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Escape from the Snows:
Descent from the Mountain
 Under
Construction
After reaching Charity
Valley on February 4, 1844, and pointing out the Pass a
few miles ahead, Frémont's Indian guide Mélo
deserted. It took another six days to move three miles
through deep snow to the Long
Camp at the foot of the last climb to Carson
Pass. From there, on the 16th and 17th, Frémont
and Jacob
Dodson explored ahead of the Pass out toward the South
Fork of the American River Canyon.
Fremont: We traveled along
the crests of narrow ridges, extending down from the
mountain in the direction of the valley, from which the
snow was fast melting away. On the open spots was
tolerably good grass; and I judged we should succeed in
getting the camp down by these.
 I
will be developing this part of the journey.
The expedition traveled for three days along this ridge,
which terminates at Strawberry in a shear 1000' granite face
called Lover's Leap.
They ultimately descended along the western flank just south
and west of that granite face to a place on the South Fork
of the American River today called 41-mile Tract - the
determination of latitude N38° 46' 58" in the early
morning of the 23rd places it there.
Following their two-day reconnaissance, Frémont
and Jacob returned to the Long Camp late in the day on
February 17th.
Frémont: Here we had
the pleasure to find all the remaining animals, 57 in
number, safely arrived on the grassy hill near the camp;
and here, also, we were agreeably surprised with the
sight of an abundance of salt. Some of the horse Guard
[near Markleeville] had gone to a neighboring hut
for pine nuts, and discovered accidentally a large cake
of very white fine-grained
salt, which the Indians told them they had
brought from the other side of the mountain; they used it
to eat with their pine nuts, and readily sold it for
goods.
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Carson Pass, August,
1855: This appears to be the Pass
by which Col Frémont entered California
on the 20th February 1844, but instead of
keeping down to Clear Lake
[Summit/Twin/Caples] he continued to
ascend the ridge to the head of the
[Upper] Truckee, and thence continued
along the [Little] Round Top ridge for
several miles before descending a p?... to the
South Fork of the American.
George
H. Goddard, Civil Engineer, Marlette
Survey.
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Note: Jon Nowlin, a retired USGS
hydrologist from Carson City, tells us: "On the
oldest maps, Little Round Top is named Round Top,
and today's Round Top is named Alpine Peak.
The old names seem much more descriptive than the
current ones. The names were changed by the
1880's."
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Frémont's descent camps, Feb 21 and 22,
1844
Peter
Lathrop has explored northwest from
Carson
Pass to the first descent camp on the
ridge--five miles from the pass, by
Frémont's reckoning in his table of
distances travelled.
July, 2004:
Brittney and I
returned to Little Round Top to find the camp site
for Feb. 21, and believe we did. It is on the flat
southeast of LRT. The coordinates according to my
GPS are 38°,44', 13" - 120°, 02', 12". It
fits the description by Fremont of good grass, in
fact the only place on the ridge with good bunch
grass and trees.
Frémont, February
21st.--We now considered ourselves
victorious over the mountain; having only the
descent before us, and the valley under our
eyes, we felt strong hope that we should force
our way down. But this was a case in which the
descent was not  facile.
Still deep fields of snow lay between them, and
there was a large intervening space of
rough-looking mountains, through which we had
yet to wind our way...Passing along a ridge
which commanded the lake [Tahoe]
on our right, of which we began to discover an
outlet through a chasm on the west**, we passed
over alternating open ground and hard-crusted
snow-fields which supported the animals, and
encamped on the ridge, after a journey of six
miles [5 miles in register]. The grass
was better than we had yet seen*, and we were
encamped in a clump of trees 20 or 30 feet high,
resembling white pine***. With the exception of
these small clumps, the ridges were bare; and,
where the snow found the support of the trees,
the wind had blown it up into banks 10 or 15
feet high. It required much care to hunt out a
practicable way, as the most open places
frequently led to impassable banks.
* Jon Nowlin, of Carson City, writes:
"Have skied the South-facing slopes many times
and can also attest to the presence of bunch
grass in the winter on the upper
exposed slopes."
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**George H. Goddard (Marlette
Wagon Road Survey, 1855:
"This ridge was characterized by
a fair growth of pine along it...it is
shown very corectly on Frémont's
map. There was some of the finest bunch
grass I have seen on our own journey in
the upper valley."
"It is at this point [Little
Round Top Ridge] that the Sierra
divides throwing off to the northeast
the chain of mountains that forms the
western rim of Hope and Carson Valleys;
several of the peaks of this range
being considerably higher than those of
the true divide or Round Top ridge,
Col. Frémont concluded that they
formed the axis or summit ridge of the
Sierra; seeing a large lake to the west
[sic, north] of the lofty
chain, and an apparent gap in the ridge
he was following on the southwest side
of the lake, he naturally concluded
that the lake ran into the American
river. This gap I suspect is the one at
the head of the Slippery Ford Creek, or
possibly the depression of the ridge in
the neighborhood of Johnson's pass. The
lake in Co. Frémont's map
attached to his report [the detail
map from Markleeville to New
Helvetia] is called Mountain Lake,
and in the General Map [1848
version] by Charles Preuss, Lake
Bonpland."
George
H. Goddard, Civil Engineer,
Marlette Survey.
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***Peter Lathrop identifies
Frémont's "white pine" as Whitebark pine,
P.
albicaulis.
The actual height they ascended would be Little
Round Top, which has a good view of the next two
day's march. The valley and delta would also be
visible from either the peak or the ridge. I had to
work that out with maps as nothing could be seen of
the valley on Wednesday. Lake Tahoe is visable to
the northeast.
 Frémont:
Ascending a height, we traced out the best line
we could discover for the next day's march, and
had at least the consolation to see that the
mountain descended rapidly.
The route would have been through the trees on the
ridge, staying on the southwest facing side, to a
campsite on the grassy, open ridge shown on the
picture from LRT. I am convinced that that is the
right location, but have not been there. Yet.
Frémont: The
day had been one of April--gusty, with a few
occasional flakes of snow--which, in the
afternoon, enveloped the upper mountain in
clouds. We watched them anxiously, as now we
dreaded a snow-storm. Shortly afterwards we
heard the roll of thunder, and, looking
towards the valley, found it
enveloped in a thunder-storm. For us, as
connected with the idea of summer, it had a
singular charm, and we watched its progress with
excited feelings until nearly sunset, when the
sky cleared off brightly, and we saw a shining
line of water directing its course towards
another, a broader and larger sheet. We knew
that these could be no other than the Sacramento
and the Bay of San Francisco; but, after our
long wandering in rugged mountains, where so
frequently  we
had met with disappointments, and where the
crossing of every ridge displayed some unknown
lake or river, we were yet almost afraid to
believe that we were at last to escape into the
genial country of which we had heard so many
glowing descriptions, and dreaded to find some
vast interior
lake, whose bitter waters would
bring us disappointment. On the southern shore
of what appeared to be the bay could be traced
the gleaming line where entered another large
stream; and again the Buenaventura
[River] rose up in our
minds.
Among the very few plants that appeared here,
was the common blue
flax. To-night a mule was killed
for food.
Frémont, Feb
22nd:--Our breakfast was over long
before day. We took advantage of the coolness of
the early morning to get over the snow, which
to-day occurred in very deep banks among the
timber; but we searched out the coldest places,
and the animals passed successfully with their
loads over the hard crust. Now and then the
delay of making a road occasioned much labor and
loss of time. In the after part of the day, we
saw before us a handsome grassy ridge point;
and, making a desperate push over a snow-field
10 to 15 feet deep, we happily succeeded in
getting the camp across, and encamped on the
ridge, after a march of three miles. We had
again the prospect of a thunder-storm below, and
to-night we killed
another mule--now our only resource
from starvation.
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A detail of the 1845
Frémont / Preuss route
map.
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 More
contributions to the study of the Frémont
route by Peter Lathrop.
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This is how this ridge looks when rendered from
DEM files of USGS quad
maps with MacDEM and POV-Ray.
Here is a view looking northeast; I dialed-in afternoon
illumination. At the top are Echo Lakes, Pyramid Peak to the
left. Strawberry Valley and Lovers Leap are at center.
Frémont crossed the river near the 42-mile
Campground, and then traveled thru Sciots Camp cabin tract,
and camped where you see the yellow dot, which is right on
today's US 50, at a Forest Service recreational cabin area
called 41-mile Tract. The only level, grassy area.
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23d.-- Using our old plan
of breaking roads with alternate horses, we
reached the creek in the evening, and encamped
on a dry open place in the ravine [US 50,
41-Mile Tract]. Another branch, which we had
followed [Strawberry Creek], here comes
in on the left; and from this point the mountain
wall, on which we had traveled to-day, faces to
the south along the right bank of the river,
where the sun appears to have melted the snow;
but the opposite ridge is entirely covered.
Here, among the pines, the hill-side produces
but little grass--barely sufficient to keep life
in the animals. We had the pleasure to be rained
upon this afternoon; and grass was now our
greatest solicitude. Many of the men looked
badly; and some this evening were giving
out.
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24th.--We
rose at three in the morning for an
astronomical observation [of
polaris],
and obtained for the place [41-Mile
tract] a lat. of 38° 46' 58";
long. 120° 34' 20". The sky was
clear and pure, with a sharp wind from
the northeast, and the thermometer
2° below the freezing
point.
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Frémont's latitude determination
for this place is within 6 seconds of
arc.
But his longitude determination is way
off. Why?
Clue: At Frémont's latitude a
clock error of just one second would
result in a longitude error of nearly a
quarter of a mile!
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41-mile Tract, August 23, 1870: From the
summit [Johnson's] we rode rapidly down
the splendid cañon of the south fork of
the American River, here but a small brook, and
stopped for noon about two miles below
Strawberry on a little grassy patch on the
hillside. Joseph LeConte
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Frémont
didn't just sleep at 41-mile Tract in
February, 1844;
he took a bath In the South Fork of
the American River
It was one of the
hottest days in the year, yet I found the water
so icy cold that I could swim but a stroke or
two, and thought that, in case of shipwreck,
there would be more danger of being chilled to
death than simply
drowned. Henry David
Thoreau, Cohasset, 1855
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Frémont, February
23: Going ahead with
[Kit]
Carson to reconnoitre the
road, we reached in the afternoon the
[American]river* which made the
outlet of the lake [Tahoe]. Carson
sprang over, clear across a place where
the  stream
was compressed among rocks, but the
parflèche**
sole of my moccasin glanced from the icy
rock, and precipitated me into the river.
It was some few seconds before I could
recover myself in the current, and Carson,
thinking me hurt, jumped in after me, and
we both had an icy bath. We tried to
search awhile for my gun, which had been
lost in the fall, but the cold drove us
out; and making a large fire on the bank,
after we had partially dried ourselves we
went back to meet the camp. We afterwards
found that the gun had been slung under
the ice which lined the banks of the
creek.
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From Burdett's
Life of Kit Carson, 1869
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The canyon of the South Fork of the American has
been a never ending road construction project
for 150 years. See some of the early ones.
* Frémont and his
cartographer Charles
Preuss, were wrong about
the American River being the outlet of Lake Tahoe.
This was not corrected on maps until many years
later.
** parflèche:
Canadian F. fr. Amer. Indian. A kind of rawhide
consisting of hide which has been soaked in
wood-ash lye to remove the hairs, and then dried.
It dries very hard, but gets very slippery
when wet.
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