The High Mountain Route. 



17 



place have put an end to our trip. By 11 a. m. we had 

 successfully negotiated the first mile of the descent, and 

 stopped to rest and eat a few crackers and prunes. Then 

 on down the savage gorge. Soon the stream became 

 entirely impracticable, and we were forced to climb out 

 on the right (south) side over a little gap two or three 

 hundred feet above. Here a stupendous panorama of the 

 whole head of the Middle Fork burst upon us. We could 

 look directly down the main canon. Straight across the 

 basin rose the spires of the North Palisades, and further 

 to the south the wilderness of Cartridge Creek. The 

 creek we had just abandoned dropped off in waterfalls 

 hundreds of feet into the head of the canon, and directly 

 below us were cliffs, so there was nothing to do but to 

 work off horizontally across the talus slopes, and look 

 for a way down. By the best sort of luck this was accom- 

 plished, and by noon our mules were resting their bleed- 

 ing feet in the little meadows near the stream again. We 

 thought our troubles over, and so started at once down 

 the east bank of the river, but were soon stopped by a 

 sheer cliff 200 feet high stretching clear across the canon. 

 We had to retreat, cross the river, climb high up the other 

 side, and descend through a chute to the base of the cliff. 

 Again we were obliged to cross, and so it went, first on 

 one side and then on the other, of the foaming torrent, 

 often crossing right in the talus piles, taking greater 

 and greater chances with our animals, till about 4 p. m. 

 we came to a meadow at the foot of the steep descent, 

 and camped in a beautiful grove of tamarack pine. We 

 were tired, and soaking wet, but happy in having accom- 

 plished our principal object. 



The next day's trip was a most glorious one. The 

 canon of the Middle Fork opened out before us, and the 

 traveling was easy. The west side rose in gigantic cliffs 

 three and four thousand feet high. One precipice of 

 clean white granite towered directly above camp. Lower 

 down a great mass of black slate rose like a watch tower. 

 First we descended a bushy slope to a beautiful meadow, 



