Monson

Thirteen days after I summited Katahdin, I walked out of the wilderness to the road leading to Monson. A guide I had met with a couple on Barren Mountain pulled in to the parking lot and offered me a ride into Monson.

The trail provides!

He dropped me of at Shaws, a well known hostel featuring a famous all you can eat breakfast. I took my first shower since Millinocket, washed my clothes, had a big dinner in town,  and slept in a real bed.

The parts for my pole had arrived, so I was able to make that repair, and abandon the stick I had fashioned to hold up my tent  I had a food box waiting for me there, which replenished a lot of hard to find items, and precluded the need to go into Greenville for resupply. I did pick up a few things both from Shaws and from the gas station/convenience store.

My food bag was nearly as heavy as when I left Baxter!

Walking on roots and rocks for 100 miles had taken it's toll on my feet. My right foot was especially sore, and my right knee felt a bit inflamed. I decided to take a zero there and spend some quality time with bags of ice.

That second night, I was having dinner with a group of hikers when I noticed one of them was wearing a watch like the one I had lost back at Cooper Brook Falls. I mentioned it and he allowed he had found it there and gave it back to me.  I bought his breakfast at Shaws the next morning.

The trail provides!

On the 19th, I packed up, got a ride back to the trail, pushed 12 miles, forded the Piscatsquis River, and stealth camped on the southern bank...