The Grand Adventure - Summer 2018

Elken said:
Another Lewis & Clark book to check out:

"Undaunted Courage" by Stephen E, Ambrose

I have visited some of the L & C sites, but I need to check the rest out.
Click to expand...
Absolutely a must read. I provided a link to the book in the first part of my narrative.
 
Thanks for the kind comment and we share your perspective on long trips in our campers. Well said!

Conestoga said:
[SIZE=12pt]Don’t know about you, but staying in the camper for over a month really is a pleasure. Was almost a hardship to move in with family for a couple days during the trip. Also makes the homestead here seem too big after having everything we needed in the camper.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Looking forward to more and glad your fall didn’t dampen the trip.[/SIZE]
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Thanks for the nice comments! We appreciate them. :)


longhorn1 said:
Ski and Julie, another wonderful trip report. Idaho is going to be part of our return to Montana next fall. Thanks for sharing. jd
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hoyden said:
Great TR, ski! Thanks for the history lessons and taking us along!
Click to expand...
 
Forty years ago last month, I visited Bannack for the first time as a student in the University of Montana's Geology Field Camp held over in Dillon. One of my classmates remarked on how it seemed to affect me visibly in that I had a "far away look" on my face all afternoon. Since 1978 I've visited Bannack 6 more times, with the company of my wife, our two sons, and a handful of close friends. It never fails to stir the imagination.

While a totally different ball of wax than a (fairly) September weekend visit, I recommend visiting during Bannack Days, always the 3rd weekend in July. The crowds are borderline intolerable and you'll want to overnight back up the Grasshopper drainage in a NF campground or a disbursed site, but the good news is the food (sourdough pancakes and bacon/eggs served in the Hotel Meade, home made pies and cakes, and Dutch Oven cooking demos cooked at and served from a lovingly restored chuckwagon top the list), the re-enactors and period costumes everywhere (one can rent regalia and join the fun), the mill tours at the mine mill about 100 yards away (best to be a mining junkie like yours truly), displays of and hands-on firing of smoothbore muskets and percussion cap rifles and pistols, and my personal favorite--the land surveyor re-enactors showing the instruments and implements used during the initial layout of the Public Land Survey System (PLLS). For a guy who had only briefly studied the PLLS in US History classes in high school and college, and growing up in the original colonies which have never been PLLS territory, the PLLS guys were a real treat.

My wife and I stopped by Bannack on a Sunday morning 3 weeks after your departure. We were en route from further up the Grasshopper over to the Centennial Valley, where two nights at Elk Lake Lodge including a 40th anniversary dinner awaited us. I imagine we took a different route than you did, so I am most eagerly awaiting the next installment of your, as always, splendid report. Thanks so very much for posting it! It's got to be an enormous effort on your part.

Foy
 
Ski thanks for the trip through Bannack.
Your story about the "entertainment"in camp reminds me of one trip to Madison CG in Yellowstone.
A 30'+ 5th wheeler has a spot near the end of the one way loop. He didn't want to drive the whole loop
so he went in at the exit end and set up in his spot.Only problem he was facing the "wrong" way.
When the host told him he needed to turn around he thought he could just "jackknife"the trailer.
His wife tried to direct him and just shook her head at what he was doing.
He finally figured to pull the trailer out through the "one way" and turn around and come in the correct way.
Proved to be a very entertaining 45 minutes or so.

We'll have to make a trip to Bannack next time in Yellowstone.

Your trip sure has brought back many great memories.Thank you for all the visions.
Frank
 
Foy, thank you so much for your always thorough and informative posts along with your special personal perspective. We are in love with Bannack and are suggesting to our Montana friends - previous visitors to Bannack - that they and friends attend Bannack Days next year. :)


Foy said:
Forty years ago last month, I visited Bannack for the first time as a student in the University of Montana's Geology Field Camp held over in Dillon. One of my classmates remarked on how it seemed to affect me visibly in that I had a "far away look" on my face all afternoon. Since 1978 I've visited Bannack 6 more times, with the company of my wife, our two sons, and a handful of close friends. It never fails to stir the imagination.

While a totally different ball of wax than a (fairly) September weekend visit, I recommend visiting during Bannack Days, always the 3rd weekend in July. The crowds are borderline intolerable and you'll want to overnight back up the Grasshopper drainage in a NF campground or a disbursed site, but the good news is the food (sourdough pancakes and bacon/eggs served in the Hotel Meade, home made pies and cakes, and Dutch Oven cooking demos cooked at and served from a lovingly restored chuckwagon top the list), the re-enactors and period costumes everywhere (one can rent regalia and join the fun), the mill tours at the mine mill about 100 yards away (best to be a mining junkie like yours truly), displays of and hands-on firing of smoothbore muskets and percussion cap rifles and pistols, and my personal favorite--the land surveyor re-enactors showing the instruments and implements used during the initial layout of the Public Land Survey System (PLLS). For a guy who had only briefly studied the PLLS in US History classes in high school and college, and growing up in the original colonies which have never been PLLS territory, the PLLS guys were a real treat.

My wife and I stopped by Bannack on a Sunday morning 3 weeks after your departure. We were en route from further up the Grasshopper over to the Centennial Valley, where two nights at Elk Lake Lodge including a 40th anniversary dinner awaited us. I imagine we took a different route than you did, so I am most eagerly awaiting the next installment of your, as always, splendid report. Thanks so very much for posting it! It's got to be an enormous effort on your part.

Foy
Click to expand...
 
Frank, yup. that's all part of the entertainment! :)

Casa Escarlata Robles Too said:
Ski thanks for the trip through Bannack.
Your story about the "entertainment"in camp reminds me of one trip to Madison CG in Yellowstone.
A 30'+ 5th wheeler has a spot near the end of the one way loop. He didn't want to drive the whole loop
so he went in at the exit end and set up in his spot.Only problem he was facing the "wrong" way.
When the host told him he needed to turn around he thought he could just "jackknife"the trailer.
His wife tried to direct him and just shook her head at what he was doing.
He finally figured to pull the trailer out through the "one way" and turn around and come in the correct way.
Proved to be a very entertaining 45 minutes or so.

We'll have to make a trip to Bannack next time in Yellowstone.

Your trip sure has brought back many great memories.Thank you for all the visions.
Frank
Click to expand...
 
Ski,
I forgot to mention (forgot to mention? as much as I blabbed I forgot something?) a good read which I picked up at the Bannack SP visitor center book rack: Tenderfoot in Montana: Reminisces of The Gold Rush, the Vigilantes, and the Birth of Montana Territory" by Francis M.Thompson and Kenneth N Owen. Owen edited and re-wrote portions of Thompson's original book which was published in the late 19th/earliest 20th century. Thompson arrived in Bannack after a failed attempt at placer mining on Gold Creek, east of Missoula. He'd taken one of the first steamer trips upriver from St. Louis, MO to Fort Benton, MT. He ended up as a merchant in Bannack and owned a lumber mill in Virginia City. Thompson also served in the initial Territorial Legislature. He was well known to Sheriff Henry Plummer but clearly not part of the gang of Road Agents in that he was not strung up by the Vigilantes.

Foy
 
Owens' author's notes goes into some detail about primary sources and other sources from Thompson's perspective and if I recall what I read 3 weeks ago correctly I believe Owens treats Thompson in re Plummer as one of the only reliable, credible primary sources.

Enjoy the read!

Foy
 
Ski you make us so envious.
For varies reasons we haven't been back to YNP since fall 2015.
But I just go into the computer photos and take a trip.
I can't believe it's your first trip.

It's such an awesome place lots of animals to see and some good
fishing.

Pebble Creek has been a great spot for us.Your moose sighting was a rearity
in that area I have been told.
Over the years they see less of them. He is a beautiful one.

Thanks for the relived memories.Waiting for much more.
Frank
 
I love the sleeping bison! You know 3 Pin, even though Yellowstone is so crowded, it still worth the trip every few years. Thanks for all the photos!
 
Stew is right, Yellowstone is a special place. We love to make our way through, even if it is only a half day or a day. Your videos bring back memories from an earlier day. Looking forward to the next post
 
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