Date: 2010-09-10
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I want to apologize for being so tardy with my updates. Just a reminder is that I have been off the AT until temperatures become more tolerable for me. I just concluded a trip to Glacier National Park with a stop at Theodore Roosevelt Park in North Dakota. Like a real space cadet, I left my Laptop power cord at home. Ergo, updating my journal was not easy for me to do on the road trip. We drove about 4,200 miles and drove through Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota.We set out on Friday, September 10. We followed as much as possible the Lewis and Clark trail which begins in St. Louis. Even today there are many markers and interpretive centers along the Trail. The task of Lewis and Clark in 1804 was to follow the Missouri river until they reached the headwaters.For more detailed information about Lewis and Clark and the Corp of Discovery, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_expedition. There will be information about the Louisiana Purchase and the direction given by President Jefferson about the exploration of the newly acquired territory west of the Mississippi River. There is a direct tie in of the Lewis and Clark journey to Glacier National Park. Lewis and Clark (Along with the famous Sacajawea) worked their way westward into a vast unknown area. President Jefferson had negotiated in the sale of the Louisiana Purchase that the US would get all the land drained by the Missouri River. The hope was that the headwaters of the Missouri would be well north of the 49th Parallel which is the current location of the Canadian/US Border. Lewis knew Jefferson would be disappointed that the headwaters were located in Montana so the he named the place of the Headwaters; Camp Disappointment. The US would not get more land north of the Canadian Border. Lewis decided to break The Corp of Discovery into 3 groups at Camp Disappointment. Lewis led one group north looking for a northwest passage over the Continental Divide. A second group waited at Camp Disappointment. Clark and the 3rd group made their way back to the Yellowstone River to wait for Lewis to return from Montana. The Corp knew they were in hostile Indian Territory. They had been advised by Sacajawea that Blackfeet Indians in the Region were very ferocious. A few days into his journey, Lewis met up with a group of teenage Blackfeet Indians. He invited the Indians to camp with him. The teenage Indians boys awoke early and tried to steal Lewis¢ horses. A fight ensued and one Indian was killed and one was wounded but the rest of the young warriors escaped. Lewis knew he was in deep trouble. Once the young Indians made their way back to the main tribe, the whole Blackfeet nation would descend on his small party. He rapidly retreated to link up with his other two groups located further south. The irony was that Lewis was less than 20 miles from Marias Pass, one of the easiest places to cross the Continental Divide. The pass was finally discovered by whites some 80 years later, long after the transcontinental railroad was completed. Many historians believe that the area around Glacier Park would have been mined, timbered and rapidly developed had Lewis found the pass and not run into the Blackfeet Indian boys.