Wednesday, September 12, 2018

NOTE:  WiFi access claimed by Campsite, but it did not exist so we could not post. This post done on Thursday, September 13, 2018

Plans Awoke at 7:00am and 46degrees to a beautiful campsite in Lolo, MT, among the pines.  Very cool temps at night and fall is coming with Aspen and Cottonwoods beginning to turn yellow-brown.  Our plans today are to visit the Visitors Center at Traveler's Rest, then head to Wieppe Prairee (Wee-ip) to see their museum (and possibly an 1803 Enfield from Harpers Ferry. This bit of information was told to us when Wil and I were visiting Fort Dubois at Camp Wood in St. Louis and met a man who had just completed a tour of Idaho's L&C sites.. 


Traveler's Rest Visitors Center, Lolo, MT 

Quite the State Museum

What the Travelers Rest Camp may have looked like.

Well, that little State Museum in Lolo, MT at the Traveler's Rest Visitors center has an original Harpers Ferry 1803 rifle in a display case!  I couldn't believe it.  I took all kinds of pictures as well as a picture of the provenance letter attesting to authenticity. I spoke to the State Site Manager who said he was unsure whether this was an actual L&C rifle and could argue both ways...  (Ironically, before the Visitor's Center opened, Wilma and I saw he and another man talking outside the trail head.  This man was insisting that this rifle was an original 1803 Harper's Ferry rifle, but was NOT an authentic Lewis and Clark Corp rifle, one of the 15 Rifles Meriwether Lewis received from the Armory in 1803)  Hmmm.

Lewis' Harpers Ferry 1803 Rifles were flintlocks, but as the
display says, this rifle has been reworked to percussion cap. BUT
it is an authentic 1803 Harpers Ferry Rifle, SN 12.  One has to
wonder whether this might be one of the original 15 rifles taken
along on the Corps of Discovery!

At 10:15 we then headed to Orofino, ID to camp and planned to take Rt12 over the mountains. I was a bit concerned about fuel but all went well.  I actually keep a five gallon can of gasoline in the bed of my truck since we were told that parts of Montana and Idaho are short on fuel and high on mileage between stations. Note that Montana is the third longest state east to west.  Since entering Montana in Sidney and now leaving Lolo, we've spent 9 days in the state and camped in 5 campgrounds.

We drove by Howard Creek on Rt 12 near Lolo (another L&C site), headed west over Bitterroot Mountains which took L&C and the 30+ members 11 days to hike, crawl, stumble and walk, in near starvation, with horses. Sergeant Patrick Gass called them "the most terrible mountains I ever beheld."  William Clark called this land of endless mountains, downed trees, and of snow and cold, a place "impossible to escape." In those 11 days, they actually covered 140 miles. They killed 3 colts just to stay alive since there was virtually no game to eat (they normally ate 9-10 pounds of meat, each, daily). As Lewis pessimistically summarized it, their portage across the Bitterroots consisted of "140 miles of high Steep ruged Mountain, 60 miles of which is Covered from 2 to 8 feet deep in snow."

When they finally came down the Bitterroots, they met the Nez Perce Indians in Wieppe Prairie.  The men in charge (their Chiefs were off hunting buffalo) were planning to kill the white men and keep their horses, rifles, ammo and equipment.  This tribe of Nez Perce had just been raided by the Shoshones and were suspicious of the white men, thinking they were allied to the Shoshone. But a woman named Watkuweis told the tribal leaders, "do them no hurt."  She had been captured and taken to Canada, then the Great Lakes (probably Grand Rapids, Michigan!). She escaped and returned back to her tribe. She was very old, but remembered her time with the whites.  

Typical of the incredible mountain passes along the Lochsa River.

We stopped 3X about 10-15 minutes each, for major bridge or road construction on Rt12 ID.  All along the rivers west the scenery is just stunning. We happened to be driving on crisp Fall days, temperatures in the mid 70s, cool winds and sunny skies. Drove along Rt 12 Nez Perce National Forest on a newly paved road along Lochsa River, ID. We found the Lochsa River, ID swift moving, shallow, many small round stones winding through the green, evergreen steep mountains with few rapids. As we moved west, the boulders got quite large with tree trunks stacked up like toothpicks along the river sides and high above boulders and sandbars.  We drove by Powell Ranger Station where L&C killed a colt along Lochsa River since they were starving.  The Lochsa and Clearwater River meet by Lowell, ID, 

Wow, falling rock signs take on a whole new meaning here on the Rocky Mountains since we see large and small stones inches away from the white shoulder line, and there is no shoulder. Land and sand slides are very common on the shoulders.  We observe many historical markers with L&C Trail signs along Clearwater River and logging trucks by the dozens speed by.  

Up (and down) Greer Road to Weippe Prairie, ID

Weippe Prairie Library and Museum, Weippe Prairie, ID
We drove directly to Weippe Prairie, ID to find the library where a L&C history museum is located. (told to visit this place by the man at Camp Dubois who said they have an original L&C rifle).  Wow, we were doing 25-30mph, towing the trailer, up very steep 7%grade mountains, 3,000 rpms for the 5.7liter hemi, a very steep and winding road with many hairpin turns finally getting to the 3,000 foot prairie on top.  Signs said, "Slow traffic; delaying 3 vehicles must turn out" and there were quite a few turn outs going up and down. 

We followed an historical L&C site marker which went nowhere.  Poorly marked. We then found the Weippe Prairie Library and Discovery center and found a nice museum downstairs, but NO RIFLE. The woman and man curators looked quizzically at me and

This entire mural wraps around the entire four sides
of the building.

A great place to visit.

said, "no firearms here,"

The entire museum is surrounded by the hand-painted mural history (with markers) of the Corp of Discovery's trip from St. Louis to Fort Clatsop!  It's amazing. So the Traveler's Rest 1803 Harpers Ferry Enfield was probably the rifle the man in St. Louis was speaking about.

An excellent description of the camps of L&C  east and westbound.

Afterwards, we went back down the steep "Greer Road" the hill (Wilma now on the passenger side was a bit queezy and anxious seeing that there are no guardrails and quite precipitous drops downward). 

Our camp tonight at Clearwater Crossing RV, Orofino, ID.
Across the river and down about 5 miles is the Canoe Camp
where L&C stopped to build 6 dugout canoes for the trip down
the Clearwater, into the Snake and finally on to the Columbia River.

Evan at our campsite along the Clearwater River, we've got a
terrific steel sculpture of a Nez Perce warrior.

We drove the 35+ miles to Clearwater camp in Orofino, ID with many, many L&C historical markers along the river; we just cannot stop at each.