Bearstone

A few weeks later, Walter and Cloyd spend the day driving equipment and horses to the trailhead at the upper end of the nearby Pine River canyon road. Before they begin the climb, they make last-minute purchases at a store, where Walter buys a fishing rod for Cloyd.

They stop at the cemetery and visit the grave of Walter’s wife. Cloyd asks why Walter’s name is on his wife’s gravestone. Walter replies, “All they have to do is put the date on. Makes it easy” (73). Cloyd asks if people continue after death. Walter says he doesn’t know, so he lives the best way he can, in case this is all there is.

Cloyd wonders why Walter stops at her grave before the big trip into the mountains. Walter says it’s a gesture of respect toward someone he always consulted when she was alive. Cloyd asks how she can hear him if she’s dead. Walter says she’s still alive, if only in his heart.

A thunderstorm races down the canyon toward them. They hurry to the truck and get inside. Cloyd pulls out his bearstone and explains that he found it at a burial site in the hills above the ranch. Walter is impressed by its craftsmanship. Cloyd says, “Bears are special for Ute people—they bring strength and good luck” (75).

He says the Utes sometimes have secret names that only one other person knows. He wants Walter to be the one who knows his secret name, “Lone Bear.” Walter ponders Cloyd’s lonely moniker, then suggests that the bearstone might bring luck to the mine.

Before dawn, Cloyd and Walter begin loading packs onto skittish horses. The process takes all morning. Finally, they lead the horses to the trailhead. The sign reads, “Weminuche Wilderness Area. No motorized vehicles beyond this point” (78). Walter says the dense forest above them can block Jeeps but not motorcycles or snowmobiles, which might spook their horses. He adds that the Weminuche Utes once lived in this wilderness. Cloyd says his grandmother told him he’s a Weminuche.

Riding his sorrel mare, Walter leads four packhorses up the trail; Cloyd, on Blueboy, follows with the other four packhorses. Winding through the trees, they climb far above the river.

Now and then, Blueboy glances back at Cloyd. Cloyd asks Walter if Rusty is right that horses don’t care about people. Walter says Rusty likes to argue, but it’s hard to say for sure if horses love their riders. Cloyd prefers to believe there’s something special about him and Blueboy: “‘Blueboy,’ he thought, ‘you’re not just any horse. You and me, Blue, you and me’” (79). The horse looks at Cloyd and snorts loudly.

They stop at a high meadow, lush with grass and the meandering streams of the upper Pine River. In the morning, Cloyd wakes early. Using his new fishing pole with worms he digs up, he snags a large trout. It’s his first fish catch. He remembers stories of Weminuche who caught trout with their bare hands. Ignoring a gathering thunderstorm, he wanders way up the meadow and catches several more trout, then dashes for cover as lightning and hail chase him back down the hill.

His foot sinks into an unseen beaver trench, and he crashes down, fish flying. His leg is hurt; he lies there, freezing as hail pummels him. Thinking fast, he stands, tries his leg—it’s not broken, but he can’t feel his feet in the cold—and hurries down toward the trees. He gets lost, wades across the main river, then sees a patch of orange. He approaches it: It’s a tent. He calls out: “I need help” (84).

A bearded, bespectacled man appears. He gets Cloyd out of his freezing clothes and into fresh, dry ones, then puts the boy inside a sleeping bag in the tent. Cloyd feels separated from his own body and drifts off. Then he’s pulled from the tent and watches while the bearded man starts a campfire, stands Cloyd up, and holds him in front of the fire while its heat seeps into him. Soon, Cloyd can stand by himself. The man gives him coffee, which helps, then prepares the fish for cooking.

Walter arrives on the sorrel, leading Blueboy. He says he searched everywhere and is hugely relieved that Cloyd is ok. Cloyd replies, “I caught seven fish” (86).

He tends the frying trout. The fish are delicious. His regular clothes are dry and warm, and he puts them on. He tells Walter what happened, then thanks the bearded man for saving him. The man replies, “You’d have done the same for me” (87).

After two days at the meadow, Walter and Cloyd continue upward. Walter points to a high canyon, Snowslide. The gold mine is there. They cross the Pine River and follow Snowslide Creek upward. Cloyd sees a sharp peak and knows at once that this is what he’s been searching for. He asks its name; Walter says, “the Rio Grande Pyramid” (89). On its other side, the Rio Grande river begins its journey.

Walter adds that someone recently claimed to see grizzlies on its slopes, though most people believe the last such bears died in the 1950s. They’re a protected species, so if someone kills one, he’s unlikely to talk about it.

They stop for lunch. Walter talks about his mine and how he found a “contact,” or fissure, that contains silver. He’s still sure it’ll lead them to gold. Cloyd remembers his grandmother saying that gold makes people crazy. Gold caused the rush of white settlers who pushed the Utes off their land.

Walter tells of another Colorado mine that broke into a cave filled with $30 million of gold. His eyes glitter at the thought.

They reach the mine entrance. Tailings lie in a pile that spreads down the slope. Walter says it looks about the same as it did when he last saw it 40 years earlier. They set up a large tent, then unpack the horses and hobble them in a meadow where a corral used to be.

The entrance is caved in. They’ll have to dig through the dirt to gain the main tunnel. Walter talks about drilling and dynamite and the dangers, and Cloyd worries. Walter tells a story about two miners whose scaffold collapses, and one fell while the other hung onto the rock face for five minutes until his arms gave out and he fell. His partner says, “I knew you was slow, but I had no idea it’d take you five minutes to fall twenty-five feet!’” (94) They share a laugh. It feels good.

After three days of hard work, Cloyd’s shovel breaks through to the mine tunnel. Wearing helmets and gas headlamps, they walk in to the deepest wall, where Walter describes how they’ll use an old-fashioned method—one of them holding a drill bit, the other pounding on it with a hammer, then clearing out the dust with spoons—to create holes for the dynamite. Done properly, a timed blast will knock out a big chunk of granite that they’ll roll away on the small rail car that still resides there.

Cloyd is uneasy in the dark tunnel but feels safer with Walter there: “And this time he’d trust in the old man and not blow up like before” (98).

After a week of grueling labor, they’re ready for blasting. Walter has been getting increasingly excited, working them both harder and harder. Cloyd waits outside while Walter sets the charges and runs out of the tunnel. The explosions cause dust to pour out of the opening.

They return to find only three feet carved out of the wall. Walter decides there’s little in the rubble besides silver, and that’s not worth assaying. Still, he’s eager to continue: “Next time we’ll turn up something better” (100). Cloyd thinks the entire project is a waste of time. He misses the fishing and evening campfires that ended days ago as their first effort neared completion. He says nothing.

It takes a day to remove the rubble. The weather gets cooler, and Cloyd fears there’ll be no time for his hike up the Rio Grande Pyramid. They start in again at the rock wall, pounding away at it for hours at a time. Walter seems more and more focused on drilling; he eats and sleeps less and less.

Near the end of the second drilling operation, Walter realizes that his old nemesis, gold fever, has taken over his mind. He realizes he’s imprisoned Cloyd in his mania. Pretending to give up on the mine, he convinces Cloyd to take Blueboy and climb the pyramid before they return to the lowlands. Walter feels guilty letting the boy trek up the mountain on his own. He warns Cloyd to stay off the peak during bad weather. Cloyd says, “I’ll be careful” (103). 

Cloyd starts out on Blueboy with a packhorse in tow. He wants to race, and his horse tries to speed up but is held back by the packhorse. Cloyd ties the packer to a tree, and he and Blue race up a long mountain meadow. They rest at the top, then race back down again. Cloyd feels free; he can’t stop smiling.

They resume the slow ascent of the Rio Grande Pyramid, the horses laboring in the thin air. They rest near a brace of beaver ponds where the horses can graze while Cloyd eats lunch. They continue upward through thinning trees and fields of flowers along the Continental Divide, where water on one side goes to one ocean while water on the other side goes to another. It’s the “birthplace of rivers” (106).

On a high ridge, they come to a vertical gap called “the Window.” Birds, as if at play, fly loops in the gap’s breeze. Carefully, Cloyd leads his horse up the unstable scree below the Window until they stand in the gap itself. Beyond it lie mountains that seem endless.

They cross a muddy pond, and Blueboy gets caught in it and falls. Cloyd leaps off and lands in the mud at the horse’s feet. The horse must kick to regain its footing, and, in the process, he’ll strike Cloyd’s head. The horse looks at Cloyd and, instead of kicking, rolls over on his back and tumbles down the hill like a rock, finally stopping at the foot of some scree.

Cloyd frees himself from the mud and hurries down to the horse. He gets Blueboy to stand. Nothing is broken. Grateful for the good luck and Blueboy’s sacrifice—and remorseful about leading the horse into the slippery bog—Cloyd carefully walks the blue roan back to the packhorse. He then walks both animals down to a stand of trees where they camp for the night.

In the morning, still feeling guilty about nearly killing his horse, Cloyd leaves the animals at the camp and sets out on foot for the top of the Pyramid. The peak seems close. Eagerly he leaps from boulder to boulder up the rocky slope. Furry little picas dart out of the way; a marmot sits up and whistles shrilly at him. Cloyd remembers Walter’s name for them: “whistle pigs.”

Clouds form above the mountains. Cloyd picks the straightest route up one edge of the pyramid. The rocks are loose; one slip, and he would fall 1,000 feet. Finally, he makes it and stands atop the very pinnacle of the peak. He can see vast distances in all directions. He wants to take it all in and wishes he could share it with Walter, who toils in a hole in the mountain instead of standing with him here atop the mountain.

He thinks of other Utes who must have stood here in the past. He remembers a short ceremony his grandmother taught him. Holding his bearstone outstretched, he offers it to the four directions, the Earth, and the sky.

On his way back down, Cloyd rides over to see Ute Lake. There, he makes camp and tries to fish, but the trout don’t bite. Still, he’s happy. The next morning, he rides back up over the Continental Divide to Rincon la Osa, an alpine meadow whose name means “bear corner.” He’s eager to return to the mine camp, where he can tell Walter about how Blueboy protected him.

Gazing down at a small brook, Cloyd sees trout, and he decides to try to catch one with his bare hands. He places his arms in the cold water, making an arch through which the fish must pass. Minutes pass, and his arms grow numb from the cold; his back aches. A trout approaches then swims past, and Cloyd grabs it and tosses it on the bank.

Blueboy whinnies, and Cloyd looks up to see a huge brown bear at the meadow’s edge, standing on its hind legs, peering at him. It drops down and moves off. Cloyd puts the fish back into the water and tries to find the bear, but it has disappeared. Cloyd feels foolish for putting himself in danger. He hurries to the horses, anxious to return to the mine camp and tell Walter about his adventures.

He arrives at the mine camp, where Walter is chatting with Rusty. Stunned and disappointed, he coolly answers Walter’s questions about his trip. Rusty asks if he saw any wildlife. Not wanting to reveal the bear but wanting to show himself capable, he admits to seeing elk and “a bear” at Rincon la Osa. Rusty wants to know what kind; Cloyd says it was brown. Rusty asks, “How big?” and Cloyd says, “Taller than you, standing up” (118).

Rusty doesn’t believe it, but Walter assures him that Cloyd has a great eye for detail. Rusty gets the message; he walks over to Cloyd, claps him on the shoulder, and says he believes him. He then returns to his own camp.

Walter senses Cloyd’s distress; he refrains from questioning him about the trip to Pyramid. Cloyd finally breaks the silence: He wants to know why Rusty tried to prove him wrong about the bear. Walter assures him that Rusty was just searching for details because he and his brothers are on their annual hunting competition, and he’ll want to claim that bear as the victory prize. They hunt with bow and arrow, the tips high-tech and extremely sharp. Walter reckons that the bear will be long gone by the time they get to the Rincon.

Cloyd realizes he may have given Rusty enough information to kill the bear. He decides he must do something to stop him.

Exhausted from his trip, Cloyd oversleeps. He wakes just before dawn, sneaks silently from the tent, climbs to a vantage point, and quickly spots Rusty riding alone up the canyon toward Rincon la Osa. The boy follows on foot; he must do this “so carefully that the best tracker in the mountains wouldn’t know he was being followed” (124).

From a ridge above the Rincon, he watches as Rusty bends down and inspects the bear’s tracks. The hunter hikes up a slope then crouches and scans the meadow with binoculars. He climbs higher and disappears into a stand of trees.

Cloyd sneaks across to Rusty’s horse. A rifle, still in its holster, will make plenty of noise to warn off the bear, but it’s empty, and Rusty has the ammunition. Cloyd climbs to a high lookout; scanning the region, he can’t spot Rusty or the bear.

At the mine, Walter sets the timed charges and runs from the tunnel. The explosion seems weak. He walks back into the mine and finds that two dynamite sticks haven’t detonated. He must remove them himself, lest some future visitor set them off. He goes outside, shoulders his pick, and returns to the blast site.

After several hours, clouds begin to build. Cloyd sees a distant figure hurrying across the Rincon. The bear must have appeared. Cloyd follows, keeping to the trees, and watches the man cross the Continental Divide just as lightning strikes nearby. Cloyd reaches the Divide under rainfall and finds Rusty’s hat weighted down, a sign for others.

Turning, he sees the yellow slickers of Rusty’s brothers riding toward him. He drops down off the Divide and follows a set of terraces until he sees the bear turning over rocks in search of small animals. Crouching nearby is Rusty, his arrow aimed at the bear. Cloyd shouts with all his might, but his voice is carried backward by a strong wind, and man and bear hear nothing.

Rusty fires his arrow just as the bear turns to look at him. The arrow strikes the bear in the neck. Roaring, it charges; Rusty fires a second arrow into its chest. It knocks aside Rusty’s bow, then swivels as Rusty pulls out a huge knife. The bear rears up and tries to brush off the arrows. It drops to all fours and heads for Rusty but suddenly collapses.

Rusty circles the bear, then approaches and inspects it carefully. Rusty’s brothers, whooping, arrive and congratulate him. He announces that the bear is a grizzly. Killing one is illegal: “Hundred thousand dollar fine and a year in jail” (133). He says the bear charged, though, and he had to defend himself. Cloyd, listening from a hiding place, knows Rusty is lying.

One brother offers to take it away for $1,000, so he can skin it and make it into a bear rug for his Texas residence. Rusty says Sam, the game warden, knows he’s up here, and he can’t risk his hunting license smuggling out the carcass. He’ll have to report it at once.

The men depart. Cloyd goes to the bear and apologizes to it. He promises to remember it standing tall and powerful. After nightfall, he hurries back down the trail. An owl flaps past, nearly striking him. His grandmother would say it was the bear’s soul leaving its body. To Cloyd, “the night was full of accusing voices” (135).

At the camp, Walter isn’t in the tent. Flashlight in hand, Cloyd climbs to the mine tunnel entrance. The air is dusty: Walter recently set off a charge. Inside, Cloyd finds Walter half-buried in rubble: “The explosion had made meat of one side of his face” (137). A gash bleeds on the back of his scalp. He’s alive but unconscious.

Working frantically, Cloyd removes the rubble. Walter’s leg is broken, the bone sticking out. Cloyd carries him to the tent and covers him with a sleeping bag. He remembers that Rusty was going to call in the bear kill. A helicopter will move the bear’s body out of the wilderness. If he reaches the bear site in time, he can alert the crew to Walter’s plight.

He saddles Blueboy, and they gallop through the dawn light toward where the bear lies. As they climb, a helicopter whirls overhead. They race to the Divide, then down the other side. Already the bear is loaded into the aircraft; Rusty and his brothers are walking toward their horses. Blueboy halts abruptly at the sight of the whirling blades.

Cloyd jumps off, rushes to Rusty, and yells in his ear about Walter. Rusty signals to the pilot, and they remove the bear. Rusty doesn’t understand how Cloyd knew where to find the helicopter, but he says, “However you done it, you done awful good” (140). The game warden and Cloyd hop aboard.

As the helicopter flies toward the mine, the warden asks Cloyd how he knew about the bear. Cloyd can get revenge with his words, but he remembers the peach trees: “He didn’t want any more of that poison” (141). It’s enough that Rusty will know Cloyd saw the kill. He turns away, and the warden realizes the boy will never say anything.