The Lakeshore House

So we've been at the Lakeshore House for a day now. For us, we're basically living the life here. Yesterday evening we went to the General store to restock, (and had delicious grilled cheese and tomato soup we made here!) and then just chilled in the common room all evening with a bunch of other hikers. Mom, sorry I haven't called yet, I'm charging the phone, because the first time we charged it on the solar charger, it turned itself on in the pack after it was charged, and used the entire battery.

Today we got up and had an all you can eat breakfast at Shaw's, the other Hostel/Bunkhouse in Monson. It was delicious. When you go there, you order in numbers, like a 2, 3, or 4, etc. That means of whatever number you pick, say 3, you get 3 blueberry pancakes, 3 eggs, 3 servings of homefries, 3 sausages, and 3 bacon (but we skipped out on the meat part. Then we can back here and started our work for stay.

The first thing we did for work for stay was last night, and definitely a first for the place. It was searching her house part of the building for her daughter's hamster. (It escaped, all the hikers have decided it is an escape artist, and her daughter was very distraught.) I found it after about 15 minutes in the back of a closet, and Cat and I coaxed it out with some treats. But, it escaped again this morning, and even after searching the entire house, we could not find it. Then we did some cleaning and organzing for a few more hours, nothing strenuous.

We're trying to lose some weight from our packs, and sent a whole box of stuff home too. It's pretty awesome here, there's a fridge with food other people left, or want to share. I'm currently eating toast with fresh goat cheese made yesterday that someone gave one of the boys. It's delicious.

This place is amazing! Its right on the lake, with a dock in the back. They have kayaks and a floating trampoline and other big floaty things. There's a big common room with a couch, TV, table, toaster, microwave, etc. Compared to the lean-tos in the woods, this is like a penthouse suite. There's a bunch of other hikers too. I ended up sort of giving one of the army guys his trail name, because he keeps wanting to watch Canadian Bacon. (We've watched it 3 times so far?) So I suggested that be his trail name, but he said he didn't want his name to have anything Canadian in it (he has a small prejudice due to childhood experiences). So someone else changed it to American Bacon, and it stuck.

Monson is a sweet, quaint town. We went to the general store and everyone was very nice. We got a milkshake (cookie dough/mint chip) there and signed the hiker register. Later we'll probably go swimming or kayaking, and that's it for now.

Oh! We did laundry, which is drying on the line, and might currently be my favourite part of the experience. Besides trail magic, of course. That's basically when hikers get awesome things for free. Like one day when we were in the middle of the 100 Mile Wilderness, a couple day hikers who came in on a side trail gave us a fresh veggie wrap...it was amazing. or when the strap on my nalgene broke, we found one left in one of the shelters. And of course, the hiker boxes. Its where hikers leave all the stuff they don't want, and we found some good stuff (food, sparklers for tonight, and some other random stuff). That's it for now.

http://thelakeshorehouse.com
Cat's Blog: dinoflagellatesrock.blogsp​ot.com
:D