[Week 5]

29th     After breakfast we all ascended Cloud's Rest, Ross and Joe and I on foot; Prof. & Merrill on horseback.  The climb was easy and the view fine but not specially remarkable except as our last extensive view of the high Sierras and Lake Tenaya.  We got back to camp and packed up by ten o'clock, and I went ahead as, instead of going around the valley from Nevada fall to Illilouette fall and Glacier point with the rest, I wished to go down into the valley past Snow's and the Vernal falls, in order to get any mail for the party and then to join them going up the Glacier Point trail.  This I did, taking lunch a [sic] Snow's and getting to Barnard's about 3: P.M.  There was no mail for myself but some for Merrill & Ross, and after a fearfully hot ride,—it was the hottest day in the valley this year—reached the camp at Pot-Hole Meadow 2 miles from Glacier Point by 6:30 P.M.  Had a fine fire and a fairly good bed of pine-needles.

30th     Started at 8: for Wawona—26 [?] miles.  Rode all the morning through a rollling country covered by the finest fir forests we have yet seen.  Found a beautiful meadow with good feed for a noon camp and rested till 2:50.  In about half an hour we struck the dusty Mariposa stage road which we followed for 12 miles.  It was not very steep and the woods and scenery were fine but forest fires were raging even by the roadside and all distant views were obscured by smoke.  Reached Wawona at about 7 and by the time we got dinner going it was dark.  All were tired out and very dirty with the longest day's journey we have yet made.  Found prices here as exorbitant as in the valley but the place is a pleasant one to camp, right on the bank of the South Fork of the Merced.

          This was the warmest day they have yet had in Wawona and we suffered accordingly.

          Charley & Ross went up to the hotel for mail and much to my surprise found a letter and some papers for me which were very acceptable.

31st Every one was tired this morning and got up late.  I had a delightful bath in the warm Merced and helped get breakfast.  At 11. AM. got started for the Mariposa Big Trees in company with a Senator Lawrence who was well acquainted with the trails of the vicinity and was in charge of the party extinguishing the fire near the grove.  He took us by a short and very steep trail which had been widened to act as a barrier to the flames and so lead [sic] us right thro' the burnt district.  The fire had attacked none of the large trees except the cedars whose rough bark easily caught fire, but the underbrush was nearly all burnt out. 

          We reached the top of the ridge about noon and as there was no feed in the Grove we camped in a little meadow about a mile away which went by the name of Skunk Cabbage Flat.  The water was in a spring some 200 yds. from camp but the Sugar Pines which surrounded us made it a very attractive spot.  Mr Lawrence and his companion lunched with us and then showed us by different trails the way to the Grove.  Ross went with Lawrence by a direct trail to Cunningham's cabin; Joe & I went with the other gent down to the wagon road which we struck in the lower grove and followed it up reaching the cabin 1/2 hour after Ross.  On our way we stopped some time to wonder at the gigantic proportions of the old Grizzly Giant.  Sitting on a buttress of the trunk we guessed at the size of a great limb springing out about 100 ft. from the ground and finally gave 6 ft as its diameter.  When we learned that its diameter was 9 ft. we were much surprised and learned a lesson in the size of the Big Trees.

          As a whole the Grove did not impress me as being so fine as the Calaveras as the trees were more marred by fire and not so tall and symmetrical.  It was too late to explore the upper part of the Grove and we got back to camp by the trail in short order.

August the First

1st       Started about 8: AM with Prof and Joe to go through the Grove on horseback.  The ride through the grand forest in the fresh morning air was very delightful.  After a conversation concerning trails across the neighboring mts with a Mr Davis who lives in the Grove we went around the main drive thro' the grove enjoying the beauties and gathering mementoes of our visit in the form of cones, bark and wood.  After stopping at Wawona Point from which the smoke hid everything except Wawona, we returned to camp about 12.  In the P.M. Merrill & Morgan walked thro' the grove and we kept camp, I being chiefly engaged with the last clothes wash of the trip.  After dinner we had a campfire as glorious as the one on the previous evening, and on a bed of needles were soon sound asleep.

2nd       An early start this morning on the real home journey.  We reached the town of Fish Camp about 9 where we unpacked and loaded on a fresh stock of provisions.  Thence we followed a stage road to Pine City where there is a large saw mill, and then by a trail we cut across to the Raymond stageroad which took us into Grant's Spring by noon.  Until we struck the road, we traveled thro' far the finest sugar pine forests we had seen atall but at Grant's we were in the regular foothill country of scruboak, small yellow pine and Bull pine. 

          The last five miles of the road was very hot and we spent some time at lunch not getting started till 4.00 P.M.  We traveled but 5 miles, stopping at the ranch of a man named Palmer were [sic] we found a delightful camping place near a good spring. 

3rd       Up at 4:30 and away at 6:30.  Reached Mariposa at 10:30 where I had to stop to have my horse shod behind.  Found the rest camped for lunch at a wayside house 3 miles from town.  Had a good lunch and enjoyed hugely a couple of pies which we bought.  From Foran's [?] we rode through some rather attractive cañons very full of quail, and at last, mounting the last high ridge at the Toll Gate, came in sight of the plains.  We camped at the house of a couple of old bachelors, Stockton and Buffum [?] by name and found them very pleasant.  It seemed they were well acquainted with the country we had just been through having pastured stock in it frquently [sic] and so we found much to talk about, conversing till 11 o'clock. 

4th       We slept late and did not get under way till 7 o'clock even then leaving Ross behind us as he had to change his pack on account of his horse's sore back.  Got to Hornitos by 8: and while Prof. was making some inquiries in the town Ross came in.  About 5 miles out of Hornitos we again found a range of flat topped lava capped hills after passing which we entered the hog-wallow country which stretches away for miles and miles and is used simply for a winter sheep range.  Its utter monotony dreariness and barrenness in addition to the great heat made the miles seem doubly long and when we came in sight of the green Merced bottom it seemed like an Eden.  Reached our destination, Robinson's fruit ranch, at 12 and the Prof. received a hearty welcome from his former acquaintance the proprietor, who was the father of a former U.C. boy—Bobby Robinson.  We [were] told to camp in the orchard if we chose and to help ourselves to whatever we wished.  In spite of the heat we gathered and eat quantities of fruit and dispensed with lunch owing to this and the heat.  On unpacking we found that the sack holding the bread pan, frying pans and plates had fallen off unobserved and in addition to this misfortune hour after hour passed without a sign of Ross.  At last we borrowed some utensils from our hosts and began to get dinner, having about decided that Ross had missed the road.  Soon after a wagon came down the road and on inquiry we found that the driver had our things which he freely delivered.  Hardly had we settled this affair before a shout and a pistol shot announced the arrival of the lost one.  He had missed his Kodak at Hornitos, and it had taken so long to recover it that he waited through the hottest hours at Hornitos coming on toward evening. 

          We had been persuaded by the united and pressing invitations of Mr & Mrs Robinson to spend the P.M. and evening at their place, and in view of subsequent events were glad we did so.  A bath in the irrigating ditch in the P.M., a fine dinner, lots of delicious fruit and a splendid sleep on a haystack quite refreshed us and prepared us for the beginning of the last week of our trip.