14

The boys and Tracy went fishing as
soon as the horses were unsaddled and un-
packed while the rest of us set up tents
and covered all the gear. We also put
a poly roof over the cooking area. The
fishing was great and we had fresh trout
for supper, everyone eating standing up
to fit under the poly roof. Every once in
a while someone would stand in the wronq
place and the build up of water would run
off, usually down our necks. Most
uncomfortable. Everyone was soaked and
that night the campfire was lined with
boots and socks set up to dry. It rained
all night and no one got much sleep from
the rain pelting on the poly covering the
tents and the loons calling all niaht on
the lake,

The next morning when we qot up the
rain had ceased but it was still very
cloudy so we decided to spend the day
there and dry everything out. The boys
and Tracy fished all day - caught 31 and
threw many more back,

Later that mornina as Bill and | were
sitting around the campfire having a cup
of coffee he asked me if | thouqht we
should turn around and qo back as the
trail seemed to be aetting worse and the
going slower than we had anticipated, |
told him we should consult the others, so
we had a pow-wow and no one wanted to turn
back so here the decision was made that
we would only qo one way and truck the
horses home from Atlin.

The horses hadn't had a very qood work--~
out for a couple of days and were wel]
rested, We found each time this happened
they would start heading back to the Lava
Beds. That afternoon there were no
horses in siqht and we couldn't hear their
bells so Bill and | walked back on the
trail to find them, We found them about
3 miles from camp and herded them back.
Later that afternoon we were all just
sitting aroynd when Bill thought it would
be a good time to put a halter on the
colt. As we hadn't spent much time with
Apache until he was about 2 months old it
took quite awhile before we could aet
close to him. Tracy had the most patience
with him and every stop we made she would
spend hours talking to him and eventually
could play with him. We finally got the
halter om but it took Bill, Tony, Mike
and Rick’ to hold Apache down and all the
while his mother Apollo and Spud who had
alsg laid claim to him were most unhappy
about the situation.

rete See > $
et Wes

Tracy with Apache

The next morning we got up at 5;30 but
it was 11 before we left Ball Lake as it
took us 24 hours to find the horses.
During the night they had wandered back to
the last line cabin;. These line cabins
are situated every 10 miles along the
trail, and were occupied by the men who
maintained the telearaph line. Each man
maintained 5 miles each way from his
cabin,

\le made good time that day even though
the trail was covered with buckbrush and
quite swampy in areas. Bill wanted to qo
as far as Hatin Lake where a friend,
Barry Wiseman, has a cabin so we rode
until 7 that evening. There was no real
trail from Collisons Ranch to Barry's
cabin so we just wandered around until
we found it. | was tired and not too
amiable when we arrived at the cabin
but was thankful later as great black
clouds began appearing in the sky and
before long it was pouring, but it only
lasted an hour, While unpacking the
horses Rick got kicked in the leq accid-
entally by Chestnut. He was leading anoth-
er horse behind her and she meant to kick
it. Rick was very brave about it all but
limped around for a few days.

We got settled in the cabin and while

| made supper the boys put Barry's canoe
in the lake and tried their luck at
fishing but never caught anything. That
niqht Tracy made our first batch of
bannock which really went over bia. We
had borrowed a radio from the Forestry
Department at Dease Lake in case of an
emergency and that night we tried to make
contact with them but couldn't get through