When Dan awoke, it was almost light. He didn’t take time for breakfast, since he had eaten so late last night, and began to get his gear together. He would not need the pack frame since most of the gear was going to remain at the campsite. He added the railroad spikes and food to his leather pack and lashed the camp axe to the back of the pack. Once the pack was on his back, he threw the coil of half-inch rope over his shoulder, and he was ready to go. With his walking stick in his hand, he stopped at the edge of the trees and listened for almost ten minutes before moving out of the trees and out along the ledge. He worked his way carefully down the rockslide and then crossed the creek. He traveled east back to where the game trail crossed the creek. He crossed the creek and headed up the trail toward the top of ridge #2. He continued back up the trail until he reached the place where the trail made the long run to the west. Again, he left the trail and followed the ledge east to the vertical fracture. Looking up the fracture, he could not see the ledge above where the trail followed the ledge through the fracture. The ledge was about eighty feet above him. It was clear to him that you could not climb up the fracture without the aid of a rope; in fact, it might be too difficult even with a rope. He wasn’t sure he would be able to see the ledge when he was coming down the fracture, so he took his walking stick and wedged the end of it into some rocks on the side of the fracture with the other end projecting out into the fracture. He checked his watch, and continued up the trail. He traveled about a half mile west, then back up the switchbacks to the ledge above, then the half mile back to the east to the fracture. He continued to follow the trail through the fracture to the deepest point of the fracture. Dan stopped and checked his watch; it had only taken him an hour and forty minutes to reach this point from below, he had hoped for more. He looked down the fracture, then turned and looked up the fracture. The next ledge was only thirty feet above, and the trail only traveled east a short distance before it went up some moderate switchbacks, but he remembered the ledge above that ledge was about forty to fifty feet higher up the rock face, and the west switchbacks were difficult. He continued along the trail to the east, stopping where the trail crossed the fracture, then up the switchbacks of the fracture to the ledge thirty feet above. He checked his watch and continued up the trail. He traveled west four hundred feet to the switchbacks, which were as difficult as he remembered. He traveled carefully up the switchbacks to the ledge above, then the four hundred feet east back to the fracture. Checking his watch, it was an hour and ten minutes.
Dan examined the edge of the ledge and the vertical fracture for the best place to start down. Looking over the edge of the ledge he could see that the face of the fracture was weathered and broken. He stepped carefully over the edge onto a rock outcrop about sixteen inches below the ledge. Using the broken outcroppings, he continued down the face of the fracture about five feet and stopped. At that point, he could see that the face of the fracture was getting steeper. He removed the camp axe and one of the railroad spikes from the pack, and drove the spike into a crack in the rock. He attached the end of the half-inch rope to the spike. He tested the spike by putting all his weight on it, and it held tight. He threw the coil of rope out and away from him and watched it fall down the face of the fracture. With the help of the rope, he quickly descended the fracture to the trail below. The rest of his rope was lying on the trail. He cut the rope about four feet above the trail and tied a knot in the end of the rope.
He checked his watch and started back up the rope. He climbed the fracture carefully and with a speed he thought he and Alice could travel. When he reached the ledge above he checked his watch again, fourteen minutes. He thought a savings of almost an hour, not bad, but the lower section should be better. He picked up the rest of the rope and traveled east on the trail to the larger fracture, then down the switchbacks to the ledge below.
Dan walked back and forth on the ledge looking for the best place to start down. On the west side of the fracture, he found a ledge, three feet below the ledge the trail was on. This ledge was only about a foot wide and six feet long, but it gave him a starting point. He drove a spike into a crack in the face of the fracture and attached the rope. Again, he threw the rope out and away from the rock face and let it fall. He started down the fracture using the rope. The first thirty feet of the descent was like the first rope he had set, but he then came to a much steeper section. Dan knew that going down was a lot easier than the trip back up, so he would have to be very careful not to go down something he couldn’t get back up. Looking below he could see that an area of the rock face had broken off leaving an almost smooth, near vertical surface for about eight or nine feet. He pulled up the rope to where he was and began to tie overhand knots in the rope about sixteen inches apart. This was slow work, because he had to pull the balance of the rope through each knot, but he soon had seven knots in the rope. He dropped the rope back down the rock face, and looked again at the smooth rock surface and decided that he would need to do more if he and Alice were to be able to climb up from below. Standing on a rock outcrop in the weathered section, Dan removed the remaining six rail spikes from his pack. He placed some in the waistband of his pants and the rest in his pants pocket. He took the small camp axe he was carrying and with the wrist strap on the end of the handle, hung it on the head of one of the spikes in his waistband. Using the knots as handholds he descended from the weathered rock down onto the smooth rock below. Once onto the smooth rock face, he began looking for a spot to set the first spike. The rock face was smooth compared to the surrounding weathered rock, but it still had cracks in the face of it. The cracks were smaller and tighter than in the weathered rock above. He started setting the first spike. The process was slow because his feet were on one of the knots in the rope and he had to have one hand on the rope. When he finished the first spike, he moved down to the next knot and began work on the next spike. It took him about forty-five minutes to set all of them, but when he finished, he had a set of six spikes about sixteen inches on center, up the rock face that could be used as footholds. He continued down the rock face, it was steep, but with the rope it was passable. He wasn’t sure if he had enough rope left to reach the bottom, he had used some of the rope’s length in the knots. As he neared the end of the rope, he started looking for his walking stick. He reached the end of the rope, and he still could not see the walking stick. He looked below and to the west, but could not see it; then he thought what if I went past it. He looked up and to the west and there in the shadows was his walking stick eight feet above him.
He started back up the rope looking for the best route across the rock face to the ledge where his walking stick was. Four feet below that ledge, he found a broken ledge that ran over and below that ledge. The broken ledge was narrow, but it was wide enough. Dan wedged the rope behind a rock, then moved across the ledge until he reached a place he could pull himself up to the ledge the trail was on. He rested only a minute before he checked his watch and moved back down to the narrow ledge, then across the ledge to the rope. He started up the fracture using the rope for balance and handholds. When he came to the steep section where he had set the railroad spikes, the spikes and the knotted rope made the climb almost as easy as the weathered rock areas. Reaching the ledge above, he checked his watch. A little less than twenty-five minutes, for a savings of one hour and fifteen minutes. As Dan rested, he thought about the shortcuts he had set. They would save fifty-five minutes on the upper shortcut and an hour and fifteen minutes on the lower shortcut. That would be a total of two hours and ten minutes, less a little time to pull each rope up after the climb, to prevent their pursuers from using them.
He traveled back down the fracture and the rope to the ledge below; then along the ledge back to the game trail retrieving his walking stick as he went. He traveled down the game trail to the bottom of the rock face. He stopped at the bottom of the trail and listen for about ten minutes. Hearing nothing but the normal forest sounds, he crossed the creek and traveled west toward the r
ockslide. At the rockslide, he crossed the creek again, filling his canteen as he crossed and climbed to the ledge and returned to his camp.
It was early afternoon, but Dan didn’t waste any time. First, he dropped his leather pack and emptied everything out of it; then he brought down the food cache and moved the rocks and pack frame off the rest of his gear. He wanted to get the gear together for the trip down to the house. Next, he laid out the food for the trip in; he hoped to rescue Alice tomorrow night, but he included food for an extra day. He held out a can of beans and some jerky for now and returned the food cache up into the tree. He took out both auto pistols and checked the clips to make sure they were full and set them aside, then he checked the extra clips and placed them in the pack. He then added the food to the pack. He put the two shoulder holsters next to the pack. He rolled out his bedroll and removed the blankets and added them to the pack. The only clothing, he added to the pack was a pair of socks. He thought about lashing his hiking boots to the pack, so he could use them to leave a false trail away from the ranch house, but decided against it because he was uncertain of the soil conditions and the time, he would have available. He put on the shoulder holsters on and placed a pistol in each. He then put the pack on and checked to make sure the pack straps didn’t interfere with the shoulder holsters. The pistols were heavy, but even with the pack, it was much less than the pack frame he had been carrying. He opened the can of beans and ate them cold along with some beef jerky. He buried the can and secured the rest of his gear with the pack frame again.
He started to take his walking stick with him as he left, but decided to leave it behind. He paused to listen before leaving the shelter of the trees; then moved along the ledge to the rockslide. Moving carefully, he went down the rockslide to the creek. He removed his moccasins and socks before crossing, then put them back on after the crossing. He traveled east along the creek to the trail then north up the trail toward the top of ridge #1 and the ranch beyond. With the daylight he had left, he was able to travel to just over the top of the ridge, then he had to stop about eighty feet below the ridge because of darkness.
Almost two hours later the moon was up, and there was enough light to continue on down the ridge. Dan removed his moccasins and socks while he crossed the creek. He continued to follow the game trail in the moonlight. The trail paralleled the creek going east. About six hundred feet east of the crossing, a trail split off the trail he was on and headed north. He was sure the house would not be far from the creek, so he continued on the trail that followed the creek. The creek turned away from the rock face and into the trees and the trail followed it. Here in the valley the game trails and stock trails crossed and became the same. He moved as quickly as the limited light, and the need for quiet would allow him to. Through his moccasins, he could feel the game trail beneath his feet. He could tell that the earth was less rocky and more heavily traveled. Looking from the trail out into the pines, he could see patches of moonlight scattered over the forest floor. He had expected and counted on this, mature Ponderosa pine trees had few lower limbs and light could find its’ way through. This would give him enough light to leave the trail and move among the trees when he needed to. But for now, he stayed with the trail confident that his moccasins on the firm earth of the trail were not leaving a track to be seen or followed.
Dan continued to follow the trail along the creek. About a mile from where he had crossed the creek, he smelled smoke. It was faint, the light wind was from the north, and he and the creek had generally been traveling toward the north-northeast. He wasn’t sure if the smoke was the house or from another fire; but a house or not he wanted to continue along the creek until he found a major creek crossing or outbuilding. A half-mile further on, he could see an open area lit by the moonlight ahead and to the left of the creek.
Since he was getting close to where he thought the ranch would be, he carefully approached the lighted area. He was sure that they would have dogs, and made sure to stay downwind. At first, he could only see the vague outlines of the buildings. He moved left as he approached the ranch buildings, so he was near the center of the area on the south side. He moved toward the buildings until he was close enough to see them, to the left was the ranch house with the barn and bunkhouse on the right. There was approximately one hundred and twenty feet between the bunkhouse and the ranch house. The barn was a couple of hundred feet the other side of the bunkhouse with a corral between them. He moved back from the edge of the clearing, and then moved south and west to get below the house and be well inside the trees; as he moved he watched the ranch house and the bunkhouse as he changed positions. No light was visible from the bunkhouse, and only a dim light showed in the back window of the ranch house. Even with the moonlight, it was too dark to approach the ranch house without knowing exactly what was between him and the house.
Dan wanted to find a place to hide where he could watch the ranch house tomorrow. He moved carefully to the left looking for a brushy area or a fallen tree that would provide concealment as he watched the house. It was more open under the pines than he had expected; this let in more moonlight, but provided very few places to hide and watch. Even with the moonlight, it was hard to see very far. He wasn’t sure if the shadows might conceal a hiding place or just be shadows. Dan investigated several brushy areas, but none were thick enough to provide concealment. He continued around the house to the west, looking for a hiding place. He was on the side of the house opposite the bunkhouse and still no hiding place. He dropped back twenty feet farther from the house and started to circle back around the house toward the bunkhouse. Soon he saw to his right and slightly ahead a shadow worth investigating. As he approached the shadow area, he could see that a large Ponderosa pine had broken about twelve feet above the ground and fallen over. The tree had most likely been hit by lightning. The tree had fallen several years ago, and the fallen portion had already started to break up. The base of the tree was trying to re-grow, but more importantly, the loss of the upper part of the tree had allowed more sunlight to reach the forest floor, and the base of the tree was surrounded by thick brush. The brush was about four to five feet high near the tree and extended out eight to twelve feet from the tree base all the way around the tree.
He turned back toward the house to see what his view would be from this possible hiding place, he was about ninety feet from the house. He could see the back of the ranch house at a sharp angle, the end of the house toward him, and most of the bunkhouse. He would have liked to be able to see more of the bunkhouse and maybe the corral, but this was closer to the ranch house than anything else he might find. He moved around to the side of the tree, there was enough moonlight on this side of the tree that he could see well enough to find an opening in the brush. It was really more of a rabbit hole than an opening. He took off his pack and pushed it into the hole ahead of him, and he started into the brush. He was grateful that he had on his heavy wool jacket to protect him from the branches. He crawled on his stomach, pushing the pack ahead of him. After a couple of feet, the branches near the ground thinned out. He turned around and crawled back through the branches to the outside. He stuck his head and shoulders out of the brush and moved the pine nettles around lightly to cover whatever he might have disturbed crawling in. He then carefully and painfully crawled backward back into the brush. Once back to his pack, he turned around and continued into the brush. The brushes continued to open up until he had about three feet of open area under the canopy of the brush between the brushes. He moved toward the base of the tree with only the faint moonlight filtering through the brushes and the solid black mass of the tree to assist him. He moved left around the tree, to be on the side toward the house.
Dan paused and checked his gear to make sure he hadn’t dropped anything crawling through the brush. Everything was accounted for, and he could relax for a minute. It would be easy to go to sleep, but he wanted to stay awake. He could not see his watch to know what time it was, but it was late into the night. He needed t
o watch the house and the bunkhouse to see when they started the day. He had already decided that he would stand with the tree behind him when he was looking at the house to block his silhouette and the top of the brushes to hide him. He needed to cut an opening through the top of the brushes at the tree. He began to feel for the branches above his head. The branches were three-quarters of an inch, and less in size and they supported the smaller leaf-bearing branches that formed the canopy of the brushes. Using his knife, he cut away the branches to create a rough two foot by two-foot opening. As he cut the branches, he carefully pushed the branches up and to the side on top of the canopy. Once the opening was clear, he stood up in the opening and carefully listened for any unusual sounds. He had tried to be quiet while working in the brush, but you never know what is going on while you are unable to see, someone could have awakened and gone outside. Satisfied that no one was about or aware of his presence, he picked up the cut branches and carefully worked them into the top of the canopy to give him more cover, but at the same time not have them stick up too far and draw attention. In the moonlight, he could not be completely sure of how much cover he had or how good his view of the houses would be, but he had done everything he could do until sun up, and he could have some light to see by.
Time passed slowly, and all the sounds of the night sounded normal. He could hear the soft babble of the creek not too far away, the horse sounds from the corral, a lonely owl calling his mate and a coyote’s occasional call. The moon was getting low, so it must be near morning, but he still didn’t see any sign of life in the house or bunkhouse. Just as the sky first started to lighten, a window at the rear of the ranch house showed a dim light. The window was at the end of the house farthest from him. A few minutes later thick smoke began to rise from the chimney at the far end of the house. Soon the smoke from the chimney was less dense, and he knew that fire banked in the stove overnight had been brought back to life and was now burning hot and clean. Whoever it was in the kitchen probably had coffee started by now. About twenty-five minutes after the light had first shown in the window, the front door opened. Dan couldn’t see the door, but he could see the light from the open door on the ground in front of the house. The door closed, then he saw someone walking toward the bunkhouse, there was enough light now, and he could see that it was a girl carrying a large coffee pot. She walked up the two steps and onto the porch of the bunkhouse. She set the coffee on the porch by the door and knocked on the door three times hard, then turned and headed back toward the ranch house. Now that she was facing him, Dan could see her face, he was sure it was Alice from the description he was given. Just as he lost sight of her as she passed behind the front corner of the ranch house, a light came on in the bunkhouse. He tried to remember everything about Alice he could. She moved quickly with a firm stride, she wore a light-colored dress that fit loosely, and it came to her ankles. There wasn’t enough light to see her face well, but her blonde hair shone brightly in the soft early light of day.
High Country Rescue Page 11