18

or so to the second Nakina crossing was

a little rougher, we climbed a very hiqh
ridge and then almost straiqht down to
the river. Ricky was riding Missy aaain
that day and we had all crossed the river
and she wouldn't move. She suddenly rea-
lized we had all left her and over she
came. They looked really comical as she's
so small and the river was quite deep so

Rick put his leas up on the saddle horn to

keep from qettina wet. We camped riaht at
the river. Tracy did another wash here
and left her jeans soaking in the river.

| quess they're still there. After supper
Tony and Mike went to find the trail as
there was just a shear rock wall in the

direction we would be qoina. They discover-

ed we had to climb alona the bottom of a
slide area back into a valley which was
approximately 1000 feet above the Nakina
River.

Our food supply was aetting very low. We
were boiling coffee using the same qrounds
twice, had no flour, very little suaqar and
some canned qoods left. Even the tabacco
was finished.

That night the horses qrazed riqht in
camp and were so close to the tents we
could hear them munching in our ears. |
was sure we were qoing to qet stepped on
so Bill was up two or three times that
night shooina horses away.

Saturday, Auaust 5th, broke camp at
10 am. Real hard climb out of takina but
later the trail was quite qood. The
country through this area was lovely. \e
passed two small lakes then came to Teysen
Lake about two in the afternoon. Here we
came to a camp where the people were
auiding resident hunters. There was one
fellow there lookina after things, 3 women
whose husbands were out huntina and 2
little airls. They were real friendly and
put coffee on riqht away. They told us
that an aircraft from Atlin had been
watching for us for the past two days. \le
knew it would be Gleasons beninning to
qet worried because we hadn't arrived.

After we told them we had been on the
trail a week longer than planned they
asked if we were short of anythina. We
told them what we were short of and they
kindly gave us coffee, flour, brown suaqar:
but couldn't spare any tabacco or ciqare-
ttes. They also aave us some meat. Ve
wanted to pay them for the qroceries but
they said no they would exchange them for
matches and toilet paper. \le qave them

aioe:

“3 \ Fae
Valley between Ist and 2nd Nakina
matches and later had the toilet paper and
a carton of ciaarettes flown out to them
with the aircraft that flew into their
camp quite often with hunters,

They told us the trail was pretty qood
the rest of the way except for around
Dixie Lake but they had been throuah and
cleared the trail. \le carried on and the
trail proved quite aood, Made camp at
5:30 at the foot of Chkoida Mountain and
proceeded to make supper. For the past
week the adults had been rationing them- '
selves so the kids would have _enouah to
eat so now that we had meat, flour and
coffee we were aoinag to have a qood
supper and everyone could eat their fill.
le had a aalvanized water bucket that we
had been usina to heat water and thats
what we made the stew in. By the time the
dumplings were added the pail was filled
to about 2'' from the top. And believe me
we ate our fill, all that was left was a
little pot full that we ate for breakfast
the next morning.

While everyone was sitting around wait-
ina for the feast, Tony spied a hune qri-
zzly on the mountain. We watched him root-
ing around for about 4 hour before he
ambled off.

Before going to bed that niaht we cov-
ered the tents with poly as the sky
looked threatenina but instead we had a
real wind and the poly rustlina and crack-
ina kept us awake half the niaht.

Sunday, Auqust 6th, everyone is in real
qood spirits today as this was the day we
were to reach Atlin. The kids kept talk-
ing about Mrs. Gleason having a big
batch of cookies for them and the rest of
us thought about Ann havino ciaarettes.