and use it for the last mile or so, but I arrived at the shelter and got into my sleeping bag quickly. I had accomplished a lot and didn’t have any problems getting to sleep.
