The Sensation on My Skin was Unbelievable

Part 4 of 4 of a multipart prompt dealing with the senses.

It wasn’t as if I didn’t know that Yellowstone was dangerous. Hell, just a few weeks ago some guy got eaten by a bear. But what doesn’t make the headlines like the bear attacks are all the people who are horribly burned each year by the thermal features. Even with warning signs, imbeciles still step across barriers and jump over railings and scald their fingers sticking them into boiling pools. I heeded all of the warning signs. There weren’t even supposed to be any thermal features where I was hiking, but I guess I found a new one. Hiking off trail isn’t forbidden in the park, but they do assume that any idiot who does it at least half-way knows what they’re doing, and I did. Bear spray, rig to hang my food, spade to bury my…well you get the picture. Doesn’t matter. If the park has it in for you, you’re going to die. That’s what they tell you anyway, in the park orientation. Everyone scoffs, but it’s true.

I’m walking along, shouting “bear, bear, bear” and then I’m burning, the sensation on my skin was unbelievable, incredible heat, like embracing the sun, and the pain, oh God. It was only later they told me I’d stepped into a thermal pool. Guess the park had it in for me.
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