Snake River, Clarkston, Washington
Our dilemma today was that we had to choose between a jet boat trip into North America's deepest canyon or a guided journey of Lewis and Clark encampments in the land of the Nez Perce.
The 50-foot aluminum sled, powered by twin jets of water, skimmed us 50 miles upstream from where the Sea Lion docked at the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake rivers, the top of inland navigation (470 miles from the Pacific Ocean). The powerful jet sled surmounted charging whitewater rapids. Snake River drops ten feet per mile in its Hells Canyon reach. At the deepest the canyon is 8,193 feet below the Seven Devils Mountains. We watched proud anglers display catches of steelhead, migratory rainbow trout weighing from 6 to 24 pounds. These steelhead left the river two years ago for far pastures in the sea. Naturalist Linda Burback jumped and yelped "sheep, sheep, sheep" over the roar of the engines to alert guests and sled pilot. It was the first of many encounters with bands of ewes and lambs now joined by blocky rams with massive horns. The mature rams were away all summer in the high country. November is their time to return, check out the ewes and contest for breeding rights. One ram was a trophy full curl and probably 8 to 10 years of age. Emboldened by their rutting season, rarely observed trophy mule deer bucks were also out cruising for does.
At the entry to Hells Canyon National Recreation Area we docked at the U.S. Forest Service Cache Creek ranger station, the site of a former isolated homestead. The old cabin includes a small interpretive display from days when stockmen ranged sheep and cattle through the canyon and miners probed for gold and copper veins. The former hayfield serves as an emergency airstrip with a dubious uphill or downhill landing. The homesteader hay rake and cycle bar are still at the field edge. The cabin yard has apple, fig, peach and plum trees that black bears climb in season for their own fruit harvest. It's hard on the trees as witnessed by broken branches.
Our Nez Perce group had a day-long journey beside the Clearwater River that provided an insight to the land as Lewis and Clark experienced it 200 years ago. With few exceptions the Corps of Discovery's route has been so altered by development that few of the original campsites are accessible or recognizable, but not so along the free-flowing Clearwater. Our local guide, Linwood Laughy of Clearwater Connections took us to Canoe Camp where the Nez Perce people showed Lewis and Clark how to make dugouts by a combination of burning and adzing split ponderosa pine logs. From this point the Corps followed the waterway to the Pacific as charged by President Jefferson who expected a navigable water route would bind the young nation from sea to sea. The vast mountain barrier between the Missouri and the Columbia was unknown until traversed by Lewis and Clark.
Our dilemma today was that we had to choose between a jet boat trip into North America's deepest canyon or a guided journey of Lewis and Clark encampments in the land of the Nez Perce.
The 50-foot aluminum sled, powered by twin jets of water, skimmed us 50 miles upstream from where the Sea Lion docked at the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake rivers, the top of inland navigation (470 miles from the Pacific Ocean). The powerful jet sled surmounted charging whitewater rapids. Snake River drops ten feet per mile in its Hells Canyon reach. At the deepest the canyon is 8,193 feet below the Seven Devils Mountains. We watched proud anglers display catches of steelhead, migratory rainbow trout weighing from 6 to 24 pounds. These steelhead left the river two years ago for far pastures in the sea. Naturalist Linda Burback jumped and yelped "sheep, sheep, sheep" over the roar of the engines to alert guests and sled pilot. It was the first of many encounters with bands of ewes and lambs now joined by blocky rams with massive horns. The mature rams were away all summer in the high country. November is their time to return, check out the ewes and contest for breeding rights. One ram was a trophy full curl and probably 8 to 10 years of age. Emboldened by their rutting season, rarely observed trophy mule deer bucks were also out cruising for does.
At the entry to Hells Canyon National Recreation Area we docked at the U.S. Forest Service Cache Creek ranger station, the site of a former isolated homestead. The old cabin includes a small interpretive display from days when stockmen ranged sheep and cattle through the canyon and miners probed for gold and copper veins. The former hayfield serves as an emergency airstrip with a dubious uphill or downhill landing. The homesteader hay rake and cycle bar are still at the field edge. The cabin yard has apple, fig, peach and plum trees that black bears climb in season for their own fruit harvest. It's hard on the trees as witnessed by broken branches.
Our Nez Perce group had a day-long journey beside the Clearwater River that provided an insight to the land as Lewis and Clark experienced it 200 years ago. With few exceptions the Corps of Discovery's route has been so altered by development that few of the original campsites are accessible or recognizable, but not so along the free-flowing Clearwater. Our local guide, Linwood Laughy of Clearwater Connections took us to Canoe Camp where the Nez Perce people showed Lewis and Clark how to make dugouts by a combination of burning and adzing split ponderosa pine logs. From this point the Corps followed the waterway to the Pacific as charged by President Jefferson who expected a navigable water route would bind the young nation from sea to sea. The vast mountain barrier between the Missouri and the Columbia was unknown until traversed by Lewis and Clark.
