Lynx Falls

Chapter 1

"How am I going to get all this stuff into one backpack?" Hannah said to her phone that was sitting on the bed. "How many nights are you going to be out there?" Kristy asked her full face illuminated the phone screen. Hannah picked up her phone and reversed the camera so Kristy could see the top of her bed. "Just one night, ball alllll this," she dragged the camera along the length of the bed to show all the contents, "need to go in one bag."

"Seems like a lot of work for one night. Why do you need so much stuff?" Hannah flipped the camera back to her own face. "So I don't die," Hannah laughed. "You're telling me you need a garden shovel to not die in the woods?" Kristy sounded skeptical at this point. "That's so I can bury my poop silly." Hannah picked it up and made a little digging motion into the camera. "That seems wildly unnecessary." Hannah shrugged, "It's what hikers do ... apparently."

"Uh huh, and how much do you think that'll all gonna weigh? This is like a 30k hike?" "Over two days. I don't really know actually, it does seem like a lot." Hannah surveyed the contents organized onto of her quilt again trying to estimate. "Once it's all in my backpack I'll weigh it, but I'm not really worried about it." Hannah shrugged. She went to the gym. "It'll be lighter once you get all those price tags off of everything. Lighten the load," Kristy laughed.

"Ok I gotta run," Kristy said, "you have fun on your little adventure pooping in the woods." "I will," Hannah laughed, "I'll call you when I get back and you better like all the pictures I post. They're going to be amazing!" "You're doing this hike just for the likes aren't you," Kristy teased. "What can I say," Hannah tried to sound as casual as possible, "I'm an attention whore."

An hour later Hannah had her backpack on her bathroom scale. "Hmmm, 32 pounds," she said as she hoisted it onto her back. She wondered if she could sustain carrying this for the duration of their hike. James had told her to cut weight anywhere she could. She walked up and down the hall squatting down and getting back up to see how it felt. "Maybe," she said dropping the bag back down onto her bed before unbuckling it. It was jam packed, but she was able to slide her hand down the side until she felt the plastic handle of the garden shovel and pulled it out. "That's better."