8/31/2010
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| Fjord-like sunrise |
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| Hot Air Balloon over Clarkson, WA |
We were up before sunrise again this morning. It looks like we are in a fjord! We saw a hot air balloon. The scenery is just so dramatic! We docked this morning at Clarkston, WA. It is right at the border with Idaho. Lewiston, ID is right there, just across the river. We were told that Lewiston is Idaho's only seaport! This is our furthest port. This evening we start back downstream.
Wake up call today was 6:30am. Breakfast was at 7am. At 8am we had a presentation by a woman from the Nez Perce Nation and her 4 children.
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| We sat in that raised last row before the back door. |
Around 9am we took a 5 minute or less bus ride to another nearby dock to board two 50-passenger jet boats for a full day with lunch into Hell's Canyon. I was pretty apprehensive about this since people kept talking about wild rides and getting wet. But, it was better than the flight from Chicago to Portland. It was way better than a helicopter! So, overall it was a good day. I used Motion-Ease, Relief Band and an extra dose of Meclizine and did OK.
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| More basalt tube formations |
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| Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep |
Today was more amazing scenery, but this time with lots of wildlife, some petroglyphs and a mediocre buffet lunch. It was good to get off that LOUD boat for an hour or so mid-day and stretch our legs and use the restroom. Sadly, today we did not technically get to set foot in Idaho! Boo! But, I am counting it as a state visited, because that boat blew up sideways within inches of the Idaho ground numerous times and Clay pointed out the border is probably right in the middle of the river. Also, to see the petroglyphs, the boat edged right up with the bow ashore and we could walk out on the front in order to see the petroglyphs. If I had known that was as close as I'd get, I would have insisted on sticking one leg off and putting a foot ashore! Oh well, I’m still counting Idaho as a visited state!
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| Petroglyphs! |
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| View from our lunch spot |
I don't know how far we went on the jet boats; we heard variously, 20, 40, 60 and 90 miles. Who knows? Maybe all are correct depending on how you count it, as the crow flies, or with all the twists and curves. There were places it was only 3 feet of water, there were places where the rapids were at least 3 foot high waves, there were places it was 100 feet deep, there were places where there were 2-3 foot steps, or mini-falls, we had to leap up or jump down.
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| typical! |
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| A whole herd of Big Horn Sheep |
We went as far as a visible abandoned mine entrance just south of the Imnaha rapids where the Imnaha River joins the Snake and there we turned around. We actually sat there a while and drifted in a circle so people could stretch, move around, and get water or snacks. I was taking a picture back the way we came once we had spun all the way around. It looked like a dead end, but it looked like one when we looped in there too! Clay looked where I was shooting the camera and said, Oh I guess that is why we are turning back there is no further to go. I laughed and told him, no that is where we just came from! He looked so shocked and said how in the world did we do that? The young deck hand just cracked up when he overheard it.
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| Abandoned Mine Entrance - Our turnaround point |
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| The view heading back... |
Hell's Canyon is supposedly the deepest river gorge in North America. Interestingly, while they keep telling us this is high desert and it looks like it, it has been only 300 to 700 above sea level! That seems unreal! Of course, the tops of the river gorges may be over a thousand feet taller.
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| famous rock formation |
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| mini-falls, or step down |
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| view from Cache Creek |
On the way back we stopped at Cache Creek, a National Forest Service site. It was an abandoned fruit orchard of some early rancher. It was interesting too.
http://www.fs.fed.us/hellscanyon/things_to_see_and_do/snake_river/floating/Float-Guide.pdf
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| Huckleberries! |
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| Mule deer in Hell's Canyon |
Today we saw lots of Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep, Mule Deer, turkeys, ospreys, blue herons, pheasants, swallows and not sure what else. The sun was bright all the way upstream and if it had been a river in NC the banks would have been lined up with turtles sunning but we never saw a single one, so we think they must not have any! The jet boat driver also delivers mail by jet boat 3 days a week here and he said that sometimes for weeks to months the river is iced solid. So we think it is just too cold for turtles to live here. The jet boat driver described winters in the area as moderate with only a few weeks at 0 degrees F and seldom much below! That surely does not sound moderate to us! The wind kicked up and chilled and it started raining as soon as we got back to the jet boat dock. So the short walk and bus ride were a little uncomfortable. Plus, we were all rattled and deafened by the jet boat. They should hand out ear protection, like on helicopters, on those things. It was still sprinkling before dinner and cloudy.
A note here for future travelers: on the wheelhouse tour a woman asked about seeing stars at night. The answer was that they keep the bow pretty dark to maintain their night vision, and they keep the bow mostly open so passengers can go out there almost any time. There is little life, hence little ambient light on the Snake River portion. It turns out both directions are sailed at night, so you have 2 chances to stargaze. We forgot the first night and then last night it was really cloudy so we never got up to go look! So, anyway, Clarkston was at mile 145 on our Snake River map. It looks like we have sailed inland about 465 miles. As soon as we were all back onboard, we pulled away from the dock, swung around and headed back downriver toward the Pacific. So, it is nearly time for me to go out for the evening's activities. At 5:30pm we have social hour in the lounge with the day's recap and tomorrow's highlights. Dinner is at 6:30pm and followed by light-hearted, fun-filled entertainment. I am quoting from the Adventure Update! I hope to make it to the lounge after dinner tonight. It will be my first time if I do. I don't think Clay will make it. He is sleeping over 8 hours every night and napping every day. Hey, he is on vacation.
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| Lewiston, Idaho from the Clarkson, WA side of the Snake River |
You may have noticed that I don't talk much about food. First, it is me typing this and not Clay. Second, the food, while adequate has not really been worth writing home about so to speak! It hasn't been particularly bad; it has been OK, just not really noteworthy.
The before dinner recap and notes are completely miss-worthy. Miss them and you haven't missed anything except the lineup for heavy hors’d'oeuvres. Also, finally made it to the after dinner program tonight. It was ok, but probably unique. It was a 30-minute video called Sagebrush Sailors from 1990 produced by Oregon PBS. It was billed as a PJ party. We were invited to get comfortable and have popcorn. I went for the popcorn! We enjoyed the video about the invention and history of the barge business on the Upper Columbia River before the dams/locks. It was interesting since we had been all those places and could compare it with their historic photos and film. Popcorn was not fresh popped, but hit the spot.
I am adding a scanned copy of a map I picked up. I think it was at Beamer's Heller Bar Lodge at lunchtime. I have handwrittened in an X marks the turnaround spot.
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| Snake River Map - X marks our turnaround point |
