Chapter 108

Miles and I staggered around till almost dark. It was getting cold so once we stopped, making a campfire was the first order of business. Miles gathered some firewood while I rounded up the dry weeds and twigs necessary to get a fire going. In less than fifteen minutes I had a fire, if not roaring at least flaming.

Miles: Nice job, Rose.

Me: Nothing to it. A few dry twigs and a flint and it's easy.

Miles: Those cotton balls with the Vaseline didn't hurt any.

Me: Ah so you Noticed. A girl has to have a few tricks, since we aren't as big and strong as you guys.

Yes my voice was laced with sarcasm. Miles, bless him, just laughed.

Miles: I don't care how you did it. Let's just start dinner.

I unpacked the three inch deep frying pan, complete with a lid, to use for my rice and beans.

Me: Well I got a pot to boil my rice. I think I will save my beans. I can do that while the squirrel roast on a stick. Do you know how to dress that squirrel?

Miles: If I knew that I wouldn't be paying twenty five grand to learn how to live off the land.

Me: Well I'm paying it too, and I know how to dress the squirrel.

I removed the animal from the plastic bag, then washed it. The head had to go since it was all bones. I kept all four legs and the chest and back. I used the sewing kit to put a quick stitch in the belly to hold it on the spit. Then I hung it over the fire while the rice boiled. I seasoned the rice with the salt and pepper in the tiny little paper packs.

Miles: No offense Rose, but that thing just doesn't look very good. It has to be with way to many tiny bones.

Me: Yeah we could use a meat grinder to make squirrel hamburger.

Miles: I would choose a car for a run to McDonald's over the grinder.

Me: Yeah but that would kind of defeat the purpose of your twenty five thousand dollar investment.

Miles had brought canned stew, so he heated that. It looked better than my rice, but mine weighed much less in the pack. Besides I knew when the stew ran out there would still be squirrels running around the woods.

Me: So Miles where you from?

Miles: A little town in Ohio. My dad worked in a steel mill till it closed. I went to school got a degree to teach high school. I pretty much lost interest when some kid threatened me. I did sixty days on the county farm for defending myself. Now I couldn't get a teaching job, even if I wanted one. (He paused then asked) so what about you.

Me: Well Professor, that's a lot more interesting than my life. Let's call it a night, so we can get an early start tomorrow.

I had found a tree limb to hang the front of my tarp from. I piled the firewood on the side to stop the wind from getting inside and making a balloon of it. If we needed the wood in the night, it meant it was too cold to sleep in the shelter, so I wouldn't miss it holding the tarp, while I sat by the fire.

Miles and I were up before six. The sun came up while I ate the half piece of hard bread shaped like a flat biscuit. I had some peanut butter and jelly with it.

Miles: You want some of this sausage roll?

Me: No thanks, but it does look good.

I ate slow and had a lot of water to get the biscuit and peanut butter down. When the sun came up we checked the map and decided that we were over half way there. I just knew we weren't going to make it to the staging area that quickly. There had to be a problem.

It came in the very steep mountain between us and the staging area. To by pass the mountain would require walking for ten extra miles through heavy thickets.

Me: So Miles, which way shall we go?

Miles: If we go through the thicket we won't have to climb that fucking mountain. I vote to go through the thicket. There is no prize for being first.

Me: I'm willing to give it a try, but I think we will regret it.

It took fifteen minute to get to the thicket. There was no trail just a few bent wild bushes where someone else had been through. It hadn't been lately I knew. The bushes had recovered almost fully from being bent over.

Miles: That is pretty thick looking. Do you reckon there is a better place to enter it?

Me: No we can waste half a day trying to skirt it and still end up in the middle of it. Best thing we can do it suck it up and get on with it.

Miles struggled more than me. One thing he insisted on was breaking trail. I let him even though it might have been easier if I had done it. He just bullied right straight ahead once the decision had been made. I followed as much as possible in his trail, what little there was of it. The brush seemed to close in behind him.

We probably lost a couple of hours by going through the brush. By lunch Miles was absolutely on the verge of collapse he was just plain exhausted. I wasn't a whole lot better. I stopped at the outer edge of the thicket for a hard tack biscuit with peanut butter and jelly. I drank lots of water to wash it down.

Me: Miles you need to eat something and get hydrated. You want me to fix you something?

Miles out of breath: No, I can do it, just give me a minute.

I knew he was pretty much useless for the rest of that day. It was going to be me who would set the pace and just hope he could keep up. I waited a full twenty minutes, which was ten minutes more than we had agreed to for the morning breaks. Then I started up the much gentler hill ahead of me. The hills were up and down the rest of the day but the mountain had been avoided. We did have some ground to make up since skirting the mountain gave us a longer walk.

When lunch came at 3 PM, we stopped for half an hour. I had another biscuit and peanut butter with lots of jelly for energy.

Miles: how can you eat that shit twice a day?

Me: There is protein and sugar in it. The hard biscuit is just to fill my stomach. I drink lots of water so it keeps me going.

Miles: I need more than that.

Me: Well as long as I don't have to carry it, I don't give a crap if you bring a five course meal.

When we started walking after our half hour lunch break, it was obvious we weren't going to make the meeting until the next day. A couple of the other teams looked really fit, my guess was a couple of them would make the meeting that afternoon.

We made the top of a hill a few miles from the site where we were to meet just after five. I had an idea that Miles was finished for the day so I didn't even suggest that we keep going and try to finish it.

Miles and I made camp. There was less wood at that elevation where we chose for our camp, so I gave him my hand ax. Miles had chosen not to bring one along. He did have the big knife rather than the small skinning knife.

Me: Do what you can and try to find some wood on the ground. Growing wood is going to be hard to bring down with that hatchet. It seems to be pretty sharp but it is lightweight.

I hung up the tarp again I used a piece of nylon cord to secure it. I didn't think it would rain but the plastic tarp would help hold our body heat inside rather than have a cold temperature draw it from our bodies.

He came back with enough wood to cook and keep the fire going a while but not enough to last all night. Once the fire was going I cooked and ate beans for dinner, while he ate some kind of soup. It was at least hot for him, I wasn't too sure how filling it would be.

After dinner the sun was pretty much down so I sat by the fire. We didn't have too much to say, probably because we were on the edge of exhaustion. I tried to spot any campfires nearby but I didn't notice any at all. We were running low on firewood.

Me: Why don't we save the last of the firewood for morning.

Miles: Sounds like a plan. It is going to be cold though.

Me: We can share a sleeping bag and cover us with the second. That should be nice and warm. We can also weight one side of the Tarp then tuck in the opposite side. That should keep our body heat inside.

Miles: Sounds good and you don't have to worry. I'm too tired to even consider sex.

Me: Good then I won't have to gut you like a fish.

Miles might have been too tired but he slept with an erection. It seemed a little small, but I really couldn't tell for sure. I did know that it wasn't huge. I fell asleep nice and warm. The fact that I was sharing my sleeping bag with a man didn't keep me awake at all.

Miles: Shit Rose everything is damp.

He noticed it first thing in the morning. The plastic tarp held in the heat but also the moisture. Everything was indeed damp. I had stored all my clothes outside the trap but the sleeping bag was damp from the humidity. It was going to be very uncomfortable if we had to sleep in it again that night.

Me: Maybe we will make the finish line before we need them again. I hope you don't have a problem with me changing clothes in front of you.

I said that as I climbed out of the bag and removed my underwear. I replaced it with clean dry panties and a dry thermal tee shirt. Then I pulled on thermal pants from the boys wear department of Walmart. Finally my dirty Jeans and cold but dry sweatshirt.

Miles: It didn't bother me, but it was a nice sight. Except you are even more skinny naked.

Me: Well honey, I wasn't always skinny.

Miles: Oh?

Me: Long story. Let's get breakfast and hit the road.

Since I was a little chilled I built a fire and fixed a cup of Bart's herbal tea. I didn't usually drink it unless I was having some kind of pains. I just needed the comfort of it that morning.

The hike was the best it had been since the beginning. The hills were easy going up and over. There was one steep climb before we reached the assembly point. Even that wasn't too bad probably because it was the last one.

Even the big mountains in the area were not the type you had to rig ropes to ascend or descend. You just had to be careful that you didn't break a leg due to carelessness. Miles was dragging but I kept pushing him. It took up all morning and a small part of the afternoon but we walked into a clearing with more piles of equipment.

I wasn't too interested in the equipment. I was interested in the smell of burned meat. There were two others sitting on logs eating what looked like steaks. I walked in and took a really good look about to be sure there were no others. I was surprised we had made it in second place.