John Ordway: September 16, 1805
The party awoke to a surprise two inches of snow, which continued falling through a cold morning. Captain Clark shot at a deer but missed. After mending moccasins, they set out without breakfast, struggling to follow the trail through the snow along the mountains. At about one o'clock they paused to melt snow, drink portable soup, and graze the horses. They descended into a deep cove and camped by a small creek in spruce and fir timber after roughly 15 miles. Low clouds obscured all views. Hungry and weak, they killed another colt and ate half of it.
great Surprize we were covred with Snow, which had fell about 2
Inches deep the later part of last night, & continues a cold Snowey
morning. Cap* Clark Shot at a deer but did not kill it. we
mended up our mockasons and Set out without any thing to eat,
and proceeded on could Scarsely keep the old trail for the Snow,
kept on the Mount” rather descending more than ascending, about
one oClock finding no water we halted and melted Some snow and
eat or drank a little more Soup, and let our horses graze about one
hour and a half, then proceeded on. Saw considerable of old
snow passed several bald knobs and high points of rocks & C.
towards evening we descended a Mountain down in to a deep cove
where we Camped on a small creek in a thicket of Spruce pine and
balsom fer timber, the Snow is now about 4 Inches deep on a
lev1 we came about 15 miles this day. the clouds so low on the
Moun* that we could not see any distance no way. it appeared as
if we have been in the clouds all this day. we all being hungry and
nothing to eat except a little portable soup which kept us verry
weak, we killed another colt & eat half of it.
Read this entry in modern English AI-translated
To our great surprise we were covered with snow, which had fallen about 2 inches deep during the later part of last night, and it continues a cold, snowy morning. Capt. Clark shot at a deer but did not kill it. We mended up our moccasins and set out without anything to eat, and proceeded on. We could scarcely keep the old trail because of the snow. We kept on the mountain, rather descending more than ascending. About one o'clock, finding no water, we halted and melted some snow and ate or drank a little more soup, and let our horses graze about one hour and a half, then proceeded on. We saw a considerable amount of old snow and passed several bald knobs and high points of rocks, etc.
Towards evening we descended a mountain down into a deep cove, where we camped on a small creek in a thicket of spruce pine and balsam fir timber. The snow is now about 4 inches deep on a level. We came about 15 miles this day. The clouds were so low on the mountain that we could not see any distance any way. It appeared as if we had been in the clouds all this day. We were all hungry and had nothing to eat except a little portable soup, which kept us very weak, so we killed another colt and ate half of it.
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