Date: 2010-09-24
From: US 201

To: ME Rte. 15
Miles today: 0.0

Had a wonderful room in the main lodge building at Northern Outdoors.   I'm such a lightweight drinker that the six 4-ounce glasses of microbrew samplers were plenty enough for a buzz. Had my first lobster roll, a Maine staple, and it was very good. Wild Poodle went in the hot tub but because it was in full view of the restaurant and I had absolutely no clothes that weren't see-through when wet, I chose a luxurious hot bath in the privacy of my room.Northern Outdoors has coin laundry facilities. While I was waiting for my clothes to wash and dry, I hung out with some weekend ATV-ers. Just like the bikers we talked to on the Mount Washington Auto Road, ATV-ers are a "tribe" with that same welcoming attitude and openness. In the sober light of day this morning, Wild Poodle and I discussed the hike plan. If the plan was ambitious before, it was approaching insane now with day after day of big miles and no rest. Neither of us wanted to do a forced march to Katahdin even though we knew we could if we had to. We very much wanted to have time in Monson, the next and last trail town before entering the 100-mile Wilderness but the only way we could stay on our timetable would be to do the miles and then a quick in and out up in Monson. Though both Poodle and I had skipped a big chunk of trail further south (Pennsylvania), we agonized over skipping a portion up here. But in the end, we decided to do exactly that.So shuttle arrangements were made and we did a 36.6 mile "yellow blaze" and were driven up to Monson. One thing that ameliorated our guilt over skipping this portion was the weather which included cold temperatures and spitting drizzle that went on all day. Not a nice day to be out hiking. There's two hostels in Monson, Shaw's and Lake Shore House. Both are very nice and conveniently located right in town. Lake Shore seems to draw a more boisterous crowd with Shaw's being a bit quieter. We stayed in the bunkhouse at Shaw's after picking up our mail drops at the post office. With the unused food from our Caratunk mail drop, we have way too much food to carry even though we're going to need 8-9 day's worth to get us through the Wilderness.   Neither one of us want to carry 15 pounds of food plus extra cooking fuel but our options are limited. We took a careful look at our guidebooks and are going to do a slackpack tomorrow so we can shave one day and 14+ miles off the Wilderness trek. And we're going to carry 6 days of food as we can get a resupply at White House Landing which is about 70 miles into the WildernessWent to the combination hardware/general store in the evening where the locals gather on Friday nights for a blue grass/country music jam. There were guitars, a banjo, fiddle, dulcimer and singing with each of about 10 musicians taking a turn leading a song.   The onlookers sat on chairs in the aisles between the oil filters and breakfast cereal. It was delightful with lots of tapping feet and big smiles. The store was open for business so while all this was going on, someone came in to purchase plumbing supplies and of course the hikers were buying all kinds of snacks and ice cream.   A quite elderly lady, all of about 4'8" tall, came in all smiles with a twinkle in her eye, wearing white gloves and tapping her cane in time to the music. Her sheer enjoyment actually brought a tear to my eye as I sat there and breathed in the almost palpable sense of love and small town community that permeated the room. Wild Poodle and I stayed for almost two hours and then walked to the Lake Shore House for dinner. If we thought it quirky that the hardware/general store hosted a music jam, Monson definitely tickled our funny bones when we had to walk through a coin laundromat and down a hallway past the kitchen to get to the restaurant and bar in the back of the building. I LOVE Monson!! There were lots of locals and hikers, and we had a great dinner there.