August 18 - Hanover NH - home of Dartmouth college.

State number 13 of 14
1720 miles from Springer
440    miles from Katahdin

Getting closer all the time

Topics:
     Dartmouth College
     Lodging in Hanover
     End of the anti-biotics
     starting to get colder
     Shelter Experience
     knee problems
     People from Seattle
     Completion Date


Dartmouth College
     Hanover is the home of Dartmouth College. I have been told that it is a 
Ivy league school. the town is supposed to have a population of 6000 people 
or so. The two most striking features from my point of view:

     There are computers everywhere
     They are all Mac's

I have had to retrain myself to use the single button Mac Mouse, and ask for 
help when I can't seem to make things work.


Lodging in Hanover
     There are two styles of lodging in Hanover

$5 per night at one of the 3 coed fraternities
$200 per night at the only in town motel

The fraternity has a shower ( no towels ), a
washer dryer, a refrigerator, and a living room where hikers can keep their 
packs and sleep on the floor. There were about ten people sleeping there 
last night. There are two other fraternities that also welcome hikers. One 
seems to be known as the party fraternity and the other one doesn't seem to 
be that well kept up.

The End of the anti-biotics
     My thirty day supply of anti-biotics ran out about 4 days ago. I 
thought I was either having withdrawal symptoms or the disease was 
recurring. Now I don't know. I started having knee problems and I also 
started having some tingling in my upper legs.

Starting to get colder.

     We have had a couple of 50 degree nights recently. Mostly this means 
that I have had to zip up my sleeping bag the whole way.  I have asked my 
wife Jan to ship back my long underwear, wool hat and gloves. This is a far 
cry from lying on top of my thermalrest waiting for it to cool off. Right 
now it seems that my winter clothes may have been sent off to never-never 
land. This time we have delivery confirmation and will be able to see where 
it is. This post office seems to have a reputation for not being able to 
find all of your packages the first or second try.


Shelter Experience.

     I spent my first night in a shelter about a week ago. Up to this time I 
had always tented out. Several things kept me from sleeping in the shelters.
     Fear of mice
     Fear of Bugs
     Fear of losing my life from snoring.

An excuse that F.A.L. used when asked about sleeping in shelters was " an 
irrational fear of hanta virus" this usually keeps people quiet.

The reasons that I changed my pattern were;
     It was raining
     The shelter actually had a door that could be closed.
      There were almost no tent spaces near the shelter.
     I didn't feel like packing up my wet tent in the morning.

Since then I have stayed in two or three more shelters. I do like the 
convenience of not having to set up my tent and then pack it in the morning. 
I haven't found that the mice were a problem, and most of the shelters are 
filled with only two or three people these days. There is a large crowd of 
people about a day ahead of me, but that is all that is needed to keep my 
current shelter near empty. About three weeks ago I spent a night tenting at 
a shelter that had perhaps 21 people staying that night. The single man 
tents were within 3 or 4 feet of each other. Normally it is closer to 20 or 
30 feet of separation.


Knee Pain

     FOr the last 45 miles or so both of my knees have been hurting. I don't 
know if it is from the coming off of the anti-biotics or because of the 
hiking that I did before that. I have increased my Ibuprofen to the maximum 
level ( 2400 mgrams )  and am looking for a
knee brace here in Hanover. This is also another reason for taking the two 
ZERO days here in Hanover.

People from Seattle

     For the past two weeks or so I have been meeting Southbounders who are 
from the Seattle area.  It is really strange since I met so few folks from 
there before. One guy actually worked in the Lake Stevens McDonalds for 
awhile.

Completion Date
     It still looks like I could be finished near the end of September. It 
depends on how well my knees hold up, the weather, and how many miles that I 
can make at a time.
     I still have the 100 mile wilderness to complete at the very end. 
People usually describe it as roots and rocks. I also have the White 
Mountains to go over here in New Hampshire, which includes Mt Washington, 
which has some of the worst weather and winds in the United States. I just 
finished making my reservations for several of the huts in the White 
Mountains. For a transfer of cash they will provide a sleeping spot, dinner 
and breakfast. I was hoping for 3 huts in a row, but only could get two. The 
reasons for going with the huts include the fact that the nearest camping 
areas are about .5 miles downhill, and that is something that I would like 
to avoid. I may try for some more reservations as the time gets closer. The 
ones I tried for were the most popular of the group.

IF you have any questions, let me know. I still will be here for one more 
full day.


"Mike on the AT"
"No Rain No Pain No Maine"

http://www.engel.org/ihwm  (Courtesy of my friend Glenn Engel)

email  --- mike_aken@hotmail.com

"I hike alone sometimes.Its during these            Mike Aken
solo hikes that the number of  arrogant             N7OUJ
and ignorant people I have  to deal
with is reduced to one."
                         Jack Hampson

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