The Lewis and Clark Trail

After all of our recent ‘studying’ of this part of Lewis and Clark’s journey we decided to hike a trail that followed part of the expedition’s original route.  The expedition was camped high in the mountains on the Lolo Trail but their food was scarce so they came down to the Lochsa River to try to get fish for the hungry group.  After getting fish they completed the difficult climb up Wendover Ridge to Snowbank Camp.  So David and I followed the Wendover Ridge Trail from the Lochsa River up into the rugged mountains.

The trail was spectacular, very steep and gorgeous views once we climbed several hundred feet.  We hiked through Western Red Cedar, Grand Fir, Douglas Fir and even huge Ponderosa Pines on the dry southern slopes. The trail was honest – it started off very steep and stayed that way.  We knew what to expect.  Although our map did not have topography lines on it, we climbed at least 1,500 feet or more in about an hour.  After that we continued to climb but our pace was slower.

Dogwood blooming along Lewis and Clark Trail

We passed a trail crew of four young men working on trail maintenance.  They confirmed that the higher Lolo Motorway was still impassible with snow as they had to take a lower road and hike up the trail rather than work from the upper end.  It was fun to talk to the trail crew about their work and how the Lewis & Clark Trail is managed.

The trail is kept rustic, leaving logs across it unless the path is blocked too much.  The trail crew used chain saws to clear logs and then they came back with an axe to make the cuts look more ‘authentic’ – like maybe the Lewis & Clark Expedition themselves had cleared the trail.  We did enjoy that the trail was rustic and not overly well marked.  Even though we did not climb all the way to Snowbank Camp, we had a grand time on the trail and ate our lunch with one heck of a view…

David near the top of the trail - we started  in the valley over 2,000 feet below

We could have easily stayed a month in the Bitterroot Range – the beauty, ruggedness and history were captivating.  In the fall we are planning to come back this way.