Day 21-Springfield , SD to Pickstown, SD (47/913 miles)

The only thing I'll say about the weather today is that it was so horrible that someone offered to put my bike in their pick up truck and take me to Pickstown.  It was tempting, but I politely declined.

The Corps of discovery lived  off the land. Most of the men selected for the expedition were excellent woodsmen and hunters. Each day Lewis and Clark would designate a couple of men to hunt for wild game to feed the crew that night.  It was in this area that they bagged their first buffalo. Most of the men considered hunting a welcome alternative to rowing, poling, and pulling the boats.

The crew enjoyed a variety of wild game as well as fish they took from the river.  Deer had been especially plentiful to this point in their journey and thus their staple food was venison.  

Deer remain plentiful today.

 

Like the Corps of Discovery, I eat a lot of fish and other high protein food to fuel my travel.

As directed by President Jefferson, Lewis studied plant and animal life very carefully throughout the expedition and wrote extensively about it in his journal.  He and Clark took a keen interest in "barking squirrels", which we know today is prairie dogs.

Very close to Pickstown, Lewis and Clark poured water down a hole to flush out a prairie dog, which they caged.  Two months later Lewis sent the prairie dog, along with many other specimens he had discovered, back down river and on to Washington DC to President Jefferson.