With scarce provisions, winter approaching and failing draft animals, by the end of 1843 they had traveled south almost 300 miles on the east side of the Sierras before they abandoned their wagons near Owens Lake in eastern central California and proceeded by pack train to make a December crossing of the Sierra Nevada mountains over Walker Pass (35°39′47″N 118°1′37″W on California State Route 178) in the southeast Sierras, an arduous route used by almost no one else.