The Kusko times., 1929-08-03
TELLS OF ASCENT TO PEAK
 OF TAKOTNA MOUNTAIN

1 developed longing to some day pc able to climb it. Shortly after com- ing to Takotna this summer, 1 went into training for the climb by trying out all the lesser hills in the vicinity.
 was determined to make an ex- haustive study of that particular mountain. Well, am not sure even now that the subject was exhausted and I don't suppose, the mountain was, but | was. However, consider the effort well worth while and took several pictures which. I hope will be good.
 My uncle, Henry c. Wallick, our dog Mutt and started. on the trip at 9.3O Tuesday. morning. We travelled several miles to the base of the in- cline through feather-bed moss al- most knee deep and crossed one stream on a beaver dam. The beaver didn't like it-neither did we, very much
 We got to the top of Interrogation Point hill about noon. Here we stopped to build a. fire and crematel a few of the millions of mosquitoes who insisted upon escorting us on the. way. MT. Wallick fried bacon while changed from my shoe packs to a pair of high leather hobnailed boots for climbing. And Mutt tried to as sist in both operations
 From here we went through a long. stretch of timber before we came to the next ascent. From the town the next step looks like alternating light and dark green furrows. We found the dark were. dense growths of alders, while the light green strips were streaks of polytrichum iuni- perifolium and sphaeria fusca, through which we walked almost knee deep. After much toll and many grunts on my part, we finally arrived at the pass of old Thermopylae..
 Here we found huge and heauti- fully hollowed rock, which was an ideal place to stew some more too friendly mosquitoes. We suited the action to the thoug-.t and rested, which needed by this time, during the stewing process. I had never realized before that such humble lit tie fellows could be such wonderful mountain climbers.
 Then from. the pass we climbed up aver the high ridge of huge rocks and boulders to the. topmost peak. having selected the back side for this climb so that we could view the scenery on the far side, Reaching the top, MT. Wallick built another smudge of such material as could be found,, while l took pictures.
 Takotna river looked exactly like the tracks left by some small boy on ice skates, trying to doA some fancy stunts. In some places it aclually formed a circle inside a. larger circle. The hills in all directions looked. like a. thick growth of mushrooms. And the town was SO tiny that it WAS inn possible to find it in the vieig .nder, therefore 1 aimed at the a-rplane field, trusting to luck that the town might be distinguishable.
 High up among these. rocks, wherever it was possible for little sediment to- lodge, there wer, various types of flora. to be found. .2olypo- diunn vulgare, panicum miliaceum, cornus canadensis and polyp2rus um- bellatns were to be seen here and there, ,while.cladonia, looking ike. old fashioned tatting, was everywhere.
 We left the peak a littIa after 6 o'clock and descended on the front side, watching, the village, gradually come to view. We reached Interro- gation Point hill little before 9, where we had left our pack. We again built a fire, this time as much to cook