August 21, 2012

Start: Lyme-Dorchester Rd., Lyme, NH

Since we love this hotel so much (the Six South Street Hotel is a beautiful, luxurious hotel that gives hikers a rate of $99 rather than the usual $199 and up rate) and to give Brian another day of hiking without his full pack, we devised a way to do another slack packing day. The end point of the day was a trail head on a remote gravel road and the taxi company was not sure of its location, so we decided to start there and hike south bound for the day. This way, I would be able to give directions to the driver using my phone. The taxi picked us up at 9:30 am and we started our 13.7 mile day at 10:00 am. The first two miles to Grafton Turnpike were relatively flat. We were surrounded by lush, green flora. The NH trail never seems to disappoint with its beauty. Just as we crossed Grafton Turnpike, a man got out of his car and asked us to hold up. Longstride is a local fellow hiker who goes to different trail heads and offers trail magic. He handed us each a cookie bar (graham crackers, chocolate chips, and coconut) that he had baked and wished is well. So nice!!! We started the nearly 1200 foot climb to Holts Ledge. There was a precipitous drop off and unbelievable views of the mountains around us. We continued on and just as we started our descent, we saw a bunch of moose scat. A couple of hundred feet down the trail, I heard a rustle in the woods, looked up and saw something brown run down the hill. It seemed smaller than what you would expect for a moose and didn't have antlers, but I thought I had just spotted a baby moose. I turned to Brian and said "Moose! Moose!" Just then, Brian saw a second one. We started to look up the hill to look for the mother, but didn't see anything. As we walked, we talked about how the animals seemed small and seemed to have bushier hair than a moose, but I was convinced that those were just characteristics of young moose. Brian thought that maybe they were sheep. Of course I made fun of him since sheep are not indigenous to the NH woods. Well, as we walked a little further the animals had stopped to eat and they were... SHEEP! The two brown sheep were grazing on the brush on the side of the trail. We continued to walk toward them and when we were about 5 feet away, they turned and started walking down the trail. They had tags on their ears so I knew they belonged to someone. I wasn't sure what we were going to do with them, but there was a road not too far away so our plan was to get them there and then figure out what to do. We followed the sheep for almost two miles!! They even hiked over the bog bridges!! When we were about 100 feet from the road, I saw a woman and her dog at the trail head. The dog started towards us so I yelled, "There are sheep here!". I didn't want the dog to scare the sheep because we were going to attempt to call the police to see if anyone had reported them missing. The woman replied, "Those are my sheep!" The woman's name is Becky and it turns out that the two sheep, Annabelle and Chocolate Chip, jumped the fence and got out two nights ago!! Becky, her husband, Jeff, and their friend and co-owner of the sheep, Bruce, have been searching for the sheep for days, but figured at this point they must have fallen victim to a bear or a coyote. She was so relieved to see the sheep were alive and healthy! Since I didn't have cell service, Becky rode her bike to a house down the road to use their phone, while Brian and I kept an eye on the sheep and her dog, Prudy. She returned and told us that her husband was on his way. A little while later, Jeff and Bruce arrived. Now the challenge was how to get the sheep to their house. There were six adults now (a friend of Bruce's came to help) so we decided to approach the sheep, who were laying in the brush, from six angles. We started to close in on them and as we got closer, the sheep tried to bolt. Jeff practically dove to grab onto their wool because once you grab them, they are very docile and don't fight. He grabbed them and quickly the five of us helped grab them too. We picked them up (sheep are much lighter than they look!!) and put them in the back of Bruce's van. Layla, Jeff and Becky's 9 year old daughter, was so happy to have her sheep rescued. She kept thanking us. We went back to Jeff and Becky's house and helped get the sheep in their pen (with a higher fence!). We spent about an hour talking to everyone and then Becky offered to drive us back to Hanover. What an adventure!!! How many AT hikers can say they have hiked 2 miles with 2 sheep?!?! We must have been quite the sight... Two hikers herding two sheep down a mountain! It seems that there is always an adventure out here! We had a great day! Not only did Brian's ankle hold up well on bigger ascents and descents, but we also saved two sheep an met an amazing family and made new friends!!!

End: Etna-Hanover Center Road

Peace Be The Journey
~Flicka