here we had to dismount, for trees were lying
across it everywhere, and there was almost no footing on the great
slabs of shelving rock. Yet there was a trail, tolerably well worn,
and the branches and twigs near the ground were well broken back. Ah!
it was a wild place. My horse fell first, rolling over twice, and
breaking off a part of the saddle, in his second roll knocking me over
a shelf of three feet of descent. Then Mrs. C.'s horse and the mule
fell on the top of each other, and on recovering themselves bit each
other savagely. The ravine became a wild gulch, the dry bed of some
awful torrent; there were huge shelves of rock, great overhanging walls
of rock, great prostrate trees, cedar spikes and cacti to wound the
feet, and then a precipice fully 500 feet deep! The trail was a trail
made by bears in search of bear cherries, which abounded!

It was getting dusk as we had to struggle up the rough gulch we had so
fatuously descended. The horses fell several times; I could hardly get
mine up at all, though I helped him as much as I could; I was cut and
bruised, scratched and torn. A spine of a cactus penetrated my foot,
and some vicious thing cut the back of my neck. Poor Mrs. C. was much
bruised, and I pitied her, for she got no fun out of it as I did. It
was an awful climb. When we got out of the gulch, C. was so confused
that he took the wrong direction, and after an hour of vague wandering
was only recalled to the right one by my pertinacious assertions acting
on his weak brain. I was inclined to be angry with the incompetent
braggart, who had boasted that he could take us to Estes Park
"blindfold"; but I was sorry for him too, so said nothing, even though
I had to walk during these meanderings to save my tired horse. When at
last, at dark, we reached the open, there was a snow flurry, with
violent gusts of wind, and the shelter of the camp, dark and cold as it
was, was desirable. We had no food, but made a fire. I lay down on
some dry grass, with my inverted saddle for a pillow, and slept
soundly, till I was awoke by the cold of an intense frost and the pain
of my many cuts and bruises. Chalmers promised that we should make a
fresh start at six, so I woke him up at five, and here I am alone at
half-past eight! I said to him many times that unless he hobbled or
picketed the horses, we should lose them. "Oh," he said "they'll be
all right." In truth he had no picketing pins. Now, the animals a