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of the Pharaoh.” I think it was true. Most people don’t know that the guy who hired Howard Carter to find King Tut died five months after they opened the tomb. He was bitten by a mosquito and it got infected. I looked it up.
    SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6
    Kelsey tried to scare us with all that curse baloney. She said that if we found the secret treasure of the Grand Canyon, there might be a curse on it. I wasn’t buying that mumbo jumbo. Of course she would fall for that curse stuff. She’ll fall for anything. I couldn’t wait to leave for our trip.
    MR. MURPHY. SIXTH-GRADE TEACHER
    It was astonishing to me that most of these kids have lived within a mile of the Grand Canyon their whole lives, but none of them had ever hiked all the way down to the Colorado River. When I asked them why not, they just shruggedand said they never thought about it. Amazing!
    Hiking a mile down into the canyon is not like a stroll in the woods. I spent the next few weeks after school preparing for our trip. Being responsible for the safety of four kids, I wanted to make sure nothing went wrong. I got a wilderness permit so we could legally stay overnight in the backcountry. There were maps we would need, and lots of gear.
    SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6
    I couldn’t believe how much junk we had to lug with us for just a long weekend. Flashlights, headlamps, extra batteries, a first-aid kit, walking sticks, Swiss Army knives, cameras, sleeping bags, garbage bags. We had to bring signal mirrors in case we got into trouble and had to get help. Mr. Murphy told us that cell phones usually don’t work at the bottom of the canyon.
    JUDY DOUGLAS. GRADE 6
    â€¦suntan lotion, lip balm, polarizing sunglasses, wide-brimmed hats to keep the sun off our faces. Mr. Murphy told us each to bring a handkerchief so we could soak it in the river and cool off.
    KELSEY DONNELLY. GRADE 6
    â€¦high-sodium snacks like nuts, pretzels, beef jerky, energy bars. Water. Lots of water. They say that if you hike down into the canyon in the summertime, you need to drink a gallon of water a day.
    SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6
    And, of course, you have to bring your own toilet paper, and a metal shovel…for burying your own waste!
    JUDY DOUGLAS. GRADE 6
    Ugh! Disgusting!
    RONNIE TEOTWAWKI. GRADE 6
    Milner and I met at the visitor center one day after school. I opened up my GPS and took out the chip that was in there. I carefully replaced it with the superchip and turned it on. Neither of us was expecting it to work.
    Well, I plugged in some information from the Phoenix Gazette article and the GPS started humming. It felt alive in my hand. Like, magnetic, you know? It was like one of those divining rods that finds water. No, it was more like a dog that’s so anxious to go for a walk that it pulls you to the door.
    JUDY DOUGLAS. GRADE 6
    We have spring break the second week in April. So there’s no school for a few days and the weather is usually perfect. It would be a good time to go.
    RICHARD MILNER. PERSONAL DIARY
    March 27: Met with Ronnie. Agreed to search for treasure on or around April 15, when he is off from school.
    KELSEY DONNELLY. GRADE 6
    I know it’s easy to say now, but from the beginning I really felt the trip was a mistake. I didn’t tell anybody at the time. But I just had an intuition that something was going to go wrong. Finding a treasure didn’t mean anything to me. Who cares about that stuff? I was filled with a sense of foreboding.

Chapter 8
    April
    SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6
    You need to know all the details of what happened that weekend? Okay. It’s a long story. Where do I start?
    I remember we had to get up super early because Mr. Murphy said it wasn’t safe to be hiking in the middle of the day when the sun is high in the sky. So we all met at the Bright Angel Lodge at six a.m. That wasn’t fun. I like to sleep late when I’m on vacation.
    I’d hiked below the rim before, of course. But not very far. I’d