A HIKE AROUND ANGLEWORM LAKE

*A hike around Angleworm Lake*

(part two)

Angleworm Lake was shaped kind of like an angleworm but more like a hot dog about one hundred's yard's wide and about five miles long. Like a fat river with no current. It had mostly sandy beaches and on one side it had a cliff. The trail went over the top of this twenty foot cliff to give us a view of the whole lake.

In the sandy spots we found a lot of animal tracks. We had a boy scout hand book with us. So we were able to identify all the tracks we didn't know. We found of course deer, moose, rabbit and raccoon. We might have seen wolf tracks , but Banjo was running all over making his one tracks so we couldn't tell for sure.

Banjo would be a big help if a bear showed up. If a bear hears a dog bark he'll take off running. Everyone knows that right? At least we hoped that's what would happen.

We got to the first rest stop on the right side of the lake It was on that cliff half way to our camping spot. So we rested, we looked around for tracks and eatable stuff. The rules about finding eatable stuff in the woods is If the dog won't eat it, you don't eat it. We were pretty safe because Banjo wouldn't eat anything we wouldn't eat.

Banjo was a good dog. He liked to run a lot. He was what you would call a mutt. Back then nobody made excuses like "he's a retriever mix" or " he's a cockaterrier" or some other exotic designer breed. Banjo was a mutt and happy with himself. So what. He was mostly brown and black spots on a white background. He was about as big as a collie but with shorter hair. He didn't know any tricks but everyone liked him just fine.

We continued our hike,we made it in a total of four hours. I know that because I borrowed my dads watch so we would be on time for our ride home.We started our hike at 10:00 AM and got here at 2:00PM. So to meet our ride at 6:00 PM tomorrow we would have to leave at 2:00 PM to get their on time. We're going to be safe so we will leave at noon. We do want to go camping again.

We set up camp on a beautifully sandy beach with a fire pit and bench. We pitched our tent so we could see the fire and the lake. We tried a little fishing no luck. So we made supper. cool aide, beans from a can and hamburgers. we seen some tracks around our camp site mostly deer, no bear, good.

We told stories into the night. Then with stars shining we let the fire go out and we fell to sleep

two tired and wore out adventurers and one brave bear dog was sleeping soundly till morning. Me and Marty got up early about 5:00 AM . Their was a mist on the lake and the sun wasn't quite up. Banjo was in the woods doing what dogs do in the woods.

Then we seen it coming out of the fog. A moose, A gigantic moose horns and all coming right at us. We were in our underwear. Marty called Banjo. I could hit it with a rock, and he was getting closer. We backed into the trees about the time the moose stepped on our pup tent. Then out of nowhere came Banjo, Barking and yelping at that moose at least one hundred times bigger then him. Then he actually bite the thing on the ankle. That just made the moose mad, It started to bat our tent and camping gear all over the place with it's horns. Banjo kept barking and running at him. We were hiding just out of reach in the tree line.

Then he got Banjo. That moose hit him with the side of his horns. the dog let out a yelp and was flung like a rag doll, into the brush. Then Marty and Me started yelling and throwing rocks and chunks of wood at the moose. Marty hit him right on the forehead. It didn't even faze him. Then just like that he just turned and walked away.

We were shaking, all the bravo gone. Our camp gear was a mess and our poor dog Banjo, When we found him he had blood on his side and he couldn't move. What do we do? We were trained boy scouts. What do we do?

It was 5;00 AM we built up the fire, carried Banjo over to it. We boiler water and got out the first aid kit and boy scout hand book. Banjo had a little blood on his side and couldn't move without groaning. nothing in the hand book to cover that. We were on our own. We cleaned him off and fried up all the bacon, and gave it to him.

How are we going to get him back to our pick up spot five miles away. But we had to get out of here with wild moose running all over the place it wasn't safe.

So we collected our camping gear and made a litter to carry banjo. The sun was up the fog was gone. We felt safer. But we had to get moving. carring the dog was going to take us a lot longer then four hours. It was 6:00 that gave us twelve hours we should make it, So we started our hike out with Banjo moaning and groaning.

On the way out it seemed we could go only fifteen minutes before we had to stop and take a break. This was much harder then we though it would be. We never thought once of leaving Banjo behind so we could go for help. Banjo risked his life to save us. so we trudged on trying to make him comfortable. we finely got to the half way point on the top of that cliff.

We had to be extra careful. We had our wonderful comrade to think of. "we'll get him out" we told him , scouts honor. We took a longer rest here and gave Banjo the rest of our food so he could keep up his strength.

It was 11:00 AM it took us five hours we had seven hours left before we missed our ride. We could make it with time to spare if we had no problems. But problems is all we had. Me and Marty were both wearing out. One or the other was always falling to our knees. We started taking breaks every ten minutes.

We were almost their it was 5:00 we were both sweating. Could we make it. We got a little closer and herd a car horn and Norvil calling us. We were covered with sweat and about dead from exhaustion . But when Banjo heard his name he jumped off the litter and took off running for the car and Norvil. Marty and Me looked at the dog then at each other. Then smiled we were happy . We saved his life.

The End