K’den. Today’s post, we go back to May, 2010, and our journey to Montana. This is going to be an exciting post! But first I’ll tell you that the photo I took in the last post from this year was a young elk. Way to go, AFK and Debra!

Here in May, 2010, we are in Idaho, near the 3 Devils Picnic Area. You can see how we’re really in the mountainous, forested, area of Idaho.

I know I keep saying this, but it really did give me a thrill to know that my ancestor traveled the same route we were travelling now.

We came into Lowell. Obviously, the population has declined. Sad, when there are already so few!

We begin to see some pretty significant rapids in the Lochsa River.

And well…don’t tell me Lowell isn’t interesting!

We continued on our way. I gotta tell you folks, driving between a gorgeous river and the forested mountains was amazingly beautiful. It was about 80 degrees… perfect weather!

Wild and scenic this river sure is!

Every time we’d go around a curve, another beautiful river sight awaited us. I wouldn’t have minded just crawling along at 30 mph just to savor these sights.

Hee hee. Lolo to da max!! I should’ve gotten out my “Lolo” t-shirt and hung it on da sign foa peecha!

K’den. Now we have some serious rapids.

And looking back the way we just came.

We pulled over to the side of the road to get this shot.

You can see in the video what a fast-moving river this is. And see the small kine creek coming into the river?

We could’ve had a picnic here; would’ve been so fun!

Sunshine, a gentle breeze, and a beautiful river. What a day!!

Lots of rapids, and we were going to get a shaka surprise in a few minutes.

But first we had to drive along the highway for a bit more.

Try look!!! White whiter rafters unloading their gear!

We drove to where we could find a pull-out, and were rewarded by this sight. Ho da exciting!!

We were thrilled to be watching these people, and realized that the Lochsa River was a prime area for whitewater rafting. We just sat there and watched and smiled and waved.

It looked so exciting! Turn up your volume!

We drove up the highway a little further.

A little further up, we could see more rapids.

And we wondered if we’d see more rafters.

Yep! And here they come!!

It looked like the kane in the green raft was teaching the kane in the purple one, giving him tips about how to navigate the rapids. Then we realized that we’d passed an area where there was a whitewater rafting adventures da kine awhile back.

Kinda blurry, but fun.

We parked next to the river again, and waved and whooped to the peeps in the rafts; several of them waved back at us!!

I know I’m gonna sound kinda lolo, speaking of Lolo, but I almost felt as though I were riding along with all of them in those rafts, whooping and hollering at the joy of it all. It kinda reminded me of sailing in the waters off Diamond Head with my papa-san in our little sailboat when the wind was blowing hard and the water was choppy.

We sat there, waiting to see if more rafters would come along.

And looked back to where the river was going. And the rafters, too.

And here came more whitewater rafters. Their joy was palpable, reaching all the way to me, standing there by the river.

This guy in his kayak was really challenged to get through the rapids.

What we realized was that they really were learning how to navigate the choppy waters of the river. Because they’d go through the whitewater, then go back and do it again.

Reluctantly, we had to get on the road; we still had a really long way to go. But I leave you with our final video. I was almost jumping up and down with the excitement of it all, and I bet my smile was a mile wide!