Wednesday, 13th. Traveled about 13 miles and only crossed a bend of the river; at this place it ran due north. Day was hot, the creek had dwindled to half its first size.

Jimmy John says it was 25 miles and his figure looks more likely. This was a cutoff to save traveling northward on the river and then back down again. They crossed the creek (the Walker River) and camped on the west side at the foot of a high mountain. This may have been Mount Wilson, in Lyon County, just south of present-day Yerington.

The trouble with writing about the Walker River and Yerington, is that it starts a song running through my brain, “”Where the Walker runs down to the Carson Valley plain . . .” That’s the first line of Darcy Farrow, a song written by Steve Gillette and Tom Campbell. Probably the most famous version is by John Denver, but the one in my head is this one.