The Missoulian delivered to my hotel room in Polson started my Saturday off on a surreal note. It reported a wolf had chased a motorcycle on the highway in Alberta. Strange happenings afoot. Driving on the two-lane road that follows the curvy Lochsa River across Idaho I couldn't help but wonder what other strangeness was brewing in the mountain forests all around me.
My first destination was an overlook of the great canyon called Heavens Gate Vista. It required an arduous drive up a steep sixteen mile dirt road, then a two mile hike through melting snow drifts to a solitary (unoccupied) forest ranger station.
The soaring view was worth it.
Behind the overlook stand the Seven Devils, a craggy collection of snow-laced obsidian peaks with names like He Devil, She Devil, Devils Throne, Mount Baal, and The Goblin.
Standing amidst darkly named mountains, scorched trees, and bottomless drop-offs evokes an eerie but not unpleasant feeling. It inspires an appreciation for the incomprehensible forces crashing all around us, and this nanosecond flicker of time we occupy.
Saturday night, I swung through the resort town of McCall, Idaho on the shores of Payette Lake. Waterfront signs tell the tale of "Sharlie," a 40 to 50-foot long Loch Ness-like serpent glimpsed on occasion in the lake.
That night, I camped near Zims Hot Springs and soaked late into the evening watching the nearly-full moon rise.
On Sunday morning, I had breakfast at The Pancake House in McCall and soaked in the lithium-rich waters of rustic Burgdorf Hot Springs. Then it was on to explore Hells Canyon from its depth. I drove the scenic route 30 miles into the canyon to the Hells Canyon Dam before driving up to Hells Canyon Overlook some 6,000 miles about the Snake River on the Oregon side.
I spent Sunday night in Baker City, Oregon.
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