“Skinny lil’ farm girl”

I have always been really comfortable with my weight. I never thought of myself as really skinny, rather, a pleasant middle ground. I have enough blubber on me to keep warm in times of trouble yet by no means am I fat. In fact, every time I go to the doctors she always comments on my healthy weight. But for some reason, according to Oregonians I am emaciated. I have run into about ten people now that have commented on how skinny I am and have gotten comments like, “They let such a skinny girl carry such a large pack,” or “I’m surprised your legs don’t snap under the weight.” The best interaction by far was this horse packer, Jacque, that I kept running into. Jacque was a character. I first ran into him on my lunch break when he and his buddy asked if he could join me. I love company, especially during lonesome 4 day tours so I obliged. We got to talking and I pretty much got his whole life story. Here is the abridged version: He started a roofing company in Redmond but then found god. He sold his roofing company to do god’s work- which according to him is riding around on horses spreading the word of god. He asked me about myself. I don’t usually reveal my true identity to strangers in the backcountry. As nice as they can be in that setting, who knows what they are like in the frontcountry. He seemed like a true, tough and tried Oregonian so I decided to go with a controversial alias: Jane Davis (for those who don’t know, this is a female version of my good college friend Jon Davis. He lives in the middle of nowhere Iowa and I make fun of him for it). When I finished my life story Jacques came up to me, grabbed my shoulder and yealled, “Bones!” He moved to my hip and once again yelled, “Bones!” I gave him a strange look and he retorted, “What are they doing letting a skinny lil’ farm girl carry heavy pack in these parts of the woods. From the looks of it you don’t got much to ya, but I can tell you got gumption.” He then went over to one of his horses and grabbed an apple out of the saddle bag and said, “I was going to give this to one of my horses, but by the looks of it you need it more.” I ate the apple, thanked him and went on my way. However, for some reason I ran into Jacques 3 more times and each time he would look at me and say, “ya still haven’t gained the weight” and once again reach into the saddle bag and give me some sort of food. I don’t think that I have lost a ton of weight since I have been out here—5 lbs at most. MY metabolism has really amped up in the past couple of weeks. I am eating about 3,500-4,000 calories a day. I usually don’t carry that much food into the backcountry. If I did, my pack would be way too heavy for the amount of miles I attempt. I do go into a calorie defecit during my shift, but I sure to make it up on my off days with a lot of butter and cheese. I am going to blame everyone’s concern about my weight on my pregnancy top and I am not going to worry about it because I get free food out of the deal.