July 29

July 29

Today we left Dillon, MT heading west for the Lemhi Pass. On the way, we passed Camp Fortunate, which now is the Clark Canyon Dam, from which flows the Beaverhead River (the Beaverhead and the Ruby tie together to form the Jefferson River). It was at Camp Fortunate where one of the most amazing coincidences in American history occurred, and this coincidence played a key role in the success of the Lewis and Clark expedition. In 1800, a Hidatsa raiding party captured several Shoshone teen-agers at Three Forks. The French Canadian Charbonneau won the teen-agers in a bet with the warriors who captured them. One of them was named Sacajawea. Charbonneau was part of Team Discovery and he brought his wife Sacajawea along on the expedition. Critical to the success of the expedition was getting horses from the Shoshones so that they could cross the Bitterroot Mountains. The Chief of the Shoshones, Cameahwait, met with Lewis and Clark at Camp Fortunate in 1805 to negotiate. It was at Camp Fortunate where Sacajawea recognized Cameahwait, her brother, whom she had not seen since her abduction. This brother/sister reunion helped dispel any mistrust that the Shoshones had for the expedition, and Lewis and Clark received the horses they needed. From Camp Fortunate we rode a dirt/gravel road across the Lemhi Pass which crosses the Continental Divide into Idaho. Coincidentally, we also crossed the 45^th parallel, which is the halfway point between the Equator and the North Pole. Views along the pass were spectacular; the Beaverhead Mountains seem to flow from rounded peak to rounded peak, with stands of trees interspersed with mountain meadows. We stopped at Agency Creek State Park where we were the only campers present. I took a bath in the creek (refreshingly cold) and we slept to the sounds of the creek and the smells of the pine.