New Hampshire, baby! New Hampshire!

I crossed over the bridge with Safari and Hollywood into Hanover, NH
this afternoon. We were all very excited and nearly got ourselves run
over with all the running across the road taking pictures and what
not. There is a couple of miles of road walking on the trail just
before town. Several people had put cookies and other homeade baked
goods out beside the street with signs that say "trail magic". It was
so sweet. One guy that had hiked the trail in 2002, (Thank you
"Chief"!), pulled over and gave us each a cold bottle of juice.
Vermont and now New Hampshire have been very good to us. Like I said
before, Vermont, so far has been absolutely my favorite section. I
hear many good things about the last two states remaining.

Unlike trail magic, there is the darker, unfortunate side of things
that we now call "trail tragic". This is the Coleman cooler you see
just ahead on the side of the trail after that long grueling
climb...beckoning you to come peek inside. Cold water? Cold soda? Some
kind of treat? No! It's empty! Thank you all for all the trail
magic...we know it has to run out sometime...it's
still...sometimes...tragic.

So yet once again, I have indeed lightened my load. Yes, it's true. I
threw my Big Agnes pad in the garbage! It leaked. Again! So I broke
down and bought a Thermarest NeoAir. (Short!). I am so ultralight I am
totally ridiculous. The BA was 24oz and this thing is a whopping 9.
Thats right, 9oz! I am sleeping on it tonight for the first time. I
will let you know. Hmmm.