Day 3

I woke up with the sound of birds starting to sing in the trees near my tent. Brittany was already gone. I could tell that it was still very early in the morning, but I got up anyway. It was a bit cool outside, with a light fog hanging over the lake. The sun was still below the treetops and was just now starting to peek over, brightening the fog. As quietly as I could I went to start the makings for breakfast. I first filled the big pot up with water. Next I filled the coffee pot with water to make tea. After starting the stove, and while waiting for the water to boil, I went and picked blueberries. I had noticed them yesterday along the path when I went exploring. I gathered them into a container that we had emptied the previous day. When I had gathered what I could find along the path, I went back to the now boiling water and proceeded to make tea. I sipped the hot liquid as the sun finally crested the treetops. The fog started to burn off, and I watched as a bald eagle flew overhead and circled around a bay off to the south. I continued to watch as the eagle circled lower and lower. Suddenly it swooped down and clawed at the water. With huge, powerful, flaps of its wings it started back upwards. I could see, even at this distance of over 100 meters, that it had a very large fish captured in its talons, as the sun glinted off of the silvery body.

I reveled in the peace and tranquility of being out in nature for a few more minutes before I got up and looked into the cook kits to see what I could do for breakfast. Finding a wedge of cheddar cheese, and a hunk of one of those processed turkey hams, I thought first of a ham and cheese omelet, but knew that the equipment that we had, wouldn't allow for such a delicacy, so I decided upon a skillet of ham and eggs, covered with cheese. I actually like cooking and preparing meals. To me, it's fairly simple, just like following the steps in a laboratory procedure, or a chemical experiment, add this to that, and heat for so much time. I find it somewhat relaxing and calming. I also can hear a list of ingredients and imagine what they will taste like together, so I can also add what may be missing, kinda like tweaking a lab to get the optimal desired results. I was soon happily lost in the preparations for my morning repast, even whistling, when I heard Kari open her tent. I looked over towards her as she crawled out of her tent. Her hair was a bit tousled, and she still looked very tired.

"Hey," I said. "You look like you could sleep for another hour or so. Whatcha doin' up?"

She smiled sarcastically at me through half lidded eyes, and asked, "Why are you in such a good mood THIS early?"

I beamed a smile back at her and almost laughed at her, before saying, "Why shouldn't I be? It's a beautiful morning, which just got more beautiful" She snorted in derision at my obvious compliment, but I continued, "I'm surrounded by nature in all her glory... I've been watching an eagle snag some breakfast... I'm cooking our breakfast... and most importantly... I've already had MY caffeine."

As I said that last bit I started pouring her a cup of tea. She smiled back at me and quietly said, "Sorry, I'm just tired, Thanks." I had just handed her her tea. She continued after taking a sip, "I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Again?" I asked suppressing a smile, as I turned back to my preparations.

"Yes. Again." She said. "There were animals in camp a couple of times last night."

"Really." I said it as more of a statement instead of a question. "Wow, I didn't hear anything prowling around outside the couple of times that I woke up last night."

"I'm sure you didn't," she said sarcastically, and then continued, "I was just a little concerned for the girls."

"For just the girls? Gee thanks!" I told her while starting to cook the eggs. I smiled at her to show that I wasn't really upset, however I could tell that she knew that I was joking to begin with.

Kari came over to my side and touched my shoulder and neck. "I hope you know that I care about you too."

I stirred the eggs, and looked up at her. I felt her try to lift my chin, so I rose and turned to stand in front of her.

"But I know that you know how to handle yourself in situations like last night, so I really don't have to concentrate on you." She smiled and moved in closer. "But at the same time I can't get you out of my mind."

I reached up to cup her face in my hands and said, "I know what you mean. I care about you too." I leaned forward to kiss her. It was a soft, slow, deep, wet, kiss that seemed to last for a longer time than it really did. Finally I broke it and leaned back and then whispered to her. "But I'm not yours yet, in a couple of days, but not yet."

As I pulled away from her, I saw Kari's eyes widened briefly and then narrow as she tilted her head slightly to the side as if trying to see what I was thinking or trying to figure out how much I knew.

I smiled broadly at her and then knelt down again to tend to the eggs. As I added the cubed ham that I had slightly browned earlier and placed to the side, Kari sat, and asked, "How much did she tell you?"

I continued to stir the ham and eggs as the eggs started to firm up around the ham. "About what?" I said with an exaggerated tone of innocence.

"You know," she said. "About the girls and their 'tradition' that they have going."

OK... I finally knew that all the girls were in on something together, and it was a 'tradition' so it happened before. Now it made sense since Alex and Brittany had gone on this trip before, and they had gotten to me first. Does this mean that Dani and Cait will try something with me next? And what about Kari? Where does she fit into all of this and exactly what is this 'tradition'? I started to add the cheese I had cut up to the top of the eggs to let it melt as I thought all of these things and finally said, "Well, what do you think about this 'tradition', and when exactly do you get to participate?"

Finishing her first cup of tea, and standing to get another, she explained, "Well, in the past I've never participated." Smiling at me Kari continued, "in years past I was usually out with some other group, I've only heard about it from other guides. Although, to be honest, most girls that come up here try to hook up with a guide. Which is why I told you the other morning, that I heard from the male guides that these girls can make it 'hard' on you." She raised an eyebrow to emphasize the innuendo. Even though it was served up to me like a great big fat pitch I could hit out of the park, I decided to let it go by.

"One thing I wasn't told," I said, "was, who's next? Do you know?"

After taking another sip of her tea, she replied, "Well, I don't know for sure, but I have an idea."

"Who?" I asked interrupting her.

Kari sighed and then said, "If you haven't been told, then I don't know if I should tell you."

"So tell me then," I asked on a different track, "when did this tradition start?"

"I think it started a few years ago," she answered. "Before I started here. One of the girls hooked up with a guide and then came back after the trip to work as a guide, but left with him when he left." She paused and sipped some more. "After that, from what I heard, it kinda evolved into a contest to try to be 'chosen' by the guide and then spend the rest of the summer with him."

While she was spilling all the information I just nodded like I had heard it all before. I also checked on the breakfast to try to act as if I wasn't really paying attention, although I was hanging on every word. I took the skillet of eggs off of the stove and turned it off. As I served up a plate of the meal to Kari I was thinking, to myself. 'So that's what they are up to... it all made sense finally! Why else would the girls be trying to hook up with me? I know that I'm not f'ugly but I'm not god's gift to women either. I wonder who's next? If I miss my guess Kari will be last. Ah, they ARE saving the best for last.' I smiled to myself and then asked Kari, "What do you think of the eggs?"

"Not to be rude," she said between mouthfuls, "but I'm remarkably surprised."

She smiled broadly as I looked at her stunned. When I could finally speak, I asked, "What's so surprising?"

"Well," she paused as swallowed another bite, "most guys that I know, even the ones that work out here, can't cook very well, cold cereal, or just the eggs. And the eggs would've still been a bit runny."

"Well I like cooking." I said, "It's easy and, to me at least, it's relaxing." I paused as she finished her plate and I filled my plate and offered her some more. "Should we wake up the girls, or should I just make up some more later?"

"Make more later." Kari told me after finishing another swallow. "This is really good, and we have a long way to go today."

I smiled and emptied the skillet onto another plate. I ate while I started to again prepare another larger batch for the girls. When all the precooking stuff was ready I finished my plate and as Kari was also done and looking contented, I picked up her plate and made a stack of dirty stuff to be washed later. I sat down next to her with a cup of tea took a gulp and finally asked, "What happens if I don't pick one of them?"

Kari smiled one of her stunning smiles at me and whispered, "I'm sure whoever you pick will be more than happy to spend the rest of the summer with you."

I looked at her confused and said, "No I meant what if I don't WANT to spend the rest of the summer with anyone here?"

Kari suddenly froze as the shock of what I said washed over her. I started to laugh as I pulled her to me and told her, "I'm just teasing." I felt her relax into my arms.

She punched me, and then said, "That was cruel. For a second, I thought that maybe I wouldn't even get to have a chance to be with you."

"You really want a chance to be with me?" I asked.

"You bet." She whispered as she leaned in to kiss me briefly. "I'm too competitive to let myself be beaten out by some teenager. Besides," she kissed me again. "I think that we're really connecting, and I love these times that we get to be alone together with each other in the mornings."

"So why," I asked her, "do we have to go through the charade of all of this?"

She looked at me and bit her lip, then said, "Because I promised the girls the first day that I wouldn't interfere until after they all had their shot at you. But I didn't see myself then feeling like I do towards you now."

I cupped her face in my hands and looked into those incredible dark eyes and asked, "So you're OK with all of this?"

Kari smiled at me and caressed one of my hands as she answered, "Well, I'm not the jealous type, so as long as I know that we'll get our time later, I can let them have their fun too. Besides," she continued after giving me a little kiss again, "I can't really blame them for wanting to hook up with you, I know I'd be trying to do the same if I was in their place."

I pulled her to me and gave her a kiss and was starting to make it more passionate when we heard one of the girls start to stir. Kari pulled back, then we heard the zipper on the tent open, and Cait crawled out.

I started to make the new larger batch of breakfast for the girls as Cait and Kari started to whisper together and then Cait got the trowel out of the other kit and headed off into the woods.

Kari snuck up behind me and started to rub my shoulders as I was stirring the ham. I stood and before I could turn she wrapped her arms around me and whispered. "Cait said that Brittany had a great time with you last night. I told her that I'd already figured that she did."

I smiled remembering the noises that the both of us had made the night before. I then told her, "I can't wait until the others will be able to know that YOU had as good of a time."

I felt her lean over and give me a slight hug before straightening up and taking a step back. I then heard the rustle of some leaves as Cait came back to the campsite.

"Damn!" she exclaimed, "What are you making? I started smelling it on the way back and it's already got me starved."

"Just some ham and eggs. Why don't you get the others up so they can have some too while it's hot?"

"Oh they're awake," Cait said. "Just not up and moving around too much. I bet if they smelled this though they'd get up fairly quickly."

I smiled and then said, "Well I don't think I can just waltz into their tent."

"I s'pose." She replied. Then raising her voice so that she was yelling continued, "but if they don't get up soon, they won't get anything until lunch."

Moans and comments of "shut up, we're coming," emanated from the tent as I laughed quietly and then whispered to myself as I covered the eggs with the cheese, "but they're not even breathing hard."

Cait and Kari both burst out laughing.

Suddenly the tent zipped open and Alex crawled out followed by Dani, "Are you guys laughing at us?" Alex demanded.

Kari and Cait together continuing to giggle just pointed over at me as I turned to check on the eggs.

The giggling of the girls was contagious as soon Dani, and then Alex, were both smiling.

Kari finally asked Alex and Dani, "Where's Brittany?"

Dani started to say, "She's comi-." However, Alex interrupted with "She'll be here in a few minutes." Which just caused another bout of laughter.

When breakfast was served, after Brittany got up, it looked like a school of sharks in the midst of a feeding frenzy. Dani and Brittany were assigned to clean up and repack the cook kits since they were the last to get up. The rest of us took down the tents and got loaded up for the travel that day.

When everything was ready to go, we loaded the canoes and I waited to see who I would be paired up with today... and therefore, if the trend continued, would be the one to see me later on that night. Alex said that she would go with Brittany, as Brittany still looked like she was dragging a bit. I figured that they wouldn't be with me. So I was waiting to see whether it would be Dani or Cait who ended up with me. Again Alex made the decision, I kind of figured that she was the leader in all of this as she was the first to get with me too.

Alex said to Cait, "Since you and Glenn were having such fun together, laughing at the rest of us this morning, you can spend the day paddling together too."

Cait didn't say anything and was fidgeting around a bit with her paddle and life vest. I couldn't tell if it was because she was nervous, excited, or a little of both. I allowed myself to believe that it was the last one.

I smiled at Alex, and replied for the both of us, "Great! We are going to have an EXCELLENT time together today. In fact we are going to have so much fun, you'll wish you could join us."

I saw Kari smile and turn away from everyone pretending to be busy with her canoe, while the rest of them looked at me strangely as they tried to figure out what I meant, and what I knew about their tradition.

Today's trip involved a leisurely paddle across the lake we were on followed by a short trip up a river and through some rapids, or if we couldn't make it up those we'd have to make a short portage around them. Kari had mentioned earlier during breakfast that since the rain the other day the rapids should be full, but not running so fast as to prevent us from paddling up. After the rapids we'd be in another big lake, which we'd cross to another portage. This portage was the killer portage of the trip. It was two kilometers long, which was followed by a short paddle and another fairly long portage to a smaller lake with an island where we'd finally make camp.

It was a beautiful day for canoeing. The sun was out but it wasn't too hot, yet. Cait and I led as I had a map. Her canoeing skills had improved dramatically since the first day we had started and as time went on and we crossed the lake we started to outdistance the others. I also noticed that Cait seemed to visibly relax and loosen up a bit. She, like I said earlier, was a very petite girl, and I think that she might have been a bit intimidated by the others. Which in turn, I think, made her a bit more shy around the others.

After about a half an hour, it was noticeably warmer, and Cait, who was of Hispanic descent, removed her T-shirt. Underneath it she wore a floral print bikini top. She already had a slight tan, and the bright sun wouldn't burn her like it would've if I removed my shirt. Her light brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and was hanging out the back of a baseball cap like most of the girls. I could see the muscles of her shoulders move as she paddled in front of me. In a way it was slightly hypnotic, watching this attractive, nubile girl move rhythmically as she exerted herself.

We talked as we paddled. I found that Cait had a slightly dry and sarcastic type of humor. I found that I appreciated and genuinely enjoyed it but for the first time on the trip was really finally hearing it. I'll admit that the first day that we were together paddling during the morning, neither of us talked very much as we hadn't known much of each other, and it was kinda early, not to mention that it was just a gloomy day. Today however, was completely different.

We pulled further ahead of the others as we paddled smoothly and evenly. She told me about her family, three older brothers, all who have gone on this trip before, and her Dad. Her Mom had died shortly after she was born, so she never really knew her. I learned that she was a bit of a tomboy as she grew up with the four men, and reasoned that her shyness and sarcastic humor was in a way a bit of a defense mechanism to help her cope with her three older brothers. She gave examples of how she had to either prove that she was as tough as they were, or smarter than they were. If she didn't they would try to act as her 'protectors'. And, according to Cait, that really annoyed her as she said that they'd act like 'pendejos' and try to show her what big tough men they were.

We talked about her 'Ex' and what had happened during that relationship. She didn't go into certain details, but I gathered that the guy was a bit of a jerk and tried to be too controlling of her life. "He was extremely jealous of anyone else and one day when I walked out of a class and was laughing with another boy, he flew into a rage, accusing me of all sorts of stuff. When I finally got sick of all his petty jealousy, I just walked away from him. Of course, that pissed him off even more and he tried to take a swing at me. But I've gotten into enough play fights with my brothers, that I easily dodged him. When my brothers found out about what he did, from some other people who saw what had happened, they found him and beat the crap out of him." She kind of chuckled as she remembered the incident. "The only problem," she continued, "was that then all the guys thought that my brothers beat him up because he tried something with me, so now I can barely get kissed by guys that I know."

"Well," I said. "It's a good thing that you'll be going away to a place like college so you can meet guys that don't know your brothers."

"Yeah," Cait agreed. "That's another place."

I then saw her turn slightly and look out of the corner of her eyes back at me. I couldn't be sure because it was so quick, but it kinda looked like she was scaning me from head to toe in the process. I smiled to myself after she turned back around and thought to myself, 'Oh yeah, today it's Cait, so tomorrow it's Dani.' Then like a bolt of lightning it hit me! They were going alphabetically! I mentally kicked myself, as I couldn't believe that didn't see it earlier.

We were soon making the turn to head up the little river towards the rapids. We were pretty far ahead of the others, and when I looked back I could only really see Kari sitting up in her canoe with Dani. The others were all kinda laid back as if they were in lounge chairs. I could tell that Alex, who was in the rear of her canoe, with Brittany had removed the red t-shirt that she had on earlier in the morning. From the distance that I was looking, however, I couldn't tell what color her bikini top was. In fact I did a bit of a double take, before the trees hid her, as I thought that she was topless.

My mind was kinda vapor-locked for a picosecond as I thought of the possibilities of seeing all of these girls topless. But at the same time I remembered the time I had spent in Europe. I remembered that at first I was kind of excited to go to a topless beach... no, not excited like that... but later found out that because of the attitude of the culture, it wasn't that big of a deal. I then realized that I wasn't as super excited at SEEING Alex, or the others, possibly topless as much as the IDEA of having them topless.

I looked forward at Cait and then tried to picture her topless. Again, while I could picture it in my minds eye, and it was exciting, I was more thrilled with the idea of it.

I couldn't dwell on the images and thoughts for too long as we had entered the stream and it was starting to work against us. I said to Cait, "You gotta do a couple of things for me."

"'K, what are they?" she asked.

"First you gotta tell me if there are any rocks in front or to our sides, so I just need you to tell me 'right', 'left', or 'center', so I can steer us around them. So get ready, and second, when I tell you, start to paddle with everything you've got, and DON'T stop until I let you know."

"'K," was all she said.

I saw her take a deep breath and she adjusted her shoulders in preparation. At this point the current had slowed from the 'rapids' that we were heading towards. Looking ahead I could see that the river sloped upwards, but like Kari had predicted, there was no real whitewater. I could see a few rocks sticking up out if the water to my left, and a few spots near them that indicated upwellings in the water as it flowed over other rocks that were now underwater. The river curved off to the left, which put the deeper, and less rough water, to the right, so I steered us towards the middle but a little on the right side. The reason was that I needed deep enough water, but the deepwater would also have a swifter current, and I didn't want to get us into too much trouble with that. About a hundred yards into the river, which was about halfway, is where it got real rough so I shouted to Cait, "OK we gotta do it now! PULL!"

I saw her take another deep breath and on her first stroke really lean into it and bow her head down as she muscled her way through. Our canoe jumped and bobbed on the rough surface as we made slow progress upwards. After about three minutes, Cait yelled "right!"

Looking forward I could see an upwelling in the water indicating a fairly large rock, I let the current push us to the left a bit. As we passed it, it scraped the side of our canoe and made a nasty sound. It caused no damage, but I saw Cait jump a bit at the sound. I took the opportunity of the rocks proximity to push against it and give us an extra boost. Ahead I could see another set of rocks and rapids but now it was on the right side as the river made a turn back to the right. We crossed, to the left side of middle, and made our way past those rocks. We were almost out onto the next lake, when Cait, again yelled out, but this time it was, "Center! Look OUT!"

I couldn't see anything since it was directly in front of us, so I didn't know which way to turn. I didn't have any time to turn anyway as in a moment I saw the rock halfway under the canoe, and approaching me swiftly as we went over it.

With a sickening scraping noise, the bottom of our canoe came to rest on top of the rock. Cait, in the front, was lighter than I was, and her part of the canoe didn't draw as much water as my half did, with the heavier cook kits in addition to my larger mass. Cait looked back at me for a second with terror in her eyes, and then started to smile and laugh to relieve her tension. For me, I knew that we had to get off of this rock, but I also knew that I couldn't get out here as it was pretty deep, and the current was swift. I really didn't want to have to push us backwards, but that seemed like the only option, so I told Cait what we were going to do. "I'm gonna push us back, when we are free use your paddle to push us to the side."

"Which side?" she asked.

I didn't expect that so I thought about it for a second before continuing. "I dunno, do you see anymore rocks up ahead?"

After shielding her eyes from the glare, and scanning ahead, she replied, "There seems to be a line of them ahead, but there is an opening to the right. We should we head for that."

"'k, just tell me where to steer us." I told her.

"Got ya." She replied as I started to push us backwards off of the rock. In moments we were off the rock and had started to float backwards. Cait pushed us off to the right side. I started to paddle and steer us towards where she told me to go. I could see now that there was kind of a wall of rocks that seemed like it was the edge of the lake, and where it spilled over to form the river. Once past these rocks, it would be less than a canoe length further, and we'd be out of the current that flows out of the lake. Cait helped maneuver us to the opening and with a few powerful strokes from each of us; we were through and onto our way.

We waited for what seemed like fifteen minutes. Cait and I relaxed in the canoe, leaning back, talking, and resting as much as we could in the uncomfortable craft.

After a while, Cait finally said, "C'mon lets keep going, they'll catch up to us."

"I don't know." I said. "I think that we should wait until we're all together so nobody gets separated."

"You got the map, and Kari knows where to go," Cait reasoned. "Besides," she continued, "we're together, so it won't be as bad as if one of us was lost."

"Well," I started to say.

"Oh c'mon," she interrupted. "If I didn't know better I'd say that you're afraid to be alone with me."

"Afraid?" I asked kinda stunned. "Not at all! I enjoy being with you. You are independent, intelligent, and I really like your sense of humor now that I've gotten to know it. What makes you think that I'm afraid to be with you?"

"Well," Cait said after a few seconds. "It was just a feeling that I got. You seemed to get along so well with Alex and Brittany the days that they were with you, and... and... I didn't think that you liked me enough to... " Her voice trailed off, as she looked down at the bottom of the canoe.

I then realized that for all her outward brashness, there was still a girl inside that needed desperately to be loved as a female, and not as one of the guys as she has been, for the most part, since her mother left. "You couldn't be more mistaken." I said. Cait continued to look down at her feet until I reached over with my paddle, and nudged her. I then continued, "You have to remember, you were my partner the first day that we got out here."

"But... I thought... " she started to say.

"You thought what?" I interrupted. "You thought that we just kinda just got stuck together at the end?"

"Well, yeah." She said.

"Think about it." I told her. "I got to you and told you get into the first canoe, THEN, Alex and Brittany said that they were going together, so that left Dani and Kari together."

"Oh yeah. That's right." She said as she brightened up and began to smile.

I could tell that she still needed some reassurance, so I finally said, "OK, lets keep going. I guess that they'll catch up before we get to the portage."

"Cool!" Cait responded smiling and then picked up her paddle.

We headed off across the lake. Again we talked about life in general and what college was going to be like for her and what she expected to do later on. I found that I was beginning to like Cait more and more, and if not for Kari being on this trip with us, and I had to make a decision now, it would be close between her and Alex. She didn't quite have the body that Alex had, and she had as cute of a face, but I liked her sense of humor a bit better. So like I said it was too close to call.

When we were about halfway across this lake when we heard a big bang. I turned us so we could look back and check on the others. We could see that they were on the bank to the far right. According to my map that's where the portage was supposed to be. One group had a canoe in the water. I guessed that the loud banging sound came from when they dropped it into the water. This was confirmed when we saw the other canoe emerge from the woods and get dropped into the water. In a couple seconds, we heard the banging sound again, as the sound finally made its way across the watery distance. By calculating the time lag, I figured that we were more than a kilometer ahead of them.

"Wave to them." I said to Cait.

So she grabbed her shirt in one hand and the paddle in the other, and then started to wave and cross them above her head, in an effort to get their attention. We saw after a few seconds, someone, I think it was Dani, start to point in our direction and then the others look out towards us and then they just waved like we were across the street, and not halfway across a lake. I then knew that they didn't have a problem with us being so far ahead, so I steered us back onto course and we continued on. I looked back over my shoulder after we got turned and I saw that they were indeed no longer trying to communicate, or even paying us any attention. That's when I then saw two of the girls back there start to take off their t-shirts. I turned to take a stroke with my paddle to keep us on course and when I turned back. I saw that the other two had taken off their tops too. I could see that at least Dani had on a bikini top, but from this distance I couldn't be sure of the others.