Hunt decides on May 26, 1811, not…

Hunt decides on May 26, 1811, not to follow the Lewis and Clark route up the Missouri, choosing instead to take his party overland to avoid an encounter with the Blackfoot Confederacy.

After having problems obtaining horses, the Hunt party had not been able to leave the Arikara in North Dakota until mid-July.

Several men had detached from the main party to trap and hunt in Wyoming and eastern Idaho.

The party travels west with relative ease through South Dakota and Wyoming, and accumulates six thousand pounds of dried buffalo meat northwest of present-day Pinedale.