Oregon Trail Journal
Day 1-
After traveling for a while, we encountered our first obstacle along the road: The Missouri River... Everyone in the wagon train had to either cross it, or pay an Indian to take us across in a ferry. My family and I decided to play it safe, and pay the ferry. After we safely made it across we met up with the members of our train that crossed it on their own. They were lucky enough to make it across successfully and safely. After walking for some time now, we have realized that water is much more important then thought before. Luckily everyone packed enough water to go around, so we carried on with our journey.
We have been walking for more time than i can count and we are due for a stop. We decided to go hunting, so I set off into the meadow with my rifle. After some time hunting, I returned with 20 lbs of jackrabbit meat. Our wagon train continued our journey after a well needed rest, and soon came across a tribe of Indians that called themselves the "Tsu". They made a bet with our wagon leader and long story short, everyone in the train gained $25 from the gamble.
Day 2-
There was an Indian running the ferry to cross the river, and charging $45 to take you and your family. Some people in our train decided to cross it, but we played it safe and payed the ferry. Those who decided to risk it lost 100 BWUs of supplies. After we crossed, we went hunting and shot 30lbs of buffalo. At the end of day 2, we encountered a fork in the road at prairie crossing. We chose to follow the Indian burial ground trail, even though it is the most dangerous, because it's twice as fast as the other choice. And like our wagon trains motto "go big or go home!"
Day 3-
After the previous events we went hunting to keep things off our minds. I set animal traps everywhere, but I caught nothing, and ended up breaking the traps. Solemnly our group kept going and arrived at the next obstacle. The Cheyenne river. Right when we got there, we were ambushed by the indians that threatened us earlier. Although we fought good and tried to escape, two members of our "family' were shot in the arm with arrows, and were unable to help with many things. After the fight with the Indians, we decided to cross the river on our own. Most of us made it across safely, but three family members were not so fortunate... they were swept away by the current and lost. after the river, we took time to rest and reflect on everything that has happened today, and on our whole journey.
Day 4-
We have come so far on our journey, but we know it is not over yet. The first thing that happened today other than endless walking was that a landslide had blocked our path, and we could not go around it, so we had to dig our way right through it. After we got though the obstacle. We traveled some more, and then our wagon train was attacked by the filthy Indians. We tried to defend our supplies, but we all ended up losing hundreds of BWUs of supplies.
Later In our journey, we came across the Hades desert our wagon train leader helped us survive and get through the desert fast. After crossing the desert and some more walking, we came to the bottom of a steep mountain. Since we knew we were pretty close o our final destination we figured it would be ok to lighten our load a bit to make the climb easier. Each wagon let go of 500 BWUs for the ascent. we all knew that we had a very important choice ahead of us: which path to take up the mountain. After discussing with our whole wagon train, we decided to "go big or go home". We had chosen the most dangerous path, but it was quickest, so we thought it might make up for loss of supplies by getting us there the fastest.
It was the worst mistake I could have made... We followed the trail only to find the snow had blocked our path. We tried to turn around, but it was too late. The heavy snow has blocked off our way back. I think it's hopeless. We can probably survive a little longer with what we have, but our supplies are dwindling. I hate to think about it, but maybe cannibalism may be our only hope...