noon
After the six miles of the carry tote-road , their way led up the crooked West Branch on the ice . There were detours where the open waters roared down rough gorges fast enough to dodge the chilling hand of Jack Frost ; there were broad dead waters where the river widened into small lakes . Parker was oppressed by the nervous dread of one who enters a strange new country and faces a danger toward which a fate stronger than he is pressing him . At noon they ate a lunch beside a crackling fire which warmed the cooked provisions they had brought from the carry camp . Parker walked during the afternoon to ease his cold-stiffened limbs . Toward dusk the party left the river and turned into a tote-road that writhed away under snow-laden spruces and hemlocks , coiled its way about rocky hummocks , and curved in `` whip-lashes '' up precipitous hillsides . There was not a break in the forest that stretched away on either hand .