Oh! What a day! Sunday, August 29, 2010

Lost Trail Pass

We awoke to rain. We had to be out of the rv park by 8:15 because we were having breakfast with Dick's friend, Jim. (We were to have dinner, but Jim's plane from LA was delayed last night, so dinner was postponed to breakfast.)  He suggested we meet at The Hayloft Saloon in Lolo, MT because it was on our way to Sun Valley. We had a great time and a great breakfast with Jim and his friend, Vicky. Before we knew it, it was 10:15 and we had to be on our way. The direct trip to Sun Valley was 277 miles. The long way around Galena Summit was 377 miles--both ways on winding two-lane highways. Since it was still raining we were certain that we would have to go the long way. (We had a contingency plan for the long way: We would spend the night in Argo, Idaho. We had tentative reservations that we could cancel.)

The road wasn't too bad and traffic was light. We started climbing around 50 miles out of Lolo and before we knew it, we were on the Lost Trail Pass in the Rocky Mountains on the border of Idaho and Montana. The pass is 7014 feet above sea level! The motor home was great, and the tow car tracked very well through all the curves. The clouds made the mountains and surrounding valleys look even more spectacular. At the bottom of the mountain we started through the Salmon River Valley. Dick commented that he thought we were going to avoid this by taking the long route around, and by the time we would get to the cut-off to Sun Valley we would be half-way there. We had 108 miles to decide whether or not to go the short route.

Salmon River

We skirted in and out of the rain for the next 100 miles, but by the time we came to the turn-off to Sun Valley at Challis, it was pretty dry. Dick decided to go for the short way, eventually going over Galena Summit. We spent the next few hours driving along the Salmon River. There were many hairpin turns, and maybe out of the 114 miles left, only 3 or 4 were on the straight-away. Each turn brought another amazing vista. When we finally emerged from the Salmon River Valley, we were met with a panorama of the Sawtooth Mountain Range in Stanley, Idaho. This is where we hiked 10.5 miles, climbing 4000 feet to Sawtooth Lake to scatter Ellen's ashes last year. We were surprised to see that there is still a great deal of snow pack on those mountains. The trail to the lake is usually impassible until mid-August/beginning of September because of snow pack. It starts snowing in October, so there is a six-week window for hiking. This summer has been very cool, so we may not get up there this year.

Stanley, Idaho

The mountains were shrouded with low clouds, but there were breaks of bright blue. Several miles down the road, we began to approach Galena Summit. Dark clouds hung over the road and within minutes it started pouring! Close to the summit (8701 feet above sea level) it was snowing! What a surprise! Thankfully the ground was warm enough so the roads were not icy. Once we got to the other side, we had a straight shot to Ketchum/Sun Valley. The sun came out when we got to town! I had a funny feeling when we passed the road to Ellen's condo. Our first trip to this magical place was in 1977 when our kids were young and we "adults" were crazy. I have lost track of the number of times we have returned, but this is the third time we've been here without Ellen. We'll never stop missing her and always be grateful that she introduced us to this area.