Glen enjoyed hiking, a lot. Maybe that's why he was smiling broadly when he first saw her. Or it could have been the way her body fit into her shorts and t-shirt as she climbed up the trail. Or it might have been that he knew if she was winded on this relatively flat stretch of the trail, the climb she faced around the next bend was going to be brutal. Whatever the reason, Glen smiled broadly as he passed her on the trail.
Lyn watched him pass and admired his muscular legs and great smile. He was obviously a serious hiker from the way he moved, his well worn hiking boots and clothing, and especially the huge pack on his back that seemed to contain enough gear for an extended stay. She glanced at her own water bottle and energy bar and briefly wondered if she was traveling too light. She dismissed the thought as she went back to admiring the bright sunny day on a mountain trail.
As she rounded the next bend, Lyn gasped at the trail ahead. It seemed to have taken a turn straight up the mountain. It was steep and rocky but dry so she felt she could handle it. Nearly an hour later she reached the top. The view from the top of the mountain was well worth the limb. She stood for a long while catching her breath and gazing at the mountain range laid out before her as she munched on her energy bar.
She followed the signs to the camping picnic area she had wanted to visit. It was less than two miles away now; she hoped they were a little flatter than the last. As it turned out, the two miles were steep and increasingly difficult to climb. It was filled with many switchbacks and steep rocky climbs.
To make it worse as she neared the top of what she hoped was the last climb the wind picked up. Soon she found herself buffeted by high winds and a temperature drop that chilled her in spite of her exertion. She looked up and saw the clouds rolling in at a high rate of speed and realized she was likely to get wet if she could not locate some cover soon.
As she made it to the crest of the latest climb she saw the camp area down the mountain and into the middle of a meadow. She smiled with relief as her goal was in site. But soon the wind brought cold rain. With the rain the trail became more and more slick and treacherous. As she neared the bottom of the trail that emptied into the meadow she stepped on a rock slick with rain and her ankle turned beneath her.
Pain shot through her leg as her ankle folded sideways and she fell. She scraped her bare knee in the fall. She was soon covered in mud as she struggled to stand back up on one leg. Standing on one leg, pain shooting through her body, wet and covered with mud she began to cry.
As she cried she began to realize that she was genuinely in trouble. The rain was turning to ice, she was cold, wet, unable to walk and had no supplies or shelter of any kind. To make matters worse, her clothes were soaked and she was caked with blood and mud. All of this made her cry all the harder.
Glen heard something in the wind and peaked out of his tent to see what it was. He saw a shape in the distance. It looked like a person and while he really did not want to go out into the cold rain now turning to ice, he could not help feeling like there was someone out there who needed help. He pulled on his poncho, grabbed his first aid kit (just in case) and went out into the storm.
As he went around the bend in the trail towards the mountain he could hear the crying and knew at once someone was in trouble. Then he saw her, drenched, shivering and covered in mud and blood standing on one leg and crying. He immediately ran to her and remembering all the first aid training, he assessed her injuries. As it turned out, the blood was mostly from scrapes and nothing too serious. Her ankle was the worst part. It was swollen and already turning black and blue.
Lyn could not keep from crying even though she felt relief at having someone rescue her from her situation. The pain and helplessness continued to overwhelm her; it would just have to run its course.
