On October 7, 1846, James Reed and his traveling companion Walter Heron left the camp of the Donner Group.

The Donner Reed wagon train was less than 200 miles from the California border, and it was split into two groups.

The Donner Group was two days ahead of the Reed Group.

James Reed, head of the Reed family, had been banished from his group

after he killed a man during an angry scuffle.

Reed had ridden ahead to the Donner Group, where Walter Heron volunteered to go with Reed to California.

The two men followed the Humboldt River, taking turns riding the one horse they had

between them.

Without the cumbersome wagon train, they logged at least 25 miles a day, sometimes as many

as 40.

But Reed's thoughts were always on his family.

Whenever and wherever he could, he scrawled out

crude maps and notes and left them on the path. Reed and Heron's meager provisions ran out in a few

days, spurring them to hunt for food. Every once in a while, they were able to shoot a goose.

They managed to gather a few wild onions,

but those didn't last long. They fought over whether to kill and eat the horse. On a

particularly bad day, they stumbled upon some abandoned wagons. There was no food in the wagons,

but Reed checked a bucket under one of them and was able to scrape some animal fat from it.

They ate some of the disgusting slime and it made them horribly sick,

but they were able to digest enough calories to survive.

And then something incredible happened.

At a camp near Bear Valley, about 75 miles southwest of Lake Tahoe, they spotted a familiar figure.

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