<P> The first segment of the journey, from Winter Quarters to Fort Laramie took six weeks, with the company arriving at the fort on June 1 . The company halted for repairs and to reshoe the draft animals . While at Fort Laramie, the vanguard company was joined by members of the Mormon Battalion who had been excused from service due to illness and sent to winter in Pueblo, Colorado . Also traveling in the new group were Church members from Mississippi who had taken a more southern route toward the Great Basin . At this point, the now larger company took the established Oregon Trail toward the trading post at Ft . Bridger . At a difficult crossing of the Platte, just before encountering the Sweetwater River, the company made use of their portable boat and were able to cross with comparative ease . Seizing the opportunity to both help future travelers and increase the cash available to the migration, nine men under the direction of Thomas Grover were left behind to construct and operate a ferry at that location . Missourians and other travellers at the river paid the Saints $1.50 or more per wagon to help them cross . </P> <P> During the last week of June, Sam Brannan, leader of the Mormon emigrant ship Brooklyn, met the company near Green River, Wyoming . He reported to Young about his group's successful journey and their settlement in what is today San Francisco, California . He urged the vanguard company to continue on to California but was unable to shift the leader's focus away from the Great Basin . Young also met mountain man Jim Bridger on June 28 . They discussed possible routes into the Salt Lake Valley, and the feasibility of viable settlements in the mountain valleys of the Great Basin . Bridger was enthusiastic about settlement near Utah Lake, reporting fish, wild fruit, timber and good grazing . He told Young that local Indians raised good crops, including corn and pumpkins, but that there was ever - present danger of frost . The company pushed on through South Pass, rafted across the Green River and arrived at Fort Bridger on July 7 . About the same time, they were joined by thirteen more members of the sick detachment of the Mormon Battalion . </P> <P> The vanguard company now faced a more rugged and hazardous journey, and were concerned about negotiating the passes of the Rocky Mountains . They had received conflicting advice, but Young chose to follow the trail used by the Donner - Reed party on their journey to California the previous year . Shortly after leaving Fort Bridger, the group met trapper Miles Goodyear, who owned a trading post at the mouth of the Weber River . He was enthusiastic about the agricultural potential of the large Weber Valley . During the trip through the rugged mountains, the vanguard company divided into three sections . Since crossing the Green River, several members of the party had suffered from a fever, generally accepted as a "mountain fever" probably induced by wood ticks . Young himself became ill soon after meeting Goodyear . The small sick detachment lagged behind the larger group, and a scouting division was created to move ahead on the designated route . </P> <P> In July 1847 the first company reached the Salt Lake Valley, with scouts Erastus Snow and Orson Pratt entering the valley on July 21 . Pratt wrote:...we could not refrain from a shout of joy, which almost involuntarily escaped from our lips the moment this grand and lovely scenery was within our view . The two scouts undertook a twelve - mile (19 km) exploratory circuit into the valley before returning to the larger party . The next day, larger segments of the valley were explored, streams and hot springs investigated and the first camp established in the Salt Lake Valley . On July 23, Pratt offered a prayer dedicating the land to the Lord . Ground was broken, irrigation ditches were dug, and the first fields of potatoes and turnips were planted . </P>

How long did it take the pioneers to cross the plains