CHAPTER TWO
On the trail to South Kinsman, which was as rugged and rocky as any trail I’ve been on, I might as well have been hiking alone. Conroy took the lead immediately and didn’t relinquish it for the entire short distance to our third and final peak for the day. I had no trouble keeping up with him, though it did seem as though he was trying to see if he could leave me behind, or at least gain some space. Again, I felt a slight irritation; was he testing me? Was this his way of demonstrating how much more experienced a hiker he was?
The wind had picked up. It wasn’t enough to make me strain against it, but it lifted Conroy’s hair and ruffled it, and the loose ends of our pack straps whipped around, slapping against the nylon of the packs.
I reached the large cairn at the South Kin
