Date: 2023-09-21
From: Little Swift River Pond

To: Piazza Rock Lean-to
Miles today: 6.6

We got vortexed but managed to escape and HERO out of town. I woke up to the SUN!!! (I missed her, she was gone for so long. Truly I am revitalized by her raysl and all the misery of the past week or so immediately vanished from my memory) and ran to the lake to watch it rise, and then headed skipping off to town. When I got down there was a thru hiker who already finished his 2023 thru and was doing trail magic - he made us grilled cheese which was delicious. Ra and Mando had left my block of Cabot cheese in the trail magic cooler (they had lovingly carried it from the Cabin to here) and I took a couple of hearty bites savoring in their thoughtfulness. We hitched a ride (surprisingly I really enjoy hitching) into Rangely, which was felt like the trail towns of Georgia. We stopped by the outfitter which unfortunately didn¢t have the Topos I needed as my Hokas had massive rips on the side due to all the side stepping and rocks - for the record Hokas are GARBAGE and would not recommend them to anyone on a thru because Bread and Butter who got the exact same shoes the exact same day as me (entering Moosilac) had the EXACT SAME RIPS AS ME. Topos for life. They are bullet proof and never had ANY rips/structural damage except for wearing down tread in any of my other pairs and I now acknowledge it was insane to switch shoe brands this late in trail. At least the outfitter let us charge our stuff and dry out our things while we did other town errands (plus had free coffee and a cool hammock chair).We stopped by the town's third wave coffee shop where I had a delicious decaf iced oat latte with hazelnut and we sat outside soaking up the sun for a bit appreciating being out of that HELLISH ORDEAL (Wildcats + Southern Maine are hell), walked past a farmer¢s market, and then went to the laundromat to do laundry where we saw the Denim Daddies (legendary tram name).I ended up getting lunch with them and the Choir, and I ordered Buffalo chicken tenders and fish and chips and demolished both. After this it was back to the the laundromat to grab the clothes which had been dried for a while (oops), and hitched to the supermarket to resupply. It was super easy hitching in this town and everyone was super friendly, felt like being in Georgia again. We all sat outside sorting through and repackaging stuff, and Ra and Mando pulled up in a car as they got a hitch and Alligator and Ladybug pulled up in Blue¢s car as he had been waiting for them! When done Rabbit and I walked to the community center to shower and commiserated as we realized we officially had The Sniffles and that we were sick from hiking in the rain and freezing mud and bog for weeks (that nearo of doom!! *shakes fists*). After this we were heroically were able to escape the vortex of town (like I said the Whites changed me), instead of tenting in town we hitched out back to the trailhead (the guy who gave us a ride said Maine was the easiest state to hitch in) where we ran back into Colossus and then we hiked the 1.7 miles to the shelter, set up camp, listened to the new classic in the making ¢Oh Naur¢ on repeat, and passed out in our tents.