It was August 28 and me and my friends Ben, Jacob and Emma had just arrived at the edge of Yellowstone National park. A four-day hike was planned. We were all looking forward to the tour that Ben had planned. Because non of us had much experience, we walked only a few kilometers on the first day. We wanted to get used to hiking. In the afternoon we pitched our tents on a meadow. While Emma and I cooked dinner and fetched water from the stream, the boys planned the route for tomorrow. Afterwards we sat around the campfire for a long time, until it got dark and cold. We crawled into our tents and soon fell asleep.  

Early in the morning we were woken up by the boys. "Oh crap! My sleeping bag is wet!" Jacob cried. Still very tired, we left our tent and walked over to the boys" tent. The grass was wet, it had rained during the night.  

Ben was already awake too and they got all their wet stuff out of the tent. "You"ve got to be kidding me! On the first night!" cursed jannik. Together we helped to take down the tents and put the wet stuff into the sun. Then we had breakfast and brushed our teeth at the creek. And noticed that there was much more water in the creek than last night. "Hopefully it won"t rain now and the boys" things will dry again." I said to Emma. "Yes for sure!" she tried to cheer us up.  

Later, we continued the hike. Although no one really felt like it, we walked our longest leg today to get to our campsite. 

After about two hours we took a little break and ate some granola bars. As we walked through the forest a short time later, we heard a loud rushing sound from far away. "Maybe a waterfall" Ben guessed. 

But it wasn"t a waterfall, a flowing river crossed the path. Amazed, we stood in front of it and looked into the fast flowing water. Ben took his map out of his backpack and looked at it for a while. "Well?" I asked. "It looks like the rain last night turned a small creek into a river. We have to go through there, though ." muttered Ben. What should we do now? It was the only way and it was already too late to turn back. "You take the map and I"ll go ahead," Ben said to Jacob. So we all took off our shoes and socks and Ben entered the river first. When he was on the other side and assured us that it was okay, we also got into the river. The water was very cold and it was up to my belly. The ground was slippery and full of uneven stones. We were almost there when I stepped on a stone and slipped. I was startled and fell into the water. I couldn"t feel the ground under my feet anymore and panicked when I noticed how the current was pulling me along. I felt a hand on my arm and saw that Jacob was holding me. He pulled me up again and together we walked the last meters to the shore. "That was pretty close!" said Ben. "Yes, how good that nothing bad has happened!" agreed Jacob. "I"d say we dry off now and then walk the last few meters to the tent place, okay?" Ben asked. Everyone nodded. "Where do you have the map, Jacob?"  

Jacob put down his backpack and pulled a soaked piece of paper out of his pocket. "Crap!" he cursed. "What are we supposed to do now without a map?"  

written by Lara, year 10, January 2023

(Emma, Jacob, Ben)