The Rise Up Ride: Day 54, Across the Big Hole to the Bitterroot
Date: 15 June 2021
Start Location: Wisdom, MT
End Location: Darby, MT
Distance: 93 km
Time: 5:14
Total elapsed: 7:19
Elevation: 432 m
Little has changed over the two hundred plus years since the Corps of Discovery Expedition traveled across the Big Hole in August 1805. There is now a nicely paved road and some spots to grab food, but the vastness of the passes through the wilderness remain as they were. It's not difficult to imagine Sakagawea showing the explorers the way up Trail Creek to Chief Joseph Pass and down the Bitterroot Valley to their winter campground at Traveler's Rest. She was born nearby and remembered the terrain from her youth before being captured at 11, taken to South Dakota and sold into "marriage" at 12 to a French Canadian trapper. I'm still looking for a better telling of the adventure than Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage" that might give her and the Native Americans more credit for their role in assisting Lewis, Clark, and their band of bumbling emissaries from the "Great White Father", President Jefferson. Jeez, we didn't have a clue.
I shared a campsite last night in Wisdom with two fellow-travelers from Minnesota, Lisa and Brett, and several million mosquitoes, but the humans were off for coffee before the bloodsuckers awoke. We rode across the Big Hole, stopping to visit the National Battleground, which should be referred to as the Site of the Despicable Massacre. In 1877 the Nez Perce were slaughtered in a pre-dawn raid while fleeing their treaty-protected lands, heading to Canada to join Sitting Bull and the Lakota. Major General Howard had been recently humiliated by Chief Joseph who had defeated the American troops after the whitemen fired on the tribe in White Bird Canyon while engaged in peace talks under a white flag. We were real assholes in this part of the world during the 19th century (and little has changed in the two hundred plus years since,)
Two years ago this week, while riding to Missoula and up to Glacier National Park, I'd stopped at Curtis Bunton's WarmShowers home in Darby and we have stayed in close touch since. He's an integral part of the network of hosts (Trail Angels) in this part of the cycling world, who carry on the work of Sakagawea by keeping the cycling tourists from killing themselves. Curtis was headed off during the night to pick up a buddy from the airport to cycle the Going to the Sun Route and told me to lock the front door behind me in the morning. Solid guy who I'm proud to call "friend."
Tomorrow is a pay-off day, pedaling north down the Bitterroot Valley on a world-class bike path to the mecca of all touring cyclists, Missoula!
