Day 27 - 4/30/2017 - Helena, MT to Walla Walla, WA - 463.8 Miles

Sunday Afternoon in Idaho

We had a great night last night with Vickie's old friends in Helena. It was much like last month when I met up with my old roommates Craig and Brad. Over 30 years, but it was also like we just saw each other yesterday.

Real frienship endures all things. Time is inconsequential.

We headed through Missoula to the Mountains of Idaho; the Lochsa and Selway rivers merging into the Clearwater.


We stopped several times to see the rafters and Vickie got these shots. Retirement means you don't have to care about schedules.

We picked up Linda Norris in Helena, so for these last few days we are the Three Musketeers. All for one, and one for wine.

Driving through these mountains smelled of home, and long ago. One of the best adventures of my life was in 1978 when I spent 6 days on the Snake River in a dory exploring Hells Canyon, from the bottom. Just before the Snake gets to Lewiston, Idaho, it is joined by the Salmon River which was called The River of No Return. This river was the first beneficiary of the Frank Church Wilderness, the beginning of the Federal governments effort to protect wilderness before it was lost.

The Clearwater joined the Snake at Lewiston, and we followed the river downstream to make an unplanned detour. Just a decision to go to one of those places I always wanted to check out but never did. Palouse Falls, in the rolling Palouse hillls of eastern Washington.

Palouse Falls in Eastern Washington
The west has vast streaches of arid lands. It has even larger areas of land that is unbelieveably green in spring, and slowly turns to brown as the warmth of summer embaces the land.

Water is life.






Norman Maclean wrote a wonderful book called A River Runs Through It. You probably saw the movie, and many of you, like me, read it and never felt the same again.

Please watch.







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