In summer, high in the mountains on the western slopes, darkness comes after 11:00p.m. For those who have never experienced this late night phenomena, the idea of sun light until the hour before midnight is not imaginable. Moreover, the dark night sky without reflected city light is a stunning display of billions of stars making up the Milky Way. Stars, clustered tightly together, give the impression of dense white, milk looking path of stars splitting the horizon from east to west. This is something I experienced years ago in the military stationed in Germany and share that experiencing again with this tale of backpacking through the Black Hills of South Dakota.
I was fortunate to have a backpacking buddy with me who had never seen such a sight. We stayed up late our first night out so she could see the sight. We were unhurried and did not have any need to sleep early to begin our hike early the next morning. Joe was in awe of the sight the sky poured out before her eyes.
Joe, Josephine, and I have know each other since middle school, we went to high school together. Over those years, we were friends. She had her boyfriends, I had my girlfriends and we had our friendship. We went to college on opposite sides of the country, while over breaks at home, we hung out still as friends.
This is the summer after college graduation and we decided to take a vacation in the Black Hills together. As 23 year old college grads, and friends, it was natural that we would spend six weeks enjoying ourselves before we entered the work force doing what society says is the right thing to do, work until we are 70 then die wishing had lived our lives our way.
My name is Scott. In a crowd, I would not stand out; I do not have any unique features. I do stay fit but I am not a gym-aholic. Hiking and bicycling are my preferred means of exercise. Girlfriends have never complained about being unsatisfied although I am average in sexual endowment. I am just over six feet one inch tall.
Joe is attractive in my eyes, she has a pretty face, green eyes, and sandy colored hair that frames her face and is just shoulder length. She has feminine curves right where they are supposed to be. On her five feet eleven inch frame, her breasts are full but not big. Her waist is about 25 inches and her hips are full with a nicely designed butt.
"Scott," she asked as we decided to unroll our sleeping bags, "how come you never asked me for a date?" Joe's voice was normal as though asking for an answer to math problem
"I have always valued you as a friend and didn't want to make things difficult with the innuendos that dating can imply." I was matter of fact in my answer. Neither of us continued the conversation as it was late, our hike and staying up to see the sunset precede the appearance of the night sky left us tired.
We planned to spend a week in the wilderness before resupplying and carried lightweight dehydrated foods and a few utensils to boil water for coffee and rehydrate food. We had an emergency gas stove but used wood fires as much as possible. We drew our drinking water from local streams using wilderness filter systems. We had a small two-person tent in case of nighttime rain, but slept in the open on clear nights.
Although morning came early and we had not had more then about five hours sleep, we felt refreshed as the morning sun brought life back to the mountains. I boiled water and unpacked some coffee and dehydrated eggs and sausage. One package is supposed to be two full servings and needs three cups boiling water to reconstitute.
As I worked on breakfast, Joe went off to wash up in the stream that ran near by. We were conscious of pollution and carried only natural soaps. As Joe walked away, I could not help but watch with her question from bedtime still on my mind.
There was very little seclusion for her to wash privately and she made as much use of it as possible. However, I did get an eyeful of her as she stripped, washed, dried and put on clean panties before pulling up her hiking pants. She washed her dirty panty in the stream. As Joe returned, the water was boiling for the food.
"While the food rehydrates," I said, "I'll go wash up. You can boil water for coffee." Joe agreed and off I went for my wash up. I wondered if Joe watched me but I did not want to do anything to give into my wonder. I followed much the same routine as Joe.
"Not much privacy out here is there." Joe asked the question in a way making me believe she may have watched.
"Not a whole lot but tall grass is a pretty good shield." I wondered if my answer was good enough that Joe would not think I checked her out while she washed.
"I hope they were," Joe laughed.
"Are you saying they weren't enough," I wondered if Joe would take the bait and from the blush in her cheeks, I had my answer.
"Ah... Well... I did catch a glimpse. I wasn't looking though!" Joe does tend to embarrass easily and it showed in her face and voice. "Did you see me," she asked in an apprehensive and tentative voice.
"I was busy with boiling the water for the eggs and sausage, I didn't even try," I lied. "Why the sudden interest in bodies and the dating question last night?" I wondered to myself if I wanted more from our relationship and if Joe wanted more.
"Scott! For eleven years we have known each other, you never noticed I am a girl!" There was anger in Joe's voice I had never heard before. Clearly, she is interested in me as a guy not just a guy who is a friend.
I looked carefully into Joe's eyes seeing not anger, rather sadness, sadness that I had not see her as a woman. "Joe, I know you are a woman, I've noticed. I noticed this morning while you were at the stream washing, but I lied about not seeing you. I care about our friendship too much to hurt it." I was not sure if I said too much, said it wrong, or should have just shut up.
"What did you see, Scott? Now be honest. Did you see me as your friend or as a woman?"
"Joe," I almost whispered, "I saw you as my friend and saw you as a woman. I cannot separate friend and woman. I saw you trying to be modest, trying to hide your body as you washed, I saw a lot but not enough."
"You didn't see enough because I was being modest, or not enough and you want to see more."
We were coming to grips with change in our lives and we both knew it. My answer was simpler than I thought it would be, "Not enough."
Joe reached for the pouch of eggs and sausage and took a helping; however, I did notice a slight smug look on her face.
We cleaned up our campsite after eating, looked at the trail map for a likely place to end today's hike. A point about 12 miles away looked best, wooded, a couple shallow lakes, place to swim and really bathe. The only things we did not stow were canteens of water and digital cameras. We were getting good shots of wilderness and wildlife. We each carried extra SD cards and would not need to download until the trip was over.
