Over Harrison's Pass with a Pack-Train. 2gy 



OVER HARRISON'S PASS FROM THE NORTH 

 WITH A PACK-TRAIN. 



By Force Parker. 



Harrison's Pass is about 13,000 feet in altitude — the 

 highest pass in the United States. It opens north and 

 south on the King's-Kem Divide, — that is, on the range 

 separating the more beautiful valley of the King's River 

 from the grander canon of the Kern. 



Were the trail passable in the true sense, the pass 

 would be to mountain-lovers what the Panama Canal will 

 be to commerce. It would save the long hot detour of 

 many days over the Kearsarge Pass and the broiling sun 

 of the Owen's Valley, or the other long roundabout trip 

 by way of the Giant Forest, by which last route the 

 traveler may have come into the mountains. 



In July, 1902, Dr. J. H. Johnson and I had been 

 camping for three days at Lake Reflection on the King's 

 River side of the pass. We had been in the mountains 

 for six weeks; provisions were running short, and we 

 were anxious to get over into the Kern Valley on the way 

 home. There were rumors that the Pass could be crossed 

 with safety only on the snow, which becomes soft and 

 treacherous in midsummer. But the Doctor was obdu- 

 rate and I curious ; so we decided to try the pass. 



The pass must be about six or eight rocky, steep, and 

 winding miles from Lake Reflection, and the way is an 

 undefined and scattered sheep-trail, which we had to re- 

 build and repair as we went along. We had five horses, 



