Today has turned out to be the most wonderful day so far of our trip. We slept in a little this morning in our cozy ski hut. Then, as we were about to leave, we discovered Boomerang and Siggy (other thru hikers) were sleeping in the control hut right next to us. They had arrived late and saw we were already in bed, and decided not to come in and wake us up. That was the sweetest thing, but not necessary. I felt bad that they had not come in and enjoyed the wonderful big hut.

Anyway, we headed out in the fog and mist to finish up 3 miles to the road, and by the time we got there, the sun was shining and it was clear. To my delight, after we started thumbing, the second car to come by stopped. It was a guy already late for a meeting but he kindly stopped by the campground where we had sent our mail drops and then continued on to Bristol, so we could try to find a place to stay. We didn't have any luck with the B and B's in town, which were way too expensive, so we headed to the laundromat and started washing clothes. It's always better to be clean and homeless, right? While we were sitting around in our rain gear and sorting our food drops, I decided to call an old AT friend, Mr. Moo, who I remembered a few days ago is from Vermont. When I talked to Tony back in Hancock, I got his address and recently I've been asking local hikers if his city is anywhere near the trail. It turned out to be near Burlington, which is not far at all, so on a whim I called

An AT reunion - Sam, Mr. Moo, Max