The Tour has relocated to Jim and Mary's RV Park in Missoula, where we are staying until August 13th. Missoula is nestled in the heart of the northern Rockies in Western Montana. A community of nearly 110,000 people live in a mountain forest setting where five valleys converge. Three major rivers run through the area (Bitterroot, Blackfoot and the Clark Fork of the Columbia). Missoula is home to the University of Montana (Go Grizzlies) and with those major rivers, a great place to fly fish.
Lewis and Clark were the first white men in the area in 1805 - 06. They were followed by Jesuit priests who lived among the Salish Indians and established the beginning of Missoula.
Roger and I spent the first few days restocking and running errands. We happened to run into downtown Missoula to see the court house and university.
Missoula Courthouse
Tuesday was our first real day of touring the area. Avid blog readers know of our interest in Lewis and Clark. About 30 miles from Missoula is Travelers' Rest (so named by Lewis) State Park, located along the Lolo Creek, in the Bitterroot Mountains. It was here in 1805 on the trip westward and again in 1806 on their return trip, that Lewis and Clark stayed. Without the help of local Indians the expedition would have had a much more difficult time of traveling through the Bitterroots.
The museum has a rifle used by the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Roger and Bear are ready to tour the campsite.
This area was also a meeting place for Salish and Nez Perce Indians, who met for trading purposes.
Can you believe how patient Bear is?
Lolo Creek
This was the actual site of the Lewis and Clark camp.
We continued our drive to the Idaho border where we climbed to Lolo Pass. We stopped for a picnic at the top of the Pass on the Idaho side. We hiked two trails (very short) in the area, and were lucky enough to have seen a moose in the distance.
Wednesday was "Out to Lunch" in Caras Park in downtown Missoula. Every Wednesday throughout the summer, Missoula sponsors live music and countless food vendors in a very large festival. We got to hear The Stodgy Mountain Boys and see members from two ballet companies (Pasadena and Rocky Mountain) perform. Below are some pics from this event.
Stodgy Mountain Boys
Food Vendors (representing restaurants around Missoula)
Little children dancing to the music.
Pasadena ballet doing a skit about going to the movies. It was very clever.
Rocky Mountain Ballet performing a scene from Swan Lake.
Thursday morning was a trip to the Historical Museum at Ft. Missoula. The fort was established in 1877 in response to requests from local townspeople and settlers for protection in the event of conflict with western Montana Indian tribes. Ft. Missoula never had walls; rather, it was an open fort, a design common for posts located west of the Mississippi. Of the original buildings, only three remain.
Also on the fort grounds are displays of life in early Montana. The railroad hauled lumber. The picture below shows a rare Shay-type engine with a load of logs ready to go to the lumber mills.
Fire was always a danger (as it is now) in this area of the country. The picture below shows the Slideout Lookout, 1933, manufactured in Colombia Falls and shipped for assembly on a tower or bare ground. I climbed up into the tower and saw the basic implements used by the forest rangers, to pinpoint wildfires. This particular lookout was dismantled 40 miles southeast of Missoula and moved to it's present site.
One of the great things about RVing is learning about life in other places. On Friday, our friends, Bobbie and Jerry drove down from Polson and the four of us took a tour of the Missoula Smokejumpers Base and Visitor Center. Smokejumpers are the highly skilled, rapid response professionals that provide initial attack on emerging fires in difficult to reach areas. In order to be a smokejumper, you must first have several years of firefighting experience and then go through the arduous training of learning how to jump out of a plane and be responsible for your equipment. That means if you have to cut yourself down from a tree, you must go back up that tree and get the parachute. You must be able to carry a 110 pound pack on a flat surface in 90 minutes among other physical and mental challenges. There are currently 9 women, along with the men, that make up the Missoula Smokejumpers.
The Kevlar suit is what all Smokejumpers wear. The model has a parachute on his back. The gray pack on his chest is an auxiliary chute. The small orange pack below the gray one holds his supplies. Firefighting equipment is dropped separately.
The larger orange pack will hold his parachute from the initial drop.
What do a tailor and a Smokejumper have in common? They both make their own clothes and packs.
Parachutes are drying and being inspected for holes.
This plane drops fire retardant.
P-2VNeptune
The next blog will come from Yellowstone National Park. We leave Missoula for the six hour trip to West Yellowstone, on Monday. Since January, Yellowstone will be our 11th national park. We feel so grateful for the opportunity to tour this wonderful country. Thank you for reading the blog. We truly appreciate your interest in our lives.
Just catching up after some travels of my own. You have certainly spent the summer in beautiful country! I will be bicycling from Astoria to San Francisco the first 2weeks of Sept.
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