I can just taste those chanterelles now! I'm really glad you got going on them.
I'm back from Montana. It was like being in heaven. The weather was so nice and warm there were few hunters and my brother had no urge to hunt, so we sat in camp for three days before he hunted, and just talked. It was the closest time we've ever had together, including several back packing trips.
I saw a herd of about 30 bighorns about a mile from Ross's Hole, where Lewis and Clark camped in 1804. My brother's camp is about fifteen miles upstream from that.
I visited the Traveller's Rest State Park, which is the only archeologically confirmed campsite on the entire L&C trail. The found the fire pit with a lump of lead from their bullet molds and cooking evidence, and 300 feet away they found the latrine, confirmed by mercury concentrations from Dr. Rush's Thunderbolt Pills administered to most of them by Lewis. The military manual of the day called for the latrine to be 300 feet away from the cook fires. The site was not disturbed by farming because it is in a flood zone that Lolo Creek floods about every two years.
Then I drove by Fort Fizzle where Chief Joseph and Looking Glass outsmarted the troops from Fort Missoula. They have a demonstration breastworks at this site. The Nez Perce circumvented the entrenchment by going up a gulch a half mile away where I've hunted and killed a deer or two in my salad days.
Then I drove up to my old trapline. Some of it has changed. There is a lot more logging but the silviculture appears to be successful so I'm not too unhappy about that. I could still see where my mink sets, my bobcat sets, and my marten line was.
From there I drove down into Spruce Creek and up into Packer Meadows where Lewis and Clark also camped going both directions, if I'm not mistaken. There is a beautiful log visitor center built especially for the bicentennial. And a huge parking lot. I was the only one in it when a FS truck pulled in. He was a mule packer reassigned to visitor center duties. We swapped stories about some characters we both knew.
Then I went down into Powell Ranger Station. Most of the older log buildings are still there, but the "new" office building is the ugliest damn building they could have put in that beautiful place. Yuk.
When L&C came through here, they were so hungry they had to kill a colt for supper, hence White Sand Creek was originally "Colt Killed Creek."
I visited the Lochsa Lodge to see what arose from the ashes. It burned down three years ago or so. They rebuilt it and I hate to admit it but it's much nicer now. I had a glass of Moose Drool to commemorate the many Olys I downed there back in 1962-64.
Then I stopped at Brushy Cabin, which the FS is just letting sit there like I think they should. It's not being used, nor restored in any way. I knew where it was, but most people would drive by without seeing it.
After that I drove back over Lolo Pass and down into Lolo Hot Springs where L&C also camped. That facility is still operational and they have built the ugliest damn fake looking tipi cabins you could possibly imagine. I didn't have time to stop, which probably kept me out of trouble for my mouth.
The Lolo Hotsprings Hotel and plunge has reverted to private ownership, as did Sleeping Child Hotsprings and Medicine Hotsprings down the Bitterroot Valley. They are all owned now by some rich rock stars or actors. The public no longer has access to them, which to my mind is a terrible waste.
I took a number of pictures of the roadside signs and sights of the Lewis and Clark trail through here. If I can figure a way to post them, I'll make them available to you all. |
