All that I really cared about was that the sun was out and the long winter finally appeared to have lifted. The day I met Honey, women were the last thing on my mind—for a change.
I'd looked forward to getting out on the bike for weeks, and I'd set the whole of Saturday aside to head off to my favorite ride. There was a work emergency overnight, so I was about an hour later leaving than I planned and after traffic delays I got to the trailhead much later than I wanted. Looking back, fate was being kind.
The forest preserve was quiet when I arrived. There were very few cars in the lot and I looked forward to a long tranquil ride as I unloaded my bike and pulled on my cycling shoes. When I'd ensured that my water carrier was full and I had a couple of energy bars in my backpack, I made a final check on the bike, locked the car and started off towards the trail.
It was months since I'd ridden, but straight away it felt comfortable and good to be back on the bike. The fresh air was awesome after the Midwest winter and, although still damp, the trail was in good shape. The trees and brush passed quickly and I had to keep reminding myself to slow down and pace the ride as I wouldn't be in peak condition. The sunlight warmed my back and there seemed no better place to be in the world.
I think I loved cycling so much because it was so different form my office-bound job as a computer network tech. I'd take a route through the woods over configuring a router any day. As always, I was wearing cycling shorts and a t-shirt, which I preferred to more traditional cycling tops. My day was going just fine, and about to get much better, even if that's not what I thought when I nearly mowed her down.
I saw her bike just as I rounded a slightly downhill, blind corner. An instant later I saw her, kneeling at her front wheel with the rear wheel half-way across the narrow trail. Even with the sunshine the trail was damp in the shade and I pulled my brakes hard, slid slightly sideways but somehow managed to avoid hitting anything as I made an ungainly stop. Now off the seat and with my feet on the ground, I turned to see what was going on.
"I'm so sorry," she blurted. "I wasn't expecting anyone to..."
"It's okay," I reassured with a smile. "Looks like you have a problem."
She showed me that she had a puncture in her front tire, but I was looking at her stunning shoulder-length blonde hair, clear complexion and indigo blue eyes. Leaving her bike on 0074he trail might've been a dumb thing, but it was her looks that struck me dumb.
"We can fix this." I picked up her bike and propped it against a tree, off the trail. "I've got some tools and a kit."
"Thank you so much," she gushed. "I guess I'm under-prepared, but I so love it out here. I'm Honey by the way." She offered me her hand.
I shook her delicate hand and enjoyed the smile she flashed at me. "I'm Paul, nice to meet you." Much as I wanted to hold on and look into her face, I though it was better, and less psychopathic, that I got the tools and got started on repairing her bike.
Honey was pretty, that was for sure. Her figure was lean and, while not buxom, very ladylike with a firm tummy and nicely rounded hips. Her blue shorts and green top were figure-hugging and very pleasing to my eye. She was a few inches shorter than my six feet and looked to be in her late twenties, around the same age as me. I set about fixing her puncture, wondering if my act of goodwill might pay dividends if I asked for her number. Yeah, I thought, I should be so lucky.
"I haven't ridden up here in years. I really should've been better prepared, but it's such nice day I just came on the spur of the moment. I didn't even check my bike before I came out." Honey's voice sounded slightly nervous and as I worked I had a fleeting thought that she was one of those girls who just talked, even if there was nothing to say. "Do you ride up here a lot? That's a nice bike you have. Can I help you there?"
"No sweat." I had found the hole in the tube and was applying adhesive from my emergency kit. "Shouldn't take long, this stuff sets quickly."
I put the tube aside and sat back against a tree while it set for a few minutes. Honey sat next to me, her shapely legs stretching out. It was impossible not to glance at her creamy calves, up to her muscled thighs and the gorgeous cleft created by her tight shorts. Helping Honey was no hardship, even if it had interrupted my much anticipated ride.
She asked a little about me and I told her of my boring working life, currently uneventful social life and my love of the outdoors. She told me that she'd grown up close to here but had moved away for several years. Now she was back, having broken up with a long-term boyfriend and she was taking this ride down memory lane, "The first of many she intend to take," she laughingly told me. "I must be getting old, thinking of the good old days already."
"You don't look old enough for that," I mumbled the compliment as I got up to see how her repair was coming along.
I refit the tube and tire, then inflated them and fixed the wheel back to her bike. If not quite as good as new, she was at least back on the road. "There you go." I handed the bike back to her.
"Thank you so much." She patted my upper arm with her hand. "I'm so lucky that you came by." She was probably right, not a single person had come by since I stopped.
I shook off her gratitude and returned to my practical nature. "I'll ride the rest of the trail behind you if you want. I think the repair will hold, but if you do have another problem, at least I'll be there."
"Would you?" Her face lit up, and my heart skipped. "That would be awesome."
"Let's go..."
Honey rode slower that I would've, but the view of her delectable bottom moving on the seat was well worth the extra time. She didn't ride badly though and looked out of practice if anything. She slowed when we hit inclines and her bottom came out of the seat and gave me an even nicer show of her ass as her legs pumped, but she never faltered and ploughed upwards relentlessly. Her hair wasn't long enough to flow wildly in the draft our speed created, but as I watched the back of her head I enjoyed the sight of her blonde locks dancing and my imagination switched easily to running my fingers through her hair. At one point I was watching her too closely, didn't see an upcoming pothole and crashed into it hard, only just staying on my bike.
We'd ridden about six miles and were still a few more from the end of the trail when she waved back at me to slow down and called to pull over. My first thought was that she needed a break, but I was wrong.
"Sorry to stop." Her face, reddened from the ride, didn't convey regret. "But I wanted to take a look down there. Do you mind? You can come with me if you like."
I looked over the edge of the trail where she pointed, but I had no idea what she was talking about. I knew it was a valley and probably had a river at the bottom, but I'd never been down there. It seemed like I had nothing to lose though. "Sure." I got off, loosened the shoulder straps of my backpack and stashed my bike off the trail, behind a few bushes.
Honey hid her bike too, gave me a playful grin and led the way between the trees.
The way down to the river was steep and the path was overgrown. It would've been impossible to negotiate safely without hanging on to trees but I followed the positive steps of Honey downwards. When we'd descended about thirty feet I could hear the rushing water and soon after that we hit a path that ran along the river's edge.
"Okay?" Honey asked.
"Sure." I was still perplexed at why would be here—an overgrown path with a none-too-picturesque river next to us.
Honey obviously sensed this and said, "We just have to go about a hundred yards up here. Don't worry, it'll be worth it. I promise."
As we ploughed through the dense path, pushing back branches and sliding between bushes I wondered what could be worth this, but one look at Honey and I was committed to following. My only clue to where we were headed was the increasing rush of water noise. "Nearly there," she shouted back, with me still wondering if the undergrowth would ever clear.
It did. We walked up a small incline and, as though emerging through a curtain, we were confronted by the wonderful vista of a thirty-foot waterfall. Seemingly from the sky, the river came over the top of a ledge, plunged ten feet to a second ledge and then split into two twenty-foot streams that cascaded into a large pool. In the spring sunshine the scene was spectacular.
"Wow." I took in my second glorious sight of the day. "I'd never have guessed this was here. I've never seen it on any maps of the trail. I wish I had my camera."
"We can come back sometime, with your camera." Honey smiled, enjoying my reaction. "It's not on trail maps, because we're not on forest preserve land anymore. This is private land, but no one ever comes here because it's such a hike from the road. When we were kids snuck down here from the trail. It was a secret place."
The area around the pool was negotiable, but was hardly a path. I took a few steps around, moving from the grass bank to the rocky river's edge as required to progress. Honey was sure-footed as she followed.
"Later in the summer the water gets warm enough to swim... just about," she called over the waterfall's roar. "It was the most fun. Too cold for that today though."
I looked at the water and easily imagined it was too cold to swim in, but the refreshing spray was nice in the sunshine. I noticed the rainbow the spray created as I looked up to the edge of the waterfall and smiled. What is it about rainbows that always make us smile? "This is beautiful," I told her.
Honey joined me on a large rock at the edge of the pool. "It hasn't changed much," she said wistfully. "Looks like no one comes here much anymore. I guess parents these days want to know where their kids are every second of the day, and don't want them hanging out near water, so far from a hospital... or a minivan." She laughed, and I knew what she meant.
As I continued to survey the scene, she was standing behind me and the sound of her voice was as sweet as her name as she continued her reverie. "We'd bring food and stay up here for hours. One time someone stole our bikes and we had to walk home. We found out the next day that it was one of our friends playing a trick on us. Next day we had to walk all the way back here, to where he hid them."
I could hear the smile in her voice. "I fell in the water one day, when we didn't have towels or swimwear. I jumped in from the ledge... but only once. Over there is where..."
Her voice trailed and I turned to see her face, slightly redder than before. "What?" I asked.
"Oh... nothing." She coyly turned away.
