Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/283

 REMINISCENCES OF SEVENTY YEARS 275 I started across the Cascades with one man and three horses on January 1, 1846. They were loaded with sugar, coffee, flour and bacon enough to supply two of us until June. I had agreed to stay with Berry for company and to help guard the property cached away until the road could be made through for teams and wagons to pass through. The man who went with me was to return with the horses. It was thought by some that we could not cross the mountains with a load at that time of the year, but it was a groundhog case and had to be done. Though the snow was from three to five feet deep we could see the blazes on the trees which the old gent had marked, so there was no danger of getting lost. But our horses would occasionally break through the crust of snow that had formed about two feet below the surface by rain and then freezing. Then we would have to take our shovels and dig the horse out and get him on top again, but that only happened a few times. When night came we would tie our horses to a tree, feed them oats we had with us, make a fire and cook supper. Then we would dig a hole in the snow, wrap ourselves in our Hudson's Bay blankets and jump down in our snow houses and sleep sound and warm. We were only three days from Foster's to the Cascade cache, where we found Berry as happy as a clam at high water. The Indians had been to see him, brought him plenty of dried salmon and huckleberries. Besides, there was a man by name of Foster who had followed our trail in from the east side and wanted to winter with Berry. He had plenty of money and would pay for everything he used if we would let him stay. He did not want to go through the mountains any further, and he never did. In the spring he got up his horses that he had kept down on the creek on good grass all winter and went back to The Dalles. We accepted his proposition and sold him part of the grub that I had taken in for his winter supply. One morning Berry said, "Now, Barlow, if you want to go back to the valley I am perfectly willing to stay." I said, "All right," pretty gleefully, "and I will allow you all the income from the wagons and will keep out only the expense of this trip." To this he readily agreed. The