Date: 2023-09-30
From: Monson ME

To: Monson ME
Miles today: 0.0

Woke up insanely groggy as I was pulled from the depths of NyQuil sleep for breakfast of eggs, potatoes, bacon, and pancakes. The bacon was the only yum part (even though I have been broken by trail I am still picky about town food) and I staggered off afterwards back to the room to look at the food I had left in my bear can. This was of course ramen and ramen and ramen and ramen and instant mashed potatoes, and I wanted NONE OF IT. No longer shall I be terrorized by Gatorade ramen!I walked over to the gear shop (honestly what I was most excited for in Monson) and sleepily resupplied for the last 6 days - which I was determined to go out with a bang culinarily (working with what was left as it was end of season and all the good Peak Refuel flavors were gone aka dozens of strawberry granola packets - for reference no one wants the strawberry granola. Excitingly they had a new brand I had never seen before: Heather¢s Choice, which was very calorie dense for its small size, and I grabbed some good2gos (alas I had to come crawling back to it but I have spent SO MUCH of trail decrying it for tasting terrible) mushroom risotto and Thai curry, Peak Refuel breakfast scramble and chili mac just to have something in case everything else sucked, Bobo¢s, Greenbelly which was a fancy meal replacement bar brand, some M&Ms for moral support, the energy stroopwafels, turkey jerky sticks, Luna bars nutz over chocolate flavor, oatmeal raisin Cliff bars¢¦ After this extravagant shopping spree I stored my shopping bag by the register, and to come back later when I was actually awake to review what I grabbed. I went back to the room, and vegged for a hot second before realizing it was 8:22 and Crypt was taking the 8:30 shuttle so I ran down and hung out with her. It turns out the 8:30 shuttle left at 8:15?? And they weren¢t running another one until 12 so she hitched out with Papa Falcon / Magic Dad. Given there were so many people I knew there from various points in trail, there was a lot of socialization, photo taking, and signing of packs - felt like graduation or end of camp. For lunch I got BBQ which was pretty good! Better than the BBQ I got int the south anyways (HOT TAKE). I got a half rack of baby back ribs, corn bread, and carrot cake and read The World According to Garp which someone had left at Shaw's. After this was ice cream and I lurked by the general store to use their wifi to watch the latest JJK. Afterwards I went back and finalized my food resupply and sat with Rabbit while he did his. We got to witness Jersey Shore reuniting with Magic which meant a lot of tears were shed. It was amazing to catch up with Jersey, I haven¢t seen her since the Glasgow Stanimals!!!! THROWBACK.It was strange seeing all these faces from the first part of the trail, it was kind of like the end of a show and the early season characters coming back. Everyone was lured by the good weather window to the hostel at world¢s end (my mental nickname for it as it was at the end of trail) I guess. It was the first time I saw a lot of hikers I knew from the first part of trail in a WHILE, and there was a lot to catch up on. The Dirty Bubble also rolled in at this point. Lots of socializing! I had Poet look at my tent zipper which he couldn't fix, so I wrote an email to Gossamer Gear asking for a repair, and then went back outside to play cards with Alligator, Rabbit, and Bird while a guy named Turtle was doing grill trail magic of BURGERS so that was a nice dinner.