Friday July 24

This morning when we woke up we found there had been frost during the night, the grass was all wet, the tapping of woodpeckers on the trees sound as if someone were tapping at the door.  We got away at 8:30 and soon crossed the Nose again.  The flowers here were lovely.  There were a great many more teepees on the other side but no sign of Indians.  Saw some horses though.

Had a good trip up to Pierre’s Lake which is very marshy and about half a mile long.  Tall, reedy grass grows next to the water and then willows.  This is a dangerous part of the trip and the horses must keep right in the path all the way.  The trail leads down in the long grass instead of up by the willows and in many places are sticks stuck in the ground and covered with Indian writing, indicating a dangerous hole.

The weird call of the helldivers is quite startling to one who has never heard it before. (“Laff if you like, Judd told me this.”)  Water lilies in a pale yellow blossom on the surface, while mint grew in great profusion and scented the air.  After leaving the lake we started to climb and from then on it was a very hard trip—very steep hills and deep valleys to go down into which was very hard for the horses and also us, for most of the time we walked.  Saw lots of moose tracks, one bear track which was still set and which didn’t make us feel so hot.  Came through more alder stretches which means more swats and bands and at one point there were balsalms.

Today we had some wonderful views of the country—tree covered slopes with a ribbon of a river at the bottom.  We crossed many small creeks—most of them spanned by Indian bridges which consist of just a number of poles stretched across the creek and some moss on top.  Many of these were in bad repair but some were quite new.  Saw two new varieties of flowers—one a yellow bell and the other a small blue flower. We arrived at a small creek at 5:30 and camped. 

View Towards Nose Mountain

It is now 6 o’clock, we have had soup but will have another meal after all are cleaned up.  Judd has made another bannock for which he is becoming famous.  At 9:30 last night the sun was shining in the sky. 

Later the men went to hunt for the right trail while we kept camp.  It was very spooky—the night hawks flying around and sounding like ghosts while coyotes howled mournfully—each time sounding nearer.  Before long we brought the horses in and piled the fire with pine which brightened things up a bit.  Later the men arrived and we just got the tent up when it began to rain.  The squirrels played tag on the roof of our tent all night.