So last night I got up 4 times to pee but thankfully I was able to go to bed early, and sleep somewhat later. I heard dogs run by my tent and then the owner call two names for about two minutes. Next I heard Lynn say "Ashlee" you up? I had been up for the past half hour but in and out of sleep just enjoying laying there and not moving. I answered, "yeah kinda." I drank my tea from the night before, packed up, and made breakfast. I was moseying for sure and was not looking forward to a 15 mile day. Then it dawned on me, hey there's a road in 1.7 miles, what if we hitch in and slack those miles? Lynn agreed. We looked at the map since she said there was no road until 6 miles, seems I thought we were further than we were. But wait! The guy with the dogs; he had come 2 miles Lynn said so there had to be a road nearby. We decided to walk until we saw a side trail and take it, it must lead to a road. Not even 2 minutes later we were at a gravel road; do we go left down the road, right up the road, or straight to the AT? The most logical way was left, down. We walked on the gravel road for awhile until we saw 4 Dartmouth students walking towards us dressed quite interestingly. They had their hair died all sorts of colors and wore crazy colored clothing. Seems they were bringing water and cookies up to support the other Dartmouth outing hikers. We talked with them breifly and they said that there is a main road down a ways so we continued on. We came to another fork where we could go left over a bridge or straight down; I thought straight, but Lynn saw a street sign the other way so we went that way. As we crossed the bridge we saw a Subaru driving towards us with a Lab hanging out the window. We stopped to ask about the main road and she said we were heading the wrong way that back there we wanted the other road. After a little bit of yogiing, we landed ourselves a ride! We threw our packs in the back, Lynn sat beside Brandy in the back (who was off to make puppies) and I sat up front with Roe. Thankfully we had this ride because it would have been quite the walk to a paved road. The whole ride to the hostel was about 20 minutes so I am so grateful we were able to get a ride from her. We talked of hunting, cooking, animals, landownership, and so on. She reminded me a lot of Bonnie which I loved. She sounded a lot like her, and had similar mannerisms. We pulled up to the hostel, thanked Roe and wished Brandy good luck and settled in (kinda.) James, and the No Parents No Bedtime crew were all here and a couple section hiking. All were hiking out today so we kinda just hung around for a bit until everyone knew their game plan. A few went into town and Lynn went with them to get some re-supply and hit up the deli. I stayed to relax and talk with the section couple. They are from Colorado and have hiked the West Coast state high peaks and are working on the East Coast. The husband sectioned last year from Springer to Harpers and is going the rest in smaller sections. They are more of rock climbers than hikers they said. We talked a little of the John Murr trail since I am interested in that. Once the shuttle got back everyone went on their way and Lynn and I were the only ones left. I asked where I could set up my tent and Lynn grabbed a bunk upstairs. I am so happy to have a flat, leaf cushion, spot to dry my tent out after last night. There is no cell reception here but there is wifi which is good. The showers and toilet are outside which is a little off putting but at least it has plumbing and not an outhouse. Deffidently not one of the nicer hostels I have stayed at, but it's better than being wet and miserable in the middle of the woods. I hung my socks, compression socks, and gators to dry out and then cut my nails and toe nails. Lynn got me a ham and turkey grinder from the deli with a Coke and small bag of chips so I ate half of that and a Kind bar. It was already 1:00, and after waiting around for hikers to come so the shuttle for us to slack will be cheaper, we finally got out for some hiking. Like I've said before, when hiking in groups it's about the whole; so I didn't feel well, we hitched into town. Lynn wanted to go back to slack the 10 miles we missed, I would go too. If it were just me I would have skipped them since I wasn't feeling 100% still, but it wasn't. I walked through the woods with Lynn and was thankful she had waited for me last night at the brook. The hike was nothing special, and I mean nothing. It was a pretty easy hike, but it was all just woods. Once we got back to the hostel, we hung out for a bit and then later we went to the only restaurant in town for open mic. It was your typical quaint mom and pop place in New Hampshire but as we walked in I saw a familiar face; Tumbles! I had just texted him earlier that they better slow down since I miss them, and here he was. The other two were ahead and he was with some hikers I didn't know. Dare Ya, Triple P, Puzzle, and I headed up to the bar to two open seats. The place was small and packed. We ordered and the guys stood, after Tumbles and another hiker failed at their pizza challenge; they left so we moved to their table. Lynn and I shared a pizza with chicken, broccoli, bacon, and alfredo; it was okay nothing special. It was getting late, so we were shuttled back to the house since we would be slacking Moosilauke tomorrow!
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