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Sierra Club Bulletin, 



THE SAN FRANCISCO PEAKS IN APRIL. 



By Edward T. Parsons. 



There is a mountain fever that seizes the nature-lover, 

 inspiring and moving him to seek the mountain-tops, 

 there to delight in the magnificence and glory spread out 

 for the contemplation of those who reach high pinnacles. 

 In fact, the mere sight of a lofty snow-crowned peak is 

 sufficient infection, and never do I gaze on one of those 

 buttressed pillars of the temple of creation without a 

 sudden access of this fever. 



Those who have crossed the country on the Santa 

 Fe route, and who, approaching the crest of the conti- 

 nent at Flagstaff, have gazed on the nobly symmetrical 

 mountain group known as the San Francisco Peaks, will 

 understand my feelings as I found myself at that place 

 one Saturday early in April, 1901, with the long-awaited 

 convenient opportunity before me to climb their loftiest 

 summit. 



My arrangements were soon completed, and at 4 

 o'clock in the afternoon I took a horse and buggy for 

 the sixteen-mile drive to a ranch on the western slope 

 of the mountain, where I was told meals could be pro- 

 cured. As the question of lodgings was a dubious one, 

 I took my blanket-roll with me, finding afterwards that I 

 was well advised in so doing. 



Skirting the base of the mountain to the north of 



