No paperwork in 1974. A woman that I had met two years before, with her boyfriend, in the High Sierras was back in the area and asked if I was still working with the US Forest Service, I was, but I was out buying supplies for the next trail maintenance tour, she knew I had a Forest Service vehicle and while she and her friend were headed out I was heading in. We met on the one lane road near the 9,060' pass and she asked if I remembered her, how could I forget skinny dipping in a little alpine lake and the month that we shared meals in the back country two years before.
She got in the International Scout and we drove to the ranger station talking the whole way. Near the end of the summer I took over as foreman of a woman volunteer trail crew and we made arrangements for her and her male friend to become members of the volunteer crew.
That night we shared a meal, packed for the tour and then took a walk. Later we sat on the granite, next to each other, under the stars and talked about life and everything else. We kissed and held each other and when she got cold I took my coat off so she put it over her own coat and continued until near daybreak. We headed back to my cot in the tent frame cabin where we continued to hold each other. She had married the friend she had been hiking with two years before and was still married (the guy was an ass and wanted her to be a drug mule among other things) She was having a conversation with herself about whether we should sleep together or not. She was a disappointed that I had lost my virginity that spring. I didn't press the issue and she eventually concluded that we should make love. We have been together ever since.