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🚒 CALIFORNIA TRAIL

The trail doesn't check your arithmetic. It just leaves without you.

Independence to Sacramento, before the snows shut the pass. You have a wagon, a purse, and a season. Everything out here runs on the same arithmetic: so many miles a day, so many pounds a day, so many crowns a pound.

At every stop you commit a number — how much feed to load, how hard to push the oxen — and then the leg runs. Nobody marks it. Buy too little and you strand; buy too much and you are broke by the mountains. There is a range that works, and an edge that's best.

Two things to keep alive: crowns and days. Every decision spends one to save the other.

Back to the arcade

A free SAT algebra game

California Trail is a retro wagon game that drills SAT algebra. You roll from Independence toward Sacramento, and at every stop you commit one number: how much feed to load, how hard to push the oxen, or how to split a budget between two goods. Each of those is a linear equation with a feasible range and a cheapest edge. Get the arithmetic right and you keep crowns in the purse and days on the calendar. Get it wrong and the trail charges you the difference.

How to play

Each stop hands you the numbers: a feed price and a toll, a distance and a deadline, or two goods and one budget. Work out the value that clears the floor and stays under the ceiling, type it into the commit box, and roll out. Nobody marks it. The leg runs on exactly what you wrote, and the journal logs the crowns and days it cost. Clear all five stops before the season runs out and you reach Sacramento.

Common questions

Is California Trail free?

Yes. California Trail runs in your browser with no login and no download, and the Forge diagnostic it links to is free as well.

Which SAT skill does it train?

Algebra. Every leg is a linear equation or inequality. You work with a rate like pounds of feed per day or miles per day, a cost you have to keep inside your purse, and a feasible range that has a cheapest edge. That is the reasoning the SAT tests in its Algebra questions on linear equations, rates, and budgets.

What happens if I commit the wrong number?

The leg still runs. If you load too little feed or set the pace too low, you strand and lose days. If you overspend, you reach the next fort with less in your purse. Nothing is graded, so you can read the journal, see where the crowns went, and outfit again.

Not sure this is where your points are going? The free Forge diagnostic will tell you. More on SAT algebra questions.

Take the free diagnostic →

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