Corp of Discovery Campsite Sept
8, 1805
As the Corp of Discovery was heading north down the Bitterroot
“Valie” they camped first in Sula then just south of Spring Gulch,
then near Sleeping Child and then here. They made good time – about
20 miles – even with a long lunch break! It was cloudy with some
cold rain that day.
Now for the coordinates for this cache. Research the date that
William Clark wrote his immortal line: ”Ocian in view! O! the joy.”
Take that date and put it in the form of MM/DD/YYYY and assign
AB/CD/EFGH to those numbers and put them into the cords below to
find the cords for the cache.
N 46* (A+B) F . D (D-A) (H-B)
W 114* C H . (A+B+E) (D-A) (D-E)
Take a moment while you are here and read
the paper in the cache that I have written with Clark’s writings
from the journals. Picture what it would have looked like back then
on the evening of September 8th 1805. The East Side Road you came
on pretty much overlays the old Indian trail they were following.
As you can see the area has changed a lot (and I dare say it smells
different too)!! Since this is my last cache before they reached
Traveler’s Rest and there is a cache there already, I have also
written a paper for Sept 9th with both Lewis’s and Clark’s journals
and that is in this cache also. You are welcome to take a copy
without “trade.” There is of course a logbook and I ask you to log
your entry and make any comments you may like to make. Any trade
items will work but it would be nice if they related even remotely
to The Corp of Discovery or this area in those days.
The Corp of Discovery
passed Sleeping Child Creek not knowing of the wonderful hot spring
that is east up that canyon. They trod the same trail that the Nez
Perce Indians would follow 72 years later fleeing the U.S. Calvary
through our valley. I have written papers on these events and other
historic places. Feel free to take a copy.
I
have put a cache at each of the Corp of Discovery campsites in the
Bitterroot Vally - er I mean Valley! There are seven campsites in
our valley. There is one more campsite that is debatable as to just
where it is! That one is for September 3rd 1805. There is a lot of
disagreement on where it was located. I have put a cache at Lost
Trail Pass to represent that campsite and so I have eight Lewis and
Clark Campsite Caches in all.
Other things to research: That same
night Clark calculated the total number of miles from St. Louis to
the “Ocian.” How many miles was it and how close was he? What did
they calculate as the latitude of Travelers Rest? What member of
the Corp had the most difficult time with the prickly pear cactus?
What hot springs did the Corp of Discovery visit on the trek? What
was wrong with Clark's "Ocian in view"
statement?
WINTER NOTE: This cache would be just
about as easy in the winter as the
summer.