Hitching From Canadian Border Across Maine to Burlington

After being turned down at the Canadian border we were set to hitch west through Maine towards Burlington, eventually on towards California.

We regrouped and had our thumbs back to the road, quickly catching a ride out of town to the next junction where we waited for the next ride to come along. The rain came first, dropping buckets on us in a hurry, but that's when Dale picked us up.

Dale was a nice older guy who lived in a house by a nearby lake, he didn't hesitate to offer up the spare room to us for the night. After the unexpected Canada let down and the generally wet set of days we were both happy to be able to take a load off for the night, Dale was quick to offer us beers and make us feel comfortable.

The morning turned into a long one as we waited for the rain to die down, but eventually Dale got us back on the road. My backpack was now significantly heavier, he'd offloaded a ton of liquor and food that he wasn't getting around to, we gladly accepted this as well.

Although we'd left in a break in the rain it started right back up, no matter though, we quickly got a ride and were moving right along. Then a ride came from a guy going on a pot run, then another ride to the edge of Mexico, Maine. From there we got picked up by a woman who thought we may be hiking the Appalachian Trail, she was a masseuse for such hikers.

By the time she dropped us off we were beginning to think about camping, walking down the road and ready to run into the woods if we found a good spot. A ride came first though, a guy named Chris who lived in the next town. He drove us on past his house down the road a ways aiding us in our search for a campsite. A few miles up it dawned on him that he had a little popup trailer in his driveway, he offered it up to us and of course we accepted.

We'd been having really good luck with this sort of thing, this would be the fourth night in a row where someone took us in for the night or in one case shared their campsite with us.

We got setup in the trailer and he then invited us inside the house where his wife heated us up some food, we spent the night chatting with them and his mother who arrived from next door as well. The morning came with the same sort of hospitality, showers and breakfast to go with more conversation before his wife gave us a ride to the next town where she ran a salon for work.

Back on the road from there we got a ride in a big pickup truck, the guy dropped us off and then came right back to pick us up again to take us a bit further. Next we got a ride from a woman who had two giant Newfoundland dogs that I sat next to in the back of her minivan, beautiful dogs.

Next came a ride from a girl who looped back to get us after passing us first, she dropped us off right by New Hampshire, we walked over a bridge into the new state, into the farmland. A reporter picked us up there, she was on her way to a courthouse in Saint Johnsbury. We walked through that town a bit until getting another ride a little ways, then a really short ride from an older man further still, now into the woods.

John picked us up next, a guy we discovered knew some of Marilyn's friends back in Indiana. We were getting along really well, next thing we knew he'd picked up some local beers and was taking us to his house to show us the view there.

He had a great house up on the hill, once there we climbed up on his four wheeler and he buzzed up the hillside along his property getting to even higher ground for an even better view. Afterwards he went out of his way to drive us to Waterbury and drop us off directly at a beer bar we'd mentioned. We thanked him and headed in, we'd heard it was the place to go if we wanted to try Heady Topper, a well known IPA in the beer world.

Tasty tasty and back on our way, walking to the road to keep on moving. We scored a ride fairly quickly straight into Burlington, our goal for that day. We hadn't managed to find anyone to stay the night with, but some Couchsurfers Marilyn had gotten in touch with tipped us off to a community feed that we'd gotten to just in time for a meal. They were there too, and although they couldn't put us up for the night they were able to point us to a place we could camp.

Marilyn and I walked around the city for a bit, but soon followed their directions down to the water where we eventually came upon a beachy patch just in time for a beautiful orange golden sunset to pitch our tent to.

It was a beautiful night and a matching morning. It wasn't Canada, but it was our new route and had proven to be a nice path so far. Michigan was next on our minds, but there'd be some welcomed stops on the road to get there.

June 11, 2013 to June 14, 2013

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