The Golden Trout of Cottonwood Lakes. 199 



this and keeping to the right-hand branch, one may 

 easily reach the lakes. I am told that our old log cabin 

 still stands at the edge of the meadow about two miles 

 above the trails crossing, though the thatched roof must 

 long ago have disappeared. The surrounding tamarack 

 forests abound in grouse and tree squirrels and a little 

 lower down bands of quail were found. 



But to me, the more attractive route, which entails less 

 packing, is from the little town of Lone Pine on the East, 

 which still shows the effects of the terrible earthquake of 

 the early '70s which shook down many of the adobe 

 houses in the Httle village. 



A mile to the East is the big earthquake crack, a hun- 

 dred yards across and nearly twenty feet deep. A little 

 cemetery on the north end of the town contains thirteen 

 graves, said to be those of victims of the quake. 



Lone Pine is reached from Whitney Station, a couple 

 of miles away on the Carson and Colorado Railroad, and 

 is a good outfitting point, though provisions are expen- 

 sive as the freight rates on the little railroad are high. 

 But pack animals are plentiful and the trip is but a day's 

 journey, while the view, as one passes from the desert to 

 the pines in less than five miles, is simply wonderful. As 

 one climbs the steep trail, range after range appears to 

 the east, each a little dimmer than the preceding one, 

 until finally the panorama shows the Cosos, the Angus 

 range and the Panamints, one behind the other, the latter 

 being the eastern boundary of Death Valley, seventy miles 

 away. And if one chances to be on the first crest late in 

 the afternoon when the shadows begin to steal out from 

 the base of the mountain, the vastness of the desert makes 

 an indelible impression on the mind, as the black cloak 

 moves faster and faster toward the East, finally swallow- 

 ing up each successive range until none but the highest 

 peaks — perhaps snow-capped, gleam Hke beacons across 

 the waste and one realizes that no matter which way one 

 turns it will take quick work to reach a camp before dark- 

 ness settles down. 



