Charles C. Patton Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

8. No, how old were YOU with the kids.
A. How old was I at the time? I suppose I was fifty, But*I did
this for a number of years, and. . .
Q. When did you stop riding?
A. Oh, about five years ago. It got where it was too painful.
I had problems with my back, with arthritis, and it just got too
painful to do that. But I did ride across the Lo10 Trail, the
most difficult part of the Lewis and Clark trail. Where Lewis
and Clark had the most trouble, was getting across the mountains
about where Missoula, Montana is, across into Idaho, and I. .
The Lo10 Trail is a prehistoric Indian Trail used for centuries
by the Columbia River tribes to cross the mountains to the
buffalo country where they could get buffalo to provide
themselves with food and clothing for the winter, then come back
over the mountains to winter along the Columbia River. There was
a packer on the Idaho side. He said he would like to start a tour
there across the mountains. He'd get people to ride across and
I was on the first tour with him, and we went across the most
difficult part on horseback, and it was a delightful ride. It
was difficult, and it was interesting because we saw all the
sights that Lewis and Clark recorded as they went across on
horses. They'd gotten horses from the Shoshone indians and
packed across the trail there.
I did that twice and it's interesting, On the first trail
ride that the outfitter did, he was only able to attract four
people and there were two ladies from Lewiston, Idaho, I think
both of their husbands were doctors, but they were divorced, I
don't know. But the third lady was a lady I knew, who came from
New Jersey, and was with the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage
Foundation. She was a very good photographer and so I convinced
her to go along with us to take pictures, and she disappainted me
because she forgot to bring her colored film. All she had was
black and white. Made me mad as hell! But we crossed anyhow,
and she took a lot of pictures. Two years later, there was
another lady from the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation
who had been the secretary of the Foundation and who wanted to do
this ride and was trying to get enough people together so that
they, so that the people, who ran it could make enough money to
pay for it. It didn't seem as though they were getting enough.
So she called me up and asked "Would I like to came and do it
again?" So I said, "sure", so I went again. Well, they had a
whole bunch of dentists who were going to go, but their plans
pooped out, and we ended up, again, with just me and the three
girls. So, both times I went, it was just me and three girls.
Well, I guess I was fortunate, and I have some pictures of
Well, the point where Lewis and Clark first saw, was the d
of the Columbia River, and knew that they were on their w
hill to the Pacific was called Sherman's Peak. When you'd
an the Sherman's Peak, you could see the headwaters