Yellowstone Standoff by Scott Graham Read Free Book Online Page A

“Bears live everywhere in the park,” he said, offering reassurance to himself as much as to the girls and Janelle. “This is their home. We’re headed higher in the mountains on the south side of the central plateau where there’ll be less for them to eat until later on in the summer and fall. They’ll still be passing through, though, mostly going over the Absarokas from one side of the mountains to the other.”
    â€œLike on a road?” Rosie asked.
    â€œYep. Except there aren’t any roads where we’re going. Just trails up and over passes to the headwaters of the Snake River and on south to the Tetons.”
    They reached the truck. He took a map from the front seat, unfolded it, and pressed it against the side of the pickup with one hand.
    â€œSee?” he said to the girls, pointing at the small, green square with a peaked roof that marked the location of Turret Cabin at the foot of Turret Peak. “Here’s where we’ll be camped.”
    He slid his finger south, where two trails Y’ed, heading up matching, broad valleys above the junction of Thorofare Creek and the upper Yellowstone River. He tracked the Thorofare Creek drainage with his finger to where 10,971-foot Trident Peak climbed high above tree line near the head of the valley, the map thick with topo lines rising to the mountain’s summit just inside the park’s southern boundary. He tapped the map at the base of the peak, where three ridges fell away to the west in parallel lines. “This is where the mystery is.”
    â€œOooo,” Rosie murmured.
    â€œYou and Uncle Clarence are going to figure it out, aren’t you?” Carmelita asked Chuck.
    â€œThat’s what we’ve been hired to do.”
    He drew a circle with his finger around the area between the peak and cabin, taking in the Thorofare Creek and upper Yellowstone River drainages. “These are big valleys with lots of forests and meadows that climb all the way to high passes over the Absaroka Mountains. When the summer grasses get tall and thick there later on, big herds of elk will come to graze on them, and the bears will follow. Things won’t really get crowded with bears until the end of the summer, though, when the whitebark pine nuts drop from the trees.”
    â€œI thought grizzly bears ate meat,” Carmelita said.
    â€œThey like meat and plants both. They’re omnivorous, the same as us. They eat almost anything.”
    â€œIncluding people?” Rosie asked, her eyes wide.
    â€œMostly they avoid people, like what happened back there. They just want to be left alone.”
    â€œThey’ll leave us alone where we’re going?”
    â€œYes.”
    Rosie nodded. “If they don’t, we’ll spray them with our cans, won’t we?”
    â€œThat’s why we practiced. But we’ll always be in a group, so they’ll stay away from us.”
    Carmelita and Rosie climbed into the rear seat of the truck. Chuck closed the door and turned to Janelle. “I’m having second thoughts,” he admitted.
    Janelle looked at him, giving him time.
    He cleared his throat. “You could drop me off at the dock and go back to Canyon Village with the girls. It’s only five nights. Clarence and I can go on in and do the survey on our own. We might even be able to finish up and come out early. We’d be back in no time.”
    â€œYou’ve been building up this discovery to the girls for the last six months.”
    â€œIt is a big discovery.”
    â€œWhich is what you’ve been telling them, over and over—that it’s such a cool mystery, that they’ll get to help solve it. You know how disappointed they’ll be if you take that away from them.”
    â€œIt’s a site survey, Janelle. That’s all the contract calls for. A simple, straightforward site survey. Stake it out, do the measurements, report back.”
    â€œTry