Short story, a total work of fiction.
---
One of the things I enjoy most is the outdoors. Camping, hiking, canoeing, all seasons, all weather, I just love being out in the wild, away from crowds. I was in my third year of university, studying Earth Science, with the idea that I would be a field geologist after I graduated. We had field trips and excursions to mines and places with interesting or unique geology. Those were awesome. The class work, meh, it was OK. Labs were fun though.
I was living on campus once again, I know, lame for someone in third year. Last year I'd tried sharing a townhouse with some friends and classmates. Dismal fucking disaster. You'd think you'd have more privacy in a house versus a dorm, but nope. I found dorm life tolerable, at least here. I was also kind of a loner, because my hobby/lifestyle - the outdoors - was a solitary thing for me. I liked girls, hell I'd love to have a girlfriend, but I'd never met anyone I could tolerate being that close to all the time. And even the outdoorsy types were not that thrilled with my desire to be roughing it in the middle of nowhere.
One of the few student orgs I belonged to was the Outdoors Crew. They had several back-country outings a year, which I really enjoyed. The people in the group were a little too sociable for me, so when I went on those trips I brought my own single tent. The rest slept in bigger tents, like four-person jobs. Packing in, they split the tent parts amongst a few people to spread out the load. It worked for them, but I hated sharing a tent with anyone. I always brought my own ultralight stuff with me and camped a little apart from the others.
We had a mid September outing planned, partly as an intro for the frosh, to get them hooked early. They wanted everyone in on this, to make it a bonding experience. So long as I had my own tent, I was fine with the rest. The plan was to hike through the hills and valleys of a remote area, two days in, 3 days at base camp, and two days out. It would be a very demanding trip for the noobs, but those who chose to come would definitely enjoy it.
There were 12 of us, including 3 women. My choice of bringing my own gear was welcome, due to the odd number of women. The ladies split a 3-person tent, and the guys were in a pair of 4-person tents, plus me by myself. The first day was easy, no one was tired yet, but our food barrels were full, so the people hauling those worked extra hard on the way in. I walked sweep, making sure nothing got dropped and no one got left behind. I collected a few things on day one, and the Expedition Commander ('expedition commander', fuck, these guys have to make everything sound so stupid) warned everyone to be more careful as he handed things back to their owners.
Day two, middle of the afternoon, I heard thunder in the hills. The group was all ahead of me, up a steep ridge past a valley with a stream running through the bottom. I'd lagged behind to stare out across the hills and just soak in the ambiance and solitude. I got to the top of the ridge on my side of the valley and found Jayce there, looking out to the west at the black clouds.
Jayce is a lesbian, one of those butch girls who doesn't care if you don't like her. Very much out and proud. That didn't bother me at all, but she seemed to like antagonizing anyone who had a problem with her. As a result she came across as bitchy and argumentative. I never bothered her, or pretty much anyone else either, because I prized my solitude. She was knowledgeable about the outdoors, very fit and strong, and a real asset on any outing. But personally I found her a bit abrasive.
Thunder rolled again, much closer, and we were both startled when a lightning strike hit the other side of the range of hills, right in front of us. There was only a second and a half before the thunder, so it was REAL close. Looked like a cold front sweeping through.
"Shit, that was a close one." said Jayce.
"We'd better get moving." I said.
Then the skies opened up. We could hear the front approach, the hiss of the rain was loud as it came on. It poured, so hard you could hardly see the trail in front of you, and we could hear thunder all around us. I yelled through the downpour "We gotta get down off this ridge!".
We scrambled down the slick trail, and got half way down the valley, and I turned aside from the path, which was quickly becoming a fair sized stream. We huddled in the indifferent shelter of a clump of evergreens and peered out at the storm. The weather report had said 'unsettled' before we left, so I guess this fits the bill. These late summer storms were usually short and violent, so I figured we'd wait it out.
"Let's wait here for it to let up a bit." I said.
She nodded, "Good idea."
We sat there for a few minutes and the weather did change. It got worse. The wind picked up, blowing straight down the little valley, and the rain actually came down harder. We were soaked. And I dunno about her, but I was getting cold. he temperature was dropping fast. It had been 32C ten minutes ago. Felt like 15 now.
"We gotta move, I'm freezing just sitting here!" she said. Yeah, I guess she was cold too.
She got up, so I followed her, working our way downhill in an attempt to cross the valley and catch up to the group. 'Don't get separated' is a main tenet for backwoods hiking. As we approached the stream at the bottom, we could hear it. No longer a stream, it was a raging torrent. No way past that, we would have to wait for the water level to drop.
"Fuuuuck!" she screamed at the river. "Now what do we do?"
Jayce was shivering, and so was I. The day had been very hot and humid earlier, but now, wearing shorts and T shirts in the cold pouring rain, we were very much at risk of hypothermia. Then the sound of the rain changed. It was mixed with ice pellets now! If it got any colder we would see our breath.
"Aww fuck, just what we need. Hail!" she said.
"We need to put up a tent and get out of the rain."
"We don't have a tent, all I have are the poles. What do you have?"
"A hammock with a fly. Its small but it's shelter."
"Great. So we don't need flat ground?"
"Just two trees."
"How far apart?"
"3 or 4 metres."
She took off her pack and I followed suit. Then we scouted for a clear space between two stout trees. "Don't go far!" she warned me. I knew that. We all knew that. I was very careful to keep my bearings, so I knew where our packs were.
Searching for a pair of solid trees just far enough apart, with nothing in between is more difficult than it sounds. I heard her calling a short while later, so I went back to where our packs were. She arrived a minute later.
"Found a spot, let's go." she said.
We grabbed our packs and I followed her. She had indeed found a decent site. Now I had to put this thing up without getting the inside of it wet. I pulled the rope I needed out of my pack, and we stretched it between the trees. I cinched it real tight because of the wind. Next I pulled out the fly, and we got it over the line. Didn't have to stake it down as there were lots of other trees to tie it off to. Now we were out of the rain at least. But fuck, was it ever cold now!
The ground was mostly rock, and it looked like our packs would be OK under the fly. My fingers were getting numb I was so cold. I could see her lips were turning blue and I figured I was not much better off. "We gotta dry off and warm up," I said over the noise of the mixed rain and ice falling on the fly.
She looked grim, as she knew what that meant, and it was definitely not her happiest choice. How do you stave off hypothermia in a case like this? Skin to skin, full body contact. I pulled out the hammock itself and we set it up under the fly. I got my sleeping bag out of the stuff sack and put it in the hammock. A bit of searching found my hoodie, which would work fine as a towel. I stripped down to just my hiking boots and socks, trying to ignore Jayce getting naked right next to me under the cramped confines of the 3 metre square rain fly.
