Day 59: the thing you want

Miles: 10
Water 3

I stuck with my plan and did ten miles today. I took my time about it tho.  I stopped at a pond in the morning and watched the birds hunting water bugs. Listened to the frogs and watched all the hikers who left camp after me pass me up.

Around noon I hit a section called the cobble stones, a ridge of marble overlooking mt greylock. I stopped there for a while too and ate a spam sandwich.  It was one and I had gone a grand 4 miles.

When I got to the bottom of the cobbles there was a town with an ice cream stand. So I got a root beer float and a turkey sandwich that I saved for dinner.

My time to regret on ice cream and hiking is always short. It's like having cement in your belly. But I do love ice cream. If they had had slush it would have been optimal. I love cherry slush.

I finished the day going halfway up mt greylock ( I think it's called that I put my book away for the night.) The highest point in Mass. It is also the home of a wizarding school for you Harry potter fans. The shelter log said that j k just announced that a few days ago. When I get to the top tomorrow I'm stealing a messenger owl.

The last two days I've been hiking with a guy named omega. Omega cannot stop talking. He is just continuous lacking any filter between brain and mouth. I swear he let me pass him and catch up to him three times today just so he could talk. Ear buds were no defense. As I write this he has been taking to another hiker straight for an hour now.

Hiking has made clear to me something fairly obvious, but not something I have considered in depth. Humans have a desire for things they don't have.

As a basic rule of humans it's a pretty good one for survival. It gets you into food and shelter etc.  After that it starts to get strange.  A person working decides they need some nature so they want to be on the trail. Everyone on the trail wants food and civilization. This is what makes trail magic so powerful, it briefly sates this lust. It's why hikers are pulled into towns for showers and hotel beds.

When you are at home you want to go on vacation. After a week off vacation you want to be home. Most everyone dislikes working, but even these non working states leave you with a desire for the things they lack. I guess homes are the result of people tweaking an environment to best balance this constant desire.

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence is how this is commonly put but it isn't quite right. I thought that hiking would be this state of mind and body that would be consuming enough in itself. But it is full of all these tiny desires for things missed. Getting to the other side of the fence never stops the need for something different.

Now I'm hoping that sometimes the grass really is greener. Hiking is better than working for example. Is it worth it to quit this job? Is it better to move somewhere new? Somehow I have to figure out how much of this midlife crisis angst is legitimate, and how much is just wishing I had a Gatorade on the trail.