Blue Lakes and Meander Meadow, page 22

We started out in the parking lot just after 3 PM. We are now at the site of the old gold mining camp – Bonanza? Chancellor? I can't remember the name. I'll have to look it up when I get home. Anyway, it was quite a going little concern until an avalanche came down one winter and demolished it. The remains of a handful of shattered log cabins are still evident, along with rusty pieces of stovepipe and the like.

This is where some drunken miners were set up a few years back. They terrorized a party of hikers, threatening to rape the two women in the group. I scouted the site out pretty well before setting up the tent in a spot visible from the main trail.

Now everyone has had dinner and is sacked out in the tent. Oh, I almost forgot, I bought two used books at the grocery store! And I got both of them for under four dollars! Such a deal.

Old growth cedar near the White River.

The other thing I wanted to mention was how the aroma of the morning forest smells. As we walked out along the bank of the White River, you could just smell the sweetness of the salmon berries, ferns, grasses, cedar, fir, and all the other wonderful living things around us that make up the eco-community which we visited. I truly hope other generations of our people will be able to share the experience.

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