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  “I’ll go light on him,” Bennett said.

  “You’re a good man, fuckface,” Fred said.

  “By the way, do you think his wife is any good in the rack?”

  “Get the fuck out of here,” Fred laughed.

  The trail made a right-angled turn and headed west and Rob stopped and glassed the canyon floor behind them with his binoculars.

  “What are you looking at?” Fred called back to him.

  “Something’s moving around down there,” Rob said.

  Bennett joined him. “What is it?”

  “I don’t know. It’s in the brush down there.”

  “Let me take a look.”

  Fred took the binoculars and looked below.

  “I don’t see anything.”

  “Well, I’m not really sure that I actually did. By the time I got my binoculars out of their case I’d lost it.”

  “Might be a deer. Place could be crawling with them, though, and you’d never know it.”

  “Really?”

  “Sure.”

  “Maybe that’s what I saw,” Rob said getting excited. “You know, maybe we could come back and go hunting.”

  “Maybe, but the season’s not till next fall,” Fred said and moved on while Rob glassed the canyon floor once more before he fell in behind the others.

  Henry had gotten way out in front and was struggling to set the pace. Fred caught up and fell in behind him. He listened to Henry’s ragged wheezing, but Henry wouldn’t slow down.

  “What made you want to go on this hike, anyway?” Fred asked him.

  Henry stopped and didn’t say anything until he caught his breath.

  “I don’t know…something to prove…I guess.”

  “What the hell will a hike prove?”

  “Nothing, I guess,” and he hiked ahead in silence.

  The trail crossed a narrow ledge that cut through the earthen face of the canyon wall. Detritus from numerous run-offs threatened to erase the trail here.

  Fred stopped. “Look at all that shit down there,” he said. “What kind of people do that kind of thing?”

  Bennett caught up and looked down to the creek bed below. “What is all that stuff?” he asked.

  “Trash,” Fred said.

  “Looks like a backpack down there, too,” Henry said.

  In the brush below, there looked to be fragments of dayglow orange nylon.

  “That looks like part of a pack frame over there,” Bennett said and pointed out some metal tubes.

  “Think someone’s hurt down there?” Henry asked.

  “God, if there is, how do we get down to help him?” Lucius asked.

  “Don’t try it here,” Fred said, “you’ll slide down and hurt yourself.”

  “Looks like something already went down that way,” Rob said pointing to the face of the drop where the dirt had been torn up.

  “I think there’s another way down just a few feet ahead,” Fred said.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked looking at Henry.

  Henry was staring down at the litter below. “Things just seem creepy here.” He summed up the feelings the rest of them were suppressing.

  “I sure wish Cory would catch up to us with his gun,” Lucius said.

  “Of course, and you felt that way all along?” Rob said to Lucius.

  “Let’s go,” Fred said.

  And just as Fred had said, they reached a point where they could climb down to the creek.

  On the berm at the base of the hill a torn box of raisins, foil wrappings from granola bars and instant hot chocolate littered the landscape.

  “What tore up all these packages?” Lucius asked.

  “Animals,” Fred said.

  “Holy shit,” Bennett exclaimed. “Look at this.” He had picked up a can of Dinty Moore’s beef stew that had been burst open. “How’d this happen?”

  “Maybe someone fell on it,” Fred said.

  “Bullshit,” Bennett said. “This has been torn open.”

  Henry held up pieces of aluminum tubing that were easily recognizable as once having been part of a backpacking frame.

  “Take a look around,” Fred said.

  “What are we looking for?” Rob asked.

  “To see if someone is hurt,” Fred replied.

  They searched for several minutes. There were no clues as to how the pack had gotten there.

  “What do you think happened?” Bennett asked Fred.

  “I don’t know. There’s no one hurt down here. I don’t see any blood or anything. Maybe someone just dropped their pack and it fell down here and they didn’t know how to get down to get it.”

  “Is that what broke the frame up?” Henry asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe the fall. Maybe it was a cheap frame.”

  “Says Alpenlite,” Henry said. “They any good?”

  “They’re supposed to be real good.”

  There was spoor under a bush. Lucius kept looking at it.

  “You hungry, Lou?” Bennett asked when he saw Lucius staring at the shit. “Go ahead, eat what you can, we don’t want any.”

  The others laughed but Lucius didn’t. He seemed to be losing patience with Bennett’s humor.

  “Look man,” he said. “Look at what I’m seeing.”

  “You look at it,” Bennett said.

  Lucius picked up a stick and approached the bush and prodded one of the large turds. Something glistened in it.

  “A ring,” he said.

  The others came closer and looked.

  Lucius worked a gold ring out of the excrement with a stick. “What the fuck happened?” he exclaimed. “Something eat this dude?”

  Fred stepped forward and picked the ring out of the fecal matrix.

  “Goddamn! You picked that up with your bare hands,” Lucius said.

  “It’s not going to hurt you.”

  “Jesus, don’t touch me. And wash your hands off in the creek.”

  Fred looked at Lucius and laughed.

  “So how did that ring get in that turd?” Lucius asked.

  “Could have been in the pack and gotten eaten up with food that got spilled. Could have just gotten pushed into the turd. That would account for part of it sticking out.”

  “It would have been digested if an animal had eaten it,” Rob said.

  “No, it wouldn’t,” Henry said. “That’s gold. It’s impervious to the hydrochloric acid animals use in digestion. It takes aqua regia.”

  “It takes what?” Rob asked.

  “Aqua regia; it’s a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids.”

  “Is this like the bears you shot?” Rob asked.

  Henry looked at him in surprise, but didn’t respond.

  “He’s right,” Lucius said. “My Uncle Walt’s a jeweler. He said the same thing.”

  Rob shook his head and walked away in disgust.

  “What’s his fucking problem?” Lucius asked Fred.

  “He’s tired. We’re all tired.”

  “So, how do you think the ring got in the poop?” he asked Fred,

  “If some sort of animal had done in a hiker and eaten him, we’d have found a carcass. Bones or something.”

  “Not necessarily,” Henry said. “Large animals frequently drag their prey off to an area where they feel safer.”

  “Those could be people turds,” Fred said. “Then the guy could have dropped his ring.”

  “Why would someone have come down here?” Lucius asked.

  “Maybe someone came down for the same reason we did,” Fred said. “They saw all this crap.”

  “I don’t like it,” Lucius said. “This place is weird. I’m beginning to wish I’d never come.”

  “What’s bugging you guys,” Fred asked. “We found a ring in some shit. You wanna turn back? We can. But we’re closer to Crawfish Creek Camp than we are to the trucks. Once we get to the camp ground we can build a fire that will scare any animals away.”

  Rob said, “Lot of wet wood out here because
it’s been raining. It’s going to be hard to keep a fire going.”

  No,” Fred said. “We get a small fire going and use it to dry out wood for a bigger fire. You keep that cycle going and you can get a fire as big as you want.”

  “A big fire sounds good to me,” Lucius said.

  “So you guys want to keep going?”

  “How much further to the camp?” Henry asked.

  “Another mile, maybe.”

  Henry started climbing back up to the trail.

  “Let’s get going,” Fred said. “When we get back Sunday, we can go to one of the rangers stations and tell them what we found up here. Let them take care of it.”

  “Where the fuck are Mike and Tom?” Rob asked. “They should have caught up by now.”

  No one said anything for a second.

  Rob looked at his cell phone. “Has anyone got service?”

  “No one’s going to have service here,” Fred said, but they all checked their phones.

  “Maybe Cory was hurt and they couldn’t come back,” Lucius said as they climbed back up to the trail.

  “I don’t think so,” Fred said. “All they’d have had to do was have one of them catch up to us. Without a pack, one of them would caught up with us a long time ago.”

  “Then where are they?” Lucius asked.

  “Figure they all went up to the trucks. So it’s a mile and a half from where they left us to the truck and a mile and a half back. That put us three miles ahead of them. Even with the screwing around we’re doing here they’d still be two and a half miles behind us. That would put them right about at the point where they’d be crossing back over the creek again.

  “I hope they get back here with the gun soon,” Lucius said.

  “Let’s get going,” Henry said. “There’s something wrong with this place, and there’s that damned smell again. Let’s go.”

  They all sniffed the air.

  “Maybe there’s a giant sardine lurking in the underbrush here,” Bennett said.

  Lucius turned to Fred and said, “You got all the answers, man, you tell us, what’s that smell?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe it’s something in the creek.” He turned to Henry. “You ever smell anything like that while you were hunting?”

  Henry shook his head.

  “Let’s get going,” Fred said.

  “Yeah, I want to build that fire,” Lucius said.

  There was a lot less conversation as they hiked on, and they hiked in a tighter group.

  At one point Bennett said, “That other hiker’s tracks are gone.”

  “Shut up, Bennett,” Lucius said.

  They reached Lower Crawfish Creek Camp, a flat campsite secluded in trees. Black clouds from the northwest had already moved in over them.

  “Those clouds are low,” Rob remarked.

  “We’re up around four thousand feet,” Fred said.

  “You think it’s going to rain?” Bennett asked.

  “Yeah,” Fred replied.

  “Look at how all the fire pits are torn up,” Lucius said. “Like at Cougars Camp.”

  “Yeah,” Fred said.

  “You gonna tell me that that’s vandals again?” Lucius asked.

  “What do you think it is?” Fred challenged.

  Lucius didn’t answer.

  Henry was looking at the wrecked fire pits. “Have you ever seen anything like this, up here before?” he asked Fred.

  Fred didn’t answer. “Look,” he said, “Upper Crawfish Creek Camp is just another four hundred yards up the trail. You want to stay here or do you want to try there?”

  “Why? Is the upper campground any better?” Lucius asked.

  “I think there’s more firewood.”

  “Then let’s go,” Lucius said.

  They hiked further up the trail.

  “Hey, Fred,” Bennett asked. “Where do you think the other guys are now?”

  “They’re probably getting to the switchback.”

  “Good,” Bennett said.

  It started to rain.

  “Shit, how much further?” Rob asked. “My legs are killing me and now I’m getting wet.”

  “Hang in, we’ll be there any second,” Fred said.

  “Good thing we decided against the hot springs,” Rob said. “Henry and I would never have made it.”

  Fred looked back. Henry and Lucius were bringing up the rear. Lucius was lagging behind and watching to make sure Henry was all right.

  Fred looked back across the creek then, jumping from rock to rock, he crossed.

  Then Bennett.

  Then Rob, who almost fell in.

  Bennett looked around. “Shit! There’s only one fire pit and it’s been destroyed.”

  He saw Fred’s concern showing through the facade of nonchalance.

  “How long have you been backpacking?” he asked Fred.

  “Since I was twelve. Thirteen years, now.”

  “How many other times have you seen fire places ripped apart like you’ve seen today?”

  Fred didn’t answer for a moment. He finally said, “Never.”

  “That wasn’t the answer I wanted to hear,” Bennett said, and the three of them laughed.

  It wasn’t the answer any of them wanted to hear. But their misgivings were soon overwhelmed by the euphoria of having reached the site and the primeval anticipation of a fire. A big fire. The kind that keeps you warm. The kind animals fear.

  “Let’s get wood and get a fire started,” Bennett said. “It’s gonna be dark soon. Sun sets at 4:56.”

  Fred looked at his watch. “It’s 3:31 now. Means it won’t actually get dark until around 5:20, about half an hour after sun’s gone.”

  Lucius easily made his way across the creek now and he waited for Henry who was studying the layout of the rocks.

  Henry took a deep breath and stepped out onto the first rock and hesitated.

  “Want me to take your pack?” Lucius asked.

  “I can make it.”

  He went to the next rock.

  The next.

  Then another.

  Finally, he was across.

  Lucius didn’t say it out loud, but he would have bet Henry would fall in.

  “Let me get kindling,” Fred called out, “and I’ll start a fire. You guys find the driest wood you can.”

  “I’m starving,” Rob said.

  “Me too,” Lucius added.

  “Fire first,” Fred said firmly.

  Bennett took granola bars and a can of peanuts from his pack and passed them around. “Take these with you and let’s get wood,” he said and he, Rob, Lucius, and Henry, went in separate directions looking for firewood while Fred searched the immediate area for kindling, then he set about trying to repair the fire pit.

  Camaraderie and anticipation of the fire heightened their euphoria. And there’d be whiskey, and though they ached and were hungry, they looked for firewood with enthusiasm more befitting young boys than grown men. Even Rob and Henry, no longer burdened by their packs, moved about more easily.

  Bennett and Henry crossed back over the creek and found the pickings for suitable firewood there slim. Lucius went north along the creek bed about fifty yards without any more success.

  Dry wood didn’t seem as plentiful as they had hoped. But if Fred was right, once they got a good fire going, they could use the flames to dry out the wet wood. Then Rob called from downstream and Lucius, Bennett and Henry went to meet him. He was standing beside a pile of wood deposited by the waters when the creek had run high.

  “There’s some dry wood here, but if we could move some of these big dead trees, we’d probably find a lot of good wood underneath.”

  “There’s no way we’re going to get those moved,” Bennett said.

  “Hold on,” Lucius said. “Let a man get in there.” He got up on the pile and grabbed the first large tree trunk that rested on top. It was fifteen inches in diameter and looked to weigh several hundred pounds. Lucius made sure of his footing and
gave it a heave, tipping it up on one end and throwing it off the heap.

  “Holy shit,” Rob said.

  “That’s why my family bought him for the plantation,” Bennett joked and even Lucius laughed.

  “I’m going to get you for these comments,” Lucius said.

  “Nah, you love me too much,” Bennett said.

  “That’s all that’s saving your ass. But keep it down when Cory gets here because if he starts in…”

  “If he starts in,” Bennett cut him off, “I’m going to get him myself — gun or no gun.”

  Lucius moved another trunk, then another, and Bennett jumped in to help him. Soon the four men were foraging through the pile finding what dry wood they could while grabbing plenty of the pieces of wet wood that looked like they’d be easy to dry beside the fire.

  “Let’s start getting some of this shit back there,” Bennett said and they carried the first armloads of wood back.

  At the campsite, Fred had taken the metal pieces that had once been the fireplace and jury-rigged a new one by resting the grill across stone supports. Under it he had a small blaze of kindling.

  On the grill he placed some of the wet wood. Flames from below licked at the water soaked logs, and steam began to rise from them. Next to them two open cans of the Dinty Moore’s beef stew were heating up.

  “I’ve got one of Mike’s cans of Spam in my pack,” Rob said. He cut the meat into slices and carefully put them on the grill.

  “Where do you think those guys are now?” Lucius asked Fred.

  “About a mile back. They’re probably about where we found the pack below that ledge.”

  “Hey, Fred, you still got that ring?” Bennett asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “What are you going to do with it?”

  “Give it back to whoever owns it if we can find him. It looked like a class ring of some sort.”

  He took it from his pocket. “It says UCSB — I think that’s the University of California at Santa Barbara — class of 2011. If the forest fairies find out who the pack belongs to, we’ll return it. Otherwise, it’s yours,” he said to Lucius. “You found it.”

  “You hold on to it for now,” Lucius said. “I don’t want to handle it so soon after it’s had shit on it.”

  Fred laughed. “But it’s okay if I handle it. Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”