She understood the rhythm of the fur-trade calendar, the pattern of travel, the logic of the river routes.

She had traveled up and down the Columbia herself.

She had been part of expeditions that used the river as their primary road.

And so she did something that, once you understand it, is even more remarkable than simply surviving in the mountains: she positioned herself where the canoes would pass.

Gabriel Franchère’s journal, one of the most valuable primary sources for the Astorian enterprise, recorded the encounter that spring.

Franchère was traveling east, returning to Montreal overland after the sale of Fort Astoria to the North West Company.