Met several CDT thru hikers the last few weeks at East Glacier. A couple of them were going thru their resupply boxes, others were relaxing. I introduced myself, gave them my trail name, said where I'd hiked, the thru hikes I'd done and their response? Pretty much nothing. for the entire 20-30 min we shared the space of the common area, any answers they gave were short one or 2 word sentences.
Now I understand they were concentrating on going thru their food and gear, but they still seemed rather standoffish, as if since I wasn't on the trail and thru hiking like them, with them or met them on the trail, I didn't matter to them.
Same thing happened last week when I met another hiker attempting a Triple Crown. She reacted as if I was a bother to talk to.
What happened to thru hikers being friendly people, eager to talk about their trials and accomplishments off or on the trail?