surrounding grounds were thoroughly polluted with manure. Water was plentiful but I wasn't thirsty enough to drink it. Many varieties of wildflowers had been grazed-off or trampled into the dirt. From here and up Birch Creek toward Mt Hogue were many small butterflies- blue, red, white, yellow, orange, and brown ones. This upset ecology due to the cattle was not finally left behind until well into Pellisior Flats. About a mile short of Mt DuBois there appeared a clean, swift flowing spring at around 13,000 ft elev, and I lightened the pack by caching food here for my return trip. Then, passing over Mt DuBois, I arrived after sunset at a peak upon which is erected a very high rook cairn. Here I slept in a surprisingly warm night, the stars brighter and more numerous than I'd ever seen before, with meteorites at high incidence. I could hear the faint clicking sounds made by bats, the highest I'd ever encountered such creatures. In the morning I left my pack and most equipment and loaded with camera, insect net, raisins, and oranges, I took the Jumpoff to a narrow rounded ridge 1300 ft below, and began the steady climb up to the top of Montgomery, during which time I was continually trying to decide which might be the best way around the craggy rock outcrops to avoid dead-ends. It looked bad from the Jumpoff but proved to be fairly easy. Following Desert Bighorn trails usually, were the best routes. A final, ridge took me down to Boundary Pk, the northern end of the White Range. This peak being into Nevada. I half expected to be greeted by a one-armed bandit, but met up with only a metal Sierra Club register. These registers are good reading and contain philosophy, poetry, humor, tragedy, biological, and weather reports. Some enterprising mountaineer author might do well to gather this kind of material and put it in book form. While I sat on this peak, a huge bird of prey sailed slowly overhead, and appeared to be an eagle. Many swallows - were about, seemingly able to soar much faster in this thinner atmosphere, and produced a sharp whistling sound as their wings cut the air. Butterflies were here too; small orange Skippers, several Whites, and one big Monarch drifted slowly up one side of the mtn and down the other. Having left - home without my insect net, I had improvised one from a fishnet. Only after I got back to Montgomery, did I realize I had left it lying on Boundary's summit! Descending the narrow ridge and finally getting back to the top of the Jumpoff, I reached the rock cairn nearing sunset and gathered together all of my gear. Oft-times I experience a sort of exhilaration at high elevations and will tend to over-exert, arid I was doing so on this day. Two hours after twilight faded, I was still wandering about. The moon was not yet up but the starlight was bright enough to keep from stumbling. This was another warm night with no wind and plenty of meteorites. Just as the moon began to rise, a cold wind started up, and I found myself hearing running water at the same spring I'd found before. Only now did I suddenly feel exhausted along with the beginnings of chills. There was no fuel anywhere for a fire and I had visions of not being able to get warm in the sleeping bag. Though I eat cold food on hikes I always carry a small fuel can for just this kind of occasion and a quantity of hot powdered milk and water was all that I needed. The next day I spent more time viewing Pellisier Flats. Between DuBois and Headley I came across several, rook piles containing mining claim forms dated several years ago. In the middle of one wide plain was an old paint can and two orange stakes, perhaps a mining claim. Instead of returning back down the gentle slope of Birch Creek Canyon, I cut east and went along the ridge that drops down to Chiatovich Flats, but found that the cattle had covered this ground in more ways than one! White Mtn Peak appeared to be so close this day that it seemed a high mtn not shown on the topo sheet. Passing over the top of East Headley at sunset, from which were rising tiny moths in swarms, I camped on a rock ledge overlooking a deep canyon on the western slopes.

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