The highlight was defintely the night in the firetower. We'd passed several NOBOs that had recommended this to us, but as there are so many of them on the trail right now we figured that the chances of us getting there and being able to claim it for ourselves (it's just a 6' x 6' hut at the top of an 80' tower) would be unlikley. We actually arrived on the top of Smarts mountain in the early afternoon and found the tower unclaimed, but still didn't know if we'd be able to stay. We had been told that the water source for here was unreliable, currenlty muddy and hard to collect. I hate carrying water uphill, so our plan was to check it out, if it was decent we'd try to claim the tower for the night, if not, we'd hike on down the other side of the mountain to a stream crossing at the bottom and camp somewhere near there. There was a couple camping at the Firewarden's cabin who told us the water was dry, and we'd have to go down to collect water if we wanted to stay there the night, but Brian is a water genius (and stubborn about it too). If there is even a trickle of water in the area he'll figure out a way to collect it. So I sat with our gear, and he set off with all our water bottles. I should not have doubted him, but sure enough, about half an hour later he returned with 6 litres of cold clear spring water. Amazing. With plenty of water for the remainder of the day and overnight we staked our claim in the fire tower. Now, I'm not great with heights in the first place, and I've been up high towers that sway in the wind, and I don't like it. The bargain I had made with myself is that I'd try going up, and if it was moving, then so was I!! The tower was high, even higher than the one we'd climbed on Old Speck Mountain, but it had a regular staircase instead of a ladder. That was a plus. Accessing the hut at the top of the staircase was a little tricky, but sonn we were in. Once the trapdoor was closed I felt a little more secure at least. The views were awesome, obviously 360 around us, and forest as far as the eye could see. We could see Mt Cube in the distance. We had sat there a couple of days ago enjoying the sunshine and looking over at this fire tower knowing we'd like to stay here. We could also see Mt.s Moosilauke, Lafayette, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, etc in the distance.
Later in the afternoon was a slightly tense moment when someone else climbed the tower. It shook and vibrated as they ascended, but was OK once they arrived up top. It was a NOBO AT hiker, and he also was hoing to camp in the tower, but accepted that at 6x6' there really was only room for 2 to sleep, even a third person would necessitate someone sleeping over the trapdoor, and accepted our prior claim. As the sun started to drop the landscape and sky changed constantly. Storm clouds to the west hid the sun from view at times, but made for some dramatic lighting. Almost all the hikers on the peak came up for the last rays of the sunset. It was a little crowded up there, and very shaky while they ascended and descended, but by full dark everyone had returned to their respective night spots.Right then was when the wind picked up and the tower began to sway. Fortunately it wasn't severe, because by now it was too late for us to pack everything up and find an alternate campsite. Not that I wouldn't have, of course, if it had been really windy, but this was just a stiff breeze that caused a little movement and lots of uncomfortable drafts up through the wooden floor. It was probably realted to the storm clouds to our west. They never got close to us though, but the lightning was much more evident after dark. Eventually the sky cleared completely. What an feeling to be so completely surrounded by sky and stars.
Sometime during the night the clouds and fog moved in to replace the starry sky. There were several missing windows in the tower, and I remember waking up very early to see a stream of cloud/fog moving through our little hut in the sky from one windy, rapidly across only a few feet above us to the matching breach on the opposite side. By the time the sun was rising the clouds were moving rapidly around us, bring a whole new set of visual wonders as mist enshrouded valleys appeared and disappeared around us. Overall, the entire night had been quite a unique experience.
Other highlights of this section was the new experience of walking in meadows, fields and marshes. After 400 miles of mountains and forests, it was quite a feeling to walk out of the woods into a sunny meadow with crickets whirring. The marshes were as buggy as the forests had been though!
The major low point of these past few days has been pain. Apparently my knees dislike steep slopes as much as they disliked the high steps up and down over the rocks I have become used to. This terrain is much more like I had expected the trail to be, you can actually hike here! Howeer, after two months of rock scrambling and climbing, it is like learning to walk all over again. Muscles long dormant are now having to come back out and work. My knees are the worst, but my hips and lower back are joining in the pain party too. Even my shouders and arms have made an occasional stifness appearance. Brian is also having his own pain problems. Since Gorham he has been having occasional trouble with his back. It appears that the weight loss from hiking is finally affecting his previous back surgery. The weight of his pack is putting pressure on the combination of screws and rods holding his spine together. Some days it is just painful, but increasingly it causes immobility in his legs. On those days we have had no choice but to hike very low mileage, or none at all, eat as much food from our packs as possible to cut weight. Then we "run for town" because we have no food left!
Hanover has been an interesting experience: Crowds of Dartmouth students, few hiker services, some great bistro style restaurants, and great food, but big prices too, and very few cheap and filling options. We stayed a couple of nights at Tigger's Treehouse, in an RV owned by a local trail Angel who picked us up in Dartmouth and ran us around for an evening shopping. We ended up staying a couple of nights to wait out the storms from errant hurracane remnants.
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