Astoria
Our journey began in Portland just 100 miles or so from Astoria, the westernmost town along the Lewis and Clark trail, but in between we have been to Idaho and back. From our first day aboard the Sea Bird we have thought about the coast and what the members of the Lewis and Clark expedition must have thought as they gazed upon, at first the estuary of the Columbia, and then the Pacific Ocean. “Ocean in view, oh what a joy,” encapsulates the great relief the corps must have had in accomplishing one of the great treks in human history. They had completed the impossible and lived to tell the tale.
Our version of this journey would not be quite so arduous. Our morning on the coast began in the wonderful Columbia River Maritime Museum, one of the best and most interesting in the U.S.A. From there we journeyed to the recreated building at Fort Clatsop. This served as the winter home for the Corps from late 1805 to spring of 1806. We all heard the story of their tortured stay at the fort. After lunch some went to the Astoria column to get a layout of the land and take in the pictured view, while a larger group went to the state of Washington to walk in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark along the many trails at Cape Disappointment. The weather was atypical in that it was beautiful for this time of year, not what the Corps of Discovery experienced during their time here some 200 years ago.
Our journey began in Portland just 100 miles or so from Astoria, the westernmost town along the Lewis and Clark trail, but in between we have been to Idaho and back. From our first day aboard the Sea Bird we have thought about the coast and what the members of the Lewis and Clark expedition must have thought as they gazed upon, at first the estuary of the Columbia, and then the Pacific Ocean. “Ocean in view, oh what a joy,” encapsulates the great relief the corps must have had in accomplishing one of the great treks in human history. They had completed the impossible and lived to tell the tale.
Our version of this journey would not be quite so arduous. Our morning on the coast began in the wonderful Columbia River Maritime Museum, one of the best and most interesting in the U.S.A. From there we journeyed to the recreated building at Fort Clatsop. This served as the winter home for the Corps from late 1805 to spring of 1806. We all heard the story of their tortured stay at the fort. After lunch some went to the Astoria column to get a layout of the land and take in the pictured view, while a larger group went to the state of Washington to walk in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark along the many trails at Cape Disappointment. The weather was atypical in that it was beautiful for this time of year, not what the Corps of Discovery experienced during their time here some 200 years ago.
