Back to Nature -- Breeding Season
There are a lot of tales floating around about things that have happened in the mountain range region known as the Blue Ridge Mountains. Some are actual facts, some have some half truths to them, but most are wild tales of an over active imagination. Sometimes the line between fact and fiction is a thin one and it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. I'll let you decide.
It was early October when a group of four mid-20's women decided to go on a 'girls get-away' for a week in the northern end of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The women, Tricia, Robin, Heather, and Alexa, had known each other since college. They had gotten to be quite close, having lived on the same dorm floor until they graduated. When they each got married soon after college, they were each part of the other's wedding, and often got together for shopping and coffee gossip sessions.
Early on in their friendship, they had discovered they had a common interest of wilderness camping. They traded stories about the times they really had to rough-it in the wild with just a backpack and sleeping bag. All four women were used to the rigors of long hikes and climbing steep trails. The expense of college and constant need for study time however, prevented the women from spending more than 1 or 2 nights together at the local state park.
That changed after they graduated from college. Having each snagged a successful tall, dark, and handsome husband, all four women now found they had more time to do things together. Also, with no kids yet, they weren't tied down as much as some of their other friends who had gotten pregnant in college and now had 2-3 kids to tend to. It's not that the women were against having kids, it's just that all four wanted to wait a few years before starting a family.
The women's husbands, one a lawyer, one an accountant, and the other two middle managers at a bank and insurance company respectively, understood the friendship bond between the women and didn't mind it when their wives got together for an outing. Although the guys had a lot of common interests with their wives, 'roughing it' was not one of them. They were comfortable enough with their wives to let the girls do their thing for a week, once or twice a year.
It was at a coffee get together in September that Tricia, Robin, Heather, and Alexa had thought about how they had missed the opportunity to do a camping 'get away' during the summer. There were just too many things husbands needed them for during the summer for them to have their usual summer 'get away' together. A nature scene photo on the wall of the coffee shop inspired Robin to speak up about how they had missed out on their ritual annual summer camping trip.
It was Heather who got the idea that they could still schedule a week's worth of camping in the mountains the next month. All three of the other girls had that look of 'we coulda had a V-8' look, then brook into smiles. Within minutes, the women broke out their calendar planners and started to compare dates. It didn't take very long for them to realize they all had nothing penned in for the first week in October. A quick decision was made to use that week to go on their week long camping trip, and fast and furious planning soon ensued. Within an hour, the women had most of it all planned out.
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It was now two weeks since the women's coffee shop meeting. The wives were now at a remote location in the mountains, giving their husbands last minute hugs and kisses and a reminder on where they were headed, and where and when the husbands should pick them up a week later.
As the wives left their husband's arms and gathered together to check any last minute instructions, the husbands gathered close together to wish their wives well. Even though their husbands knew each other quite well and the couples were often at each other's house for a barbeque or party, looking at their husbands side by side, the girls couldn't help wonder about the strange coincidence of each marrying a guy with dark brown eyes and hair. It was almost like they had married a set of quadruplets.
In turn, each husband was thinking what a great body their wives had. Their wives worked out often and it was no surprise that each wife had toned thigh and calf muscles. That kind of conditioning was necessary for hiking 30-40 miles into the mountain wilderness. Although the husbands were a close resemblance, the wives had some differences.
Tricia was about 5'6" with dark brown hair and brown eyes. She was still sporting the remnants of a summer tan. She had made sure that her tan had no strap marks to detract from her firm 35C breasts. Robin and Heather had light brown hair down to their shoulders and were not as well endowed Tricia but still boasted a 34B cup. Alexa was somewhat of the odd-one-out. She was a dishwater blonde, who wore her hair in a ponytail most of the time. She didn't have quite the tan the other girls had, but her soft pale skin and creamy 36D breasts are what had caught her future husband's eye from the start.
So there they were, the husbands taking one last admiring look at their wives and the wives looking at the husbands like "I hope they can get by without us for a week". With Alexia's "Let's go girls, we're burning daylight", the wives turned and headed up a wide trail and the husbands got in their cars and drove away.
The area the girls had picked for their trip was one they had never been to before. It would provide a variety of environments in which to commune with nature. From mountain meadow, to thick forest, to babbling brook, to small mountain lake; there would be enough to remember for months to come.
The girls first day was easy going. There were man made and natural trails leading into the mountains for a couple miles. For the most part, their footing was on soft grass. It was more meadow like terrain than forest.
After hiking for about 5 miles, they set up camp on a grassy clearing close to a more heavily forested area. The clearing would provide them with a good view of the night sky and the woods would provide plenty of firewood.
It didn't take long to set up the two lightweight tents and stow their sleeping bags inside. The girls were not big on making a big dinner the first night out so dinner consisted of some something they could just warm up and eat without making too much of a fuss.
As night fell, the girls broke into one of their camping rituals around the evening fire, talking about old boyfriends and scary stories. After a couple rounds of stories and the fire starting to die, the girls turned in for the night. As they fell asleep, the sounds of the forest could be heard. A multitude of crickets sang their nightly song, owls hooted from the tree tops, and an occasional wolf could be heard howling to its mate in the darkness. All those sounds drifted into oblivion as the girls drifted into a deep sleep in their tents.
The dawn came bright and clear. The weather over the next week was expected to be clear skies and moderate temperatures. Breakfast was usually one of the bigger meals for the girls. They knew they would need the energy for the morning hike to the ridge overlooking a modest size lake. The lake was 6 miles away and was over more rugged terrain than what they had been over the day before. It would take most of the day just to get there.
They arrived at the lake's edge in late afternoon, as planned and their tents were set up just 50 feet back from the water's edge. It was the perfect spot for sitting back and watching the sun set across the water as they sat back against a log with their favorite hot beverage.
As night fell, the usual sounds of the night emanated from the dark. The lake's waterfowl added their sounds to the previous night's noises. The girls had heard it numerous times before, even the howl of a couple more wolves. The usual gossip and horror stories of creatures of the night were exchanged until they all got sleepy. As usual, they turned in early to get up early for the coming new day.
This was wilderness area and it was extremely rare to run across another human out here. They had not heard or seen anyone else and were glad to have the some peace and quiet away from the outside world. Unknown to the girls, they had been spotted coming into the forest that morning and had been followed to their lakeside camping spot.
Breakfast for the girls was somewhat the usual fare, nutritional but fast to fix. They had planned on staying at the lakeside campsite for a couple of days and just explore the area. Although they had brought plenty of freeze dried food along, the girls always made it a point to try locating some of the nearby berries and edible roots to add to the food they had brought along.
To that end, they set out toward a small valley on the downstream side of the lake. This was usually good hunting ground for berry bushes. It wasn't but a half mile later that they found an area thick with berry bushes. After a quick 'high 5' the girls bounded into the bushes for their prize.
The one thing the girls had not counted on was that a number of bushes had small thorns on them and the more they forged ahead into the bushes, the more they got scratched on their bare arms and legs. The scratches were not deep enough to be of concern, just enough to leave marks for a couple days.
After gathering up enough berries for lunch, they headed back to the campsite. On the way, they spotted a bountiful supply of mushrooms. The mushrooms would go great for the evening meal they had planned so they gathered up a number of them too.