July 13 - 25.7 / 1,736.8

I woke up a few times during the night to some type of animal running around my tent. I was never able to see it, but I think it was either a raccoon or a porcupine. Luckily, it didn't snag any of my clothes drying on a nearby bush.

Samurai and I got to the first road crossing of the day. It is here that we met four southbounders. They had all started together. Inferno was also there talking to them. She had stopped about three miles short of the shelter in which I stayed. The southbounders moved on while the three of us talked to a guy who had showed up. His trail name was Tailwinds. He offered the three of us two bananas and a peach. We gladly accepted. After speaking with him for a few minutes, we began the climb up the next mountain.

It was around nine miles into the day when the three of us got to Cloudland Road. There was a local country market, Cloudland Farm Country Market, just 0.2 miles to the west. We had discussed on going there, but wanted to push on thinking that we would do 6 extra miles for the day all the way into Hanover, NH. At the road, a car drove by, and we asked how far up the road the market was. He said it was just a few hundred yards up around the corner. Hearing that, we changed our minds about going. We stashed our packs in some tall weeds and walked to the market. One of the owners met us out on the lawn as we were walking up. She said that they had limited items as they were renovating and moving into a new building. They did have ice cream and drinks though. I got some chocolate almond and the other two got a vanilla mint. It was all made by a local creamery. I also had a raspberry rhubarb soda made from another farm in the area. Everything was superb. We spoke with the owners too while eating. They were very hiker friendly and told us about their future plans with the property.

I turned on my phone to try and get some service. I did and noticed a message from Tumbleweed and Skyrocket. I found out Skyrocket was still at home just outside of Hanover. He did not hike out with Tumbleweed a few days ago. I gave him a call to find out what was going on. He mentioned that he had a stomach bug and was taking some medicine. He asked how far out we were from Hanover. I told him we planned to stop about 6 miles short. However, that quickly changed when he said that he would come pick us up if we hiked all the way to town. Instantly, the three of us decided to do that. We finished our ice cream and drinks and moved on.

Again, I felt as if the climbs were much tougher than what the elevation profile showed them as. A part of me didn't want to hike the extra miles, but I knew it would be worth it. Later in the day, we took a break at the West Hartford Village Store. It was right along the trail and a perfect place to stop. We all wanted to make it a quick stop, but we ended up sitting there for almost an hour and a half.

We ended up making it to the road around 8:30. I called Skyrocket to tell him we were starting our road walk into town. His dad ended up picking us up right before we made it to the NH border. He drove us out to their place where we had some dinner. It was great to meet back up with Skyrocket who I had not seen since WV. We spent the rest of the evening watching tv and just hanging out.