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[[underlined]] To Mabton [[/underlined]]

[[underlined]] July 12 [[/underlined]] Left camp in Wood Gulch a half mile above Cleveland and traveled east to Bickleton & then NE over long ridges and mesas till we struck the Yakima Valley, then descended a 1500 foot slope to bottom of valley and across 5 miles of level bottom land to the Yakima River at Mabton.

We left the last pine & oak timber [[strikethrough]] just [[/strikethrough]] in Pine Creek gulch just before reaching Bickleton. This is the eastern point of timber from the Cascades. To the south & east the country is all open as far as you can see. The Blue Mts. show as a dim ridge to the east & south, Mts. Rainer, Adams, & Hood show by twos, first Hood & Adams, then Adams and Rainier. The Yakima Valley is 8 or 10 miles wide at Mabton, with a grassy river flat a mile or so wide and sandy, sagebrush sides to the valley. To the N. & East the country is hilly & rough and rather barren.

At Bickleton & across the high plateau the country is rather smoothe with scattered Artemisia trifida & Bigelovia tortifolia & other low, bunchy plants. Grass is eaten off until scarce. In the Yakima Valley Artemisia tridentata & Grayia pollygaloides form the bulk of vegetation and are filled in between with Tetradymia, Bigelovia, Lupines, & Balsamorrhiza carryana. Vegetation. soil, and apparently climate are truly Great Basin types.

Came about 30 miles, hot & dusty