Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1914-08-27
BARABOO PEOPLE
ARE ENJOYING
WESTERN TRIP

ceIVeu III DdTdDOO IIOHI 4HO4ILao ~
liams, who with his family, is enjoying
an outing at Paducah cottage, Leal,
Colorado:
Yesterday AdIie and 1 started
out horseback at 8:3) a. m. to
climb Mount Wte, it is II, 900 feet high,
3, 500 higher than we are here They
call it about seven miles to the top of
the mountain but the road ziz gags back
and forth so that don't see how it is
possible to measure the distance. We
rode from $50 until 80 o'clock, five
hours in getting to timber line then we
left our horses and climbed the rest of
the way by foot. The ground above
timber line was literal y covered with
the greatest profusion Of beautiful wild
flowers all new to me and all of the
most brilliant colors. 1t seems as
though the brighter sunshine and bluer
sky of the high altitute made the colors
more vivid. We reached the tip top
about o'clock and the view in all dir
ections was perfectly wonderful
To the west was the range of the Saw
Tooth mountains the tops and ravines
covered with snow. To the south was
the Blue Ridge range and to the east tn
Rabbit Ear range, so called on accoun
of the almost perpendicular peaks all
covered with snow. There were great
banks of snow where we were, AMI we
made our initials on them by taking
stones and marking out the letters.
Two dogs accompanied US from the
ranch and they both acte | as though
they were awe-striken at being so high,
and were immensely pleased when we
started tn descent. 1t was a beauti-
full clear day. The wind blew strong
from the west, and was cool and brac-
ing. Of course at that altitude we had
to go very slowly and rest ofte bl5 by
doing this we did not feel it at all.
There we're a few white feecy clouds
floating above US and they seemed so
near that one would almost believe they
could reach them with snow ball. We
were thirsty when we reached the sum-
nit, as we had not seen any water for
e al hours. We ate snow contrary to
all intructions for we had been told not
to do it, it always made people more
{ lirsty but in our case it quenched
our thirst and we did not get
thirsty again for several hours. 1t
seemed good to find our horses all
right where we had left them. 1t is
harder on the rider going down noun
tain than it is to go up. There were a
number of places where it was so steep
that we were compelled to dismount
and let the horses fairly slide down and
one place where we crossed little
stream the mud was so deep
we had to let the horses go
alone as they went into the mud up to
their bellies. The horses were used to
mountain climbing and never realized
before how much the term ''horse
sense" really meant. Often we would
give them their own way in bad place
an Invariably they would pick the best
route.
The trail is marked all the way by a
cut or blaze on both sides of trees along
the path. In some places there is n
real path at all and the trees grow so
close together that one has to keep
constantly on the alert not TO get off
the road. We were very fortunate and
not once did we miss it. There are
several places where old Indian trails
cross but by watching closely there is
really no excuse for going astray. There
is lots of big game here and we passed
two large bear traps made of logs in
the shape of dead fall, but we did not
see any game except Mountain grouse
Qike our prairie chickens) squirrels and
rabbits.
We stopped on our way back and
ate our lunch at beautiful little lake.
1t was completely surrounded by pine
trees and looked as if it might never
have known the presence of a whit,
man. The ground was thickly covered
by little plant that looked like smilax
and this made a comfortable seat on
which to set while we ate.
We are getting any quantity of trout
and have them every day for breakfast
and occasionally for supper. Tomorrow
Charles and Russell and l intend to
make an early start and go over Jones
Pass. We will each take horse and
may stay over night. 1t will be about
a 80 mile ride and we expect to gel
some fine pictures as well as some as
some good hunting and fishing.
The longer we stay here the better
we like it and I hate to Think of going,
but, / think we will leave
here next Monday or Tuesday stay ir
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