Last town stop!

Hello from Monson, ME. We are currently resting at the well known Shaw's hostel which is the final stop for most north bound hikers. We got in yesterday and dodged some rain last night. Since we have set a date to summit Katahdin we are actually a little ahead of schedule. If we would have hiked out today we would have had 9 days to hike the relatively flat 110 or so final miles. Since we didn't want to carry the extra food and really had no other reason to leave we decided to stay again. Shaw's is one of the nicer hostels on the trail, so we are very comfortable. This morning we had their famous all you can eat breakfast for only $7. The way it works is you start off ordering 1,2,3, or 4. The number you say is the amount of hashbrowns, bacon, eggs, and sausage you get. After that you can have seconds if you wish. Being uncomfortably full also motivated us to stay today! It is raining again and looks like we will get a little more in our final week. I don't know why I even looked but the 10 day forecast is showing sunny with 0% chance of rain on summit day. We really hope that this is true! The going has gotten a lot easier and we have only had to climb a couple of significant mountains since the last update. We had a clear day over Moxy Bald where we unknowingly got our first glimpse of Katahdin. We thought that it was,  but weren't sure until another hiker told us later that day. As the crow flies Katahdin is only about half the distance of the trail mileage so we should be getting more good views as we continue to hike. We are still in a state of disbelief that we are so close to finishing our hike, but are anxious to see what will happen after the trail. We will update again after we hike the 100 mi wilderness and summit Katahdin. We have really appreciated all of you keeping track of our progress and encouraging us along the way, and hopefully it won't be long until we get to pay you all a visit. Until then take care.