The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1907-11-01
N THE MOUNTAINS ABOVE THE CLOUDS.
Continued from Last Week.

While the women were preparing
supper, two of the party went to locate
the trail so that there would be no de-
lay the next morning. Finding trail
they followed it until il led into con-
glomeration of wandering tracts among
the wild lilac and manzaneta, showing
that many others had lost their way, at
least for a time, in this great sea of
brush. After searching for awhile they
discovered small path which they
took to be the trail. This path, in
places, was so overgrown with thorn
brush that it would be most impossible
for the women and donkeys to go
through. Returning to camp they re-
ported that it was useless for the ladies
to attempt to go further, but they were
not so easily discouraged and had no
thought of giving up the trip. Soon
after. supper, tired from the days travel,
we spread our blankets around the
camp fire, which was kept burning all
night, and lay down to sleep, beneath
the blue sky and the stars, and above
the clouds in the valley below.
Morning dawned with the usual
clearness so noticeable in high attitudes.
Distances in the mountains are so de-
ceiving, the clearness and rarefaction
of the atmosphere, and the boldness
with which they stand against the
horizon, without anything to compare
them to, make them appear near when
yet far away. Soon after breakfast one
of the party started in advance TO make
a further search for the trail. Repeat
ing the mistake of the evening before
he followed the broad path until it led
to nothingness among the brush. Care
fully retracing his steps he discovered
a narrow branching path, and follow
ing it soon recognized il as being the
true trail. Then calling to the others
that the trail was found, the donkeys
were saddled and the climb began. This
little incident called to mind the two
paths that symbolic destiny, one broad
and well defined, at first, leads on to
nothingness wasted life and lost
hereafter. The other, less defined, leads
on to victory and crown eternal.
At an elevation of eight thousand
feet. the scrubby brush which cover
the lower mountains disappear entire
ly, giving place TO the rugged pine,
spruce, hemlock and cedar. How COM
pletely did we realize our wish that we
might be able to look down upon the
clouds, for when reaching the crest of
a pine clad ridge, we beheld ascene i'm
pressiye and indescribable, surprising
i'm beauty and magnificence that wit
messed by Balboa, the discoverer, who
i'm 1913 ascended the mountains of
Panama and beheld the peaceful waters
of the mighty Pacific. Below us, filling
all the valley and far beyond over the
ocean, lay vast billowy sea of heavy
clouds, beautiful in the morning sun.
Mountain tops lay scattered about, no
longer part of the land, but islands in
the sea. SO beautiful and enchanting
did it appear, that my fancy longed to
sail OH that watery waste that during
the night had buried home and friends
and many thriving cities with their
teeming population. Not till then did
| so forcibly realize the meaning of the
eleventh verse of the seventh chapter
of Genesis. "The same day were all
the fountains of the great deep broken
up"
We had now reached the higher re-
gions, and the mountains became more
lonely, irregular and broken, all sc
marked and SCARED by the ravages OF
time. For ages past the atmospheric
agents wind, water and frost), have
been energetic and rapid i'm their action
disintegrating, removing and lower.
ing all parts of the high elevations. In
many places the mountain sides are
covered for thousands of feet with fine
broken rock, above which frown per
pendicular cliffs, peaks, crags and many
irregular forms of ragged rock. Some
of the party took great delight i'm roll
f,nnr ,.nolrc tho lnnn Of clnnac
Ii was interesting to see the rocks skip
along for a ways, then bound high into
the air, striking perhaps hundred
feet beyond with another skip anC
another bound, gathering velocity every
moment, until they disappear with 3
crash in the canyon or timber far below
Others, part way down, would strike
something solid, then bound into the
air broken into fragments, while Others
would start loose rocks and many could
be seen bounding away at the same
time.
Upward and onward, through groves
of pine, spruce and hemlock, intC
openings across narrow. ridges border
ed by canyons thousands of feet In
depth, until another stop is made be
side a monstrous drift of snow lying
peacefully in the summer sun. Here Z
snow ball fight took place, but il LASTED
only few minutes as their finger,
were soon benumbed with cold. This
is the playground Of the winter storms
where the snow sometimes falls to Tho
depth of forty feet. Often when storms
would be raging i'm this region, I'm tn,
valley just below the sun would b'
shining peacefully and birds singing
i -
blooming flowers. From these heights
Winter frowns on Summer and some
Continued on 4th Page