I Left Early, But Soon Lost
The Track And Was Lost; But Knowing That A Sublime Gash In The
Mountains Was Bear Canyon, Quite Near Boulder, I Struck Across
The Prairie For It, And Then Found The Boulder Track.
"The
best-laid schemes of men and mice gang aft agley," and my
exploits came to an untimely end to-day.
On arriving here,
instead of going into the mountains, I was obliged to go to bed
in consequence of vertigo, headache, and faintness, produced by
the intense heat of the sun. In all that weary land there was no
"shadow of a great rock" under which to rest. The gravelly,
baked soil reflected the fiery sun, and it was nearly maddening
to look up at the cool blue of the mountains, with their
stretches of pines and their deep indigo shadows. Boulder is a
hideous collection of frame
houses on the burning plain, but it aspires to be a "city" in
virtue of being a "distributing point" for the settlements up the
Boulder Canyon, and of the discovery of a coal seam.
LONGMOUNT, November.
I got up very early this morning, and on a hired horse went nine
miles up the Boulder Canyon, which is much extolled, but I was
greatly disappointed with everything except its superb wagon
road, and much disgusted with the laziness of the horse. A ride
of fifteen miles across the prairie brought me here early in the
afternoon, but of the budget of letters which I expected there is
not one. Birdie looks in such capital condition that my host
here can hardly believe that she has traveled over 500 miles. I
am feeling "the pinch of poverty" rather severely. When I have
paid my bill here I shall have exactly twenty-six cents left.
Evans was quite unable to pay the hundred dollars which he owed
me, and, to save themselves, the Denver banks, though they remain
open, have suspended payment, and would not
cash my circular notes. The financial straits are very serious,
and the unreasoning panic which has set in makes them worse. The
present state of matters is - nobody has any money, so nothing is
worth anything. The result to me is that, nolens volens, I must
go up to Estes Park, where I can live without ready money, and
remain there till things change for the better. It does not seem
a very hard fate! Long's Peak rises in purple gloom, and I long
for the cool air and unfettered life of the solitary blue hollow
at its base.
ESTES PARK, November 20.
Would that three notes of admiration were all I need give to my
grand, solitary, uplifted, sublime, remote, beast-haunted lair,
which seems more indescribable than ever; but you will wish to
know how I have sped, and I wish you to know my present singular
circumstances. I left Longmount at eight on Saturday morning,
rather heavily loaded, for in addition to my own luggage I was
asked to carry the mail-bag, which was heavy with newspapers.
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