You Saw What?

So I'm out on the bike yesterday getting in some fall miles. I cranking up route 28 heading towards Andover Center. Up ahead, on the opposite side of the road, I see a gaggle of people with back packs walking towards me. My first thought is "Hmmm...School bus must have just dropped them off", to spite the fact that there was no bus to be seen. As, I get closer, I realize "Hey, they're not school kids; they're freekin MONKS!" That's right, monks. Long robes, bald, big bushy Moses beards and back packs....And all of them no older than their mid-twenties.
Is this some kind of weird, end-of -days crap that there are monks wondering around suburbia? or am I trapped in a mordern day remake of Kung Fu?