Date: 2009-08-23
From: Horseshoe Canyon Lean To

To: Maine Route 15 - Monson
Miles today: 9.0

Today, on my Hiking and Haiti initiative, is Michael G. day. I walked the first mile starting off in his honor. Thanks, Michael for your pledge.Arose about 6:00 AM, and because I knew that John and I would be going into the town of Monson today, I got everything together and got on the Trail by 7:00 AM.The Trail was fairly flat with some little ups and downs. John and I got to the road, Maine Highway 15, about Noon. We hitchhiked and got a ride within five minutes. The people in Maine are so friendly and I have had an easy time getting rides into, or out of, town. We got a ride from a nice couple about my age, from Maine.They took us to 'downtown' Monson, and we walked to the Hostel, Shaw's. Shaws is a longtime fixture and legend on the Trail. It was operated many years by Mr. Shaw and his family and served hikers well. Mr. Shaw died a few years ago and the Hostel was sold to a couple of local ladies, Dawn and Sue, and they are continuing the tradition.We first me Dawn at the Hostel and she insisted that we each get showers before we did anything else. It had something to do with us smelling, she suggested. She installed the two of us (John and I) in a room in a refurbished garage-like structure next to the main house. We got showers and put on some clothes that she had available for hikers (she called it the Hiker Chic collection), and we went to lunch. We had lunch at the local barbecue place, which I had heard about for a couple of hundred miles, called Spring Creek Barbecue. It was good, but I don't think it was as good as Georgia barbecue. John and I had lunch with Ray Jardine, the light-hiking expert and author, that we had met a couple of days ago on the Trail. We had a lively, interesting discussion. Ray Jardine is a most interesting person; this was his Seventh through-hike of the AT, he's also hiked the Continental Divide Trail and Pacific Crest Trail multiple times. He has also rowed across the Atlantic Ocean and skiied from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole.In the afternoon, I went to the local General Store and the local Convenience Store to get food for the 100 Mile Wilderness. This was important as I needed about 8 days supply of food, and enough, but not too much. Neither place had great offerings for hikers (there is no grocery store in town), but I was able to get what I needed.As I was sitting on the porch of the Hostel in the afternoon, I saw a guy get out of a car, who looked familiar. It was my friend, Retread (Don from Alaska), whom I had hiked with last year, off and on, from Georgia to Pennsylvania. He got off the Trail last year and had returned to complete his hike on June 13. He had hiked from where he had left off in New York almost to Monson. I knew that he was back on the Trail, but didn't think that I would see him. He had skipped the section from Stratton to Monson, and gotten a ride with his hiking friend (a section hiker), Chris. He had some boot and health issues, but was doing pretty well.   He and I had a chance to catch up and he, Chris and I went to dinner at the local restaurant, the Lakeshore House. We had a fine time catching up on our lives.I came back from dinner and went to bed about 9:30.Tomorrow: Into the 100 Mile Wilderness.