September 3

Today I walked less than 2 miles on the trail.  I crossed the New Hampshire, Vermont state line at the Connecticut River.  But since I've only hiked 50 miles in New Hampshire (and skipped 110 miles of trail in this state) it didn't compare to the sense of accomplishment I felt when crossing out of Maine after 281 miles.  In Hanover the trail passes through town on the sidewalks and roads.  Mom and I had planned to meet here so that if she and Aunt Jane wanted to walk with me on the trail but didn't want to tackle the woods trail we could follow the white blazes in town.  But I decided to walk through town today to the next parking lot, so that if they decided they weren't up for walking I wouldn't miss any trail.  Glassman walked with me and took these pictures.

I slept at a trail angel's house.  In Hanover hikers can pick up a piece of paper at either of the trail heads or at the library.  This paper has the name and phone number of eight different people who are willing to pick up hikers, host them over night, and give them a ride back to the trail the next day.  Hikers are encouraged to call the people at random and ask for a free stay.  I called a woman named Sally who picked me up 20 minutes later.  She let me use her shower and fed me ice-cream.  We swapped stories before calling it a night.  She is a trained nurse, but mostly she works on her watercolor paintings now and only works about two nursing shifts a month.  Her studio apartment was in transition as she is still moving in, but I felt comfortable and welcomed there.  She had a spunky spirit and good stories.

Here is me being excited to find Trail Magic-some watermelon and fresh homemade bread someone left on the trail for hikers.  It was really hot today and the watermelon was tasty.

That yellow poster says "Photo Challenge, Imitate the Abstract Art".  It was part of a first-year orientation game.  Here is my best imitation.

I found this wonderful man when I purchased new pants at the North Face Store in Hanover.  He kindly took the anti-theft device off of my back-pack that for some reason was not removed when I purchased the pack.  Thanks, Bill!