Jack the Young Explorer: A Boy's Experiances in the Unknown Northwest

by George Bird Grinnell

“Isn’t it queer what a difference there is between the mountains and the prairie?” said Jack.

“Yes,” said Hugh, “there’s lots of difference, but this place up here is the coldest, stormiest country that I know anything about. It seems to me that all these blizzards that we hear about that sweep over Eastern Montana and Dakota and so on, toward the States, get their start right up here. I’ve been right on top of the mountains along here where the weather would be warm and fine as could be, but a little way down on the eastern slope it would be raining and blowing like fury, and how far the wind and storm reached, I never could find out. Of course, there are lots of bad storms that start up here that never do get as far as the prairie, but there are lots of others that get such a start here that they keep going until they get a long way east.

“Well,” Hugh went on, “the grub is about ready and we may as well sit down and eat. I believe this fog is going to lift in a while and we can keep on up the valley and see how far we can go before the mountains stop us. By rights, we ought to wait here until the sun comes out and dries off the ropes and blankets, but I don’t believe we’ve got much further to go, not more than six or seven miles anyhow, before we’ll either get to the foot of the mountains or well up on them.”

A little while after breakfast the fog seemed to be growing thin and, presently, the sun broke through. From that time the mist gradually disappeared, but before it had wholly vanished from the mountainsides, the packs were on the horses and the train was stringing out up the trail. There was a short, steep climb about opposite the falls, where Jack had tried to fish the day before, and then a stretch of level land, the trail passing through scattered timber close to the shores of a rather large lake. When they had reached the upper end of this, Hugh stopped, and, turning to Jack, said, “Now, which way do you want to go? This valley seems to have three forks, one short one in the middle, and a longer one on either side. The short one is right ahead of us and the easiest, but the longest one is up here, to the right. If we want to find out what there is here, we may as well take them in order.”

“Then,” said Jack, “what’s the matter with taking the right-hand one first? What do you think, Joe?”

Joe signified that he was doubtful which to take, and as he, apparently, didn’t care much, Hugh said, “Well, come on then, we’ll see if we can find some sort of a trail through the timber up here to the right.”

A dim trail, which seemed to Jack like a disused game trail, led through the timber and the road was fairly easy. Before they had gone far, both boys could see that people had traveled up it in previous years, for in a number of places the bark was knocked from the trees, where packs had hit against them and, in one or two places, they saw a thread of red or white worsted clinging to a tree in a narrow place in the trail, showing where a rider’s leg had rubbed against the bark and a shred had been torn from his leggings or blanket. Once or twice they saw a tuft of goat hair caught on a branch.

For some hours they wound through the forest, but at length the trees grew smaller and they passed through some open timber into a little park.

The mountains rose high on every side, but there was plenty of grass, a good-sized stream, and abundant wood. At the head of the park, two streams came from narrow valleys, one to the west and one to the east, and immediately before the travelers rose a very sharp mountain slope, terminating in a long high wall or precipice crowned by jagged finger-like rocks.

“Well,” said Hugh, as they got to the upper end of the park, “I reckon we’ve got to stop here. Of course, it may be that we could take the horses higher up, but I don’t feel any way sure about it and, if we should take them, we’d probably find the ground covered with snow. Let’s make camp, and tie up the pack horses, and then we’ll ride farther on and see what there is. It looks to me like there ought to be lots of sheep and goats up here, and we may as well find out.”