As I walk around the pond gathering fire wood I see where animals have been coming down from the mountain to get a drink. I walk back to camp and I see Mitch gutting a fish. I can’t believe he got one the first try. We make a fire using the steal knife and a piece of flint. Waiting for the fish to cook, Mitch and I make snares from the extra rope that we found in the tent. After we eating the fish, we set seven snares to try to catch a rabbit or another small animal. On our way back we gather more firewood so we can keep the fire going all night. If only life could be this simple. A few days ago Mitch and I ran away. Away from all the stress at school and have your parents yell at you every other day.
**********
In the morning, I check the traps but come up empty. Its mid fall and its cold out. There is a frost on the ground and that’s when I realize, Adam isn’t here. I walk around the pond thinking that he might be checking the traps but I don’t see him. I don’t dare go to far from camp fearing I might not be able to find my way back but then I see him out in the meadow standing on a rock looking down in the valley. I walk up next to him and that’s when I see a truck parked a mile or two away. We run back to camp to try to put out the fire before someone sees it but it’s too late a man is already there. The man looks surprised. I ask him what he is doing here. He says he was on a hike when he saw smoke so he decided to check it out.
“I recognize you two. You’re the two boys that went missing a week ago. How did you get way up here?” the man asks. Adam and I tell him we ran away and we are never going back. The man tells us that he lives in a cabin about three miles south of here. Adam and I sit on the rock watching the man drive out of sight.
**********
As the days go on, it gets colder and harder to find food. We’ve been having some luck catching rabbits in our traps but that’s not enough. We need something bigger to eat. Mitch and I saw a mule deer in the meadow a day ago so we started to build a bow and arrow. I cut down a sapling and bent it back so it would hold shape. I kept it bent for a few days then I took some of the rope to use as the string. We sharpened the arrows and we were ready to go. Mitch pulled the bow back and released the string. It worked.
**********

Adam and I have been hunting a lot. I missed a deer but not by much. Adam has had more luck. Yesterday he got a big deer but we haven’t found it yet. We set out early this morning to follow the blood trail. After following the trail we can see our prize. It’s a mature dow. We brought the dow back to camp where we cut it up and stored the meat.
**********

The deer has last us a while but we are going to need more food if we want to survive through the winter. We continue to trap and hunt every chance we get. The man we met our first week out here is a frequent visitor. He brings us jerky and fresh water every time we see him. We have done some exploring. We have found an abandoned cabin about a mile from here. We are going to move our stuff there instead of staying the winter in our tent. There is a stream that runs about 100 yards down the hill of the cabin. Mitch is very hesitant about moving farther away from the man’s cabin incase of an emergency but we decide to tell the man and move anyways.
**********

We gather all out stuff and move it to the cabin. The cabin has a wood stove and lots of dry wood inside. We start a fire in the stove and gather lots of wood using an ax that we found out side. We reset our traps around the cabin and have good luck. We’ve caught a rabbit our first night. Sitting by the fire waiting for the rabbit to cook I tell Adam that I think I could live here. He agrees.
**********



Thing have been pretty quiet around here. We got another deer a few days ago. As I walk down to the meadow I think about the man. How long has he lived up here? As I look down into the valley I see four cars parked. It’s the search and rescue. As I realize who it is I can hear a helicopter. I see about ten people walking towards me. Mitch stands next to. Our adventure in the Rockies is over. We are going home.