"I thought this place was undeveloped, that there wasn't much here," Orville said. "We weren't coming."
But the Stickels, who are driving the Lewis and Clark Trail in their van, had a few hours to spare, so stopped at the explorers' Lolo Creek campsite for a quick look-see.
"This place feels like you're actually on the trail," Orville enthused. "I can almost hear them sitting over there, cursing about how late in the year it is and how far they have left to go."
The bone-numbing wind blowing off Lolo Peak on Tuesday morning probably helped re-create the explorers' experience in September 1805. Phyllis pulled her jacket a bit tighter.
"This is the real thing," she said, grimacing.
Of course, it didn't hurt that the couple happened upon Darby Bramble, the park's newly hired program coordinator, showing off replicas of weapons, trade goods and a compass used by the expedition of 1804-1806.
Soon, Phyllis was looking down the barrel of a flintlock rifle and Orville was examining a pistol like those carried by the expedition's leaders.
"This is an amazing site," said Bramble. "It is the only Lewis and Clark campsite that has been absolutely verified."
The Stickels didn't need convincing.
The Cupertino, Calif., couple began their trek in St. Louis in mid-May, watched as re-enactors pushed off into the Missouri River at St. Charles on May 21, then headed upriver in their speedier van.
They'll be back home by the Fourth of July.
Until Tuesday, though, they had never felt "the presence" - albeit from across 200 years - of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
"We just haven't come across anything like this anywhere else on the trail," Phyllis said, looking out across the rain-soaked lowland where the expedition camped. "We are so happy we stopped here."
The Stickels' was an authentic Travelers' Rest experience, in the eyes of Loren Flynn, executive director of the Travelers' Rest Preservation and Heritage Association, which manages the state park just south of Lolo.
"A lot of the people who come here (an expected 20,000 this year) have a passion for history, whether it's that of the Lewis and Clark Expedition or Western history in general," he said. "They come here looking to have a conversation."
So Travelers' Rest will never be a heavily developed park, but will instead encourage visitors to wander about the grounds - watching and listening for the sights and sounds experienced by the thousands of travelers who came before them.
Roving interpreters will provide on-the-spot commentaries and answer questions. Brochures will provide the route for self-guided touring.
"This is a site where the stories should be told on the land," Flynn said, "so we don't have to do a lot of development."
And while the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition provided the impetus - and funding - for the campsite's preservation, the 50-acre park will emphasize the long use of Travelers' Rest.
"This place has been a crossroads of cultures for thousands of years," Flynn said. "When Lewis and Clark arrived, Travelers' Rest was the focal point of Western geography. All the important travel routes came together here."
To the west, the trail led travelers to the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia rivers and their bounty of salmon. To the east were the Great Plains and their great herds of buffalo.
This was not territory claimed under the Louisiana Purchase, though, so was still disputed territory in 1805 and 1806 - when the Corps of Discovery camped here both en route to the Pacific and, a year later, on the way back home.
"Everyone was after the land west of the Continental Divide," Flynn said. "The French, the Spanish, the Russians, British and the Americans."
In fact, one of the stories to be told from Travelers' Rest is of the letter Lewis wrote while camped on Lolo Creek in June of 1806.
Addressed to Hugh Heney of the North West Co., but intended for the leaders of France, England and Spain, the letter established America's claim to the land west of the Divide in Montana, Idaho and Oregon.
The expedition had reached the Pacific Ocean, Lewis wrote, and the nation intended now to establish commerce with native peoples and a permanent presence.
"Imagine if the United States ended at the Continental Divide," Flynn said. "Imagine if Spain or France or England had settled the West. Ours would have been a very different history."
Travelers' Rest will tell many of its stories on the north side of Lolo Creek, where work is in progress on a new entrance to the park off U.S. Highway 12.
By summer's end, there will be a new parking lot and entranceway, and work should begin on a bridge across Lolo Creek.
The wooden bridge is funded in part by federal grants, but still needs more private and matching money before construction can begin, Flynn said.
"Moving the entry road to Highway 12 is a big thing for us," he said. "It will be a lot more visible, and a much better entry into the story of Travelers' Rest.
"The bridge is important as a literal and figurative bridging of cultures and time."
By this time next year, visitors will leave the new parking lot and follow a footpath to a Traveling Trails Discovery Meadow, where the story of the campsite's long history of use by native peoples will be told.
A small visitor center will provide additional information, and a circle of flags will show every nation that ever laid claim to the confluence of the Bitterroot River and Lolo Creek.
As they reach the bridge across Lolo Creek, visitors will move into the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and its stays at Travelers' Rest - and into the contemporary story of the Salish and Nez Perce people who used the campsite before and after the famous explorers.
South of the creek, Travelers' Rest State Park will remain almost completely undeveloped - protecting the bottomland where native people and then Lewis and Clark camped.
Archaeological studies in recent years have verified the campsite's exact location, and its use by the expedition (archaeologists found an old latrine laced with mercury used by the expedition as a cure-all).
Everything won't be in place before the "official" bicentennial of the expedition's visit of Sept. 9-11, 1805 and June 30-July 2, 1806.
"This will be an evolution," Flynn said. "It's all about time and money."
It's also about making Travelers' Rest State Park a site that will endure well beyond the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, as a draw for visitors interested in a longer, more lasting story.
"We got hooked on Lewis and Clark through Stephen Ambrose's book, 'Undaunted Courage,' " Orville Stickel said earlier this week. "But we're definitely interested in Western history in the larger sense."
"Our daughter is a fanatic about the Donner Party," said Phyllis Stickel.
"And in '01, we did the 75th anniversary of Route 66 in our new Corvette," her husband said.
The Stickels' trek along the Lewis and Clark Expedition's 200-year-old trail took them the entire length of the Missouri River over the past month. Orville took Phyllis' photograph sitting at the headwaters just last week.
"That's my favorite photo from the whole trip," he said.
"So far," she cautioned. "So far."
Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at sdevlin@missoulian.com
Time Travel
Travelers' Rest State Park is open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with interpretive programs at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. The park is located just south of Lolo on Mormon Creek Road, off U.S. Highway 93 South. For more information, call the park at 273-4253 or visit the Web site, www.travelersrest.org.
If you want to help
Travelers' Rest Preservation and Heritage Association is still raising money for construction of a bridge across Lolo Creek and for interpretive displays. To participate, contact executive director Loren Flynn at 273-4253.
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