Chapter 10
Out on the trail, Laura dismissed the first hint of the fire when she tasted it on the wind. Johnny often missed a spot during his shower, or wore his jump boots out to the cabin. He smelled like many things that were wonderful, but one of them that lurked about him as often as not was wood smoke.
Mister Ed rolled easily along the Skyline Trail, six tourists close behind on this easy section. It was fully melted out and was going to make a great two-day ride. The Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, commonly called the PCT, ran from the Mexican border to Canada along some of the harshest wilderness that the Sierra Nevadas and the Cascades could hand out.
The PCT climbed from river to snowline and back down to river time and again in brutal elevation changes. She’d always mean
