noon
No snow fell that morning , and as their packs were ominously light they made good speed across the hill benches and down a ravine where they scrambled among the boulders of a frozen creek . It was a gray day without the rise in temperature that often accompanies cloudiness , and the light was strangely dim . Rocks and pines melted into one another at a short distance , and leaden haze obscured the lower valley . Blake was becoming sure , however , that it was the one they had traveled up and , dispensing with the usual noon halt , they pushed on as fast as possible . All were anxious to set their doubts at rest , for there was now a prospect of obtaining food and shelter in a few days ; but they recognized no landmarks , and with the approach of evening the frost grew very keen . The haze drew in closer , and the scattered pines they passed wailed drearily in a rising wind . The men were tired , but they could see no suitable camping place , and they pushed on , looking for thicker timber .