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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



the bed of the stream, thus getting acquainted with its lovely 

 series of falls and cataracts. Others kept to the trail, with its 

 glimpse of the canon, widening as we rose. Either route al- 

 lowed us to enjoy the gleaming upper falls and picturesque 

 natural bridge over the stream. Noon found Golden Trout 

 Meadow dotted with luncheon groups. What a change from 

 the first day out ! Now lunch bags were opened with eager an- 

 ticipation. Their contents were inspected with delight. Over 

 our pleasure in its consumption, we even forgot that the food 

 was nourishing, and when the feast was ended, or begun and 

 ended, as most of them were, with delicious golden trout, fresh- 

 caught from the stream, it seemed a feast for the gods. 



There were other diversions during our stay there, it is true. 

 There were volcanoes to be visited, extinct craters whose blood- 

 red cones gave a picturesque note of color to any view of the 

 region. And there were peaks to be climbed, one of which, an 

 unnamed summit just back of the camp and easily accessible, 

 afforded a wonderfully adequate prospect of the Kern Canon, 

 the Big Arroyo and the whole extent of the Chagoopa Plateau, 

 the ragged peaks of the Great Western Divide forming the sky 

 line and Moraine Lake showing like a tiny emerald among the 

 trees. It was at Golden Trout Meadow that we were treated to 

 a snow-storm, not a severe one, to be sure, but still pretty blus- 

 tery for the third of July. There, too, we celebrated the Fourth 

 around a royal camp-fire, and more than one of us will remem- 

 ber the picture of the flag illumined by the red fire — the altar- 

 piece in a cathedral aisle of pines. But the main business of 

 life at Golden Trout Meadows was fishing, and almost every- 

 body fished, many turning out to help fill the great club cans, 

 which were to transplant the finny folk to other streams that 

 knew them not. Then, like the famous regal army of ten 

 hundred thousand men, having marched to the top of the hill, 

 we all marched down again, and, following the floor of the 

 canon north some eight or nine miles, established camp at the 

 junction of the Kern with the Big Arroyo, where we remained 

 for two days. 



It was a short walk and a merry one up the canon and over 

 the west wall to the Chagoopa Plateau. First there were the 

 views backward down the canon as we climbed, yosemite-like 



