“Are you sure this isn’t the trail to Mordor?” Kenzie joked.
Conrad grinned. “Hey, this is pretty easy going.”
The dogs loved it, their noses in the wind, but Kenzie quickly found herself out of breath. She wasn’t used to this kind of exertion. She stopped, put her hands on her knees. “I think you’re going to have to jog to the summit with the dogs a few times to keep yourself from getting bored. I’m slowing you down.”
He stopped beside her. “That’s okay. We’ll take this at your pace. This is about us being together, not about rushing to the summit.”
When she’d caught her breath, they moved on.
The scenery around them was stunning, the valley below them full of wildflowers. Kenzie stopped to take it in, the sight breathtaking. She’d seen wildflowers and mountain meadows before, but she’d never seen anything like this.
“Yankee Boy Basin.” Conrad drank from his water bottle. “It puts on quite a wildflower show in early summer.”
She pulled out her cellphone, took a few photos that could never do justice to what her eyes were seeing.
Maybe climbing mountains wasn’t all pain and misery.
* * *
Conrad pulledoff Kenzie’s boot. “You’ve got the start of a blister here. A little moleskin will fix this.”
While she nibbled on trail mix, he fished the first-aid kit out of his pack, snipped off a piece of moleskin, and taped it to the hot spot on her left heel.
He wanted this to be fun for her. He was sure she could make it. Mt. Sneffels wasn’t the toughest fourteener by any measure, but he wanted today to be a special memory, not something she wanted to forget.
It was the most important day of his life.
“You should be good now. Put your boot on and see how it feels.”
Her eyes went wide, and she pointed, delight on her face. “Look.”
He turned his head and spotted a fat marmot on a rock nearby. “Hey, buddy.”
The dogs were curled up, napping, and didn’t care.
She fumbled for her cellphone, took a few photos. “He’s so cute.”
“He’s probably used to climbers. He’s hoping we’ll leave some food crumbs for him to nibble.”
She slipped her phone back into her pocket, put on her boot, and stood, taking a few steps. “That’s much better. I don’t even feel it now.”
He stood, shouldered his pack, and grabbed Gabby’s leash. “Come on, girl.”
Clouds rolled in from the west, threatening rain, the sun still shining in a blue sky to the east. They needed to be on and off the summit before that storm rolled in. At fourteen thousand feet elevation, lightning was a real hazard.
Kenzie glanced up at him, looking beautiful, her cheeks flushed pink from exertion. “So far, there’s only one thing about mountain climbing that I don’t like.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s all uphill.”
He grinned. “True that.”
But as they went, it was clear to Conrad that Kenziewasenjoying herself. She took photos of everything they encountered along the way—wildflowers, chipmunks, marmots, pika, the little rivers, lakes, and waterfalls in the valley below.
“It’s beautiful up here.”
“I’ve always said that this is scenery you have to earn. You can’t get it sitting at home on your sofa.”
