Date: 2011-07-30
From: 5.0 miles past Velvet Rocks Shelter

To: Smarts Mountain Fire Tower
Miles today: 16.9
Weather: broken clouds

(In which I sleep in a fire tower!)Lying in my tent in the rain I watch Aaron Katz's film Cold Weather on my iPod Touch, excited to finally have an opportunity to see my most anticipated film of the year. Aaron Katz made the wonderful, low key movie Quiet City, and ever since hearing about his new movie I've been curious to see how a mumblecore director would tackle a mystery-thriller, since mumblecore almost by definition seems to require that nothing actually happens. Part of me was disappointed that Cold Weather wasn't a more broadly accessible film. Katz's films -- this one included -- seem to intentionally shy away from general appeal, and I think that many more people would appreciate his quiet observations if they were in the context of a more conventional narrative structure. But the rest of me was delighted to see Katz stick to his unconventional roots, including and then mostly ignoring plot elements like a missing person, a porn star and a stolen briefcase full of money, as if deliberately showing how much less interested he is in sensational plot elements than in character details and small moments of human connection.The rain continues through the movie and into the night, and rather than venture forth in the dark and rain to hang a bear bag, I decide to sleep with my food for only the second time on the trip. I lean partly out of the tent once to pee, but otherwise stay comfy and dry in the tent while the rain falls outside.* * *The rain continues to fall through early morning, though more softly, and by the time I am fully awake it has stopped and the sun has come out. The ground is still wet and the rocks slippery, but luckily the underbrush is not the sort to instantly soak my feet, and I keep my socks and shoes dry.It becomes a hot day, and I finish my water a couple of miles before the next water source. Climbing up a steep hill I stop to chug some of my maple syrup, reasoning that if sap starts out as mostly water then there may still be some left, even in the potent grade B variety. I can't tell if it makes me any less thirsty, but it sure is delicious and the sensation of a liquid in my mouth makes me feel like I must be quenching something.I've heard rumors of the Ice Cream Man, who gives ice cream to hikers, and in the heat of the midday the thought of a cold cone is mesmerizing. When I reach the side trail and follow the sign, however, I find that he is not home. His water spigot works just fine though, and I fill up my 3L Platypus and 20oz Gatorade bottle just to be safe, immediately adding an extra 7 lbs to my pack weight. I take a short break in case he's coming right back, but when he doesn't I return to the trail. Not long up the trail I come across a pile of orange sodas in a stream, and decide that cold soda may be even better than ice cream, if I really had to pick just one.By good luck the convenient end to my hiking day happens to be at the location of a cabin with a nearby fire tower. With not many fire towers left between me and Katahdin, and likely even fewer at good stopping points and without nearby caretakers, this seems like the perfect opportunity to accomplish one of my remaining goals for my hike. A southbounder in the cabin said that he chatted with Sprout, who tried to sleep in the tower last night but found that there was a little too much shaking and swaying. I hope that this was just an artifact of the storm, and decide to give it a shot anyway.The tower offers a breathtaking panoramic view of the New Hampshire mountains. Off to the southwest I can see a tiny patch of buildings that might be Hanover, but if anything this small outpost of civilization seems to emphasize how big the forest really is. A cool, constant wind blows through the broken windows, but the lower plywood walls provide some shelter, enough I hope for a not-unreasonably-cold night's sleep.Of all of the pleasures of hiking, perhaps one of the easiest to understand is that of bearing witness to the sweeping grandeur of nature, and there are few better places to do that than on top of a fire tower, surrounded by woods and mountains and a slowly darkening sky.