The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1891-09-05
4 MOUNTAIN mir.

Two weeks ago, In company with
Captain II. G. Coc, we started for a
trip to the Wind river country, bent on
exploration, fishing, hunting and pros
lecting We had a pack horSe to carry
our provisions and blankets, and took
il afoot ourselves The steamer Baker
landed Us at Ordway's flume, where we
were met 10y Walter Thompson, who
took us ON horseback TO Mr.. Ordway's
place, three miles from the river, from
which place, after most excellent din
her. we started over the trail for Che
quash mountain. This is y famous
place among the Indians, being high
mountain with broad plateaus stretch
ing away from its double SUBMITS, COW
cred with luXuriant grass, aud with its
ldges producing generally an abun-
Uduce ot huckleberries, though this
Year the crop is failure. We made
dry camp ON account of darkness over
taxing us saturday night, and climbed
ii high mountain ridge before breakfast
sunday morning before we found
water sunday night We reached Che
quash, and Monday camped the other
side of it on a small stream emptying
into Wind river and prospected down
for two miles, to where il joined "A
Larger stream. The latter was clear,
cold and suggestive of innumerable
uout. We tried fly on them, but was
unable to get rise, from which we
Judge that high fall cuts them OFF, as
Wind river is alive with them. Tues
day morning We struck out for Lewis
river, and by noon reached the summit
of the ridge between that and Wind
r,ver, at a point distant from Mount
St Helens probably ten miles. Here
Was q magnificent view. To the north
l,aiuier raised her white crown, to the /
east Adams looked down upon us, to
the south Hood, and TO the west, rising
from four thousand feet below us up
and away above us until it seemed to .
touch the heavens, st. Helens rose in /
one majestic sweep. 1t was the big
gest mountain We ever saw, seeming to /
fill the whole west. 1t may be that il .
is not as high as Mt. Hood, but from .
this point OF view Hood compared to it .
Is an infant. We spent Tuesday after
noon in hunting for bear with barren .
results, and Wednesday returned to .
Chequash to take the old Mcclellan .
trail across the mountains to Wind .
river Thursday morning, which point .
we reached Friday and had u few min
utes fishing, which supplied our wants
in that direction. We have fished the .
finest trout streams of the coast, but /
never struck such fishing as the upper
Wind river affords. The trouble is
there is no way to get the fish out, and
one can't eat more than he can catch i'm
five minutes, so that the fishing after
ali is no good. After satisfying our
selves that the main stream showed
neither gold nor quartz float, we started
down it through an unexplored coun-
try. A level plateau extends across
from Wind river to Rock creek, ten or
twelve miles, and down the stream for
a dozen miles we passed over it through
a continuous forest of splendid yellow
fir, the trees running from four to six
feet in diameter and from 100 to $50 I
feet to the first limbs. One old mon .
arch, who was sturdy tree when Peter |
denied his master, measured thirteen &
feet through. Sunday we found indi- :
cations of settlement, lines Of claims |
blazed out, ETC., and we also found that :
the canyon Of Wind river was impassa- :
BILE and that we would have to cut '
trail through on the west side. We did |
this, but it took three days of hard s
work to get to the road, distance of r
three miles. Of course we had several g
fishing, prospecting, ETC., v
and while we did not find a gold mine, @
we are going back. q