Update

Some Late Entries From the Last Trip

We're leaving tomorrow for a short trip up to the Olympic Peninsula for a few days, then taking the ferry from Port Angeles over to the city of Victoria in British Columbia for another 5 days. During the packing, which Rita usually begins about a month before we actually leave to go anywhere, we came across some photos of our last stop on the recent trip coming home from Yellowstone. We detoured a bit to visit a place called Traveler's Rest on the Lolo River in Montana - a place that figured prominently in the journey of Lewis & Clark back in 1805-06. The Corps of Discovery stopped here twice - once before they climbed over Lolo Pass with their Indian guide in Sept of 1805, then again in the Spring of 1806 on the return trip. They've apparently pinpointed the location of their encampment by detecting traces of mercury in what served as their latrine. Seems that the standard medicinal that Lewis prescribed for the men was a powerful emetic that was laced with mercury, so when they found high concentrations of the stuff in one area of the camp ground they were pretty sure they had found the spot since no one else during that time (or era I guess) had access to the "advanced" medicines that Lewis was carrying.

It was a pretty spot along a "bold running stream" as Clark described it in his journal, and the local State historical society has really done a nice job laying out the site and providing interpretive signage to help visitors tour the old campground, which was popular with Indians and French trappers for hundreds of years before Lewis & Clark passed this way.

Anyway, here are some late entries from the last trip:


Lolo Creek, the "Bold Running Stream" that Clark describes in his journal. Traveler's rest campground is on the right bank.


This is the Clearwater River descending out of the Bitteroot Mountains just west of Lolo Pass...ie across the continental divide. The explorers paralleled the river on horseback until they reached a place further on where they could build canoes and finish the rest of the journey to the Pacific by water. The Clearwater eventually goes into the Snake River, which then empties into the Columbia all the way to the ocean. This is the same route they followed back upstream on the homeward leg in the Spring of 1806.


It was Spring when we passed this way, so most of the early flowers were still in bloom. This is the flower of the Bitteroot plant, from which the surrounding mountains and river take their name. The indians dried the roots and pounded it into flour from which they made a sort of bread, which was a staple of the Shoshone diet. Supposed to be pretty foul-tasting stuff.

We're off tomorrow morning for the drive up to the Olympic National Park. We catch the ferry over to Victoria on Aug. 9 .