'You can't make new old friends.'

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On my way through Lolo I visited with another old friend that I went to first grade with.  She's married and has a young daughter and the whole family seems very happy.  It was good to catch up on all the news from the old Elk City crowd. Our mothers get together every year, but us kids, with our hectic lives, hardly ever do.   I spent the rest of the afternoon climbing the bulk of Lolo Pass to the hotsprings.  I stopped to rest on my way up- have a snack and read for a moment in the shade- and another cyclist stopped to say hello.  He's also going east to west and more by-the-seat-of-his-pants than my little adventure could ever dream of.  We had a nice chat about cycling and the world at large and even rode together until I stopped at the hotsprings.  This is in fact the first time, except for the lunch that I had with the men in Missoula, that I have met and traveled with a biker going my way.  A very nice diversion.  It makes the whole remainder of the evening, sitting by a creek musing with Archy, less tedious.   The next morning I climbed the small remainder of Lolo Pass and crossed into Idaho!  It's just 202 years, less about 10 days, since the Lewis and Clark expedition got lost in an early snow in these very mountains.  Hard to imagine now. We're not allowed to be lost anymore- wait.

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Alright. Here's my brilliant plan to save adventuring for future reckless generations:  The Do Not Rescue.

Last winter we had a tragedy on Mt. Hood where we lost 3 hikers and now the powers that be are threatening to force every climber to take a GPS tracker up the mountain with them.  Now, if you expect rescuers to risk their own lives and countless resources to save you, then that is perfectly reasonable.  But- we all have the right to choose to take risks.  A system needs to be established- akin to a hospital patient who has filed a Do Not Resuscitate- signed by next of kin, wherein a climber can take on a mountain without a tracking device. And if they are lost, then so be it, the mountain wins and they have lived the way that they wanted to live and died the way that they wanted to die. For the record: I want to be rescued.

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Back on the road... I wound my way down off the mountain and along the river and met with yet another Elk City friend at my campground.  She brought me a lovely dinner and we had a nice evening catching up before she had to hit the road.  I'm back in Pacific Time so the sun goes down much earlier now.