From Three Forks to Wallace Lake by Way of Lemhi Pass

July 28 -

Threeforks MT – We awoke and prepared to leave this area.  A full scale wedding party was beginning to take over the Sacajawea Inn and it was time to split.   All the invitees of course were friends an family of the participants.  These were some real colorful people.

Our stay there was nice and the pampering was well deserved.  And so we are on our way to Lemhi Pass for the night.  We drove into Butte and did some laundry and then headed out after restocking the Truck Camper. 

Lemhi Pass is a most enchanting place for me as it is where the Corp of Discovery crossed the continental divide hoping to see an easy water path to the Pacific coast.  After seeing what they saw that day in August in 1805, it’s a wonder they “proceeded on” – mountain range after mountain range was such a daunting site to see.  But they did and that intestinal fortitude is what drove these early explorers to finish the trek.

From Lemhi Pass looking into Idaho

Coming up the Montana side.

We arrived there mid-afternoon and to our surprise we found that the area was designated as Day Use Only – pretty disappointing to say the least.  I was hoping to stay there over night and boondock as we say – camping with no hook ups or anything like that.  But the rules apply to all and so Tammy and I decided to push on to Wallace Lake.  Only about 50 miles away.

So traversing over the mountains on a gravel road in big truck can be nerve racking to some degree.  We traveled 48 miles from Dillon MT over to Salmon Id on gravel roads going across the continental divide on single lane fire roads.  It was fun.

We finally got back on some good black top and proceeded to blow through Salmon and make our way on to Wallace Lake – another 18 miles one way to the campground.  We had been to Wallace Lake before in 2012 on our Lewis and Clark trip.  We fished there in early June that year and it was a most beautiful place very remote and I remember we ran into only 3 people that day in 2012.  I said to Tammy then that we would be back here one day and camp. 

That day had come.  Even the campsite that I dreamed about was open.  Being later in the year by a month, the campground had some campers in it but we did manage to pull right into the site that I saw our camper setting there in my imagination years before.

Of course leveling the camper was something I hadn’t planned on doing but after a pile of rocks under the left front tire to raise the truck about 6 inches, we were just fine.

So having not been able to camp at Lemhi Pass for the night that now gave us two nights at Wallace Lake.  Our next stop was to be Missoula for two nights before we pushed on to West Glacier.  So we decided to take one of nights in Missoula and trade it in for a 3rd night at Wallace Lake.  That was a good plan.

Although Wallace Lake was a very dusty environment, we managed well and had plenty of time fishing and took a walk around the lake.  I introduced Rock Hopping to Tammy and she is coming along very nicely stepping from stone to stone and keeping her balance.  Good training for wading in the rivers for trout fishing I guess.

A trip into Salmon, ID to refresh some supplies was due on Friday.

We came to know Fire Roads 026 and 020 pretty well.  Knew where the turnouts were located and the worst of the worst Washboard sections.  The trip down the mountain on Sunday morning (07-31) was pretty easy.  People do tend to get out of the way when they see a big rig coming down the mountain swaying from side to side.

July 31st - Breakfast at Wally's in Salmon and then on our way to Missoula.