Off The Trail

CHAPTER FOUR: **Bring The Book**

Connie woke up stiff from sleeping on her deflaited air matress and smelling like campfire. She looked around her tent, her parents were already gone, probably outside helping Mr. Walters make breakfast. She got up and got dressed in blue jeans and an old t-shirt she rarely wore. Out side her tent she saw Mr. Walters already at work flipping chocolate chip pancakes and her parents setting the table. Lisa was up already too, she was poking at the still burning embers in the fire pit from last nights fire. "Connie sweetie," said Mrs. Ilwaco, "can you wake up the other kids and tell them breakfast will be ready in about fifteen minutes?"

Connie walked over to the boys tent and shook it. In resonse she heard some complaining moans of tierd teenagers. "It's time to get up, breakfast is almost ready." Connie shouted as she walked over to the girls tent. She opened up their tent and shook Jeane awake, Connie knew she was a heavy sleeper and wouldn't be woken by just the loud movement of the tent. "Jeane wake up," she said, "breakfast is almost ready. Your dad is making chocolate chip pancakes and I can't wait to eat them!" She than moved on the Anne who had already opened her eyes, "Come on Anne time to get up, breakfast in fifteen." She then went to the Walters tent where young Nora and Trey were sleeping, "Hey guys," Connie said in a soft motherly voice, "your dad is making chocolate chip pancakes! Get up so you can get your share."

Trey sat up with a wide smile and said, "I love chocolate chip pancakes. I hope Danny doesn't eat them all before I can get to them. Nora come on we gotta hurry."

When everyone was up and dressed They all sat around the two picinic tables they had pushed together to make one large dinning table and ate their pancakes. "Hey Jeane," said Connie, "Do you wanna go on a hike today? Cause I've been looking at some of the trails in this pamphlet thing I got when we drove into the park, and I they have some pretty cool ones."

"Yeah sure. Which hike were you thinking of?" answerd Jeane with her mouth full of delicious pancakes.

"Depends on how long of a hike your willing to do," Connie pulled out the pamphlet she was talking about, "This one says it takes about three hours to do. But if thats too long, this one only takes like thirty minutes."

"I wouldn't mind the longer one, as long as we get lots of little resting breaks and stuff," answerd Jeane.

"Anyone else wanna go with us?" Connie asked all the kids.

Everyone was silent for a little bit than Reed said, "I don't think anyone wants to go on a three hour walk in the dirt Connie. Your on your own."

Connie was unfased by Reeds harsh tone, "That's ok. When should we leave Jeane?" She was just excited to see more of the wildlife and look at all the plants again. She really wanted to be able to tell Mrs. Aqua about all the different plants she saw.

"Maybe in an hour," said Jeane, "I need a chance to wake up and let these pancakes settle in."

"Sounds good." Said Connie with an excited smile, "Mom is it alright if Jeane go on that long hike I was talking about?"

"As long as your back before lunch," said Mrs. Ilwaco.

Connie eagarly waited for an entire hour. She grabbed two little packs and loaded them with water bottles and protein bars. When the hour was finaly done, Jeane and her got on their shoes and got ready to go. As they were walking away from camp Jeane remembered what Connie had told her to do. "Don't forget your book Connie," she said.

"Oh yeah," said Connie, "I'll be right back." She ran back into camp and rummaged around in her tent until she found the beloved survival book. "I'm glad Jeane reminded me," she thought. She ran back to Jeane and put her book in her little backpack, right next to her protein bars.

The trail they chose went up a small mountain with a lake at the top and Connie couldn't wait to see it. She had heard it had the clearest water of any lake in Oregon and Washington combined, but it would be far too cold to swim in. Jeane wanted to swim in it anyway but Connie convinced her that if she did try to swim she would die of hyplthermia, so Jeane stopped talking about swimming. The trail they were on was beautiful and Connie would often stop to look and plants along they way. If she found one that was also in her book she would pick a leaf or a flower and put it in the page where it was talked about in her book. She ended up collecting quite a few specimins. Jeane also enjoyed the hike. When they saw two deer she just stopped to stare at them until they ran away. She aspecialy loved the half way bridge over a vally they had to cross. The bridge was pretty high up and their was a little stream at the bottom of the valley that they stopped to look at. When they finaly got to the lake, Connie was a little dissapointed with the clearity of the water, "I thought we would be able to see the bottom better," she said.

"It still looks pretty," said Jeane, "Man I wish we could go swimming, but I don't really feel like dying so..."

They stayed by the lake for a little while an just enjoyed the peacefulness of it all. The calm water, no people, only the sound of each other and the wind in the trees sorownding them. What they didn't notice was the dark clouds rowling in from the west, until it started to drizzle. "We should head back if we want to get back in time for lunch," said Jeane.

"Your right," said Connie, "Plus it's starting to rain, I want to get out of here."

As they headed back down the mountain the rain never stopped, it only got heavier and heavier. The girls could hardly see infront of them and the noise of the rain drops on the trees made it hard for them to even heat each other. "We should find a dry spot, and wait out the rain." Connie showted to Jeane. Jeane just nodded in reasponce and they went off the trail just a few meters until they found a cave they could huddle in. "I hope we can get back in time." said Connie nevously.

"We'll be fine. Even if we don't I'm sure our parents will understand," said Jeane, "They have to have seen the rain too."

Once the rain calmed down a bit and the girls could finaly see pretty clearly, they left the cave and kept walking on the trail. As they were nearing the half way bridge they felt a rumble. "What is that?" yelled Jeane.
They heard a lound noise like trees breaking and rocks falling.

"Jeane whats going on?" cried Connie.

When the noise stopped they kept walking on the trail until it ended. "What?" asked Connie, "Was there always a cliff here?"

Jeane looked down the cliff and rememberd the half way bridge, "Uh... Connie look down there."

Connie did. What she saw was mud and trees, and the remains of the half way bridge. "There must have been a land slide."

"What do we do now?" asked Jeane

Connie looked around dumbfounded, "I don't know Jeane, but we should get away from the edge. There could be another mudslide, and I dont want to end up like the half way bridge at the bottom of this valley."

The girls turned around and headed back to the small cave they had sat in for shelter earlier.