The Days of a Man [;i894 



difficult in my highly varied experience with 

 mountain vehicles. 



At Truckee I had secured an old stagecoach and 

 two very strong horses. Besides Mrs. Jordan and 

 myself the party consisted of four young student 

 friends: Miss Bonnie Burckhalter, now Mrs. F. A. 

 Fletcher; Miss Milnora Roberts; her brother, Milnor 

 Roberts, now dean of the School of Mines in 

 the University of Washington; and Dennis Searles, 

 a favorite among the "Pioneers," lately deceased. 



Rubicon Springs, a fine carbonated fountain, lies 

 in a beautiful, deep, upland dale overshadowed by 

 Circuit the barren mass of Rockbound. Over the wall is 

 oji^^ke Wentworth's, a similar spring, in the edge of a 

 pine woods. From there a run of two or three days 

 through the great forest behind Pyramid Peak 

 brought us to the long slope leading down to Straw- 

 berry Valley on the South Fork of the American 

 River in Eldorado County. Thence, by a good road, 

 we crossed the low divide to the Upper Truckee, 

 which we then followed down to the lake. 



Of the many long excursions off the beaten track 

 which Mrs. Jordan and I enjoyed before the auto- 

 mobile came into general use, this was one of the 

 finest. But as my wife is passionately fond of out- 

 of-doors and I myself find the greatest relaxation 

 "on the road," I often arranged picturesque driving 

 trips, long or short, frequently in connection with 

 lecturing or other business about the state; usually 

 — and always for the longer jaunts — ^we induced 

 a few like-minded friends to accompany us. In 

 this way we went through Lake County two or 

 three times, making on one occasion a "sentimental 

 journey" to Silverado, from which Stevenson wrote 



C 522 3 



