Day 146: Zero Momentum Summary: Aug.18 Hanover: 1747.7 Total miles: 0! We woke to pouring rain. Our will to hike was immediately quashed. Dean, who rolled into the Sunset Motor Lodge last night, said he was, for the first time in a while, excited to hike. But the rain quashed that too. It was exceptionally bad timing since Jill and Joe, Tyler's sister and brother in law respectively, were coming down to hike that day. Tyler's parents were going to help by dropping off their car somewhere down the road, the two of them would hike with us to the car for three days, and then they would drive back to maine. We decided to zero. Duck Fart and Patch pulled the trigger on time to get a room, but we would have to look elsewhere since we were late to the draw. The family members arrived and, despite the rain, Joe and Jill were amped to hike. We broke the news that, we had hiked plenty in the rain and would sit this storm out. They initially said they would hang, and we decided we would try and go 33 miles with them in two days. Before heading to lunch, the clan got to meet two of Duck Fart's nephews and his parents, Ed and Shirley, who definitely seemed amused that their son went by Duck Fart on the trail. The Hutch clan headed as a unit to Margaritas and shared some 11 o clock drinks and Mexican food which Bruce and Mary generously paid for. They then spent more of their short time with us shuttling us to get groceries. Having access to car drivers is really the best trail magic there is. We felt bad, as usual, that our quality time with the family was spent running errands. Afterwards, we headed down to the super 8 in White River Junction, VT, 10 or so miles from Hanover. Mary and Bruce had brought Monty's down jacket, but there was a bit of a mix up with his rain pants. We later discovered that Mary and Bruce had box brought Monty's rain pants instead of Tyler's so Tyler decided to just forego rain pants. While at the hotel, Jill and Joe finaly decided they would hit the trail despite the rain. We could catch them tomorrow. As such, we decided to put the car drop off point to 38 miles ahead. In the afternoon they would hike 10.9 miles to the Moose Mountain Shelter and the following day we would catch them around Smarts Mountain. The rain certainly wasn't stopping. It would go from downpour to nothing to drizzle and when they left it was a downpour. The family visit was far too short, but Jill and Joe had to hit the trail as soon as possible to get those miles in! They weren't super sure what their pace would be like, so starting at 2pm may be a little late. And just like that, it was just the two of us again.
*Jill ready for hiking
*Hutch Clan
We finally caught up on blog posts, got some napping in, and ordered some pizza from C&S. Sometimes we just need a plain cheese. Monty also showed up to pick up his winter gear and hang out for a while. We ended the evening with bad TV, slowly consuming a giant cheese pizza by ourselves, and the ever present town task of food repacking. We fell asleep to ET on Netflix and the sound of rushing cars outside. ET phone home...
