Chapter 2: Mid-summer

At 6:30 Saturday morning the alarm clock rang, waking Stacy and Eric.

“Damn,” muttered Eric, “What time is it?”

“6:30,” replied Stacy groggily. “We’re getting up early so we can be done with today’s hike before the afternoon heat kicks in.”

She sat up in bed and looked to her husband who had pulled a pillow over his head.

“Why don’t we start with some warm-up exercises?” she asked.

“Huh?” grunted Eric as he tossed the pillow aside. He then saw that Stacy had pulled off her nightie and was lying beside him, naked. She had a smoky, come-hither look in her eyes, and made her expectations clear by crooking her index finger opened and closed.

Suddenly awake, Eric pulled off his clothes. She laughed at his sudden exuberance. She reached for his face and kissed him deeply as he made love to her.

Ten minutes later Eric had managed to satisfy Stacy. When she calmed she said, “I’d love to do this all day, but Nikki and Dalton are going to be here in less than twenty minutes.”

Eric wasted no time. He climaxed and fell heavily onto Stacy, kissing her as he too calmed from their morning lovemaking.

Sated, and now awake, Eric followed Stacy into the bathroom. They cleaned themselves, brushed their teeth, and then put on shorts and t-shirts.

“I think we’re ready,” he said as kissed Stacy and led her to the front door.

The two sat on their porch chairs as they waited for Nikki and Dalton to arrive. With their regular schedule they had gotten into the habit of alternating who drove. At exactly 7:00 Dalton pulled Nikki’s Lexus into the driveway. When it came to a stop the passenger door opened and Nikki jumped out.

“You don’t have to ride in back,” said Eric.

“I know, but when I ride in back us girls can gossip in secret,” Nikki said.

Nikki stood back to let Eric sit in the front seat, giving Eric and Stacy a good look at her morning outfit. She was the one that had changed the most from their regular hikes. She hadn’t lost a ton of weight but had lost several inches off her waistline. While her figure was still soft, she was again starting to show a waistline. Today she was wearing a low-cut shirt that accentuated her cleavage.

“You look great,” gushed Stacy.

“Thanks.” Nikki blushed slightly even though she was proud of the transformation her body was making. “You’re looking good, too.”

Stacy said flatly, “It must be due to the pre-hike calisthenics we did.” A second later she burst out laughing.

Nikki joined in with the laughter. “You know, we did our own pre-hike exercises this morning, too. Though, they were a cut a bit ... short.”

It was Dalton’s turn to go red in the face.

Eric turned to look into the back seat. Nikki’s face had gone red with her admission and her nipples were clearly poking through the thin fabric of her shirt.

“So where to?” asked Dalton gruffly, hoping to get a handle on the conversation.

“Head toward downtown, then take highway 18 east,” Stacy said as she buckled her seat belt.

“What’s out that way?” asked Nikki.

Stacy sat back in her seat before saying, “We’re right at three months into our scheduled training regimen. I found a new intermediate trail that seemed like something we could finish.”

“Intermediate?” asked Dalton with a degree of trepidation.

“Yep,” Stacy said excitedly. “The last two we’ve done were eight and ten miles, but flat and mostly hard surfaces for the majority of the trail.”

“Hard surfaces?” questioned Dalton. “On that last one we had to slide down a steep ten-foot incline, then walk on loose gravel.”

“Yes,” agreed Stacy. “But that was overall an easy trail. Today shouldn’t be any worse than that. The real reason this hike is considered intermediate is that there are lot of very steep hills. The good news is that the total length is less than four miles.”

The drive took almost ninety minutes. The women chatted aimlessly. As they got close Stacy said, “When we leave, I’ve read that there is a fried chicken place nearby. Some members in the online forum say it is the best in the state. We could stop there for lunch if we want to blow our diet for the week.”

For the first time that morning Dalton’s face lit up. “Sounds good to me!”

The turn off the highway was poorly marked, and then the road turned into a dirt path in less than a quarter mile. Eventually they arrived at a small clearing with a hand-made sign pointing to the direction of the trail. A small pick-up truck was already parked in the clearing.

The foursome got out and stretched. Eric was amused at how much had changed in three months. On their first hike, really a walk, they just got out and started to walk. Now they wore high-quality hiking boots instead of tennis shoes, and they do stretches before they get started.

As they turned to approach the trail they saw a man and woman approaching.

“Good morning,” the stranger called out.

“And to you,” said Eric.

“I assume you are here to do the full loop?” the stranger continued.

“Yes, is there something wrong?” asked Stacy with concern. “From what I read online this was a good intermediate trail.”

The man looked at Stacy with a crooked neck. “Are you MissSissyBell?” he asked.

It was her turn to pause. “Uh, yes,” she said cautiously.

The woman finally joined into the conversation. “Ahh, so nice to meet you in person. I’m Thor, and my husband is Storm.”

Storm saw the confused look and said, “When we’re online and both have an account we’ll sometimes gender swap just to mess with people.”

Stacy smiled. “OK, now it makes sense.”

Thor said, “Do you have a staff or rope?”

Eric’s expression started to match Dalton’s. “Do we need it?”

Thor replied, “We didn’t, but we’ve been doing this for a long time. For your first time around the trail, it may not hurt. It’s also good practice to get used to carrying additional equipment for when you take on a trail in which it is required.”