Ranger

I, uh, took a wrong turn and ended up back up here.

He had the same day pack, the same shirt, the same pants, the same boots.

The boots were exactly as clean as they had been three days ago.

Maybe cleaner.

Maybe they had been washed.

I said, hey Mark, took a wrong turn from where?

He said, I came up the east side this time, trying a different trailhead.

Got onto a drainage I didn't recognize and I figured, well, if I keep going up, I'll hit the tower and then I can reset from here.

The east side trailhead is 18 miles out.

It's a different trail across a different pass.

I thought about this for about half a second and I said, ''Sure, happens.

You want some water?''

He said yes.

He came up to the tower.

He filled his bladder.

He drank and filled it again.

He stayed for 20 minutes.

He asked me more questions this time, not just about the job, about me, where I was from, whether I was married, whether I had family in the area, whether I did the lookout work year after year, whether I did it with another person or always solo.

I gave him generic answers.

Not because I was suspicious, because I give generic answers to strangers.