Date: 2004-08-10
From: Horseshoe Canyon Lean-to

To: Monson, ME (Shaw's hostel)
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: few clouds

Started at: Horseshoe Canyon Lean-toEnded at: Monson, ME (hostel)Miles: 9A beautiful day, but another hard one too. We did 9 miles into Monson so we could stay at the legendary Shaw's Hostel. Mountain Man and Camel went ahead - like usual - and we caught up with them at the Piscataquis [pis-kuh-TAK-wis] river, where they had been dilly-dallying, playing in the water for quite a while. It was a gorgeous, cool, blue sky day, and you really couldn't blame them a bit for taking off their shoes and soaking in the cool, clear water. They were skipping stones - giant ones - across the river, soon to be our first real ford in Maine.After a break by water's edge, we decided to make our way across. We took off our shoes and socks and put on our crocs, the plastic camp shoes that double as water shoes. The water was not even two feet deep - about knee high - so it was easy enough. I'm sitting on the bank of the river on the other side when Heather comes marching across. She gets all the way to the other side and is climbing up the bank when she lets out a "Yahoo" because she had made it across her first ford without falling in. A split second later I see her body disappear behind the bank, as she falls face first in the mud...oooops. We all got a good belly laugh at Heather's latest display of uber coordination. She had a few scrapes and a bruised ego, but no real damage.Later on we ran into a couple really nice guys from Brooklyn, NY that went out of their way to stop and talk to us. They spoke in thick New York accents, and one was wearing a NY Yankees baseball cap. They said they had been hiking the hundred mile wilderness for 19 days. 19 days??!!! We thought they were kidding when they told us this. You see, that would be sort of like saying you were going to the corner store real quick to pick up a pint of ice cream, but you didn't make it back for 5 days. I mean, how would you even carry that many days' food? When we asked them about this one said, "Yeah man, we had to carry FIFTEEN whole pounds of food!" Like that was a lot of food. 15 pounds? That would barely last us 5 days! But wait it gets better. Then they told us that they had spent the last 21 days - that's right, 21 DAYS - at Shaw's hostel resting up because they didn't want to "rush the hike". 21 days at a hostel...that must be some kind of record. So, at this point they've been on the trail almost two months and have only hiked 100 miles. Far out! They are doing the trail right...in no hurry and enjoying every step. So we made it to the road crossing for Monson and found Mountain Man waiting for a ride. He'd been there a while so we weren't encouraged. But after only fifteen minutes or so, a blue pickup truck stopped for us. On the way into town, sitting there in the bed of the truck, we realized that this might be our last hitchhike on the trail. I'm not sure why, but I'm a bit sad about that.We made it to Shaw's hostel and ran into Mr. Shaw outside. He is quite an interesting man with a lot of stories to tell. He's been open for over twenty years; his was the first hostel on the AT. He and his wife are a two-person team. Mr. Shaw picks up hikers and brings them to the hostel; Mrs. Shaw feeds them like there's no tomorrow. We have a heckuva all you can eat breakfast to look forward to.Since it was a short day we made it into town relatively early. We whiled away the sunny afternoon with Leki, Camel and Mt. Man in front of the only convenience store in town, Ben and Jerry's in hand, loitering at the picinic table, and just thinking how lucky - how really and truly lucky we are - to be out here, on this adventure. Camera 1 & Camera 2Heather & Arwenvaughan@pocketmail.comhttp://www.hobbithole.net