CHAPTEB X 

 A RECORD RUN 



THE first camp at Sawyer's Peak sheltered us for 

 some little time. We ran the baseline five miles 

 north, cruising both east and west, then started 

 again at camp and began to work south. We finished 

 the Percha Creek watershed in a week, then moved 

 three miles to the head of Trujillo Canyon, which 

 runs in a southeasterly direction to the Eio Grande. 

 Then south again two miles to Tierra Blanca, an ex- 

 ceptionally rough watershed also draining to the 

 east. 



I had been cruising steadily during this time, since 

 that first run with Frazer, and was quite elated at 

 the comparative ease with which I picked up the 

 knack of pacing and plotting contours. I began to 

 feel myself a seasoned man. No run was too difficult 

 to undertake, no stretch of country impossible to 

 traverse. This state of mind was of course a result 

 of inexperience. And it was one day thoroughly 

 eradicated by an adventure which I recall even now 

 with particular distaste. 



One morning we started east from the baseline 

 with instructions to run as far as the timber ex- 

 tended that is, if we were able. 



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