3 nights with the Twelve Tribes

I am currently in Hanover, NH 1735 miles from Springer and 441 miles to Katahdin. I am staying with a friend of a friend just outside of Hanover. Right now I am happy to be out of the rain. It rained every single day I was in Vermont. Vermont was a state known for muddy trails, and all the rain did not help at all. Because of the rain we decided to spend a couple of nights based out of Rutland. We had heard that the Back Home Again cafe had a free hostel that provided dinner and breakfast. The cafe is run by the Twelve Tribes community in Rutland, www.twelvetribes.com. Contrary to the title, they are not a cult. They are a community based on love and their own particular brand of Christianity. They also provide a large amount of good food. We st around and talked about their community and way they had given up everything to join. On Wednesday while walking in the we called them and arraigned a pickup. We spent Wednesday night with them, and then on Thursday got a ride back to where we left the trail and slack packed back to Rutland. On Friday we got a ride twenty-three miles North on the trail and hiked back, and then on Saturday continued back on the trail with real packs. Two days of slack packing and three nights of great food was very worthwhile. Part of the way they support their community is through maté tea and energy bars. We may now be addicted. However, the highlight from our stay was being invited to Shabbat dinner. There were testimonials, singing, dancing, interesting conversation and lots of good food. In addition to lasagna we had broccoli fresh from their farm. It was amazing. I had two full plates and was still full the next morning when it was time for breakfast. Breakfast that morning was stuffed french toast and their home made maple syrup. That day was one of the hardest days of hiking I had in a while. We were back to full packs and had a major case of the ITIS. We (Filadelfia, Shadow and myself) were unable to move. But eventually we were able to finish our 17 miles.
Back to my out of order narration. My last full post was in Dalton. From there Shadow and I moved into Vermont and the mud. Our first night in VT it rained right after we arrived at the Shelter. We ran into Filadelfia and Creek Diver, and Filadelfia announced where we stood on his list of the top ten thru hikers he would eat if he had to resort to cannibalism. I was number 6, Shadow number 7 and Creek Diver number 9. I have not yet been with Filadelfia and anyone higher up on his list. I think that it is incentive for me to keep him well fed. The next day Creek Diver went to meet her family and Filadelfia joined us.
Vermont has a series of shelters and campgrounds that you have to pay for, so we planned our days around avoiding these shelters. Most of them are around ponds, and as we came upon one of them a loon was swimming by and spent several minutes calling out to us. It was my first, and hopefully not my last, loon of the trip. Earlier that day the caretaker on Stratton Mountain had warned us about potential torrential rains that night. The weather did not disappoint. Shadow had some camp soap and Filadelfia and I decided to take a shower in the rain. It started coming down, we lathered up, and then the rain let up. We waited a couple of minutes and then walked over to the nearby stream to rinse off. Then it started raining heavily again.
One thing Shadow and I had been talking about since the Indiana Jones movie was seeing the new Batman movie when it came out. We needed to resupply in Manchester Center, and that ended up being a perfect opportunity. We started our laundry, got some lunch and then saw Batman. It was everything we had hoped for and more. We then bought more groceries and went back out on trail. That night we met back up with Greenwood who joined us the next day. We finished at a shelter next to a stream with good bathing opportunities. We went in and Shadow, Filadelfia and I all stripped down, while Greenwood kept his clothes. We decided to call ourselves Aggressive Male Nudity, or Amen for short. I think we scarred Greenwood for life and he has not hiked with us since.
Then the rains started during the day. After hiking for most of the day in the rain we called ahead to the Twelve Tribes and had them pick us up so we could dry off. Our first day of slack packing it rained the whole time and the trail was soaked. At times the water was above my ankles in the middle of the trail. We were very happy to get back to the hostel than night. The second day of slack packing was sunny and beautiful, but the trail was still wet and our shoes ended up just as muddy and wet. Yesterday started sunny and the trail was mostly dry, but it still rained all night. I was very happy to get into town today and do laundry.
Tomorrow we will probably head out with Rocko who has now returned to the trail, but one of the packages I sent from NYC did not yet arrive so I need to figure out what to do about that first. Later this week we get into the White Mountains and the rocks and views. We are now back in the realm of long steep climbs. It should be fun.