On the way to Glacier National Park - Helena, MT
Helena, MT
July 6th: Betsy and I are prepared to begin our next trip, which officially starts tomorrow. We have been enjoying the heat of Sisters for the last three days, though we had a brief rain shower/thunderstorm this afternoon. We biked into town Friday evening for dinner at The Open Door, again on Saturday (actually to the airport) for an aviation fundraiser for the Sisters High School flying program - a chicken drop was the main event, again on Sunday for the pre-quilt weekend Fiber Art Stroll, and finally again for auto maintenance today, actually we biked home then returned to town to pick up the car. We are ready to hit the road, with our car-camping equipment, bicycles and hiking gear. July 7th: We had a leisurely start this morning, with breakfast at home, a visit with a neighbour (sorry for the misspelling-this app is Canadian and thus a few oddly spelled words are included and can't be changed) who has a woodworking project for me and a coffee stop in Bend. The drive to Burns was easy, made so by a great audio book. We listened to Going Solo, by Roald Dahl, as recommended by Varis. The story covers his time in East Africa working for Shell Oil and then as an enlisted RAF fighter pilot in Egypt and Greece. He was dropped into the deep end and was lucky to learn the ways to stay alive. His first experience was flying a Gladiator airplane to Libya to join his squadron, never finding them, and ultimately crash landed in no-mans land between the fronts lines in view of both sides. He was rescued and sent to Cairo for recovery. He then took a brand new Hurricane aircraft to Greece for what became the Battle of Athens. He one of a handful of pilots that made it out. He spent some time in Palestine fighting the Vichy French before his head injuries suffered in the African crash made him unfit to ever fly again. He went home, where this memoir ends. He obviously went on to great fame as a children's book writer. The next segment of the drive was up and over Stinking Water and Drinkwater Passes, east of Burns. Lots of juniper trees and sage, with accumulating thunder clouds. We stopped for a snack overlooking the Malheur River in blazing sunshine. No trees within reach. We drove on to Marsing, ID but struck out on the RV Park there. We backtracked to Homedale, ID to another RV park which was much nicer and willing to accommodate us. We were given an RV space with water and right next to the bathroom. Dinner was gourmet - shrimp with squash in a tomato sauce. We are now relaxing and trying to think cool thoughts, as we sit overlooking the Snake River. There are a few fishermen at the park attempting to catch catfish, though we haven't seen anyone catch one. Wildlife sightings today included a coyote in Sisters, one herd of pronghorns, several hawks, and several common bird species (GBHs, killdeers, meadow larks, red wing blackbirds, quail, egrets and rufous hummingbirds). July 8th: We got a leisurely start after a relatively peaceful night, though ear plugs help deaden the lumber mill noise downstream of us. We drove to Hailey, ID with a picnic stop along the Magic Resevoir, which was not in evidence. As we drove into Hailey, we marvelled at the multitude of private jets parked at the airfield. We later learned that a conference was just beginning called "Allen and Co." at the Sun Valley Resort. Big names such as Defense Secretary Ashton, Charlie Rose, Bill and Melinda Gates, Tom Brokaw, George Stephanopoulos, Senator Cory Booker, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page (Google co-founder), King Abdullah of Jordon, and Meg Whitman (HP CEO) are in town. In addition, all of the major pro sports league commissioners, several owners, Elon Tusk (Space-X and Tesla Motors) and Evan Spiegal (Snapchat founder/CEO) are here, according to the local paper. We have reservations at a hot restaurant in Hailey and will let you know if we see anyone. We arrived at our B&B early so decided to ride on a rails-to-trails bike route from Hailey to Ketchum. It was fun for about 8 miles. The last 4 miles are undergoing re-paving and closed. We retreated back to our B&B and rode toward dark, ominous clouds. You guessed it, the last few miles were in rain. Oh well, we got some good exercise and more importantly cooled off. As I write this in our room, it is still raining lightly. We will walk out to dinner tonight with Portland-wear on (pants and rain jackets). July 9th: Wow, what a day of gorgeous scenery. It will be hard to describe and you probably need to see for yourself. We had a pleasant breakfast discussion with folks from Massachusetts about rafting trips - they had just completed six days on the Salmon River. We drove the ten miles north to Ketchum, parked and rode our bikes through and around town, up to Sun River Resort and back in a 13 mile loop. Sun River Resort is pretty nice with its grand lodge, village, indoor and outdoor skating rinks, and tented amphitheater. Security kept the public away from the conference attendees and we could still explore most of the grounds without being uncomfortable. We biked up and around Dollar Mountain and passes the ski area and several golf courses. And, we viewed one of eight Pegram designed truss bridges still in existence in the U.S. Turns out that seven of them are in Idaho. We next drove north along Route 75 following the Big Wood River to the Galena Pass. The Boulder Mountains were to the right, the valley was lush and we thought broad. After passing over 8,800 feet, we reach a really broad valley, which is at the head of the Salmon River. The overlook, named for Bethine and Frank Church, in recognition of their work to preserve the Sawtooth Recreation Area, provided a grand view. A line of 10,000 plus mountains stood in front of us across the valley floor. Down we went, reaching the young river at 7,000 feet and following it to the turnoff to Redfish Lake. This lake is well known to PNW fisheries people because it is where the last remaining Snake River Sockeye migrate to. In 1992 (or near then), Lonesome Larry was the last one. Thanks to a captive breeding program, 151 adult sockeyes returned last year. We always imagined Redfish Lake as an inaccessible, alpine pool. Instead, it is a very popular mountain destination with a lodge, cabins, beach and a busy boat dock, with views to the Sawtooth Mountains at the south end. A favourite thing to do here is to take a shuttle boat to the south end and hike up into the mountains. We left Redfish Lake and drove north along the Salmon River as it dropped 1,500 feet and grew broader and faster with numerous side creeks and an "East Fork." We pulled up at the Royal Gorge Resort (really a RV Park with a couple of cabins) for the evening. We are in a cabin. The river is flowing at 132 cubic feet per second passed us. That is nearly 1000 gallons every second. As we drove north the landscape got drier and more like the John Day area of central Oregon. We have about 40 more miles of the Salmon River tomorrow. July 10th: We drove north along the Salmon River to Salmon and then to Helena, MT. We crossed the continental divide three times. Our one stop was at the Big Hole National Monument located high on another broad valley. We were in big sky country. Anyway, this was the site of one of several battles between the wandering Nez Perce Tribe and the U.S. Calvary in 1877. The Nez Perce made an 1,170 mile trek herding over 2,000 horses in an attempt to elude being confined to a reservation in central Idaho. They traveled over the Bitteroot Mountains and though they were safe at Big Hole Valley, re- establishing a village of tepees at a former camping site. The Calvary scouts found them and a garrison of 163 Calvary and volunteers attacked early on the morning of August 9th. The village occupants scattered but the native warriors regrouped and counterattacked driving the troops back and surrounding them siege-like until the next day. The warriors also capture a single mountain howitzer dragged up to the site. On August 10th, the Nez Perce withdrew, and continued eastward and northward in Montana. The casualties were significant on both sides but there was more fighting in what is now know as the Nez Perce War of 1877. After arriving in Helena, we went out walking just as it began raining. We persevered walking by the Capital and picking up a Volkswalk route for tomorrow. We dined at the Brewhouse, partaking of a Helena microbrewery (Blackfoot River) pale ale. Betsy had hard cider. We share stuffed Portabello mushrooms and each had a chicken and pear salad. We retired to the Carolina B&B, our overnight accommodation. July 11th: We had a very nice breakfast which prepared us for our Volkswalk around Helena. Highlights included Last Chance Gulch, Reeder Alley, a farmers market with a pole vaulting exhibition by local students, a variety of large, historical homes on the west side of the city, a former Mosque which is now the Helena Civic Center, a cathedral modelled after churchs in Vienna and Cologne, and a self-guided tour inside the Capital with a Charles Russell masterpiece in the House Chamber (largest the artist ever painted). Like the other state Capitals we have seen this year, the Montana Capital is an imposing stone building of classical architecture. Capitals are built in this style for two reasons - first to honor the democratic tradition going back to Ancient Greece and second to inspire people to be on their best, most respectful behavior. The pole vaulting was fun because the athletes were into it as the attempted personal records. We saw one guy who cleared the bar set at 16 feet, something like six inches higher than his best, by about a foot. He was pumped. It appears that Helena is a active in pole vaulting with classes, camps and the like. We then drove to Great Falls, MT with two stops along the way. First was at Gates of the Mountains, which was named by Lewis or Clark. It is a narrow, steep wall canyon through which the Missouri River flows throw. Evidently to the Corps of Discovery it was the first they saw. The second stop was near Wolf Creek, at the Holter Dam, famous for trout fishing. It has a 50 megawatt powerhouse. We enjoyed the bird watching, sighting peregrines, GBHs, a pod of white pelicans, a goldfinch and yellow chats, including a nest with chicks. We arrived at Great Falls, drove around a little and checked into a hotel. Great Falls is named for a series of four falls on the Missouri River that Lewis and Clark encountered, forcing them to protege 18 miles around. Each falls now have dams built just upstream, giving the city the nickname Electric City. We drove out to the Ryan Dam or the Great Falls, which is the second falls as one goes upstream. The dam is a curve spillway perched atop the lip of the falls with penstocks on the the right side leading down to a powerhouse. There is an island just downstream that provides good viewing and as we discovered today, a good place for weddings. Two weddings were underway. We hope to bike out along a riverside trail tomorrow to visiting the Rainbow Falls - more about this in my update tomorrow. We returned to the hotel and then walked to dinner to the Celtic Cowboy. There was a great selection of Irish beer and food. There was even a group playing Irish music. July 12th: