the way back so she passed the junction
and went right back to our camp spot
across the Nahlin River. When Bill aot
there she was running back and forth
lookina for the rest of the outfit. He
gave a whistle and without even breaking
stride she came running across the river
and up to him When Bill joined us we
carried on, on a much better trail to
Gun Creek. There we found a qood camp
spot and good arazing. By this time
Tracy really enjoyed washing clothes on
the washboard so she took her little
bundle down to the creek and did a wash,

Tuesday, August Ist, cool morning
again. \le were quite hiah and noticed
the chanae in temperature. Broke camp at
11:30, the weather was nice but the trail
was terrible, lots of windfall and
buckbrush. In places the buckbrush was
so hiah all you could see was the tops
of everyone's cowboy hats. That day |
rode Thunder as everyone was complain-
ina that | was holdina them up with my
poky horse. Rick rode Missy aqain and
Bill rode Lobo because whe was a real
nuisance when left running free. He
tailed Goldie that day and qave hima
real workout. \We lost the trail a few
times due to bogs. Camped at Tseta
Creek at 5 pm. Bill, Rick, Tracy and |
set up camp while Tony and Mike rode on
ahead to see what we were in for the
next day. They returned and told us we
were coming to a 4-01 hiahway. That
evening we tried to radio Dease Lake
again to tell Gleasons we were qoing to
be a few days late due to the 2 days
lost at Nahlin and rough trail. —
Couldn't make radio contact due to the
Northern Liaqhts.

Wednesday, Auaust 2nd (the day we should
have been in Atlin). \le broke carp at
8:30 am , nice warm mornina. The trail
was not too bad in spots but still alot
of swamps and buckbrush. Tony was leadina
Blackjack and Chestnut that day and was
having trouble with them so had let
Chestnut run free and she was forever
getting in everyone's way. At one spot we
had a very hiah bank to climb and Bill
and aone ahead to chop out the trail.
While we were waiting below Chestnut went
ahead of everyone and was mingling around
Bills horses. He never paid too much
attention to her and jumped in the saddle
and started to qo ahead. Spud stopped
short, because Chestnut crossed in front

17

of her, and pulled Bill out of the
saddle. His pantlea qot caught on a stump
and he swunq around hitting his head on

a log below. He was stunned for a moment
and couldn't get free as he was hanaing
upside down with his pantleq still
caught. He finally got untanaled and when
he did the air was blue. Chestnut was
also tailed to Blackjack and that was

the end of the packhorses running free.

We passed three old cabins that day,
looked through them and found a few
things. |! found a huge metal spoon but
lost it later on the trail. We made
camp at 5 pm at Box Lake and everyone was
beat so we were all in bed by nine.

By this time we were beqinning to qet
low on groceries and knew we had to
really hit the trail. \le were also
getting low on tabacco and ciaaretts.

Thursday, Auqust 3rd, it rained during
the niqht and was chong when we aot up
at 6 am, broke camp at 10:30. The trai]
was still swampy in places and lots of
buckbrush. \Vle arrived at Nakina at 2 pm

We had just come to the edae of the bank
before aoina down to the river when we
noticed a tent and heard doqs barkina on
the other side. Then we saw a man. At
first we thought it was natives fishina
or hunting but as we came to the River's
edge, we could see it was a white man. We
wound our way down to the river and cross-
ed and he met us on the other side. He
led us to his camp site and there we met
his wife - 8 months preanant. They had
walked from Atlin and planned on aoina
through to Telearaph Creek, le told them
how rough the trail was and -advised to
return to Atlin but we found out later
they had carried on and she had her baby
at Hatin Lake with him actina as Midwife.
They later came out to Teleaqraph Creek.

After our visit we went on about 2 miles
further and made camp at Nakina Creek as
it was beainnina to rain quite hard. There
| smoked my last ciaarette. Bill stil]
had a little tobacco left which he arac-
iously shared,

It was raining the next mornina when

we got up. Ye broke camp at 10 am and
everyone aot soaked from riding through
the buckbrush. The sun came out around
noon and by that time we were in better
country and soon dried out. Everyone was
in much better spirits. All that afternoon
we rode through a beautiful valley and we
thorouahly enjoyed it. The last four miles