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.

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The advantage of exercising every dayis so when you die, they'll say,

'Well, he looks good doesn't he.'