Letters to a Friend 



reaching the Hetch Hetchy Valley, which has 

 about the same altitude as Yosemite, and spend 

 ing a week or so in sketching and examining its 

 falls and rocks, to cross the high mountains 

 past the west end of the Hoffman Range and 

 go down into Yosemite by Indian Canon, pass 

 ing thus a glorious month with the mountains 

 and all their snows and crystal brightness, and 

 all the nameless glories of their magnificent 

 winter; but my plan went agley. I lost a week's 

 sleep by the pain of a sore hand, and I became 

 unconfident in my strength when measured 

 against weeks of wading in snow up to my neck. 

 Therefore I reluctantly concluded to push 

 directly for the valley and Tamarac. 



Our journey was just a week in length, in 

 cluding one day of rest in the Crane's Flat 

 Cabin. Some of our nights were cold, and we 

 were hungry once or twice. We crossed the 

 snow-line on the flank of Pilot Peak Ridge six 

 or eight miles below Crane's Flat. From Crane's 

 Flat to brim of the valley the snow was about 

 five feet in depth, and as it was not frozen or 

 (97 ] 



