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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



thirty feet wide and several feet deep. From here our 

 course lay around the south shore of Lake Washburn. 

 There was no trail whatever, and the going was very 

 difficult on account of the great amount of talus and 

 the thick brush. A few of those in the Merced party 

 who had made their way high above the glacier slope 

 which had forced us to cross the river were on the north 

 side of Lake Washburn. Later they joined us above 

 the lake, crossing the river on an old sheep bridge. They 

 reported a fairly easy passage along the north shore 

 of the lake. Undoubtedly, when a trail is built along 

 the river to the basin of the Upper Merced it should 

 follow the north shore of Lake Washburn. 



East of Lake Washburn two or three beautiful little 

 meadows were crossed, and some of the party discovered 

 a soda spring, similar to the one in the Tuolumne Mead- 

 ows. This find was an important one, as the spring will 

 offer an extra attraction and induce travel to the basin 

 of the Upper Merced. We reached the basin about the 

 middle of the afternoon and halted to rest on the south 

 side, just opposite where Triple Peak Fork runs down 

 from the northeast. The basin is a great glacier-polished 

 bowl, the walls of which rise to a varying height from 

 1,000 to 1,500 feet, down the face of which drop a num- 

 ber of cascades and falls. The most important of these 

 are Triple Peak Falls, with a descent of nearly 1,500 

 feet, and the falls which drop into the basin from the 

 southeast. 



It had been our intention to camp in the basin for the 

 first night; but it being still early in the afternoon, we 

 decided to climb the rim and have the advantage the 

 next morning of starting fresh from that point. We 

 bade good-bye to our companions and took the way to 

 the foot of the Triple Peak Falls. Most of the party 

 crossed the river and climbed the cliff on the north side 

 of the falls, but a few, discovering a cleft running up 

 diagonally on the south side, chose that way. The ascent 



