detour

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'There’s a long black cloud hanging in the sky honey.'

Another crisp cold morning, but even at that hour a thick layer of smoke hung in the foothills of the mountains to the west. In Wisdom I stopped at the ranger station to ask about the fires. They said I’d be fine along the highways, but the campgrounds were closed before Sula.

I stopped at the Big Hole battlefield visitor center. A portion of the area is again an army encampment- this time for the fire crew. Down by the river, where the Nez Perce were attacked, about a dozen bare teepees have been erected. It is haunting to see them there in that beautiful valley, these strange skeletons watching over so many unmarked graves. The whole Big Hole valley actually sits at about 6000 feet elevation, so I only had a few miles of climbing to crest the pass and again cross the continental divide. Then came the roaring downhill. I don’t think I pedaled for 8 miles together. On the way down, I saw the huge plume of smoke rising from the fire to the west. It even covered the sun briefly, leaving it dark and red. Another fire crew base camp was sprawled out in the valley, and there at that ranger station, I was given bad news. The back country road, that I was hoping to take to my old home town of Elk City ID, is flanked by fires and has had to be closed occasionally due to fire actually crossing the road itself. And the whole area is choked with the smoke. I’m disappointed about sacrificing this section, but not heartbroken. My mother is already filling my phone with the numbers of Elk City acquaintances who now live along my new route up to Missoula and over Lolo Pass in the grand foot steps of Lewis & Clark.

my favorite road sign
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-An odd thing- I saw a little sign for 'Nez Perce Realty'. Does it seem strange to anyone else that white people would sell land to other white people in the name of the Indians who used to live there and were brutally slaughtered so that some white people could sell their land to other white people? I dunno.