The Caledonian-record. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1920-current, 1920-08-31
Camping Out in the Wilds
of Yellowstone Park
Continued from age one)

Continued from age one)
days among the Crees and Chippa-
ways and spent his young manhood
as interpreter for the Hudson Bay
Company. We shall never forget the
wonderful work he did in taking US
from Shoshone Geyser Basin to the
head waters of the Bechler River,
thru trackless wilderness, avoiding
thickets of Jack pines and i'm
passable canyons, oulches, and
draws with an instinct that was fair
uncanny. That night at the camp
fire | asked him if he never used a
compass. In disgust he said mo! one
OF them things would confuse me all
up!'
Jim" the cook is no less a
character. Raised in Texas, he has
punched COWS" in the Black Hills
and seen much service as Ranger IN
the Park. The wav he can handle a
Dutch oxen" would turn Maine
guide with his reflector, green with
envy.
When we move camp, which some
times occurs day after day and some
times after two or three days in one
location, Horace is out after the
horses, which are hobbled or picketed
to craze, as soon as it is light. By
the time he has them in, Jim has
breakfast of bacon or trout, potatoes
and biscuits or hot cakes, ready and
the party, their tents and beds rolled
and packs we'll made. My long ex
perience with pack train now comes
in handy and the work of loading and
throwing the diamonds" is quickly
ovet.
Now Horace, who rides beautiful
pinto and leads the bell mare, a
wonderfully wise buckskin, heads the
procession, the pack horses and
mules fall in line, following step for
step the course the buckskin takes,
jumping the same logs and ditches
skillfully wiggling between the same
trees, a case of follow your leader
in every sense of the word, and he
rest of US with our saddle horses
bring up the rear And such horses.
, w Z nave IlttISn VII lIllthClS
where would have hardly attempted
to crawl and up and down mountains
where a man can only climb with
great difficulty, yet none of them
have ever missed step. Horace,
with justifable pride, says they will
go anywhere a goat can and | am
prepared to believe him.
oil hn ~
week in the Bechler River valley, a
region almost unknown, which
schemers in Idaho almost snatched
away last winter, through action Of
Congress, for irrigation purposes.
1t had been been represented as a
desolate swamp. We found it I'M
questionably the most beautiful val
ley in the Park, affordinga world of
feed for elk and moose which spend
their summers in the mountains
above it.
AS its head, from the plateau
above, no less than eight streams
leap over wonderful falls and cascad-
es, rivaling those of any of the other
Park streams save the Great Falls of
L
ing is real work for one can hardly
place a fly on the water but fish,
sometimes ranging up to four or five
pounds, will be after it.
Near the rim rock of one of the
Canyon walls, 500 feet above the
valley, we found a beautiful unmap-
ped and unnamed lake, deep and
cool and clear, which probably never
been seen by a dozen white men. We
named it Lake Rachel for one of our
party 1t has no fish but will be
i, stocked in the near future.
This country is the property of
every American citizen Shall it be
given up to satisfy petty local greed?
Let US hope not.
The Park country is at its very
best this season, in marked contrast
to its condition last season. This is
due to the fact that last winter saw
great snow fall while the previous
winter saw almost none. The drouth