After hiking six miles up the Big Sur mountain trail, Bob and I reached our backcountry campsite and found six men sitting around a campfire. Minutes ago, we’d heard them laughing and swearing loudly from below. Now they were eerily silent, staring at us, beers in hand. There was a pickup truck parked on the ridge road above, rifles and crushed cans at their feet, and two bloody mountain lion carcasses hanging from a pole. Though it was nearing sunset, Bob nodded and kept walking. I followed, head down, listening for the sound of boots behind me that never came.
Jill Suttie is a writer and contributing editor for Greater Good magazine at UC Berkeley, where she covers the science of prosocial behavior and emotion. “Backpacking” is the winner of our INTO THE WILD contest, part of our 2026 Micromemoir Marathon.