Willamette, Columbia & Snake Rivers
New shipmates, new vistas, and new adventures awaited National Geographic Sea Bird guests, crew and expedition team members as we got under way for the great inland seaport of Clarkston, Washington/Lewiston, Idaho.
Say what? Idaho?
That’s right! Almost 425 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake rivers would be a perfect backdrop for the start of our explorations “In the Wake of Lewis & Clark.” Because 205 years ago, almost to the day, the Corps of Discovery would pass this very spot going down stream towards the sea, back on October 10, 1805.
Sailing round the clock upstream from Portland on the Willamette, Columbia and then the Snake River, National Geographic Sea Bird made great time through lock after lock as we continued to gain elevation above sea level. The scenery changed from suburban temperate rain forest, to mountainous coastal range, and then to dry steppes of the rain-shadowed interior with its cavernous basalt- lined canyons, standing like sentinels always on guard.
We were introduced to the Lewis & Clark expedition by Historian Harry Fritz in “The Truth About Lewis & Clark.” Once grounded in the basics of the purpose and route of the expedition up to their meeting with the Nez Perce along the Clearwater River, Naturalist Linda Burback continued our education with some wildlife species identification pointers in her presentation and practical exercises entitled “Signs of Life.”
We made our way through light showers into the night. While passing Sacagawea State Park onto the Snake River, we were joined in the Ice Harbor Dam lock by a tow boat pushing barges upstream; the dream of a corridor of commerce that President Jefferson had envisioned seemingly fulfilled.
