Date: 2019-08-24
From: Great Barrington, MA

To: Tom Leonard Shelter 
Miles today: 6.4
Weather: overcast clouds

I spent this past week at home thinking about how my last hike went and what I wanted to change. I've always done well with a regimented schedule, and I wonder if it would be a good approach to my hiking style. Normally, I look at my day as "here's where I am and here's where I'm camping tonight and so here's how many miles I have left". This is fine and has tended to work in the past, but I'm wondering if planning in smaller chunks might help me enjoy the entire day better instead of just the highlights and camp. So with this trip, I'm going to plan to stop a bit more. Every two hours or so and definitely at every overlook or lake or river or otherwise pretty place.Coming out of town today, I only had a little over 6 miles to hike, so I made a point to spend some extra time before getting on the trail... I slept in as late as possible and checked out of the hotel at the very last minute. Then, took a walk into town for some tea and a hand pie, then came back to the hotel to get my pack. I sat in the sun and read for about 40 minutes before catching a cab to a restaurant for a beer and a huge salad. The restaurant (Fiddlehead Grille... VERY good. Highly recommended.) is only a short walk to the trail so I was able to head out right after paying my bill. I left the restaurant at 1:30, and immediately ran into a couple of trail angels giving out fresh veggies. After a chat I took some peppers and cherry tomatoes, and started walking. It was 2 by the time I finally started hiking. BUT, I only had 3 hours of walking to get to camp, so I was NOT. GOING. TO. WORRY. ABOUT. IT....I did alright taking my time and not rushing to be the first person at the shelter, but I still didn't convince myself to stop and take a break. Baby steps.There was one other person here when I walked in at 5:30, and he had already snagged the good tent spot with the view. I wandered over to say hi and scope out other tent spots. Before I barely got "Hi, how's it going?" out of my mouth, I knew how long he's been out, how many miles he averages, why he switched to a bigger tent recently, how his visit with his wife went this weekend, and how many children he has. I did not, however, get his trail name which is fine because I'd still wind up calling him Chatty Charles in my head anyway. Yeesh! Oh, and before you get all "But MOoOose... Maybe he's just lonely being on the trail for so long alone and just wants to chat with someone!" let me just go ahead and tell you what else he told me. After going over how many calories he eats per day (un-prompted, I'll add), he told me that I prefer having someone else in the vicinity while I'm camping because I'm a woman. Then, he said one of my very least favorite things that someone out here can say. "Oh, these aren't mountains. These are just hills! If you want mountains you need to go to..." I tuned him out after that. Guess I'll just have to go on thinking that we've been hiking mountains this whole time. Hike your own hike, Chatty Charles. So I decided to head back and set up near the shelter (and away from Mr. "you're a woman and thus more easily frightened" Charles). After a while, three more people had filtered in... Two rock climbers who are hitting the cliffs nearby tomorrow morning, and a nobo thru hiker. Dinner was chili ramen and I added in the pepper from the trail angels. I had also.... acquired.... A couple ears of sweet corn a field that the trail passed through today, so I tossed that in as well. Yum! There was a fire and lots of chatting, and I managed to stay up way past my normal bedtime. This means that I'll probably sleep in a bit later tomorrow which is 100% the goal.Tomorrow is 12 miles, but also, a pond, a few creeks and streams, a view or two, and (if I've done it right) another late bedtime. Here's to changing what doesn't work and finding what does!