8

In thirty seconds half the crew was on the mound peering down the abandoned road. Ten-year-old trees were starting to reclaim it, but you could see a pretty good trail that led off enticingly down the range. I knew immediately what I wanted to do and stood there bouncing up and down on the balls of my feet with my mouth clamped tightly shut, willing Nate to agree. Come on, Nate, come on --- roll the dice. The scouts were discussing the possibilities.

"It's not on the map."

"Yeah, so? It's still there and it goes the right way."

"What if it dead ends?"

"Why would they make a road that dead ends?"

"Well, what if it does?"

"We come back and try something else."

"Let's see that map again. Hmm, OK. Want to try it?"

"YES!"

I was bursting with enthusiasm for this unexpected adventure. Suddenly I was full of energy and in my eagerness I bounded off the mound of dirt and headed down the trail in front of the Scouts. A minute later I thought to look back and only one guy was with me, Clay, the other adult advisor to the crew. No one else was in sight. A guilty grin passed between us and then we set a blazing pace down the disused track. It was a good walk in good company and I will never forget it.

Fifteen minutes later sanity returned and we paused to rest and wait for the slowpokes to catch up. They weren't long in doing so.

"Hey, what happened to you guys?"

"Yeah, I though you were about worn out, Hank, and suddenly you go zooming off like a rabbit."

"Well, I just got this tremendous burst of energy. Isn't this great? Don't you wonder where this little sucker will take us? Don't you wonder where we will sleep tonight?"

"Red Hills is where we sleep tonight."

"Well, maybe…"

The order of march reverted to the correct one then, with one of the scouts leading, Nate a few back from the front, and either Clay or I bringing up the rear. The country was beautiful to behold, with a vast bowl of fir-clad hills slowly opening up on our left, and a steep mountain slope to the right. If this little puppy petered out though, there would nothing for it but to retrace our route. That added spice to our gamble.

The line stretched out nicely and we made good time on the abandoned roadbed. It ran nearly level and showed every sign of going on forever. Then I could see the lead scouts stopping abruptly far ahead, and the rest piling up as they reached the same point. Uh oh, there was a problem up there. As I came up to this clump of Scouts, I saw that there was indeed a problem, a big problem --- the road ended abruptly at the lip of an enormous landslide.

It must be very exciting to cut roads through these mountains with a dozer, or whatever they use. Here for instance, the hill had grown very steep for a few hundred feet, and, I am sure, the equipment operator must have had his heart in his mouth as he scraped away, and rocks went rolling down hundreds of feet into the valley below. He had succeeded in making the road, but this must have been the weakest bit. Later on, perhaps due to unusual rains, a twenty-foot section had just given way and fallen into the valley below, taking all the trees with it and widening as it crashed downward. The landslide looked like a upended "V" of raw, red earth and rock, and went down and down into the valley below. There was no way we could hike around this obstruction.