Date: 2017-06-14
From: Monson

To: Monson
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Shaman is exactly the kind of hiker I expected to find on the AT.With a flowing ginger beard, wooden staffs as trekking poles, an enormous external frame pack, the kind of heavy insulated coat one would expect to find in an Alaskan truckers' bar, and boots named, respectively, "Spite" and "Stubbornness", he's like a relic from a bygone age.But he's 29, he's near the front of the pack of nobo hikers and his perpetual huge smile and endless series of improbable but hilarious anecdotes shows he's having the time of his life.It's encounters like these that explain why people reserve a special affection for the AT, despite the existence of more beautiful and less physically taxing trails elsewhere.Pepa, another of the volunteers helping Scout and Frodo shepherd 900 hikers onto the PCT this year, had done the AT and the PCT, and had been due to begin the CDT. He likened comparing each trail's merits to comparing one's children, and took particular umbrage when I then suggested the AT was the red-headed stepchild of long distance American trails.However we agreed on the notion that the AT was the most social of the trails, and today bore that out.It took a matter of moments to turn my nominal plan to hike out this afternoon into a full zero day in Monson. Part of that was extra recovery time after the 100 mile wilderness but I also faced a daunting number of jobs I had to complete, including updating this journal but also assessing for my father whether the professional editor he'd hired to go over his memoirs has done an adequate job.In between all these I also had time to hang out with hikers both known and, like Shaman, new to me.Every hour or two through the day another familiar face would turn up at Shaw's hiker hostel.I was particular happy to see our White House Landing companions Katbird and Trail, and I joked about how they'd clearly found their trail legs. However it turned out they'd accepted the offer of a lift from a local they met about 30 miles from the end of the wilderness and were talking about quitting. Katbird was loving the hiking life but Trail admitted he "wasn't quite feeling it".In a way I wasn't surprised. Starting at Katahdin and then doing the trail's longest wilderness section in the most difficult and physically arduous state was a really tough start to any hike. If I'd suspected the next five months were going to be exactly like the last week, I might have been tempted to quit as well.I suggested instead they head to easier hiking somewhere on the AT out of New England before opting to return home to Florida. I hope they find their motivation once more because they'd mostly done everything right and seemed to have been really enjoying themselves out here.Shaw's is run by the daughter and son in law of Ole Man, who ran the equivalent lodge in Millinocket. But Poet and Hippy Chick, who'd hiked the AT, have found the way to add that mysterious extra something that turns a good hostel into a great one.It's been really nice to wrap myself in the hiking community once more after a couple of days of mostly hiking and camping alone. Without the community, this hike would be an absolutely different -- and far less enjoyable -- experience.AT fact of the day: Shaman is living proof that you can break virtually every rule of the prevailing ultralightweight ethos and still have a fun and successful thru hike.