From the Woods

by Charlotte Greene

  The coincidence of reading the article on their own had seemed like a sign, and that superstitious omen leant even greater excitement to the idea of backpacking there. Three days later, Jill had gotten the farthest into researching the means to visit the forest and told them all, much to their dismay, that the permission was even harder to get than the article had suggested. Six two-week permits were issued every year, with hiking groups limited to parties of eight or fewer. At the time, that had seemed like the end of it, and they had gone on their disastrous trip to Bali together that summer. Fiona had forgotten about it since.

  “But how?” Sarah asked. “I thought there was no way to get a permit.”

  “I didn’t even know you were trying,” Carol added.

  Jill pointed at her. “Bingo. I wanted it to be a surprise. I put myself down when we were talking about it at the time, and I just got the news yesterday. We lucked out, actually, because another group backed out at the last minute. The woman who called me told me a bunch of other people were on the list, but they couldn’t commit right away, and she needed an immediate response.”

  “Wait,” Sarah said, holding up a hand. “You said yes before you talked to us about it?”

  “I had to,” Jill said, raising her voice, almost whining. “I’m going whether you want to come with me or not.”

  Sarah frowned. “Jeez, Jill. Chill. I didn’t say I didn’t want to go. It’s just a surprise, that’s all.”

  Sarah and Carol shared a glance, and Fiona saw Carol raise one shoulder and nod. Sarah smiled at Jill. “Okay—count us in.”

  Jill peered at Fiona, eyebrows up. “So, how about it, lady? You ready to cave yet?”

  She was, but she needed to play it coy for a few more minutes to avoid looking like a doormat. “When do we go? How long?”

  “We leave the morning of July 20, get back the afternoon of August 4. And don’t tell me you can’t get the time off, since those were the same weeks you took off last year.”

  This was, of course, true. Fiona had already submitted her vacation paperwork. The last week of July and the first of August was her usual long, annual leave. She’d taken a trip with Jill, Sarah, and Carol almost every year at the same time since college.

  Fiona shrugged. “Okay. So how do we get there? I thought the road was closed to cars.”

  Jill glanced away, a little color creeping into her cheeks again. She played with her beer.

  “The guides take us in on horseback,” she finally said.

  Fiona, Sarah, and Carol all spoke at once.

  “What? Guides? You didn’t say anything about—”

  “That’s totally different. I don’t want to be around—”

  “I like my privacy—”

  Jill put her hands in the air. “Guys, guys, relax for a second. Jeez. Hear the details first, for God’s sake.”

  Carol shook her head. “No way. I don’t want some dude on my vacation, Jill. Doesn’t interest me at all. It’s one thing if you’re in a country where you don’t speak the language, but not out in the woods, alone.”

  Jill started counting off on her fingers. “First of all, you’re being sexist. The main guide is a woman. She’s the one who called me. Second, she and her assistants ride in with us from the parking lot for a few miles to the first campsite, where the wilderness begins. Third, the assistants take the horses back to the truck and meet us on the other end two weeks later.”

  “But the main guide stays with us the whole time?” Sarah asked.

  Jill hesitated before nodding. “Yes. It’s the only way you can visit. She leads us through the forest, making sure we stick to the trail and clean up after ourselves.”

  “But we do that already!” Sarah said.

  Jill sighed. “You know that, and I know that, but we’ve all seen the kind of shit people leave in the woods, literal and not. This is one of the last protected, undeveloped forests in the lower forty-eight, and they want to keep it that way.”

  Fiona remembered their last backpacking trip together. Every backcountry campsite they’d stopped in had been full of litter and piles of poorly covered human feces. She’d never been as disgusted with humanity before or since. She could understand the idea of the conservationists wanting to avoid that, but having a stranger with them the entire trip was not a small concession.

  “Have you met this woman?” Carol asked.

  Jill shook her head. “But I’m going to, in May. You can all come with me if you still want to go.”

  Fiona noted the fact that Jill had already assumed that she was coming along, despite her earlier protests. She hadn’t agreed to go yet, but Jill clearly didn’t care or had forgotten. Even if Fiona objected again now, Jill would badger her until she agreed, so why bother? Still, she needed to voice at least one more objection to save her own self-worth.

  “Two weeks is a really long time, Jill. We usually just do overnights or weekends. We’ve never been on a backpacking trip that long.”

  Carol nodded. “She’s right. What was our longest—four, five days?”

  “That’s a lot of stuff to carry,” Sarah added.

  Jill laughed. “As if you two have to worry about it. Look in the mirror lately? You guys could carry a circus tent and not break a sweat.” Jill slapped Fiona on the back. “It’s the two of us that need some work, but we have time. July is what—three, four months from now? We can start going to the gym together.”

  Fiona opened her mouth, ready to object, but the three of them were already making plans. She wanted to remind Jill that she hated going to the gym more than almost anything in the world. Jill knew that, but she wouldn’t care. Someday soon, she would be dragging Fiona to work out. Rather than pretend that she could do anything about it, she shut her mouth and tried to pretend she was as excited as everyone else.

  Chapter Two

  Fiona recoiled from the heat, almost slipping back inside the car. July in Colorado, especially on the Front Range, can rival parts of the South for its heat and humidity. While the rest of the summer was generally what is called a “dry” heat, the rain this time of year usually made up for the previous drought. This had been the hottest summer and month on record, and even here, in the shadow of the Rockies and long before noon, there was no escaping the awful power of the heat. Jill started pushing her from behind, and she finally made herself climb up and out of the backseat of the car into the harsh and unforgiving sunlight.

  They were at a famous gas station, Ted’s Place, at the turnoff into the mountains north of Fort Collins. While Poudre Canyon had built up over the last twenty years, with houses and other development stretching almost the whole length of the state to the west, Ted’s was still considered the last pit stop of civilization before heading into the wild. It was also one of the last places they’d have reliable cell-phone service for the next two weeks, so a good place for meeting their guide. The guide and her assistants would pick them up here, drive them about thirty miles west and north, and then take them into the backcountry on horseback. Tomorrow morning, the assistants would take the horses back and leave them there in the woods with their guide.

  It had been difficult to get all four of their backpacks and the five of them into the little Honda, but between the trunk and a large canvas rucksack tied to the roof, they’d managed. This morning, Jill’s sister Ellen had picked them up to drive them to the drop-off spot for their trip so they could avoid leaving their cars. As the trip was about an hour from their respective places in Loveland and Longmont, the cramped quarters had been temporary, but Fiona was still happy to be out of the little car. She stretched from side to side, still a little stiff from Thursday’s workout, but starting, finally, to catch the others’ excitement.

  Over the last four months, she’d gone back and forth from reluctant participant to eager enthusiast. She’d been bullied into this trip, but she could nevertheless recognize that what they were about to do was a privilege few people could enjoy. Further, she loved camping and hiking, and had never
tried a backwoods trip this long. If she could shake off the last of her resentment, she might enjoy herself—that is, if she could deal with the physical rigors of the hiking.

  She’d been working out and training with Jill fairly often since the day she’d heard about the trip, but she was still a long way from fit. She had some muscles again and had put on a little weight, but that didn’t mean she was a superhero now. She and Jill had done a couple of long overnight backpacking trips and one three-day weekend to train earlier this summer with the weight she planned to carry, but two or three days was different than two weeks. Jill and the others had promised to help her as much as possible, but it would probably come down to whether she had the will to keep trying.

  Jill and her sister Ellen were talking quietly together near the hood of Ellen’s car. Fiona walked a little closer, and the two of them fell quiet. Ellen smiled at her.

  “You’re going to keep my sister safe, right? Don’t let her get eaten by bears.”

  Fiona grinned. “You know I can’t do anything to stop her if she really wants something.”

  Ellen laughed. “You’re right. In that case, try not to get in the way.”

  “Hey!” Jill said, feigning indignation. “If they’re going to eat anyone, it would be Sarah since she’s so sweet.”

  “Who’s eating what?” Sarah asked, walking closer with Carol.

  The three of them laughed before Jill explained.

  Ellen gave Jill a quick hug. “Be safe, lady, and call me when you’re on your way back. Do you know what time I should be ready, more or less?”

  Jill shrugged. “Some time in the afternoon or early evening on the Sunday the fourth—that’s all I know. We’ll be coming from Wyoming, so if you’re out, you’ll have some time to drive up here. Hopefully, I’ll be able to call when we get back to the trucks.”

  A few minutes later, when they’d gotten all the packs out of the trunk and the canvas bag from on top of the Honda, two pickup trucks turned into the parking lot, both hauling horse trailers. The parking lot had long spaces for RVs and trailers, and this early in the morning they had no problem pulling into two subsequent spots. They kept the engines running.

  Because of some work obligations, Fiona had yet to meet Rosalinda—Roz—Delmonico, their guide, but she’d heard all about her from the others when they’d met her this past May. Her three friends had gushed about how gorgeous and butch she was, Sarah going so far as to say she was no longer put off by the fact that they had to have her with them the whole trip. Fiona was curious to see if the woman lived up to the hype.

  The driver’s door to the truck on the right opened, and a young man jumped out, jogging over to them. He wore a bright-green bandana on his forehead, the color so glaring in the sunshine it was almost neon. Jill met him partway and shook his hand before leading him to the others.

  “Jon, this is Fiona. You’ve met everyone else.”

  Jon extended a hand. “Hi, Fiona—sorry we didn’t get to meet earlier. It’s been a crazy summer.” After they shook, he made a gesture at their bags. “Let me help you carry this stuff to the truck. You guys are riding with me. We’re going to follow Roz and the others up to the trailhead.”

  It didn’t take long for them to move the packs into the back, and then, after a final good-bye to Ellen, the four of them climbed into the extended cab of Jon’s truck. Fiona tried to spy Roz, but her view was blocked by the other assistants, all of whom waved at them from inside the other truck. Like Jon, they too wore the green bandanas, and Fiona wondered if it was some type of uniform or if they’d chosen to wear them. At least they seemed friendly. Hopefully Roz would be, too. Female Adonis or not, the last thing Fiona wanted was to be around some sullen weirdo for the next two weeks.

  The drive was uneventful. It was early enough that they’d avoided the traffic that would clog the canyon later in the day—tourists with RVs that were afraid to drive quickly and out-of-staters creeping along, looking for wildlife. Fiona had driven or had been driven up this road countless times since she was a kid, first with her parents, and then with her friends and girlfriends. Several nice campgrounds were located right here along the road, but she generally preferred to backpack at least a mile or so away from the sound of the traffic. Most of the campgrounds they passed were already full, normal for this time of year and this close to town. She spied the first sites she remembered staying in on her own—well off-season and virtually empty when she was there as a younger woman. All of this was familiar ground so far. They turned on the road toward Red Feather Lakes, and here, finally, something was different from her usual visits up here.

  About five miles past the turnoff onto this secondary road, the truck in front of them slowed before turning onto a gravel road to the west, into the woods. The lead truck stopped about fifty feet in, and by craning her neck to the side and smashing her face against the window, Fiona could see someone getting out of the truck in front of them—one of the other assistants. A gated fence barred the way, and one of the men unlocked a padlock and took off a chain before pushing the gate open for the truck. Jon followed the other truck, and the assistant locked the gate behind them before running back to the truck in front of them.

  “This is so much closer to the city than I expected,” Jill said. She was sitting up front with Jon.

  “Amazing, right? Sometimes the best things are hidden in plain sight. But don’t worry. Once you’re back in these woods, it’ll seem like you’re a million miles from anywhere. You guys will be really isolated in a couple of days. No one around for miles in any direction.”

  Fiona’s stomach dropped at the thought. Of course she’d known this would be the case—isolation was the point of this whole trip, after all, the entire appeal. During one of the last trips they’d done together as a group, they’d had to share a camping space with other backpackers. That situation was becoming more and more common with the local population growth and increasing popularity of the Rockies. Still, now that they were almost in the protected forest, the reality of their situation filled her with something like dread. What happened if someone was hurt or wandered away from camp? They wouldn’t have cell service back here. They would be on their own. Fiona’s arms broke out in gooseflesh, but she chided herself for being so silly. After all, they’d have an experienced guide with them. She’d know what to do.

  Branches of pines and aspens were swatting the side of the truck as they drove, the sunlight flashing inside the cab almost strobe-like. Every twenty feet or so, Fiona caught a sign warning off trespassers, the words harsh and red, with steep fines posted on the bottom for violators. If someone came this far without a permit and didn’t heed the warnings, they clearly meant to break the law.

  The trees suddenly broke in front of them, and Fiona saw that the growth had been cut back here a little for a small parking area. The lead truck pulled over to the left, and Jon turned easily to the right, the horse trailers now pointing toward each other. The trip from Ted’s Place had taken less than an hour.

  Everyone piled out of the trucks, and the area was a mass of bodies and activity for several minutes while Fiona and the others moved their gear out of the way. They waited near what was clearly the trailhead, another large warning sign propped nearby promising fines and jail time for trespassers. Two of the assistants were busy getting the horses out of the trailers, and by the time Fiona remembered to look for her, Roz was standing with her back to her, directing the others. She was too far away to hear clearly, but Fiona could see the assistants watching her and nodding at times as they were told their various tasks. From behind, the woman was tall, solid, her black, curly hair cut very close to her head on the sides, longer on top. She was wearing neutral tones, beiges and greens, and the muscles in her arms and shoulders were visible under the light cotton fabric. Unlike the men, she’d tied a dark-red bandana tied around her neck. Even from here, Fiona could see that it was wet, likely to keep her cool.

  The operation was efficient, unhurried. The as
sistants’ gear was set in a neat pile as the horses were lined up, attached to leads, and saddled. Roz inspected each horse, and Fiona finally saw her face when she moved to the horses on the far side of the line closer to her and her friends. Roz’s expression was stern, hard, her brows low, her mouth and jaw set in a firm line. She was clearly concentrating, which explained her expression, but Fiona had the immediate impression of someone who knew what she was doing and suffered no fools. Her eyes and lashes were very dark, like her hair, her skin a warm, light-russet brown. Despite the hardness she saw there, Fiona couldn’t look away.

  Jill elbowed her. “What did I tell you?”

  Fiona didn’t reply, still staring at the woman. The sight of her was mesmerizing. Beyond seeming confident, sure of herself and what she was doing, Roz was clearly not a person to mess with. This woman could probably handle anything.

  After Roz checked the last horse, she nodded slightly at her assistants before finally glancing their way. Her eyes rested briefly on Fiona’s before moving on to the others. She lifted a hand and walked toward them. Fiona’s heart leapt, and she forced her gaze away from the woman’s face.

  “Hey, guys. Nice to see some of you again. I don’t think I’ve met you, yet, though. Fiona, right?”

  Fiona made herself meet her eyes. Fiona was slightly shorter than average, and this woman had a good seven or eight inches on her. Their eyes met for a second, and Fiona’s face heated. Realizing she was supposed to speak, she managed to sputter out a reply.

  “Yes. That’s me.” She remembered to offer a hand at the last second. Roz’s was warm and strong and strangely soft.