With the Sierra Club in ipii. 



155 



From Rodger's Lake to Benson Lake and across Ker- 

 rick and Stubblefield Canons to Tilden Lake and thence 

 to Rancheria Mountain was new country for most of 

 the party and offered many opportunities for interesting 

 explorations. With the exception of one day at Benson 

 Lake and another at Tilden Lake, the party, after leaving 

 Matterhorn Canon, was on the trail every day, and, 

 though baggage and provisions had been reduced to a 

 minimum, the capability of the pack-train, which had to 

 cover the trail twice each day, was taxed to the utter- 

 most. It speaks well for the foresight of the leader of 

 the party and for the ability of the manager of the pack- 

 train, that during this time not a deviation was made from 

 the traveling schedule, not a meal was more than a few 

 minutes late, and not once was the arrival of the dun- 

 nage bags delayed enough to seriously inconvenience 

 anyone. 



Tilden Lake is a mountain gem seldom visited. It is 

 a long, narrow reach of sapphire blue, wooded on its 

 western shore with pines and hemlocks and guarded by 

 Tower Peak several miles beyond its head. A number 

 of the party easily made the ascent of this peak, returning 

 to camp early in the afternoon, and while the climb was 

 in no respect difficult or dangerous, for some inexplain- 

 able cause, whether from lack of formal leadership or 

 from contempt of dangers bred by constant mountain- 

 climbing, there were more accidents on this day than 

 on all others of the trip combined. Unintentional slides 

 on snow-fields and blows from falling rocks, which might 

 have been fatal, resulted, providentially, only in cuts, 

 bruises, abrasions and nervous shocks. 



The only part of the trail on the whole trip retraced 

 was from Tilden Lake to Kerrick Canon. Returning to 

 the latter on a Sunday afternoon, the camp-fire gather- 

 ing at night was devoted to sacred songs and religious 

 services. What strange scenes and sounds to those canon 

 walls, that hitherto had heard only the songs of birds, 



