Preston Nutter, a member of the original party who remained at Ouray's camp, arrived in Saguache around this time with two other original party members. He encountered Packer in Dolan's Saloon, drinking and carrying on. Nutter asked Packer where the rest of his party was, with Packer claiming that he had "got his feet wet and frozen". He stated that they had set up camp when a winter storm set in, and he started a fire to warm up while the others went ahead to look for food. Packer claimed that Swan left him with his rifle in case of trouble and that they never returned. He presumed they had abandoned him. He claimed he was forced to leave the party to their unknown fate, as he had no idea where they went when they left him, and lived mainly on rose buds and the occasional squirrel as he made his trek out. Nutter thought his story odd, considering that Packer looked rather well-fed and that it would be a potentially fatal choice for five miners unfamiliar with Colorado to abandon their "guide" in the snowbound mountains of a territory he claimed to know well. He also found it hard to believe that the men would simply abandon him.