Lost Trail Hot Springs

Lost Trail Pass started as THE SPOT I wanted to get to.

As this trip unwound, all of the 'other' places emerged and competed quite well for my small mind and its capacity. Lost Trail offered the requisite hot springs (which I had never visited), the history, and the book relevance.

While the spring is piped up and concrete-lined, the resort fit what my 'mind's eye' had imagined, so I was happy. I wandered the grounds and enjoyed being at a ground zero spot from my book River and Ranch. It is rustic. It is nice. It is simple. The way it should be. I do not know what the pandemic has done to it in the time since my visit, but the spring is not going anywhere. The owners might be in turmoil (I hope not), but it does seem reasonable to see how life as a resort owner could be difficult in this neck of the woods.

This is a spot I would buy, if my own set of minimal conditions were to ever be met. I digress.

The history, on the surface, is Lewis and Clark. Yet again, this pair is top of the list because they were aware of what they were doing and so kept journals and awareness of location and surround. As usual, it's not just the 'winners' that write history, it's the people with paper, pen and ink, and an alphabet, or a knowledge of writing. So much of this place is layered with simple events and footprints that no one will ever know about, simply because these events were never recognized as 'worthy' of recording and the original 'occupants' lacked the recording necessities. Importantly, they likely did not view themselves as occupants, rather they were 'passers through' and this was just another hot springs en route to where they were going.....

I like it. I like everything about it. Go check it out. It is a neat place inthe midst of a great setting.

A small spot in a quiet valley for a giant historic figure

I stood at this spot for quite awhile and imagined all that could have transpired here back in the day. Imagine a 14 year old girl, kidnapped and horsebacked across a 1000+ miles of wilderness and forced to start a new life. She is then sold to an old nasty frenchman, with whom she has the 'life issue' (to be charitable to old nasty frenchman) of having a young child. Lewis and Clark show up out of the blue looking for a guide who can get them to pretty much the spot she was taken from. It all works out and years later Sacajawea shows up back at this very place and is reunited with her tribe and her family. All this happening after guiding a group of men across unknown terrain for that same 1000+ mile journey with a new baby on her back.

Today the Lemhi valley is a quiet spot. Forgotten about in back of beyond Idaho, sitting at the base of the climb to Lemhi Pass. It is pretty even in the heat of a semi-arid summer. Cows are all over the place. So are chukars. Huge scree slopes are all around as you start the climb up through the Agency Creek drainage. It's easy to imagine the presence of those many historic figures passing by, maybe even on the very piece of earth on which you are standing. As for Sacajawea history does not know what happened to her. No one knows where she is buried. No one is sure when she was even born. At least we know where this young woman, responsible for who knows how much of the Lewis and Clark Expedition's success, was born. A granite monument with words etched in stone makes note of this place. Something for the ages.