northward, ho!

No, the subject line isn't some admonishment to a trollop to get her to walk a different street. I took the scenic route out of Missoula, up route 93 to MT 200 across the Flathead Indian Reservation, across the Idaho panhandle, into northeastern Washington state, finally crossing the border into Osoyoos, BC.

The day started with a hike in the Rattlesnake National Recreation Area, just north of Missoula. It was sunny and around 50 -- perfect for hiking. I was trying to hike up to Strawberry Ridge, to get a commanding view of the area. While reading the trail map, this older couple came by so I asked them some advice. They bickered -- in that manner that couples that have been together for a long time do -- about the best way for me to get there. I followed their instructions but never managed to find a trail up, only around the ridge. After a couple hours of hiking, I gave up and got in the car to start the day's drive. Still, it was the most exercise I've done since Iceland!

The reservation looked like it's in really good shape, with less obvious poverty than, say the Sioux reservations in South Dakota, from my purely subjective standpoint, and about 17 years' difference in time. The poverty is there, but just not as bad.

After leaving the reservation, I drove through numerous valleys and canyons. The Clark Fork (River) looked like glass in places, showing these beautiful reflections. I stopped numerous times to capture them, and it started to set me back with my arrival time.

Then I got into Washington State. By now, there was much less snow around, the temperatures rose a bit, and the ground got even greener. Now I drove along the Pend Oreille, but the light was flatter and the reflections not as enticing. I started another climb over another mountain range. I came across an area that had burned out back in 1988 -- over 32,000 acres, and all the dead trees were still standing. It was quite a sight. This was the same year Yellowstone burned, and my brother Paul and I drove out to South Dakota and saw where the Black Hills had burned.

Finding a place to stay was more difficult than I expected. My cell phone was roaming only, and I needed to be on the phone to talk to Leah and to coordinate my Vancouver arrival the next morning. So I figured I could use Skype instead, and call using my Mac. Trouble is, there are only a few small towns on highway 20 in Washington, each around 1000 people or so in population. I checked into a really ghetto hotel in Oroville, just south of the Canadian border. It was the only open hotel in town. Thankfully, I couldn't get any wireless signal at all, so I got a refund, filled up my gas tank (so I would hopefully not have to fill up across the border), the drove across to Osoyoos, BC. I stayed in a hotel with an apartment-like room, very similar to where Leah and I stayed our last night in Iceland. I cooked up some backpacker food and organic mac and cheese. The wireless connection worked great, and Skype performed pretty well.

I made it to Vancouver the next day in a little more than 4 hours.