This morning fine and warm. The coal pit is burned and Burr Frost set
Elder Smith's wagon tire and did various other repairs to a number of
other wagons which took till nearly eleven o'clock, about which time
the camp started onward. One of Brother Crow's men returned from Elder
Pratt's company and reported that their camp is about nine miles from
here. He is hunting stray cattle. He says the road is very rough from
here and about a mile beyond where they are camped the road begins to
ascend over a high range of mountains. Elder Pratt has been to the top
but cannot see the Salt Lake from there. Their company is gone on. I
walked ahead of the camp nearly four miles and picked many gooseberries
nearly ripe. They are very plentiful on this bottom. The brethren spent
much time cutting brush wood and improving the road. After traveling
four miles, halted about half an hour to water teams and eat dinner.
The road over which we have traveled is through an uneven gap between
high mountains and is exceedingly rough and crooked. Not a place to
be met with scarcely where there would be room to camp for the dense
willow groves all along the bottom. We then proceeded on and traveled
over the same kind of rough road till a little after 5:00 p.m. then
camped on a ridge, having traveled today seven and a quarter miles. The
last three miles has been the worst road of the two, it being through
willow bushes over twenty feet high, also rose and gooseberry bushes
and shaking poplar and birch timber. Although there has been a road
cut through, it is yet scarcely possible to travel without tearing
the wagon covers. We have crossed this creek which Elder Pratt names
Canyon Creek eleven times during the day and the road is one of the
most crooked I ever saw, many sharp turns in it and the willow stubs
standing making it very severe on wagons. As we proceed up, the gap
between the mountains seems to grow still narrower until arriving at
this place where there is room to camp, but little grass for teams.
There are many springs along the road but the water is not very good.
In one place about a mile back there is a very bad swamp where the
brethren spent some time cutting willows and laying them in to improve
it. We have got along today without much damage which is somewhat
favorable for the road is awful. At this place the ground around is
represented as being swampy and dangerous for cattle. It is reported
that there is no place to camp beyond this till where Elder Pratt's
company camped and this is so small they have to huddle the wagons
together. The soil continues sandy, except in the low moist places
where it looks black and good. There is some pine occasionally in sight
on the mountains, but timber here is scarce. We have passed through
some small patches today where a few house logs might be cut, but this
is truly a wild looking place.