The Search Day 2

Camp news:

Wake up calls from the alarms shrill thru the camp. Breakfast is healthy and filling.

The air is dusty today. The sun seems lightly muted.

Our trek along a ridge takes us to 8000 feet. We huff and puff but continue our search. We scramble over rocky and cliff type terrain. There is not much bramble and brush to impede our progress. The trees are our umbrellas.

We stop our trek and survey each open area we come to. Rock shelters are peered into. Nothing! It is warm but comfortable up here.

Self-packed lunch eaten next to a small cool lake is a welcomed relief from the scramble of ups and downs we have been through.

The sun looks strange. We talk about it. Must be a forest fire nearby, we decide.

The day of searching continues. Heads down, eyes searching the ground but there is nothing.

We take a slightly different path home still nothing is found along the way.

Sitting around the campfire after a wonderful dinner, talk turns to why we are at altitude.

Why look here in this inhospitable environment for early man?

The PI tells us that early man was known as big game hunter and big game seemed be drawn to the thawing glacier’s edges. The glaciers drip nitrates, a natural fertilizer. As they melt the abundant growth of fine fern and moss resulted, the big game animal was attracted to the nutritious feed. Early man, it is presumed, followed the herd.

Ah! So early man was one clever individual we agree. He knew where to find food. We can find our kitchen!

The branch has held. Showered and early to bed, as we are tired; 7 miles and a long 8 hour day!


to be continued