I broke camp and headed out to Maine Highway 15. Luckily a suburban from Shaw’s Hiker Hostel saw me and stopped to pick me up. Poet, who owns Shaw’s with his wife, Hippie Chic, was driving the car. We chatted on the way and he told me they are from Florida and spend their winters in Micanopy, not far from my home town, Gainesville.
Shaw’s was a great place and seemed very well run. Poet had a good gear shop as well as full food resupply. The weather was nice so I decided to hammock camp instead of taking a bunk. After I got set up, I took a shower and did my laundry. A little while later Pigweed, Troop Leader, and Goldie showed up. And even later The Kids arrived. The gang was all here.
We hung around, rested, and resupplied from the small grocery in town and from Shaw’s own shop. We went to dinner at the Lakeshore Pub and sat overlooking the lake.
Monson is also the home of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy info center. I stopped in and picked up my thru hiker registration tag.
Goldie was looking at the AT map in the dining room. He already finished part of the trail northbound (NOBO). I said, “point to where you’re heading to now.” As he did it, we both said, “wow, there’s a lot left!” It was eye opening to consider these “flip floppers” who have finished almost 800 miles still have only finished a third of the trail.
And for some reason Kid 2 (Emily) and I compared hands. Her entire hand was barely bigger than my palm. We all got a good laugh out of that.
