At Supper There Were Canned Raspberries, Rolls, Butter, Tea,
Venison, And Fried Rabbit, And At Seven I Went To Bed In A
Carpeted Log Room, With A Thick Feather Bed On A Mattress,
Sheets, Ruffled Pillow Slips, And A Pile Of Warm White Blankets!
I slept for eleven hours.
They discourage me much about the
route which Governor Hunt has projected for me. They think that
it is impassable, owing to snow, and that another storm is
brewing.
HALL'S GULCH, November 6.
I have ridden 150 miles since I wrote last. On leaving Twin Rock
on Saturday I had a short day's ride to Colonel Kittridge's cabin
at Oil Creek, where I spent a quiet Sunday with agreeable people.
The ride was all through parks and gorges, and among pine-clothed
hills, about 9,000 feet high, with Pike's Peak always in sight.
I have developed much sagacity in finding a trail, or I should
not be able to make use of such directions as these: "Keep along
a gulch four or five miles till you get Pike's Peak on your left,
then follow some wheel-marks till you get to some timber, and
keep to the north till you come to a creek, where you'll find a
great many elk tracks; then go to your right and cross the creek
three times, then you'll see a red rock to your left," etc., etc.
The K's cabin was very small and lonely, and the life seemed a
hard grind for an educated and refined woman. There were snow
flurries after I arrived, but the first Sunday of November was as
bright and warm as June, and the atmosphere had resumed its
exquisite purity. Three peaks of Pike's Peak are seen from Oil
Creek, above the nearer hills, and by them they tell the time.
We had been in the evening shadows for half an hour before those
peaks ceased to be transparent gold.
On leaving Colonel Kittridge's hospitable cabin I dismounted, as
I had often done before, to lower a bar, and, on looking round,
Birdie was gone! I spent an hour in trying to catch her, but she
had taken an "ugly fit," and would not let me go near her; and I
was getting tired and vexed, when two passing trappers, on mules,
circumvented and caught her. I rode the twelve miles back to
Twin Rock, and then went on, a kindly teamster, who was going in
the same direction, taking my pack. I must explain that every
mile I have traveled since leaving Colorado Springs has taken me
farther and higher into the mountains. That afternoon I rode
through lawnlike upland parks, with the great snow mass of Pike's
Peak behind, and in front mountains bathed in rich atmospheric
coloring of blue and violet, all very fine, but threatening to
become monotonous, when the wagon road turned abruptly to the
left, and crossed a broad, swift, mountain river, the head-
waters of the Platte. There I found the ranch to which I had
been recommended, the quarters of a great hunter named Link,
which much resembled a good country inn. There was a pleasant,
friendly woman, but the men were all away, a thing I always
regret, as it gives me half an hour's work at the horse before I
can write to you. I had hardly come in when a very pleasant
German lady, whom I met at Manitou, with three gentlemen,
arrived, and we were as sociable as people could be. We had a
splendid though rude supper. While Mrs. Link was serving us, and
urging her good things upon us, she was orating on the greediness
of English people, saying that "you would think they traveled
through the country only to gratify their palates"; and addressed
me, asking me if I had not observed it! I am nearly always taken
for a Dane or a Swede, never for an Englishwoman, so I often hear
a good deal of outspoken criticism.
In the evening Mr. Link returned, and there was a most vehement
discussion between him, an old hunter, a miner, and the teamster
who brought my pack, as to the route by which I should ride
through the mountains for the next three or four days - because at
that point I was to leave the wagon road - and it was renewed
with increased violence the next morning, so that if my nerves
had not been of steel I should have been appalled. The old
hunter acrimoniously said he "must speak the truth," the miner
was directing me over a track where for twenty-five miles there
was not a house, and where, if snow came on, I should never be
heard of again. The miner said he "must speak the truth," the
hunter was directing me over a pass where there were five feet of
snow, and no trail. The teamster said that the only road
possible for a horse was so-and-so, and advised me to take the
wagon road into South Park, which I was determined not to do.
Mr. Link said he was the oldest hunter and settler in the
district, and he could not cross any of the trails in snow. And
so they went on. At last they partially agreed on a route - "the
worst road in the Rocky Mountains," the old hunter said, with two
feet of snow upon it, but a hunter had hauled an elk over part of
it, at any rate. The upshot of the whole you shall have in my
next letter.
I. L. B.
Letter XI
Tarryall Creek - The Red Range - Excelsior - Importunate
pedlars - Snow and heat - A bison calf - Deep drifts - South
Park - The Great Divide - Comanche Bill - Difficulties - Hall's
Gulch - A Lord Dundreary - Ridiculous fears.
HALL'S GULCH, COLORADO, November 6.
It was another cloudless morning, one of the many here on which
one awakes early, refreshed, and ready to enjoy the fatigues of
another day. In our sunless, misty climate you do not know the
influence which persistent fine weather exercises on the spirits.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 48 of 74
Words from 48002 to 49015
of 74789
