Just in case the title doesn't make it clear, this story is a continuation of "Tina Puts On a Daring Public Show" As usual, I didn't leave myself room for a "Ch. 2" or Pt. 2" at the end of the title.
Thanks for reading!
Standing in the middle of the trail halfway through her 4-mile hike, Tina took a minute to revel in having been brave enough to go through with her risky self-imposed challenge; she was just about as exposed as a person could be, and despite a few flashes of terror, loving it! Socks and shoes at her feet, a hat, and sunglasses on her head were her only concessions to practicality. She made no concessions at all to modesty, being completely uncovered from her ears down to her ankles. She was enjoying being utterly exposed too much to have any regrets.
After ten minutes or so of celebration, she began to think about just how committed to the most demanding option in her challenge she was, and began to worry that locking her clothing up might have added a bit too much risk to her outing.
Knowing that she had eliminated any safer options, she decided it was time to get started on her journey back to her car and the all-important padlock key. With every piece of her clothing locked up in the backpack and the backpack securely chained to a tree, all she had to carry back to the parking lot was her car's keyfob.
Tina unzipped the small front pocket on the pack where she'd stored the padlocks and chain and reached inside, but found nothing at all there. "The keyfob! Where did I put it? If it's in the main compartment with my clothes...oh, no, please don't let me have done that!" she wailed. She began to feel light-headed, trying to think of some way she could get out of this mess. With the least awful option she could imagine starting off with finding a rock big enough to smash one of her car's windows, she set off along the trail in the same direction as before, jogging slowly.
Luckily, before she'd jogged more than 100 yards she remembered one last possible place where the keyfob might be hiding and turned back towards the tree her pack was chained to. "You idiot!" she yelled as she felt the keyfob at the bottom of a small pocket on the side of the pack, and laughed hysterically for a minute before resuming her trek.
The section of the trail she was jogging along wound through a more open section of the forest; between the extra effort she put out by jogging and the sun heating up the trail, Tina began to sweat. She was glistening with a light coat of perspiration when she passed the 2 1/2 mile marker, not bothering to stop. About 200 yards further along the trail she came upon the first significant obstacle she'd encountered; a rocky ridge, not so steep as to block a reasonably fit person, but steep enough to make a hiker scramble, using hands as well as feet to get up it. She clambered up carefully, but placed a foot wrong when she had almost reached the top of the outcrop. She managed to catch herself before slipping very far, but got a few scrapes in the process.
"I can imagine explaining the scratches on my shin as being the result of a collision with an open filing cabinet drawer," she thought, "but I don't know how I'll explain the scrapes on my boobs to Darren!" She put that particular problem out of her mind for the time being, made it to the top of the stone, and started jogging again.
Her jog actually began to be pleasant when a short distance beyond the rocky section the trail leveled out and passed through a shadier area. Tina was relieved to pass by the 3 mile and 3 1/2 mile markers in good time and without incident. Just beyond the 3 1/2 mile marker, the trail got rocky again, this time sloping down about 20 feet. She stepped down cautiously, using her right hand to steady herself.
About halfway down the slope, she placed a foot on what turned out to be a loose rock. She didn't slip more than a couple of feet, but landed and slid down on her unprotected ass. She had no way to look at the tender spot, but investigating by placing her hand there confirmed that the rough stone had drawn a little blood.
"Yet another inexplicable scrape," she thought glumly. Focused on her latest minor injury, she didn't notice an elderly man walking his dog approaching her until the dog barked.
"Are you alright?" the man asked, now no more than 10 or 12 feet away.
"Ah, yeah, it's just a little scrape," Tina answered, "I'll clean it up when I get home."
"I mean, are you in danger or running away from someone?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that, just kind of doing a dare. Thanks for asking, I can see how this must look."
"Well, yes; seeing a very attractive young woman, naked, bruised, bleeding, and running, I jumped to a conclusion." the silver-haired man said.
"I can see how it might look like something worse than me being a little foolish," Tina replied, "Thanks for checking to see if I needed help!" She enjoyed his description of her, as well as the way he was studying her now that he knew that her nudity was voluntary.
"Well, be careful," he called out as she started to jog away.
"I will, thanks!" she shouted over her shoulder, but was thinking, "Dude, I left careful behind a couple of miles back!"
As far past the 3 1/2 mile marker as she was, Tina expected to be seeing the trail ending at the parking lot any minute now; she could hear the sounds of cars on the gravel parking lot and was sure the lot was just around the next bend. She was right about the parking lot being visible once she rounded one last bend, but there was a fairly long straight shot between the final bend and the parking lot, at least 150 yards long. By itself the long straight run didn't bother Tina; she actually liked the idea that a hiker at either end of the straight could watch her coming or going for quite a while.
The problem was the connection to some other trail about halfway between her position and the parking lot. Since Tina had left her clothing behind near the halfway point of the trail she'd passed only a handful of fellow hikers. The time spent mostly on her own had coincided with the time she was completely naked. The steady stream of people pouring out onto her trail would mean she'd be walking in a tightly packed crowd for at least a couple hundred feet, completely nude!
As she looked down the trail from behind the shelter of a large pine tree, Tina thought about her original goals for this adventure. She began to see the presence of so many other hikers as a good thing, not a problem at all, really more of an opportunity!
"More people seeing me totally nude, up close? Check," she said.
"Being seen naked longer than I have been? Check.
"Having conversations with strangers while I'm naked?" I don't expect they'll all just keep quiet, there's bound to be at least a few people with questions. Check!
Tina's nervousness didn't go away as she began walking down the straightaway; if anything it grew. Her legs felt a little shaky and her heartbeat soared when she came within 20 yards of the intersection, but she pressed on. She paused when she noticed a few of the crowd noticing her, and stopping to stare. "Oh, God, I'm causing a hiker traffic jam!" she thought as the crowd backed up behind the first few hikers who'd stopped and turned to watch her approach.
She wasn't sure if she continued walking and merged with the slow-moving clot of hikers in spite of all the attention she was now receiving or because of it, but the end result was the same. She was now part of a large, densely packed group slowly making its way toward the parking lot. As she expected, her fellow hikers were full of questions, including a few rude ones, but mostly the people around her were justifiably curious.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Not sure myself," she replied, "but probably just because it's so freaking exciting!"
"Where are your clothes?"
"Sorry, nothing personal, but I'm keeping that a secret. I need to be sure they'll still be there when I get back."
