The Kings River Outing of ipio. 



15 



clouds drive over the pass, a Clark's crow impudently 

 staring at the intruders from a stunted pine, while hum- 

 ming-birds darted over the heather unable to choose be- 

 tween their dainty bloom and the flowers in the ferns 

 and willows below. 



The following morning my comrade and I left camp 

 ahead of the others and retraced our way down Bubbs 

 Creek and followed up East Creek in the shade of huge 

 red fir, through willow thickets, where bear had broken 

 their way, over talus slopes where marmots whistled, 

 across moss-covered patches where delicate ferns sought 

 moisture, grassy slopes where yellow, red, and blue flowers 

 bloomed and robins called, glades with wild gooseberry 

 where startled grouse mothers warned their fluffy off- 

 spring, wise beyond their years. 



Passing East Lake and on to Reflection Lake, for the 

 day was young, we passed over an area of uprooted pines, 

 piled like jack-straws by the winter's avalanche. Forcing 

 our way through thickets, over glacier-rubbed slopes, we 

 were rewarded by a view of the lake, a mirror of deepest 

 blue reflecting the precipitous encircling slopes, a wild 

 duck rising as we echoed our delight in viewing such a 

 gem. 



Returning to East Lake, we found camp selected at 

 the upper end, where cedar and yellow pine reached to 

 the water's edge. 



In the gray dawn of the morning we climbed Mt. 

 Brewer, up rocky slopes, keeping on one rock-covered 

 shoulder until it met the jagged sky-line and then up the 

 mountainous backbone, where the vertebrae were all too 

 prominent, and finally 13,577 ^^^^ above the sea we crowd- 

 ed together on the summit, our feet dangling over eter- 

 nity, monarchs of all we surveyed, the most exalted of 

 mortals on earth for the time being. 



Among the peaks around us on the horizon, Whitney, 

 the goal of another climbing party, and many other peaks 

 were pointed out by our leaders, and to the south we could 

 see where the High Sierra divided. 



