Clearwater River
We have been traveling in the Wake of Lewis and Clark on the Sea Bird, searching for signs that connect us to their adventure of nearly 200 years ago. Today, with the ship moored on the Snake River in Clarkston, Washington, we traveled by motor coach eastward. Our route took us upstream on the Clearwater River Highway to Orofino and Kamiah. There are many campsites along the river where the Corps of Discovery stayed. It is a very special feeling to stand where they stood, and to see the sights that they saw so long ago. This is the exact time of year in which they came down the river in 1805, stopping to recover with the hospitable Nez Perce Indians, and to build canoes for their final leg of the trip to the Pacific Ocean.
They had just concluded a frantic and exhausting segment over the Bitterroot mountains. They had been riding horses for the previous 175 miles, through an early season snowfall for a portion of it. Much of the trail was so precipitous that they walked and led their mounts. In addition to hunger they suffered from wet and frozen feet.
Their footwear, at first military boots, and then moccasins which they made from elk and deerskins, were mostly shredded beyond suitability. I’m sure they longed for flexible, dry, warm moccasins such as these pictured here. The Nez Perce people were skilled at making such shoes as these. The men of the Corps of Discovery were less so, but they nonetheless made 338 pairs for their homeward journey during a long wet winter on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.
Today our shoes are comfortable, dry, and even somewhat fashionable. We hardly give a thought to what it would be like if it were not so. If we had to make our own, and then walk long miles in them, our respect for Lewis and Clark expedition would increase greatly.
We have been traveling in the Wake of Lewis and Clark on the Sea Bird, searching for signs that connect us to their adventure of nearly 200 years ago. Today, with the ship moored on the Snake River in Clarkston, Washington, we traveled by motor coach eastward. Our route took us upstream on the Clearwater River Highway to Orofino and Kamiah. There are many campsites along the river where the Corps of Discovery stayed. It is a very special feeling to stand where they stood, and to see the sights that they saw so long ago. This is the exact time of year in which they came down the river in 1805, stopping to recover with the hospitable Nez Perce Indians, and to build canoes for their final leg of the trip to the Pacific Ocean.
They had just concluded a frantic and exhausting segment over the Bitterroot mountains. They had been riding horses for the previous 175 miles, through an early season snowfall for a portion of it. Much of the trail was so precipitous that they walked and led their mounts. In addition to hunger they suffered from wet and frozen feet.
Their footwear, at first military boots, and then moccasins which they made from elk and deerskins, were mostly shredded beyond suitability. I’m sure they longed for flexible, dry, warm moccasins such as these pictured here. The Nez Perce people were skilled at making such shoes as these. The men of the Corps of Discovery were less so, but they nonetheless made 338 pairs for their homeward journey during a long wet winter on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.
Today our shoes are comfortable, dry, and even somewhat fashionable. We hardly give a thought to what it would be like if it were not so. If we had to make our own, and then walk long miles in them, our respect for Lewis and Clark expedition would increase greatly.
