Coffee, sugar, and even flour, were luxuries not every day indulged in
by the hardy mountaineers. They seldom partook of such dainties; not
more frequently than two or three times in the year, and then, merely
as rare treats. Their standard food was game and wild vegetables when
in their season.

This meeting of the trappers continued in progress during two months.
It was then dissolved; and, once more the bold mountaineers formed
into bands of a size convenient for trapping, and started out to
engage in the fall hunt. Kit Carson joined a party of fifty men which
was bound for the country occupied by the Blackfeet Indians, and which
lies on and adjacent to the head waters of the Missouri River. The
party met with very poor success in catching beaver, but had their
fill of annoyances from the tribe of savages already referred to.
Finally the state of affairs between the trappers and the Indians
became so desperate, that a white man could not leave his camp and
go a distance of a single mile alone without being fired upon, so
completely and untiringly was their camp surrounded and watched by
this wily and dangerous tribe of Indians.

This state of affairs led them to the determination to quit the
country, as the trapping season was far advanced. With this line of
policy they began the march; and, in the month of November, 1832,
arrived on the banks of the Big Snake River where they established
winter quarters and remained until the subsequent February.

During these winter months, the quiet monotony of their life was
unexpectedly broken in upon by a band of their old enemies, the
Blackfeet Indians. Taking advantage of an unusually dark night they
entered the camp and succeeded in running off eighteen of their