[[EDIT: I finally got around to finishing it!]]

[[ This is one of my absolute favorite memories, and was pretty instrumental in the evolution of my interest in WAM from hiding in the shower or bathtub to actually getting wet in public. I've taken some liberties with dialog and descriptive details because, come on! It's been 10 years! I can't remember the exact words we said. ]]

About ten years ago, shortly after we'd moved to Wisconsin, my roommate Amber and I decided to go camping. We didn't really know any of the state parks around here, so we picked one with an interesting name: High Cliff State Park. We decided on a weekend about a month away so we'd have time to prepare.

I'm a kind of spontaneous person and could say, "I want to go camping," pack my things, and be out the door an hour or two (ok...maybe more like 3-4 hours lol) later. She's a big planner though. She makes lists, then edits and rewrites them multiple times before she even starts packing, so a big activity like a weekend camping trip requires at least a week of warning for her. So with some input from me, we made a list of all the gear we'd need and figured out what we already had. I've been camping with my family since I was a little kid, so I've collected a lot of gear over my life, but when I do camp, it's usually with others so I didn't have everything needed yet. We were fresh out of college with a ton of student loan debt and not-so-great-paying jobs, so buying what we didn't have wasn't really an option for us back then. Instead, we borrowed most of the stuff we didn't already own from my parents, so we had to make the drive there two weeks before our trip so Amber was sure we wouldn't forget.

Amber spent like a full week researching how to cook over a campfire and what recipes to use, completely ignoring my claims of "all we need are hot dogs, buns, ketchup and mustard, pickles, (lots of pickles, like 5 jars just to be safe!), chips, chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers. Oh, and maybe a case of water." But noooo... she had to go looking for gourmet campfire recipes. So, we ended up with a fancy stew that was delicious but took forever to make, some fish wrapped in tin foil that burned to a crisp when she forgot to set her timer, peach cobbler (YUM!!), and some other stuff that required a ridiculous amount of ingredients but I guess was worth all the extra effort because it was all delicious. I didn't budge on the pickles or s'mores though. Our grocery bill for that one 3-day camping trip pretty much broke our banks for weeks afterward though.

So, anyways, that was all a tangent that was probably pretty pointless to write considering what site I'm posting this on, so...sorry about that. Well, no, I'm not really sorry. Since you haven't clicked off yet, this has all been at least moderately interesting or you're a sucker for an incredibly well-written story. For that I'm truly sorry. This won't be well-written at all. I'm literally writing it however my stream of consciousness dictates. Maybe I'll edit it later into a story that would make my writing teachers breathe a sigh of relief that I actually learned something in their classes. But... hmmm... now that I think of it, it's probably for the best that they aren't reading this.

Anyways...you're not here for my tangents. You're hear to see why I'm posting about my favorite hiking trip on a WAM fetish site. So, lets get to that part of the story then!


About a week before our camping trip, Amber was digging through my closet looking for a blouse that matched a skirt she'd borrowed from another friend for her date that night. While she was in there, she saw the bag containing my junior prom dress and unzipped it to look at it while the wheels in her head started turning.

I jokingly told her that it was probably a little fancy for her dinner out with a guy she'd just met, but she ignored me. She pulled the hanger bag out of my closet and laid it on my bed so she could pull the dress out of it and look at it. She was really deep in thought as she studied the dress. It's my favorite article of clothing I own, so she's seen it many times, although mostly just me prancing around the dorm, apartment, or house like a princess in it. Her seeing me in this dress usually earned me an eye roll and sometimes made me a target for something soft and painless, like a pillow or a crumpled up piece of paper thrown at me. But right at that moment, it seemed like she was seeing it for the first time, or at least seeing it in a new light.

"Karen, could you bring this along next weekend? I'd love to get some pictures of you wearing it out in the woods."

Of course, I jumped at the opportunity to wear it. I was a bit wary of bringing it on a camping trip and before this trip, I'd never worn anything especially fancy outside the safety of civilization. At most, I'd wear a nice, short-ish dress that i wasn't concerned about getting snagged on branches or rocks for her previous photoshoot ideas in the wild.

Once the initial idea had time to settle in, the logistics problem came up. Where would we keep it? How would we keep it from getting torn, stained, stolen, burned, or anything else? I for sure wasn't going to leave it in the tent where some random stranger could grab it while we were out hiking or at the beach or at the bathroom, and I also for sure wasn't going to leave it in the car in the hot sun.

Then, how would we do the actual photoshoot? Makeup and hair would be a problem. I didn't want to bring lots of makeup or styling equipment. My car would already be packed just with normal camping gear, and now a big dress on top of all of that. Eventually we decided that we'd do this photoshoot on the first day, as soon as we arrived at High Cliff. I'd do my hair and makeup before we left and just bring what I'd need to refresh it beforehand and clean it all up afterward. The dress would stay in the car inside its bag and protected from the sun and heat by a blanket over the top at all times except for while I was wearing it. I wasn't going to make the long drive wearing it though, so I'd change once we got there. And we would be super careful in the woods to keep the huge skirt safe from rips or tears or from getting anything on it like sap or mud. A bunch more plans were made and eventually the day of our trip arrived.

I did my makeup light but fancy, quite a bit more natural than I usually do when I get dressed up. I also did my hair (with lots of help from Amber) without using hairspray or anything else I'd have to wash out. I used a LOT of bobby pins to hold my frustratingly curly hair in place in a partial updo sort of like I did for my junior prom, finishing it off with a tiara made of twisted black wire and sparkly red crystals that I'd found in a craft shop and fell in love with years ago. I added (fake) ruby chandelier earrings and black satin choker with a big, fake heart-shaped ruby dangling from it. I wasn't about to bring any of my expensive jewelry on a camping trip, but I wanted to still look super fancy and put together. I painted my nails to match the crimson color of my dress (even though I'd be wearing gloves for the pictures) and put on matching lipstick as well.

We packed everything up before i started getting ready so I wouldn't accidentally mess up my hair, so now we were ready to go. We drove out to the campground, got there right at check-in time, and I let Amber deal with all that while I stayed in the car. Then we drove to the trail head and found ourselves with an issue we hadn't planned for: where do I get changed? I sure as hell wasn't taking this dress into a stinky pit toilet stall and the beach area had some sort of party going on, like a family reunion or something, so I wasn't going to try getting changed in the flush toilets bathroom with a bunch of wet, sandy little kids running around. Eventually, we just decided to find a spot that would be out of view of the roads or hikers and I'd change as quick as I could.

Just to describe what I looked like for all the visual folks: I had my makeup done simple, mostly just mascara and dark red lipstick, and my shoulder-blade-length curly brown hair was in a fancy partial updo with a very pretty black-and-red tiara. I also wore ruby earrings and a black satin choker with a large ruby pendant. My dress was a crimson ballgown with a full, floor-length skirt. The bodice is a corset with a halter top, a sweetheart neckline, and a V waist, with black lace trim and black beading. The crimson satin skirt had black lace trim and beading in patterns near the hem, with lots of layers of tulle underneath and a silk underskirt. I wore over-the-elbow black stretch satin opera gloves with an onyx-and-ruby bracelet on my left wrist, dark stockings, and strappy black 4-inch stilettos. I absolutely feel like a princess when I wear this dress, and like to think I look like one too. Well, at least I hope I look more like a princess than an awkward girl playing dress-up.

So, anyway, once that was dressed and ready, we deposited my other clothes in the car and started out on the trail. It wasn't a particularly difficult trail at first until we arrived at a steep hill. I very quickly decided that attempting it in 4-inch strappy stilettos was not nearly as good of an idea as it had seemed at the time, so Amber ran back to the car to grab my hiking boots while I waited with her camera equipment. While I was waiting, a mom and her daughter passed me on the trail. The little girl was super excited and confused by the "princess" in the woods, but her mom gave me the evil eye as they passed and wouldn't let the girl talk to me. I felt really bad about that, but mostly because in my head, I was mentally analyzing the patronizing snippets I overheard the mom stage-whispering to the girl about me. I just wanted to disappear or run back to the car, but I was worried that I'd miss Amber, like she'd somehow take a different route than the one trail I was on that led out to this spot. I don't know...maybe she decided to take the long way back and come from the other direction. Anyways, for whatever dumb reasons, I was able to convince myself to stay and do the photoshoot I'd promised Amber.

Once my roommate came back, breathing hard from running and really regretting her choice to wear jeans for this hike, she decided we should take some pictures with the lake visible through the trees before we continued on. Once we were done, I switched out the heels for my hiking boots and we started climbing the hill really slowly and carefully. It wasn't really wet or slippery, but it was just wet enough that if I slipped, tripped, or otherwise fell, the dress would be ruined by the mud as I tumbled and rolled and slid down the hill. But we made it to the top safely and with neither of us falling.

---- And now, a quick message from our sponsors - ahem - I mean, me ----------

[[ I know, I know. But this is a WAM site! Where's the WAM??? Well, sir or madam, this is my story, and I'm telling it so you'll just have to deal with all the extra unnecessary details that my brain insists on including. (I don't want to spoil anything for the readers, but I feel like I've made a few too many references to mud, stains, etc so I don't want to lead anyone on. There is nothing messy in this story, just wet, so if you're only interested in messy stuff, you can safely skip this story. If you like wet stuff, maybe you'll like what's ahead. If you're looking for sex, hardcore girl-on-girl fun times, etc, you're gonna be out of luck in pretty much everything I write. Unless maybe I make up a story like that sometime. My real life is sadly lacking in that sort of excitement. WAM isn't even really all that sexual for me in general. Ok, I lied, sort of. I'll fix that claim: I have had very few sexual experiences involving WAM, and none of them really worked out the way I'd hoped, so I've learned to separate fun WAM from the ultimate dream of WAM sex. heh...) ]]

--------We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming ----------------

We hiked along the trail, taking pictures anywhere one of us was like, "I like this spot!" I very nearly walked right off a cliff not once but twice because I wasn't paying attention. In my defense, parts of the trail are on solid stone with trees and grass and dirt and various vegetation growing along the trail. There are a lot of places where the bare rock leads off a cliff when the trail turns or runs parallel to that cliff. Thankfully, Amber was a lot more concerned with keeping her model alive than I was so she kept me from walking off the cliff Wile E. Coyote-style.

I ended up putting the heels back on a bunch of times for certain shots, then trading them for my boots once we started moving again. Let me just say that sitting like a princess on a cliff with the voluminous skirts of a beautiful ballgown spread around me and my strappy black stilletos peeking out underneath makes for an incredible picture, but getting back on my feet after that was very nerve-wracking and not at all graceful. I was so terrified of falling after my heel slipped on my underskirt when I was trying to stand up that I froze and then went into a full-on panic attack right there on the edge of the cliff with Amber trying to keep me from falling off and killing myself. For a bit of reference, the spot where we took that picture was only about a 20-foot drop and I probably would have been ok if I'd fallen, maybe a broken bone or two, but I am terrified of heights and slipping on that ledge triggered every bit of fear and panic in me. After that, Amber decided that the photoshoot was over and we should just get back to the car ASAP. Besides, my tears made my mascara and I didn't help it any by smearing it with my gloved hands. Amber herself was pretty panicked, but managed to hold it together to calm me down. She wanted to throw my heels off the cliff for nearly killing me but I wouldn't let her. She settled for throwing rocks instead until she calmed down. Just the ridiculousness of watching her trying to hurl rocks nearly the size of her head helped me get my head on straight and we finally set off on the last leg of the trail. I wouldn't hand over my heels though, because I was worried she'd still try to throw them.

When we finally did get back to the car, I insisted we take a few more pictures before we went up to our campsite. Amber helped me clean up the mascara streaks, apologizing the whole time for almost getting me killed. I insisted it was fine, just an accident. Now that we were back on flat, solid ground, I ditched the boots and put my heels back on, despite their attempted murder. After a bunch more pictures and a couple explanations to random strangers in the parking area, we found ourselves with another issue: there were people around, so the private, hidden spot we used before was no longer private or hidden. I decided not to change yet and instead go to our campsite, carefully set up the tent, then change inside that.

I was already sweaty and sticky from the hike, so as much as I loved wearing the dress, I just wanted to take it off. Amber, however, thought it was hilarious watching me struggle to put the tent up alone in my ballgown while she giggled and snapped away with her camera. Finally finished, I went to the cooler in the car to grab a nice, cold bottle of water only to find we'd never put the water bottles in the cooler and had packed them into the car against the window. They'd sat in the sun the whole time we were out hiking and were now nice and warm. I was really disappointed because I was thirsty and had been hoping that drinking the water would help cool me down.

Jokingly, Amber suggested "Just go jump in the lake. It's already been in a lake once. What could a second time hurt?"

Little did she know, I'd been fantasizing about repeating my junior prom night literally ever since my prom night and didn't need any convincing. I wasn't even thinking about what to do with the dress afterward. I was now fully focused on getting down to that lake and jumping in. Even Amber's repeated claims of "I was just kidding!" couldn't stop me.

We quickly unloaded the air mattresses and other stuff for the tent, then we got back in the car and I drove us down to the beach area. The party was still going, although a lot of the older people were gone now. I didn't care. I was going in that lake and nobody was going to stop me. It wasn't until we were walking across the grass toward the narrow sandy beach that it dawned on Amber that her swimsuit was in one of the bags that we'd unloaded into the tent. She stopped walking and was about to head back to the car, but I was so close now. I wasn't going to go back now... I might chicken out and go another 5+ years or forever without ever taking this beautiful dress for a swim again. I told her, "Look what I'm wearing! Nobody's going to question why your normal, everyday clothes are wet when you're taking pictures of someone dressed like me in that same water!"

We were far enough away from the pavilion where the party was taking place that we didn't have to deal with getting interrupted en route to the beach. We got down to the sand and whatever semblance of gracefulness I might have shown while walking on the grass in my heels vanished as I nearly fell like two steps into the sand. It really was like my prom night all over again, only this time there were at least two dozen people watching me from the pavilion. My will was fading rapidly and after the third or fourth stumble, I nearly called it quits and ran for the car. That was when Amber muttered just loud enough for me to hear, "I can't believe we're doing this..." and she started snapping pictures of me. I did my best to focus 100% on her and ignore all the people behind her pointing and staring in the distance. I'd take a few poses, walk a few steps closer to the water, pose some more with goofy faces or a dumb pose mixed in with my "glamour shots."

Before I knew it, I could feel wet sand on my bare toes and I knew without turning around that I was only another step or two from fulfilling years of fantasies and repeating one of my best memories. One more step. A small wave splashed over my stiletto-clad foot. One more step. My other shoe sank into the sand, submerged in the water. The small waves were starting to move my skirts. One more step. The water was now pulling on my dress, practically begging me to soak it. One more step. The silk underskirt was clinging to my stockinged calves.

I finally looked down at my skirt. The crimson satin was turning much darker where it touched the water and soaked it in. On my prom night, this had all been done in the dark. I'd never even noticed the color change. I was mesmerized by it for a long moment. Then I crouched slightly, just enough to lower my skirt another inch or so into the water and I watched as the darker red climbed that much higher up the skirt. I did it again, a little lower this time.

Amber apparently misinterpreted this sudden stop in my progression into the water as hesitation or second thoughts. "We can stop. You don't have to do this. I know how much you love that dress." She lowered her camera as I looked up at her. "Let's go back to camp, ok?"

My feelings inside finally made their way to my face and I broke out into a huge, dumb grin. "Are you kidding me? I love this!"

The tiny waves were gently pulling my huge skirt toward shore, then back out again as they receded. The silk underskirt would float up a bit as the waves came in, then cling to my calves as the waves receded. I had to go deeper! It wasn't until I was in just past my knees that Amber finally kicked off her hiking shoes, peeled off her socks, and followed me in. She stopped briefly just at the water's edge as she looked down at her boot-cut jeans. She looked like she was debating whether to roll them up or not, but after a moment or two she shrugged slightly and stepped into the water.

[[This was where I ran out of time when I first wrote this out.]]

The slope of the beach was so gradual that I was already out twenty or thirty feet by the time the water reached my knees, but there was one spot where there was like a 6-8-inch dropoff. I stumbled and nearly fell, plunging my gloved hands into the water like it would stop me from falling. Fortunately, I managed to catch my footing before making too ungraceful of a splash, and Amber kept snapping away, giggling at how awkward and clumsy I looked as I tried to stay on my feet. I got the last laugh there though, because she was just as unprepared as I was for that dropoff, and she fell to her knees. Luckily, she managed to keep her camera above the water.

I thought she was going to be done with the photoshoot after that, but once she stood back up and looked down at her soaked clothes, she just started laughing. Seeing her cracking up, I also burst out laughing, and my clumsy self ended up losing my footing as a wave hit me. I was about waist deep at that point, my skirts floating around me and held up by some big air bubbles underneath the fabric. As I stumbled, I suddenly found myself neck-deep. My beautiful beaded bodice was submerged and my hair was soaked from my ears down.

Amber just laughed even harder, and with her laughing, I couldn't stop either. I got back on my feet and was starting to regret not taking my heels off back at the car, but I was all in now. In between gasping breaths, Amber told me not to go under until she could take some more pictures with just my dress wet, before I completely soaked my hair and maybe made my makeup run again.

We finally regained our composure, although it took a while because every time one of us managed to stop, we'd see the other laughing and that would set us off again. By this point, pretty much everyone in the pavilion was facing toward us and seemed to be talking about us and laughing. Normally, that would make me super self-conscious, but right then, I didn't care at all. I was having a blast, and it didn't matter what they thought!

Amber took a few more pictures of me, then finally let me dunk my head underwater and soak my hair. I slowly bent my knees and sank under, then tried to come up as gracefully as I could. Apparently, I didn't succeed, because whatever I did set Amber off into a new fit of giggles, and I quickly followed.

After a few more poses, including the obligatory hair flip-spray (and brief, frantic search for the tiara afterward), Amber ran her camera back to the car along with her shoes and socks, then came back to the water, where she relaxed and started splashing around with me. Swimming in a ballgown is a LOT of work though, and I was soon tired out and hungry ("Karen, you're ALWAYS hungry!" was Amber's response to that).

We were now thoroughly cooled down and decided it was time to head back to camp to change and get the fire started to cook dinner before it got dark. It was a lot harder to walk in the dress now that it was soaked and trying to tangle up my legs, but I did my best to keep it out of the sand. Unlike Amber, I'd been smart enough to bring a change of clothes down, so I grabbed them from the car and went into the showers, where I rinsed the dress as best I could, then changed into dry clothes. Genius me forgot to bring shoes though, so I put my heels back on, thinking I could make the quick walk from the showers to the car without anyone noticing.

No such luck... lol. One of the women from the party was waiting outside and demanded a full explanation for why I had been all dressed up and why I decided to ruin such a beautiful dress and why I was wearing my stilettos with athletic shorts. I did my best to stammer through an explanation of Amber's photoshoot idea and how it was so hot and I just wanted to jump in the lake. It was at that point that Amber (who had helped me unlace and remove the dress after my shower) stepped out of the same shower stall I'd been in after rinsing herself off. Always super protective of her socially-anxious best friend, Amber sort of stepped in-between us and asked me, "Is everything ok, babe?" while staring the woman straight in the eyes. The lady just looked so shocked and flabbergasted that she didn't say a word as Amber grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the car as I tried to balance in high heels while holding the heavy, soaked dress at arm's length to avoid soaking my dry clothes.

Once I had stuffed the dress and everything else in a garbage bag to keep my car dry, we hopped in the car and started laughing uncontrollably as we drove back to our campsite. "Babe?" I asked Amber once we'd settled down again.

Amber just shrugged. "I didn't mean anything by that. She just seemed like the type that would be uncomfortable if I did that, so I went with it." I was disappointed, but had figured as much. I used to have a huge crush on her, but she'd made it clear that we would only ever just be friends.

Once we got back to camp, she did her best (and failed) to get a fire going while I hung my dress, gloves, stockings, and everything else out to dry on a rope we'd tied between two trees. Then I took over fire duty while she went in the tent to change into dry clothes.

All in all, this was one of my favorite memories, despite the few down moments (like almost falling off the cliff and getting patronized by a grumpy lady at the showers). Since then, we've done a number of similar photoshoots in other outfits or other locations, with some of them ending in lakes or rivers. Amber thinks it's a funny quirk that I like getting my fancy clothes wet, but she likes the nice additions to her photography portfolio and is happy to have a model willing to do these things, even if she has to "suffer" through a camping or hiking trip in order to get those pictures.