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| Blodgett Canyon near Hamilton, MT in the Bitterroot National Forest |
Although
we always have a general idea of where we are headed and what we would like to
see, we have become comfortable with life on the road and let whim and chance
have their say. Except for national
holidays or very popular areas we seldom make reservations; that way we can
change our minds and linger or leave as we please. But we do have some deadlines when we are
meeting family or friends and we have a big one coming up soon in the Canadian
Rockies.
David’s
brother, Jim, moved to the Detroit area last year for love and it has worked
out. The newly-weds (August 20, 2014),
Jim and Harumi, are taking a honeymoon in Lake Louise and we are going to join
them for a few days in early September.
We have never met Harumi and are looking forward to getting to know our
newest family member.
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| Butterfly on thistle in Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness |
It dawned on us that September was just around the corner and we needed to pick up the pace a little to make it to Canada on time. So we left Washington spending one night in the Coeur d’Alene area and arriving the next day in Missoula, Montana. Coeur d’Alene was just beautiful and unless other places beckon, we may spend some time in Idaho on our way back from Canada.
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| Kinnikinnick, or Common Bearberry, grows on dry rocky slopes |
Montana
is another state we’ve always wanted to explore more so we decided to spend the
next several days in Montana seeing the western part of the state – and yes,
you guessed it, checking out some wilderness areas. After a few days enjoying Missoula and
getting ourselves ready and resupplied to be out in forest campgrounds for the
next week, we headed south on US 93 to Lake Como about 12 miles south of
Hamilton, MT.
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| Lake Como at dusk |
Beautiful
Lake Como was the perfect place for us to camp while making some excursions
into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.
In fact, we could walk to the wilderness border from our campground via
the Lake Trail as it was just 3.5 miles away.
But there was no road, so that meant we had to walk a total of 7 miles
just to get to the wilderness border and back to our campground. We have a rule that we can’t count the
wilderness if we don’t walk at least a mile into it. And who wants to walk just a mile in a
wilderness?
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| Cooling off after lunch in a wilderness stream |
We
had a lovely hike to the end of Lake Como and then walked almost 2 more miles
into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.
By the end of the day we had walked 10.5 miles. We have hiked longer distances in a day but
we find that 10 - 12 miles is about our limit (or less if the elevation change is more than 1,800 feet) if we don’t want to be
really whipped and sore the next day.
The 3.5 miles along Lake Como was mostly flat with many nice views of
the lake. Once we got into the
wilderness that story changed and we climbed steadily through a rocky area that
was recovering from a 20 year-old fire. After about a mile, we were back into thick
fir forests and a little less climbing.
We had lunch by a quiet stream while watching butterflies on a thistle
plant and Maya had a nice ‘after lunch wade’ in the stream before we headed
back to camp.
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| Blodgett Canyon |
The next day we took a hike in Blodgett Canyon, a few miles down the road and not too far from the town of Hamilton. Although this glacier carved canyon was not in the wilderness it had been recommended to us by several people as a hike ‘not to be missed.’ And we were glad we didn’t miss it. The canyon had high steep peaks on both sides and reminded us of a smaller version of Yosemite Valley. The trail closely paralleled a beautiful mountain stream and there was even a natural stone arch high on the mountain ridge.
We
hiked two more days although one of those hikes was a short one-mile nature trail
because of the heavy downpours that day. The other hike was the Caffin Creek Trail
back into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness south of Lake Como. It had rained several inches the previous day and
night so the trail was wet. Much of the
trail was overgrown on both sides by wet foliage and though it didn’t rain
on us, we got very wet from the waist down. Maya got very wet all over but didn't seem to mind much at all.
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| Solomon's-seal berries among fern |
The
Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness is one of the original wilderness areas first
designated by the U.S. Congress in the Wilderness Preservation Act of
1964. The Act set aside an initial 9.1
million acres of wild lands for the use and benefit of the American
people.
About
the size of Delaware at 1,340,502 acres, the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness is
the third largest wilderness in the lower 48 states with over one million acres
in Idaho and about 250,000 acres in Montana. Few places in the world have such a varied
habitat from elevations over 10,000 feet on the Bitterroot crest to 1,700 feet
on the Selway River. The 1,350 miles of
trails are cleared and maintained with traditional tools such as a cross cut
saw and axe. As in all wilderness areas,
mechanized equipment is not allowed.
That means no chainsaws and the trail maintenance crews have to walk or
ride a horse into the wilderness to do their jobs.
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| View from trail along Lake Como approaching the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness |
Needless
to say during our short stay near the Selway-Bitterrroot Wilderness, we did not
even scratch the surface of this vast terrain.
But that is one of the beauties of wilderness – it will be there to
explore for generations to come. Perhaps
we will visit it again on the Idaho side on our way back from Canada.
David's
Stats:
Days Hiked 4
Rain
Days 1 Days Hiked 4
Total Miles Hiked 28.41
Ave. Miles per Day 5.68
Total Elevation Gain 2,895
Ave. Elevation Gain per day 724
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