Miles: about 250 by semi-truck
Hours: seven (scary)
This morning Bones and his sister, Sarah, decided to take a day hike in the mountains and Patrick decided to continue hiking south. After studying the trail maps, and buying a state highway map, (and waking up after the bus had already left town, oops) I decided to hitch-hike to Glencliff, halfway across the state of New Hampshire and start hiking again there.
A word--hikers who skip miles of trail by hitch-hiking (yellow blazers) are much looked down upon by other thru-hikers. Although I intend to come back and hike the miles through the White Mountains at the end of this trek, other hikers sneer and say they will believe it when they see it. Oh, well. This is what I need to do for now.
So at 3:00 I stood at an intersection in Gorham to begin hitch-hiking toward Glencliff. After only 5 minutes a semi-truck driver pulled over. Before getting in the cab I explained where I was going and he said he was also going to Glencliff. This seemed to be good luck since it takes about 4 or 5 roads to get to Glencliff, and would be about a 2 hour drive if you had your own car, so that he was going all the way sounded great. However, he didn't drive to Glencliff. He drove sort of toward Glencliff for a while before getting on the highway going the wrong way. When I asked him again where he was going he assured me that he had to stop first and drop off the empty trailer he had and pick up a loaded trailer. Then he would go to Glencliff.
This is worth your time, really. Get on googlemaps or mapquest and check this out. Look at the route from Gorham, NH to Glencliff, NH. Then get the route from Gorham, NH to Richford, VT. We drove West on 2, North on 91, West on 114, West on 105 and ended up on the West side of Vermont, two miles south of the Canadian Border. Its a long story, but suffice it to say that I am safe although I did not get the ride to the location that I requested. Eventually I had to get out at a highway exit when I recognized the signs for Hanover, NH. I knew Hanover was at the trail because I am supposed to meet mom there on September 5.
At 10:00 I walked into town from the highway and asked directions to a safe place to camp. I walked through town (while talking to my cousin on the phone to share with someone who loves me what had just happened, because it was scary) to the trail head where I could camp.
I found a place where there were already three hikers camping and threw down my sleeping bag for the night. I was thankful to be back on the trail, albeit 150 miles away from where I started this morning at the trail. Tomorrow I will decide what to do next.
Pictures from today's trucking adventure:
*hug*
ReplyDelete