Topping the ridge trail at 11,000 feet the forest dropped away and I could see far off through the mountains into North Carolina in one direction and into Tennessee in the other. I consulted my map and headed down in search of the bear-proof shelter where I planned on spending the night and after about a half hour I could see its understated shed-like elegance nestled in the snowy, winter woods.
It was unusual to be the only person in the shelter and there might be others arriving so I set my foam pad and sleeping bag up in a corner out of the way, fired up my camp stove and made dinner. I read for a while then took off my clothes down to my polypro long johns, crawled into my -20 down bag and began to doze off.
It must have been nearly midnight when the girls arrived.
They told excitedly how they'd been chased by a bear and lost some gear including one of their sleeping bags. One of the girls was also minus her pack and she still had on relatively light clothing from her hike up the trail with very little to keep her warm for the freezing temps expected overnight. I carry very little on my lone hikes so I really didn't feel that I had any way to help out. They settled in and I could hear them trying to get comfortable but their one remaining, girl-sized mummy bag was too tight a fit for them both. I think they flipped a coin and one of the girls eventually ended up sitting, shivering huddled on the wooden bench to wait out the night.
At one point I saw her shimmy completely out of her clothes down to her bare, goose bumped skin to put on a set of silk long johns so that she could be properly layered for the cold night ahead and
I must say that by the light of her headlamp, I got some interesting flashes of her slimly- muscled, athletic young body standing gracefully on one foot, the dim light glinting off her breasts, round tummy and ass.
I rolled over and dozed off again to wake at about 2am. The temps had really dropped and I could see that the stars were shining brightly above the woods. The girl had not made much headway with her bedtime preparations and I could hear her shifting around uncomfortably. Her partner was snoring; you couldn't really blame her much. It was all just bad luck.
I was concerned so I whispered to the girl, whose name was Jan, to come over and warm up.
"HHHHHow?", she chattered.
"This bag is big enough for two if you don't mind and really warm.", I offered.
There was a moment or two of silence then I could see her face closer in the shadows.
"Are you ssssssure? I feel like such a newb ggggetting mmmmessed up like ttttthis."
"No problem.", I said as I unzipped the bag partway to admit my new boarder.