Lots of hunters here. Campgrounds are full! September 15, 2020

Yes, who would have believed it?  I heard that the fires and smoke have driven campers east.  I totally get it.  I wouldn't want to spend my vacation in the smoke if I could help it.  It does, however, make it a bit more sketchy finding a place to put our trailer for the night.  The fact that it is hunting season in Montana and Idaho also account for full campgrounds.  

This morning I got a run in despite the poor air quality (nothing like Reno) and the altitude 6000'.  As I ran past them, these two beauties ran up to the fence looking to race or maybe get a snack.  Hard to tell.


Before I even started my run I had to traverse this cattle guard to get to the road -- I have never seen one quite this scary.  I was very careful crossing it.  Just to put it into perspective, I wear a size 10.5 running shoe.


Today was "learn everything you can about Sacagawea and Lewis and Clark" day.  Apparently Sacagawea, the Indian woman that was kidnapped by a different tribe and sold to yet another tribe before she was purchased by a Frenchman (Charbonneau) helped the Lewis and Clark expedition navigate the space between rivers -- over the continental divide.  We drove up to Lemhi Pass (its name was something other than that before the Mormons renamed it). 


Here we also found a marker designating this spot as the continental divide. In case you don't know, it is the spot where water goes downhill on one side into the Pacific Ocean and on the other side into the Gulf of Mexico.  The continental divide is not just one spot, it runs along the Idaho-Montana border which is why it is so freaky looking on the map. 


We drove up this hill on a single lane dirt road.  I wish you could see this picture for what it really is but for the smoke.  This is looking back down the hill (Mountain?) we were climbing.


So we headed back down the other side a bit where a small memorial park had been set up for Sacagawea and there we found one of the headwaters (springs) of the Missouri river.  Here's Russ straddling it


After a meal of crackers and fizzie water at the park, we headed down to Salmon, ID for fuel and to visit the civilized Sacagawea memorial park where you could pay $5 a head and see all of the artifacts they had.  I did learn that Sacagawea was married to the Frenchman (who also had another wife) and he used her to help him get a job as a guide for the Lewis and Clark expedition.  She traveled while she was pregnant and gave birth on the trail.  Quite the lady wasn't she?


Here's a connection to home.  This monument was presented on August 20, 2005 by the Lewis and Clark Outpost #1805 of Chief Truckee Chapter #3691, E Clampus Vitus.


I'll leave you with a last photo, that of Seaman the Newfoundland dog that accompanied Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis and Clark).  This is a monument to him too!























Comments

  1. Helen GrahamSeptember 16, 2020 at 8:24 AM

    Great blog and wonderful pictures, thank you for sharing your adventures

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Been a quiet two days -- August 29, 2020

Image
Back in this civilized camp I have spent 2 days reading, swimming and hiking.  We went to town (Eureka, MT) yesterday for lunch and had a really good and huge cobb salad for $11.  The town kind of reminded me of Virginia City.  I can't exactly explain why but it was set up to take advantage of the tourist trade in the old downtown.  I asked one of the merchants there how business was and she said "not so good."   Before we hit Eureka, we drove down to Rexford which is merely a post office, a bar/restaurant and few trailer parks.  There was, however, a big field where Russ could through the frisbee to Ceilidh.  As we turned around to leave, these critters greeted us: After lunch in Eureka we explored the history a bit.  This place has a pretty good set up.  All of their old buildings are set in the same place.  Fortunately there was a lot of history to see outside for, alas, the museum itself was closed.  COVID.  Here's som...
Read more

Windy, Windy Night!! Glad we are still standing.

Image
Wednesday, February 24, 2012.  We broke camp at Walker Lake and continued our journey south towards Death Valley.  A totally different route, we passed through Beatty, Nevada and over the summit into the Valley.  We were totally surprised at the accommodations that have been made for the masses that want to visit and stay in Death Valley.  Of course there are the old standby campgrounds but they need to be reserved 6 months in advance and therefore are impossible to secure.  Now, however, the park has opened up a huge “parking lot” sort of facility that allows campers – RV’s, Trailers and Tents – to camp in the gravel.  This sounds unattractive but it really isn’t.  The spots are really wide and the fact that lots of us can stay in the valley now more than makes up for the non-campground feel.  You still get the incredible vistas and dark sky that Death Valley is known for.  We (because we are old and have a senior pass) only had to pay $7 a...
Read more

Missed a day -- sorry. Gone from Clear to Smoky September 13, 2020

Image
Yes, well yesterday I was able to kayak twice.  Once in the morning and once at night.  And look at how clear it was. Today, the smoke settled into Montana like this I fear it is going to be like this for the rest of our journey which, of course, makes me less sad to have it end. The last two days have been full.  Saturday we visited Philipsburg, MT which is the site of another ghost town called Granite.  This one has not been tended to as carefully as Garnet as you can see from the pictures but it has a lot more stuff in it including the stamping mill.  Most of the photos show what is left of each building and most of that is masonry and granite.  The boards that formed the homes or offices on top of the rock foundations have either just collapsed and  been left to lay where they fell or are gone altogether. Here is a picture of the only bank in Granite.  I assume that this is just the vault because it was only big enough for money -- not people....
Read more