Late in the evening, about sunset, I took my rifle and slipped off into the woods back of camp.  I walked a short distance, then paused to listen to the silence of the forest.  There was not a sound.  It was a place of peace.  By and bye I heard snapping of twigs, and presently heard R.C. and Teague approaching me.  We penetrated half a mile into the spruce, pausing now and then to listen.  At length R.C. heard something.  We stopped.  After a little I heard the ring of a horn on wood.  It was thrilling.  Then came the crack of a hoof on stone, then the clatter of a loosened rock.  We crept on.  But that elk or deer evaded us.  We hunted around till dark without farther sign of any game.

R.C. and Teague and I rode out at seven-thirty and went down White River for three miles.  In one patch of bare ground we saw tracks of five deer where they had come in for salt.  Then we climbed high up a burned ridge, winding through patches of aspen.  We climbed ridge after ridge, and at last got out of the burned district into reaches of heavy spruce.  Coming to a park full of deer and elk tracks, we dismounted and left our horses.  I went to the left, and into some beautiful woods, where I saw beds of deer or elk, and many tracks.  Returning to the horses, I led them into a larger park, and climbed high into the open and watched.  There I saw some little squirrels about three inches long, and some gray birds, very tame.  I waited a long time before there was any sign of R.C. or Teague, and then it was the dog I saw first.  I whistled, and they climbed up to me.  We mounted and rode on for an hour, then climbed through a magnificent forest of huge trees, windfalls, and a ferny, mossy, soft ground.  At length we came out at the head of a steep, bare slope, running down to a verdant park crossed by stretches of timber.  On the way back to camp we ran across many elk beds and deer trails, and for a while a small band of elk evidently trotted ahead of us, but out of sight.

Next day we started for a few days’ trip to Big Fish Lake.  R.C. and I went along up around the mountain.  I found our old trail, and was at a loss only a few times.  We saw fresh elk sign, but no live game at all.

In the afternoon we fished.  I went up the river half a mile, while R.C. fished the lake.  Neither of us had any luck.  Later we caught four trout, one of which was fair sized.

Toward sunset the trout began to rise all over the lake, but we could not get them to take a fly.

The following day we went up to Twin Lakes and found them to be beautiful little green gems surrounded by spruce.  I saw some big trout in the large lake, but they were wary.  We tried every way to get a strike.  No use!  In the little lake matters were worse.  It was full of trout up to two pounds.  They would run at the fly, only to refuse it.  Exasperating work!  We gave up and returned to Big Fish.  After supper we went out to try again.  The lake was smooth and quiet.