Life on the Oregon Trail
James Baker
Day 1
For the first few days of our journey, everything was fine, and we didn't run into any problems. Then on the 3rd day of our travels we ran into the Missouri River and we had to cross it. We could either cross the river at a safe looking spot Robert Smith found, or we could take the ferry operated by a Native American for 25 dollars. Our family chose not to take the risk and to pay 25 dollars for the ferry. The people that chose to cross the river as well as the people that chose to take the ferry both crossed the river safely, and nothing bad happened, though I was very sad that we wasted 25 dollars when we could just have crossed the river and saved the money.
While we were traveling we started to run out of water, and because my family had 1 water barrel, we didn't have to stop for water. Along the trail, we stopped to go hunting, but because I already had a ton of food, I decided it would be best not to go hunting, which I personally think was a good decision.
Day 2
After the river crossing, we had a chance to hunt. Because I did not hunt last time, and we had some room in our wagon, I decided to hunt. I got a pretty decent catch of 10 LBS of rabbit. We continued our travels, and soon came to a fork in the road. We had two options, and we chose to take the Burial Ground Trail, which is faster, but supposedly more dangerous. On the trail we got caught up in a dust storm, but luckily things turned out for us and nothing bad happened in the end.
Day 3
We got a chance to hunt again, but because of some of the bad things that were happening to people when they hunted, like them breaking their gun, I decided not to hunt. I had plenty of food anyway. We had another river crossing. We had to cross the Chyan River, and we could either spend 50 dollars to take the ferry, or you could cross it. I chose not to risk it, and to pay the 50 dollars, which I think was a good idea. I'm starting to get scared because those mean Native Americans are still chasing us, and we were attacked. Luckily we got out of the situation with our lives. We finally made it to Fort Choice, and we came up to 3 splits in the road, we chose to take massacre canyon.
Day 4
We got to the last leg of our journey. But there is a problem, winter is coming very soon, and if we take the fastest trail to our journey, we could get stuck and not be able to turn around and freeze to death. We could also stay where we are and wait out the winter, or we could just turn around altogether and head back to the closest town, or we could send scouts to the trail to see if we have time to go on the fast trail. We decided to send scouts but it was too late and there was nothing we could do, We had to wait out the winter and hope to survive. We were going to be stuck the whole winter, and most likely die. I'm starting to lose track or time. Its getting colder, we are starting to run out of food and water. All I want is to be warm. I can hardly write in my journal anymore. All of them are slowly dying, First it was Renee, then John and then both of the James's. My brothers baby didn't even make it the first week of this torture. I'm starting to feel light headed, and I just want the pain to end. I think I'm dying now, and being put out of my misery. But all i know is, the american dream was worth it, just the hope of living it was worth the pain........