ROADS ON MOUNTAINS

Taranaki Daily News, 22 December 1934, Page 11

ROADS ON MOUNTAINS

EGMONT OVERSHADOWED PIKE’S PEAK IN THE ROCKIES. MOTOR ROAD TO 14,109 FEET. The Stratford mountain road reaches an altitude of 4000 feet above sea level, Pike’s Peak road in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, reaches 14,109 feet above sea level. Taranaki people may judge from the comparison the scale on which America constructs its mountain highways. At Stratford yesterday was Dr. A. L. Lewis, Hollywood, who is a keen mountaineer. Since he has been in New Zealand he has seized every opportunity to make acquaintance with the Dominion’s leading peaks and ranges, including Tongariro, National Park and the Southern Alps. He intends while in Taranaki to 'explore Egmont National Park thoroughly. Mount Egmont has taken Dr. Lewis’ fancy, for he says it greatly resembles Mount Shasta, 14,645 feet, a lone peak at the end of the Sierra Madre range in northern California. Pike’s Peak, he said, lay behind Colorado Springs, and the city of that name was 6000 feet above sea level. Nestling at the foot of the peak was Maniton, which was the old capital of Colorado. Starting from there the road climbed for 32 miles till it reached the highest point attained by any motor road—l4,lo9

f O€"t. ♦ “ “There are toll gates at the start,” Dr. < Lewis said, “and there, if you are a ( newcomer, you are charged two dollars g and given a certificate indicating that J you have been inducted into the Pike’s £ Peak Automobile Club. At the same time all information about your party is re- , corded, and when you reach the top a ; newspaper boy accosts you with the , Pike’s Peak Gazette. In the personal > column you will find your names as | visitors to the Peak.” a £ The price of the paper was approximately 6d, Dr. Lewis continued, and most visitors bought a dozen or so wnich they could mail oh the spot to their , friends from the highest post office in , the world. They could then eat in the , highest restaurant, and if soft-boiled eggs , were ordered they took 10 minutes .to bring to the consistency that three minutes’ cooking would achieve at sea level. RAILWAY TO THE PEAK. The Peak was named after a man named Pike, who was a surveyor of the I early days and was credited with being the first white man to see the Peak. In his official report, which was on record, Pike stated that in his opinion the Peak would never be scaled by a human being. To-day there was the motor road over which motor races were held every year on July 4 and a cog railway. There I were seven higher peaks in the range, but Pike’s, despite the pessimism of its I discoverer. was the mos 1 accessible.. The tallest peak was about 500 feet higher than Pike’s, while the highest in the United States was Mount Whitney, 15,123 feet, in California. At the foot of Mount Whitney was Death Valley—often mentioned in western fiction. The valley was 260 feet below sea level at the bottom, and in summer the temperature ranged between 140 degrees and 150 degrees. In : the valley a man who was known as ; Scotty had a private gold mine and a castle complete with electric power and swimming pools which were certainly needed. ■ , . ■ : r - “Scotty,” Dr. Lewis added, “is rather an unusual chap,- and very little is known about him except that he is never short , of money. He has been known to chari ter a special train to take him and his friends across to New York. After he had ‘burned up’ Broadway he came back ■ to the castle in Death Valley and dug up more gold.” The Mohave desert was extremely hot in summer, but had a wonderful winter climate, he said. It was generally regarded as arid, but after rain wild flowers would spring up in profusion and give it a beauty all its own. The land would .evidently respond to irrigation, which had turned many a desert patch in California into fertile lahd used mainly for “truck” gardening—the production of vegetables for the city markets. Mount Shasta, Dr. Lewis said, was lilce Egmont in that it stood alone and appeared as a giant ice cream. It was 137 miles in circumference at the base and || 129 miles south of it was an active volII calo similar to Ngaruhoe, so that the P analogy with Egmont was strengthened.