Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Monson, into the 100 mile wilderness.

Today is a beautiful day. We started out to find a deli for breakfast, knowing there must be one in Monson we drove up. We ended up eating in the General Store. It brought back so many memories.

The General store caters to just about ever hiker that makes it this far on the trail. This is the jumping off place for the 100 mile wilderness. Up until now on the trail the hikers could figure on restocking their supplies every 30-40 miles. Now they face a hundred miles of no supply points. As I sat there I remembered my Uncle Irving's general store in Laurens, SC. Do you remember charging stuff as ayoungster, or telling the store owner to 'put it on the books'. the Store owners sold on the credit, and the bill were religiously paid on pay day.

The store had several hikers stocking up. The Store owner had just finished showing them the cash register he used for years. I asked the guys. Tinman & Stretch to stand there. 'Cricket' was shopping I asked her to stand so I could get theem all in one picture.

This was our cook, I had a deli sandwich and Sherry got a plate. It was delicious.

Here is a local customer, guess what? He asked the owner to 'put it on the book'. remember the candy jars? I love this!!! We asked the hikers if they needed a ride, they wern't ready to head to the trail so Sherry and I headed out of town.
We decided to hike an hour South to Doutry lake. It was a great hike. Sherry was ahead of me and I spotted an old building site.

It doesn't show up here, except the old stove pipe, but there are disentegrated boards and roofing indicating at one time it was a building. It is beside a nice book. I imagined it was a trapper or loggers shack at one time. My imagination runs wild.

Here is the small brook flowing beside the old home site.

On to the Pond. the only way you see these lakes is walk. The area is prestine. I saw one canadian goose, he went under and I never saw where he came up.

We sat on the bank and just talked and relaxed awhile. I told Sherry about the old shack site and we stopped on the way back out.

As we sat there i noticed these orange mushrooms. Not bothering anyone.

And these bright red ones.
Ah,ha, 'Tortoise' and 'Noah' her dog caught up with us. she is hiking solo with Noah, his real name by the way. She is 'slack packing' as it is called when you do not carry your normal 'stuff'. she says Noah usually carries ten pounds in his saddle packs. He was happily walking light today. I love the Golden retrievers, they will love you to death.

As we talked, lo and beholed another OLD couple came up. They were also slack packing. this is 'Packman' and 'Detour'. This couple years have been hiking the trail 17 years on their vacations. They still have 700 miles to go. They all headed on down the trail ahead of us.

I told Sherry, do you notice when folks pass us they leave us in the dust? BUT this trail has about a quarter mile of BOGS, we caught with them soon. Above is my girl. She has moved off the trail, which here is solid rock, She is walking in the reindeer moss, it looks like snow. She loves the feel of carpet.
I guess the Monson area is known for it's slate. Notice here is pieces of slate used as we use gravel. We headed back to the Monson area figuring the guys we metthat morning had already hit the trail, NO, there they were on the road looking for a ride. We loaded Tinman and Stretch into the Van and headed back to the trail. SAid good by to them and wished them luck on the wilderness trip. Back into town. Hey is that 'Cricket?' Yep, There she is in front of the General store.

We loaded her in the van and headed back out to the trail head. You have to hand it to these guys and gals who have hiked this far when 3/4 of the hikers have dropped out. Cricket is a cute little girl, she is hiking solo. Amazing, the youth today.

This is 'Cricket' suited up and headed out into the wilderness. We wished her luck, she thanked us for the ride and we headed back into Monson. It makes you feel good to help these kids accomplish their dream.

I wanted to stop at a road side veggie standwe saw earlier. So we did. It happened to be beside the house I wanted to photograph. I always wonder about abandoned houses. Why? Who? etc. This was at one time a proud farm home I am sure. We only bought squash and a Cucumber.
Thanks for coming this way.
Nite Shipslog
PS:
War does not Determine who is right, war determines who is Left.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The advantage of exercising every dayis so when you die, they'll say,
'Well, he looks good doesn't he.'

9 comments:

shirl72 said...

I am enjoying seeing all the hikers that you and
Sherry load up and take them to the trail or into town to get supplies. That must be fun
meeting so many different people. You have made
a career out of that and I know these hikers
really appreciate your generosity.

Going to Pete's Funeral tonight. Burial private tomorrow. I know there will be a crowd.
I will give Linda your love and prayers.

Shirl

Paula said...

That abandon house is so big or it looks that way in the picture. Don't you know it has a story to tell?

Sheila Y said...

I am chicken, I would be afraid to hike by myself. I'm sorry the veggie stand didn't have any toma....never mind...ha. Stay safe, Sheila

Lucy said...

I just can not imagine the experiences you have had. The pictures are great and I love tagging along the easy way. Through your words and pictures.

robert said...

Stunning.

Anonymous said...

Hi Jack and Sherry! Nice photos, and nice people you always meet. I love that red mushroom!

Woody said...

Still enoying your commentary of the AT!!!!!
Enjoying the pictures, you 2 take care!!!
Hard to believe it's almost "Labor Day"!!!!!

betty said...

how come you got a deli sandwich and Sherry just got a plate? that doesn't seem quite right :)

as always, gorgeous pictures! I loved reading about the store before the 100-mile wilderness. was their prices reasonable? you would wonder if they tried to "gouge" the prices since they were the last store for 100 miles.

betty

mp said...

Hi Jack and Sherry, this is Cricket! I just found the card you gave me in Monson, so I decided to check out your blog. You two sure have been on some adventures! Great picture of Detour and Packman. I ran into them a couple of times on the trail. They gave Stretch, Tin Man, and me some extra food one morning! Nice pictures from the trail as well. I loved all the lakes up in Maine - it was certainly a treat to go swimming at the end of a long day hiking. And the general store in Monson, some of the nicest folks on the trail.

Once again, thanks for the ride to the trail head back in August, it was a pleasure meeting you.

-cricket