16 July: Heading east, we passed through the Idaho panhandle into Montana at Lookout Pass. This was one of the original ski areas in the U.S. (rope tow installed in 1936 and officially opened in 1938) and is one of three ski areas in the country where skiers can ski in two states. There we picked up some information on a bike trail that we’d like to explore on a future trip (the Hiawatha). Today, however, we pushed on to a rendezvous with “Old Fogey” friends Rob and Judith, who had traveled from Maine in their camper to meet us at Seeley Lake in Lolo National Forest to begin three weeks of camping, hiking, and biking together in the Rockies of Montana, Alberta, and B.C.
17 July: We biked along the Clark Fork River in Missoula on the Kim Williams Nature Trail and the Milwaukee Road rail trail. These trails, partly on gravel and partly on asphalt, gave us a pleasant way to pass the time while our car was being checked out because some dashboard warning lights had come on the day before (no problems were found, though).
18 July: We relocated to Great Falls, where we went to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. This little museum, run by the U.S. Forest Service, has excellent exhibits and videos that easily captured our attention for a couple of hours. The Great Falls of the Missouri River were about at the midpoint of the the Corps of Discovery’s westward journey and proved to be a much more formidable obstacle than Lewis and Clark had anticipated. The boats and supplies had to be portaged around this series of five major waterfalls, which took over two weeks rather than the expected one day.
19 July: Before leaving Great Falls, we visited the C.M. Russell Museum. Charlie Russell (1864-1926) was one of America’s most celebrated western painters and sculptors. He had firsthand experience working as a cowpuncher back in the days when the West was still pretty wild, beginning in the early 1880s. Largely self-taught as an artist, his art captured the excitement and romance of a way of life that was rapidly dying out during his lifetime. In 1897 Russell met Olaf Carl Seltzer (1877-1957), a talented Danish artist who became a close friend of his and whose influence was evident in Russell’s later paintings. We had the benefit of a short personal tour from Carol Seltzer, a museum volunteer whose husband is a grandson of O.C. Seltzer. Besides works by Russell and Seltzer, the museum displays paintings, sculptures, and photographs by others, plus an exhibit about buffalo (bison) and one on historical western firearms. We were all very impressed with what this museum has to offer.
