Irene Kritz

Campfire Smoke and Trail Dust: Tales from a High Sierra Pack Cook Irene Kritz

Sitting around a high country campfire, packers and wranglers entertain the dudes with guitars, songs, and cowboy poetry. When it becomes her turn, the old pack cook tells tales of the "high lonesome". After almost half a century riding and cooking throughout the mountains, she has plenty of stories to tell. Harrowing tales of mule wrecks, brave packers risking their lives to save their animals and loads, humorous stories of cowboy wanna-bes and foolish dudes, wilderness adventures with bears and other wildlife, and even a few stories of what it takes to feed a bunch of hungry riders when the food supplies are low. After years of campfire talks, Irene "Mad Dog" Kritz realized her listeners kept saying, "You ought to write a book!" Failing to understand that they just wanted her to stop talking, she wrote out her favorite tales for this book.