Treating on the R^io Grande 
By C. A. COOPER 
A Summer Recmble With a Burro Train in the 
Rocky Mountains 
{Continued from page 938.) 
S OME lakes, hidden by lofty mountains and 
as far from civilization as one can get in 
Colorado, were on our visiting list. An 
aged gold hunter had found them years ago and 
knew one of them to contain large trout, but the 
hardships experienced in reaching them and the 
abundance of bear in their vicinity had kept 
him away from a district offering but few in¬ 
ducements to a prospector. That secret 
wrestled with me for five long years, then I 
blazed a trail to them and found them even 
better than reputed. Now, after an interval 
of several years, we were to approach them 
from a different direction over a disused In¬ 
dian trail which crossed the range by way of 
Ute Creek. 
It had not been hard to convince Ed of their 
desirability, but thinking he might backslide 
from simple acquiescence, I had pounded and 
rubbed it in until he acknowledged the place 
to be a suburban heaven and grew impatient at 
suggested delay. The air line distance being 
only fifteen miles, we hoped to accomplish the 
round trip in a week and, packing to accord with 
this plan, left Jackson’s at an early hour. Until 
gaining our turning off point at Ute Creek, the 
little cavalcade moved briskly along the home¬ 
ward trail. There it became necessary to argue 
the matter with the burros for some time, and 
I was obliged to resign the position of captain- 
general at the head of the column to assist in 
restoring order. 
Three miles up the trail our disconsolate 
burros either saw or smelled a bear and charged 
past us as if shot out of a gun. The two in the 
rear were trying to pass the leader, and we after¬ 
ward judged that each one had succeeded in 
leading several times. We estimated that they 
made the three miles to the valley in about three 
minutes. Our horses became ambitious early in 
the disturbance, cutting a few capers in the tim¬ 
ber that were highly injurious to the dignity of 
sedate riders. Occurring as it did, we were de¬ 
nied a just appreciation of the acrobatic burro 
performance, which is always a matter of in¬ 
tense local interest. 
It may be well to state that burros are decep¬ 
tive. Ordinarily they are docile, have a long 
suffering cast of countenance and will stay in¬ 
definitely around a camp possessing such tidbits 
as greasy newspapers, tin cans and cast off rai¬ 
ment. One might think them unable to compre¬ 
hend the word run from their apparent thank¬ 
fulness for such missiles as tin cans and old 
shoes, and judging by their mincing and crippled 
gait, place their maximum speed at three miles 
an hour. But wait until a bear appears. Presto! 
They are instantly frenzied and away. Their 
loads are quickly reduced to tatters and splin¬ 
ters; no mud hole is too large for them to leap; 
no trail too steep. When the owner has recap¬ 
tured the runaways—as we did with only one 
saddle intact—he will imagine their solemn gaze 
to be more droll than stupid. 
We collected all that was collectable of our 
camping kit, aiW with flag at half mast, returned 
to Jackson’s. Another start was made early in 
the afternoon, a longer but less fragrant trail 
I eing taken. Neither of us cared to see a circus 
twice in one day, nor did we believe the pres¬ 
ence of an additional .405 caliber rifle would in 
any way lessen the chances of a second stam¬ 
pede. 
At the little mining hamlet of Bear Creek, 
noted principally for its rich telluride ores and 
flock of bighorns, which almost daily visit a lick 
overlooking the town, we met some mining 
friends who had gotten fish hungry and wished 
to pass two or three days on the Vallecito, a 
secluded trout stream on our line of march. 
The Vallecito—Vyaceto, pleasant valley—little 
valley, is said to have been followed to its source 
by Fathers Escalante and Garcia in 1775, when 
searching for legendary cities of gold. Since 
then it has been periodically discovered by trap¬ 
pers and prospectors, who, appreciating its 
rugged beauty and hoping to more fully explore 
it at some future time, have advertised only its 
hardships. It is, indeed, a rugged district, its 
side gulches consisting of narrow chasms and 
box canons, and its flanks of straight walls or 
thirty degree slopes which extend 4.000 feet 
above the river. Its primitive state is due to its 
being reached by but three long and steep trails. 
Bear and mountain sheep are still found there 
and native trout are plentiful. The best day’s 
fishing I ever had was there, and also my poor¬ 
est. Being remote and seldom visited, it has at 
times proved a bonanza for dynamiters. Follow¬ 
ing in their wake, an angler would of course get 
nothing; preceding them he would have the best 
and easiest fishing imaginable. 
Next morning, accompanied by three mining 
friends, we climbed a hair-raising trail to the 
top of the Rockies and then dropped nearly 
straight down to the Vallecito, which we fol¬ 
lowed twenty-five miles to a point known as 
Soda Spring. It is a romantic and attractive 
spot, combining all the wild essentials for camp¬ 
ing with free, sparkling soda water on the side. 
Two hundred yards above our camp site is 
a lick where I had the pleasure of a five-minute 
view of four mountain sheep only fifty feet 
away. When I came upon them they were wan¬ 
dering indolently about the lick, stopping often 
to lap the tiny streams which trickled down the 
stained sides of the rocks partly inclosing the 
place. 
One of the lambs saw me before I had fully 
stopped and did its best to impart its fear to its 
mother. The others looked indifferently in my 
direction, but as I was motionless, concluded I 
belonged to the landscape and continued to loiter. 
Ft all probability that lamb had never seen a 
person before, yet some instinct told it of dan¬ 
ger, and either love, reason or some other in¬ 
stinct told it to warn its mother. After a 
moment of expressive pantomine it ran thirty 
yards as if in terror, then returned hesitatingly, 
looked wildly at me and ran again. When it 
returned again, still insisting, the others became 
restless, and when it ran the third time, they 
slowly following, it plainly showed its delight. 
In the two-mile canon below camp there is a 
succession of gloomy pools. We had never 
caught a remarkable number of trout there nor 
any very large ones, but as there are always 
fascinations about such a place, Ed and I went 
that way in the morning. By fishing down 
stream with flies and back with grasshoppers 
we managed nearly to fill our baskets. 
Where the trail crosses this canon the ap¬ 
proach on one side is rocky and sideling. Sev¬ 
eral years before I had met with an amusing 
incident there. An old farmer from the lower 
settlement had come up for a load of trout, hav¬ 
ing as aids a small boy, two riding horses and 
a burro. When first seen he appeared to be in 
serious trouble. One of his horses had rolled 
into the river and the other lay imprisoned under 
a small fallen tree that obstructed the trail. The 
old man was sitting in the trail, too mad to 
speak or do anything. I went across and find¬ 
ing the “roller” to be uninjured, asked if any 
help was needed to free the other. As he only 
glared fiercely and refused to speak, I took an 
axe from the burro’s pack and cut the offending 
tree. The boy said he guessed grandpop was 
mad about something, and that they were going 
to camp across the river and would stay three 
days. The next day at noon I saw them cross¬ 
ing the river on their way home with what ap¬ 
peared to be a big burro load of fish, and I won¬ 
dered if the dynamite had been on the horse I 
helped to its feet. 
Our companions had preferred to fish above 
camp where the fishing is easier and generally 
more certain. They were very successful, catch¬ 
ing all they cared for on that and the following 
day, and therefore were ready to return on the 
third day. Rain was, falling when we broke 
camp and a brisk shower fell as we arrived at 
the East Fork where the two parties were to 
separate. We had just decided to camp together 
once more when a black bear was discovered 
