Date: 2006-08-31
From: White House landing

To: White House landing
Miles today: 0.0

Shore Cottage.   A cloudy and blustery day with small waves whipping up the lake, and cool enough for a fleece jacket outside.   The three other NOBO section hikers arrived last night ¢ Steve, Brien and Jeff ¢ and stayed with Hono and me in the cabin. We were all the guests that there were at White House Landing for the night. "The Three Hikers" work for GM and are part of a strategic global planning team. They all left in high spirits after breakfast, with recommendations to ¢Watch GM Grow¢ in the future.   I wrote KT a letter, which Linda said they would mail, and watched the day roll by reading, or rather rereading, The Hobbit ¢ a good book to read when you are on a traveling adventure yourself. Finished my Pizza, and another Ben and Jerry¢s Cherry Garcia, for lunch ¢ I could become seriously addicted to this diet if I stay here any longer!   Waited to see what the day would bring in terms of new hikers arriving and ¢ guess what? ¢ there hasn¢t been any, and it is now post dinner time ¢ 6:15PM and none are now likely to arrive.    Being here all alone has its rewards. Linda charged my cell phone battery, on their solar powered generator ¢ a service that I am not sure that they offer to everyone. In addition, instead of the usual choice of Pizza or Burger for dinner, dining in solitary splendor, I was served with hot rolls and Beef Stroganoff ¢ delicious ¢ and am promised a cheese omelet for breakfast!   Bill and Linda ¢ Bear and Honey, get it now? ¢ said that there is a pattern, repeated from year to year, of the busy days and the quiet days and showed me the entries in their log for August 30th ¢ busy ¢ and August 31st ¢ quiet - for the past several years. I wonder why that is? Labor day is a moveable feast, but the logic of the calendar numbers is irrefutable.   They also have a NOAA radio, and I listened to the forecast for the next week. The next three days are good, but rain is predicted after that, including the 6th ¢ my predicted summit day. At this stage all I want is to finish safely and go back home to my wife and family. I realy don¢t care about summit views, but I would like to finish safely.   It has been an interesting three days that I have spent here at WHL, and has allowed me some time to think upon the final stage of this journey. I am happy that I stopped and didn¢t just rush on through after resupply. I still think that it was a better idea to stay here and avoid the Labor Day Weekend crowds at Baxter ¢ reputed to be their busiest time of the year ¢ even if I don¢t get a Class 1 Day to summit. More important still, I want to finish in the ¢Slow Walking¢ philosophical mode that I am still working so hard to achieve and maintain.   I am getting much better at enjoying the present moment, and refusing to dwell unduly on the ¢what if?¢ worries of the future. I am now getting better at refusing to examine them again, unless I think that I have some new insight or information to add to the decision making process.   During my stay I have also been forcefully reminded of yet another modern convenience that we all take for granted ¢ electricity! You cannot just assume that it will be an automatic given that you can recharge you battery ¢ but hey! I am still so happy that there is a good cell signal here.   The number of appliances that you can run on propane gas has also impressed me. I knew of water heaters and stoves, but refrigerators? As an aside, I am now a dab hand at lighting the propane mantle lights with a single match!   There is a certain stillness to the evening now. I have noticed this time of stillness before on the trail. Just before sunset at the very tail end of the day, a certain profound stillness and silence settles over the landscape. It is as if the day is taking a long last deep breath, as it watches the sun sink and awaits the coming of the shadows of dusk.Thought for Today ¢   Take as much care at the conclusion of the journey as at the beginning.   Don¢t rush the last bit just to finish!