Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1910-07-27
SPEND HOT DAYS ON
SNOW CAPPED PEAK
Lancaster Citizens Enjoying the
Mountains of Colorado
Hubert Alt Writes of his Trip Through
Western States and Experiences
in Mountain Climbing

a trip being made to Colorado by
Delos Edwards and Hubert Alt. the
former to look after some mining in
terests he has there and the latter
taking the journey for the betterment
of his health. Mr.. Alt has written
home the following interesting letter
concerning their trip and their ex-
periences in the mountains:
Camp Bushnell, COL, July 4th, 1910.
Dear Folks at home:-
am going down the mountain to
morrow for provisions so will write
for I may not be down again for few
weeks. To begin with I will tell
you my experiences since leaving
Denver. We stayed in Denver day
and night taking in all the sights.
Left there at Z 80 a. m. and passed
through some of the finest scenery 1
have ever seen. At Canon City we
had to get off and wait for an hour
for a train that would let us off at
Doolittle's sister lives and it is a
beautiful city. Looking up main
street the background is huge
mountain peak, and looking in three
directions you see the mountains.
Here we also saw the state peni-
Tertiary and its beautiful grounds at
the base Of tke mOuntains
When we left Canon City we en-.
tered the Royal Gorge and to try to
describe the beauty of this scenery
would be useless. Many places the
track Is built on the very edge of the
massive rock walls aud just foot
from the track you can look hundreds
tower several thousand feat straight
a bove and you can see but narrow
path of sky. One place in particular
that looks dangerous is point where
the walls of the gorge came so close
together and were so straight up that
it was impossible to lay the track.
will draw you a sketch Of this
point called hanging bridge. I'm
mense irons we're placed into
the rocks from the sides of the canon
and from these we're suspended rods
on which the track was laid. Below
rushes the mad river and above you
see the sky
The rest of the way the scenery was
very beautiful for we were passing
through the loot hills with mountains
on either side.
We arrived at Pleasanton late in
the afternoon and walked over to
Coaldale. There is no station here
but they stop to put off mail and pas
sengers Tor Coaldale. Our trunks
we're at Cotopaxi, a small mining
town, four miles from Coaldale so
we had to drive after them next day
Now we had to look for horses and
after trying to make a deal with
several cow boys we decided we were
not rich enough to buy horses so l
bought two burros for twenty five
dollars. They are dandIes and I
have already become attached to them.
Now we were still short two horses SO
we used the telephone a whole day
without success. Finally Mr.. Edwards
thought of Geo. Anstey, brother to
John at home and we telephoned there.
He was much surprised to hear of us
here and asked us to come over and
stay with him for a week. He gave
us a couple of dandy horses to use and
we went after them the next day. It
was an ideal day and we went nine
miles over an old stage coach road
seeing many strange sights and relics
of early days, such as the stage coach
watering place, blacksmith shop. etc.
Tuesday morning found us up bright
and early packing up and getting
ready to "hit the trail" as they say
here.
At nine o'clock we had all our
bUrros packed and each one carried
about two hundred pounds of clothes
and provisions. Then we strapped
our heavy coats on our saddles and
the pack team was ready. 1t consist.
ed of three horses and three bUrros and
four men. [ shall not attempt to
describe our journey up the mountain
but will tell it to you when | get
home. The trip from the base to the
summit covers nine miles and takes
five hours to cover so you see we do
not make it oftener than is necessary,
our camp is elevated some 1000 feet
up so you can imagine the climbing
The trail in places seems almost i'm
possible but the burros climb up with
their packs, resting about every
fifteen steps. Saw several bear signs