44 



Sierra Club Bulletin 



succeed and can demonstrate its feasibility, you will have done 

 a great service, for it is planned to bring the John Muir Trail 

 from Bear Creek over the ridge as close to Volcanic Knob as 

 possible just as soon as a route can be surveyed down into 

 Mono Creek Canon. 



The camp at North Fork of Mono Creek is an excellent base 

 from which to make side-trips into the country toward Red and 

 White Mountain. The Mono Creek region with its four Re- 

 cesses is also within reach. In fact the only direction that 

 seems closed to further travel is that which is actually the 

 route of your next day's journey. A hundred yards or so 

 above the upper end of the little meadow the trail crosses the 

 stream to the right bank and immediately begins to zigzag up 

 the towering wall to the west. It is not half so bad as it 

 seems, and even if the trail were far steeper and more peril- 

 ous the effort would be amply repaid by the striking panorama 

 that unfolds with every step. To the southeast Volcanic Knob 

 and to the northeast Red and White Mountain delight the eye, 

 while the vigorous lines of the deep canon below are enhanced 

 by the foreground of graceful hemlock tops. The ascent ter- 

 minates very abruptly as the trail emerges upon an unexpected 

 large meadow that presents a remarkable contrast to the rug- 

 ged country just below. For the next hour one may wander 

 sedately as through the Elysian Fields. Birds and flowers are 

 in abundance and trout flash in the gently flowing stream. 

 Ahead glitter shattered cliffs of white granite. 



Keeping on the southwest side of the meadow to its head, 

 the trail there crosses the stream, winds up a series of ledges 

 to the east, and comes out on a barren upland. Here is a 

 nameless lake, the source of the stream that has been the com- 

 panion of the trail since leaving the canon. The way lies clear 

 along the east shore of the lake until its head is reached. Then 

 comes the pass. A few minutes' climb brings you to the sum- 

 mit and to a view that will never be forgotten. This pass is 

 not named on the United States Geological Survey map, at 

 least as distinct from Silver Pass, but a sign-board bears the 

 name Goodale Pass. The old trail crosses less than a mile 

 away to the west, coming up from Graveyard Meadows and 

 descending to the Lake of the Lone Indian, and the name Sil- 



