Crossing the Bitterroot Mountains

Getting around the Bitterroot Mountains
Jack & Randy have gone on an expedition to explore some old roads that cross the Continental Divide which happens to form part of the border between Idaho and Montana. The northern road (on the map) is the Lolo Motorway:

In the northern part of the state a famous travel corridor winds through the forests of the Bitterroot Mountains. It’s most well known as part of the route followed by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. But the Corps of Discovery was actually following the well established northern trail of the Nez Perce Indians. It was used by them for centuries to travel east into buffalo country in what is now Montana. In the early twentieth century a rough dirt road built by the Civilian Conservation Corps traced a good portion of the original Nez Perce Trail. That road is now known as the Lolo Motorway.

The southern one is the Magruder Road (pdf).

The 101-mile primitive Magruder Corridor Road winds through a vast undeveloped area, offering solitude and pristine beauty as well as  expansive mountain views. The landscape is much the same as when the  Nez Perce Indians and other early travelers crossed the area. The  road has changed little since its construction by the Civilian  Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s. It has also been known as the  Southern Nez Perce Trail, Elk City to Darby Road, Montana Road and the Parker Trail.

I have taken I-90 across northern Idaho a few times. It follows the St. Regis River, mostly.

The yellow icon marks the Moose Creek Airstrip. Marc flew over there a couple of weeks ago in his new-to-him Piper Comanche. The Comanche is turbocharged, which means he can get up to 15,000 feet. On the way there, at that altitude, he picked up a tailwind which meant it only took him a couple of hours to get there. His co-conspirators in smaller, 100 MPH airplanes took almost 7 hours to get there.