Commander Cream #5

Like most American women, I have body-image issues. More specifically, I hate my body. If our bodies are like tools, I guess mine usually gets the job done- sans grace, beauty or delicacy. As a last-minute aside, I think this is why I don't really trust any guy who says that I am attractive- I'm not. That said, I rarely wear anything truly revealing. However, there is one time that I found myself very much nude in front of people who were very much strangers to me.

The summer before I went to college, I went on an eleven-day backpacking trip as sort of a “last hurrah” with friends. There were six of us, and rather curiously we were all female. (This was strange only because all of my close friends have always been male) It was a two-day hike into the backcountry. We set up a base camp next to a lake in a valley with easy access to three large peaks. We were utterly alone. Civilization had long-since retreated to a distant memory. The trail was rarely used, and we had not seen a single person since we set out on our adventure.

Since there was no one around, we spent at least a little bit of time everyday swimming in the lake (skinny-dipping, if that wasn’t clear. None of us brought bathing suits on the trip). Now, let me clarify something really quickly, this lake was freezing cold. It was fed only by snowmelt, and even in mid-August, when you entered the water you were shocked at the temperature. So it became a challenge each day to swim a bit further. By day eight, our second-to-last day by the lake, most of us were swimming across the entire lake. On that day, I finally made it across the lake. As a slow swimmer, I was the only one on the far side of the lake when we suddenly had company.

An entire troop of Boy Scouts.

I know that boy scouts are taught to “always be prepared,” but I don’t think even their troop leaders were ready to crest the final ridge and confront a group of six naked girls. As the only one on the far side of the lake, it was my job to greet the interlopers. You are at an amazing disadvantage when you are stark naked in an ice-cold mountain lake. My friends were not much help. They were a bit too busy laughing and scrambling into clothing.

The troop ended up camping elsewhere.