By mid-afternoon, Robin’s mood had changed. I knew it would, and I’ll own up to it that a lot of it was my own fault. Robin thought she was in pretty good shape, and so did I, but this was on another level.

Robin wasn’t a soldier, and she didn’t know how to move over the terrain. She didn’t know how to swing her arms or how to roll her shoulders so that the constant weight on her back would shift back onto her hips sometimes, letting her chest expand and take in the occasional deep breath. She was pretty tired before we stopped for our noon meal, even with us taking breaks, but by two in the afternoon, she wasn’t sure how much longer she could go on.

“Hold on, Wes,” she panted, stopping to lean against a rock. “I need to take a break.”

I nodded tersely and slung my pack to the ground. I was frustrated, both with her and with myself. I was kicking myself for picking such an ambitious route, nothing for a soldier, but a lot for an engineer. I had expected her to be slow, but not as slow as she was, and I knew that we wouldn’t reach the lake I had targeted that day. When Robin snapped at me, it surprised me.

“You know, not all of us spent four years being an Airborne Ranger.”

I felt a thousand little retorts come to my mind but bit them back, turning to walk away without a word. Instead, I walked into a grove of trees about a hundred meters away, losing sight of Robin. As I walked, I talked to myself in my head. We were in a situation that even I hadn’t planned for, far beyond the abilities I had expected her to use when we started out on this trip. She was actually doing her best to try and keep up, and she was doing pretty good overall. I had done about the same my first ruck march when I had been in basic training, dragging across the finish line of the ten miles while the drill sergeants looked like they could go another ten miles twice and still be able to crank out fifty push-ups.

I remembered early in our walk, about an hour after we had left the plane, I had carefully looped our cord four times to create a stronger line, which I used to help lower her down a ten meter rock face before tackling the same face freehanded. In hindsight, I should have taken the longer, shallower path, letting Robin rest more often and get her footing easier.

I thought about what was Robin’s biggest challenge as I walked through the trees, recognizing it was her footing. At least that was something I could help her with immediately. I reached for my hip where I had my survival knife, a much heavier duty Bowie knife that I had kept with me since my days in Iraq. Sure, I had taken some ribbing from the guys about copying movie stars, but the fact was, that knife had saved my life more than once. I looked around for what I wanted, finding it pretty quickly. It was the Canadian Rockies, after all, and pine trees were pretty much everywhere. I grabbed the sapling and cut at the trunk, hacking it down in about two minutes.

When I came back out of the grove, I saw Robin sitting on a rock with a worried look on her face, and I kicked myself again. She had to be frightened being left in the mountains by herself. I noted to myself not to ever do that again without telling her what the hell I was planning.

Carrying the sapling over, I showed it to her, alternating between the saw tooth back and the razor-sharp blade to trim it quickly to the proper length. “The wood is a bit green, so it’s going to be springy,” I explained as I handed it over to her, “but it should help with footing and stability on some of the rockier ground.”

Robin set the staff I made aside and got to her feet, wrapping her arms around my waist and laying her head on my chest. “I’m sorry,” she replied. “I’ve just been so frustrated that I’m slowing you down so much that I let it out against you. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

Whatever had been wrong between us evaporated, and I squeezed Robin tight, knowing she didn’t really have anything to apologize for. I could have found ways to help her maximize what she could do, but that wasn’t really on my mind at the time. It was new territory for me.

In the Army, I had been a grunt, part of a squad, never really in charge of anyone. After that, my work has also been pretty solo, taking care of myself more than worrying about other people. Stepping back, she kissed me on the cheek, and then on the lips. “Thank you,” she said.

Before she could go on, I lifted her chin and kissed her again, my fingers stroking through her hair.

“You don’t have anything to apologize for. We were supposed to be here on kind of a vacation. I had planned on teaching you some outdoor skills, but nothing to this magnitude. But anyway, I think we should start gathering food for dinner. That grove had some bushes that looked pretty good for getting some berries, and I bet we can find some other stuff if we look around. The wild is full of food, we just have to look for it. How’s that sound?”

I watched as a smile crept up Robin’s face, lighting her up and making her even more beautiful. Robin is sexy when she’s mad and sexy when she pouts, but she’s absolutely angelic and amazing when she smiles. “Okay. Although if you don’t mind, I might just munch as I go. Lunch of crackers and cheese spread was kind of weak, if you know what I mean.”

I smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I agree. And the only rule I have is that if you want to eat one, you have to put one in the bag.”

“What bag are we going to use?” Robin asked, shouldering her pack and picking up her walking stick that I made. The limb was about two inches around, and fit her hand well in her glove. I didn’t think she would need it much, but it seemed like it was helping her as she walked. Sometimes, even a placebo is helpful, and I knew it also helped her with her sense of safety. I’d seen Robin practicing martial arts when we were in high school, and she was pretty good with the staff, although against a grizzly bear we’d both just be snacks. I wasn’t going to tell her that, though.

“The plastic outer bag from the rations,” I replied to her question, fishing the thick plastic out of my cargo pocket. “We can forage as we go, and stop about an hour before sunset to set up camp and gather the materials we need for the night. We’ll get to the lake tomorrow.”

“What about water?” Robin asked as we headed toward the grove of trees. “I thought that was a problem.”

“We’ve got two canteens full of snow, those soda bottles as well, and still that one liter bag that is about half full of water. We won’t be taking any baths tonight, but we can make it to tomorrow.”

Leading her into the grove, I took her over to a bush I had identified earlier, showing her the small berries. “They’re pretty late in the season, but these are related to blackberries,” I said, taking one and popping it in my mouth. The first bite was sweet, almost too sweet, and I wished I had picked them about two weeks prior, when they would have been a bit tart as well.

“First rule for any berry or plant is to smell first. Our noses are one of the main ways we have to detect things that are dangerous to us. After that, a small bite, which is then spit out. If you still feel good after ten minutes, you can start to gather to eat later. I already know these really well from prior trips up to this area, so we can eat and gather at the same time.”

Taking her bag, Robin gathered and ate handfuls of the sweet dark berries, until the juices trickled from the corners of her mouth. I followed suit, both of us chuckling and feeling like kids again as we enjoyed both the sugar rush and the fluids. I knew how to keep going even if I am a bit dehydrated, but Robin didn’t. The fluid was helpful. We filled about half of her bag before the bush looked picked clean. She stowed the bag in one of the outer pockets of my pack, while I stored mine in hers, since it was easier to reach than taking our own packs off. We then resumed our trek, almost casually strolling through the woods while I pointed out various food sources and forest animals.

“The diet the forest can provide is actually really healthy,” I taught as we stopped and picked up pine cones. “Like the nuts here. They’re full of good fats and proteins, and we can use the cones themselves as fuel for our fire tonight. They make a great fire starter. They burn hot and fast, though, so we can’t use them all night. But a couple of dry cones make a great base for any campfire.”

“It seems like a lot, but also a bit boring,” Robin said as we kept going. I tossed my pine cone aside, knowing there were plenty more as we went along. “This doesn’t seem like it would be very interesting after a while.”

“It can be, but to really get the variety we’d need to start to trap and catch animals too,” I answered. “Once we hit the lake, I’m going to make sure to do some fishing, or see if there are any freshwater mussels.

The walk continued, leaving the small grove and making our way down another rocky patch where Robin used her walking stick. The sun was low in the horizon, and I looked around. “All right, I’d prefer to get to that next crop of trees if we can,” I said, pointing toward an area about a mile away. “The trees will provide better cover than this open ground. We don’t want to be in the wind if we can help it.”

“Then we better pick up the pace,” Robin said, tightening her grip on her walking stick. “It’s just a mile, I can make it.” She surprised me with her determination.

I watched her carefully, but she looked more energized than before, so I led the way, picking up the pace, until the two of us practically gobbled up the mile distance, taking less than thirteen minutes, which is pretty good even for soldiers over open terrain. The ground allowed us to lengthen our stride until the trees approached. I stopped on the edge of the trees, looking around.

“Okay, maybe another fifty meters, but not all the way in. We need to find a relatively clear space. I don’t want to start a forest fire.” I wanted to get deep enough into the trees that any wind that picked up during the night or any snow would be blunted by the overhead branches, but not so deep that I thought we would be disoriented in the morning.

“Yeah, that would be bad,” Robin said, following me in. I quickly found what we wanted, two trees that were about six feet apart, with an open space in front of them. Setting my pack down, I took out the ponchos and cord, making a quick lean-to that stretched back almost eight feet, and was about four feet high. Running cord on the sides, we created sides to the lean-to by leaning fallen branches and other materials, creating wind breaks on three sides. While I finished the lean-to, Robin went around gathering fallen wood, trying to limit it to dry branches and wood that wouldn’t pop and explode. The dim light inside the woods made it difficult, and I heard her stumble twice on her way back to the camp site.

“I was getting worried” I said, when she returned with her double armful. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just got a bit turned around,” Robin replied, laying the wood down. “Now, I hope you’re going to teach this Apache how to make a fire.”

“I will, but I’m not going to be rubbing sticks together,” I said with a chuckle, reaching into my pocket. There is a time for jokes, and there is a time for getting stuff done. Maybe another time I’d teach her how to make a fire without matches. “One of the things that comes in all of those ration packs, besides toilet paper, which you should really hang onto, is a pack of matches.”

While she was gone, I had cleared an area and scraped out a shallow depression in the forest earth using a small gardening trowel, making a fire pit. With Robin’s wood, I carefully laid dry leaves and pine needles in the center, along with a very dry pine cone that kind of acted like the center pole of a circus tent. Making a small mound, I took about half of the match book and put it inside the pile. It was overkill, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. Taking one match, I started the fire, carefully feeding it small twigs until we had a good flame.

“The thing that a lot of people screw up,” I explained, feeding the flames, “is that we rush too much. The use of chemical fire starters and charcoal makes it easy, really. At that point it’s hard not to start a fire, although I’ve seen plenty of people who can even screw that up. With natural materials, we have to go slowly, and give the fuel plenty of air so it can burn. It’s why a lot of people like to blow on the fire, although you can easily blow too hard and blow it out. Eventually, we start adding larger pieces of wood.”

It took me close to fifteen minutes, but by the end, we had a cheery campfire ready, with a large stock of wood laid up nearby. “If you can, spread out the sleeping bags and pads,” I asked as I brushed off my knees. “I’ll go get more wood. We shouldn’t need it, but if we hear any animals, a larger fire will keep them away.”

While I was gone, Robin worked, laying out our bags and arranging them pretty similarly to the way we had them the night before. I was gone about five or six minutes at most, gathering up another fat armload of wood. When I came back, I saw that she had zippered our bags together, a warm feeling spreading through me at the sight. We had only had sex once, and I will admit that the entire day was one of the best of my life, even with the little spat we had, but seeing Robin arranging our bags like that was the icing on the cake. Stepping back into the firelight, I dropped my armload on the ground and inspected her work. “It’s good, but turn the heads sideways. I’m going to sleep on the far side tonight, and you can sleep closer to the fire.”

Robin blushed slightly and nodded, adjusting the bags. I got out our gathered food and one ration pack, dividing it up between us, making sure Robin got the yummier bits. “If we keep this up, food is going to be no problem,” I happily said, handing her half of the gathered berries and other food, along with part of the packet of rations. “I’d save a chunk of the berries for the morning though, rations alone suck for breakfast.”

We shared our dinner while gazing silently into the fire. It felt normal, a lot like the vacation I had originally planned, and the fire added a nice touch to the atmosphere. “Thank you,” she finally said, crunching on the last bite of her cracker.

“For what?” I asked, chewing on a berry. “For getting you lost in the Canadian Rockies?”

“For being brave enough to love me, even when I didn’t want to admit the truth,” Robin said, kissing me. “Now, are you joining me in the sleeping bag or what?”

I could kiss Robin forever, but my body needed something else right then. Grinning, I shook my head. “Not yet. I gotta take care of nature’s call first. Thankfully, I can pee standing up.”

Robin laughed. “Well, regardless, no offense, but as much as the spirit is willing, the body is weak after that hike. I will most likely be asleep when you get back.”

Kissing her quickly, I chuckled and nodded. “Yeah, me too.”

As I wandered off into the darkness, I kept close, just far enough away that I had a bit of privacy as I peed against a tree. I could still see Robin though as she pulled off her boots and stripped down to her thermals, rolling her clothes into a pillow that she stuffed into her jacket. She was learning quickly, and her brains were becoming an asset. It took me three nights as a soldier to figure out that same trick in the field. She was shivering when I came back, but still dropping off to sleep when I joined her. I wrapped her up in my arms and buried my nose in her dark, beautiful hair. I don’t know how much longer I was awake, but it wasn’t long, although I am sure I at least kissed the top of her head before sleep overtook me as well.