Missoula and Hot Springs, MT, and western Washington

This post covers two days. I had no Net access last night.

Tuesday evening Anita invited me to join her at a Missoula club and bar where progressive Democratic candidates and activists were celebrating or mourning the results of local races in the Montana primaries that day. The star was Ellie Hill, just elected to the state House of Representatives (since her seat will be uncontested in the general election this fall). Ellie was kind enough to give me one of the T-shirts she had had made up for her campaign workers, with a big white Superman "S" on the front; I'm wearing it right now as all my other clothes are in the dryer in the hotel's guest laundry room.

Wednesday the clouds and rain returned. I hung out for an hour or so with the lone escort at Blue Mountain Clinic. We swapped stories and compared notes between my years of clinic defense in DC, MD, and VA, and her surprisingly similar experience of anti-abortion protesters in Missoula, who as in DC receive little support from the community at large.

Then I found my way to the Rattlesnake National Recreation Area. I hiked, or rather strolled, only a mile of the well-kept main trail before the rain drove me back to the car. Here's a view of the impressive canyon wall the small but fast-moving Rattlesnake Creek has carved out of the rock.

Then Anita and I headed for Hot Springs on the Flathead Indian Reservation, which happily took the place of my planned trip to Glacier National Park. At Camas Hot Springs (no website, this travel website has basic facts), her favorite, and had a soak in the 115° mineral water - a first for me, relaxing my driving-stressed shoulders. Here's a view of the larger of the two pools built and maintained by an old Native American named Leroy, who also collects the $5 bills we deposit in a slot as we enter.

After persuading Leroy to leave the pool filled and let us drain it later that evening, we toweled off and headed to the Symes Hot Springs Hotel for dinner - good modest-priced food and some really fun socializing with Russell, the desk clerk/waiter/piano player, and with the cook. Then back to the pool, where one other customer and Leroy were still hanging out. While we all were there a violent thunderstorm came through with heavy rain. Anita and I were the last to leave and kept our promise.

This morning (Thursday) I headed out, leaving Anita to work on a presentation she was to give tonight. My GPS for some reason sent me off onto a rutted mountain trail from which I had to backtrack, at first in reverse gear. After this 30-minute (mis)adventure I found the state road and eventually my first goal, Thompson Falls.

In this town a pedestrian bridge leads to an island with great views of a massive hydroelectric dam where a fish ladder is currently under construction. This view gives a slight idea of the tremendous force of the water flowing over the dam even after part of the river's flow has been diverted through huge tunnels to turbines that drive generators downstream. The sturdy boardwalk seems to be to allow heavy construction equipment to access the dam from below. Once more a rain squall cut my visit short.

From there I crossed Thompson Pass, again with its own weather system on the "wet" side of the mountain - here's a view looking back after I'd made it back down below the clouds. Then I followed the lovely clear Coeur d'Alene river back to I-90, my main route all the way from eastern Minnesota and even in some earlier stretches.

That's it for today's photos. I kicked myself for not turning off for the overlook for what turned out to be the spectacular Columbia River gorge east of here, but there were no exits for miles in this part of the mountainous, arid, amazingly windy Great Basin and Penny was on her last gallon of gas. I managed to make it here to Ellensburg just east of the Cascades. I'm looking forward to more photo ops tomorrow.

PS to my last post: The tastiest meal I had at Yellowstone was a farm-raised bison sirloin steak, cooked rare, my second break on this trip with my no-red-meat rule. It was delicious and I hope as low in fat as it tasted.

Between Livingston and Missoula  I once more crossed the Continental Divide to the Pacific watershed, this time for keeps until I head back to DC more than a month from now.