Dates July 28, 1806 - August 13, 1806: Journals of Lewis and Clark ***

Lewis and Clark Journal Summary 21: Dates July 28, 1806 - August 13, 1806
The following is a summary of the journal entries made by Lewis and Clark. Dates: July 28, 1806 - August 13, 1806

Lewis is Shot and the Corps of Discovery Reunites

July 28, 1806
Lewis arrived at the Missouri and met with the members of their party that they had left at the great falls to descend the river in the canoes. They removed their belongings from the horses and proceeded in the canoes. They visited several of the caches that they had made on the way up the river and managed to recover some of their goods. Their main cache had collapsed resulting in the loss of many items, including furs. They went over to the point where they has hidden a pirogue and found that it had decayed beyond the point of repair. They stripped it of its nails and other ironwork, and left it behind. They carried on with 5 canoes and 1 pirogue.

Having no proper shelter, Lewis slept in the wet all night. It continued to rain during the day as they made rapid progress in the Missouri’s strong current. The river water was becoming hard to drink as the large amount of rainfall caused sand and mud to be washed into it from the plains. Clark encountered similar problems with the water and also noted that it was warm. Hunting was getting easier with the animal numbers increasing, and the meat quality was improving. The hunting also supplied them with a good stock of animal skins.

July 31, 1806
Lewis and his party came across some Indian lodges which, along with some elk skins, gave them decent shelter from the rain. It was the 1st August before the weather was fair enough for the party to dry out their belongings, and 3rd August before Clark’s party could dry theirs. Most of the meat and many of the skins that Clark had stored were spoiled by being wet for so long.