Note II-46 — Chapter II · ITINERARY, CONTINUED: FROM THE PAWNEE VILLAGE THROUGH KANSAS AND COLORADO TO PIKE'S PEAK, OCT. 1ST-NOV. 30TH, 1806.

Pike starts up the W. bank of Fountain r., but soon bears N. W., directly through the present city, in the direction of Turkey cr. This is a stream which runs (when it runs anywhere) parallel with Fountain r., 10 to 15 m. further W.; it heads about Cheyenne Peak, the foremost though not the highest of the Front range in the vicinity of Pike's Peak. The air-line distance of Pike's Peak from Pueblo is about 50 m.; the distance over any ground by which the summit could be reached would be as far again. In making this side-trip our hero proceeds with the determination expressed in the modern slang phrase, "Pike's Peak or bust!" We must remember that he knew nothing of mountains, so to speak, from personal experience, and had never in his life been higher than some pass in the Alleghanies, perhaps about the elevation of the ground on which he built his breastwork (say 4,700 feet). In the prairie close by Colorado Springs there stands a little knob, up which a man could run in a few minutes, and which has been dubbed in derision, "Mt. Washington," because it is exactly as high as that celebrated peak in the White mts. of New Hampshire—6,288 feet. Though Pike never surmounted his eternal monument, he overcame all those dangers, difficulties, and hardships which did "bust" many a later, less hardy, and less resolute adventurer who "bucked against the Rockies." Tourists and invalids have now the option of ascending to the summit of his peak from Colorado Springs by stage, or from Manitou Springs by the cogwheel railroad, which has been in operation since July, 1891. By the latter mode of conveyance I have ascended the Rigi in Switzerland, as well as Mt. Washington in my native State; but neither of these afforded the sensation I experienced upon the summit of Pike's Peak, looking far down upon the greatest elevation he attained on the present excursion. His 12 m. N. W. to-day sets him on the prairie between Fountain r. and Turkey cr., nearer the latter. The present road from Pueblo to Turkey cr. strikes the usually dry bed of the latter at about 17 miles' distance, follows up the E. bank to the foot of the mountain, crosses there, keeps on past East Turkey cr. through Dead Man's cañon, crosses the heads of Little Fountain cr., and continues to skirt the E. base of the range, past Cheyenne Peak to Colorado Springs. Up to the cañon, at least, this is exactly the route Pike took to reach Mt. Cheyenne.