Wednesday, June 9
Arose at 4:20 and at 5:15 a.m. we moved onward, keeping near the La Bonte. At 5:45 halted for breakfast beside the traders' camp, having come a mile and a quarter. I sent my letter to them by Aaron Farr, a number of the brethren also sending letters. While we halted I got the roadometer fixed again and also put up a guide board marked "To Fort John 60 miles." These traders or mountaineers said they had left a kind of ferry made of three buffalo skins hung in a tree on the Platte and wanted Brother Crow's company to have it. It was decided to send a company ahead to overreach the Missouri companies and get the ferry before they could arrive, and also build a raft for us to cross on, kill game, etc. The men say it is about seventy miles to where we cross the river. Nineteen wagons were sent ahead and about forty men to attend to this business. All of Brother Crow's company went, Aaron Farr, J. Redding, the cutter, etc., being five wagons from the 1st division and fourteen from the 2nd. They started about half an hour before we started. We proceeded at 7:45 and immediately after starting had to cross a very steep gulf, being difficult for teams to get up, though it was not long. Soon after this, four men passed us with pack horses and mules. They say they are from Pueblo and going to Green River; they told others they were from Santa Fe and going to San Francisco. We found the road very hilly and uneven and crooked as yesterday. At three and three quarters miles passed over a branch of the La Bonte, a stream about ten feet wide but not deep. The descent and ascent being very steep, most of the teams required assistance to get up. For half a mile before we crossed this stream and three and a half miles after, our road lay over a kind of red earth or sand about the color of red precipitate. Most of the rocks and bluffs are of the same red color, only a deeper red. It affected my eyes much from its brightness and strange appearance. About one and a quarter miles west of the creek President Young and Kimball saw a large toad which had horns on its head and a tail. It did not jump like a toad but crawled like a mouse. This was seen near a large pile of rock or rather a hill. At 12:40 we halted for noon having come ten miles since breakfast. There is little water here for the teams. The day fine and nice west breeze. The road is very crooked, hilly, and mostly rocky, many large cobble stones covering the bluffs, the land barren and little grass. The ground here is covered with large crickets which are so numerous, to walk without stepping on them is almost impossible.
At half past two o'clock we were on the move again. I put up another guide board a little east of the creek: "70 miles." We found the road much better this afternoon, not being so uneven, and tolerably straight excepting a bluff to climb a mile from the creek. At the foot of this bluff I saw a toad with a tail like a lizard, about three inches long. It had no horns but there was the appearance of horns just coming on each side of the head. It resembles a lizard in color, tail, and motion when running swiftly through the grass. Its hide appeared hard and on its sides appeared numerous little sharp pointed fins or pricks. In other respects it resembled any common toad. At a quarter past one we formed our encampment on the east banks of a stream about a rod wide, two feet deep and swift current. It is named the A La Pierre. We have traveled eight miles this afternoon and during the day 19ΒΌ. We have a good place for feed but the higher land is barren, abounding only in wild sage. There are still some high bluffs around but the country west appears much more level. The evening fine but cool. After traveling six and a quarter miles from noon halt, passed a small creek, and again three quarters of a mile farther passed the same creek. Sterling Driggs killed an antelope and a deer.