Sierra Club Bulletin Volume 7 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 Excerpt: ...to each other from the leafy branches over our heads. Then all was dark and all was still. A PORTION OF ONE OF THE WALLS OF CLIFF CREEK. From photograph by W. L. Huber, 1908. Crossing North Fork and Deer Creek next morning, we struck the new trail to Giant Forest. It skirts the base of Sugarbowl Dome without cutting contours until Buck Canon is crossed. Then begins the ascent which ends only at the top of Seven Mile Hill, from which point the old and the new trails run side by side. For us this fourthousand-foot climb was a tough one. The day was hot and humid; the trail dry and dusty. We made the climb in the middle of the day--the price we paid for a couple of hours' "beauty sleep" that morning. But neither sultry air, glaring sun nor thirsty trail depressed our spirits as much as the fact that we were entirely unprepared for what we experienced. We had been told of the fine new trail that did away with the steep zig-zags of the old. As often, therefore, as the trail bore off to the west, the step quickened and the stride lengthened in the hope that we were now on the shady stretch that would lead to the far-famed sequoias. More than a score of times did our hopes fall as the trail turned back into the sun again and began the climb once more. The new trail is beautiful--for pack animals--and so safe that a fractious mule cannot fall his own length, but anything with more spirit than a burro will find it monotonous and disheartening. Having experienced the new, next time the writer would try the old trail by Alta Meadows, which though rougher and more dangerous, has distinct scenic value. It was such a pleasant variation from the steady up-hill pull of the morning, that the descent from the ridge of Panther Peak was made at a swinging pace; and f...