The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-09-12
A TRIP UP A MOUNTAIN
saranac Lake, N. Y. Sept. 6, 1913.

Saranac Lake, N. Y, Sept. 6, 1913.
To the Editor Ocala Banner:
Labor Day dawned bright and clear
and beautiful The air was cool and
invigorating and we, a party of ten,
started out for days pleasure, TAX
ing a climb up Mt. Amfersand as a
goodly part of it. We left camp at
nine o'clock, and had row of eight
miles through a part of two lakes and
a river, and had to go through lock
in Saranac river. There were three
boatloads of us, all in good health and
spirits, and ready for the climb up the
mountain. The trail is well defined,
but very steep, and oh! the roots and
logs and rocks that we had to climb
or crawl over. Nature has provided
safe hand-rail wherever it seems to
be most needed. We reached the sum-
nit of the mountain after travelling
four miles, but the view we had of
the surrounding country more than
repaid us for our labor. We could
distinctly see, without the aid of
glass, fifteen miles, two or three riv-
ers and several villages.
The mountain is 1868 feet above sea
level, and the top consists of several
acres of fiat, bare rock, so we could
see on all sides of us. On one side
we could look down upon the other
lesser mountain peaks and look right
into the tops of trees, which were
beautiful with the afternoon sun shin
ing on all the different shades of
green among them. These are a few
of the kinds of trees to be found on
Mt. Amfersand: Pine, cedar, spruce,
ash, beech, hemlock, tamarack, maple,
poplar, birches (both white and yell
low Eastwood, mountain ash and
dogwood. l saw all of these, and 9TH
er kinds that | do not remember.
Some of these grow on the lower land
and some others higher up the noun
tain side.
On the top of this mountain is one
of the fire stations, installed and
maintained by the state, with a good,
trusty man in charge of it, to give the
alarm (by telephone) in case of for
est fires. Great damage has been
done in some sections of the Adiron-
dacks by unmanageable forest fires, |
but these fire stations have relieved
the situation greatly. The fire war
den let us use his field glasses, SO we
could get better view of some plac-
es. This is one of the highest and |
most inaccessible mountains in the |
state. We could see lakes at a dis |
lance of 80 or 35 miles, and could see |
Mt. Marcy, the highest peak in the |
state, also Mt. Whiteface, and more |
than a hundred other peaks all about |
us.
We reached the lake again in time |
to make some coffee, Gypsy fashion,
and after lunch we returned to camp, |
the most delightful time of the whole |
day being on the water, "Twixt the |
cleaning and the shank of the even
ing" The water was as smooth and |
clear as glass, and the reflection of OBJ
jects in it was perfect. No bowl of /
flowers sitting on mirror in the din
ing table could be reflected more per-
fectly than were the boats and their |
occupants, each tree, rock, cloud, clus-
ter of grass or wild water flowers. We
returned to camp exceedingly tired, |
but fully satisfied that the day had
been spent pleasantly and proftably |
One little incident that we met on
our return is worthy of mention. One |
of my nephews came to camp in the |
afternoon and brought his little cousin |
with thin. Not finding anyone at the |
camp he went out on the lake to
amuse his little eighteen-months-old
cousin. The baby sat in his seat like
a little man-which he was-and any
OHO VIM hAOWS WudI the AulfOHudck
guide boats are like will understand
that it must have been a child who
was remarkably fond of the water and
very well behaved to sit quietly in a
boat, when, if he had moved an inch
either way, it would have tipped the
boat dangerously.
MRS. G. d. WASHBURN.