Bear Adventure (6 page)

‘There's only one way to do this, you know,' said Frazer.

‘The bikes,' replied Amazon, without much relish.

The bikes had been Frazer's idea, back in Prince Rupert, before they'd set out into the wilderness.

‘We'll be able to cover
way
more ground than on foot,' he'd argued.

He also guessed that it might be fun.

He and Amazon had spent half a day choosing the right bikes, while the rest of the expedition was being kitted out.

‘The big question is,' he'd mused, looking over the lines of beautiful bikes in the shop, ‘do we go for full suspension or hardtail?'

‘Shall I just pretend to know what you're talking about?' said Amazon.

‘You
can
ride a bike, can't you?'

‘Of course I can. I just haven't done much
mountain biking, mainly because there aren't any mountains in the area of England where I grew up.'

Amazon's own bike was rusting in a corner of her parents' garage, back in England. It was a straightforward trundler, with a shopping basket on the front, and brakes that stopped you five minutes after you started to squeeze them. But that didn't matter as the bike couldn't go much above the pace of a sloth wading through treacle.

However, Frazer was in his element. Mountain biking was just about his favourite activity in the universe.

‘OK, let me run this past you quickly. I'm going to simplify this, or we'll be here all day. The basic question is, do we want something geared up for bombing downhill at maximum speed? If we do, we need full suspension. Or do we want a bike for going cross-country, with as much up as down? If so then we need to think about cutting down on weight, and that means sacrificing the rear suspension. But then that also means getting a sore butt, especially if we do actually hit a good descent.'

Amazon was already a little bored with the bike chat.

‘You decide. But I'd quite like a pink one.'

‘Sure …' said Frazer, not really listening. Then he looked up sharply and saw, from the wicked smile playing at the corners of her mouth, that this was
one of Amazon's little jokes. She was not a very pink sort of girl.

In the end Frazer settled on a hardtail, matt-black Cannondale, and Amazon on a carbon-framed Marin, with full suspension.

It was a cool, metallic grey – not pink.

Back in the wilderness, they were both helmeted and ready to set off. They planned to eat a lunch of trail mix – a high-energy mixture of nuts and dried fruit, and their light backpacks also contained a few protein bars, a little chocolate and some packet soup, along with basic survival equipment in case they got into trouble.

‘The last thing you want on a cross-country trip,' Frazer explained to Amazon, ‘is a heavy pack. Saps all the fun out of it.'

They were both wearing standard TRACKS expedition outfits – combat trousers, a fleece and a waterproof jacket. It was enough, Frazer had said, for the daytime, when, although cool, it never got too cold. The nights were a different matter, but they had no intention of staying out at night …

Amazon was looking forward to the ride. But she was also a little worried. Since she had become a member of TRACKS she had been in many dangerous situations, and she knew that she had grown up and matured and that things that would
have daunted her a few weeks before now seemed routine. But there was still an awful lot of wilderness out there …

‘OK, let's move 'em out,' said Frazer, and they were off.

The first part of the ride was fairly easy. Frazer set a fast pace, but there was a good trail through the woods, and the going was pretty level. The ground was a little damp under the trees, but the heavy, knobbly tyres of the bikes bit in and gave good traction.

There were a few sections of the trail that undulated just enough for Frazer to show Amazon how to do a jump.

‘You've got to pull her up,' he said, ‘and make sure you land on both wheels together. The bike'll take care of the rest. Just feel it.'

Even though the bike was only airborne for a second and travelled at most a metre, it was still enough to make Amazon shriek with excitement. And fear. The landing was surprisingly easy, the suspension taking all the shock out of it.

‘Told you you'd like it,' said Frazer, cycling next to her.

Amazon was exhilarated, and now the two of them flew through the forest. Sunlight filtered through the branches, dappling the ground with a lovely pattern of light and shade.

If it had not been for the seriousness of their
mission, both Amazon and Frazer would have been having fun. But the reality nagged away in the back of their minds. They were searching for a missing child. They both hoped that they would find him alive. But there was a chance, the terrible chance, that they might not …

After half an hour, the trail grew rougher. What had been pleasantly rolling terrain grew more rugged. There were a couple more jumps, each one higher than the one before. Amazon was delighted that her bike had full suspension, rather than just the front suspension that Frazer had – although it didn't seem to bother him. He greeted each jump with a ‘
Woo hoo!
', and even pulled a wheelie down one long, straight section.

‘Show-off!' yelled Amazon, but she was secretly a little impressed. Impressed, that is, until he overbalanced and fell backwards with the heavy bike on top of him.

She managed not to laugh until she'd established that he wasn't badly hurt.

‘You OK?' she asked as she picked him up.

‘With a helmet
and
a skull this thick, I think I'll survive.' Frazer climbed back on his bike, trying to recover his dignity. ‘Come on, we've work to do.'

Amazon was too busy concentrating on staying on her bike to fully appreciate the countryside, or notice any animals. Once she thought that she saw a glimpse of something large and brown moving
lithely off through the undergrowth. A deer? Maybe a moose? It seemed too graceful to be a bear.

Either way, no time to ponder as she pumped the pedals to keep up with her cousin.

They stopped a couple of times to check the map. They both had watches with a GPS positioning function, so it was pretty easy to plot their route.

Amazon hadn't really been aware of it, but she now saw that they must have been climbing steadily. The trees had grown thinner, and now the Trackers were mainly cycling in sunlight rather than shade. And then for the first time she caught a glimpse of their destination: Mount Humboldt looming above them. They paused and looked at it.

It wasn't high enough to be capped with white at this time of year, but it was still a grimly impressive sight. Its sides were harsh and angular, and the grey of the rock had an almost metallic shimmer.

‘How on earth are we going to get up that thing?' asked Amazon despairingly.

Frazer took the map out again.

‘If you look here, you can see from the contour lines that the north face is much less steep.'

Frazer pointed to the map. ‘The lines join together areas that are at the same altitude. What it means is that the closer they are together, the steeper the terrain. And see, here, on the side of the mountain we're facing, the lines are close together, but they're more widely separated on the other side. You get it?'

Amazon nodded vaguely. She had never had to read a map in her old life, back in boarding school in Sussex.

‘Sure. Whatever.'

‘You should try to get this stuff into your head,' replied Frazer, his voice completely lacking its usual note of playfulness.

‘OK, I get it,' snapped Amazon. ‘Lines close together means steep; lines not close together mean, er, not steep.'

Frazer rolled his eyes. He was actually quite enjoying being the sensible one for a change.

‘The trail we're on skirts round the base of the mountain,' he continued. ‘We can climb up from this point here –' He pointed at the map. ‘In fact, it's not really a climb at all, more of a stroll. When we're up there, we should be able to see forever.'

‘I think there may be a slight problem with your plan,' said Amazon.

‘What's that?'

‘Listen.'

‘Listen to what?'

Amazon held up her hand. And behind the sound of the wind in the trees, and the chirruping of woodland birds, there was the distinct noise of water. Of water moving quickly.

White water.

They cycled on for a few more minutes and there, just as the trees gave out, they came to a narrow gorge, perhaps three metres wide, with a stream raging some five metres below. The bank they were on rose up in a sort of natural ramp, and fell away on the far side.

‘Drat,' said Amazon. ‘I suppose we'll have to scramble down there, somehow, and then get all wet and dirty crossing the wretched thing, and then have to haul these bikes up the other side.'

Then Amazon realized that she was talking to herself.

‘Time to learn how to do a real jump,' came Frazer's voice from behind her, where he had backed up along the trail. ‘You'll love this. Just watch what I do, then copy it.'

Frazer began slowly, then rapidly reached full speed, and he surged up the sloping final section. At the top he sailed out and landed beautifully on the
lower side of the gorge. He skidded round to face her with that infuriating grin.

‘Your turn! And make sure you land evenly on both wheels.'

‘B-but …' she began.

‘Seriously, Zonnie, it's not a big deal. Because this side is lower, you can't flunk it. But, if you really want to, I'll wait here until you've climbed down, swum over and climbed up again …'

Amazon was a gutsy kid, but she did have one weakness: heights. And she felt doubly vulnerable, as she was going to be relying on cycling skills she wasn't sure she possessed.

It wasn't the prospect of the climb and swim combo that decided her (the stream was more of a wade than a swim, although she guessed the water would be icy cold), but the thought of chickening out of something that Frazer had done with such ease.

So, muttering various really quite bad words under her breath, she freewheeled back down the track, so she could get up enough speed for the jump.

Her legs pumped frenziedly as she ground up through the gears. A low branch brushed against her helmet, but not enough to put her off or slow her down.

The edge of the gorge came closer, closer.

She imagined herself flying.

She imagined herself falling.

Crushed and crumpled among the rocks in the stream thousands of metres below.

Amazon jammed on the brakes just a couple of metres short of the jump. It was almost a fatal mistake. The bike skidded and slid right up to the lip. The front wheel was half over the edge. Had Amazon stayed on the bike, they both would have tumbled down the gorge. As it was, she managed to nimbly leap off the bike, keeping hold of the handlebars with one hand, so that it didn't fall.

Frazer had been watching, horrified.

‘You OK, Zonnie?' he cried.

‘No thanks to you,' Amazon huffed back. She was a little winded, and her knee hurt, but she was basically fine.

Frazer cycled further down the trail on his side and, without pausing, made the much more difficult jump back across the gorge. He had to drag the front wheel of his bike up by sheer might and main, and even so only just made it.

‘You shouldn't have come back,' said Amazon, as he helped her back on to the bike.

‘The Trackers never leave a comrade behind,' he replied and, although Amazon checked for any trace of irony, she found nothing but sincerity. ‘We'll climb down together. It won't be that bad.'

‘Huh?' replied Amazon. She pointed to the stream coursing below them: ‘Down there is the way of the wuss. I'm jumping this one.'

Frazer grinned back at her.

‘I didn't doubt it for a second. We'll do it together.'

‘Seriously?'

‘Seriously.'

And so this time they went back together along the trail, turned and, without another word, pedalled like fury to the lip of the chasm and flew together in perfect synchrony. Their tyres hit the ground at exactly the same second.

‘If only there'd been someone to film that,' said Frazer, ‘it'd be a YouTube hit for sure.'

‘Hmm,' said Amazon. ‘Then there wouldn't be enough room in the whole of Canada for your ego.'