August 15 - Hanover, NH (Day 149 – milepoint 1717.6)

Cosmo and I covered the 10 miles into Hanover in three hours, which, for me, is pretty fast with a pack. We arrived before any restaurant would serve us lunch so we had second breakfast and relaxed for a bit.

Hanover is the home of Dartmouth College and there are about four student-fraternity houses on campus that allow hikers to crash in their basements. We walked over to the Tabard House, a co-ed fraternity, where we were given a tour and made to feel welcome.

I wandered around town for the rest of the day. Bookstore. Met with the manager at the Ben and Jerry’s shop and set up a 20% discount for everybody tomorrow. He recommended at first that we buy a couple of “party-sized” ice creams like the
“Vermonster,” which feeds about 30 people. “A good way to get a bunch of ice cream to a bunch of people affordably.” he said.

I then explained to him that the average thru-hiker can put away a half-gallon of ice cream in one sitting (equivalent to 4 pints). He said, “Oh, the Vermonster would only feed 5 or 6 of you. Maybe we should go with the straight discount.” I agreed. Ben and Jerry’s has been very good to thru-hikers.

Lots of folks started arriving into town, some hitching from as far as 40 miles to make sure they don’t miss tomorrow’s bonanza. All you can eat lasagna for dinner at an Italian restaurant pretty much put me down for the count.

Aquaholic