A Knapsack Trip to Mt. Ritter. 



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A KNAPSACK TRIP TO MT. RITTER. 



By Marion Randall Parsons. 



In a paper on the Tuolumne and Merced canons in 

 the Bulletin of January, 1908, our knapsack party to 

 Mount Ritter was unceremoniously left standing at the 

 dividing of the ways. The moment had not the import- 

 ance for us that this dwelling upon it gives. Indeed, 

 by most of us the old, half-obliterated trail was hardly 

 noticed at all except as almost unbelievable evidence that 

 other human beings had passed before us into this wild 

 and lonely region. So with but a brief pause for com- 

 ment we crossed the trail and turned our steps in an 

 easterly direction. 



The open, rather barren country with its scanty cover- 

 ing of tamaracks soon gave way to snowfields, growing 

 ever wider and steeper until the end of three hours' 

 climbing, of which the loose snow and our heavy packs 

 made difficult work, found us two thousand feet above 

 timber line on a rocky pass south of Foerster Peak. 

 Behind us lay great snowfields stretching downward to 

 a country of little lakes not yet free from their wintry 

 covering. Farther away, to the west and south, beyond 

 the green, forested canons, was a circle of great peaks, 

 Clark, Red, and Gray peaks, Merced and Isberg, — a 

 splendid outlook, but one that seemed almost insignifi- 

 cant in comparison with the view to eastward. For there 

 we looked down the snowy reaches of Bench Cafion and 

 across the dark line of the San Joaquin gorge to a 

 massive group of black, jagged peaks. Banner, Ritter, 

 and the Minarets, even more beautiful in outline than as 

 seen from Lyell. Heavy clouds overshadowing the whole 

 group added to the cruel, threatening mien Ritter always 

 wears, and it seemed a foolhardy thing, almost an imper- 



