Representing the
Corp of Discovery Campsite Sept 3, 1805
Now for the coordinates for this cache. Research the date that the Corp of Discovery returned to St. Louis. Take that date and put it in the form of MM/DD/YYYY and assign AB/CD/EFGH to those numbers and put them into the cords below to find the cords for the cache.
N 45*(D+E) E . (H-E) A E
W 113* (C+D) H . F (H-E) (D+E)
Take a moment while you are here and read the papers in the cache that I have written with Clark's, Gass's and Whitehouse's writings from their journals. This cache is only representative of the area where they camped the night of September 3rd 1805. Lewis & Clark scholars who have studied the journals extensively are in wide disagreement as to where this campsite is. Some place it in Idaho and some in Montana. Some place it west of Saddle Mountain and some as far east as Chief Joseph Pass. Without doubt the two days of September 2nd and 3rd were the hardest and most dangerous of the trek. We do not know exactly why, but they left the longer, established Indian trail (35 miles) for a shorter way (18) with no trail through some of the roughest terrain on the trip.
There is of course a logbook and I ask you to log your entry and make any comments you may like to make. Any trade items will work but it would be nice if they related even remotely to The Corp of Discovery or this area in those days.
I have put a cache at each of the Corp of Discovery campsites in the Bitterroot Vally - er I mean Valley! There are seven campsites in our valley. This campsite (September 3rd 1805) is debatable as to just where it is! There has been a lot of disagreement on where this one was located. I have put this cache at Lost Trail Pass to represent that campsite and so I have eight Lewis and Clark Campsite Caches in all. I personally think my friend Steve Russell has found the actual location of this campsite. I have put a cache there also and so there are two L&C campsite caches for September 3rd..
Other things to research: Look up and read the letter of instructions President Jefferson wrote to Capt. Lewis. Look up and read Capt. Lewis's paper on what he hoped to accomplish from the trek. What do you think happened to Seaman (when was the last mention of him)? What happened to York? When was the first wagon road built over Lost Trail Pass?
WINTER NOTE: Assuming the usual 5 to 6 feet of snow at this location this cache would be hard to find. I would put the winter difficulty at a 4
CHECKSUM: So you know before you go if you add the MINUTES ONLY of the north and west cords you should have 98.355