Traveling ~ Lincoln, MT to Lewiston, ID

June 7, 2013

It was a river day today...all day I drove along rivers: first the Blackfoot, then the Lochsa and then the Clearwater.

I left my sweet little knotty-pine motel and got espresso. Most small towns in these parts have at least one drive-through espresso place.

It was another perfect June morning. The drive to Missoula would have taken about 90 minutes but I stopped at a fishing access site along the Blackfoot called Angevine. The river was down a steep bank, and I could stand up on the bank and watch birds flitting in the riparian flora below me. No mosquitoes which surprised me. A "raspberry juice"colored finch popped into view which happened to be a life bird - a Cassin's finch. This bird looks nearly identical to the purple finch seen in Michigan. Since purple finches are not out west, by process of elimination, this was a Cassin's. A few minutes later I saw the female Cassin's.

A man and his two young sons drove up with a canoe on their vehicle. The dad fussed with securing the canoe for a long time and the kids got their poles and scampered down to the river. Me, a total stranger, was mildly worried about them falling in....jeez was is with this worry gene????

At another quick pull-off along here, I stopped on a little bridge over a tributary stream and saw a dipper, which is a plumpish robin-sized, all dark bird which LOVES wild rushing streams, hopping from rock to rock and evensubmerging and moving underwater for a spell. This is another western bird.

In Missoula, I stopped at a Great Clips but the wait was 45 minutes so I went on and found a Starbuck's and blogged for awhile.

Most of the afternoon, I drove US12 over Lolo Pass, turning west about 10 miles south of Missoula, and thinking of A River Runs Through It near Lolo Hot Springs. The route truly winds for 100 mile, mostly along the Lochsa river. The wild beauty goes on and on and on...the river with significant white water (especially this time of year), the mountains and a million magnificant trees. there are dozens of tiny creeks running down from the mountains into the Lochsa with great names like Shoestring or Rattlesnake or Two Shadows. I saw a handsome Steller Jay near the pass. One time I turned in and drove through a Forest Service campground and heard a bird singing repetitively. But the trees are huge and I didn't expect I would find it but looked anyway for a few minutes and then caught a glimpse of movement way up high. It was a Townsend's warbler! How cool is that? Being a Townsend's and all and a bird one would not see in Michigan. It is a beautiful warbler...all yellow and black around its head. I saw a Townsend's only once before on Antelope Island in Utah.

Another cool thing happened: I was driving along, winding around curves and came upon a conventional raft and two catarafts (check out the "cataraft carnage" YouTube for what can happen on this river), and since there are so many pullouts, I was able to stop and get a photo or two. I then drove on and saw significant whitewater AND a pedestrian bridge,one of about only two or three that I saw crossing the river. I parked, ran down the trail and got on the bridge just before the three rafts came through. They all made it without cataraft carnage and it looked like a blast!

The sun made the water silver; the pines and spruces and cedars scented the air; the skies were blue. There were relatively calm stretches with tiny sandy beaches but often sections of raging water and gigantic rocks......or one could travel Interstate 90 and miss all this and most people do.

The last part of the day, for about two hours, I rode along the Clearwater River to Lewiston. It's a larger river and there was much more traffic. I had to pay attention to avoid landing IN the river but it was beautiful.

It was hot (probably over 90 degrees) and windy with brilliant sunshine in Lewiston. The dry heat in the west is tolerable to far greater temperatures than the more humid heat in Michigan. I was surprised to see the car thermometer read 86 or 89 when it felt quite comfortable without air on.

 I stayed in a motel overlooking the town in a room on the third floor with a wee balcony and worked with the door open for several hours. There was a maple tree right next to the balcony with a nest tucked inside. After I had typed for hours, I began hearing bird commotion. It was dusk and I never did actually see what bird  had nested there but I almost could have reached in and touched it.