CHAPTER 109: HIKING WITH ANALISE (5)

"You’re not planning to take me to a secret cabin in the woods, are you?" Analise teased.

He wasn’t sure how to respond, so he decided to lean into it, to push a little, and see how she responded.

"Would you mind if I did?" he teased. "Daily sex, keep you fed, give you lots of books to read. Some people would kill for that kind of life." He kept his tone light so she would know he was just teasing with her.

She looked at him appraisingly. "I...um...damn. Now that you say it, I’m not sure I’d mind. Well okay, if there was no Internet I would probably mind, but otherwise it doesn’t sound bad. Does that make me crazy?"

"No, you’re just thinking about the fantasy version. The one with lots of sex and no responsibilities, and not the reality version, with the stinky outhouse, no toilet paper, and no hot water."

"Damn," she said with a sigh, "popped my fantasy bubble."

"Besides," he added, "you still have all your chemistry dreams to pursue."

"True. But you could always build me a chemistry lab in the woods."

"Isn’t that just a meth lab?" he teased.

"I mean, we could..." she started teased.

"No. No, we are not reenacting Breaking Bad," he said with a chuckle.

"Spoil sport," she fake grumbled.

"Speaking of chemistry, what did you think of..."

They talked about chemistry class until they arrived at the parking lot for the trailhead. It was only seven am and there were already four cars in the lot. Maybe the other people were headed to Lake Janus or were going further down the PCT, and they’d have Lake Valhalla to themselves for an hour or two. It was early September, and it was still warm, so by the time noon rolled around, there would probably be at least five or six people there. Still, for a lake, that was the opposite of crowded.

He got out and opened the back hatch so he could put on his hiking boots. Analise joined him and soon they were geared up. The air was still chilly that early in the morning, and Analise rubbed her arms as they walked across the gravel lot towards the trail head.

The first section of trail was fairly steep, climbing four hundred meters over two kilometers. They climbed the trail in silence, only their increasingly labored breathing could be heard over the occasional call of blue jays.

About half way up, Jack stopped to catch his breath. Analise stopped beside him, breathing heavily, but not as labored as him.

"Tired, already?" she teased, as she pulled off her jacket and stuffed it into her backpack.

He didn’t reply, just focused on catching his breath. He’d only been exercising in his souls space for a week, so he hadn’t gained much cardio capacity.

When he was getting close to ready to continue, Analise turned and started up the trail. She stopped a few paces ahead and bend down to fiddle with her boot laces. As she did, she gave him a wonderful view of her assets, and he could even see the mound of her secret garden outlined by her tight shorts. She looked at him between her legs, winked, then straightened and started hiking up the trail. Not wanting to get too far from such a lovely view, he started walking again.

At the top of the steep climb was a fork in the trail, one branch leading to Lake Valhalla, the other to Lake Janus. When they reached it, they stopped again so he could catch his breath. The air was still crisp and cool, but from their exertions they were both sweating.

Once he caught his breath, he started down the trail to Lake Valhalla. With the reduced exertion, their bodies cooled and evaporating sweat chilled their skin in the cool morning air. They eventually entered a section of the trail that had few trees and was mostly bushes. With the trees out of the way, the air warmed in the sun and their skin dried.

When they eventually reached the section of the trail that had eroded and was now blocked by the rhododendron, they stopped.

"That doesn’t look safe," she said. "Are you sure this is the way?"

"It’s not safe, and yes, this is the way," he said, while pulling out a collapsible shovel and a pair of branch trimmers.

"What are you doing?"

"Fixing a problem. The trail eroded below this rhododendron and is forcing people to try passing through it. So, I’m going to fix it."

He chose not to mention that it nearly killed him. She didn’t need to know that.

"Oh, um, do you want me to help?"

"Sure, just not yet."

Then he leaned over and started cutting off branches that faced the uphill side of the slope. He planned to make a new path that passed up-slope of the rhododendron.

When he had trimmed about half the branches, he handed her the shovel and said, "Here, use this to cut into the slope and carve out a path around this bush."

"Um, okay," she said, sounding dubious.

While he continued trimming branches and hurling them downslope, she started hacking at the up-slope soil with the shovel like she was trying to stab the ground. Seeing her inefficient method, he stopped.

"No, not like that," he said, taking the shovel from her. "Like this."

Holding the shovel by the end of the handle, he pushed the spade into the soil, then put his boot against the back of the blade and stomped down. The blade dug into the soil. He pushed the handle towards the slope and the blade pushed out a divot of soil. He repeated this a few times, and soon there was a short start to a new path around the rhododendron.

"Like that," he said, handing her the shovel.

She didn’t say anything just took the shovel and tried repeating what he had demonstrated. She was smaller than him and lighter, but didn’t have to lean over as far to hold on to the short shovel handle, so she was able to push the shovel almost as deep into the soil as he had.

When he finished trimming the rhododendron, she was about a third done. He stood and watched for a few moments, admiring her figure. She was sweating from the exertion and a strand of hair had gotten loose from her ponytail and kept dropping down in front of her eyes. Her hands were dirty, and she didn’t want to touch her face with them, so she kept trying to push the hair out of her face with the back of her forearm. She noticed him watching her and stopped. The strand of hair had dropped back down into her face and she blew at it in frustration.

As he continued to look at her, she fidgeted, then asked, "What? Is there something wrong with my face?"