Mollie Adams Diary of her Journey in the Canadian Rockies, July 17, 1908

Kichkassan Camp Friday, July 17 W. brought the horses in before breakfast and afterwards they did the great act of driving them across the river. They did not want to go at all, U. took Nibs down ahead to give them a lead, but W. could not induce the bunch to follow him down the steep bank to the water's edge, and when he undertakes to drive horses, there is something doing, too. So they both got after them, letting them start in at an easier approach a little lower down. Fox was the first one to make up his mind he had to go, and he led the bunch in gallantly, and they all piled along after him. I was so busy taking pictures then that I had no time to watch how they were getting along. Had four cameras lined up and took pictures with all of them, 7 sheets in all. I noticed the twins swimming together in the rear. Did not see at all where or how Bugler made it. U. was riding Nibs, and W. Dandy, so they went along after the rest. W. said they all swam very low, showing what a current there was. They were afraid the horses would absolutely refuse to be driven in, and in that case, they were going to take a line over (one of the boys swimming with it) and haul one horse in, choosing one of the least valuable ones, to give the others a start. M. only saw the finish of the swim, could not bear to watch them go in, for fear all should not go well. After that stunt was over, they went to work on the raft, which had to be reinforced with more logs, and decks built, etc. the first load was sent off at 11 A.M., U. and H. doing the rowing. W. went with the second and it was so heavily loaded that the decks were all awash. They said when they came back from that that they would rather take lighter loads and make more trips, so the next two, when Mr. B. and M. were the passengers, the foundation logs were occasionally visible above water. They had expected to make two more trips after that but when they came to load up, they found it would make two rather small loads, so they said "Oh, well, Miss Adams won't be scared, we'll take the lot" --- and did; and we were mostly under water all the way. It took three hours for the five trips. The horses had sniped off into the timber and out of sight as soon as they landed from their swim, so when M. landed she went to find them. W. had to get tents up and camp fixed a little in case of rain, which as usual was imminent, but luckily the showers passed us by on each side today. The horses not being hobbled, might have got pretty far away, but M. only had to go about a mile and a half for them. Warm, sunny afternoon and lovely evening, pink light on the mountains, and perfect reflection in teh lake. Goat in sight most of the day.