High Country Rescue

by Michael Skinner

  Dan returned to his pack, placed the rest of the quarter inch rope in the pack and prepared to start down the face of the ridge. The trail was so well established that he knew this must be the only trail down for some distance in either direction. The trail was steep, but the footing was good, and he made steady progress through the switchbacks. A little more than halfway down he came to an area where a landslide had carried away a section of the trail. It appeared that this had occurred at the end of a switchback. The animals were creating a new switchback by turning back at the landslide traveling down toward the trail below. This looked very difficult and dangerous to him, and he looked around for another way down. It was only ten feet to the trail below and getting down would be easy, but he was thinking about coming back. He needed to find a way around this. He was looking for a place to make a way up that he could use but deny his pursuers. It was ninety feet back up the trail to the last switchback. He walked back to the last switchback and looked down at the trail below. It was at least thirty feet to the trail below. About six feet below him was a narrow ledge that ran west to a point west of where the trail below switched back and headed east.

  Dan returned to the place where the landslide had occurred. He dropped his pack and with the small rope lowered the pack with his rifle lashed to it down to the trail below. Then, without the weight of the pack, he carefully went down the new game trail. After getting down, he wasn’t sure that without four legs, he could get back up. He picked up his pack and rifle and continued down the trail to the next switchback. There he set his pack down and took three of the railroad spikes and his small campers axe, and then started looking for a way up to the ledge west of the switchback. He picked out a path up to the ledge that brought him to it about twenty-five feet west of the end of the switchback. Having gained the ledge, he traveled back east to a point below where he had stood earlier. It was a little more than six feet from the ledge to the trail above. Dan studied the rock face for a few minutes before taking one of the railroad spikes out and driving it into a crack in the face of the rock a foot and a half above the ledge. The back of the single bladed camp axe was not made to drive steel into rock, but the crack in the rock allowed the spike to be driven in. Next, he set another railroad spike a foot and a half higher and a foot farther east. Then he set the last railroad spike a foot and a half higher than the second and a foot farther east. The railroad spikes only extended out of the rock three inches, but that was far enough for a footstep. He returned to his pack, pleased with the effort and continued down the trail to the valley below.

  The trail down was well used but very steep, he was glad he had his walking stick to help him through the switchbacks. Even with the time he used to set the railroad spikes, he soon reached the creek at the bottom of the ridge face. This creek bed was about twelve feet wide, but the water flow was only five feet wide and shallow, and he crossed with ease. After pausing at the creek for lunch and to fill his canteen, Dan started up the south slope of ridge #4 which was not as steep as what he had just come down. He continued to follow the established game trail. As he worked up the trail, he noticed that the switchbacks were running much farther east each time than they returned to the west. As a result of this action, the game trail reached the crest of the ridge just less than a mile east of where it crossed the creek. Ridge #4 was the ridge that the map showed to have an overhang and Dan was curious to see how the game trail handled the overhang. As he topped the ridge, the trail turned west, and Dan could see the overhang and the game trail passing below it. The overhang was caused when the rock below the surface rock of the ridgeline weathered away, leaving the harder surface rock extending out over the north face of the ridge. The game trail crossed the ridge at a point where some of the overhang had broken off and fallen down the slope. This created a rubble pile that allowed the trail to travel down to the base of the overhang. The trail continued west along the base of the overhang for almost a quarter of a mile, before it started down the face of the slope with sharp steep switchbacks. Dan examined the overhang as he passed under it. The trail below the overhang was along the edge of the fallen rock and the solid rock of the ridge face. He could not find a place to use a rope or railroad spikes to create a shortcut. After leaving the overhang, the first half of the rest of the way down the north face of the ridge was very steep, and the travel was slow even going downhill. The slope became less, and the speed of travel increased as he neared the bottom. At the bottom of the ridge face, he found another dry creek.

  After the game trail crossed the dry creek, it separated into a number of trails leading off in different directions. He decided to follow the most heavily used trail, which paralleled the creek and headed east. As he traveled along this game trail, he watched the creek bank for signs of another game trail crossing the creek and heading up the ridge he had just come down or a game trail branching to the left toward the next ridge. A quarter of a mile east of where he had crossed the creek the game trail was joined by a larger trail from his left. Dan studied the trail carefully, it was not a game trail, but a trail made by the heavy traffic of horses or mules. The trail had not been used in many years, but the earth compacted by so many heavy hoofs had not allowed the sparse vegetation to cover over the trail. He was curious as to where the trail lead, but he was more concerned about where the trail came from. He dropped his pack and removed his topographic map from his leather pack. His map confirmed his memory, that the canyons formed by the sawtooth ridges continued to the east for ten or twelve miles where the creeks they carried would flow into a large valley which ran toward the southeast. Confident that this trail would not provide access around the sawtooth ridges for his pursuers, he returned the map to his pack. Before picking up the pack, he took time to remove some jerky to chew on as he continued. He headed up the trail, which ran back to the west. Soon the trail started switchbacks as it continued up the long slope of the south side of the next ridge. After traveling a little more than a mile, he came to the end of the trail.

  The trail ended at the mouth of an abandoned mine. Prospectors had followed the trail of gold up the creek until the gold in the creek bed, ran out, then they searched the hillsides until they found the place where the gold had washed out of the face of the rock when it rained. Then they mined the vein of gold out of the rock until it ran out, then they left in search of another gold find. The mine wasn’t much, but it could be of help as a shelter if nothing else.

  The animals had been using this old mine trail as a travel path, so Dan followed the trail beyond the mine. The trail continued back to the west and slowly climbed toward the top of ridge number three. After about twenty minutes the trail turned back east and became steeper. The trail continued up the slope using long switchbacks. About a hundred feet below the top of the ridge he was surprised to find another mine. The game trail passed by the entrance of the mine, but some of the animal tracks turned into the mine. The number of different tracks entering the mine was strange, that many different types of animals would not be using the mine for shelter. Dan knelt down to examine the tracks more carefully. There were many small animal tracks such as badger, raccoon and bobcat, and even an old set of bear tracks. The mule deer and elk that traveled the game trail had continued on past the mine. Looking into the mine from his kneeling position, he could see light at the back of the mine. Then he realized that the miners had followed a gold vein through the ridge and out the north face and those animals not afraid of the confined space inside the mine, where using the mine as a shortcut to the other side of the ridge.

  The possibilities that this offered excited Dan. Leaving his pack and rifle outside the mine, he took his walking stick, so he could check the bottom of the mine for obstacles and holes in the floor of the mine that he could not see and entered the mine. He waited a few minutes inside the mine for his eyes to get used to the darkness. With eyes adjusted to the darkness and his walking stick feeling the floor of the mine, he moved slowly forward. He could see that the shaft slop
ed slightly upward, and after twenty feet into the mine, he could see the other end of the shaft clearly. To his surprise, the shaft was not very long, a little more than a hundred feet. The opening at that end of the mine was not very big; in fact, he had to crawl to the mouth of the opening. Looking out he could see a narrow ledge where the small animals entered and exited the opening and traveled west along the north face of the ridge. This ledge was not big enough for him to travel along, and he began to look around for other options. The mineshaft opened onto an almost vertical face of the ridge. Looking down, the face of the ridge he could see a series of rock outcroppings creating numerous broken ledges, he could see no sign of the game trail below if it did pass beneath him. What had once been so encouraging now seemed useless. He was not sure that he would be able to see this opening from below, if he could get under it. He tied his handkerchief to the end of his walking stick and stuck as far out the opening as he could and placed a stone on the end of the stick to hold it on the floor of the mine.

  Dan returned through the mine to the south opening. Leaving his pack and rifle there, he continued along the game trail. The trail continued to climb the ridge using switchbacks. The trail crossed the ridge about five to six hundred feet east of where he thought the mine was. After the trail crossed the ridge, it dropped immediately into sharp steep switchbacks. The travel was slow but not unduly hard, the switchbacks continued down the face of the ridge. Each time he reached the west end of the switchback, he would try to see his handkerchief at the mine opening or some way to travel west toward the mine. The switchbacks became longer and the slope less steep, then the trail headed east to avoid a very steep section of the ridge face. He was getting farther from the mine, but he still had enough daylight left, so he continued on down the trail. After traveling east for some distance, the face of the ridge became less steep, and the trail was able to continue down again with more switchbacks. The trail dropped some sixty to seventy feet vertically through the switchbacks. The trail now headed west, it was following an outcropping of stone, which was running west, and slightly down. Soon he reached a point below the place where he crossed the ridge and the first set of steep switchbacks. Three hundred feet farther to the west, along the trail, he was able to see the handkerchief at the mine opening.

  It was over two hundred and fifty feet back up to the mine opening from his location on the trail. Dan studied the face of the ridge, but saw no way to reach it from below. The ridge face was so vertical that he was sure that even with the use of a rope, he could not get up from any place below the mine with Alice and his gear. He had really hoped that the mine would give him a real advantage over any possible pursuers, but now he saw no way to take advantage of the mine.

  He started back up the trail to the top of the ridge to recover his pack and walking stick and to camp for the night in the mine. When he reached the point below the first set of switchbacks, he looked up to the trail above and thought about using a rope shortcut here. Even with a rope, the way up would be slow for Alice. He decided the amount of rope required would not be worth the time gained, and the trail even with steep switchbacks wasn’t that difficult. He continued up the trail and back to the mine.

  Dan reached the mine about an hour before sunset. He gathered firewood for the night and tomorrow morning as well as for the trip back through, storing the wood inside the mine. He gathered up and brought into the mine enough pine straw for a bed for Alice and one for himself. As he rolled out his bedroll, he saw the two quarter-sticks of dynamite. He paused, then after a few moments of thought, he went to the mine opening where he had left his walking stick. Looking over the side of the rock face, he was trying to find a rock outcropping below the mine opening that he could blast loose to block the trail below. Thirty feet below the opening was a ledge about a foot and a half wide that looked like it would drop enough rock on the trail below to block it. Dan returned to his pack and bedroll and retrieved the quarter-inch rope, one of the quarter sticks of dynamite, a blasting cap and the roll of fuse. He then went to the front of the mine and broke off a small piece of firewood. Back at the opening he tied the rope to the dynamite and lowered it down to the ledge. He wedged the piece of wood into a crack in the rock near the opening, he cut the rope and tied it to the wood. He pulled the dynamite back up into the mine. The fuse was rated to burn at a rate of ten seconds per inch. He cut off twelve inches of the fuse and inserted one end into the blasting cap and then the blasting cap into the dynamite. Twelve inches of fuse would give him two minutes from time he lights the fuse until the dynamite explodes, he could always cut the fuse shorter later if he needed to. He carefully coiled the rope and laid the rope and dynamite inside the mine next to the wooden stake for the rope. He returned to the front of mine started a fire for the night. As he slowly built the fire up until it was big enough to cook on, he thought about the dynamite. The chance that he would need to use it or be able to use it was small. He would have to be far enough ahead of his pursuers to reach the mine, lit the fuse and lower it down to the ledge before they crossed the point where the falling rock would block the trail and stop or delay them. If the pursuers were far behind or had lost their trail, the blast would give away their location.

  Back at the front of the mine, Dan removed from the bags on the pack frame the food he would need for that night and the food he would leave behind for the trip back through. He could not find any place in the mine to leave the food where small animals would not find it. So, he decided that tomorrow morning he would again cache the food high in a tree. After dinner, he cleaned the dishes and put them back in the pack, except for the pan he would use to heat water in the morning. While he was at the pack, he removed his map. Returning to the fire, he studied the map in the light of the fire. He studied the map carefully, but it was too large a scale to show the detail he needed. It did show that the north face of ridge #2 was very steep. He was within a day and a half to two days from the Jackson Ranch. It was critical that he finds a place where he and Alice could gain two to three hours over their pursuers and the closer to the ranch the better. He had already been most of the way down the north face of Ridge #3 where he was camped and, other than the possible rock fall from the dynamite there did not appear to be any other chances to gain time on this rock face. The south faces of the ridges had not offered any opportunities. If he was going to be able to use the dynamite to block the trail, he would have to be already at least two hours ahead of their pursuers. He returned the map to his pack, banked the fire for the night and turned in.

  Dan awoke before sunrise and stirred the coals of the fire to life and added some small kindling to get the fire started. When the fire was ready, he poured some water from his canteen into the pan, then set the pan on fire to heat. His breakfast consisted of beef jerky, hardtack, and tea. Following breakfast, he took the sack of food to be left behind and the coil of quarter-inch rope and went outside to find a place to cache the food. It did not take long to find a suitable tree and cache the food as he had the day before.

  Returning to the mine, he placed the rest of the quarter inch rope back on the pack frame and rolled up his bedroll. He carefully placed the remaining quarter-stick of dynamite in the end of the bedroll and attached the bedroll to the pack frame. After a final look around the mine, he put the pack frame on his back. Taking up his rifle and walking stick he started up the trail to the ridge. Retracing his route of yesterday, he crossed the ridge and went down the other side. After about an hour and a half, he was back to the place on the trail where yesterday he stopped to look back at the mine opening. It appeared that the rock would fall across the trail was about eighty feet on farther down the trail. He stopped when he reached the place where he thought the rock side would cross the trail. The trail traveled along a rock outcropping across the rock face. The ledge formed by the outcropping was about six to seven feet wide. The slope above and below the ledge was very steep. He was not sure if enough of the rockslide would stop on the trail to block it or if
most of the rockslide cross the ledge and continue down the rock face.

  He continued down the trail. The rock face became less steep, and the switchbacks became easier. After a couple of hours, he reached the bottom of the rock face and crossed a small creek. He took the time to empty his canteen and fill it with fresh water from the creek.

  He started up the south face of ridge #2. The map had shown that the distance to the top of the ridge should be about six to seven miles and a rise of almost nine hundred feet. The slope was heavily wooded with thick undergrowth in the open areas. The game trail traveled up the slope in a combination of long switchbacks and straight runs up the slope. The travel was so easy that after only three and a half hours he reached the top of ridge #2. Dan continued down the trail to just below the ridgeline, so he wouldn’t be silhouetted against the sky and dropped his pack. He took out some jerky and hardtack and studied the far slope as he ate. Ridge #1 was only four miles away, and the Jackson Ranch was on the other side of that ridge. He did not expect to come across any of the Reynolds men in the canyon, but he had to be prepared for that possibility. The far slope was heavily wooded, and he could see no movement or other signs of human activity on the slope or ridgeline. He returned his canteen to the pack and put the pack on his back. He started down the game trail on the north face of ridge #2. This rock face was heavily fractured, and the trail and switchbacks followed through some of the fractures and between others. The trail worked slowly eastward as it traveled down the rock face. The trail ran out onto a ledge and continued east. The ledge, which was formed by a horizontal shift in the rock structure, projected out from the rock face about five to six feet and ran across the rock face only slightly downward. Looking ahead the ledge and trail appeared to disappear about two hundred feet ahead as the rock face curved to the south.