Date: 2006-06-02
From: Mt. Greylock

To: Wilbur lean-to
Miles today: 6.3

I did a very short day of hiking today. The rain has not stopped since yesterday evening. I stayed at the lodge until i had grown completely bored with sitting around...12ish. Now it's a little after 3, and I am done for the day.Breakfast was monstrously amazing. I was the only one eating. The other hikers took off pretty early this morningThey make breakfast family style, and all you can eat...even for just 1 person. they put out huge plates (the staff of the lodge does get to eat the leftovers).This is the damage that one can do with hiker hunger: 2 slices of toastmassive pile of hashbrowns3 pancakesand what i can only assume must've been 8-10 eggs scrambled.the after effects of this feast: none! within an hour, i could've gone back for more. Did I feel lethargic while hiking today? Nope. In fact, i kinda felt energized...i think my body had been longing for a little bit of protein (it also could have been the gallon of coffee that i went through by noon).if anyone's looking for a good diet plan, this is it! Hike mountains every day, and you can eat whatever you like. Your knees and your feet might not like the whole plan, but your waistline will. I had to punch a new hole in my belt the other day (for grand total 4 notch adjustment in 3 weeks)...that's how much weight I've lost while hiking.okay...so I'm at the shelter early tonight, and i hate this...2 weekenders were here when I arrived, and i am surrounded with thick uncomfortable silence. They seem to be so bored with the whole hiking adventure (possibly because of the rain) that they are in vegetative states. One is on the far right of the shelter tossing a frisbee up in the air...about 6 inches then catching it (and he has done nothing else since i arrived) and the other is on the far left of the shelter reading the hiker register.Now I don't diddly about feng shui, but I'm going to venture a guess that we could use a feng shui adjustment down here at Wlibur's lean-to.I love showing up at a shelter early if no one is there. I get to spread out my stuff...pretend like the place is my home. It's a nice feeling.When someone else gets there first, though...and they're feeling like it's their home...if the chemistry doesn't work right, you can end up feeling like an unwelcome guest.And with these guys...i mean, i've never claimed to be the most affable or most inviting person in the world...but these guys are positively zombies. I can't even pretend that they're not here, because I'm stuck right in between them.I fear this discomfort may last all night.okay...so I am a dork...but when i went outside this morning and found that I myself was in the same cloudland...the same mist...the same awe that HDT had described,I snapped this picture.Post Script: ha!....the vegetative guys left. haha! rookies. They decided to hike back to their car a day early. In the battle of uncomfortable silence...I outlasted them.[What is wrong with me that on consecutive days I complain about a guy that talked too much, and then 2 guys that wouldn't talk at all?!In retrospect, perhaps the problem is within me.]I never did spread my stuff out, but i managed to build myself an impressive fire, in spite of the rain, by getting dried leaves and sticks from under the shelter. I also whipped through an entire book, Running with Scissors, in one sitting. I think that that was a first for me.