The Mountaineer 49 
Timberline in the southern Sierra reaches an altitude of 
11,000 feet and at 10,000 feet camping is comfortable enough 
though the nights are apt to be frosty. As no tents need be 
carried the problem of shifting camp is much more easily 
solved than in the rainier northern mountains, and an hour’s 
work suffices to make camp habitable. The transportation 
question, long a source of infinite annoyance and discomfort, 
has at last been settled for us by the good services of a most 
competent head packer who has brought his train of sixty 
animals and his corps of men to the highest degree of efficiency. 
This prompt service of the packtrain, while adding much to the 
comfort of us Sierrans, takes something from that picturesque 
element of uncertainty that lent so much charm to the after 
recollections of our early outings. 
However, this first night at the Vidette camp held an 
amusing flavor of those early times, pleasant to remember now. 
The packtrain had had a hard journey—heavily laden with 
provisions for a week and with twenty pounds per head of 
personal dunnage for a party of one hundred and fifty, it had 
traveled that day sixteen uphill miles over a very rough trail 
gaining more than 5,000 feet in altitude. One division, that 
including in its packs the commissary kettles, was somewhat be- 
hind the rest. The stoves were set up, fires lighted in them, 
provisions set forth ready for cooking, but still no kettles were 
forthcoming. The imperturbable “Fryer” Tuck went calinly 
about his preparations, directed the broiling of the plentiful 
supply of trout that had been brought in, and displayed no 
anxiety about the ultimate outcome. Not so the hungry 
Sierrans, notably the tenderfeet, who had no data concerning 
the infallibility of the packtrain and who were visibly per- 
turbed. One by one, with specious offers of assistance, they 
came behind the dead line dividing kitchen from dining room 
only to be ignominiously expelled. Longingly they lingered 
near the bread slicers and the butterers thereof; greedily they 
watched the sizzling trout. At last they secured plate and 
cup and sat down in the immediate vicinity of the kitchen to 
await developments. Meanwhile the delayed division had un- 
ostentatiously come in. The kettles were filled and set on the 
stoves and before the hungriest tenderfoot had dreamed of ex- 
pecting it, hot soup, rice and tomatoes were ready to be served. 
Then indeed, not with their wonted dignity, not like real gentle- 
