1737 miles - (stuck in) Hanover, NH

Vermont was by far one of our favorite states and we were sad to say goodbye to it on Friday evening as we crossed the Connecticut River and into New Hampshire. We've agreed that someday we'd like to come back to VT and finish/hike the Long Trail, which the AT follows for most of its time in the state (and seeing how it ONLY 273 miles we think it'd be a manageable goal). The views from the firetowers on Glastonbury and Stratton Mtns. were amazing, as was the general foliage. And the weather... great if you're prepared for it- for a few days the rain was relentless as were the winds. Thankfully our winter gear is waiting for us in Glencliff, NH...which was not very helpful. After a very cold, rainy, windy night spend in a renovated firewarden's cabin on the back side of Killington (the windows had been removed so the clouds drifted in and out of the shelter all night preventing anything from drying) we decided to jump off trail in Rutland, VT to dry out. We had a great time relaxing on our first real zero day since the Delaware Water Gap, and before we left town Mike bought his 4th (and hopefully final) pair of shoes. Two days later we ended up here, in Hanover, NH, where we seem to be stuck in some 'Groundhog Day' type scenerio. The short version of the story is that someone stole mike's credit card number last month and bought $400 worth of artwork from Hong Kong, so he needs to sign some paperwork to have the charges removed. Hanover is the last 'real' town we'll see for at least the next 150 miles, or longer, so we have to wait here until Monday morning to recieve/send a fax. We had hoped we could get all of that taken care of by Saturday, but nothing's every that easy. The up side is that we had arrived too late on Friday to take showers/do laundry at the community center, but they'll be open tomorrow morning and we can clean up before we get out of town. It's kind of surreal staying here- currently we're camped in the woods with a bunch of other hikers on the other side of Dartmouth College's soccer fields like a bunch of hobos, and even though the school is nice enough to let us wander around campus and use their computers to post this, we can't help but feel a little out of place taking 'temporary' residence at an Ivy League school/town. We're really really really looking forward to getting back on the trail tomorrow afternoon and with the White Mtns. only 40 miles away you can probably understand why. Things are supposed to be more rugged and remote from here on out, so eventhough we may not be able to post that often, we'll try our best to keep you updated.

442 miles to go!!!!