The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1922-09-26
HAIRPINS MARK
PERILOUS TRAIL
Each Time Girls Mountain Mule
Bumped, and It Bumped
Often, She Lost One.
FIRST WOMAN TO CROSS ANDES
Love Of Adventure Leads Girl to Face
Disease, Landsiides, Kidnapping
and Other Exciting Experiences
Indians After Her.

-InofanS After her.
New York-A line of bone hair
pins, the kind that sells for 10 cents
a half dozen, marks the first trail
across the Andes mountains ever at
tempted by a white woman.
Miss Katherine MacGregor Of Wau--
| paca, Wis, lost them from her bobbed
hair every time her mule slipped on
| the narrow but not so straight paths
along the sides of steep precipices.
Miss MacGregor does not look like
an intrepid explorer. She is below
middle height, Of pleasing slimness,
with blonde hair that curls at the rear.
Her age, at rough estimate. is some
where between twenty-five and
forty.
| There was no reason In the world,
as she sees it, why she should take
to exploring the mountain and jungles
of South America. Her father, Nal
colin MacGregor is of Scotch Quaker
| descent. She, until seven months ago
| was assistant to the general manager
| In a New York utilities office. The
| only travelling she had done previous
| ly had been limited to Pullmans and
coaches.
II guess 1t was because 1 wished to
write stories of adventures mostly"
is the best explanation she can give OF
the impulse that dared her to face dis
ease, kidnapping, landslides, tigers and
snakes. Even the American consul in
Peru refused to have anything more
to do with her when she told him of
the trail she intended to follow. AS
for her father, he kissed her gOOd-by
once and for all when she had fully
determined to start on her trip.
Tried to kidnap Her.
ut was only after l reached IQuitos, |
a fairly large South American town,
that / heard from two Englishmen in |
another exploring party what l had
missed" Miss MacGregor recounted. |
'"The two men had been held by Cam
pas Indian chiefs, who had been told |
by their intertribal runners that
white woman was passing in a party. L
The chieftains have a great fondness
for white women, and almost invar-
iably succeed in kidnapping them. It :
was only after much torture that the I.
Englishmen finally convinced the chief
that / was not In their party. /
passed two or three days sooner than
was expected-the only reason why
they din't get me.
Once or twice, or perhaps, a few
times more, the American girl was
frightened. On one occasion, had 1t
not been for some fallen trees, she
might have dropped to dusty death I
along the mountain side.
1T was just after landslide, and
the path-it couldn't have been even a
foot wide-was slippery" she said.
1.-THE four pack mules marched on
ahead. but my mule lost its footing in
the debris and plunged right down the
side. An uprooted tree saved us. I
climbed up again while the mule was
hoisted up with rope. l guess I
must have been pretty scared that
time"
Hotel accommodations were poor, as
Miss MacGregor recalls them. Tam
Dos, merely single rooms without
baths, and the only running water
that which leaked through the
matched roofs, offered the only shell
Ter along the way. The more pre-
.entious variety were sometimes
stretched with cowhide, but more
,ften a tambo consisted of four poles.
With dried grass for cover. ye
Cooking was done over canned
,eat 1t was imperative to boil the
water. unless one wished to ward on
malaria and other fevers with outline.
'ffss Mace regor boasts that in all her
rip she took only two grains Of
uinlne, and that because she did not
vish to offend an acquaintance.
She was accompanied by an English
uide hired in Peru, upon the advice
t friends, and by two muleteers. An
indian guide would have been ont Of
he question. for the trip would have
cen brought to an untimely end, so
ar as she was concerned, Miss Mac
regor believed.
Gentlemen Are Sentimental.
AS for the technical details Of her
.fp, she Travelled to Key West from
hicago In an iunsensational manner,
ew from Key West to Havana, then
' q United Fruit steamer to Cristo-
II and from there to Peru, where she
.gan her trans-Andean climb on Jine
J. For seven days she rode mule
lex, two days she progressed in a
1gout canoe on the Ucayaf river,
i'd until August / she walked, rode
I'd padded her way to Para, on the
list coast. Her party cut It's own
ails through heavy, tangled growths
r the most part.
There were conquests not only of
Id animals, but Of South American
but Miss MacGregOr paid
attention to the proposals she re-
ived, for, she said. the fair Amer