“That’s not reassuring.” Noah tightened another strap, squeezing most of the air out of my lungs. “Did you carryher?”
Noah shrugged. “Her? Yes. But she was really a size six.”
“Very funny.”
Yeti barked.
“She thought so.” Noah patted his wolf-dog on the head.
I shifted the weight on my back, trying to find a position that didn’t make it feel like my spine was warping. “Is it really worth this kind of joint trauma?”
“Better safe than sorry. You never know when somebody’s gonna come down with altitude sickness, dehydration, hypothermia, a broken bone, animal encounters that go sideways … severe inner thigh chafing …”
“Okay, all dangers noted. You can stop now.”
“Lightning strikes, rockslides, mudslides, poison oak, poison ivy …”
I held up my hand. “Seriously. I get it.”
“Bee stings. Hornet stings. Fire ant bites. Surprise skunk spraying.”
“A fist to the face from a malcontent hiking companion,” I added.
“Cute.”
Yeti barked.
“She thought so.” I patted Yeti on the head.
Noah grinned as he handed me one of the ski poles. Whichmade little sense since it wasn’t snowing. Unless, of course it was a surprise he was saving for later.
“These are trekking poles.”
“Are those anything likeStar Trekfans from Poland?”
Not even Yeti barked at that one.
“My dad took me to aStar Trekconvention in San Diego once. Bought me Spock ears and everything.” I made the split-finger Spock hand thing. “Live long and prosper.”
Noah looked at me like I was the dumbest person on Earth, then handed me a set of poles.
“You hold it here, and plant it into the ground like this.” Noah demonstrated proper pole placement and adjusted my set to fit me. “They’ll help with balance and take pressure off your knees. You’ll thank me later.”
“If I survive that long.” I fumbled with the poles, feeling like a baby giraffe on a deep-sea crabbing boat in the middle of a tsunami.
“The pack also has bear spray. That’s essential out here. The other day, Jenn saw a mother black bear and three cubs. Last thing you ever want to do is get between a momma and her baby.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Chapter Fourteen
Ihuffed and I puffed up the trail, my legs already burning and a cramp pinching a muscle in my back. And my legs. And my butt. The saddest part? We’d only been hiking for ten minutes.
Meanwhile, Noah moved like a mountain goat ahead of me, not even breaking a sweat. I caught myself watching the way his shoulders moved under his shirt, the effortless way he navigated the trail’s obstacles. Any second now, I figured he would start skipping up the trail and yodeling.
“Let me guess,” I called ahead of me. “You and your parents and Brie did stuff like this all the time.”
He nodded. “I grew up on these trails.”
