(start 6:30. Finish 8:30 AM. Manchester center. 6.3 miles)
Dude what a sleeping experience I had last night in the shelter with battle cat and ott. I've been hiking close by with this couple for a few days now (those are their trail names which pretty much all thru-hikers have). They're cool people. A little negative but very cool. So anyway we laid down early (8 PM) hoping for an early wake and an early arrival into town. So dude was first to fall asleep and he was snoring a lil. His girlfriend woke him up and asked him to 'roll over' so he would stop snoring. Little did I know how that would be a classic foreshadowing of what was to come!!! OMFG!!! I guess I'm a snorer. So this girl, lady, proceeded to wake me up multiple times during the night asking me to "ROLL OVER PLEASE!!!" it was a weird experience because I didn't know if I was dreaming it or it was an unfortunate reality. So when it was 5 AM and I was wide awake and felt like I got NO sleep, I knew it was reality. well I also know that non-interrupted sleep is very important. You have to go through the stages of sleep continuously to get to REM sleep which is the important part of sleep. If you interrupt sleep and don't get to REM sleep, it's almost like getting no sleep at all. AND I got no sleep because she was either yelling at me or her boyfriend ALL night to tell us to "ROLL OVER" I guess it was a blessing in disguise because I did wake up early and arrived in town early, which was nice.
The shelter experience is a staple of AT life. We are so use to solitude and peace all day and then at night we congregate at the shelter and have to coexist. The problem is everybody brings with them a different view on what is right and what is the polite thing to do. Should snorers sleep outside in a tent, or should light sleepers be the ones who have to tent? Ear plugs? Then there's the early risers who wake up the late risers by getting their stuff together. And by the same token, there are those who don't like to go to sleep early that keep the early to bed people awake. It's really funny. And these are just a few of the many issues. There should be a psychology case study done on this dynamic of human interaction. everyone always thinks their way is the right way. The early risers look down upon those who dont wake early. And the late risers get pissed at the noisy early risers.
So I'm in town and it feels nice. I ate breakfast at mcdonalds and hung out with Charlie, dreamwalker, sprocket and inchworm. I'm staying at hostel for a Nero (near zero miles of hiking). And I'm thinking of staying at a cheaper hostel tomorrow to make it a 0 (zero miles of hiking) to let everything heal and get strong.
For me this hike is about getting back into shape and enjoying my time of freedom, on the road, in nature. So I've decided I'm not going to care about the miles. I'm going to enjoy each day, I'm going to stop to enjoy every bit of beauty I encounter and not worry about how many miles I do. And eventually I'll make my way to my family on July 30th with my fam (minus Kara) on Moosehead lake. That's the goal. Thats the plan. I was inspired to take this plan action because I passed by this beautiful lake in the middle of nowhere and another hiker was about to take a swim and I decided not to because I wouldn't make my distance goal of the day. That night I was like, dude, that could have been an awesome experience and I passed up on it just to say I walked big miles. Not cool.
I spent most of the day chilling at the hostel talking with hiker people's- Charlie, inch worm and sprocket mostly. We had some intense convos. The one that really sticks out is our talk about the evolution of world power from Britian to the US and now possibly to China. It was cool to get charlie's perspective since he's from the UK and the other dude was sort of a southern conservative so his views were sort of predictable.
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