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14

Saturday was another beautiful and hot day. The day's event was a drive up to Bear Lake, a little gem lying close in toward the highest part of the range. The road up there was a beauty, wide and smooth and oiled. We were particularly soothed by its width because that meant it would be possible to keep away from any precipitous edges—-at least, that's what we thought. But we were wrong. They were working on the road way up and while they improved the right lane, which happened to be the outside lane next to the drop-off at this point, the traffic had to use the left-hand lane, there being a long snakelike pile of loose gravel lying up the center of the road between the two lanes. This was okay--unti1 we reached the spot where we had to transfer from the left, or inside, lane, to the right or outside lane, passing through this pile of loose gravel in the process. To traverse this gravel successfully, one had to turn fairly sharply into it and hit it at a fair speed, or stall. On the other hand, to do this, one had to point one's car very disconcertingly toward the outside edge of the road, beyond which there was nothing visible but air. Willie, who even then could see a traffic situation developing long before anyone else, saw this and I really think would have had me simply stop in the left hand lane and stay there until somebody came along with a crane and lifted us across. But I was too diffident to do this and headed through the gravel, made it, straightened Dodgem out and we continued up the mountain. Except for that incident, the driving that day was quite tame. I believe the road took us very close to the lake, which was in a spectacular setting with many peaks towering over it, and Long's Peak, elevation 14,255 feet, looming over everything. Willie and I took a walk up the Flat Top Mountain Trail, from which one of the pictures was taken, but didn't go far because of a threatening storm. Mother walked around the lake with us but didn't try the trail as it was pretty steep and rough. The wildflowers up there were very beautiful. We returned to Estes Park feeling that at last we'd been up among the mountains in earnest. I don't know what else we did that day but we seem to have been eating somewhat more lavishly, getting up to $4.10 that day.

The next day, Sunday, was the first day of summer, again a beauty and hot. The adventure of the day was a drive up to Fall River Pass, 11,797 feet in the air. According to the diary "the road was the most hair—raising yet and I thought Willie and Mother would have nervous breakdowns before we got back." The photo on Fall River Road was evidently taken an this trip and must have been an exceptionally wide place in the road because at that spot, at least, it looks great compared with the road from Nederland to Estes Park. The photo of me changing a tire records an incident not in the diary--but it must have been the real thing as I wouldn't have done it for fun. I note that the spare appears to be approaching somewhat of a bald state also. It was a great thrill to stand