thistle hill shelter to hanover, nh

we woke up around 06:00. magz and i were on trail right at 07:00. it was a tough day for magz. she was tired pretty much immediately. thankfully the elevation profile for the day was reasonably mild, not even 3000’ ascent over the 14 miles we had to go.

we took a lot of breaks, and i kept insisting she eat. i could almost see when the calories would run out. suddenly our pace would slow to a crawl. though it was hard, she kept moving. i was annoyed because the rain that wasn’t supposed to arrive until 16:00 or 17:00 arrived early. lame.

we stopped at a shelter for lunch and i insisted she eat one of my tins of sardines. she didn’t enjoy them but ate them all and ultimately felt a lot better. the afternoon we kept up a pretty good pace until we hit the roads in norwich, vt.

the road walk was uncharacteristically long and the pavement really made magz’ feet hurt. again, she kept moving and we turned the corner toward hanover.

i had received a text from bugs that a shuttle would be at the co-op at three. at the time i thought we wouldn’t make it, but suddenly we were on track to make it with about 20 minutes to spare for a resupply. a fact i neglected to mention to magz. we crossed the bridge into new hampshire, and started up the hill. our pace suffered again and i mentioned that we had to keep the pace if we were to make the shuttle.

this didn’t go over well, as magz didn’t know i was trying to make the shuttle. still, she picked up the pace and we made it into hanover. the problem was, this was where the guthook map changed and i suddenly discovered that the co-op was actually another half mile. we were both very disappointed.

we moderated our pace and walked to the co-op, where we discovered the entire tramily waiting for the shuttle! they promised they’d try and delay it and magz and i ran in to resupply.

i hate rushing. i tried to resupply as fast as i could in a store where i didn’t know where anything was or even what they had. since they were a co-op, they didn’t have the same kind of stuff as i’m used to. somehow we got it done, with magz rallying and helping me out. we walked out just as the shuttle arrived.

from there we got shuttled back to vermont where the hostel was. magz changed her reservation from outside to inside since it was raining. we showered and i took a brief nap while magz played dots on her phone - together in a single bed. it was really nice to have some relaxing snuggle time.

after the nap we enjoyed some beers while watching whatever was on tv. first it was the end of harry potter and the goblet of fire, and then jurassic park.

bugs, lyric, and rocket had decided on family dinner and had bought sausages, orzo, and asparagus. they cooked it all, and i couldn’t be more greatful to have a moment to spend with magz. i was also beat. as i’ve mentioned before i find moving at paces other than my own exhausting.

we all ate dinner together at a table. it was really nice. after dinner i had a pint of ice cream for dessert - the hostel had pints, and the first one was only a dollar!

some images from today: