On our way we pass through the most remarkable white fir nursery we have yet seen.  Not far away were a few hoary monarchs from the still hanging but burst open cones of which winged seeds were flying before the breeze.  These potential firs were carried in many cases over a mile before they found lodgement.  It was a beautiful and delightful demonstration of Nature’s lavish method of preserving this useful species of tree alive.

Sweeping now to the north and east we make a rapid descent of some six hundred or seven hundred feet to Barker’s Pass, the elevation of which is about 7000 to 7500 feet, the nearby Peak having an elevation of about 8500 feet.  It is a round, bare mountain, and seems as if it ought to be marked higher (on the map) than it is.

Rapidly dropping we come to a peculiar mass of stratified rock, acutely tilted, unlike any found elsewhere in the region except on Five Lake Creek on the way to Hell Hole.  Just before reaching Blackwood’s Creek the trail passes through rude piles of breccia similar to that of the Devil’s Playground near the Truckee River.  It may be perfectly possible that one of the volcanic flows that covered large portions of the High Sierras, after the Cretaceous degradations had taken place, came from a vent, or volcano, near by, and slowly flowed down Blackwood Creek, leaving vast masses behind which have rapidly disintegrated until these are all that remain.

These conjectures occupy our brain until we reach the Lake again, alongside of which the road soon brings us back to our starting point, after another most enjoyable, instructive, healthful and delightful day.

The foregoing are but samples of a hundred similar trail trips that can be taken from every part of the Lake, and from all the resorts.  Each place has its chosen trips, and though, of course, there are many points of similarity, there are enough individualities to make each trip distinctive.

My friends often ask me what food and drink I take along on such hiking or riding trips.  Generally the hotel provides a luncheon, but personally, I prefer a few Grant’s crackers (a thick, hard cracker full of sweet nutriment, made at Berkeley, Calif.), a handful of shelled nuts—­walnuts, pecans, or almonds, a small bottle of Horlick’s Malted Milk tablets, a few slabs of Ghirardelli’s milk chocolate, and an apple or an orange.  On this food I can ride or walk days at a time, without anything else.  Grant’s crackers, Horlick’s Malted Milk tablets, and Ghirardelli’s chocolate are the best of their kind, and all are nutritious to the full, as well as delicious to the taste.  For drink I find Horlick’s Malted Milk the most comforting and invigorating, and it has none of the after “letting-down” effects that accompany coffee drinking.

CHAPTER XVI

CAMPING-OUT TRIPS IN THE TAHOE REGION

There are many trips in the Tahoe Region which can be made, with greater or lesser ease, on foot or horseback, in one day, so that one can sleep in his hotel each night.  On the other hand there are some highly desirable trips that can be taken only by camping-out, and to these I wish to commend those of my readers of both sexes who are strong enough to care for such intimate contact with God’s great-out-of-doors.