“Sounds like it yeah; It'll just be the alcohol doing its next day thing. Nothing some fresh air in the wilderness won't fix” James replied, “There's Mike”
They had turned the corner into Mike's street to find him stood at the end of his driveway waiting patiently with his backpack slung over his shoulder. Mike had the most unusual vocation of all of them and wasn't tied to nine to five working. He did lots of courses in the summer, showing kids how to survive in different outdoor environments, and the rest of the year he took groups of business men into the wilderness and did the same thing, taught them how to catch their own food, make their own shelters and so on. The business men called it team building, Mike called it basic life skills. He was currently writing a book on survival techniques and was hoping to get it published, but the call of the outdoors was always there, so any chance to be immersed in it again he would take. The writing could wait until Monday. James and Jarrah invited Mike as he was always interesting to have with you. He could point out all the interesting plants and explain the benefits that they had to the human body, plus if anything went pear-shaped in the forest, Mike was the one you wanted there. He had encountered most wildlife and knew how to deal with them all. They knew they would be in safe hands with him around.
Mike jumped in the back behind the driver's seat and flung his backpack behind Jarrah.
“Afternoon Gents” He said authoritatively.
They both greeted him back and James set the car back in motion. They hadn't decided exactly what part of the forest they were going to be camping in, they guessed they would leave that up to Mike's recommendation. They turned out of the town and on to the main highway to the National Forest, debating where to drive to. They eventually settled on an area to the North of the Forest. There were dramatic lakes and picturesque cliffs as well as some great mountain hikes they could do to take in the valley below them, which sounded perfect. They meandered round bends as they ascended higher into the forest, the roads lined with lush rows of trees and blossoming bushes. It only took ten minutes to feel like they had completely left the city behind as the signs of civilisation dispersed into just the odd remote outpost, before long there were no buildings in sight at all. It took an hour to get to their final destination and they pulled the car over to a small clearing after taking a slow rambling dirt track for a mile, before finally taking a deep relaxing sigh. It was good to be out in the forest, they could feel all the stress of the city melting away the second the engine was turned off.
They gathered their gear and started the short trek to set up their camp for the next few nights. Mike knew this area well and knew a good place to set their tents up. They decided to do this straight away and then take a hike up to a viewpoint afterwards, planning to get back to the camp before sunset. Mike set his tent up in less than two minutes while both Jarrah and James fiddled with a number of items that seemed to bemuse each one of them. They had both bought new tents recently. They were the latest design and were supposedly easy to assemble. It was a great idea James told Jarrah at the time. Of course, they would have been easy to assemble if you knew what all these random oddly shaped items were, for all they knew they could be parts to a spaceship. Mike took pity on them and helped both of them out, making all the odd-looking paraphernalia converge into something coherently tent-like. They hadn't seen this high-tech design before so James was still convinced it was actually a spaceship. They had a short rest, pouring themselves a cup of tea each from their flasks and sitting on their collapsible chairs, smelling the alluring fragrance of the greenery around them and inhaling the energizing air. It was definitely good to be back here.
After a short while they decided to start their hike. It was nearing three in the afternoon and it took a good hour to get to the viewpoint, and with the sun setting around six they wanted to give themselves enough time to appreciate the splendour from the vantage point when they got there. So off they went, backpacks on, water bottles filled, hiking poles grasped firmly. It was a fairly strenuous walk to the top, the ground below them was deceiving and the forest floor hid all sorts of undulating rocks and random craters. It was an enjoyable hike, they laughed about some of the crazy situations they had got themselves into at University, like the time Mike was playing a trick on Brandon. They had organised a blind date for him and Mike turned up wearing a gimp suit, pretending to be his date. The restaurant staff were all let in on the practical joke. Jarrah and James had stayed out of sight at the restaurant to watch and to see how Brandon would react. Brandon knew the restaurant staff though and had already been tipped off. So instead of him arriving for the date, he had arranged for Mike's newly divorced mum to turn up, thinking she was on a real blind date with someone else. It was difficult to make out who was most mortified, Mike sitting there on a date with his mum or his mum thinking her beautiful son was into kinky things and had no shame about it.
They carried on laughing, joking and reminiscing as they gradually climbed higher. They were having so much
