HELLO HANOVER

AT Day 128: Sunday,  August 13, 2023

SOBO Mile 1775.5 -1756

Smarts Mt Trailhead – Hanover 

Distance Hiked – 19.5* miles/31.4 km

Total Distance Hiked: 2077.4 miles/3343 km 

It rained all through the night. We stayed dry, no rain made it’s way under the tent. We were feeling pretty happy and woke up in the pitch black of the woods. It had stopped raining so we packed up and were on our way at 6 a.m. It wasn’t raining but it was dark and surprisingly warm. It’s the warmest we’ve been for quite a few weeks. The trail ascended away from Lyme-Dorchester Road up towards the darkness of the woods and on a puddly wet and muddy trail. We followed the Skiway Trail towards its crossing of Dorchester Road further along. The trail was saturated by last night’s rain.  It was overgrown in sections towards the road crossing and with the overnight rain clinging to the trailside vegetation we were  sodden wet by the time we got out on the road. 

I looked at our map and I could see that we can do a road walk for 15 miles to Hanover.  So we decided to road walk instead of following the trail over Moose Mountain on the AT. It was Sunday so the roads were likely to be quite. The road paralleled the AT.  We followed Dorchester Rd through the charming little town of Lyme and then onto the unsealed Baker Hill Rd then Etna and Greensboro Rds to Hanover Street. The sun was out for a little while. It felt wonderful to be out hiking in the sunshine. We saw some really neat North Hampshire houses along the way. We picked ripe apples from roadside trees. It was such a nice change of scenery.

Soon the rain returned but we could hike with our umbrellas out and chatting side by side. Reminded us of miles of road hiking on the CDT (without the rain).  It was just nice not to have to fight the mud for a while. Of course the road walk got warm after the rain passed and sunshine returned. We didn’t have the tree canopy to keep us shaded.  Our wet feet were well and truly dry by midday. Hammer was keen to cross over and get back on trail. I was not so keen. I was enjoying having dry feet and admiring the lovely houses as we hiked on.  And seeing blue sky felt like a treat.

We made it into Hanover with plenty of time to shop for resupply and find a campsite. This will be our resupply stop for the next five days to Manchester Centre. We have to wait for the Post Office to open tomorrow to pick up a parcel which was sent here before we flipped north from Vermont. And we are meeting up with our NOBO friends Dave and Julie.

*We hiked 2 miles on the AT and thereafter did a 15 mile road walk to Hanover. Todays hike was closer to 17 miles.