Colby Pass and the Black Kaweah 



123 



followed the southern shore of the lake, starting at its eastern end. 

 By very careful maneuvering one could take animals around the 

 southern shore, with the exception of just one place near the eastern 

 end, where a huge rock-slide has come down, blocking the route for 

 one hundred yards or more. 



That night it was decided that on the following day we would 

 explore afoot up to the alleged pass to see how far the animals could 

 be taken. Brown and McKee would take their horses as far as pos- 

 sible. These two men had entered into the quest for a pass with 

 great zeal and enthusiasm. McKee's brother Earl had been up the 

 Kern-Kaweah on foot to a point not far from the pass, and Ernest 

 wished to connect up with his brother's trail. Brown was always in 

 for trying anything once — the more difficult, the better. He had 

 never been in the Kern and wanted to get there. The idea of opening 

 a new route appealed to their imagination. 



Having explored the south side of the lake the day before and 

 found it impassable, we took the north side. Those on foot had 

 reached the middle of the north shore when the horsemen arrived, 

 having ridden all the way from camp. So far, so good. Then came 

 the slick buttress running down into deep emerald waters. A steep 

 cleft choked with boulders ran a little way up the slope to a hori- 

 zontal shelf five feet wide, which in turn ran fifty yards clear across 

 the buttress. Brown and McKee immediately set to work to remove 

 the boulders from the choked cleft, and in a short time had their 

 horses on the shelf. From here the traveling across the buttress was 

 comparatively easy. This shelf is the only possible route around 

 the shore of the lake. 



A short distance beyond the shelf is an extensive willow thicket, 

 watered by many little branches of a stream which tumbles down 

 from a good-sized lake above. McKee plunged through this on 

 his horse, following the remnants of an old circuitous sheep-trail. 

 Brown rode his horse along the shore-end of the thicket, on a shelf 

 in the lake, the water reaching up to the stirrups. 



The course from here is up a small rather rocky gorge, with here 

 and there signs of an old sheep-trail. Farther along the way leads 

 into an extensive rock-pile, and it took Brown and McKee some 

 little time to work their way through. Above the rock-pile the coun- 

 try flattens considerably and opens into a narrow alpine valley, with 

 tiny streams running through mossy banks. Here and there were a 



