126 



Sierra Club Bulletin 



the pack-animals, headed for our lower camp, and the men of the 

 party were to meet the pack-train near Cloudy Canon upon its return 

 and help over the difficult place at the stairway. Colonel Williams 

 and I returned to the rough place and did some further work on the 

 staircase. We also spent more than an hour exploring all over the 

 face of the slope for a possible way around. Many times we thought 

 we had found it, but inevitably were led to some smooth granite 

 slope where only blasting would make a trail. We then carefully 

 monumented a good route all the way down to Cloudy Canon, and 

 on the east side of the crossing placed a pile of stones on a large 

 boulder. The crossing is at the northern end of the meadow, just at 

 the edge of the timber. 



McDuffie, with the Elstons and Vernon Kellogg, reached our Up- 

 per Cloudy Camp at five o'clock, and shortly the pack-train arrived. 

 By 5 :45 we were at the staircase. Getting the packs and animals be- 

 yond this took until eight o'clock. While repacking darkness over- 

 took us and it commenced to rain. 



We had sent our new arrivals ahead, giving them the general 

 direction and the location of our camp, telling them that they should 

 be in camp by seven o'clock. After repacking, we followed, going 

 fairly rapidly until we reached the lower end of the Whaleback 

 Basin. By this time it was pitch dark. In the daylight it was easy 

 going, winding here and there in serpentine fashion through the 

 rocks and by the meandering stream flowing deep in mossy banks, 

 here and there twisting and turning between boulders thrown down 

 from the cliffs of the Whaleback. For a time the flash-light aided 

 us, but soon the maze became so complicated that we were com- 

 pletely tangled up and had to retrace our steps many times and 

 start anew. It was a most exasperating experience, for we kept fall- 

 ing into the stream and getting into pockets where the horses could 

 not proceed. The lights of several camp-fires were seen on the shelf 

 above, and we could hear the shouts of those in camp; but to get 

 through the inky blackness and over the uneven and uncertain 

 meadow was desperate sort of work. 



At 9:30 McDuffie and I led the last of the pack-train into camp, 

 feeling that the day's real labors were ended. As we approached we 

 heard a shout from out the darkness of the meadow below, only 

 to find that our newcomers had not arrived, but were lost in the 

 darkness of the region below. A warm welcome ! We got the flash- 



