Appalachian Trail (day 74) - Woodstock to Wilder (Greg Cook) / mile 1756

"At least now I knew that my heart was wedded to the mountains - to the wild places. It was there, and there alone, that I was whole, contented, and blissful. No relationship, career, or wealth could ever take its place." Heather "Anish" Anderson

Last 20 miles hiking in Vermont, in rain but spending the night at the trail angels.

I've set up the alarm clock to be up and running at 5 PM, first and foremost I wanted to be in Hanover as early as possible and to avoid the bulk of rain which was going to intensify in the afternoon.

It started to drizzle right after I set off, trail wasn't too steep or muddy so it was fairly smooth sailing overall. I was surprised that Snail did not catch up with me but I guess he had a later start, he wasn't stopping at Norwich for long anyway. I went past few maple trees tap pipes which were extracting the juices later boiled down to make maple syrup, it was quite interesting to see.

I've arrived in town at 3 PM resupplied at Dan and Whit's General Store and called my trail angel host for tonight Greg. We had a slight miscommunication issue as he thought I was at the shop in the nearby town of Hannover meanwhile I was at Norwich. He came to pick me up with his two grandsons shortly after and we went to his home in Wilder few miles away from the trail.

Here I've got an entire room to myself, Greg said that it has been a quiet year and I was his first overnight guest so far. Greg was an avid hiker and a trail angel for 12 years now, he hosted hundreds of hikers including Quadzilla I've met last year on Te Araroa in New Zealand. He was making photo albums with descriptions of each hiker he hosted but he stopped doing it few years ago. I still posed for a photo with his two grandsons on his front porch which was quite cute as they never seen a thru hiker before.

Greg took me to a local Coop supermarket where I've bought (even) more food and few items for breakfast, then I've spent rest of the evening eating and going through his photo albums checking people's trail names and reading their stories. Greg promised to drop me back on trail tomorrow at 7 AM which was perfect.


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