Date: 2008-08-10
From: Campsite West Branch Piscataquis River ME

To: ShawÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs ÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Monson ME
Miles today: 12.1

Day 175 Sunday August 10 ¢ Shaw¢s ¢ Monson ME - Miles Today: 12.1 Total Miles: 2061.7This morning when we got up a little after 5:00, looked at the boulder in the stream and determined that the water had not gone down much at all. It was a very easy decision ¢ we needed to take the detour into Monson via the jeep road, logging road and paved road. The jeep road had obviously not been used for many years and would have been easy to overlook if we weren¢t searching for it. The logging road was well maintained and we made great time on it. We got to the paved road about 9:00 and crossed over the river that had stopped us upstream, via a bridge. We now had two choices. We could either continue on this road for 4 miles straight into Monson, or we could take a left onto Shirley-Blanchard Road and catch the AT about a mile up the road and walk 6 more miles into Monson. Hmmm, 4 miles via a road or 7 miles with lots of most likely muddy boggy trails. We headed up the hill, taking the road straight into Monson. Half way up the hill, Grasshopper stopped dead in her tracks. Brakeman said,"You¢re struggling with the decision of not taking the trail, aren't you?" Sure enough, back down the hill we headed, taking Shirley-Blanchard Road to the AT and back into the woods. As we walked up the road, we saw the cutest, smallest white building that probably ever housed a Town Office in modern day history. It came complete with an even cuter and smaller structure housing the outhouse. They were so unique we stopped to take pictures! Way to go town of Blanchard Plantation!Further up the road, there was an old pair of hiking shoes hanging from the phone line, where the trail intersected with the road. We chuckled when we saw them. We were really dreading 6 miles of horrible trail, but it turned out to be not a bad trail at all. Not too soupy, though of course, the muddiest part came right at the very end when we were trying to keep clean so we would look decent for our hitch. It was about 11:30 when arrived at ME Rte 15 for our hitch into Monson. Just before the road, hanging in a tree was a Trail Magic bag with apples, bananas and a Mountain Dew. We helped ourselves to the Mountain Dew, an apple and a banana and enjoyed eating our treats while we tried to secure a hitch into town. We scored a hitch in less than 10 minutes from a young man, who although he looked like Andre Agassi, was actually the foster son of the people who run Shaw's Boarding House. He even joked that Steffi was doing fine, as were the kids. He delivered us right to Shaw's and we were able to get a private room.Once we got our stuff dumped in our room, we set out to talk to other hikers about the conditions of the 100 Mile Wilderness. We've not seen any southbounders in 2 days and we¢re concerned that it means they are stuck behind impassable rivers in the 100 Mile Wilderness. We are leery of heading out until we see a sobo. 5 Bags was already at Shaw¢s when we arrived as he took the road rather than the trail into town. He's concerned that he is running out of time to complete his hike, as his flight back to school is on August 19th. Earlier in his trip he lost numerous days fighting Giardia. It was so bad he was in ICU for a few days. He said he was just unlucky as he was always filtering his water ¢by the book¢. Bummer. Sitting by the riverbank for 40 hours has cost him more precious days. His parents are coming tomorrow and they will discuss the options together. Being stranded along the swollen river with him has created a special bond between us. We lent him our cell phone a few times today, as after his unintentional swim in the river, his phone is no longer functional. We also shared our leftover dinner items with him (mac & cheese and hotdogs). It was funny when he said he did not know how to use a microwave to heat his hotdog! Then he explained he was raised without modern conveniences such as TV, microwave and clothes dryer. Sounds wonderful to us (and there¢s no sarcasm in that statement).We continued to talk to all the hikers to try to determine what to do. We finally decided to hold off on any decision until tomorrow, when we hoped to get more info from others and see an updated weather report. Two guy section hikers, in their late 40s, arrived back to Shaw¢s after aborting their attempt through the 100 Mile Wilderness.   They spoke of horribly frightening stream crossings, one of which they crossed on a log, scooting across it on their butts. When they arrived at the Big Wilson Stream, they tried to take the detour per the guidebook, but ended up bushwhacking for hours before they could get to a road and abort their trip. The one guy¢s sister aborted the hike the day before as she was not able to keep up and trail conditions were poor. As she turned back, solo, she made the decision to leave her pack alongside the trail and recross the Little Wilson Stream without it; she did not have the confidence to cross it with her pack. Scary, as she still had to backtrack to the point of getting to Monson. Luckily she found some ATV¢ers on a woods road who took her out. I don¢t think that evacuation plan was the safest or wisest. The one advantage of folks aborting their trip is that they dump all their food in the hiker box. We scored big, including numerous tasty Cliff bars. 5 Bags did the honors of splitting the goods between us. We also picked up lots of Ramon noodles and will use them for our dinners in the 100 Mile Wilderness, for the first time on our trip. We¢ve always been leery of how filling they are, but we decided to give them a try, after seeing the limited selection of extremely high priced food in the grocery store.   A box of Cheese Nips cost $4 in the little store! I think back home they are perhaps $2.50.We spent the afternoon studying the official AT maps to see if we could use logging roads to get past the rivers in the first part of the 100 Mile Wilderness, but the logging roads will only get us past half of them and then we would most likely be stuck. And of course given that the forecast is for rain for the foreseeable future, we do not know how long it may take to make the rivers crossable.We enjoyed just sitting around the hostel and watching the Olympics on TV. We even had a TV in our room! We were up until midnight watching the awesome men's 4 x 100 free relay where the Americans touched out the trash-talking French team by .08 seconds, securing in the process a gold medal for Michael Phelps. Before the event, Rowdy Gaines kept saying, ¢I¢ve worked the splits on paper many, many times and every time I come up with the French winning.¢   That was a truly awesome event. It was worth staying up for! It was a while before our hearts and minds quieted down so we could fall asleep. U - S ¢ A¢¦ U ¢ S ¢ A¢¦.