I had gone to sleep the only one at the lake, but in the morning I found Candyman had made it to the shelter. He liked to hike later into the evening than I did. We were both headed into Monson today.
The trail was very level as it followed the Piscataquis River. There were three places where fording the tributaries was required. Luckily there was not a lot of rainfall recently so the levels were low and safe enough.
Hiking went by fast, but it was a warm, still day making the hours after noon into sweaty hiking. At a gravel road crossing I passed Leaf who was hanging out and taking a break. Sounds like he is headed northbound now.
When I reached the highway I called Shaw's Hiker Hostel and they sent a shuttle to come get me. As I arrived I saw K-Won and HOP who had also arrived today.
I heard Chia had finished his AT through hike today and was shuttling back from Katahdin to Shaw's for the night. It was great to congratulate him in person. He is going to finish the CDT after a few days off at home.
Also met some others, mostly SOBO's, including Dunk, Sunshine, Sugar Wolf, and Daddy Long Legs.
I quickly made work of the town chores. I visited the AT Visitor's Center and talked to Wendy who knew everything there was to know about the 100 Mile Wilderness and Baxter State Park. She helped me figure out a plan for camping in Baxter which gets pretty booked up during the summer. Then I picked up my mail from the post office and an ice cream cone on the way back.
The rest of the afternoon was catching up on phone calls, cleaning up, and sorting out resupply. For dinner I finally had some fresh greens with a heaping pile of pasta. It's funny what you end up missing.
I perused "Poet's Gear Emporium" at the hostel. It is an incredibly well stocked gear and resupply shop with lots of lightweight hiking gear you normally don't see in stores (it would have to be special ordered). Cool stuff, but with less than week left it didn't make sense for me to drop a lot of money on new gear. The SOBO's were definitely getting set up for success though.
Tomorrow will be a zero so I can synchronize my schedule with my partner, who is coming to meet me at Katahdin in just a few days.