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| Use at least six of these words in your entry: tent, campfire, shadow, noise, tree, sleeping bag, cereal, backpack, trash, bear, owl, flashlight, camera, wooden spoon.  THE GRAND ADVENTURE by Apondia I don’t remember whose idea this was? Certainly, not mine. Here we were bouncing along on a 4-wheeler toward a heavily wooded campsite, Darla, Andre’, and I. I was driving, Darla was riding behind me, and Andre’ was sitting on top of the little cart we were towing. Andre’ was way up on top of the mound of equipment. Every time we hit a bump in the trail he let out a riotous monkey screech. Think about it! Monkey screams, in the deep green forests of Penn’s Woods. Wonderful noise, just not something you expect in this environment. The cart was loaded with 3 - 5-gallon jugs of water, sleeping bags, food, and numerous other odds and ends we thought necessary for a camping trip. We left the truck back at the ranger station. Where I was assured that if I took the second right turn off the main trail and traveled for exactly 20 minutes we would enter a clearing which would be our destination. According to the ranger at the station this part of the forest was possibly haunted. “Be sure to secure all your food and equipment before turning in for the night. We have had some odd happenings recorded over the summer.” When he saw Andre’ all he said was, “Well this ought to be interesting? "Andre’ took the rangers picture with his camera. Well. Maybe it was more like 25 minutes but, there was a rather large circular meadow, surrounded by large, stately trees. The meadow was filled with sunshine. The surrounding forest, darkly looming, completely surrounded the campsite; except for the narrow pot hole filled trail we came in on. Andre’ jumped down as soon as our 4-wheeler caravan came to a halt. “Darla, please go tell Andre’ to stay close while we set up the camp. After camp is set up we can explore the forest. “ I dug down under the three backpacks to haul out our tents. Camp set up went well enough. I positioned my tent facing South, unfolded the two solar panels and ran the wires and battery back up into the tents, which were in a semi-circle. We had a small electric cooler filled with good things to eat. Battery driven lanterns in each tent, and chargers to keep our Kindles and phones active. Darla rolled a map out on the camping stool. “Look Apondia, there is a stream just off here. I noticed a footpath leading into the woods in that direction. Let’s see if we can find it?” She rolled up the map. We headed down the path. First Andre’ was ahead of us, then behind us, then up in the trees and over us. I was a little dizzy trying to keep track of him. Darla pointed, “Look, a sign.” Spinners Creek, Caution-wild animals. I looked around. “Where’s Andre?” We went on down the path. Around the next bend was a wide shallow fast running river of water. “I thought this was suppose to be a creek? Look!” Darla was pointing across the expanse of water. Andre’ stood on the other side. He was staring at a big buck. It’s antlers were spread wide with evenly, spaced tines. The rack on his head was symmetrical and looked dangerous. The buck put down its’ head and pawed the ground. Before we could take another breathe, it charged Andre’ who ran up a tree. Andre’ dropped out of the tree directly onto the bucks back grabbing its ears to hang on. The buck began to bounce and twist in the air running straight across the flowing water to the side we were on. I hid behind a tree with Darla hiding behind me. We watched the buck leap high into the air standing on its’ back legs. Andre clambered up over the bucks nose grabbed a limb and swung up into the tree. The buck recrossed the water and ran off into the brush. When we reached the camp we decided to have our evening meal. Andre’ dragged a camp stool over to a tree. He stood on the stool banging a long-handled wooden spoon on a low hanging limb. “Darla, give him some of the Banana Daiquiri we brought.” The Daiquiri calmed Andre down. He crawled into his tent, curled up on his sleeping bag and began to snore. With the stars shining bright in the sky a peace fell over the camp. Darla and I crawled in too. I startled awake. The lantern in my tent cast shadows on the walls. What was that noise? I was a deep-throated loud groaning noise. I lay on my stomach in the tent and carefully opened the bottom zipper of the doorway. I just slipped my face enough out, so I could see a little. Then I pressed the button on my solar flashlight. The white beam lit up the entire campsite. A medium sized, snuffling bear was calmly examining everything we had siting in the campsite. It snuffled its nose over the 4-wheeler and cart, next examining the locked food frig. It rolled the frig to one side then the other. I drew in a breathe. The claws on it’s paw were long, long. The light was attracting it. I flipped the switch to off. Time seemed to stop. I was to curious. Flipping the light back on I saw the bear raise up on it’s hind legs and start walking straight toward me. I froze. The bear opened it’s mouth wide and let out a terrible roar, it’s long, white teeth gleaming in the light of my solar torch. Just then, Andre’ jumped from his tent, ran up a tree and out onto a limb that extended across the campsite. Andre screamed and howled like only a Chimp can. He swung down under the limb then back up onto it all the while jumping up and down and howling. The bear looked up, saw the raging Chimp, and ran off into the dark forest. Early morning, I heard the loud Who, Who, of an owl. We stayed another night. We fished, hiked, and rested. No further incidents were reported to the ranger. I did have to give Andre’ extra banana Daiquiri for his bravery. word count = 1065 |
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