Clearwater River and Hell’s Canyon
The day dawned cool and rain-threatening, and didn’t get much better, but nothing daunted the guests aboard the National Geographic Sea Bird. Travelers faced a Hobson’s Choice: Up the Snake River for more than fifty miles into the Hell’s Canyon Recreation Area on jet boats, or up the Clearwater River on the Lewis and Clark Connection with Linwood Laughey, into the most concentrated collection of L & C sites anywhere on the Trail. Each side praised its selection, and bemoaned the lack of opportunity to experience the other.
The jet-boaters saw Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, wild turkeys, a variety of birds, and spectacular scenery. This trip passed homesteader historic sites, ancient petroglyphs, and the remnants of early developmental, especially mining, efforts. The Cache Creek mid-morning site features an airstrip that runs uphill. At 45 mph downriver, you grip your seats.
Linwood Laughey, born and raised in Lewistown, ID, knows every rock and rill of the Clearwater watershed. He connects the Journals of Lewis and Clark to the mostly-unchanged topography of the Kamiah Valley. Stops at Saddle Cache, Long Camp (see picture), Treaty Council, and Canoe Camp connect 1805-1806 to the present. For Lewis and Clark aficionados, this was nirvana.
At the end of the day, both groups reconnected at the Nez Perce Visitor Center in Spaulding, ID, where the history of the Nimipoo (“We the People”) intersects with the Lewis and Clark Expedition. All groups swapped stories on the Sea Bird by 6 p.m.
