The day began with a visit about 10 in the morning from 5 Indians who came by canoe, again displaying the remarkable navigational skills Clark had earlier observed, as they came “thro emence waves & Swells”. John Colter, one of the men who had headed out in a canoe the day before, returned in the morning from having rounded Point Ellice. He reported that “at no great distance from where we are is a beautiful sand-beach and a good harbor at the mouth of a creek”. (Clark) Colter appears to have been the same man noted by Gass who suffered the near disaster of “having broke the lock of his gun.”
Based on this information, Captain Lewis left around 3 PM with several of the men to reach the sandy beach. The men disembarked on the beach and their canoe returned to Clark’s party “nearly filled with water at Dark which it received by the water dashing into it on its return”.
For those left behind, the day continued to be unpleasant, raining and blowing so hard that Clark noted that “we Cannot tell from which point it [wind, rain] comes.” The rain must have seemed continuous to those hunkered down in this small area, as “The rain &c which has continued without a longer intermition than 2 hours at a time for ten days past has distroyd. The robes and rotted (a great maney) nearly one half of the fiew Clothes the party has, particularley the leather Clothes”.
