Pursuit of History

Google Earth has my adventurer spirit on fire. Combined with historical accounts of Montana, from early settler days, and a wild notion to sell my city dwelling and buy some land (and maybe a trailer), I have been combing the landscape looking for a perfect spot.

From satellite it's interesting to see the way the mountains buildup steep and have gradual washouts. For example the north Blackfoot area, near Ovando, seems to trickle into the prairies of Helena and the Lolo National Forest appears thick all the way to the Palouse of eastern Washington.

From what I can gather, before the white man came around, the Blackfeet controlled things and by things I mean buffalo. They protected all mountain routes the buffalo with ferocity and thus other tribes would either pay a tax for buffalo access or die. The result, in my mind, are secret trails traveled by those wishing to avoid the Blackfeet and the kings of these trails are the Nez Perce (and the Kootenai too).

The Missoula valley was hotly contested (because of buffalo roads) and maybe the safer place was the Bitterroot Valley. Thus, ways to the Bitterroot by avoiding Missoula were developed, probably going through the Sapphires (Skalkaho and Welcome Creek) and Lolo and Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests (Fish Creek and Salmon River). I have been exploring these areas by car and have uncovered a couple gems. While I'm not going to reveal my favorite spots, let's just say there's magic in them there hills.

Mill Creek
Mill Creek above Frenchtown

Brown's Lake
Brown's Lake near Ovando

Rock Creek

Trail Gulch near Philipsburg

Skalkaho Pass

Ambrose Creek
Ambrose Creek in the Bitterroot

Major Zone and Cool Subzones

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