The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1921-08-12
A TRIP TO THE CRATER LAKES

echt tnlS HrSt nlBht, Dut IL gave
him an excellent shelter anyway.
The mountain loins and coyotes
and ground squirrels and chipmunks
and other fierce deizens of the
mountains disturbed us not at all;
we slept, lulled by the jangling of a
cowbell on one of the horses.
The next morning we had break
fast, loaded the wagon. cleaned up
the camp, and were on the road by
seven O'Clock, Those of us who
walked reached the lake by nine
o'clock, but il took three hours and
half for the team to make the two
miles. The first mile of the road
was fairly good, tho steep; the last
mile was almost straight up and
down, and, worse than that. one
track was so badly washed out that
it was necessary to drive the team
out on the sidehill instead of in the
road.
The fish in the lake wagged their
tails as soon as we reached the wa
ter's edgeA Charles and Lewis i'm
mediately got out their fishing our
fits and went to work, while the rest
of us made camp John, who was
chef during the whole trip. cooked
another excellent meal.
While we were eating, three other
men, o. D. Johnson, Macy Quinn,
and Russell Cox, came around the
corner of the lake They had come
up from Oakley on horseback dur
ing the forenoon. They fished; ev-
erybody fished but Doc. The old
raft was worked loose from the out
let by some of the fishermen, who
poled ii out to the center of the
lake; others fished on shore. Charles
had the best luck of any of them: he
got bite. Nobody caught any
fish.
Doe wandered on to the upper
lakes, exploring. He saw no fish in
any of the four In an endeavor to
get some good pictures of the lakes,
he kept climbing and at last found
himself on top of the saddle be-
tween Badly and Mount Indepen-
dence. AS it was only four o'clock
he decided TO go on to the top of
OF. Meant Independence, and twenty
five minutes later he was there
ten thousand, five hundred feet
above sea level, the forest ranger
had said the night before. 1t was
hot down around the lakes; up
there the wind was biting cold.
Such vew! 1t was worth a six
-een hundred mile trip just for the
of looking around few
minutes up therel At that time
he sun was shining brightly on the
EAST, thru the Elba country, while |
lalf dozen violent thunder storms |
we're in progress to the south ami |
vest-at the head of Raft river, |
vest of Vipont, up Goose creek, up
'rapper creek, up Birch creek, and |
lorth toward Burley. Almo and |
he City of Rocks seemed almost un-
lerneath the mountain.
Taking a short cut to camp by go
ng straight north, Doc. got into
idehill of granite boulders. Going
own this sidehill was not especially
ifficult, but it was slow and requir-
d the use of both hands and feet.
everal good-sized snowdrifts were
ncountered near the foot of the
fountain. (This was on the last
ay of July. Before all this snow
lelts, the SHOWS of this coming win
pr will be falling there)
In the meantime those who stayed
the lake had industriously fished
our after hour. but haG caught
othing. Editors note: While a
Nv of us did do little fishing, Doc
Just living up to his role as scof-
II at fishermen when he hints that
! of us fished all the timel We had
fought when we planned the trip
lat we might stay at the lakes at
asst couple of days, but now we
scided we might as well go home ia {
Ie morning
The next morning, Julius, John
I'd Doe climbed to the top of Mt !
The view was even
ore beautiful than on the preced-
g evening, because there were no
orms. A haziness in the air pre-
'nted us from seeing such far-away
aces as Twin Falls and the Saw
9th mountains, tho Murtaugh lake D
as plainly visible. The water in il
e Oakley reservoir was also easily L
en-. backing up Goose creek for
lies and into the mouth of Trapper
eek. N Il
After comprehensive survey, .
illus went back to bring down the ?
Id, while John and Doc walked II
wn into Mill creek canyon and
ence to town, arriving about half
hour ahead of the team.
The Onffnp was sfrpnuouS hut | h