Friday, June 8th. 11:42am.
Hank sat on the carpet in the small living room of his apartment, rolling his sleeping bag and stuffing it into its impossibly small pouch. He jammed it into the top of his pack on top of clothes and other supplies. Summer trips like this were easy, you could pack light and stay comfortable. He had gotten a call the day before by a group that was interested in one of his new "sojourns", short weekend hikes where all the arrangements were made and clients just had to show up with a few basics. It was a little experiment he'd been trying in order to bring in some extra work. So far it had been pretty successful.
After finishing up his personal pack and double-checking the four client packs, he took everything out to the Jeep, locked up the apartment and pulled out his phone for a final confirmation.
"I'll be at the trailhead in about 20 minutes. Are you all set?"
"Yeah man, we're good to go. We stayed up all night watching Hatchet and Deliverance to get psyched up for this!"
"Have you eaten lunch yet?"
"No, but we had a big breakfast so we'll be okay."
He paused for a breath and followed with "All right, see you there in just a bit. Bye."
Hank was annoyed; he'd taken this kind of group a few times before. Before nightfall they would be complaining of hunger, blisters, mosquitoes, and a dozen other things.
"Well, it's either this or no new transmission," Hank mumbled to himself, turning the ignition a few times before the Jeep coughed itself to life. He banged on the shifter a couple times to get it into gear and headed towards I-25.
Hank sat on the carpet in the small living room of his apartment, rolling his sleeping bag and stuffing it into its impossibly small pouch. He jammed it into the top of his pack on top of clothes and other supplies. Summer trips like this were easy, you could pack light and stay comfortable. He had gotten a call the day before by a group that was interested in one of his new "sojourns", short weekend hikes where all the arrangements were made and clients just had to show up with a few basics. It was a little experiment he'd been trying in order to bring in some extra work. So far it had been pretty successful.
After finishing up his personal pack and double-checking the four client packs, he took everything out to the Jeep, locked up the apartment and pulled out his phone for a final confirmation.
"I'll be at the trailhead in about 20 minutes. Are you all set?"
"Yeah man, we're good to go. We stayed up all night watching Hatchet and Deliverance to get psyched up for this!"
"Have you eaten lunch yet?"
"No, but we had a big breakfast so we'll be okay."
He paused for a breath and followed with "All right, see you there in just a bit. Bye."
Hank was annoyed; he'd taken this kind of group a few times before. Before nightfall they would be complaining of hunger, blisters, mosquitoes, and a dozen other things.
"Well, it's either this or no new transmission," Hank mumbled to himself, turning the ignition a few times before the Jeep coughed itself to life. He banged on the shifter a couple times to get it into gear and headed towards I-25.
