Summary:
Aug. 19 Hanover: 1747.7 Random campsite: 1768.6 Total miles: 20.9 We woke up at around 6:30 so Emily could use the guest computer to get some work done. We also got a chance to edit the website to finally reflect the 75% done. We plan on emailing our list soon to drum up some final donations for the NPCA on our journey. Thank you to all who have donated. We had trouble finding a ride back into Hanover. There were no ubers, lyfts, taxis that could be there before noon, and we struck out with several trail angels. We finally called the number from an uber driver we got from the front desk. He could be there in thirty minutes but would cost $25. We went for it anyway. He was a great guy and told us some Hanover facts. We walked over to the Starbucks where Duck Fart and Patch were waiting. We grabbed a couple coffees and finished up some Wi-Fi work. Extra mile and Leap Frog showed up. We chatted with them, but it was already 10 and if we were to have any hope of catching up to Jill and Joe we had to head out. Tyler was particularly frantic about hitting the road. Even more than usual and towns tend to make the worst parts of his anxiety come out. We walked along the Hanover trail and found Monty recently packed up from his camp next to the Dartmouth athletic fields. Tyler gave him his rain pants and we were all squared up with his warm gear. After hiking up Moose Mountain, we heard word from Jill that they were almost at the next shelter six miles ahead. We had caught up five miles on them but must to keep pushing. We still had to take lunch (we are not monsters after all) and stopped at Mink Brook.
*Smarts Mt.
We had another couple short and steep climbs, more white mountain testing, before we made it to Trapper John Shelter. The rocks were still wet from the rain and slippery so we slowed a bit on the way to the shelter. We hadn't heard any updates from Jill. We assumed they moved on from the shelter, but Tyler ran down to the shelter anyway to check. No one had seen them. Duck Fart was feeling tired so he decided to stay the night. Patch, not wanting to push 22 the following day, stuck with us. In hopes that we could somehow catch the family members, Tyler went ahead down the slope from the shelter. At the bottom, where the last water was before the climb up Smarts Mountain, Scribbles was camped up for the night. Also, we finally got to meet LL Cool J (now mainly called J Boogie, a man of many names) who is one of Grant's long time tramily friends. We didn't have much left in the tank to push beyond Lambert Ridge, about halfway up Smarts Mountain. The lookouts there were supposed to have some camping which Tyler had mentioned to Jill in a text so we hoped they had stopped there. We had some beautiful sunset views from some of the rocky outcrops during the climb. When we made it to the ridge, we found a pine forest with some flat camp spots, but no Jill or Joe. We were pretty spent though and figured we would catch them on the top of Smarts the next morning. We made camp the best we could in the slightly cramped but extremely comfortable pine needle ground in the forest, ate dinner, and headed to sleep.
