January 2014 UTC To continue the Smith story I found the book Men Against the Mountains by Alson J Smith 1965 I would have preferred Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West by Dale L Morgan 1953 but my local library didn t have it Because both books were written prior to the 1967 discovery of the lost journal they both contain some errors in particulars of the 1826 27 travel route that were corrected in Brooks book 1977 Facts were established earlier however for J Smith s 1827 return to California and the completion of the expedition at Fort Vancouver I found that J Smith visited San Jose Monterey and Yerba Buena California before heading north up the Sacramento Valley The Alson Smith book doesn t give the exact route of travel from San Jose to Monterey but it seems unlikely that the expedition passed through my home turf in Santa Cruz County my original question They probably used the more established El Camino Real by way of Mission San Juan Bautista Helped by the Alson Smith book without citing it I was able to expand several more articles including California hide trade Ygnacio Martinez Umpqua people John McLoughlin 23 46 31