Sacajawea
The most tedious job when horse packing is loading ami unloading the horses, which takes more than three hours a day.
Without her help, Lewis and Clark would never have succeeded in crossing the continent.
Sacajawea was a Shoshone Indian who guided Meriwether Lewis and William Clark through Montana’s labyrinth of mountains, dead-end valleys, and ravines for the first crossing of the Rockies by U.S. citizens. The mission of their historic expedition was to explore the Louisiana Purchase and the land beyond. They reached the continental divide in the Bitterroot Mountains on April 12, 1805, and descended the far side in animal-hide rafts, on rivers filled with rapids and shallows. Later, American explorer Robert Stuart discovered an easier crossing, the South Pass, which became more widely used.
You can still find huge herds of cattle driven by one or two men in the high valleys of Wyoming. We played cowboy for a day and helped a wrangler round up his livestock.
We always chose our campsites with great care in order to enjoy the spectacular views the Rockies offer wherever there is a slight clearing. The menu for the evening meat depended on what fish or game we had caught. Left: Venison a la carte.
