“Why,” said Jack, “that seems to me the best thing to do. We don’t want to pack up and take a train up there and then find that we’ve got to drive back and unpack and camp here again.”
“No,” said Hugh, “we don’t, and I believe we might as well go up first and find out where we’re going. There’s one thing, though, that we’d better do,” he went on, “I’ve an idea that there’s some bears up here, and likely bears that haven’t been hunted much. I believe that it would be a good idea for us to hoist up the main part of our grub into one of these trees and tie it there, so that if a bear should come into camp he won’t tear it all to pieces. Suppose you boys get a couple of sling ropes and we’ll take our flour and bacon and coffee and sugar and put it in a safe place.”
The boys brought the sling ropes and before long two stout young pine trees were each decorated with a couple of large bundles. Then they saddled and Jack said to Joe, “If any bears should come prowling around here, Joe, won’t they stampede the horses, and make trouble for us?”
“I guess they might,” said Joe. “We ought to tie ’em up tight.”
Joe took the ax, and going a few steps down the creek, cut some stout alder stems from which he manufactured half a dozen strong picket pins, then going out to where the horses were, they drove a second pin close to each picket pin that stood in the ground, so that the heads of the two pins crossed and supported each other.
“Now,” said Joe, “take a half hitch around these two pins with the lariat and I’ll bet the pack horses can’t get away.”
Hugh, who saw what they were doing, nodded approval, and presently they all climbed into the saddles, and Hugh leading the way, they crossed the little brook which flowed out from the lake and headed toward the point of the mountain which they hoped to climb. Before they had reached it Hugh found a game trail and followed it, for he knew, as all mountain men do, that game always selects the easiest road across natural obstacles. The climb was neither steep nor long, though it was a little slippery, for the upper end of the trail was wet with snow that had just melted. When they emerged on top of the shoulder, they could see extending up the valley before them a long level snow bank, while to the right the steep slope was everywhere strewn with huge boulders and rock fragments that had rolled down from the mountainside; some in past ages and some very recently.
Hugh paused until the two boys came up and then said, “We may as well keep up here along the main valley and see how far we can go and what we can find. We could not take the horses along the mountainside to the west. If we go that way we’ll have to go on foot. I’d like to see what there is on the other side of that high wall. I believe it’s Pacific Coast water.”
“Yes, Hugh,” said Jack, “let’s go on up the valley and maybe we can cross over to those pine trees on the other side. It looks as if there might be a good camping place there, though I don’t see any feed for the horses.”
“Come on then,” said Hugh.