This summer, my friend (who looks very much like Lenka, but with darker hair) and I hiked in to a popular hot spring in the woods. We had heard that people sometimes go naked there, but we took swimsuits. We were a bit surprised at the sign near the trailhead declaring this a clothing optional area and warning people they might encounter nude hikers on the trail. We weren't quite ready for it to actually be legal to go naked.

The first pool contained four nude men under a small waterfall. We stopped while she thoughtfully looked at them, and we decided to see what was farther down the trail. Six people in that pool would have been very crowded. I could tell she was uncomfortable with being too close to naked men she didn't know, and for my part, I rather was enjoying having her to myself. The next place had about eight pools, with two very obese couples just dressing to leave. We chose a pool far enough from them to give them some privacy.

She went behind the bushes for a moment, while I undressed and entered the water. Now, I love being naked, especially out in the forest, and especially skinny-dipping. But I'd never before done that with a woman, not even my wife. My friend and I are Christians. We met at church, sang in the choir, and prayed together often, so I wasn't sure just how she would react.

She joined me, still in her bathing suit, just as I settled into the water. She smiled and said, "I see you decided to try it." I answered, "Well, when in Rome..." After a couple of minutes of comment on how clear and warm the water was, she said, "I'm going to try it, too." and slipped out of her suit. We spent the next two hours sampling the temperature of each different pool, before deciding we liked the one we started with the best. She kept marveling at how wonderful it felt to be free of the constraints of clothing and convention. Couples came and went, some naked, some not, and we amazed ourselves at our lack of self-consciousness. We admired each other's bodies openly, and even took pictures of each other. At one point, I looked into her eyes, startled that they seemed prettier and a deeper shade of blue than ever before.

When the shadows lengthened and the temperature started to fall, neither of us was quite ready to succumb to clothing, so we put on shoes and hiked out naked. We got a chuckle out of the way one group of (clothed) hikers found something very interesting down by the river when we came around the corner, but the men kept sneaking peeks at my friend. On the drive back to town, she said she was so glad that I had been brave enough to get naked in front of her, but she couldn't understand why I didn't try to have sex with her. Wasn't I even aroused? I told her no, it's a beauty thing, not a sex thing.