Down the Valley in
Springtime Descending the eastern slopes of the Coast
Range through beds of gilias and lupines..I at
length waded out into the midst of it. All the
ground was covered, not with grass and green
leaves, but with radiant corollas, about ankle-deep
near the foothills, knee-deep or more five or six
miles out. Our road was now one continued enjoyment;
and it was pleasant, riding among this assemblage
of green pastures with varied flowers and scattered
groves, and out of the warm green spring, to look
at the rocky and snowy peaks where lately we had
suffered so much.
At Sutter's Fort, three determinations of latitude were
made. Although the the expedition camp was made at the
confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers on the
eighth of March. Frémont spent much of his time at
the Fort. The determinations of latitude made on March 14
and 15 (38° 35' 15") were apparently made at the Fort.
The first was by altitudes of Polaris, and the second by
meridian transit of the sun. They vary by only 5"--I have
used the mean. 
The following site determinations have been made by using Frémont's determinations of latitude, which can usually be relied upon to be very accurate. In the previous example, the determinations of latitude on the 14th and 15th varied by only 5".
A preliminary move on March 22 was to the Sinclair ranch a few miles up the American, followed by a move south on the 24th, making camp on the Cosumnes River. But even though Frémont records the weather as "delightful," he made no astronomical observations. The following day, after traveling 28 miles, they arrived on the Mokelumne River, a few miles east of the city of Lodi, shown here on a USGS map. 
The following day, March 26th, they halted at the Calaveras River. "On the 26th we halted at the Arroyo de las Calaveras, (Skull creek,) a tributary to the San Joaquin--the previous two streams entering the bay between the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers. This place is beautiful, with open groves of oak, and a grassy sward beneath, with many plants in bloom, some varieties of which seem to love the shade of the trees, and grow there in close small fields. Near the river, and replacing the grass, are great quantities of ammole, (soap plant,) the leaves of which are used in California for making, among other things, mats for saddle-cloths. A vine with a small white flower, (melothria?) called here la yerba buena, and which, from its abundance, gives name to an island and town in the bay, was to-day very frequent on our road--sometimes running on the ground or climbing the trees." The site is shown below in a combined USGS map image and aerial photograph. It is in a cherry orchard, which when examined on March 18, 2003, was in full bloom. But the area in no way suggests Frémont's description. The Calaveras River, which was bone-dry, is today nothing more than a Reclamation District drainage ditch--it's waters being impounded in New Hogan Dam. There are still oak trees (where they weren't in someone's way), but Frémont's soap plant and la yerba buena have given way to the now ubiquitous ditch pests--blackberry vines, stink weed, and old tires and other discarded trash.  I checked out this location after I was contacted through this website by Michael Bennett at the San Joaquin Historical Society Museum. I was able to identify myself to him as the same Bob Graham that the museum had employed fifteen years ago to identify and catalog some 4000 antique tools in their Floyd J. Locher Collection. Michael informed me that there is interest in the Lodi area in commemorating Frémont's visit with a nearby marker to be placed by the D.A.R.
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In
this beginning of a page I am looking at some of
the campsites as the 2nd Expedition moved south
from Sutter's Fort through the Sacramento and San
Joaquin Valleys in March of 1844.
