Old Toby

Journal 2005 08 30
Old Toby

The young men knew the work they had already expended to get to this stage of their journey. Heavy work, pulling boats, paddling canoes and carrying cargo on their backs. Work usually resigned to horses and mules. On this expedition only men could perform this work. Little did they realize that their hard work was but training for the most difficult portion of their journey that they were embarking on this day.

August 30th of any year is usually a fine time in the mountains. I’ve hunted in the Rockies in late October with the temperatures still in the high eighties! I’ve also been in the same place at the same dates in other years when the temperature was a bone chilling fifteen with three feet of snow on the ground.

The Shoshone and the Corps were anxious to get moving in opposite directions this day.

The men had learned from their generous hosts that game was almost non-existent on their route and passage would be difficult. The Captains kept reasoning that if Indian women and children could safely make the passage certainly this band of hardy soldiers would find a way. They had procured twenty-nine horses and were of the mindset that they would use several for food if so needed! Less time in this rugged mountains meant less exposure to the elements and less strain on their strength.

The Indians knew they needed the safety of the other tribes to help protect them from warring nations as they hunted buffalo. Hides and meat would carry them through the winter until the salmon returned up the rivers on the west side of the mountains.

Now the fate of the Corp appeared to be in the hands of Old Toby and his son who would lead the Expedition through the mountains to the west. The Corps was going north on today’s Lemhi River.

Have you ever had to place your life in the hands of someone who may have appeared to be less than able to complete the task? How many would follow an old man into the wilderness when their very existence depended upon his decisions? How many of us would follow a guide who didn’t speak our language? What would be the fate of the mission if something happened to the old man during the trip?

Trust. The men were self-sufficient but they knew they needed help. We are self-sufficient, but are reluctant to call for and accept help. I am anyway. Why would we attempt a dangerous journey without a guide who knows the way? If our children were to go someplace dangerous without a guide we would call it foolishness. Yet we do it all the time. We call it independence. It is still foolishness.

God has shown us a way and given us a guide for a journey that will surely end in death. Have you trusted your course through life to Him who is utterly trustworthy? Or are you still independent and making your own way through life? Death awaits all who live. Only the Living God can lead you on a path were death has no eternal consequence. Can you trust Him and follow His Son who made the way and His Spirit who guides us?