SLOPE CLIMBING 6i 



three horses up a 3,600 foot diff where a trail 

 would have been a convenience. The pack 

 and spare horses pulled hard at times because, 

 although ambitious animals, they would have 

 preferred some other way to heaven. That is 

 why the lead rope got under the saddle-horse's 

 tail, which made him buck on a ledge over- 

 hanging blue space where there really was no 

 room. A httle later the led horses pulled my 

 saddle horse over the edge of a crag. I got off 

 at the top, and the horse lit on his belly across 

 a jutting rock about twelve feet down. He 

 thought he was done for until I persuaded him 

 with the lead rope to scramble up again. Near 

 the summit the oak and juniper bushes forced 

 me to dismiount, leading the horses one at a 

 time under or round stiff overhanging branches 

 on most unpleasant ground. They showed off 

 a httle because they wished to impress me, but 

 I found out afterwards that horses or even 

 cattle, held at the foot of that cHfT until they are 

 hungry, will climb to the top for grass. The 

 place is known as The Gatew^a}^ and leads up 

 out of the Canon Dolores in Colorado to the 

 Mesa la Sal in Utah. 



Much more dangerous w^as a 4,000 foot grass 

 slope dowm from the Mesa Uncompaghre into 

 the Canon Unaw^ep. I managed that by 



