9,000' Meadow Lake, above the ghost mining town of Gilmore, south of Leadore, the pic would have been better a little later with the sun up a bit more.
A high mountain meadow with some big peak action behind.
From Leadore I snuck over the pass east of Leadore into Montana, this route follows the old railroad route back when the Gilmore mines were open, and tops out at Bannock Pass a bit over 7K high and real gentle rolling terrain. Dead calm and great low flying, just as I crested the pass I saw my first person for quite a while, a bike rider fixing a flat tire! By herself/himself, (hard to tell with those outfits they wear and the builds they have, no offense meant) way out in the middle of nowhere, they were obviously a hardcore bad ass rider. It was impressive to see. I circled a couple times and immediately saw a spot along the dirt road to set down and as I always carry tire patchs and a pump maybe I could help out. But, after my third circle and no friendly wave, I felt I was maybe getting dissed so figured "screw it, I'm outa here, they're on their own". Only a mile or so away did I realize that maybe the rider had earbuds/music on and quite possibly never heard me, (the plane is damn quiet at reduced throttle) either that or he/she took offense on my sharing their riding space. Hard to figure but whatever, I kept going. It's good to remember sometimes that not everyone is perhaps not as thrilled with aircraft as we are 
After checking out a couple remote old cabins:
I overflew the 6K paved airstrip at Dell, built by a buddy of Ted Turner, inventor of the surgical staple, and owner of a G IV. The strip is state owned but he paid for the upgrade I'm told. He has a rural mansion somewhere to the west I have been half ass looking for for years now and still no joy, but the looking has been fun 
Back in the mountains west of Dell and right on the Id/Mt border (and I mean directly over it, the fence line on the ridge top is it) I spotted something odd on a 8900' ridgeline.
since I am reading a book that has as part of the plot a maritime salvage scenario, I thought that maybe I could lay claim to this broke down excavator so I landed nearby. The keys were in it, but battery dead, it looks like maybe it's been there for a few years and probably isn't going anywhere soon.
It would be a simple salvage job, and scrap metal is worth some serious money these days, sure it's a bit out of the way 
but for maybe a 30k investment it could be retrieved and scrapped for 10 k or so. As I took off for the last leg home, I glanced back and only then noticed the mining operation up on the 9K+ plateau up above the wreck, this was obviously where the excavator was headed. No one was there, too bad as the plateau was a natural airstrip, no rocks and short brush and nearly flat. Looks like some kind of marble maybe?
I saved the location and may check in there at a later date, it'd be fun to land there and walk up and say it was a spot inspection by OSHA and or the Bureau of Mines and I needed to see their papers. 
