Day 13

Monday, September 22

First, thanks to all you blog readers!   There appear to be about 25 of you who are reading daily.   It makes us feel like we have you here with us!

We rose early.   Beautiful sunrise out on the plains.

Sunrise at Great Falls, MT.

 You can see the "island ranges" of mountains to the E and SE of Great Falls.    We'll miss the plains and the long horizons.

We had to drive generally south to follow the Missouri as long as we could and also use a pass that had a four-lane road.     We wanted to stay with the Missouri to continue the Lewis and Clark experience as long as we could.    Back in 1805, they went much farther to the south to trace the Missouri to its source and to locate the Shoshoni tribe, from whom they obtained horses and a guide.   These experiences took an extra month and a very indirect route to navigable waters in the Columbia River system.   Linda will write more about Sacagawea and the Shoshoni.

As we drove toward Helena, the state capital, we saw the famous and very beautiful Square Butte.   It is huge!    Charles Russell, the famous Western painter, did several really nice depictions.  Check online to see them!

Not much farther south on I-15, you approach the mountains and the Missouri flows down from a break in the hills.   The plains end here.   Very dramatic and very beautiful!

We went on to Helena where I spent about 6 weeks way back in the fall of 1989, running a field exercise for the 10th Special Forces Group.     Helena is the state capital and is not large...maybe 40,000 souls.    Here, we turned onto US Highway 12 and headed up over the Continental Divide.   MacDonald Pass is a little over 6200 feet.   The old F150 made it over, but we were sometimes at only 30 mph in lower gear.

On the other side of the pass we linked up with I-90 and cruised up to Missoula, home of the U. of Montana.   The Interstate parallels the Bitterroot River, a really beautiful mountain river.   (corrected entry.)

Bitterroot River in far western Montana.

Missoula is a typical hippy University town.    The mountains here are fairly rounded off with little protruding rock.    I'd expected smaller versions of the mountains of Wyoming, etc., but its not like that.  

Tomorrow, into Idaho.

Linda Adds:

I find the story of Sacajawea very interesting and mysterious.  First, there is the debate of what to call her.  Her name means "bird woman" and was given to her after her capture as a young girl.  As a young Shoshoni girl she was called "grass child".  After her capture, her name was changed.  In North Dakota, she is called Sakakawea and in most other places Sacajawea.  Some accounts say she died just a few years after her journey with Lewis and Clark and others have her living until nearly 100.  All accounts, and especially the diaries of Lewis and Clark, state she was very intelligent and helpful.  She was not a guide but helped with interpreting for her tribe and with medicines and food
sources.  No account indicates that her husband, the Frenchman Charbonneau, was well thought of
and in fact, Lewis did not recommend him for any additional benefit at the end of the journey. It is amazing to contemplate Sacajawea's strong will to survive...captured as a young child, saw her parents killed, captive and then traded into marriage with a man already in his 40's, who did not speak her language and was cruel.  What is even more amazing is the circumstances that made it possible for her to travel home, with white men, and to meet her own brother.  We joke about Ginger Rogers dancing just as well as Fred Astaire, except backwards and in heels.  Well, Sacajawea, a small indian woman traveled the same difficult path as the men of the Corp of Discovery, with a newborn on her back.