Putnam patriot., 1911-11-10
An Interesting Letter from the West

The following letter written by Ar thur J. Wilkes to relatives in Thomp- son will be read with much interest:
 In camp above the clouds, 5000 1t elevation and some of the finest seen. cry imagin able 1 am staying at Reese's camp, but everything is very primative so thMt l might almost as we'll have camped out with the other boys, only having been ill such short time ago, didn't think 1t best 10 lie around on the ground. Even down at the Inn at Larymire Springs most of the rooms are tents but electric lighted, and the meals served in the hotel proper are just like any other hotel | and good service, so it is no privation | to stay there. 1 arrived at the Inn on Sunday after five hour train ride and | an hour and half by auto through | the Rainier National park, govern ment reservation. On entering the l park everyone has to register and can | only enter during certain hours. | found several people that knew and the rest of our party who had preceded mo on the early train. Monday morn. ing we hiked to indian Henry's, q seven mile trail mostly up hill, and can only be reached by horseback or walking, as il is very steep in places, and reaches an elevation of 5000 1t. There Is log house for hotel, with tents for rooms, but one gets very tired and willing to put up with anything, only place to sleep and something to eat. On Tuesday We climbed Pyramid
 Peak, 5000 fl. high; Mt. Ararsat, 1000 fl. high, and followed the old Indian trail for some distance 10 get some splendid views, then at night went
 back to the lnn again to be ready to come up here today. took pony
 down but it would have been much easier to have walked, as the others
 did. found another lot of people l
 knew in Seattle, who had arrived
 since left. To0Ay we walked up
 here, seven and half miles up hill by
 the trail, and will go back by the gov ernment road, which makes it twice as
 far. l have just been talking With the
 guide, who is to take us up the noun
 tain, and he assures us we will have nc trouble to reach the top, and we feel the same way, as we have taken these
 additional hikes to get our muscles in
 good condition to stand the strain. We are resting this afternoon and all day tomorrow as the start has to be made
 at one o'clock in the morning before , the snow melts under the sun and the , ice Is apt to drop on ones head from , the high rocks. IL begins 10 freeze ? again by two o'clock in the afternoon, so il is easy to return with little dan i ger. Yesterday, on Pyramid Peak, $ we were intending to return on the
 other side from the one on which we
 made the ascent, but cloud enveloped
 us so we couldn't see our way, and We
 didn't dare try il, and went back the
 same way we went up. l am wearing
 heavy clothing up here as the nights
 are cool, and we'll they might be with
 huge glacier so near, and loose snow in all the crevasses of the mountains, visible all the time. The camp Is so crowded they are fitting up extra tents to house everybody. l will write you all about the climb soon after l come down.
 | l intended to write you at Ashford on the way down but did not have time between the stage and auto after record trip up the mountain, as II is the record time 1t has ever been done at night There was a good moon and i! the guide announced 10 us st three in