Appalachian Trail (day 92) - Middle Mountain to Shaw's Hiker Hostel / mile 2081

Another early start in order to push to the last town stop on the AT - Monson, Maine.

My initial plan was to stop before Monson and have a nero day there tomorrow, but a prospect of a shower, comfortable bed and of course town food was too good to pass on, especially as it was the last chance to have it.

[Snail and myself with his massive food ressuply for Hundred Mile Wilderness]

The theme of the day were river crossings, three to be precise. After climbing over Maxi Bald Mountain with great views of the surrounding area, the flat, muddy trail was going through the Bald Mountain Pond, Bald Mountain Stream and Piscataquis River. Since there was not much rain for the past couple of days all of the crossings were safe with the riverbed clearly visible and water at the knee level with slow to medium current. It still meant that my feet were wet for the entire day but it was a price I was willing to pay for very little elevation gain along the way.

I've arrived at the Shaw's Hiker Hostel at 4 PM just in time to meet the man, the legend - Snail himself! He stayed true to his "Snails stay on trail" saying and was only here to resupply and charge up his phone and since it was the last town on the AT he managed to stay on trail the entire time, without a single night at the hostel which to be honest was quite impressive. Snail's plan was to finish in few days, have a week or two off and start his southbound adventure on the AT, where he would allow himself to stay in the hostels, Shaw's being on top of the list.

We had a beer together, talked about the final resupply and how ridiculously and unnecessary hard the last 300 miles were, then I gave him a final fist bump and he jumped on the shuttle back to the trail.

Tum Tum was also doing great, he was currently two days ahead of me and he also stayed here few days ago. Shaw's had everything a thru hiker could ask for, an outfitters, great "eat in" and "take away" food selection, shuttles, hiker box, they could even do food drops in the Hundred Mile Wilderness on request. Hostel was run by two former thru hikers Poet and Hippie Chic.

I took a shower, did the laundry and bought a delicious chicken salad in the general store down the road, then I sat in the common area and socialized with Southbounders which wanted to hear everything that was in store for them in the next 2000+ miles on the Appalachian Trail and I did my best to answer their questions.

I decided that tomorrow will be my last zero day before starting the final stretch of the trail. The leftover fireworks from yesterday's 4th of July celebrations were blasting all over the place and I finally felt that my big wilderness adventure is coming to an end.