He couldn't do it, but stupidly he would not back up.
Talk about horse-sense! A burro would have backed up in a minute, but most horses would struggle in such a place until they died.
[Footnote 2: _Ducks_ are small piles of stone so placed as to denote the course of the trail.] Near here there came into sight a granite ridge between the Rubicon and Five Lake Creek.

This grows higher until it becomes quite a mountain, between Five Lake Creek and Barker Creek.

On the right McKinstry Peak (7918 feet) towered up, with its double top, leading the eye along a ridge of red granite rock to Red Peak.
About three miles up the canyon we found a number of rocky basins in the course of the Rubicon with water, eight, ten and more feet deep in them, temptingly suggesting a plunge.

I didn't need much tempting, and as quickly as I could disrobe I had plunged in.

What a cold, invigorating shock it was.