Spindle Quest: Chasing Lost Creek Gold. - Slumach

up onto the rocky ledge high above the river gorge.
Carefully he started walking across the ledge towards the
top of the giant boulder, placing one foot in front of the
other with extreme caution. The ledge started to break out
from under him as he came closer to the end, and when
he was ready to jump to the boulder the entire ledge collapsed.
Rocks splashed into the water below as Shawn flew
through the air and landed on top of the boulder on both
feet. He started jumping up and down like a prize-fighter.
It was a great moment for both of us.
Shawn looked around for
a place to tie the rope and
found a jagged rock sticking
out of the river behind the
boulder. He secured the rope
to the rock and lowered it
down to me.
“OK, I’m going to try and
pull you up.”
I grasped the rope near
where the waterfall cascaded
down and Shawn started pulling
on the rope. I looked for
a foothold as I was swinging
in the waterfall. With water
splashing on my face it was
very hard to see anything.
Still, I found a hold and
pushed myself up as Shawn
was pulling. Again I dangled
in the air. If I were to fall
I would land on the sharp
rocks below. My hands were
burning but I managed to
find the strength to climb the
rope. Shawn was still pulling
and pulling. The water from
above was blinding me, so I
closed my eyes and focused
on climbing. When I opened
my eyes I was looking at
Shawn standing on the boulder holding the rope with one
hand and hanging onto a rock with the other one. When
he saw that I was safe he dropped the rope and I landed on
the rock with a thump. Never did I feel so alive.
“That was one for the history books,” I said as I lay flat on
the boulder.
“Let’s not sit here talking about it. Let’s go find ourselves
some gold,” Shawn said stating to walk upstream.
The sides of the canyon grew even steeper and the creek
bed was littered with sharp boulders. We scrambled upstream
for several hours finding our way over and around
boulders, walking through the water and slipping on rocks,
hoping to find the end of the canyon, but the stream just
50
kept going on.
At one point, when I was walking on top of a landslide
that flowed down into the river a part of it came loose,
causing a huge boulder to tumble down the cliff towards
Shawn who walked at the bottom of the slide.
“Gryba!” I yelled to him, and he quickly jumped out of
the way just in time as the rock crashed into the water
beside him.
His look showed that we shared fear for this canyon, but
we kept hiking along. The creek bed was getting narrower
and narrower, and in parts
we walked through the
river up to our waists, but
that was refreshing because
the sun was blazing
down. We were both starting
to grow tired when we
saw a huge waterfall off in
the distance. As we came
closer we knew we were
not going any farther into
the canyon.
“There has to be a way
around it,” Shawn said
trying to climb the cliffs
next to the falls, but it was
futile.
It was too slippery and
there was no place for
us to hang on to. We sat
down on a large boulder
next to the river in frustration
knowing that the
mountains had beaten us
again. I took out a smoke
and started puffing.
“Can I have a drag,
Friesen?” Shawn asked. I
handed him the smoke.
We sat there not speaking
for several minutes just
listing to the roar of the water cascading down.
“Look, we can’t give up. If there is any gold in this
canyon, we should at least be able to find some trace of it
here,” I said, getting up and picking up my pan and shovel
and walking over to the waterfall.
“What are you going to do, Friesen?”
“If we can get to some of the gravel underneath the fall
close to bedrock, maybe we can find something. Look, I
know it’s a long shot but do you want to go back empty
handed?” Without saying a word Shawn rose to his feet
and grabbed his gold pan, ready to give it a try.
I walked out into the cold water, shovel in hand and
with the water up to my waist and standing underneath
© Daryl Friesen 2009