Back on the trail again today after our 12 day break visiting the families in Virginia. We had a great visit, and it was wonderful to spend time with the family. But as usual, we tried to do too many things and see too many people. We should all know better than to try and spend more than a week with family, no matter how good it is to visit. I'm sure they were all relieved to see us hit the trail again, too. It will probably take a few days to get totally back into a trail mindset.

We stayed at the Tabard House at Dartmouth last night. Met a number of thru-hikers, both north and southbound. Sure we'll see many more North-bounders along the way. We should be right about in the middle of the pack by now.

After a huge breakfast at Lou's Restaurant, we headed out of town back into the woods. The first climb out of Hanover, up over Velvet Rocks was fairly gradual, so was a good warm up for the day. We had only planned on about 11.8 miles to Moose Mt. Shelter, but by mid day we were already close, so decided to go the rest of the way to Trapper John Shelter. We hadn't been able to find the maps for the northern section before leaving home (at least not without buying the whole guidebook), so we were going only by the AT Data Book and the Wingfoot Book. Both are good resources, but neither one gives actual information on the terrain. The topo maps also have elevation profiles with the mileage's, and are great for getting an idea of what's coming up. If we'd seen the elevation profile for the last two miles, we might have stopped earlier.

The climb up Moose Mt. after lunch wasn't bad, but we noticed a decided lack of blazes along the trail. On the really rocky and winding stretches it was tricky to follow. We stopped for an afternoon break at a rocky viewpoint, then, after continuing for a ways, we realized we hadn't seen a blaze in a long time. We should have just had faith we were still on the AT, but the doubt started to creep in little by little. Now we know the blazing is hit and miss in this area, but then we weren't sure. The result of our doubt was, we backtracked all the way to where we took our break, and still no blazes, so Ronald went all the way back to the top of the ridge before he saw blazes.

By the time we started making forward motion again, we'd lost almost an hour. Ronald was pretty bent out of shape. He seems to be frustrated by this type of setback more. Anyway, we continued on, still only seeing a random faded blaze now and then. We could see evidence of some trail maintenance - new water bars, etc., but you think they could slap up some white paint now and then. The DOC is a huge organization, and they do some great things. Apparently, painting blazes isn't one of them. With over 1,000 members, I wonder how much better condition the trail would be in if each member gave just one day a year for trail maintenance. Just a thought…

At the bottom of Moose Mt., we came out along a lovely meadow beside Goose Pond. It was only two miles from Trapper John Shelter. A map with an elevation profile would have been good right about then. We could see a huge ridge ahead of us that turned out to be about a 1,00 foot climb up to Holt's Ledge. If we'd been mentally prepared for the climb, it wouldn't have been so bad. But, the steep climb, plus the lost hour earlier in the afternoon, really drained us. We came dragging into Trapper John around 6:30.

Our saving grace was that Easy 8 and Cowboy, two thru-hikers we met yesterday at Tabard, were already here with a huge campfire blazing merrily away. They started at Springer in March, and expect to finish up about the same time we do. After a few minutes to recoup, and a good dinner, we felt much better. Later in the evening, Pinnacle showed up, after a late start out of Hanover. There was also a South-bounder here, so we had a lively group.

After days off the trail, it was good to be back. It seemed ironic that in the last few days of our Southern hike, I was looking forward to time off and going to Bush Gardens. Then while walking around Bush Gardens amongst the throngs of people, I longed to be back on the trail. Now that were back, we're in amongst other thru-hikers that started at Springer in the Spring. We'll be hiking with them up until the end. We should pass a crowd of of South-bounders that started at Katahdin in June. There were four South-bounders with us at Tabard House last night plus a bunch more in another frat house. I don't know how many North-bounders were in town.

After a feed for breakfast at Lou's Bakery we headed off into the wilds of New Hampshire. The early miles proved not too difficult on our layover legs. This allowed us a little recovery time from our layoff. The morning miles cruised by as we slowly climbed into the hills. We passed by numerous old rock walls that once delineated fields of long ago. Today these wall run through the silent forest that has overgrown the rocky fields. They ring silent testament to the struggle to make a living from these rocky slopes a century ago.

As we were finishing lunch, Cowboy and Easy 8 passed us. Easy had stayed with us at Tabard last night. Since they were thru-hikers we were surprised that they hadn't passed us earlier. Later we continued climbing and passed Moose Mtn Shelter. We had originally intended to stay there, but since it was early and we felt good, we continued on.

After a short break at one of the views on Moose, we continued down the hill. We began to notice the absence of blazes in this section. As we descended no blazes appeared. Needless to say, that concerned us. I didn't want to get lost on our first day out. Since we didn't carry map for this section, it was necessary to use the blazes. I spotted one blaze but that seemed out of place. I finally decided to hike back up the hill until I found regular blazes and make sure we had not been diverted to a side trail. I ended up walking all the way back to the top of the mountain. Since there were no side trails, we must be on course. This little exercise in frustration cost an hour of hiking and a lot of climbing. As we hiked down the mountain, we hit a section of trail that was well defined and there was numerous blazes everywhere. In the section that wasn't blazed the trail was not very distinct and it would have been easy to have left it.

At the bottom of Moose, we hit a swamp. On the other side was another mountain. Somehow I was sure we were destined to climb it. Sure enough the trail went straight up. No switchbacks, just up and more up. By the time we reached the top, I was beat, my feet were beat and I knew blisters were beginning to form. I just let Linda and Brandon go ahead as I slowly plodded down the mountain. I was glad to hit the side trail to the shelter. Although it was a long hike on the side trail here.

When we arrived Easy 8 had a roaring fire going. Also with us are Cowboy, Virginia Creeper, and a section hiker named Pinnacle. There is also a South-bounder named Big Country.

Today we left Hanover and began our Northern journey. The trail was great, mostly up but not too hard. We stopped for a snack after a few miles then started back up the trail. We stopped for lunch after about nine miles. After lunch we encountered part of the trail that didn't have any blazes. We stopped and dad walked a long back up the trail and found no blazes. When he came back we decided to just head on. If we were lost, we were lost. Luckily we found some blazes down the trail, so we weren't lost. We finally got to the shelter and saw Easy 8, Cowboy, Pinnacle came in later. Easy 8 made a fire and we all sat around until it was time to sleep.