The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-09-05

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writer in the Troy IN. " Times, and
as many more will ascend this year. 1t
is the one great feat that tourists in
this region are ambitious to accomplish. |
This grand mountain was discovered |
and named after the adventurous old ex-
plorer, Major Pike, in 1906. Lifting it's
snow recovered head over 14,OO0 feet
above ea-level, and 8, 900 feet above the
high plains of Colorado at its base, it
forms one of the great landmarks of the
State. There are two narrow horseback
paths leading to the summit. The
longer and easier one is called the
government trail, " though the govern
ment did not make it, and has nothing
to do with it but to use it. 1t was built
by Mr.. Copley, Of Colorado Springs.
The telegraph line to the summit runs
along this trail. The "new trail "by a
sleeper climb directly up from Manitou
springs, through Engleman's Canon, is
swelve miles long. From Colorado
Springs by either trail it is seventeen
miles to the summit. At first our path
way wound upward along the banks of
beautiful, clear mountain stream and
among foothills which, anywhere else
would be called mountains then again
the trail was nothing but a narrow zig
gag path up the almost precipitous
mountain side, where single misstep
of our horse would have sent us rolling
down into the awful ravine below. Now
we toiled on under towering cliffs a
thousand feet high, then we crept
nervously along the edge of fearful
chasms, thousand feet deep.
Now through dense forests of pine,
fir, spruce and cedar; then among
shrubs, plants and violet flowers bloom
ing along our pathway. Now we were
in deep gorges that almost shut out the
sunlis ht; then on some mount of vision
from which we could catch a glimpse of
the wild grandeur around and about us.
Five miles from the base we came to
"Jones's Park" beautiful meadow,
1900 feet above the level of the sea,
which the eccentric owner has taken
some pains to cultivate and ornament.
If you stop long enough Mr.. Jones will
tell you some strange stories about his
twenty-six years of mountain life among
the Rockies. Toiling on and up, three
miles from the park we come to good
sized log-house, which answers the
purpose of hotel. 1t stands on the
borders OF beautiful "Lake Moraine, I"
which gives it its name of Lake
House," Here we rest for the night,
sleeping at an altitude of 10000 feet
above the sea.
In company with another, we were
early in the saddle next morning, for it
was five miles more to the summit, and
in that five miles we must mount up
1000 feet higher. 1t was q long, weary,
rugged climb. We were "tired to
death several times over, still we lived
and pushed on. At an elevation of
$4,000 feet we reached " timber line -
the utmost limit of tree life. This line
among the Alps is at an elevation of only
5000 feet. (By the way, they say out
here, of a man who is bald headed that
"his head has got above timber line. y
Up, up, up, over the rough and rocky,
bleak and barren sides of the great peak
we climb. The atmosphere grows rarer
and respiration more difficult. 1t seems
as if we would never reach the top.
Higher and higher, through the light,
thin air we urge our trembling, painting
horses, but we would pant worse than
the horses if, out of sympathy to them.
we should undertake to walk. Some at
this great elevation suffer from dizziness,
headache or noseebleed. Others have
sensations similar to seasickness. As
we were resting our horses for moment,
and looking out on the gloomy desola-
tion around us, wondering if any living
thing could exist in such a waste of
howling wilderness of rocks, we heard a
faint squeak or bark, coming, as we
learned, from the little comics. These
little animals are about the size and
shape of prairie dog, They are found
on these peaks of the Rocky Mountains,
and never below timber line: One won
ders how they subsist where there is no
vegetation, and if they are the same as
the "conies of the Scripture, which
"make their houses in the rocks"
When we were about hundred Yards
from the summit the great snow-drifts
across the trail compelled us to dis
mount. After tying our horses to the
stones, we clambered up rock TO rock
and boulder to boulder toward the crown
of the peak. At last we were at the
"United States Signal Service Station, :"
a square stone house with fiat roof,
built for the purpose of meteorological
observations. On this lofty watch-tower
"Old Probabilities has stationed his
sentinels, whose duty it is to send to
Washington a telegraphic weather re-
port every evening at sunset; also to
send report by mail once week. After
few minutes conversation with the
lonely watcher dwelling on this highest
inhabited spot on the globe, we went
out into the clear morning atmosphere
to view our surroundings. We climbed
over the rocks and around the snow
drifts, buttoning up our overcoats to
keep out the chill breeze, though down
on the plains, under the July sun, the
thermometer stood away up among the
"nineties." On the very summit is a
nearly level surface of about sixty acres,
but this space is so completely covered
with great boulders and fragments of
great ragged granite rocks that not an
inch of soil can be seen.
But look around and beneath you from
this lofty spot if you want one of the
grandest panoramas this earth affords.
To the west, and far away, are the vast
mountains of the "Snowy Range"
among the lofty peaks OF which are
Harvard" "Yale" and "Lincoln, I"
crowned with perpetual whiteness. In
terveping between the mountain mon
arch we are on and the snowy Rockies
are many lower peaks ranging from TO-
600 to 49, 600 feet high. To the north
are "James's," "Long's" and "Grey's"
peaks standing head and shoulders above
their fellows. Turning to the east, just
down to the foot of the peak is Manitou,
with its springs, and the Garden of the
Gods, and beautiful Glen Eyrie. Colo