Chapter 42: Arrival at Bear River

 

July 26, 1847. The scouts say we are through the worst of the mountains and should reach Bear River tomorrow. For days, we have had little water or grass.

 

Mac exhaled when he finished writing. He needed to talk to Zeke and Joel. As the camp quieted for the night, Mac joined the Pershing brothers.

“Where’s the captain?” Mac asked.

“Bed,” Joel said, tossing a piece of sage on the fire.

“With a bottle?” Mac asked.

Zeke looked up sharply. “What do you mean by that?”

“He’s been drinking. Hung over in the mornings.”

“Maybe he needs the comfort.” Zeke sighed. “Ma’s only been gone three days.”

“Maybe,” Mac said. “But it won’t be a comfort if Abercrombie finds out. You know he tried to take over?”

Zeke nodded. “First thing folks told us. Thanks for backing Pa.”

“If Abercrombie hears about the drinking, he’ll take another shot. We have to keep your father sober.”

Joel snorted. “He does this sometimes.”

“Does what?” Mac asked.

“Goes on a bender. Used to happen when he came home from a campaign,” Zeke said.

“Ma’s passing set him off this time,” Joel added.

“There’s not a man here who doesn’t sympathize with him,” Mac said. “Even Abercrombie. But he can’t lead us if he’s drunk.”

Zeke climbed in the wagon where his father lay. When Zeke didn’t return, Mac shrugged at Joel and headed for his own wagon.

In the morning Pershing sauntered over to where Mac was yoking his oxen. “Hear you talked to my boys ’bout me last night,” the captain said, pushing his hat back on his head.

“Yes, sir.”

“I can take care of myself. And my family, too.” Pershing stomped off.

“Yes, sir,” Mac said to the captain’s back. He had made his point with Zeke and Joel, he didn’t need to confront the captain.

Jenny still seemed tightlipped. Mac worried she was thinking about Bridget. Bridget wasn’t any concern of hers. “You want to drive or ride Poulette?” he asked her.

“I’ll ride,” she said, so he saddled Poulette.

From their camp on the mountain plateau, they descended a steep hill, slowing the wagons with ropes. They nooned at the bottom of the hill, then rode along the valley and up another range.

“Last mountain before the Bear,” Joel said, riding alongside Mac’s wagon. “The descent is horrendous.”

“Do we have time to get down this afternoon?” Mac asked, squinting at the sun ahead of them.

“No place to stop, so we got to,” Joel said. “It’ll be a long day, but then we’re in the Bear valley.”

As Joel had said, the descent was difficult. Mac estimated they took the wagons down five hundred feet of altitude in the space of a mile, using ropes again to brake the wagons. Some men hitched all but one yoke of oxen behind their wagons to slow their descent.

The Dempseys’ wagon broke loose of the oxen, spilling boxes and barrels as it tumbled down the slope. “My china!” Mrs. Dempsey screamed, as a box split open and spewed plates and cups across the ravine. She thrust her baby into Jenny’s arms and plunged down the hill after her precious dishes.

“Smashed beyond repair,” she said when she returned. “Only one cup whole.” She cradled that cup in her hands.

The men sweated and groaned with the effort to control the wagons and teams. Finally, all the wagons reached the bottom. Mac’s chest heaved as he took a break. Dusk spread over the valley. “How far to the river?” he asked Zeke.

“Another two or three miles.”

“We can’t make it before dark.”

“There’s a small creek closer. Pa says to camp there. Move to the river tomorrow.”

Mac nodded, his breath still coming too fast. He was glad Pershing had issued the halt. Or had Zeke decided without consulting his father?

After supper the men gathered at Pershing’s campfire.

“I need to hunt tomorrow,” one man said. “Out of food.”

Others nodded.

“We got to get the wagons to the Bear first,” Captain Pershing said.

“With the scouts back, we got enough men for both,” Abercrombie declared.

The men agreed the hunters would leave early in the morning, while the rest of the company drove the wagons to the Bear and set up camp.

Mac returned to his wagon and asked Jenny, “Can you drive tomorrow? If so, I’ll hunt.”

She nodded. “We need meat. I can manage. What about the Dempseys’ wagon?”

“Tanner’s staying with the wagons. He’ll fix it once we reach the Bear. Good thing the axle didn’t break.”

Mac left with the hunting party before Jenny was up the next morning. Captain Pershing stayed in camp, but Zeke and Joel joined the hunters.

Mac was happy to be out of the mountains and riding through an easy valley. No rain since Independence Rock. He wondered if the summers were always so dry in the mountains. How could horses and cattle survive on the grassless land?

The men rode toward the Bear River. Mac was surprised to find their camp had been several miles and a small ridge of hills away from the river. “Will there be any trouble moving the wagons so far?” he asked Zeke.

Zeke shook his head. “It’s an easy route.”

“I worry about Jenny,” Mac said. “She tires easily now.” An eagle screeched above, and Mac looked up to see the bird dive. “Eagle sees prey nearby.”

Zeke nodded. “We saw birds when we blazed the trail. Bigger game, too. Antelope, mule deer, and elk.”

The men splashed across the Bear, then found a herd of antelope grazing on the bank of a nearby stream. They shot several, and Mac strapped a carcass behind his saddle. “That’s enough for today,” he said to the others.

“I seen elk spoor,” Abercrombie said. “Aim to track ’em down.”

“The meat will spoil before we eat it all,” Mac said, shaking his head. He turned back and rode across the Bear. The wagons had camped on the south fork of the river.

“Shot an antelope,” he told Jenny. She sat by the Pershing wagons with Esther and Mrs. Tuller. To his surprise, Mrs. Abercrombie and Douglass’s wife were there also.

Jenny stood, stretching her back. “I’ll help,” she said. She walked beside Valiente over to their wagon.

Mac lifted the meat off his horse, and he and Jenny cut it up. The rest of the hunters returned about supper time, and the company celebrated their safe arrival at the Bear.