Tuesday, February 2nd
Left Driggs around 11:30 AM, on 33 and then 28, headed for Goldbug Hot Springs. 28 takes you through some lovely, flat ranch country, and towns like Lone Pine (really just a general store/motel) and Leadore (the perfect run-down, lived-in Western town). Salmon is bigger and more bustling – almost like civilization – and from there you take 93 south toward the hot springs, winding up into mountains with a river on your right. Magic.
The hike up to the hot springs gets a little strenuous toward the end – and a little treacherous toward the beginning, with hard-packed slush almost as slippery as ice. Worth it, though, to pull off your clothes and soak in the stream with a view out over the mountains. The sun was setting by the time I started to descend, and I met up with Alex, a sweet, heavily-tattooed young man who’s road-tripping around the West in a decommissioned ambulance. Says he’s never been east of Colorado. (He’s from Portland.) We had to slide on our butts in the last stretch, but we made it safely back to our vehicles, and Alex showed me how he’d outfitted his ambulance (it did not look comfortable), and then we said our goodbyes and I headed north again on 93.
Getting up into Montana (my first time in Montana!) proved to be an adventure. Thick snow in the mountains, and still falling heavily. No tire tracks to drive in for most of the way, and only a few trucks coming the opposite direction for company. I slowed way down and hoped for the best. Dicey stuff.
Back on level ground, the situation improved markedly. Grabbed some Taco Bell for dinner and made it to Blue Mountain Bed & Breakfast by around 9:30. Lovely place, way up on a straggling dirt road overlooking the highway. You’re only a few miles from Missoula, but you feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere. Comfortable room, splendid views.
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