You Are a Badass

climbing around on boulders and arguing
over which eagle or snake or mountain
goat should be awarded Creature of the
Day. Because my friends are such
excellent navigators, we go deep into the
wilderness areas, where there are no
trails and even fewer people. In the
sixteen years we’ve been hiking out
there, we could practically count the
people we’ve bumped into while
backpacking on one hand. Which was
why I was so surprised, and dubious,
when my friend Tom, who’d gone ahead
to find us a place to set up camp for the
night, reported that he’d seen someone.
“I just met this really wild guy,” he said
when I caught up with him. “He was