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“Is it always this dark in midafternoon?” I asked, realizing how dark it had gotten. “Is it the angle of the sun to the mountain?”
“No…” she said slowly, peering up at the heavy clouds that had rolled in, then whispered, “Shoot.”
It sounded like a curse and lifted the hair on the back of my neck.
“What’s wrong?”
“I checked the forecast—all of them actually, on three different channels. We were supposed to have clear weather the whole time we planned to be out. When I’d checked, I’d seen the same.
“That looks like a storm,” I said, peering at the clouds again. I knew snow clouds when I saw them. We were about to get dumped on.
“We need to get the tent up. Now,” she said, heading for my pack and not hers. For the first time, I actually realized we were sharing a shelter. I wasn’t sure why that hadn’t clicked before when I kept thinking ofourtent.
“Will the tent work for this?” I asked as flurries started to swirl around us. “Should we head back down.”
“No time. We’ll get caught on the trail. We’re better off hunkering down. This is a Geertop, four season tent. We’ll be okay in it.”
Together, we put down the base layers then got the tent erected. By the time we were stowing our gear inside, the snow already fell in a thick blanket, making it difficult to see more than a couple yards.
“Well…this isn’t exactly what I planned,” Pete grumbled as we got our sleeping mats and bags rolled out.
“No? I thought this was part of your test.,” I teased.
Though the tent was shadowy, I still saw her roll her eyes at me. “Not a test. It’s training.”
“Gotcha. So how do we stay warm? Body heat?” Okay, yes, I was hopeful she’d say yes.
“Layers. Which we both have already.”
Right. She had made sure of that before we left.
“And I have a battery powered heater in my pack. Won’t last long, though. I’d hoped to have a fire going and let its heat seep this way. The tent will insulate us well. And our sleeping bags are rated for subzero temps. We’ll be okay.”
Her teeth were chattering as she spoke, though, so I wasn’t so sure of that.
Six
Pete
What the heck? Really. This trip was supposed to be a primer for Mikaly to get his feet wet, so to speak, to ensure he was prepared for cold weather camping with the boys this weekend. It was not supposed to be blizzard camping.
“I checked the weather, too,” he told me after I’d grumbled about it. “It’s one of the things I do first thing in the morning to help me prepare for the day. Kind of a habit I picked up as a teen after our English teacher made us read about the children’s blizzard.” He winked. “See? I can read.”
“I didn’t doubt it,” I laughed, trying not to shiver as the wind battered our tent. I could only imagine how bad it would be if we didn’t have a wind break built up and if the trees weren’t nearby. The canvas structure was doing a fair job of protecting us, but there was no escaping that there was a storm outside while we had questionable protection.
“So what was the agenda for this trip?” he asked, distracting me.
“Step one was getting here and setting up camp, so you’d know what we had to do for maximum protection from the cold. I guess we got that part accomplished.”
“Go us.”
“We were supposed to get a fire going and collect some water, cook over the open flame, forage in order to get in some winter weather plant identification, do more hiking after we’d set up camp. You know… Basic outdoorsy stuff.”
His gloved hand landed on my arm as we sat crossed legged across from each other on our pallets that we’d butted together. “You know, Pete… Iamused to cold weather. That’s the other reason I check the weather all the time. I spend hours at a time on the hill—or leading cross-country groups. I have to know what to expect to keep my students and outing participants safe. It’s okay. We’ll be alright. You’ve got us all set up and made sure we had cold temperature supplies. We might be chilly and uncomfortable, but we’ll make it.”
Cue the choir singing. Dang it, he’d just confirmed what I’d suspected yesterday when he didn’t freak out about me being a woman, rather than the man he’d expected. Mikaly Andrich was a good man.
I nodded, acknowledging his reassurance.
