Alone on the Oregon Trail by Vanessa Carvo Read Free Book Online Page A

exhaustion from being awake so long. It is a fearful thing to be alone in total darkness, listening to the branches and twigs rustle all around you. I also stayed very tuned in to the horses and I had learned what was normal and what was not with their sounds. I could always tell if animals had come creeping around and I just continued to pray that nothing too big would come into my camp.
    I was glad that I could recall everything that Nathaniel had taught me regarding disposing of the meat and the rest of the deer. He always told me to never bring any of the leftover meat into the camp.
    What I had brought was what I was keeping and I had covered it with salt and it was now stored in a barrel with a lid. The leftover meat and the remains of the deer I dragged behind the horse, deeper into the woods.
    That night I heard animals as they found the remains and you could clearly tell they were fighting over it. Nathaniel was so smart and I thank God every day that he shared so much with me since I have been left alone out here.
    After rebuilding my supply of food I was thankful for such a blessing and I began at once to slice the meat up into fine jerky for me to eat quickly and on the trail. I made sure I filled a gunny sack with a linen cloth wrapped around much of the meat and I put it into my saddle bag in case I had to escape quickly on horseback and I arranged the rest of it in the barrel in quick to go bags for the future.
    I also was able to restock my water supply with good fresh clean water and tried my hand at filtering water over rocks the way Nathaniel had shown me. This would help me remember how to do that later when I would have to know how.
    Being alone out on the trail wasn’t so bad at all times and I enjoyed much of the journey. It had its moments and the loneliness could get to me on certain days. I had the horses to visit with and tiny animals as they would come across my path and that kept me sane.
    What I did have a hard time with quite often is deciding which way to go, in what direction. I mostly tried to just follow alongside the streams and rivers. I would not let myself wander off too far from good sources of water.
    By now, my clothes were becoming very worn out and I began digging through some of Nathaniel’s clothes and sewing them to fit me. I was also able to double up on socks so that I could wear some of his boots that were in the wagon.
    I must have been a sight out there wearing his boots and clothes at times. I was just grateful to have them.
    I really had no idea how long I had been out on the trail since Nathaniel passed, but it did not matter to me that much. I knew when the sun would rise and when it would fall and that was enough. I knew that I was beginning to age as I could see it in my skin and I wondered at times how old I would look by the time I came out of these wilds.
    My hair had gotten fairly dried out from the sun and I tried to wear bonnets or some of Nathaniel’s hats, but they were becoming ragged as well. I started considering that when the worse came and my clothes wore completely out, that there were always gunny sacks that I could sew together and make clothes, but I wasn’t looking forward to having them next to my skin because they would be so itchy.
    I began to save some of my clothes and not wear them so if I had to wear gunny sacks I would still have other clothes I could wear under them so it would not be so uncomfortable. Nathaniel had brought plenty of his long underwear and these came in very handy in many ways.
    I loved sleeping and wearing his old shirts all along the way. I washed clothes at nearly every stop I made so that I would always have plenty of clean clothes in case of emergencies where I would not be able to wash clothes for days.
    It came in handy one day when I discovered that I was pretty much stuck inside the wagon for a couple days.
    I had come into a shady area where I was going to make a lunch on the fire instead of eating jerky as I