Each step took us closer to our goal, closer and closer.  We had been hiking for over four hours so far and we still had two more to go.  The dense undergrowth choked out the ground as it fell away down the mountain side.  The daylight barely penetrates the dense cover of the forest canopy, and the gloom makes it hard to make out the next steep hill we have to scale.  The four of us were a sweaty mess we each had a pack, that contained clothes, food, for a week, along with our camping gear, a cooler, our fishing gear, and we each carried a rifle with enough ammo for a small army.  Each pack weighed in tipping the scales at 110 pounds.  This whole adventure had started about a month ago when me, and three of my other cousins had meet and decide to plan a camping trip into the mountains surrounding Mount St. Helen's, our ultimate destination was a small river named the Suson, it was fueled by the snow melt runoff from the mountains and was crystal clear.  It was about five miles from the nearest road, if you could call the overgrown old logging two track a road, but we did.  The week before the trip was spent in a fever of excitement, getting all our packs together, the two of us that had been on long hikes knew what worked and what didn’t, we tried to give the others advice on what to carry.  We were all excited and nervous the night before and it was hard to get a good night's sleep.
The alarm went off after what felt like only a couple of minutes.  We wiped the sleep from our eyes and slipped into our clothes, and headed downstairs for breakfast.  “Smells like we’re having bacon and waffles, my favorite!” Exclaimed my cousin Rylan.  Sure enough as we rounded the corner into the kitchen the smell of frying bacon hit my nose.  “I figured that since I wouldn’t see my boys for a whole week the least I could do is make them a good breakfast!” Smiled my Aunt Dawn.  We all laughed and grabbed a plate, and heaped them with waffles and bacon and sat down and devoured the delicious breakfast.  As we got cleared our plates my mom said, “I’m really worried about you guys going on this trip.  There’s been reports of bears, and cougars in the area, you guys are bringing guns right?”  I sighed, “Yeah mom I already told you five times, i’m bringing my AR-15, and Daren and Rylan are bringing their 30-06, we’ll be fine!  Trust me!”  She turned and glared at me, “ I know you’ve told me that already but it still worries me that you are going out there for a week, 10 miles from the closest road, without any way to contact anyone if you need help.”  We all turned and looked at eachother and laughed, “ That's part of the fun and thrill of the whole thing mom!  The whole point is to test ourselves, and have fun at the same time.”  She turned and rolled her eyes and said, “Boys!  Well at least promise me that you will be carefull! Okay!?”  We all replied, “Yes, we will!”  And with that we all grabbed our gear and rushed out the door before she could come up with anything else that she was worried about.  We split ourselves into two groups of two.  Daren and I jumped into his truck while Rylan and Calable jumped into Rylan's jeep.  We had decided earlier on that it would be better if we took two vehicles instead of one in case one of us got stuck or we had mechanical issues we wouldn’t be stranded without transportation.  Plus we could carry more gear with two vehicles, we had a backup to everything we had in our packs in the truck in case of an emergency. 
The old log road that we were traveling on, well if you could call it a road.  Was a rough rutted overgrown mess. At some places it was so overgrown we had to get out and cuts some trees down with our chainsaws.  We had drove for about an hour so far from Darren's house and we the last piece of civilization we had seen was about 30 minutes ago, and it was a run down farm house.  We were entering the zone where if we got in too much trouble it would be about an hour before help even got there.  We kept going down the log road until it petered out at, at one point had been a turn around circle, but was now an overgrown mess. 
“Well it's the end of the road boys, grab your s***, it’s all on foot from here, make sure you don’t forget anything, or you’ll be walking back 10 miles to get it,” Darren said.  We all laughed nervously.  At this point we knew we were on our own, if anything happend help would arrive too late to do any good.  We climbed out and grabbed all of our gear, double checking each others to make sure we were all good and hadn’t forgotten anything.  Then we each unlocked our gun cases and load up making sure there wasn’t a round in the chamber but the bolt was locked back so we could load up fast in case we had to, but we wouldn’t have anyone accidently shooting anyone else.  Then we all took one last look at the trucks and headed into the deep undergrowth of the forest Darren leading the way with his machete with Rylan and Calable following close behind with me taking up the rear, we were all wondering the same thing, would we ever see those vehicles again?
Each step took us closer to our goal, closer and closer.  We had been hiking for over four hours so far and we still had two more to go.  The dense undergrowth choked out the ground as it fell away down the mountain side.  The daylight barely penetrates the dense cover of the forest canopy, and the gloom makes it hard to make out the next steep hill we have to scale.  We had been taking turns on who would lead, and do the back breaking work of hacking through the undergrowth, and who would bring up the rear which was the most nerve racking job of all of them, it was your job to make sure nothing was following us and try and not get separated from the rest of the group.  We just kept putting one foot in front of the other telling ourselves that we only had to make it up the next hill and we would be there.  Just the next hill.  Just the next hill. 
The all of the sudden without warning we heard the sound of running water which could only mean one thing the river was ahead!  We were almost there.  This was really the last hill!  Rylan summed up how everyone felt by saying, “Thank God Finally!  I was getting worried!”  As we crested the top of the last hill we caught sight of the river rushing below us about a half mile away.  We picked up our pace considerably and made it down there in less than 20 minutes.  I was the first one to the break through the trees and unto the rocky beach, really it was just rocks there was no sand.  But it was the most beautiful thing that I had seen in my life.  We set our packs down and began looking for a suitable place to make camp, we all agreed that it should be at least 100 yards from the river, but close enough so if we had to be could get there fast.  We found a semi clear spot about 200 yards from the river and we cleared it within an hour.  While Rylan and Calable started pitching the tent Darren and me walked 100 yards away and started to dig a latrine, after we had finished it we walked another 100 yards and found a tall sturdy oak tree and hung a trash bag from it.  As a generally rule no one was allowed to walk around by themselves and all trash and food was kept away from the tent to keep curious bears away.  But just in case we took turns at night sitting watch each of us taking 3 hour shifts, everyone slept with their rifles as a standard rule and they came with us wherever  we went.  On the way in we had seen a whole bunch of animal sign, bear, elk, coyote, deer, cougar.   The one we were most worried about was cougar.  They are very smart and cunning, my uncle had killed one the year before when it had been stalking him, and he realized that he was going to be its next meal. 
The first night went off without a hitch.  We all slept peacefully knowing and trusting that the person on lookout wouldn't let us down.  We woke with the sun rise and stoked up the fire that we had going and got our breakfast going which consisted of eggs, bacon, and fresh coffee.  After we ate we broke our fishing gear and began to look for a decent fishing spot.  My first cast I caught a 12 inch rainbow trout!  Within minutes all four of us had landed at least one fish.  It was amazing, easily the best fishing we had ever had.  The rest of the day we fished only stopping for lunch, which was a fried rainbow trout which tasted delicious.  At the end of the day it was one of the best days we had all had.  We settled down for the night.  Rylan took first watch.  We fell asleep but we never woke up.