The Almost Intrepid Adventures of LibraryAnn: Lewis and Clark Overland--Part 1

Mountains near Elk Bend, Idaho

For two nights, we are camped at Elk Bend, right on the Salmon River. We are somewhat isolated, 21 miles to gas in Salmon, but right across the street from an excellent pub and food. Our goal was to traverse the two mountain passages that L&C had to cross to reach the Snake River and resume their trip by water. This is the last leg of the L&C trip for us. Tomorrow we cross to Cody, WY, then south to Santa Fe, then east towards our lovely, green Appalachian Mountains and sweet Uwharries. We are currently under a weather alert for possible fires. It is windy and incredibly dry.

The approaching Rockies

L&C were able to follow the Jefferson River a bit past its confluence with the Missouri, but the mountains blocked their way. They had either to find horses to cross the mountains and find another river flowing west or return east having failed in their mission to reach the Pacific and map a trade route. Their success depended upon local tribes. They approached Lemhi Pass, which

Salmon ID on the way to Lemhi

crosses the Continental Divide when they were met by local Shoshone Indians. Their chief happened to be Sakakawea's brother who welcomed her return and provided horses and a guide across the Lemhi Pass and on through the more difficult Lolo Pass across the Bitterroot Mountains and on to the Snake, then Columbia Rivers. Sakakwea, with her interpretive skills and connections, gets much less credit than she deserves for saving the mission and securing the United State's claim to the land. #TooTypical.

Ruthie and I did this a little backwards. We drove past the difficult Lolo Pass yesterday and explored Lemhi today. Lolo Pass was on a

Crossing the 45th Parallel

comfortably paved road. Lemhi Pass was accessible via a 36 mile loop of primitive, one lane road, sans guardrails and with limited markings. Both passes, however, offered spectacular views of wilderness not unlike what met the Corps of Discovery.

I've ordered the pictures as L&C would have seen them. Today, navigating Lemhi Pass, was the one occasion L&C might actually of traveled faster than we did.

To get to the Lemhi Pass road, we had to go through Salmon, ID, our last chance to get gas and talk with a ranger about road conditions. Nineteen miles south of Salmon, at a little crossroad named Tendoy, the road begins. Half way between Salmon and Tendoy, we also crossed the 45th Parallel, half way between the Equator and the North Pole. Who knew?

Tendoy Business District

Maintained by both the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, the road is challenging, especially an 8 mile stretch called Agency Creek Road which is restricted to vehicles with good ground clearance and good tires. I used 4WD low to good effect coming down twisting 20% grades and was grateful to the guy who designed rear view mirrors that fold against the car every time I met another truck on the road. To their credit, the government agencies did provide an occasional vault toilet on the route, fully handicap accessible, tho we never could figure out why.

Lemhi Pass

Much of what we saw at Lemhi seemed barren but under Forest Service and BLM management, recreation, ranching and timbering occur and we saw evidence of all of them. But mostly we saw huge expanses of wilderness and tall mountains up to Lemhi Pass on the Continental Divide at 7373 feet.

As I mentioned, the road was spectacular but nerve-testing. In the last

What lay ahead across the pass

stretch we crossed a number of cattle guards (and drove some cattle off the road). All across Montana and Idaho we noticed these unusual rail fences. Ruthie presumes that they are both easier to build--no digging post holes in rocky ground--and more resistant to the press of heavy animals.