Movin' Right Along*

It's been a busy few weeks. August 9th we had a splendid day with daughter Rachel and her husband Will, doing bits of Missoula, and then driving up to Lochsa Lodge for a patio dinner. Much fun conversation. They are on a road trip to culminate in a wedding in Michigan. Not to worry, they are as careful as can be with COVID-19. After that we headed back to California. After the usual unpacking, repacking, reorganization, reloading, we took grand-daughter Penelope camping for four days at Pinecrest Lake, in Stanislaus National Forest, in the Sierra. Not for the first time, by any means, but with much warm and clear weather and lakeside fun. The rest of that week saw more reorganization--for a much longer fall trip in the US--as well as a sinus procedure for Vicki (preceded by a negative COVID-19 test). A few more pleasant days with Penelope, Rebecca, and Jeremy, and we were back on the road, now to Rocklin, CA, near Sacramento, to consummate the sale of our European RV, Le Duc, to new friends Terry and Jennifer. We trust they will be happy with their new purchase, currently in storage outside Edinburgh, and we wish them the best and many buoni viaggi. Our feelings are mixed...happy to close the deal and achieve some further clarification about our own futures...but also sad to see the European RV chapter of our lives come to an end. We had such good times in that camper and its predecessor! But hopefully it is not the end of our European travel. As I write, we are back in Montana, having enjoyed a few days' rest in the Tetons. One of our happy places. It's been a busy few weeks.

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6NQcO9KTBY

Rachel and Will at the De Voto Grove, Crooked Fork, Idaho

On a hike to the former Jerry Johnson Hot Springs (now downgraded to Warm Springs)

In Riggins, Idaho, on the way back to California: "complimentary beer"; times are tough

"Watch for Rock": out West you take this enjoinder seriously

Thus

Encampment at Antelope Reservoir, eastern Oregon; en route to California

At Pinecrest, our new camping pennant

Social distancing at Pinecrest Lake; the kids were really quite good

Rock climbing at Pinecrest

Another tea party; note American Girl Molly, standing in for Mrs.
McGillacuddy

Wildfire and smoke in California, as we leave for Rocklin

Addio, Le Duc (here seen in Brittany, 2015); you took us to many wonderful places

Movin' right along...Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho

Somewhere in darkest Idaho, a mountainside defaced by decades of local high school classes

Sic transit, Gloria: once a respectable volcano, now just a cell-phone tower platform

Jackson's Hole, from Teton Pass; smoke from Idaho, Oregon, California; it got better after a few showers

Lunch by Flat Creek, National Elk Refuge, just north of Jackson

Old friends, since 1970

Over-flow parking from the Taggart Lake trail-head; most crowded we've
ever seen the Tetons

Jackson Lake and Mt. Moran, from near where we camped, at Colter Bay; glaciers hanging in there

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail

The Continental Divide Trail runs some 3,100 miles, atop the Rockies, from Mexico to Canada. We hiked bits of it the three days we were parked at the Homestake trail head. Somewhat less than 0.2%, but it was a good trail, well-maintained, and scenic, with views of Butte and also the Boulder Batholith. We've probably done a couple hundred miles of the CDT in Wyoming, some years back, but that was in the winter, on a snowmobile (see, for example, https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2015/02/snowmobiling-continental-divide-trail-1.html or https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2016/02/snowmobiling-continental-divide-trail.html).

Tree versus sign, episode #1,208

Tree versus rock, episode #83,401; [further comment suppressed]

Bear den condo (seasonal)

Beautiful trail

View of (relatively) unplundered portion of Butte

Moeraki Beach?

Early August, 6,500 feet, still abloom

Old mine entrance

After our third night, we returned from hiking to find the parking lot plastered with new signage

To the inexperienced eye (e.g., mine), the boulders of the Boulder Batholith look like they were
dropped there by a passing glacier; but here, in a road-cut, you can see them emerging, as geologists
tell us, from the younger detritus that covers them

Cleared for landing at Le Grande Aerodrome Internationale du Butte

Had we been younger, more energetic, or at least interested, we might have hiked the 10 miles
north on the CDT to Maud Canyon and this spectacular view of the Berkeley Pit, where much
of old Butte and Walkerville used to be [it's a long, interesting but ultimately depressing story; probably more has been written about Butte than any other comparatively-sized town,
anywhere]; and this unusual dorsal view of Our Lady of the Pit [someone else's picture;
obviously]

At Homestake Pass

The next week we spent camping at or near Homestake Pass, overlooking beautiful Butte, Montana, mostly at the Delmoe Lake national forest campground, ten miles from the Pass, or at the Continental Divide Trail trail head itself. All this among the spectacular outcroppings of the aforementioned Boulder Batholith.

On the road to Delmoe Lake

An ATV and dirt bike paradise, alas; here, side-hilling by the ATVers

Oh well, a small pretty lake anyway

Somehow, with all the monoliths laying around, it reminded us of ...

The Gulf of Morbihan, near Carnac (seen here from Gavrinis, Lamor-Baden, France, 2009); the
monolith builders would have loved the Boulder Batholith

Nice campsite anyway

Peaks, Holes, and Spires; Oh My

The weather in Missoula was turning ugly...the continental hot weather finally moving north to these latitudes. 90s and 100s are not fun in an RV, even if you have shore power or a generator to run your AC. We decided to head for the high country (Missoula is at 3100 feet) and tough it out there. This eventually involved a trip up the Bitterroot Valley (Amnesia Lane for us, remembering lots of sights, but not why nor when...), old friend route 93, then crossing over to route 43 at the Idaho border, and across the Big Hole valley, Montana's highest and largest. We passed over the top of the Big Hole, following the beautiful Big Hole River, a fishing and floating mecca, to Divide, where, beyond the Interstate, down a 3 mile gravel road, we came to the Moose Creek trail head, an opening to the Humbug Spires reserve. 

As students of this blog well know, we like weird rock formations, whether in Montana, California, New Zealand, or Namibia. The Humbug Spires are the lower end of the Boulder Batholith, a Cretaceous volcanic event, 70-80 million years ago, that deposited these huge piles (and spires) of quartz monzonite boulders everywhere from north of Helena to south of Butte. The boulders were covered by volcanic stuff back in the day, which continues to weather away, revealing the weird rock formations we like. Driving around Montana, 1995-2008, we'd always admired them, but never camped among them.

But first, the peaks, specifically Trapper Peak, pretty far up the
Bitterroot, the highest in the range

It's the one on the left, atop a long gentle ridge, with a trail; I
climbed it in 2005, the week after we returned from doing the
Tour du Mont-Blanc; I've scoured our photo archives, but 
apparently didn't take any pix of Trapper Peak; hey, we'd just
done the TMB!

Now we're in the Big Hole, at its most famous site,
the Big Hole Battlefield National Monument; not
one of the more glorious episodes in US history,
as the US Army attempted to ambush and slaughter
the fleeing non-treaty Nez Perce (Chief Joseph,
et al.)

Briefly, the Army launched a pre-dawn artillery attack from the
woods on the left; the Nez Perce, camped on the right, quickly
regrouped and drove the soldiers back into the woods, capturing
some of their artillery, but, more importantly, permitting the
women and children and elderly to escape; the Army suffered
some 60 casualties, the Nez Perce some 90, most of whom were
non-combatants, of course

Site of encampment (tipis); the Nez Perce went on their way,
through Montana, Yellowstone, back into Montana, nearly to
Canada, before succombing to both the pursuing Army and the
winter; and the rest is...a very sad and inglorious history

Looking north in the Big Hole

Now among the Humbug Spires; a big one, really, just a pile of
granite boulders; from our encampment at the trail head

Signage at the trail head

Next day we did (most of) the Moose Creek trail, which leads
up mostly behind the spires

Some actual spires (monoliths), 30-40 feet high

Another formation across the canyon

Up closer

Primitive campsites here and there

Never seen so much dead fall; not a little of it on the trail

A good trail nonetheless; heavily traveled for a
BLM site

It was hot, even at over 6,000 feet, and we didn't get much beyond
the 2.5 mile mark

And the views did not seem to get better than this

Free range cattle were always nearby

Interesting place