We made breakfast at Rich’s house and then got back on the trail at Cloudland Road. It was easy trail and nice weather again and we made it to the village store in West Hartford for a late lunch. I started with a pint of local maple cream ice cream and then grabbed some more food when I was still hungry.

It was a very hiker friendly place. They had pamphlets of all the hiker services and free stuff offered in the upcoming towns of Norwich, VT, and Hanover, NH, including a list of trail angels to call and stay with. After a long break, we continued hiking to the road in Norwich. From there it was a long road walk to Hanover so we threw our day packs in Greg’s truck and strolled down the sidewalk with nothing, with Miller joining us.

There were two houses with trail magic boxes at their curbs right away, and as we were eating watermelon and chocolate chip banana bread out of them, the lady came out of her house and said we could stay there. Turns out she was the first person on the trail angel list we’d seen earlier. We wanted to check out Hanover since it was a Friday night though so we’d already decided on a motel stay. We continued over the river, crossing into New Hampshire.

We met up with Greg in town again after 17 miles and went to Ramunto’s Pizza for dinner and beers. They offer hikers a free slice each but I wanted to split a pie and come back for my free slice tomorrow. By the time we were done eating, we were all too tired to go out so we just headed to the motel. I organized my new pack tonight since I will no longer be slackpacking starting tomorrow and my stuff was all over the place from staying with the truck this week.

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