208 SADDLE AND CAMP 



operations in accordance with the terms of the 

 edict. His loggers were just coming in to haul 

 the logs already cut to a portable sawmill which 

 the three men with whom I stopped were then 

 engaged in setting up. The only buildings yet 

 erected were a makeshift barn, a small shack, 

 and an open shed. 



The sky was heavily clouded when Lewis and 

 his teamster joined us at nine o'clock that even- 

 ing, and a little later a gale was sweeping up 

 the canon. I spread my blankets under the 

 open shed, and before I fell asleep felt the first 

 flakes of a coming snowstorm on my face. 

 When I arose at dawn the following morning a 

 thick blanket of snow covered me, and nearly 

 four inches had fallen during the night. The 

 storm had passed, however, though the morn- 

 ing was raw, with fleeting clouds scudding over 

 the sky and a cold, penetrating wind blowing, 

 a chilliness that even the dazzling sunlight that 

 followed did not modify appreciably as I 

 pushed up the canon. 



Travelers over the mountain ridge are rare 

 at any time, and all day long, beyond the lum- 

 ber camps, I picked my way over unbroken 

 trails through snow-hung firs, up and down ra- 

 vines or across wind-swept open spaces, and saw 

 no sign of human life — or any kind of life, in 



