Bear Adventure Read Free

themselves, couldn’t they?’
    ‘I think you underestimate just how much wilderness there is out here, Frazer,’ replied Hal. ‘But I don’t think it’s just that. I’ve got a feeling that either Roger didn’t want to be rescued, or someone stopped him from being rescued. Either way, the answer to this riddle is in the wreckage of their aircraft and we’re going to find it, if it’s the last thing TRACKS ever does.’
    And so three separate teams of TRACKS young conservationists were out in the forests searching, while Dr Drexler, the TRACKS chief scientific officer, stayed back in Prince Rupert, coordinating their actions.
    ‘OK, guys, let’s focus,’ said Hal Hunt, still smiling about his son’s encounter with the wolverine. ‘We’re here to find my brother and Ling-Mei, not to horse around.’
    He beckoned Frazer and Amazon to gather round, and then unfolded a map of the Canadian province of British Columbia on a low camp table.
    ‘We’re here,’ he said, ‘in the foothills of the Coast Range, with the heights to the west and the interior plateau to the east. Miranda Coverdale is leading a team here, further south, and Bluey’s team are up here, to the north.’
    Miranda and Bluey were two members of TRACKS. Bluey, named for his bright red hair, was Frazer’s best friend. He was in his early twenties and had a PhD in marine biology, but he still looked and, at times, acted like a big kid. Miranda was the deputy veterinary officer to Dr Drexler. She was about the same age as Bluey, but she looked and behaved a lot older. She was definitely the sensible one in the gang.
    ‘Tomorrow morning you two take your bikes along this trail, here. That’ll take you to the foot of this hill.’ Hal jabbed his finger at the map, and then pointed to a rocky outcrop in the middle distance. ‘It’s called Mount Humboldt, but it’s more of a hill than a mountain.’
    ‘Humboldt?’ said Amazon. ‘You mean like the squid …?’
    Amazon had recently had an uncomfortably close encounter with a horde of ravenous Humboldt squid in the Pacific Ocean.
    ‘That’s right,’ replied Hal, ‘named after the same guy, the great German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt. He discovered –’
    ‘There’re trails?’ said Frazer, before his dad could launch into one of his lectures.
    ‘What? Oh yep. Not many. A few old hunting trails and maybe a disused logging road in the woods too. Rough, but should be OK for mountain bikes. It’s twelve miles away, but the trail heads straight there, so it shouldn’t take you more than two hours. Then
scale Humboldt – you won’t need climbing gear, it’s nothing more than a hike, really – and see what you can see. From the top you’ll have a view over the whole area. Obviously there’s no cellphone signal out here, but we can keep in touch using the sat phones.’
    ‘Which way are you going, Dad?’
    ‘I’m heading out east from here, along this valley.’ He traced the blue line of a river with his finger. ‘If Roger was lost and flying without navigation equipment, he might have been following the river to try to reach a settlement. OK, we all clear?’
    Amazon nodded. Just being out here and doing something made her feel better. It gave a little room for hope to grow.
    ‘Yes, sir!’ said Frazer, as enthusiastic as ever, his brush with the terrible man-eating wolverine already forgotten.
    ‘In that case, let’s go fishing.’

‘Have you done much fishing?’ Hal asked Amazon, as they walked through the woods. They were each carrying a rod and tackle.
    ‘None,’ she replied. ‘Never really saw the point in standing around aimlessly holding a stick.’
    ‘Well, honey,’ said Hal, ‘you’ll see the point today. This isn’t English fishing for minnows; this is real North American fishing. There are lake trout out there bigger than
you
.’
    ‘Really?’ said Amazon, her eyes suddenly wide. ‘And what do they eat?’
    ‘Anything smaller than