The Gold Mine Adventure (standard:adventure, 3241 words)
Author: Charles Reap, Jr.	Added: Mar 24 2006	Views/Reads: 3478/2292	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Two girls are camping with their parents and find an abandoned gold mine. They become trapped behind a cave-in. Their dog leads their parents back to the mine and they are rescued.

Dr. Charles A. Reap, Jr.            Words: 3230 E-304 Galloway Ridge
3000 Galloway Road Pittsboro, NC 27312 CReap@nc.rr.com 

The Gold Mine Adventure 

My best friend, Terry, and I went on a camping trip last year with our
parents. I really didn't want to go, because most of my parents' 
camping trip was to watch dumb-ol' birds. Where they got that I'll 
never know. And why Terry's folks went along, I don't know either. 
Maybe it's 'cause my dad seems to be a pretty good guy at convincing 
people to do what he wants. Anyway, while our parents were out in the 
bushes someplace, Terry and I decided to do a little exploring. Since 
we're both thirteen, and Girl Scouts, I think our folks figured we'd 
behave ourselves out there in the forest. We each slipped a water 
bottle in our pockets and set out. We had no idea what we'd find on our 
trek. We just wanted to amuse ourselves. Daisy, my black lab retriever, 
ran along ahead of us, occasionally dashing off into the woods chasing 
something. Maybe squirrels or rabbits. She barked a lot, but I never 
did see anything she ran after. Since our folks headed south, we 
decided to go in the opposite direction. Terry had her Girl Scout 
compass, so we knew we wouldn't get lost. We both carried our Girl 
Scout pocket knives with us. I never go anywhere without mine, because 
lots of the time when I get bored, I like to whittle on a stick or 
piece of wood. Another friend, Janey, says that's “boy stuff,” but I 
don't care. Terry started out in front, but pretty soon I got tired of 
brushing the small limbs away from my face when she'd let a bush swipe 
back at me. She seemed to think it was funny, but changed her mind when 
I insisted that I be the one in front. After a little while, each of us 
got some small fallen limbs, and held these in front of us as we 
walked. These also kept the occasional spider web from sticking to our 
faces and shirts. I don't like spiders. We didn't have too much trouble 
walking through the forest, but my foot would slip on an occasional 
slick rock. Terry's feet are bigger than mine, so I guess that made the 
walk easier for her. She did slip a little bit, though, when we jumped 
over some wet rocks in a small stream we crossed. I used my walking 
stick to support myself as I crossed. Things were going along pretty 
good, and we were having a real good time. We actually spotted a red 
fox about a football field length's distance ahead of us. I guess Daisy 
didn't see it, because she didn't chase it. Terry picked up a rock to 
throw at it if it started to come toward us. But it didn't. Once we 
crossed the stream we decided to follow a path we found for a while. It 
led right beside the creek, with a pretty steep hill going up to our 
right. Walking there was easier, because there weren't any small trees 
to brush through. It didn't look like anybody had walked along that 
trail for a long time, though. It was pretty-well covered with grass, 
maybe three-inches high. I said to Terry, “Bet your brother'd just love 
to push a lawn mower through all this tall grass?” She just said, 
“Yeah, I'll bet.” Pretty soon the path headed up that steep hill. Terry 
and I stopped, wondering whether or not we wanted to continue to follow 
it up that rocky incline. While we were stopped I could hear a bunch of 
birds whistling to each other. Terry looked up and pointed. “Look up 
there. That's an eagle, isn't it?” I saw it but couldn't tell. “Don't 
know. Maybe so.” I sure didn't want to get into the habit of bird 
watching. Hearing my dad and mom talk about it was enough for me. 
Anyway, Terry and I continued to follow the path up that hill. 
Actually, the path sort of dwindled out, so we had to climb by grabbing 
onto small tree limbs as we went up. After a little while both of us 
were sucking our breaths in. I felt like I was in better shape than 
Terry, though, because she almost started wheezing. She has asthma. 
Once she slipped on the loose ground and grabbed my pants leg for 
support. That almost made me fall. We were pretty far up the hill, and 
I couldn't hear the brook's trickling sounds any more, when the ground 
kind of leveled out and walking got easier. It was a kind of plain 
field. There were a lot of big dirt piles laying all around. Terry and 
I decided to stop to catch our breath, and sat down on a couple of tree 
stumps. Mom wouldn't have wanted me to do that, though; because she 
says sitting on pine tar would have messed up the seat of my pants. 
Anyway, I looked first and saw that the small amount of rosin left 
there had hardened a long time ago. I sucked on my water bottle, which 
made my mouth feel good. It was kind of hot that day. I asked Terry, 
“How far do you think we've come?” “Probably a couple of miles.” She 
pulled out her compass and peered at it. I thought, That's not gonna 
show any distance. When we caught our breath, we started scanning 
around the field. My homeroom teacher would have called it a “plateau.” 
She'd be proud of my knowing that. Suddenly Terry said, pointing across 


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