Colby Pass and the Black Kaweah 



129 



August 5, Ip20. 

 This pass was crossed from the Roaring River side, to- 

 day, by a party of thirteen persons with thirteen animals 

 (four saddle animals and nine pack animals). The pack 

 train was in charge of Ernest E. McKee of Badger and 

 Onis I. Brown of Lemon Cove. There was no trail nor 

 any indications of the previous passage of animals over 

 the pass, except for the traces of a sheep trail. A trail 

 was worked out by the packers and some members of 

 the party in about eight hours, on August 4 and 5. The 

 passage was made without accident to any animals. The 

 members of the party were : 



Mr. and Mrs. Duncan McDuffie, Berkeley, Cal. 



Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Elston, Berkeley, Cal. 



Mrs. Wm. Knowles, Oakland, Cal. 



Mr. James Hutchinson, Berkeley, Cal. 



Col. W. H. Williams, Oakland, Cal. 



Mr. Chas. Noble, Berkeley, Cal. 



Mr. Chas. Noble, Jr., Berkeley, Cal. 



Mr. Fred Torrey, Berkeley, Cal. 



Mr. Vernon Kellogg, Stanford University. 



From the pass to the Kern-Kaweah River a fairly well-monumented 

 trail follows down the north branch of that stream. The pass itself 

 is level for fifty yards ; then comes a gradual slope to the lower end 

 of Milestone Bowl. Continuing, it leads through a fine alpine 

 meadow in a hanging valley particularly fine, for all the way you 

 have the wonderful snow-clad northern slope of the Kaweah Range 

 right before you. Then you reach the forested area. As any course 

 is here possible, we plunged down into the canon and camped in a 

 beautiful spot on the river just above Gallats Lake and below a large 

 meadow with the stream meandering through it. (Elevation, 10,000 

 feet.) That night we celebrated with a grand repast and called it 

 "The Feast of the Colby Passover" — and McDuffie was our Moses 

 leading the Exodus into the Promised Land. 



The next morning four of our party — Elston, Williams, and the 

 two Nobles, who had pressing engagements at home — left us amid 

 expressions of great regret from everyone. We all had planned to 

 move down on the same day, but the most wonderful fishing that 

 ever was induced the rest of us to remain a day longer. The Kern- 

 Kaweah has had a perpetual closed season, being closed at its 

 western end by the precipitous walls of the Great Western Divide 



