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Chance's watch alarm sounded each hour to remind him to take a break. When we took our first break, I felt better than I expected I would. I was tired of walking, but nothing really hurt or ached.
"Take off your pack for a few minutes," Chance said, stepping up behind me to lift it off my shoulders after I unfastened the straps. He leaned it against a tree. "How are you doing?"
"OK so far," I said. My shoulders were a little sore from the weight of the pack, but it was minor.
Learning about hiking in the wilderness was the first thing on the list for today, so Chance gave me some pointers and rules to follow. Not really rules, just useful tips, like which kind of socks were better in different kinds of weather and what do to if you got blisters.
I can't say I was happy, when Chance said it was time to put the pack back on and head out, but I was surprising myself. I felt good about what I was accomplishing.
The stop at the end of hour two was similar to our first break, except that we ate granola bars, and Chance taught me about dehydration. After drinking more water, we headed out again.
At our fourth stop, I reacted as I had expected to after the first hour. I was done. I just wanted to sit in one place and not move for several hours. "What if I don't want to keep going?" I asked.
"You've come this far. Why give up now?"
"My shoulders hurt, and I don't think I can move my neck."
"Well, I'm not going to lose that journal without a fight. If you want to give up, I'll just have to badger you into continuing. I'm sure you'd like to avoid that."
I sat still for a bit weighing my options. I wasn't a quitter, but somehow this seemed like a no-win situation for me. If I gave up, Chance wouldn't get the journal. If I stuck it out, Chance would get the journal. Either way I got nothing out of this other than the satisfaction of completing the task and feeling like I had done what Uncle Harry wanted. Finally, inspiration struck.
"Chance, I have a proposition for you."
"I thought you didn't like me."
"That's not true. I really don't know you well enough to decide whether I like you or not. Anyway, I realized the other day that I gain nothing from spending the week out here with you. You get the journal but, for me, I just lose a week of time doing the things I want to do like painting the rest of my apartment. It's hard to see why I should continue, but I'll make you a deal. If you get Uncle Harry's journal when this is all over with, I want to read it. I want to know what's in it that makes this all worthwhile."
"Seems fair. I'll have a copy made for you, but we need to get going. We don't want to have to set up camp in the dark."
XXX
"One more hour," Chance said at our last stop. "You doing OK?"
"I'll make it," I said. My energy was fading fast. I knew talking would help keep my mind off how much farther I had to go. "How did you get involved in cryptid hunting?"
"Just followed in my dad's footsteps, I guess. What's your take on the whole cryptid question. Do you believe cryptids like bigfoot exist?"
We walked on in silence as I considered how to respond. "I guess I never thought much about it. I guess they could. I've never been in the wilderness before, but looking around out here, I can see how things could stay hidden. Plus, there are those stories every year about scientists finding new species. I guess, I'm a maybe."
"Fair enough."
"Have you ever seen a cryptid?"
"We don't know each other that well yet."
By the time we reached the campsite, the only reason I hadn't turned back was the promise of learning what was in Harry's journal when this was all over.
When we reached the campsite, Chance said it was OK to switch into my sneakers to give my feet a break. With different shoes and no pack, I felt more energetic though my shoulders and neck were still sore.
Chance talked about fire safety. I learned enough to be thankful that we weren't in a drought, so we could build a fire to cook, heat water, and keep creatures at bay.
"Chance crawled out of his tent and sat down next to the fire. "We're pretty well set, I guess. Any questions?"
"Only one," I said, looking around. "Where's my tent?"
He pointed to the tent he'd just set up.
"We're sharing a tent. I don't think I agreed to that."
"It's only practical. One tent means less to carry, we'll be warmer, and I can protect you if there's a problem."
I wasn't happy about sharing a tent with Chance. It wasn't that I was worried he'd force himself on me. I hadn't gotten any sense that he would be aggressive with me in any way. It was just too intimate. After what happened on the drive, I might wake up snuggled against Chance Munroe. "I don't think I can do that."
"You slept in the truck on the way up here."
"I know." I guess we both decided not to talk about it. Chance wandered around the edge of the camp looking at the trees and the ground. I wasn't sure what he was doing, but I'd already learned a lot today. I just wanted to relax.
The sun was going down and the temperature was dropping with it. I opened my pack and pulled out a fleece pullover and put it on. "What kind of creatures are out here? Not the cryptids, just the regular creatures?" I asked.
"Caribou and grizzly bears would be the largest. There's also lynx and gray wolves."
"None of those sound like things I'd want to run into. Do we need to worry they'll attack in the night?"
"That's why the single tent is a good idea, City Girl," he smirked my way. "I have a rifle. We'll put all the food up in a tree where it's out of reach. That's usually what gets campers into trouble. If the animals can smell food in your tent, they'll come after it."
While we ate and relaxed around the fire, Chance told me what he knew about my uncle. He talked about growing up in Wilkins’ Gap. "Look up," Chance said.
I leaned back and nearly fell off the log we were sitting on. Chance put his arm out to catch me. "Sorry, guess I don't have my forest legs yet," I said. The sky overhead was amazing. You could see millions of stars. "What's that milky looking cloud?" I asked.
"Good choice of words. That's the milky way. You can't see a sky like that unless you get away from the cities."
"It is beautiful," I admitted. I didn't even know you could actually see the milky way. It was pretty awesome, but I still wasn't convinced it was worth hiking out here to see it.