I was being chased by a storm and Cookie was egging me on
It was a day where I was never quite living in reality, if that makes sense to you. My mind was not on the same page as my body.
I was up and moving at 5:30AM, but I was in no particular hurry, AYCE pancakes were due to be served at 6:30AM. I packed up my bag so that I was ready to go.
Over the course of the morning I consumed five pancakes, a cup of hot chocolate, and a cup of tea. Afterwards there was a group photo taken, followed by me going for one final swim in Upper Goose Pond with Cookie and Warpaint.
Cookie and I were walking north at 7:30AM. After tumbling down to I-90, which the AT crossed VIA a footbridge created for the trail, we began the 1,400 climb up to Becket Mountain, which was not all that difficult.
The trail today was rough, which made it difficult to establish any sort of rythm while walking. There were many little ups and downs that came out of no where and smacked me right in the face.
At 12:10 I rolled into Washington Mountain Road, where I walked 1/10th to the "Cookie Ladie's House" where I bought a coke and was given three Cookies to go along with my lunch. The flies were ferocious beasts here, so I ate quickly and moved on. Hit and Miss rolled in as we rolled out with Warpaint following suit.
As I started walking I heard a rumble of thunder, which put me into high gear for the remainder of the afternoon. Once again there were ups and downs that seemingly came out of no where, but that did not stop me this time.
It seems that Cookie got into what he called a "pissing contest" with Warpaint, this happens frequently with Cookie. When someone passes him, he immediately increased his speed, over takes that person, and is sure to leave that person in his dust. On normal days I don't bother trying to keep up with him, but today was different. I was being chased by a storm and Cookie was egging me on. Cookie lead the charge with Warpaint in the middle and myself pulling up the tail end of the charge.
I left lunch at 1:00PM and I rolled into Dalton, Mass at 3:40PM. I walked 9.6 miles in two hours and 40 minutes. Wow.
Tonight Tom Leavardi has allowed all the hikers here to crash in his living room due to the storm raging outside, which was quite nice of him. Upon my arrival he immediately gave me a coke, a fancy looking ice cream sundae, and made a pasta dinner for all the hikers. This man is incredible.
I'm currently watching "The Big Lebowski" with the hikers here tonight. Fascinating.
And that's the way it was.
Kirby
Addendum. 7/29/08: That movie would go down as one of the funnier ones I have seen. Cookie and I spent quite a bit of time over the coming days talking about different scenes from the movie.
Ga>ME 2008.
