Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1876 — An Adventure in the Mountains. [ARTICLE]

An Adventure in the Mountains.

The following extracts are from a tourist to his homefpaper. Two of them -were “doing” Colorado and started up Gray’s Peak on a windy morning—greenhorns without a guide: We commenced our three-mile trip.to thepeakTVuderstanding that we could ride ouHtwsts’all the way. We had only traveled half the distance when we missed the trail, buttaking what seemed to be a mere cow-path we kept on till w’e satisfied ourselves that we were on the right track. A portion of the last half mile was fearful. The trail was nowhere .more than two feet in width; it zigzagged along the side of the mountain, often running up steep pitches that the horses could barely climb, and while watching to keep one foot from being jammed against a rock the other would be hanging over a precipice 2,000 feet deep. The horses seemed to' know more about the business than we did. Finally both stopped in the snow and would not budge an inch further toward the summit. We dismounted and held a council of war, peace, or whatever you may call it. As I looked down and saw the abyss yawning 2,000 feet below I gave up. Mr. Giles said: “Let us get our horses down where we can hitch them and then try and climb.” To this I agreed. But to ride down that path through the ice and snow I would not have done for all the gold and silver mines in Colorado. I would go first, and if he wanted to ride my horse would fellow his mate without a rider. Down through the ice and snow I scrambled, but I am free to say my descent for a portion of the way was neither upright nor dignified. In fact I ‘-‘cooned it,” provided a coon can walk with his back downward. When I got to where I could dare to look up 1 could see the horses, mine looking down and Giles’looking up, their ears stretched opt, and eaeh manifesting the greatest astonishment at the

positions assumed by their respective riders. Mr. Giles seemed to have determined to go up anyhow, and says he did. I believe him. The appearance he presented when 1 last saw him indicated that he was on the upward track. When you see the stem of a ship square before you you may generally believe she is not coming toward you. Giles said he reached the summit—{there is no one to dispute his word—without the aid of a horse. I got down to Mrs. Lane’s nearly two hours before he did. I think he was the worst used-up man of the two. He brought back both horses. I would not have gone for mine had he been worth SIO,OOO. I suppose there was something ludicrous, after all, in the way Giles got up and I got down. I have, in conclusion of this adventure, to advise—first, that no amateur mountaineer attempt the ascent of Gray’s Peak under the circumstances we did. If he is.foolhardy enough to do so, and finds it necessary to descend as Mid, go first to some’ cobbler and have ’ the seat ot his pantaloons half-soled with good thick leather. He had better also wear a bobtailed coat, provided he expects to have anything but a mere fringe left when he gets through with old Gray. From Gray’s Peak can perhaps be seen more land than from any other natural elevation in the world. I did not succeed in getting to tlie topmost pinnacle, but I got up pretty high, and suppose I saw all that could be seen east of the peak.— Rocky Mountain News.