Dudes and Sagebrushers 



25 



parts of Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, and Yosemite Park, will not elimi 

 nate the occasional need for chains. 



It goes without saying that sight-seeing and driving never go well to 

 gether. The experienced mountain driver parks his car at the side of the 

 road so that others may pass easily, and then enjoys the scenery. It 

 would seem that this suggestion is unnecessary, but the beauties of the 

 park are distracting and the driver sometimes forgets to keep his eye 

 on the road. The driver who parks his car and leaves it should make 

 doubly sure that his brakes are set and 

 his car in low gear. Otherwise he may' 

 find himself in the position of a Sage- 

 brusher who visited Crater Lake recently. 



This Sagebrusher left his car, a new 

 limousine of expensive make, on the rim 

 of the lake along with a dozen other cars, 

 while he walked down the trail to the 

 lake shore, a thousand feet below. While 

 returning he heard a crash, and looked 

 up to catch but a fleeting glimpse of an 

 automobile catapulting past him and crash 

 ing through the trees. It came to rest, a 

 total wreck, far below him. Returning to the rim, the Sagebrusher met a 

 party of Dudes to whom he narrated excitedly the fearful and wonder 

 ful story of the car that just missed him and had crashed on the rocks 

 below. Glancing about as he neared the end of his story, he said: "It 

 smashed into a big tree and and and, my Lord, it was mine !" 



The experienced Sagebrusher never loads a half -ton car like a ten- 

 ton truck. The beginner often reaches the steep grades of the mountains 

 with luggage tied on both sides of the car, on the front, on the back, 

 with a bed spring on the top and goodness knows what inside the old 

 bus. Sometimes the women and children are literally buried in camping 

 equipment, while the driver himself can barely see the road ahead. 

 What any of them might see of the beauty spots along the roads is 

 often hidden by the marvelous collections of windshield stickers that 

 are the pride of so many amateur motorists. Some of these motorists, 

 with their cars laden with stoves, beds, groceries, and what not, would 

 never reach the parks were it not for the unfailing kindness of other 

 motorists. 



Long experience has taught the rangers that the all-wool blanket is 

 the only kind to have in the mountains. In the summer time, when the 

 nights are cool but not cold, the ranger uses a sleeping bag with but one 

 double wool blanket in it. In the autumn, when he camps out at freez 

 ing temperature, he adds one more wool blanket around the sleeping 



