Miles today: 19.1
Total miles: 1629.8
We had a pretty easy hike today. In the middle of the day we came across Chestnut Knob shelter, which was unique in that it was fully enclosed (rather than 3 walls), complete with a door. It was on the top of a 4400’ mountain, the tallest peak we’ve been on since Moosilauke in New Hampshire. We enjoyed lunch shielded from the wind inside the stone structure. For the next mile or two after the shelter, the trail was on an open ridgeline. It was beautiful walking, in a meadow with mountains stretching out in all directions. Apparently the location of the shelter in this high altitude meadow was considered as a location for the Vanderbilts’ Biltmore Estate.
We got to the shelter with plenty of time to spare. I’ve been reading Catcher in the Rye, which I haven’t read since I had to read in for school in… maybe freshmen year of high school? I remember not really liking it all that much, but this time around I love it and find myself laughing at loud. Perhaps some of my enjoyment of Holden’s often harsh criticisms of people is due to feeling the same frustrations at phony-seeming interactions in society, especially now that I am separated from such social norms on a regular basis.
I went to bed at my new-normal time of about 6:45 and was unhappy to be awoken JUST as I was falling asleep around 7:30 or so to Cerveza and Milkrun arriving late again. Same as before, I couldn’t fall asleep until after they’d made their dinner and gotten in bed themselves. It’s times like this I hate that I’m a light sleeper–I wasn’t able to fall asleep until after 9 again, which is like midnight in the real world. I hoped that we aren’t now stuck in a pattern where this is a nightly occurence.