21 August 2006

I am in Missoula at a place called Liquid Planet. I can use their computers but can't plug anything in (thus no pictures).

Yesterday I rented a car to scout routes over the Rockies. I went up to Chief Joseph Pass and Lemhi Pass to see what lay ahead. I convinced myself that Lemhi Pass is probably not advised fully loaded. But it is an impressive place. This is the place where Lewis and Clark crossed into the Columbia River Drainage. They crested the top hoping to see a gently sloping mountainside going down to game filled plains. What they saw was the Bitterroot range before them. More of the same. Their disappointment doesn't really come through in the journals. I wonder if they ever got to the end of their rope the way I had some days ago on the road to Lenore. Did they ever cry out in frustration or was it just not something men did in the early 1800s?

The road up to Lemhi Pass from the west is terrible (see photo). Washboard and steep. And you have to cross the Continental Divide twice more on this route. Once over Lost Trail Pass where you go from Missouri Draninage to Columbia and then Lemhi Pass (Columbia to Missouri). I'll take the route that follows Clark's return trip in 1806. It goes just shy of crossing the Divide when I turn off and instead take the Chief Joseph Pass east to descend into the Missouri drainage. I will not see the Columbia tributaries again this trip.

I will not have good access again until at least Helena or Great Falls (August 26 or 27) so, until then, wish me luck.