As we were both sweating profusely from the hike and about to wade into the river to fish, we decided to strip down a bit as well. I took off my t-shirt, leaving me in just my tan hiking shorts. Emily did the same, though she had on a blue bikini top underneath her shirt. It wasn’t terribly revealing, as far as bikini tops go, but Emily is a very attractive woman, and I never minded an opportunity to stare at her chest. Emily, for her part, is about 5’5” with thick, curly brown hair, which she had tied back that day in a simple ponytail. She has a natural olive complexion — genes from her mother’s Italian side — and a body that does not look at all like one that gave birth to a child just 18 months ago. She has the same slender, athletic build she’s always had and the simple, disarming, girl-next-door beauty that instantly attracted me to her when we first met in grad school.
It didn’t take long for me to set up our fishing poles. My dad had taken me fishing so many times as a kid that it was all second nature to me now. And while Emily hadn’t ever fished before she met me, I had taken her stream fishing a number of times before this, and she seemed to really enjoy it.
It didn’t take long to get some action. On my third cast I felt a tug and, a second later, the fish was already taking line. Emily heard it and immediately began reeling in her own line so as not to get them tangled. I knew by the way it was taking line that I’d hooked something of pretty decent size. Not wanting to lose it, I waded further downstream and continued to let it tire itself out.
The women downriver from us must have noticed the commotion because before long I heard footsteps approaching on the rocky bank behind me and heard one of them ask “do you have one on the line right now?”
I turned and saw that it was the one with the shaved head. My eyes were drawn immediately to her chest and the nipples that were clearly visible poking through her thin tank top. Definitely no bra to speak of. I quickly returned my gaze to the river. “Yep,” I answered, “seems like a pretty big one; really strong.”
“Oh, I can’t wait to see it.” It was the other woman speaking this time, the Asian one. “I always wanted to see what fishing was like.”
I quickly stole a glance at her as well and noticed that Emily was doing the same. She was strikingly pretty in a particular kind of way. She looked like someone who might be DJing at a rave if she wasn’t out here camping. Seeing her up close, I guessed she was no older than 30 and while I was sure she had some Asian ancestry, it looked like maybe she was of mixed racial background. The tattoos on her right shoulder blade looked to be a sequence of Japanese or Chinese characters.
As I waded further out, I could hear Emily introducing herself to the women and striking up a conversation. She was very good at that, an extrovert to her core, the kind of person who could make new friends almost instantly. Eventually, the fish began to tire, and I slowly reeled it in. It was a good one. A rainbow trout at least 20 inches long. Once I had it in hand, I turned toward the bank and held it up for the women to see. “I think we found ourselves some dinner,” I said triumphantly.
Emily cheered and clapped and, to my amusement, so did both of the women. As I approached the bank, the women both came closer to get a good look at the fish. “Jake,” Emily said, “this is May,” gesturing at the Asian woman, “and this is Hannah” gesturing at the one in the tank top. “They’ve been hiking out here for three days already!”
“Nice to meet you both,” I said. “Did you say ‘May’?” I asked, as I hadn’t heard Emily clearly.
“Yes, that’s right, though it’s spelled M-E-I,” Mei answered.
“Well, Mei and Hannah, just a warning, you may not want to watch this next part. I’m planning to cook this fish tonight so I’m gonna break its neck to make this as quick and painless as possible.”
Emily looked away, as she always did for this part, but to my surprise, neither Mei nor Hannah did. They seemed fascinated by the whole process.
Before long we were all fishing together. I had given Mei my pole and was standing with her in the river, showing her how to cast. Emily was doing the same with Hannah about 30 yards upstream. The women were incredibly friendly. I got the sense that they’d run out of things to talk about with each other and were happy to have other people to talk to. As I had suspected from the moment we approached, they were a lesbian couple; they’d been together for several years and were planning to get married in the Fall. Mei was 29 and Hannah 28, just a few years younger than Emily and me.
Neither of them had ever been fishing before, but Hannah was a chef who worked at a nice seafood restaurant in Seattle; and they both loved to cook, so they had jumped at our offer to show them how to fish. And the conditions couldn’t have been better for it. The trout were biting left and right. In less than an hour, we caught eight more fish. We kept the first four, including my 20 incher, to cook for dinner, but we released the rest.
Hannah and Mei were ecstatic and so appreciative. Hannah insisted that we let her prepare the fish for dinner. When I mentioned that we needed to find a spot to set up camp, they practically begged us to take the spot on the bluff, just overlooking their own site. Given it was the best spot in the valley, I didn’t put up much of a fight. If they didn’t mind us being there, we were more than happy to take them up on the offer.
SETTING UP CAMP
Once we were done fishing, Emily and I went about setting up camp up on the highest part of the bluff. The area we chose was only about 50 feet from where Hannah and Mei had set up their tiny tent, but it was on a little plateau about 5 or 6 feet above their site, so there wasn’t a direct line of sight from their tent to ours. Our spot was also further from the water and up against the treeline, so we had the added benefit of the shade the trees would eventually provide later in the afternoon.
We also had the benefit of a significantly bigger tent. While ours was by no means huge, it was square and big enough to at least comfortably sit up in. By contrast, theirs was a classic backpacker’s tent, tiny and triangular, big enough for two people to lie horizontally right next to each other but with no room to turn or sit up.
After we’d set up camp, we joined Hannah and Mei for a bit of a makeshift lunch. Given the midday heat, none of us were interested in building a fire to try to cook anything, so we settled for some of the pre-made snacks we’d brought with us. As we had more than enough and were only planning on staying one night, we shared some crackers and chips and various other packaged snacks we’d brought. Both Hannah and Mei were super appreciative; while they still had some food left, they’d long since gotten bored with their own provisions and were eager for anything new.
In return, they insisted that we allow them to cook the fish up for dinner and suggested we pool whatever potential ingredients or side dishes that might go with it. We readily agreed and handed over the pack of rice we brought, a couple of sticks of butter, two lemons, a tiny tupperware container of flour, and our plastic salt and pepper shakers. I also gave them my trusty camp skillet and pan, and my kerosene mini-burner.
As we sat there eating, it was my first opportunity to get a good, long, sustained look at both of the women, and I couldn’t get over how attractive they both were, in their own distinct ways. Mei had exquisitely fine features. She looked like a model, or an actress playing a part, the kind of person who was too pretty for real life. Every bit of her face looked like something that was chiselled by a master sculptor. As we’d later learn, her distinctive look was in part a product of her half Japanese, half Peruvian ancestry, her parents having met in Peru and emigrated to the U. S.