It was a lovely early September morning, and Becky decided to take advantage of it. She had noticed there was a loop hiking trail not far from her new home in western North Carolina. She had done a fair amount of hiking through the mountains and canyons in her native Arizona and she was eager to hike through the eastern woodlands. She had moved to Asheville to take her first "grown-up" job out of college, and now that things were settling down at work she was ready to do a little exploring on this fine warm Saturday.
Becky arose early and packed her North Face day pack with the gear she would need, including a water bottle, her lunch, a camera, a Swiss Army knife, and a poncho, just in case. She was dressed in her hiking boots, denim shorts and a dark t-shirt. She hopped into her Honda and headed for the small parking lot by the nearby trail head.
The trail map showed the route was about 12 miles long, with some elevation to contend with. It also showed that for a few miles the trail paralleled a small river. As an experienced hiker Becky knew she could make this hike and be finished long before the chill of the evening arrived, and still have plenty of time for a leisurely lunch. Her one regret was that she had forgotten to bring insect repellant, but she hoped that would not be a problem.
Everything started off smoothly, Becky was enjoying the day hike through the woods. There were not many other hikers, this was during the lull between summer vacation time and fall foliage time. Toward the mid part of the day Becky had finished around half the trip, and she decided to eat her lunch. She found a small grassy area just off the trail with a stump in it so she could sit and eat surrounded by the tall grasses.
After finishing her sandwiches she decided she could ditch her bra for the rest of the hike. It was getting a little warm and she knew she would be more comfortable with it off. She slipped her hands under her shirt and deftly undid the bra, then stashed it in her day pack. Becky continued the hike, occasionally stopping to look at the river, and wishing she had waited a little longer to eat lunch, it would have been nice to sit on a rock by the stream to eat, but that was water over the dam, so to speak.
Then Becky was over taken on the trail by a tall, lean, dark- haired male hiker about her age. They chatted a bit and quickly decided to make the rest of the hike together. The other hiker was named Nick, he worked in a camping equipment store, and he was a hunk, in Becky's opinion.
Shortly after they started hiking together, Nick noticed a bit of red swelling on Becky's arm with a black spot in the middle. "It looks like you have a tick embedded in your arm, I can pull it out with my tweezers," Nick said. As he pulled it out with his tweezers, he noticed several more ticks, including some on her legs.
"This has been a pretty active tick season around here," Nick said. "It looks like you didn't use any repellant, and did you go off the trail into the grass?"
Becky confessed that she was guilty, and explained about the lunch on the stump in the grass. She said that she had done a lot of hiking in Arizona and never had a tick problem there.