Like the location of Lonesome Cover, the route for this day is a matter of speculation and contention. Russell has located stretches of the trail here and there and feels certain the ancient route went from the cover to Moon Saddle, then along the dividing ridge that leads to Howard Camp (used by its namesake in 1877 while pursuing the Nez Perce). Today this is a delightful place, belying the sad circumstances of its use by Chief Joseph's people, then by their enemies who were not far behind. The clear waters that began the flow of Howard Creek undoubtedly refreshed Lewis and Clark and their party. It is a nice place to walk the ridge eastward, but to the west, where they were heading, the land soon becomes a jumble of side hills and overgrown drainages. Then, as, now, it requires leaving the easy-to-follow ridgeline and going crosscountry on a route only the Indians knew.

The snow continued through the morning. Clark complained that not only did the falling snow keep them wet, but snow falling off the trees added to their miseries. In the afternoon, the expedition left the hell hole of Serpent Creek and made a long, difficult climb back to the system of more prominent ridges. The snow finally ended and melted rapidly, with warmer temperatures bringing some welcome relief. However, a new torment was added to the list of travails -- mud and water lying ankle deep in many parts of the trail, getting into the men's moccasins and making the way even more slippery than before.

Where they camped this night is a mystery of bitter contention. For decades, the reading of both the journals and the lay of the land made people certain that the party camped on the gentle slope of a lodgepole forest just above a little pond called the Sinque Hole. To men from Virginia or Kentucky, a "sinque hole" was a depression filled with water that in their country was caused by the collapse of a limestone cave somewhere below. This little pond apparently reminded them of those formations so far away.

A Forest Service interpretive sign on Road 500 points toward the little pond, and as the campsite of September 17 the place does match some of the journal entries quite well. But so does another place about a half mile further up the ridge. The latter is where a teenage Nez Perce boy by the name of Albert Mallickan died in the summer of 1862 or 1863. His relatives, who still live in the Lapwai area. believe that the lad ate some bad meat which led to his death. Albert's tearful parents buried him at the edge of the meadow where his grave is now marked with a simple log monument. Steve Russell contends that this is where the party camped 57 years earlier. He has calculated the distances and they match better at this place, and grass for the horses was certainly more abundant than in the woods by Sinque Hole. Even though it was late in the day and the meadows are up and over another steep, stony pitch of trail, hunters would have been out ahead of the captains and could be expected to have reported a better camping site ahead than the one immediately adjacent to the Sinque Hole. What troubles other historians are the words of Joseph Whitehouse that the expedition camped "near a round deep Sinque hole full of water." The question then is: Is a half mile "near"? In the context of their journey, the answer is yes.

-from the fourth chapter, "A Trial for Stomach and Soul: Across the Lolo Trail"