“To us, the Earth is more than the land. streams and rivers, soils, rocks, and all the living things upon the landscape – trees, shrubs, grass, root foods, and berries. This is Wetes. The animals – birds, fish, mammals, insects – they all have their place as rightful owners.” – Diane Mallickan (Nimiipuu / Nez Perce)

Maybe camping in the Kooskia City Park wasn’t the best idea. I called ahead and was instructed exactly where the designated camping area was which was behind the backstop for the Little League field. Supposedly, this was one of the few dry spots in the park that was also flat To keep it low key, I held off putting up my tent until after everyone had stopped using the field. After T-Ball was over, a family started using it for batting practice and the adults were screaming in even higher pitched and louder voices than their kids until well past sunset. The tent went up in the twilight. In the middle of the night, I woke to the unmistakable pssst, pssst, pssst, of the sprinkler system followed by an intermittent rainstorm on my tent. Oh well, guess I’m packing my gear away wet in the morning. In went the earplugs, and I went back to sleep. Nothing to be done. In the morning, as I was getting out of my tent, a duck came flying right at me. By the look on his face and his wings thrashing about in full braking avoidance, it was clear that he was new to this flying thing. He missed my head by about a foot then went crashing into the baseball backstop in full front flop only to fly away again. Good morning to you too.

After packing away my wet gear, I finally got an early start with the plan of getting most of the miles in before noon to avoid the hottest part of the day. I’d be following US12 and the Middle Fork of the Clearwater much of the way to Lolo Pass.

This was by far the beautiful day so far on the tour. As the terrain became steeper, the Clearwater became faster flowing, with more and more rapids. To cool down, I’d either dunk my head and shirt in the river or go swimming to get another 10-20 miles down the road.

By 3p, I arrived at Colgate Camp with a site right next to the river. It really feels like my own little corner of Paradise.