[pct-l] Early Mountain Men

[hiker97 at aol.com]

Hula-Snow Bunny Reinhold writes: NO, NO, NO,....Switchback,  You have it all wrong!!! 
That was not me, that was "BIG HUMMEL" (Strider). Big Hummel is almost seven feet tall and the Indians would pay a premium for him.  I'm just a little guy who would not fetch much....maybe one blanket.Now Big Hummel, he would fetch a dozen blankets and a couple horses. 
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Switchback the Trail Pirate relies: You have a good point.  The Wagon Master is hard to ignore and many have tried.  Actually, Strider would rather be traded for a good load of rocks.  May be a ton of granite and a ton of basalt.  Before he got civilized right after the last Sierra Ice Age, he was known as Nitty Gritty Rocky.  Indians used to sing songs to his prowlness and often referred to him as King Midas.  He had a trading post near today's Little Pete Meadows.  The remains can be found if you know where to look.  How much gold he traded from the Indians will never be known, but today there is hardly any gold left in the Sierras.  And Strider lives in a big house in an upscale suburb of the Los Angeles basin.  Go figure.