Day 257 – Salmon – Bitterroot Country

Day 257 – Salmon Bitterroot Country, August 30, 2011

Today ended up being a lot of driving and a lot of road
construction. I tried visiting Bonanza
and Custer, two ghost towns from the mining days, but the road to the towns was
closed for two hours at a time. When the
flagger heard me say, “Ok, I’ll skip it then”, he let out a sigh of
relief! Instead, I snapped a quick photo
of a dam that was erected in 1910 and blown up in 1934 as it was prohibiting
salmon from swimming upstream to spawn.

We followed the river, passed by multi-colored cliffs, and
golden hills for miles before climbing Lost Trail Pass, a place where Lewis and
Clark camped, and eventually stopping for a hike around Lake Como. The partially paved and dirt trail wound
though the forest and provided intermittent views of the lake.

After strolling the edges of Lake Como, we took another walk
through Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge.
Almost dusk, we followed a trail along the river where deer stopped for
a nightly drink. As the sun set, we
continued on to Missoula for the night.
ETB