Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

JESSE

S he didn’t know what awakened her, but it was pitch black. Rolling over, she unzipped her tent flap and spotted Mark and Chris standing nearby, facing away from her. They wore headlamps and held guns.

“What’s going on?” she asked, her heart racing as she scrambled to free herself from her sleeping bag.

“We heard something,” Mark said. “Maybe a bear.”

She realized the mules were still hobbled, but the men had tied their lead lines to a rope strung between two sturdy trees. They looked alert, their ears pivoting.

“What do I do?” she asked.

“Put your shoes on and grab your headlamp and bear spray,” Chris said. “Stand behind us.”

“Please don’t spray us,” Mark added. She didn’t know if he was being snarky or serious but she wasn’t of a mind to pick a fight over it.

That’s when she heard the sound, something large moving through the darkness. Not immediately close, but closer than she’d like.

One of the mules let out a snort.

As she struggled to get her shoes on, the men took a few steps toward the sound and started shouting over each other.

“Yah, bear!”

“Hey, bear!”

“Go away, bear!”

“Get out of here!”

She found her bear spray and joined them, echoing their yells as she nervously scanned the area. Then Mark held up a hand calling for silence.

She strained to listen, every sound grating across her nervous system.

After a moment there was another noise, something large moving fast, but away from them.

The men stood listening even after Jesse couldn’t hear it.

“Are we okay?” she finally asked.

“Yeah,” Mark said, finally relaxing and holstering his sidearm.

“How do you do this alone?” she asked. “I’d be terrified!” Fuck, she was terrified now .

“I usually sleep in one of the backcountry cabins,” he said. “When I can’t, I sleep very lightly when I’m alone, and I’m never alone in areas closed for bear management. On good nights when I can’t sleep in a cabin, I don’t even pitch my tent. Plus, the animals will warn me. I have at least one horse and one or two pack horses or mules.”

“Will we be near any cabins?” she asked.

“Depends.”

Her brain wasn’t engaged enough to process that. “Depends how? Either we will or won’t.”

“We might be able to reach one of them if the snow isn’t too deep on that trail. Otherwise, we won’t attempt it. And it won’t be until we’re at the last site. We’d add several days to our trip if we tried to sleep in one every night, and still have to spend nights camping.”

“Oh.”

“Why don’t you go back to sleep?” Chris said. “We’ll keep watch. It probably won’t return.”

She was going to argue that she didn’t think she’d be able to go back to sleep, but then she yawned. “Good idea.”

The next morning she awoke before dawn again. Mark was up and starting a pot of coffee.

“Good morning,” he said.

“Good morning. No more bear?”

He shook his head. “No more bear.”

Chris emerged from their tent, his brown hair mussed. “Hey,” he sleepily said, stretching before walking over to join them. He dropped a kiss on the top of Mark’s head when he accepted a mug of coffee from him. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Then both men froze and looked at her.

“What?” she asked.

“Sorry,” Mark said. “Didn’t mean to PDA you.”

“I don’t mind. You guys are adorable.”

Chris lightly swatted Mark’s shoulder. “She thinks we’re adorable.”

Mark smirked. “You wouldn’t think we’re so adorable if you shared a tent with us for the next few days. Not exactly bathing weather.”

“I think we’ll all be a little aromatic,” she said. “And I have extra waterless cloths, if you get to the point you want to cry uncle.”

“Look at the lady being all prepared,” Chris joked. “Like she knows us or something.”

“That’d be self-preservation on her part,” Mark snarked.

By day four, Jesse was tired but she understood what the men had meant about her loosening up. Her body was acclimating to the altitude and the exertion. They’d spotted signs of bears—scratch marks on trees and fresh scat—but hadn’t seen any. Mark called in a dead elk they spotted in the distance, their attention drawn by ravens fussing at each other as they scavenged. When she asked if he wanted to examine it, he snorted.

“Hell, no. We’re not going anywhere near it.”

“Why did you call it in?”

“Because if any of the scientists want to observe in case wolves or bears show up, they’ll know where it is.” He looked through a pair of binoculars. “Looks like it’s been dead a few days and is pretty well picked over,” he added. “And that’s a cue for us to pick up the pace so we don’t run into any bears.”

By the end of day six, Jesse was more than ready for a hot shower and real food, but she found herself enjoying the men’s company more than she’d imagined she would.

I wish I didn’t have to say good-bye to them in a couple of days.

She still hadn’t summoned courage to ask them about the dating comment Chris made at the bar. Tomorrow they would reach the last sensor, and then Mark would decide about heading for the cabin or heading for the trailhead.

What bothered him was the sky had turned overcast and the temps dropped. For most of their trip they’d enjoyed beautiful weather, a light, misting rain one afternoon, and cold but not frigid temperatures at night.

“Do you think the weather will hold?” she asked.

“Hard to say. There’s a front approaching but it’s not supposed to arrive for several days. That doesn’t mean the weather here won’t change sooner. I’ve seen it snow in July and hotter than hell in October. We should pick up the pace tomorrow.”

The next morning they set off just as the morning twilight lifted enough for them to have safe footing. So far, the journey had gone perfectly. When they reached the last sensor she quickly installed the equipment, and when she locked it up and stowed her gear she turned to find the men staring downhill at something.

“What’s going on?”

Mark waved her over and handed her his binoculars. In the distance, down in a valley, a small wolf pack playfully bounded through the spring wildflowers and grass.

“That’s so cool!”

“Yeah, but they usually don’t roam in this area,” Mark said. “That’s kind of odd. I’ll call it in.”

While he did that, she moved stuff between her backpack and the mules, lightening her load even more, then used the binoculars to watch the wolves a little longer.

She would have stood there watching for hours if a breeze hadn’t washed over her, making her shiver. She looked up to finally process the overcast skies were now lightly misting rain.

Mark and Chris looked up, too. “Damn,” they said in unison, making her laugh at their parroting thing.

“Let’s get moving,” Mark said. “Temps will drop and if that wind picks up, it’s too exposed to camp up here. Let’s head down and find a spot. We won’t make that cabin tonight before dark falls.”

They packed everything and she pulled on her rain gear over her clothes. That soon became too hot when the rain stopped, so she paused to ditch the pants. She kept the jacket on however, because of the wet foliage they brushed against. She also pulled on her knit hat, which she’d packed on the mules earlier when she’d felt too warm.

But despite the rain stopping the cloud cover thickened, turning the afternoon ominously dim. They stopped in a small clearing to rest and for Mark to try to call in by radio for a weather update. They tied the mules to a sapling and Mark dug out his radio, but didn’t seem to have reception.

Meanwhile, she took the opportunity to make a pit stop. Now she could do it without shedding her pack, not that it was a skill she could translate into everyday life.

She was finishing when she heard Mark give up.

“We must be out of range. I’ll try the satellite messenger in a minute. First, hold this for me, would you?” Mark handed Chris his radio. “Pit stop of my own.”

“Sure.”

Jesse stepped away from the clearing because she recognized the sound of rushing water. There was a drop-off a few yards away, so she walked over and peered down into a rushing creek.

I will miss this place.

Despite the exertion and her exhaustion, she found herself unexpectedly loving this time spent in nature. It was easy to understand why the men felt so passionately about the park.

She didn’t register the other noise, at first, until she smelled… something . Something kind of…gamey, musky?—

That’s when her head snapped up and she turned and spotted a bear cub maybe twenty yards from her.

Shitshitshit!

Slowly backing toward the clearing where the men were, she tried to get their attention without drawing the as-yet-unseen sow’s attention.

Because where there was a cub there had to be a momma bear.

“ Psst! Chrissssss! Mark! ”

Chris responded. “What—oh, shit ! Jesse, stop moving.”

She froze.

CHRIS

Our luck just ran out.

Mark had disappeared into the trees on the far side of the mules.

Chris stepped forward, the radio in his left hand as he fumbled for the can of bear spray on his right hip. He still didn’t see the sow but the cub was young, too small to be on its own. “Jesse, stay right there, and don’t turn around. Mark!”

“What?”

“Get out here!” Chris had lucked out that while he’d seen bears in the field countless times, he’d never had a close enough encounter where he’d had to use his bear spray. He was usually with a group of several people who could make enough noise to send bears running.

“What do I do?” she hissed.

“Get your bear spray out and slowly back away.” He heard snuffling noises beyond the cub, but couldn’t see the sow yet. The cub had frozen, staring at Jesse. Now the mules were snorting, stomping, whinnying and making their fear known.

Chris moved forward at an angle, to intersect Jesse’s path. “Hey, bear!” he screamed, holding his arms up. “Go away, bear! Mark, get the fuck over here!”

“Shit! Coming!”

That’s when the sow emerged, directly behind the cub, and Chris wasn’t sure his heart might not stop right there, because she was huge. He didn’t risk glancing behind him. “Jesse, keep moving. Just go. I’ll catch up. Don’t turn your back to them or run yet. Hey, bear!”

The sow stepped forward as the cub scampered behind her. Then she reared up on her hind legs, taking another couple of steps toward him.

“Yah, bear!” he screamed. “Mark where the fuck are you!”

The bear dropped onto all fours and headed toward Chris.

Backing up, he reflexively lobbed the radio at her while activating the bear spray and praying he wouldn’t nail himself with it.

That’s when he heard Mark run up, bear spray in one hand and gun in the other, and they both continued screaming until the sow let out another growl, but she didn’t leave.

“Go, Chris,” Mark said, stepping in front of him. “Follow Jesse.”

“But—”

“Fucking go !”

He glanced behind him and started moving.