Rare Birds and Circumstances

July 14 is National Nude Day. In honor of this annual celebration of nudity, I wrote a little story. I hope you all can get outside on the 14th and enjoy some fresh air.

—

Rare Birds and Circumstances

So there's this girl, this woman, this smiling vision. She and I have noticed each other three times now, our eyes meeting, each time, for at least a second or two. Twice it has happened partway along my favorite hiking trail, with her going one way and me the other; and once it happened at the trailhead's dirt and gravel parking area, when she was heading to her car and I was just arriving.

Her nice friendly smile is what gets to me, every time; that and her beautiful eyes. The looks she gives me, and the ones I give her, speak of interest and quiet desire. At least I think they do. Looks are sometimes deceiving, but hers, as I filter them and imagine them, seem pure. Pure attraction, I mean, but, maybe my imaginings are wishful.

Driving to the trailhead on a beautiful warm sunny day with my good friend Neil in my car, our conversation had my mind in another place, but when I turned into the parking area and saw her car amongst the others, and saw

her

, just a glimpse of her, disappearing into the woods at the start of the trail, my heart rate increased just a bit. Was she alone again? Is she a fast hiker? Would we catch up to her? Which branch of the trail will she take — the spur that leads to the Overlook? The mile long section that leads to Beaver Dam Marsh? The longer, four mile route that leads to the quiet deep woods at Old Settlement Pond?

A car horn honked, loud and close, startling me. "Sorry," I said out my window, waving at the annoyed looking driver of the car I'd almost hit.

"What was that? You fuckin' go brain-dead?" asked Neil.

"Yeah, a little," I said.

Parking quickly, I was out beside my car strapping on my day pack.

"Jeeze, dude, you in a hurry or something?" asked Neil. He grabbed his pack from the back seat and followed me, the two of us soon in the comfort of the shady woods. I realized the folly of my ways, so I slowed down to my normal pace. I'm not an adolescent anymore; chasing women isn't what I should be doing.

"Nice day to be out, huh?" I said.

Neil nodded, looking up into the trees. "Perfect."

Neil is a quiet guy, not a wiseguy like I can sometimes be, so when we hike I sometimes join him in silence, because I know he likes it. And so we walked, and as we got farther and farther from the road the forest gradually became older, more virgin, more peaceful.

And then I saw her again, the woman, sitting on the log of a dead, downed tree, with one of her boots off, holding it upside down to get whatever was in it out of it.

She saw us approaching and looked surprised. The serendipity of our brief encounters seemed almost magical, to both of us, it seemed.

"Stone in your boot?" I asked, with a friendly smile.

"My button," she said, smiling, showing us the one missing from her shirt. "What are the odds of it falling into my boot like that? Must be my lucky day."

"Wow, yeah, that's a pretty good trick. I've seen you here before. My name's Nick. This is Neil."

"Hi Nick. Hi Neil. I'm Carrie," she said, smiling.

"Carrie, wow," I said. "Let's see, I'm thinking Carrie Bradshaw, from Sex and the City...or, a high school prom girl dripping with a bucket's worth of fake blood...or, you and your amazing smile and beautiful eyes. I think I'm gonna vote for door number three."

Carrie smiled, so beautifully, with a new shyness I hadn't seen. "Three, huh?"

I nodded. "When I was a kid two used to be my favorite number, but yeah, I'm not really into fake TV girls or blood, so..."

Carrie's eyes shifted from me to Neil. He's an avid and knowledgeable birder, and at the moment his head was tipped back, his gaze firmly on a Pileated Woodpecker high up in a huge ash tree. I watched Carrie's eyes quickly take the full measure of him, from his well used but nicely cared for hiking boots, to the top of his bird-curious head. She was still bashfully beautiful as she looked at me again, saying, "I know what you mean. I've always been a 'two' kind of girl, but...today seems different. Maybe it's because...Have you ever heard of Nude Day? Is that why you guys are here?"

Hearing the word "nude" come out of Carrie's subtly upturned mouth caused my brain to strip a gear, but I knew my dumbfounded silence wasn't good for anything. I stammered, "Nude...day?"

Carrie shrugged, looking shy again. "Oh, you don't know," she said. "Yeah, no, that's cool. So where are you guys headed?"

"We never decide till we get going," I said. "Maybe all the way to Old Settlement Pond, to that old lean-to out there. It's a good lunch spot."

"Oh. I know, I love it there. There's tons of deer around there, they bed down in the meadow grass alongside the inlet creek."

"Nice. We'll check it out. So where are you heading today?"

"Well..." Carrie said, her flashing eyes bashful, "...I was going there, too, but..."

"Oh," I said. "Hey, If you'd rather be alone, I get it. I love hiking solo. Yeah, Neil and me, we can head up to the Overlook, maybe drop down off-trail to Clear Pond. Have you ever tried that route?"

Carrie shook her head no. Her eyes looked different. I could tell she was thinking. "So there's this thing I mentioned," she said. "National Nude Day. I was planning on...trying it."

Suddenly Neil wasn't as interested in the big Pileated Woodpecker anymore. He looked at Carrie and I did, too. I felt bad that we'd made her blush, but the raised hairs on the goosebumps on her arms intrigued me. I said, "So it's like...what it sounds like?"

Carrie nodded. "People take off their clothes and do something. Gardening's popular. So is hiking, if you can...find a place." She looked even shyer and more blushed. "It's probably crazy to do it here. I mean, there's five cars at the trailhead. I don't know what I was thinking. I just love it here, and I thought, maybe, way out at Old Settlement..."

"Oh, yeah, totally," I said, hoping my stunned amazement didn't show on my face. "Yeah, that's four miles out, hardly anybody goes out there. You should do it. Neil and me, we'll head the opposite direction, I promise. There'll be people at the overlook, probably, but maybe I'll strip down and take a skinny dip in Clear Pond to celebrate...what did you call it? National Nude Day?"

"Yeah. It's a real thing," she said, as if to reassure us she wasn't just bonkers on her own. She paused and I saw her thinking some more. "I've been to Clear. I'm pretty sure there's leeches in that pond. I think there's leeches in all these ponds around here. You guys...I mean, if you really want to try it...you might be better off just hiking in the nude, you know? Like what I was thinking."

I nodded, but knew it wasn't something Neil and I would probably want to do.

Carrie looked me in the eyes in a softer, friendlier kind of way. "That trail to Old Settlement is probably the place to do it, right?" She paused again, and added, "Maybe we could...all go. I mean, only if you want to. I know it's crazy."

I glanced at Neil and he was very subtly nodding at me, his eyes unblinking. I looked at Carrie. "I probably have enough lunch for all of us," I said. "Did you bring food?"

She nodded, and her newly sparkling eyes glanced at both me and Neil. "How far do you think we need to be before we..."

"Get all nude?" I said, smiling. "A couple miles, maybe?"

Carrie nodded, her demeanor still luminous but now more serious. "It's, like, the perfect day for it, isn't it?" she said. "Black Fly season is over, and it's such a warm day. That's what made me think of this. The weatherman said it was going to be close to eighty-five today. You know how rare that is up here in these mountains."

"Oh, for sure," I said, as we all started our hike again. I walked alongside Carrie when the trail allowed it, with Neil behind us. I imagined him watching Carrie's ass, because that's certainly where my eyes would be. She's one of those women who's sexy in a completely natural kind of way, not all made-up and dressed up like a girl in a dance club. Carrie's hair is silky, and the breeze catches it easily, and her gait when she walks is hiker-experienced but womanly. When the trail narrowed and I tucked in behind her I enjoyed what Neil had been feasting on: her swaying hips and the wiggle of her curvaceous buttocks, tightly packed into rugged but stylish shorts. Yes, it was a fine view, but walking at her side and chatting with her was every bit as enticing, so when the rooted, eroded section of trail widened again I joined her by her side.

"So how did you find out about this nude thing?"

"Oh," she said. "I don't know. I guess...I like reading about sexy stuff. Do you ever do that?"

"Instead of just looking at porn, do you mean?" I smiled. "Yeah, I like to read erotic stories."

"Oh, wow, really?" she said. "I thought I was the only one who did that. So yeah, I read about Nude Day. And then I found lots of pictures of people. Lots of them in vegetable gardens, which is kind of fun don't you think? And lots of hikers." She turned her head, looking behind her as she walked. "Neil, have you heard about it?"

"Nope, never have," he said.

Carrie nodded, getting her eyes back on the ground in front of her. These deeply wooded mountain trails that we enjoy demand attention, so you don't trip and fall, or worse, break your ankle or some such thing. With a pack on your back, even a fairly light daypack like the ones we all carried that day, it's very easy to stumble.

I had a million questions for Carrie, but I didn't want to be

that

guy, and she seemed like a rather quiet person, there to enjoy the peace and quiet of the forest. Neil and I were down with that, so we just walked, and I wondered what she was thinking.

She didn't appear to be...well, I'll just say it, she didn't appear to be slutty in any way, not that I think slutty is a bad way to be. What I mean is, it seemed a bit surprising that she'd asked us, two guys she didn't know at all, to join her on her Nude Day adventure. She and I did have a bit of history — those few, subtly flirtatious glances at each other that we'd shared over the last month or two — but that didn't seem like enough to make a quiet and seemingly sensible woman like her do what she was doing. The whole thing seemed like a flirt, maybe; a goof that she was taking off on, on a whim. That's not such a bad thing to do, I don't think; not such a bad way to be. I've often wished I could be more impulsive, and I guess I was getting my wish; was I really going to take off all my clothes and hike nude with this woman, and with my friend Neil? I was starting to wish I had a bottle of booze in my pack, to loosen up my inhibitions a little.

"Hear that?" said Neil. "That's a Hermit Thrush."

Carrie and I stopped, listening to the bird's reedy song, high-pitched and pleasant. I smiled, not so much at the beautiful natural world we were immersed in, but at Neil's ability to think about birds when Carrie was soon to be nude. Maybe he thought that she'd never go through with it, that it was just a fun thing for her to talk about, to make her seem hipper than she actually is. Maybe that's true, I thought to myself, but in

my

mind Carrie had a certain something about her, a barely simmering lust that was faintly visible in her eyes. Or maybe my imagination was running away with me.

Quite a ways deeper into the woods we waved and said hello to a group of hikers who were heading the other way, and soon after, we reached a small creek where the trail to the Overlook branches off, uphill, to the right, and the trail to Beaver Dam Marsh breaks off downhill, to the left. We pressed on straight ahead, the trail narrower now, less trodden but still easy to follow. The forest is denser here, damper and mossy, with huge boulders scattered about, some of them the size of a house. Around here they're called Glacial Erratics, these massive boulders that were left behind during the ice age. We passed one, comfortably nestled against the face of a mossy, ledge-like cliff, a stunted tree growing on its top, it's roots reaching over the edge of the big rock like gripping fingers. It was here that we heard something that sounded like a demented squirrel, and Neil quietly said "Stop!"

We all stood still and listened. "It's a Grey Jay. Isn't that cool? That's a rare thing to hear, they're almost all way up in Canada." Neil looked, and pointed. "There. See it? This is fuckin' awesome."

"I love it," Carrie said. "It sounds so different."

"They have whistling calls, too," Neil said, "but this one's very cool."

We were three miles in at this point, primitive woods that felt quietly welcoming, the trail beckoning us to go deeper, farther. As we listened to the bird's odd song, Carrie took off her pack and set it at her feet. Looking at me, her eyes were gentle, with that smoldering sparkle, but I could sense a bashful reluctance. Her voice sounded as good to me as the Grey Jay's call sounded to Neil. "Do you think...it's time?" she asked.

"I guess," I said. "I mean, most people turn off at the Overlook trail. I doubt if anyone else is in this far."

Carrie nodded, her hands going to the buttons on her shirt, unbuttoning one, then another, then another. "You guys don't have to do this. I'm the crazy one who wants to do it."

"Seriously? We can just...watch you do it?"

Carrie shrugged at my smirking question, her face pinkening with the deep blush of embarrassed excitement.

I smiled. "You're supposed to say, 'No, asshole, it's not Voyeur Day, it's National fucking Nude Day'." Carrie smiled at my smile. I said, "I don't know what birdman wants to do, but I'm game. I'll go for it. You know how guys get, though, right? I don't want you to freak out if you see me all hard or something."

Carrie eyes widened and didn't blink. She looked surprised, but okay with it, like maybe she hadn't thought she'd have that effect on me.

"Hey. Birdman," I said, as I let my pack slip off my shoulders. "You with us?" Neil turned his attention away from the rare bird, back to us, even though I think he was listening to every word we'd said and pretending to be lost in his Grey Jay because he's a little shyer than me. I mean, I can't blame him really. Stripping naked for no good reason, in front of a woman who's a virtual stranger...yeah, it's not exactly an everyday thing. "Nude Day, bro," I said. "Me and Carrie are down with it."

With my t-shirt off over my head, I glanced at Carrie, not wanting to stare. She was glancing at me, too, just quick little looks. Her lightweight button-up shirt was off and she made quick work of her bra. Her nerves seemed to speed up her movements, undressing quickly, her tits out in the open air as her hands pushed her shorts down her legs. Her plain white panties made me think she probably hadn't planned to be impressing any guys with this striptease, but hey, my underwear wasn't anything to look at, either. I kept them on while I stuffed my shorts into my pack, but Carrie had gone all the way, panties off. She brushed the dirt off the bottom of the socks on her feet, squatted, and put her hiking boots back on.

So yeah, I had a half an erection, which makes me look kinda big, and I guess Carrie thought so too; when I took off my undershorts and she saw my cock she blew some breath out from between her pursed lips, in a 'wow' kind of way. Or maybe it was a 'What have I gotten myself into' kind of way.

"Naked in the woods," I said, smiling. "This is a trip."

I looked at Neil, his strip-down complete except for his undershorts. Unlike my tighter ones his were loose boxers, and his cock seemed to be outdoing mine in terms of hardness, tenting things a bit comically. He turned around when he made himself naked, glancing over his shoulder at us to gauge our state of preparedness. Carrie was standing, blushing, giving us the full-frontal view of her nudity as she adjusted her pack straps on her shoulders. Maybe she was facing us so blatantly just to see what she'd do to us? For whatever reason, it had an effect, my cock starting to rise, lengthening to it's fullest. I'm pretty sure Carrie was smirking as she turned and started walking up the path ahead of us.

"You guys go, I'll catch up," Neil said, still hiding his boner.

"Dude, it ain't getting any softer watching her walk from behind," I said quietly as I stood there waiting for him. I looked over my shoulder at Carrie's hourglass waist and curvaceous, wiggling ass, and knew Neil and I were

both

in trouble, if having nice hard-ons in the presence of an attractive woman can be considered 'trouble'.

Neil was tying his boots, so I trudged off. The sight of Carrie, and her naked ass, a hundred feet up the trail, was like a carrot on a stick, urging my feet along at a pace that was twice as fast as hers. I looked back and Neil looked comical, as I did, I'm sure, his half-bonered cock wobbling as he walked. The lack of suntan on the part of him where his shorts had been looked as white as a ghost. Carrie's ass was white, too, but bikini tan-lines on a woman are nothing if not attractive.

"We should do this more often," I said loudly to Carrie. "It's kinda awesome, right?"

Carrie slowed, smirking as she looked over her shoulder at me. "I'll let you know. Still getting used to it."

"Good thing we're allowed boots," I said, smiling. "Who makes the rules, anyway?"

Carrie chuckled, stopped, turning toward me as I caught up to her. Her eyes took in all of me, my chest, then her gaze drifting downward, my cock a bit more limber now, but still engorged, plenty big. "There aren't any rules," she said, eyes twinkling. She looked past me and saw Neil approaching, socks and boots and pack straps the only thing on his naked body, and she smiled.

"Lead on," I said. "I'm enjoying the scenery."

"There's a section of trail I really like up here," she said, waiting for Neil.

"Oh, that little gorge, through the cliffs?"

Carrie nodded. "It feels like the entrance to Rivendell."

"Ah, the Hobbit," I said. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Do you think there'll be lots of little eyes on us when we pass through?"

Smiling, Carrie nodded a little. I let myself look at her while she watched me, and she seemed to like it. I sensed a silent excitement inside her, my smiling gaze hardening her nipples. The straps of her small backpack squished her tits together somewhat, making her cleavage a bit more prominent, sort of the way a push-up bra would do. It was my first closer-up look at her nicely trimmed pussy, too, although she turned away after I'd had a quick eyeful. I didn't mind because the ass view completed the picture, and it was a nice picture, nice enough to harden my cock again. I was a little disappointed that Carrie didn't see it, my low-hanging hard cock, as she once again led the way up the trail.

After we'd passed through the 'Rivendell' cliffs part of the trail, Neil stopped us again. A damp, dark, impossibly dense thicket of ancient looking spruce trees filled a few mossy acres to our right, and a bird was making its buzzy, nasal call.

"Oh my God, that's another rare one, you guys," he said. "A Boreal Chickadee."

"Where is it?" asked Carrie.

The three of us stood together, looking, scanning the tangle of dark branches. It was an interesting moment, when our formerly blushing naked-bodied selves began acting as if nothing was unusual about hiking naked. My cock was slinking back to flaccid, and Neil's seemed to be doing the same. Carrie stood close to me for the first time, our arms nearly touching, and we gazed into the spruce-scented primordial shadows with searching eyes.

"It could be in there a ways," Neil said, sneaking glances at Carrie's body as we all looked for the little bird.