Out of Options

North of Mono Lake Walker and his men caught their first impressive glimpse of the east wall of the Sierras.  They stayed a day sending out scouting parties to locate a pass through to Pacific.  Nothing resembling a pass was found and Walker had few options left.

The buffalo jerky and food supplies were about gone.  They knew they had a month's worth of hard, dangerous travel ahead to any place they could even hunt...the only choice was through the mountains. 

Climbing high enough to provide a lookout over the Nevada plains, the men

thought the view "awfully sublime".  The entire month was spent trying to cope with icy rock walls that would collapse, cliffs and crevices to steep to climb, and have to rope themselves and their horses down.  

When the horses began giving out after a week, the men demanded Walker turn back.  Walker explained they had neithe supplies nor the strength to do that, which didn't change their minds.  Walker gave them a choice - each man could turn back without any horses or ammunition.

Scared straight mountain style, they men settled down and Walker agreed to butcher two horses, the first of 17 they would eat to survive in the coming weeks.  Without them, they would have no doubt all died.

Next time - Eureka!