Trail Blazer

by Nicolette Dane

  Naomi closed her laptop and stood up from the floor. Looking out of the window and into her family’s backyard, it was a beautiful day outside with a blue sky above and the sun shining bright. A few fluffy clouds rollicked through the vastness overhead. Below, on the ground, the grass was dark green and recently mowed. It was idyllic, really. Everything felt so natural and perfect out there. Naomi wanted to be out there, out in nature, out in the elements. She wanted to go run through the grass barefoot and feel the earth below.

  But she had to go to work soon, and she knew—thankfully so—that Gretchen would be there. Naomi also knew that she had to open up to her friend. She had no other choice but to share her feelings with Gretchen, because Gretchen was the only one in her life that could help her make sense of it all. Naomi, however, was scared. She was scared of what kind of complications would emerge from admitting what she knew to be true. What would her family think? Her friends? How would her life change? And then, how would Gretchen react? Admitting to her that Naomi had feelings for her could jeopardize their relationship. And that was not something Naomi was keen to do.

  It would have to wait. Naomi resolved that she would open up to Gretchen on the trail, deep in the heart of the 100 Mile Wilderness. That’s where she would be safest. There would be nowhere to run and hide. All there would be was a path, putting one foot in front of the other, spilling her feelings out into the vast open emptiness of the Maine woods.

  That’s where Naomi could find herself.

  Once the decision was made to go on the hiking trip, the weeks started to fly by. Gretchen and Naomi were spending even more time together preparing for the trip—in addition to working together at Dune City—and they made sure they would be ready for any contingency. Fortunately, Gretchen did have most of the gear Naomi would need. They would take one small tent in case they needed it, though the 100 Mile Wilderness did have a good number of shelters for hikers and the girls would be able to string up hammocks to sleep in within the shelter walls.

  The day of their flight out to Maine was closing in, and the excitement was building. It was a busy Friday evening at Dune City, and Gretchen and Naomi stood behind the counter serving patrons, alongside Jim the manager. Jim was a short, stocky guy with messy dark hair and a stubbly beard. He was in the back changing out a keg, while the girls hovered around a regular customer and chatted with him.

  “We’re really looking forward to it,” Gretchen said to the man, who looked to be in his mid-sixties. He had a gut, white hair, and a white beard. His name was Keith.

  “I can’t believe the trip is almost here,” mused Naomi.

  “When I was younger,” said Keith. “I did the John Muir Trail out in California. In the Sierra Nevadas. That’s over two hundred miles. Elevation changes of over forty seven thousand feet. That was a monster hike.” He sipped his beer from a mug as he ruminated.

  “Wow,” said Gretchen. “Yeah, I’d love to do the John Muir one day. How was it for you?”

  “Well, it was a bit different when I did it,” said Keith. “It was the seventies, and we didn’t have all the technical gear you have today. There also wasn’t the same kind of information out there for planning the hike. No internet, of course. We were kind of foolish. I survived on a lot of beef jerky.” The girls laughed.

  “Think you’d do it again?” Naomi asked.

  “Today?” asked Keith. “No way. I’m too out of shape. Back then, though… yeah, it was worth it. I’m glad I did it. But I never did another big hike like that again. I only did it because I was in with some extreme sports guys back then. The kind of guys who would go climbing in Yosemite before it was popular. No, I couldn’t really hang with them.”

  “You need another?” Gretchen asked, indicating to Keith’s empty glass.

  “Sure,” he said. “I’ll have the ESB.”

  “You got it,” replied Gretchen, taking his mug. She turned from the bar and approached the beer taps. First she washed out his mug by putting it upside down on a rinser, spraying water up into it. Then she proceeded to fill the glass with Keith’s requested brew.

  “Hey,” said Naomi, as though she were speaking to Keith in secret. “Give it to me straight. I’ve never done any kind of hike like this before. Am I going to regret it?”

  “Well, I don’t know,” Keith replied with a laugh. “In the moment, you might get a little uncomfortable. My God, the blisters. But I’m sure you all have better shoes than I did in my day. I don’t think you’ll regret it, though,” he continued. “It really might be a life-changing experience.”

  “That’s what I’m hoping,” said Naomi with a small smile.

  “When are you leaving?”

  “In like a week,” she said. “It’s coming up quick.”

  “I’m guessing you’re all prepared,” said Keith. “You’ve got your gear and supplies and all that.”

  “We do,” Naomi conferred.

  “Don’t stress about it,” Keith said with a wave. “You’ll be fine.”

  “ESB,” Gretchen said upon returning, sliding the mug back to Keith.

  “Thank you, kindly,” he replied.

  Jim came out from the backroom and approached a tap. He took a thin taster glass and he attempted to fill it. At first, there was an abundance of foam. He dumped that out and filled it once again, this time with actual liquid beer. Satisfied that the keg was changed over, he took the taster glass and approached another customer sitting at the bar and gave it to them free of charge.

  Gretchen and Naomi wandered off from Keith, allowing him to return to a conversation he was having with another regular at the bar, and they moved over toward Jim. Dune City was busy, but everybody seemed to be well taken care of. Seeing as it was a tasting room and not an actual bar, if anybody wanted a beer, they would just have to come up and ask. No table service here.

  “So are you sure you’re going to be fine without us?” Naomi asked Jim.

  “Oh sure,” he said. “Jacob and Liz are cool to pick up your shifts. I’m just excited for you guys that you’re doing this trip. I hope to see some good pictures.”

  “Definitely,” said Gretchen. “We’ll take some photos to show you.”

  “So what’s the plan?” Jim questioned. “You’re flying out next Thursday?”

  “Right,” Gretchen replied. “Flying out Thursday early morning, then we should end up in Bangor by the early afternoon. Then we’re taking a shuttle out to the Hiker Hostel in Monson at the start of the trail. Staying there overnight, and starting the trail on Friday.”

  “Nice,” said Jim. “How long you think a hundred miles will take you?”

  “Originally I was thinking seven days,” said Gretchen. “But I read that the last half of the hike has a lot of downhill miles, so we think we can do it in six.”

  “Six days,” said Jim. “Phew. What do you think?”

  “I’m deferring to Gretchen,” Naomi said with a laugh. “She’s got the experience here. If she thinks we can do it in six, we can do it in six.”

  “Well, that following Wednesday is my birthday,” said Gretchen. “I want to be reaching the end of the trail when I turn thirty.” She grinned.

  “I’m sure you can do it if you put your mind to it,” admitted Jim. “I’ll be thinking about you guys while you’re out there. Just be careful and watch out for bears. You know to store your food up hanging in a tree, right?”

  “Of course,” said Gretchen with a knowing smile. “I’ve done plenty of camping before.”

  “Good,” said Jim. “Well, don’t worry about us back here. You girls just get in the zone and do this hike. It’s a chance of a lifetime. You’re going to love it.”

  Just then, Jim noticed that a customer had moseyed up to the bar at the opposite end. Jim raised a finger to let the man know he’d be right over.

  “I’ll get him,” Jim said. “Be right back.” He walked off to the other end of the bar.

  “You all right?” Gretchen asked. “Excited?”

  �
�Yeah,” said Naomi. “Do I look all right?”

  “You just have a little trepidation on your face,” replied Gretchen with a laugh.

  “I guess I’m a little nervous still,” admitted Naomi. “Keith was just saying some stuff. And Jim talking about the bears. I know it’s all going to be fine, but I just don’t know what to expect.”

  “It’s going to be great,” Gretchen said with confidence, placing her hand on Naomi’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about a thing. We’re going to have a blast.”

  “You don’t think we’ll actually end up hating one another?” Naomi quipped. Gretchen laughed once more.

  “I don’t think so,” she said. “But hey, I guess it’s possible. Maybe we’ll get at each other’s throats. You think?”

  “No,” Naomi said with a revealing smile. “I don’t think we’ll be at each other’s throats.”

  “Me neither,” agreed Gretchen. “It’s going to bring us closer together, I’m sure. There’s nothing like overcoming obstacles to bring you closer together with someone.”

  “What if we get hurt, you know?” Naomi posited. “Like, what if one of us falls and breaks a leg?”

  “I really don’t know,” said Gretchen. “I’ve read that there are some places where you can get phone reception, so I guess we’d just have to find a pocket of reception and call 911. That’s about all we could do. Or maybe another hiker on the trail could help us. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. We’ll be careful, we’ll go at a good pace, won’t take too many chances. As long as we’re not hiking after the sun sets, I don’t think we’ll stumble into any trouble.”

  “Right,” Naomi said with a slow nod. She was smiling as she contemplated it all. It still didn’t feel real. It was still only talk at this point. But the day was coming soon, just a week away, and she could feel the excitement fomenting inside of her. And she could also tell, from the look on her friend’s face, that Gretchen felt the same way.

  The night carried on with Gretchen and Naomi talking both with customers and with each other about their impending trip. It was all either of them could think about. Naomi’s confidence in the trip and in herself built up as they spoke to more people about it. It was like vocalizing it made it all the more real. And everybody was positive about it. The fact that she was doing this, committing to it, going on this adventure with Gretchen, it made her feel like she was starting to shine bright. She was doing something meaningful and worthwhile, something to brag about when it was all said and done. And she was doing it with someone she really cared about. Someone who seemed to understand her, and would hopefully understand her even better once they finished.

  Maybe Naomi would really burn bright on this trip. And hopefully she wouldn’t soon fade away after it was over.

  The night before the flight, Gretchen and Naomi hung out at Gretchen’s apartment and went through the bags they were taking on the trip. Laid out on the floor were two medium-sized backpacks, top-loading with a flap to secure them shut. Spread around the packs were all the various items the girls would need for their hike. They had lightweight rain jackets, extra underwear and sports bras, telescoping walking poles, hiking sandals made of a basic foam footbed, rubber soles, and webbed polyester straps, along with many more items for camping and trekking.

  Gretchen kneeled next to a rugged duffel bag and packed it with a few ancillary items. It was to be their checked bag on the flight, as well as a bag they could leave at the Hiker Hostel with whatever they didn’t want to take with them on the trip.

  “We’ll hide our knives in here,” Gretchen said. “They should be fine to check, but we don’t want some baggage handler to go searching through and swipe them.”

  “Does that happen?” Naomi asked, lifting a brow.

  “Unfortunately,” said Gretchen. “I had a friend who had some prescription medicine stolen from her checked luggage one time. It wasn’t even something to get you high. It was some sort of antibiotic.”

  “Yikes,” replied Naomi. “I hope we don’t get our knives stolen.”

  “That would be sad,” Gretchen confirmed.

  “So we’ll also stash our street clothes in there?” said Naomi.

  “Yep,” said Gretchen. “We’ll have a locker at the Hiker Hostel and we can put whatever random crap we want in it. We can also buy our food there for the hike. I had been worried about how we’d get supplies, but we can hop into a grocery store in Bangor—get some basics there—and then supplement with whatever else at the hostel. They’ll also bring us the second half of our supplies midway through the hike.”

  “Okay,” Naomi agreed. “That all sounds perfect.”

  “You getting nervous?” asked Gretchen with a wry grin as she stood up from the floor. “Feeling antsy?”

  “A little,” said Naomi. “But I’m actually feeling pretty good about it. It feels nice to be on the edge of a trip. No work for over a week, I’m staying over tonight so I don’t have to head back home. It’s exciting, you know?”

  “You worried about the flight?”

  “Naw,” Naomi said, and then she paused. “I mean, yeah, sure. Only because I’ve never flown before. But I’m not really worried. I’m getting pumped for all these new experiences.”

  “I’m excited for you,” Gretchen conferred. She stepped away from the living room and went to the refrigerator, reaching in and taking out two bottles of beer. She popped their tops with an opener. “I’m happy to be with you for all this new stuff.”

  “Thanks,” Naomi said, accepting the beer bottle as Gretchen handed it over. “Yeah, I’m ready. I’m too old for this to be my first flight. I want to put this embarrassment behind me.”

  “We’ll have to do something special for your birthday, too,” Gretchen posited with glee. “I’ll have to think about it and come up with something. Unless you already have an idea.”

  “My thirtieth?” responded Naomi, after taking a drink. “Yeah, but my birthday is in December. I guess we could go skiing.”

  “You do that every winter, though,” said Gretchen. “I mean something bigger. Like, maybe we go to Mexico or something.”

  “Huh,” mused Naomi. “Yeah, maybe.”

  “Well, whatever we figure out, I’m sure it’ll be fun.” Gretchen tossed her head back and took a pull off her beer bottle. When she was finished with her gulp, she smiled wide.

  “So once we pack these bags all up, that’s it,” Naomi surmised, looking down at all the gear on the floor. “Next time we dig into them, we’ll be on the trail.”

  “That’s right,” said Gretchen. “But I think we’ve got everything we need. First aid, basic shelter, we’ll have food soon enough. We might catch a little bit of rain, so the rain jackets are important.”

  “Maps,” mused Naomi, still assaying all the stuff.

  “Maps,” reiterated Gretchen.

  “I’m just glad I’m not on my period,” joked Naomi. Gretchen burst out laughing.

  “God, you’re so right,” said Gretchen. “There is no way I would have scheduled this trip if I was going to be on my period.”

  “You ever wish you could just rip out all the plumbing down there?”

  “All the time,” Gretchen confided. “I’ve got no use for it,” she said and laughed. “No way I’ll ever get pregnant. I guess it still matters for you, though.”

  “Yeah,” Naomi said absently.

  “You ever had any scares?” Gretchen asked without pretense.

  “No,” said Naomi. Her response was curt and low, almost as though the topic were making her uncomfortable. Gretchen noticed immediately and backed off.

  “Well, anyway,” she said. “I think we’ve got everything, checked it twice, three times, and there’s nothing left to worry about. Jim’s going to drive us to the airport tomorrow morning, and we’re off.”

  Naomi smiled, coming back around, and she stuck the neck of her beer bottle out. Gretchen smiled in kind, and she tapped the neck of her bottle against Naomi’s. They both drank.
r />   Later on, after everything had been packed up for the final time and placed expectantly near the apartment door, Gretchen and Naomi lay together in Gretchen’s bed. Being this close to an undressed Gretchen sent a thrill through Naomi. And Gretchen felt the same way, but she had better learned to suppress those kind of urges for her friend. Still, there was a strange energy bouncing between the two as they lay there in the darkness, both still awake, neither sure if it was the excitement of being close to one another or the excitement for the impending trip that was keeping them up.

  “Are you still up?” Naomi whispered.

  “Yeah.”

  “Sorry,” said Naomi. “I can’t sleep.”

  “That’s all right,” said Gretchen. “What’s on your mind?”

  “Just stuff.”

  “Yeah,” Gretchen agreed. “Me too.”

  “Your bed is comfortable, though,” Naomi said.

  “It’s memory foam.”

  “It’s nice. I should get one like this.”

  Gretchen felt a pang of confusion run through her. In other circumstances like this, with a cute girl in her bed, she would definitely make a move. But that obviously shouldn’t happen with Naomi. What a mess that would be. On the evening before their big trip together, Gretchen makes some move, and gets rebuffed by her straight friend. Gretchen tried to tame her thoughts. She was stronger than this.

  “You ever think that traditions and ways we’re told to live,” said Naomi. “Is just dead people peer pressuring us?” Gretchen laughed softly.

  “Yes,” she agreed. “I think that sounds about right.”

  “Just the weird, psychological baggage of old people,” Naomi continued. “Just because they thought some way in the past, that doesn’t make it necessarily correct.”

  “That’s right.”