Lolo Hot Springs

Journal 2005 09 13
Lolo Hot Springs

The journey has been hard. This portion has been some of the hardest. Yesterday the way was so remote, rugged and difficult that camp wasn’t made until eight pm. Many of the men did not get to camp until two hours later. A deer and a handful of grouse and pheasants make up their rations for today. Early in the trip the Captains had forbidden the men to spend ammunition harvesting birds. Except as now when birds where a primary source of meat.

The men are exhausted. We forget when we travel a trail through the mountains today that a crew has gone ahead and leveled a path, shored up washouts, made culverts and in many places built boardwalks. Our way in the woods is easy by comparison. These men spent much of their day crawling over blowdowns. Trees that had fallen and lay across the trail in many places like pick-up-sticks. If you’ve ever been off trail in the mountains and spent much time crossing blowdowns it is indeed tiring.

Two miles out this morning Clark followed some obvious game trails to what we now call Lolo Hot Springs. Today it is a commercial venture with a pool. Two hundred years ago the development consisted of the Indians placing rocks to make a soaking pool. Clark notes that the water is so hot as to be “near to boiling.” No mention is made of the men taking any time to stop and bathe in the springs. I know what I would be doing. I’d be rejoicing and soaking for as long as the Captains would allow. But it sounds to me like the men did not take this luxury and kept moving through what so many of them called “these terrible mountains.” Several trails left in different directions from the springs and Old Toby went three tough miles up a wrong one before realizing his mistake.

Captain Lewis and several of the men had stayed behind to round up several of the horses that had wandered from camp overnight. They hadn’t reached the hot springs yet and Clark sent two men back to help with the horses and guide them on the correct trail.

The men don’t know it, but with the perfect vision afforded by time, we see their journey down this river drainage will lead them along the best path to the Columbia River. They do not know this. If we were making this trip today we would have turned west at Lolo, Montana on Highway 12 and been to Lolo Hot Springs in less than an hour at a leisurely pace driving a car. Over mountains and through valleys is a hard and slow way to travel. Hard work is the fuel of exploration.

And that is what is on my heart and in my mind once more this morning as we learn from the example of these explorers. Hard work is fuel. Hard work is like gas in the tank. Hard work is wood to the fire. Hard work when focused on a mission is not drudgery. Ask any athlete training to compete to be the best. Ask any soldier training to win every battle over his enemy. Hard work is good.

If our daily work has any form of drudgery then our mission is murky. Pray for clear vision. Look at your fuel supply. If it is empty, hard work will fill it. Hard work allows you to complete the mission you’ve been given. Focus to mission brings determination, drives out complaining and brings meaning to the effort the mission requires. Work hard!