August 15-22

My arrival in Rutland came on a Friday; I didn't know until I got there was that it was also the first day of the Long Trail Festival. The Long Trail is a very old hiking trail -- older than the AT -- that runs the length of the state of Vermont, from Massachusetts to Canada. The festival is like a much smaller version of Trail Days, with workshops, films, vendor booths ... and for the several dozen AT hikers that were there, a lot of hanging around, chilling.

Also just like Trail Days, at the end there was a work project at the end of it, and I volunteered again. We went back to Clarendon Gorge, where the AT crosses the Mill River. The gorge is about 30 feet high, and is crossed by a suspension bridge. The bridge was paid for by the family of an AT thru-hiker who died trying to cross the river in 1973. The cables are metal, but the deck of the bridge is wood and has to be replaced about every 15 years; so about a dozen of us spent a day doing that. There is something deeply counterintuitive about standing on a bridge over a gorge and taking a saw to the wood underneath your feet (even if you're not afraid of heights, which I am) ...

-- Finished up Vermont, and made it to Hanover, NH. I've reeeally been looking forward to getting here. I've been really dragging with motivation, and I was looking forward to getting to New Hampshire and the White Mountains, which has some of the most spectacular scenery on the whole trail. Hanover itself is a cool town, basically an extension of Dartmouth U. Given the kind of students Dartmouth attracts, the town isn't exactly full of low-priced eateries, but I have managed to find both a Fajita buffet and a Thai buffet ... and eat at both in the same day. I think I put away 10,000 calories that day. It's also a very hiker-freindly place -- there's a pizza place that gives all hikers a free slice, a Ben and Jerry's that gives a hiker discount, and a used bookstore whose owner lets a few hikers stay at her house.

If it sounds like I've been here awhile, I have -- three days now. I was supposed to be getting a maildrop here, but the USPS has not delivered. This is a real problem as this maildrop had all my colder-weather gear that I need for hiking in the Whites (they've been to get snow 12 months a year). So I sit, hope it arrives tomorrow, and start wondering if I have to start looking for an outfitter that can sell me a pair of boots and some thermals ...