Take Only Pictures Part 15

Gloria felt like she'd been sucker-punched. Her body radiated with heat she was so angry. "You don't care at all."

"Can you prove that what Leo's doing caused the mess down there?"

"What the h.e.l.l do you think I'm trying to do here this summer?"

Kristine frowned. She looked at her, looked away, and then began laughing.

Gloria could not recognize the woman in front of her. "Do not laugh at me," she said, a hard edge in her voice.

Kristine quieted, and her expression grew serious. "Go to Rosalie Lake and check out the trip from h.e.l.l that's camped there. If you've got a problem with what Leo allowed down at Fish Creek, what's going on up at Rosalie will make you s.h.i.+t yourself. I'm sure you'll find a dozen guys drunk off their a.s.ses paying no regard whatsoever to the backcountry."

By the time Kristine was finished relaying all the details Sol had given her, Gloria felt physically ill. She stood again, shaking. "How can you laugh? How can you sit there and do nothing?"

Kristine stood and walked to Gloria. She put her hand on Gloria's forearm. "I'm sorry. I know that it's the world to you. And believe me, I worried about it once. I used to fight them. I had all of these ideas. They dismissed every single one of my 'college' ideas. I stopped fighting, stopped trying. It's so much easier to just do my job."

Gloria pulled her arm away. She couldn't take it. Her intuition about needing to cool off had been right. Trying to talk to Kristine had just taken her beyond boiling. Without looking back, she picked up her pack, shrugged into it and walked out of the door. She was fired up enough that she actually considered walking past her camper and straight out to Rosalie. Exhaustion won that fight, however, and she stopped to sleep in her own bed. She left at first light, dressed in the same clothes she'd slept in and worn the day before.

Chapter Twenty-Three.

Kristine expected to see Gloria a few days later at Rosalie on her way to pick up a trip due to come in from Gladys Lake. While they hiked home, she would pack in their camping equipment and remaining supplies on the mules. She only needed two mules for this, so she'd left the yard much more quickly than the team that was packing out the cursed group. She'd already pa.s.sed her group hiking out, and was nearing Rosalie. Kristine was ready for Gloria's anger, but she was in no way prepared for the scene at the Rosalie camp.

The team coming to pick them up was at most an hour behind her, yet two campfires still burned, all of their tents were still a.s.sembled, and garbage lay strewn all over the camp. Although it wasn't her problem, she reined Digger in.

"h.e.l.lo!" she hollered.

A scruffy face poked out of the nearest tent. "Is that all the mules you've got? They sent us in with a lot more."

"I'm not your packer. He's on his way, but I wanted to let you know, he's going to expect you packed up. You have a lot of work to do here."

The man surveyed the mess of food. "This isn't our fault. This huge-a.s.s bear came through here and tore up all of our food."

"Well, you'll have to clean it up. Bulk up those campfires and burn it. When you drown the fire, you'll need to pull out the trash, but it'll be a lot easier to pack up than this is."

He emerged from the tent to face her. "Didn't you hear what I said? This isn't our fault. A grizzly bear did this. Let him come back and finish up."

"We only have black bear in the area."

"This bear was definitely not black. He was brown, and he's been in some fights. One of his ears is all messed up."

"Black bears can be brown in color. In any case, it's your responsibility to keep food away from all bears, although to a grizzly, you are the food." She smiled tightly. "You will have to dispose of this before your team will take you out."

"She's the one who allowed this to happen," the man said, jutting his chin past Kristine.

Kristine looked over her shoulder and found a very tired, very angry Gloria staring at her. Kristine's stomach clenched. The softness of their intimacy was long gone. At their last meeting, she'd responded to Gloria's rant poorly, having been in turmoil from Nard's bombsh.e.l.l. Gloria's anger still radiated from where she stood. Gloria's expression held her responsible for the mess because she had defended the work practices at the Lodge. She returned her head to her job. "More likely, she's the reason your tents aren't in shreds. No one leaves until this campsite is picked clean." Though she was curious about how the bear had managed to trash the site, she thought it best not to linger. She aimed an apologetic smile at Gloria and tipped her hips in the saddle, setting Digger's feet into motion.

She'd heard enough about this group to be grateful that she didn't have to spend the day working with them, and she'd already meddled enough in sending the duffel and Gloria their way. Her own work went smoothly at Gladys Lake, as she found her campers' gear neatly stacked by a campsite that showed no evidence of their stay, following the backcountry creed: Leave only footprints. She soon found herself heading back down the trail toward home. Stopping at Rosalie was nowhere on her agenda. Her own party was well on their way to the outpost and would be expecting her, but she couldn't help a.s.sessing the other team's progress as she rode back through. What she saw made her slam to a stop.

"You're not riding doubles on those horses," she shouted across the campsite.

Takeisha stepped away from the rider whose stirrups she'd been adjusting. In front of the rider sat a young boy.

"This is how we came up," she explained. "Both boys rode double with their dads."

Kristine clenched her jaw in anger. The boys were at least eight years old and certainly big enough to handle their own horses.

"Well, he's not riding home that way. Dad, you can walk and let your son ride. I'm sure he can handle Grumpy. But it's way too dangerous for you to go down the switchbacks like that."

"I'm riding. I didn't pay to have to hike," the man said.

You didn't pay at all, Kristine thought. Last year's mules, and your stupidity paid. Now you want to add more to your tab?

The man Kristine had spoken to earlier agreed. "We were fine on the way up, and I'm not letting my kid ride alone."

Kristine swore under her breath, trying to figure out how to talk some sense into the group.

Brian was mounted up with one string waiting, Beetle and Bailey full of their typical nervous energy at the back of the line.

"We've got this, Teeny," the new guy called.

Kristine gritted her teeth, wondering who she had to thank for that. Glancing in his direction, she saw that he already had most of his mules loaded and ready to go. He wore a gray felt hat so tall-domed that he had to have chosen it for the height he thought it added. She felt petty to let his appearance bother her but noted that he would have been better off getting his lift from some good cowboy boots instead of the soft-soled work boots he wore that were completely inappropriate for the saddle.

She swung off her horse and quickly tied him to a tree. "You have not got this," she growled. "I told you this morning those two babies need to be split up."

"Everything's fine, just fine," he insisted.

He sounded exactly like Nard. Steaming, she looked for help from Brian and Takeisha. Having worked with both before, she hoped they would listen to her. "Takeisha, you can't take doubles down that big switchback. Make someone walk, the dad, the kid. Make them both walk and loose herd them down, but don't let them go doubles. You're asking for trouble if you make them carry that much weight. And Brian, I'll take the babies. I've got a short string."

"They're good," he insisted, looking to the other packer.

"The guests are already all worked up over their camp getting trashed. Just let us get them out. We've got this."

"And you are?" Kristine asked, pinching the bridge of her nose, feeling the frustration Gloria must have felt the last time they'd talked.

"Judd."

"I hope you're as right as you are stupid, Judd." As she walked back to her own horse, she stopped by the two men riding double with their boys. "Look, if I were on this team, you'd be walking out of here. Takeisha, here, is nicer than I am, so she's going to let you ride. But when you get to the end of Shadow, one of you walks down that staircase. You boys," she said to the little ones, "you're old enough to ride on your own, you hear? I want you to be safe, okay?"

Digger stood in his signature hole when she returned. She took her time kicking the dirt back into place, hoping that Brian would change his mind about his string. He didn't, so she swung aboard and spurred Digger down the trail, hoping to put a good distance between herself and the group. She let the horse have his head, enjoying the feel of him pounding down the trail. Smoke and Scooter kept up with him until the short stretch of granite trail along the tributary of Shadow Lake. Hearing the clatter of their hooves on the granite reminded her to take care and not be rash. She reined Digger in.

The quiet around Shadow did its trick again, smoothing out the anger she'd felt up at Rosalie. She recalled what she'd told Gloria, realizing that her argument about money holding the highest priority held true in this situation as well. Of course Leo would have the boys ride double. He wasn't making any money from this trip, and the two horses that should have been carrying the boys were for sure earning him money on another ride today. No use in letting her own blood boil over his business thinking. At the switchbacks, water roared past her on its way from Shadow Lake down into the canyon to join the San Joaquin. As she came to the end of the switchbacks, she glanced up over her shoulder wondering how far back Takeisha was with her riders.

Brian and his string of five mules were roughly two hundred feet up already halfway down the switchbacks, and Takeisha had just crested the top of the trail with her riders. Kristine took a deep breath, trying to control her anger at the sight of the doubles sitting atop their horses looking smug and ent.i.tled. She wished she was closer where she could yell at them to stop their foolishness, but now that they were on the rock face, there was no stopping, no getting off. The trail was too narrow.

Digger danced in place, anxious to keep moving, but Kristine kept him reined in, watching with dread. Her heart lurched as one of the horses tripped on the steep stairs. Even from a distance, Kristine could see how hard the little horse was working and how the rider was making his job harder. "Give him his head," she whispered to herself. Shouting would have done no good. The horse stumbled again and fell to its knees. The boy pitched forward on the horse's neck. "Give him his head and stay put. Stay put! Stay put!" she yelled in vain, hearing her father's voice telling her to never quit a wreck.

Struggling to regain his footing, the horse lurched forward, pitching the boy off onto the rocks. As his father attempted to dismount on the downhill side of the trail, his horse scrambled on the sharp rocks trying to keep his balance, but he lost his footing and pitched off the switchback, taking the rider with him.

Kristine leapt from her own saddle and began scaling the switchback, climbing from pa.s.s to pa.s.s like a ladder.

The horse rolled down a switchback, landing on the rider. She saw his momentum leaning for another roll. "Brian!" Kristine screamed. The cowboy whipped his head around to look above him as the horse rolled, losing his rider but continuing down the mountain. "Move, move, move!" she shouted as the horse tumbled right at Brian's string. But he was frozen, his mules all in a line on the trail when Grumpy smashed into them.

Tied together, the mules scrambled to take the impact of the horse, and Brian held tight to the rope he'd looped around his saddle horn.

"Let them go!" Kristine shouted. "Drop your lead! Drop your lead!" She pulled her knife out of her belt as she reached the mess of animals writhing frantically between levels of the trail. She sawed at the leads that connected them. As they came free and rolled, she prayed that they could find purchase on the trail and that they wouldn't reach her own stock. The third mule in line lay on the trail, and without the weight of the babies pulling from behind and below, stayed put. She cut his lead and swatted the second mule, hoping he and the first mule could make it back to the trail above where Brian sat, stunned.

"Dismount on the mountain side and leave your horse. See if you can get those two up onto the trail." She slipped on the rocks. On blood. She didn't know who was cut or how bad it was. She didn't know whether to pull packs off or try to get the animals to the trail with their loads still on. Below her, she saw gear. One of the baby's packs must have come undone on its own, littering the hillside. She continued scaling the mountain in between the switchbacks to reach the rider. He groaned, which was good. He wasn't dead. But bones poked through ripped jeans. Kristine stood stunned for a moment at a loss for what to do. They needed help. That was clear. She wasn't going to get this rider out on a horse. She hollered up the mountain, "How's the boy?"

"He's sitting up now," one of the riders answered. "But he's bleeding. Can we get down to help him?"

"I want off the horse," the boy's friend called from his perch in front of his father.

"Stay put!" Kristine ordered. She held up her hand, trying to think. "Not yet. It's too dangerous. Sit tight for a few minutes." She shut her eyes, sorting out all she needed to do and prioritizing it. The roar of the waterfall behind her did nothing to help her plan her next move. "Brian, you got those mules up?"

"They're on the trail, but their packs are falling off."

"Leave them. Cut the switchbacks down to my horse and ride like h.e.l.l back to the Aspens. We're going to need a chopper for a busted leg and maybe a concussion."

"Got it," he hollered back.

"How far behind is your other string?" she asked Takeisha.

"He said he'd be another twenty getting the last mules ready to go."

"Do you have any emergency training?"

"No," Takeisha answered meekly.

"Okay. Who's got enough of a level spot to get off their horse safely?" she called up to the riders.

"I think I could get off," the rider at the turn of the switchback said.

Kristine went to his side and held the horse until he was off. "We need an emergency kit. I think Gloria, the woman who was lecturing you about bears, carries one. Head up to Shadow and tell the packer to get her here as quickly as he can." He carefully inched past the horses, stopping briefly to whisper something to the crying child on the rocks before he continued up the stairs. Kristine pointed his horse down the switchback and slapped him on the rump, making him skip a switchback. She led each of the other riders to the wide section of trail and helped them off. The riders rushed to the boy and his father.

"How bad is it?" one asked. "Is he going to die?"

"He's not going to die," Kristine said. She thought about what they needed to do for the injured as well as the stock. "We shouldn't move them, but it's likely to take a while to get help in here. Some of you stay here with them, keep them talking. Takeisha, let's go try to round up the stock, and a few of you come with us to get some food and sleeping bags."

Two men quickly volunteered to go down the mountain and gather supplies from their bags. "Just tell us what to do. We want to help."

Now they're ready to listen, Kristine mused. "Yep, we've got this," she mumbled under her breath, leading the way down the trail.

Chapter Twenty-Four.

Gloria hadn't liked the situation at all down at Fish Creek with the bear scavenging a dead horse. As she had hiked the trail to Rosalie, she kept replaying the talk she'd tried to have with Kristine. At that point, the issue of balance had felt like the key point to her, and balance could be managed. Limit the number of trips taken into the backcountry or at least to certain sites. Control the amount of food brought in or packed in and require guests to use bear boxes. In Yosemite, her colleagues had made great progress with bear boxes in the areas most saturated with tourists. She knew they didn't solve all of the problems, but they at least acknowledged bears as the local wildlife, acknowledged that people had a part in their own safety.

But now here at Rosalie she had a problem much bigger than the one down at Fish Creek. This group had brought another issue to light. The group that Leo had packed in was a miserable mess of chaos and overkill. Their att.i.tude appalled her. Not only did they ignore the way their presence attracted wildlife, they insisted that the wildlife was an inconvenience. She'd highlighted Leo's part in that by packing people in with no limitations on what they brought with them. Campers like these contributed to the problem of balance by tempting bears with an easy meal, eventually making them reliant on a diet of human food and putting campers in real danger. Once food-conditioned, bears became territorial and confrontational, learning that humans were happy to drop and abandon their food when rushed.

She'd approached the Rosalie camp with all this in mind. When she'd reached the group, the long hike had tempered her anger. Though they reported no bear visits, she camped near them, expecting to be on duty during the night when their food supply would be more vulnerable to bears. However, she still kicked herself for taking a day hike to collect evidence of bear activity in the area. She had returned to a trashed camp.

The party said the old bear had lumbered in and had not responded to their efforts to scare it away. This alarmed Gloria. Wandering around during the day wasn't completely out of character when a bear was grazing on berries or even taking the opportunity to root around in an unsupervised campsite to bulk up on calories. But human presence should have acted as a deterrent. Even habituated to humans, unless someone was holding an item it had claimed as its own as a food-conditioned bear would, the bear should have had zero interest in the people and run when confronted. It troubled her enough that she decided to spend another day in the backcountry hoping that the bear would return.

Though the bear disappointed her, she'd been pleased to hear Kristine defend her and light a fire under the campers to clean up the area. The Kristine she'd stormed out on hadn't seemed to care about such things. She'd been the complete opposite of the indifferent woman who'd blown off her concerns. It occurred to her that the response that had p.i.s.sed her off so much was the one out of character, yet she had been too upset to discuss it with Kristine. Chagrined, she knew she owed Kristine an apology. Unfortunately, she had no time for that now. After the group finally left to return to the Lodge, she packed up her things, stringing up her large backpack from a tree limb out of reach of bears. She only needed her daypack with her while she hiked around the area to talk to other campers and see if they had encountered the animal. If there were other reports of such aggressive, atypical behavior, she'd need to talk to Scott about the possibility of relocation for the animal.

She'd been on the trail about a half hour, stopping to question the campers along the way, when she heard thunderous hoofbeats approaching. She couldn't remember hearing an animal moving on the trail so quickly and stepped off it to avoid a collision. The rider, one of the men from the team that packed the group from h.e.l.l out that morning, slid to a stop in front of her.

"Gloria?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered, confused.

"We've got a situation on the switchback below Shadow. Some riders went down. They sent someone up saying they need first aid. Teeny thought you might have a first-aid kit."

"How serious is it?"

"Don't know. The guy said a kid took a tumble, and his dad's got a nasty fracture."

Gloria quickly shrugged out of her pack and pulled out her radio. "Glad I've been lugging this around," she said, hoping Scott was right about the radio being able to bounce off a repeater and reach the office in Mammoth. "Scott, it's Gloria," she said, relieved when he answered. "There's an accident on the switchbacks below Shadow. All I've got right now is possible concussion and a fractured leg."

"Any idea how bad the break is?" he asked.

"No. The rider from the Lodge who found me was already relaying a message."

"How long until you can a.s.sess yourself?"

"I'm probably..." She directed her question to the rider. "How long till we can get to them?"

"Twenty, thirty minutes."

"I'm a half hour from the scene," Gloria said.

"I'm going to go ahead and radio for a chopper, but update me once you're there."

"Absolutely."