Canoe Camp on Idaho’s Clearwater River
Lewis and Clark camp sites, unmarred by great reservoir impoundments or development, were the goal for half of Sea Bird’s guests this bright frosted morning.
Linwood (Lin) Loughy, local historian and author, headed an all-day bus exploration that covered major campsites in the Nez Perce country for both the outward and return journeys of the Corps.
Beside the unfettered Clearwater in a grove of Ponderosa pine Lin showed how the Corps of Discovery built five dugouts that carried them 480 miles from here to the Pacific Ocean by way of the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia rivers. The Nez Perce directed the Corps in the use of fire to first burn or hollow out the great logs before shaping and finishing them with adzes.
The Nez Perce had no previous experience with metal trade goods and were most impressed with the Corps axes. They exclaimed, “they chop as fast as two beaver.”
It was hard to grasp those 31 men, plus Sacajawea and baby Pomp, plus all their gear, crammed into these dugouts with a few inches of freeboard!
Appropriately named Canoe Camp in their journals, they started the final leg westward from here on Oct. 6, 1805.
Lin had two associates from Kamiah, Idaho, Lee and Carol Hamilton, demonstrate the Corps method of making fire with flint and steel and rope or cordage with native plant material. Next they showed the brain-tanning method of preparing and softening hides for all the moccasins and clothing the Corps had to make en route.
Our other half skimmed the surface of Snake River 50 miles upstream into Hells Canyon, deepest in North America, on a 50-foot jet sled. They passed sport fishing boats anchored in choice spots where the current worked their steelhead lures. Proud anglers held up their catch as we passed. These migratory rainbow trout went to sea from here two years ago and have returned to their natal waters as lithe, powerful fish weighting from 6 to 24 pounds.
In one viewing the jet party watched a pair of golden eagle slide along the sunlit canyon wall on one side and on the opposite bank an adult bald eagle atop a lone pine surveyed the river. Below these eagles a regal bighorn ram was sunning on an outcrop.
Our only dilemma, today, was we couldn’t do both adventures.
Lewis and Clark camp sites, unmarred by great reservoir impoundments or development, were the goal for half of Sea Bird’s guests this bright frosted morning.
Linwood (Lin) Loughy, local historian and author, headed an all-day bus exploration that covered major campsites in the Nez Perce country for both the outward and return journeys of the Corps.
Beside the unfettered Clearwater in a grove of Ponderosa pine Lin showed how the Corps of Discovery built five dugouts that carried them 480 miles from here to the Pacific Ocean by way of the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia rivers. The Nez Perce directed the Corps in the use of fire to first burn or hollow out the great logs before shaping and finishing them with adzes.
The Nez Perce had no previous experience with metal trade goods and were most impressed with the Corps axes. They exclaimed, “they chop as fast as two beaver.”
It was hard to grasp those 31 men, plus Sacajawea and baby Pomp, plus all their gear, crammed into these dugouts with a few inches of freeboard!
Appropriately named Canoe Camp in their journals, they started the final leg westward from here on Oct. 6, 1805.
Lin had two associates from Kamiah, Idaho, Lee and Carol Hamilton, demonstrate the Corps method of making fire with flint and steel and rope or cordage with native plant material. Next they showed the brain-tanning method of preparing and softening hides for all the moccasins and clothing the Corps had to make en route.
Our other half skimmed the surface of Snake River 50 miles upstream into Hells Canyon, deepest in North America, on a 50-foot jet sled. They passed sport fishing boats anchored in choice spots where the current worked their steelhead lures. Proud anglers held up their catch as we passed. These migratory rainbow trout went to sea from here two years ago and have returned to their natal waters as lithe, powerful fish weighting from 6 to 24 pounds.
In one viewing the jet party watched a pair of golden eagle slide along the sunlit canyon wall on one side and on the opposite bank an adult bald eagle atop a lone pine surveyed the river. Below these eagles a regal bighorn ram was sunning on an outcrop.
Our only dilemma, today, was we couldn’t do both adventures.
