
. + + you gaze, speechless, into the Yosemite Valley 
thread wending its way in and out. Wher- 
ever there is a rift in the rocks, a torrent of 
water comes dashing over the top of the 
clifis. So far does the water fall in some 
cases, even as much as a thousand feet, that 
when it reaches the valley it has become 
sprayed as fine as smoke from a green wood 
fire. . 
You might camp in the valley all summer 
and yet explore some new wonder each day. 
But although you are already at an eleva- 
tion of 5,000 feet, you must pull yourself up 
4,000 feet higher to be among the snow- 
covered mountains where the Tuolumne has 
its source. So after a few days you prepare 
to start forth again. Early in the morning, 
according to the usual programme, you pop 
out of your sleeping-bag and scurry down 
to the river for a plunge. You gasp at the 
thrilling, cold shock. You have need to be 
brave, but it is good. How it makes the 
blood run through your veins. You feel 
well and strong enough to conquer the_ 
world. After breakfast you dump your 
things into your dunnage-bags. The pack- 
ers, the men who look after the baggage, are 
busy strapping the bags on the horses, five 
bags to a horse, and packing up the pro- 
visions. Unless it be a very blind trail, you 
are at liberty to go when you please. 
So you may start off ahead of the rest or 
wait until the others have gone, and so be 
quite alone all day. Oh! the joy of the 
trail! Once get its fever in your blood and 
you never can get it out. To be a wanderer, 
a vagabond, care-free and merry, with end- 
less miles of blazed trail stretching out be- 
fore you and the smell of sage brush in 
the air; to throw yourself flat on the ground 
and drink deep from one of those sparkling, 
ice-cold mountain streams. The feel of 
the water as over your hands you let it 
run, or, stretched on some sun-kissed rock 
against which the river is dashing and beat- 
ing in unspent fury, to wonder half the day 
away at the beauty of sky and tree and 
river, and ‘‘commune with air, light and 
night, hills, winds and streams, and seek 
not strength in strengthless dreams.” 
You may take your own horse on the 
trip, and some prefer to ride when it is a 
lone distance. -to” the next ‘camp.: ‘The 
