Columbia and Snake Rivers October 2017

Columbia and Snake Rivers- Harvests, History, and Landscapes 

Wed. Oct. 18- Saturday Oct. 28, 2017 

In retrospect this really is a history and geology trip; we weren’t interested in the beer tasting or vineyard visit that made the “harvests” part. In writing this I am going to try to refrain from retelling the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and I am sure a geologist would quarrel with my rendering of the story behind the rocks. For reference I recommend “Undaunted Courage” by Stephen Ambrose and the Ken Burns series about L&C, but I also have to recommend “Lewis and Clark through Indian Eyes” edited by Alvin Josephy for an alternate point of view.

Wed., Oct. 18- Richmond to Lewiston by way of Spokane WA. Drove 2 hours from Spokane (GEG is the airport handle for some reason). Took a 4 mile two bridge walking route along the Snake River, dinner at Ernie’s Steakhouse. Didn’t know it but the mom of our 1987 nanny Michelle (more later) now lives in Lewiston one mile from our hotel.

Thursday, Oct. 19- cold and cloudy, in the 40s. For exercise Connie went to the fitness room in the hotel and I walked the halls and stairs.

The reason for coming to Lewiston was to go to the Nez Perce Historical site on the Clearwater River. Although a L&C site, the reason I wanted to go there is because Thomas, Gordon, and I recently watched an old western about Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce and Gen. Howard called “I will fight no more”. When we got to the NP site, which is on the reservation, the park ranger told us that we would be coming there tomorrow with Nat Geo, so we briefly visited the Spaulding Utah Presby Church and an old general store from settlers’ days and then went to lunch at Donald’s Diner in Lapwai, which is where the tribal headquarters are, and there were lots of Nez Perce in the diner (the modern American diet hasn't been doing them any favors).
A little digression on the Nez Perce (Nami puu) tribe- At the time of L&C, from their name, one knows they already had had contact with the French. L&C estimated there were about 5-6000 NP in about 50 bands spread out over parts of MT, ID, OR, and WA. I don’t know if their numbers had been even much higher but then impacted by the devastating small pox epidemic that went thru the Indians in the Pacific Northwest in 1780. The NP got the horse in 1730 and gradually created the Appaloosa breed.
The NP helped L&C get over the mountains in 1805 and met up with them again here in May 1806. This second time the expedition was very hungry and the NP guided them over to the Salmon River where the Chinook were running. L&C stayed with them 77 days until late summer when they pushed on.
General Howard (Civil War- the “Christian General”, and founder of Howard University in DC) negotiated with them here in Lapwai. He and Chief Joseph fought the war of attrition in 1877. Between all the treaties, outright thefts, and acts of congress, the NP reservation is down to about 1/2 % of its original 13mm acres, but the NP seem to have kept their culture together better than many tribes. Now they are using their casino profits to gradually buy back their ancestral lands.

Later that day we went to the Lewiston airport to meet the group and got a ride from there across the Snake to Clarkston WA to meet the Sea Lion and guests and crew. Lewiston’s airport is open about 3 days a week.
When we boarded the ship we found the same second mate, third mate, two DIB drivers, the hotel manager (from Midlothian), the photo instructor, and the head dining steward that were on the Sea Bird for our Alaska trip. It felt like home. In addition, on the Alaska trip our luggage tags introduced us to Zach who was reporting for his first day of work on Lindblad on the Sea Bird. He was on the Lion this trip as well.

This trip is the last of the season for the Sea Lion. After we get off it goes to dry dock in San Diego and then to Costa Rica. Next year the Columbia trips on Lindblad will be on the Quest- a brand new 50% larger ship. (Sea Lion and Sea Bird are old and might even be replaced by the Venture and the Quest- I have to admit it felt at times like camping out on the Bird and the Lion).

One really great aspect of this trip is that we are doing it at about the same time of year heading downstream as L&C did. Each day’s Daily Program has the usual info about the day ahead but then a quote from the L&C journals that is applicable to where we are.

Friday, Oct 20- Clarkston WA. Snake River Adventures jet boat excursion. 

At Lewiston and Clarkston, the Clearwater River flows into the Snake and the Snake makes a right turn to the west. Our day trip went upriver on the Snake through Hell’s Canyon. Here we got our first lesson in basalt. The walls of the river valley are lined in columnar basalt and as the canyon walls close in further upstream the basalt gets closer and closer. Columnar basalt is very similar to what we have seen at the Devil’s Postpile in Mammoth Lakes and at the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland except the columns are not quite as perfectly polyhedral. Basalt come from melting volcanic flow and I think the shapes it takes must depend on how slow or fast it cools. The volcanoes affecting the Pacific Northwest are from about 11 million years ago, while the overall shape of the landscape we see now is from all those years of weathering and rain in crack filled rock and then from floods to be discussed later.
One of our pauses along the way was at Asotin WA on Snake River. Before the Snake and Columbia were dammed the water was thick with lamprey eels. The NP would build boats out of driftwood and set a fire in the middle of the boat. The lamprey would be attracted to the light and the Indians would haul in tons of them. They would then dry them and eat them. In another of our stops there was an old photo of the eels on racks built by the NP. Asotin is a derivative of the NP word for lamprey.
We made a stop at Cache Creek which is a Park Service site but there is no funding so the station is staffed by volunteers on duty for a month at a time totally cut off from anything but mule deers. Above Cache Creek, at Cougar Creek, Sgt. Ordway in L&C’s Corps of Discovery on May 30 1806, while off on that salmon side expedition, saw an 80 foot longhouse, the communal way of living the NP had at the time. Here we saw 3 female bighorns, running along the rocky bank.

Trees- hackberry, willow, mahogany, mulberry. Mostly reds and yellows in the fall.

Then we came to the Salmon River (the River of No Return from the old Robert Mitchum/ Marilyn Movie movie) flowing into the Snake. In all I think we went about 40 or so miles up the canyon. While it was very placid at the start, as we went further upstream it got wilder and wilder. There were times where the guide couldn’t slow the boat down because of the narrowness of the channel and the rocks. However he did make one stop in a tricky piece of water to show us a Nez Perce petroglyph.

Bet you are glad the enthusiasm of the first couple of days is now past. The other entries will be much shorter.

Sat. Oct. 21- Palouse Falls

We anchored at the junction of the Palouse River coming in from WA and the Snake. There were two activities- a DIB (see the Alaska entry) ride up the Palouse, not quite as far as the falls, and then a bus trip 5 miles up to the Falls. On the DIB ride, we saw Western Grebes, Coots, and a Golden Eye. Our naturalist, Grace, who loves Basalt and loves Coots, showed us tule which is one of the plants the NP would use for bedding and insulation of their long houses. She pointed out basalt columns and entablature which from a distance looks like tree trunks (the columns) and bushy leaves over the trunks (entablature). It was a little cold and damp so we passed up the kayaking.

When we got to the Falls, we had a short lesson in the other big factor in the geography of the area- the breaking of the Missoula MT ice dam about 11000 years ago at the end of the glacier age. Actually there were several of these breaks and the outcome was a wall of water moving at 60 mph washing through MT, ID, OR and WA, carrying huge boulders, rocks, and silt. The amount of flow has been estimated as the equivalent of emptying of Lake Superior in 48 hours. The Indian story behind the bowl shape of the basin of the Palouse Falls is easier to comprehend- Long ago Coyote, the NP mythical founding animal, caught a giant beaver and the basin is the result of the beaver’s tail thrashing around and around.
Later in the afternoon we went thru the first of 8 locks on this trip- 4 on the Snake and 4 on the Columbia. One, the John Day Dam, was closed for 8 months in 2008. One of the guides told us how the Lindblad ship was caught on one side but could not proceed. There was a competitor’s ship on the other side that could not proceed either, the two companies arranged for all the passengers to switch ships. The ones who ended up on the Lindblad ship got the better of the deal.

Sun. Oct. 22- The Dalles, Oregon. 


Here we were tied up at the foot of one of the dams and locks. The Dalles comes from French for flagstones, and evidently before the dam the rapids here had many flagstone like rocks as the base. A crisp, clear day, mid 50s going to mid 60s. As we got off the boat to go the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center by way of the Columbia River Highway from model T days, we were met by members of the local Chamber of Commerce calling themselves The Dalles Floozies and dressed as dance hall girls or something else. As the ship’s passengers bantered with them, every possible pun that was G rated about the floozies and madams and brothels came out.

What in the Sam Hill? This expression came from another, much more colorful, Sam Hill, but the relevant Sam Hill here was a railroad executive from back east in the 19 teens who came west and fell in love with the area. He was convinced the west needed good roads for autos and to show off the Columbia Gorge. So he built the Gorge highway and some parts are still used today.

We took it to Rowena Crest for a magnificent view of the Gorge. You might remember that the Gorge was closed in August due to fires started by two kids playing with fireworks (the Davidson guys who were with me at the Arc could not get into the Gorge back then because of these fires). Anyway, it is back in business now and beautiful with leaves changing.
After the Crest we had a few minutes in a very interesting museum about the area with a great exhibit on L&C and the settlers who followed (Oregon Trail ended here) and some in house raptors.

The options to get back to the boat were bike or walk or ride. Connie and I did a 5.5 mile power walk back. The path was right along the river and we could see tribal salmon fishing platforms and passed a Google Data Center (I guess the cloud really has a physical location).
In the afternoon the group went to the Maryhill Museum on the Washington side. Sam Hill wanted to build a home and to start an agricultural community right in the spot where it wasn’t desert like to the east and wasn’t rain forest wet like it was to the west. Maryhill, named after his daughter, is the result, but he missed on the rainfall. It is too dry, plus his wife hated it and went back east. Sam eventually turned the house into a very odd museum with a lot of objects he obtained from some of his international friends’ friends. So there is a large collection of Rodin sculpture, some Romanov family artifacts through the queen of Serbia, a great collection of chess sets, and many other items.

 One of his friends was someone named Loie who invented modern dance and there is a lot about her there. Sam Hill didn't live long enough to see a variation of his agricultural community actually work out- the slopes around Maryhill turned out to be perfect for growing grapes.
In the category of trivia, The Dalles is the railroad tie capital of the US (cut the ties, treat them with creosote (nasty), then treat them for insects, all of which sounds like a bit of an environmental mess). Lots of wood for building and paper and other uses around here (wish I knew the size of the lumber pile back in Lewiston at Clearwater Paper).

Oct. 23- Hood River, Oregon, which is the windsurfing and now kite surfing capital of the US and makes steering this ship and other big ones very difficult.

The activity here for us was another 5.5 mile hike thru the Mosier Tunnels part of the the Columbia Gorge Parkway built by Sam Hill, followed by some free time in Hood River. HR is a kind of hipster town with lots of coffee shops catering to the ski crowd and then the summer crowd. One of our crew members said that since we are leaving at mid day we don’t have to worry about the kite surfers because during that time of day they are all pretending to have a job. Somewhat related to this, for the last two days the folks who signed up for bike riding the same trails we walked experienced two no shows from the bike shops.

After lunch, to quote L&C, “we proceeded on” thru the gorge, past the Bonneville dam and lock. It was at about this spot, marked by a volcanic cone L&C named Beacon Rock, that they first noticed the push from tides.

 The Biddle family at one time owned BR and offered it to the State of Washington for a state park. WA turned the family down so then they offered it to Oregon even though it is on the WA side of the river. After Oregon said yes, WA spoke up and decided to take it. We also passed Multinomah Falls.

In retrospect about this trip I really did not need to write this blog entry. I could have just let Woody Guthrie get the credit by way of his song “Roll on Columbia, Roll on”, which he wrote during the Depression when he was a government employee:

Roll on Columbia

Woody Guthrie

Roll on, Columbia, roll on
Roll on, Columbia, roll on
Your power is turning our darkness to dawn
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

Green Douglas firs where the waters cut through
Down her wild mountains and canyons she flew
Canadian Northwest to the oceans so blue
Roll on Columbia, roll on

Other great rivers add power to you
Yakima, Snake, and the Klickitat, too
Sandy Willamette and Hood River too
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

Tom Jefferson's vision would not let him rest
An empire he saw in the Pacific Northwest
Sent Lewis and Clark and they did the rest
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

It's there on your banks that we fought many a fight
Sheridan's boys in the blockhouse that night
They saw us in death but never in flight
So roll on Columbia, roll on

At Bonneville now there are ships in the locks
The waters have risen and cleared all the rocks
Shiploads of plenty will steam past the docks
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

And on up the river is Grand Coulee Dam
The mightiest thing ever built by a man
To run the great factories and water the land
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

These mighty men labored by day and by night
Matching their strength 'gainst the river's wild flight
Through rapids and falls, they won the hard fight
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

Songwriters: Woody Guthrie

Tuesday Oct. 24- Astoria Oregon and Cape Disappointment WA.  Astoria is also home to the Goonies house but we didn't go to see it.

The activity Tuesday was a drive on the Oregon side to Fort Clatsop where L&C spent the winter of 1805-6. They were here for 114 days but on only 12 of them did it not rain. They were soaked and a little stir crazy. The fort has walls that slope down into the middle of the fort, which was great for protection but also funneled the rain into the parade ground. After a while at the fort and the canoe launch there, we visited the NP museum there- small but it tells the complete story well and has a great little L&C bookshop. We did not have time to go to the Saltworks L&C created which was further down the coast.

Then back to the ship by way of the Columbia Maritime Museum, again a super museum about the Columbia Bar and its shipwrecks, pilots, and rescues.

For the afternoon we went over to Washington to Cape Disappointment, another place where L&C were miserable, but the name came from sailors who were there before them. L&C were also disappointed because they did not encounter any ships on the Pacific side. Another gem of an NP museum, a good clear view of the wild waves at the Bar, and then a walk down to Waikiki Beach named after the Hawaiians who perished trying to get the Astor fur trade ship the Tonquin thru the Columbia Bar. Here we touched the Pacific.

In the evening there was the usual daily recap, with a bon voyage from the passengers to the great guides. Bob Gatten, our L&C expert was funny and a real pro on the Corps of Discovery. Grace, the lover of basalt and Coots, read us an ode to the Coot (I'll try to find it or at least a photo or two). David Jaffe was the photo instructor, and after two lessons on how to use the iPhone camera, I think I am getting it.

                                          As I took it.

                                          Edited after the "using your iPhone" class.

Overnight the ship backtracked to Portland. 
Not much of a birds trip, other than learning about coots in detail. However I did add Western Grebe and Goldeneye duck on the Palouse River and then Anna's Hummingbird at Jill's house in San Rafael on the 26th.


Wednesday, Oct 25 Portland

Connie and I left the ship a little early so we could have breakfast with our nanny from 1987, Michelle Smith, before going on to the airport, for a couple of days in San Fran/ San Rafael to see Jill and family.

SB trip NE August 2017

SarABeth trip August 17-25, 2017

No time to rest. We got back from Alaska with August after dinner on August 16 and left the next day with Leesa's whole family for Sag Harbor to join the SarABeth. 

When we landed there we got a ride with Yuri, a Ukrainian, via his company limo to the marina. A very personable guy, newly married; his most famous passenger- Ed Norton.

There wasn't much time in Sag Harbor, just enough for a short walk around town and to visit the book store. I asked around about eclipse glasses for the 21st but they were sold out everywhere.

The crew for this trip was Dennis, Igor, Drew, Cookie, Josh and Harry.

The crew had been up north for a pretty long time- Canada, Maine, Nantucket, and places in between with Dad and Helga, then John and Greta, then Matt and Sydney, then Nancy B. Getting in and out of the various ports is very difficult, especially for a big boat like the SarABeth, and especially with all the boat traffic. I am still amazed at how Dennis got into and out of the port at Camden Maine last year. This trip Dennis told me he was counting down the number of times into and out of the remaining ports- 14 to go.

Friday, Aug. 18- We had to be off the dock by 7:30 am because the next boat was coming in. We went to Block Island, trying to get in ahead of a little weather.

After the rain, we walked to town and remembered that BIRI is not walker friendly. Leesa and family went for a bike ride to find a basketball court for Thomas and got soaked. In addition August dropped her phone and it was unusable. 

On the plus side we made a trade with the family on the sailboat berthed next to us- Dennis gave the boy in the family a tour of the helm and Thomas got to swing in the sail rigging.

Aug. 19-  Block Island Rhode Island (BIRI) Connie and I got in a long (way too long) walk in the opposite direction early in the morning; the road was supposed to be a circle but it never seemed to want to turn back. Then the SarABeth left for Montauk. The rain was gone but there was a rolling swell and the kids were a little green during the ride. We saw the Montauk light from a distance and there is still an old submarine watch station near it. The entrance to the harbor at Montauk is tight but very scenic. There are commercial fishing boats and lots of pleasure boats of all sizes in addition to a classic 1930s looking clubhouse. Again everyone except me went off looking for town and T's basketball court while I, nursing a blister from the long BIRI walk, roamed the docks looking at the boats.

When everyone got back, Gordon borrowed a paddle board and took T for a paddle and August jumped off the bow and higher up. There was a minor bathing suit incident with the jump but nothing major.

This marina in Montauk has a very New York crowd but they are also very happy- we had possible 2 birthday parties going on the boats and then a pretty loud band playing into the night.

Aug. 20- In the morning we made the short hop across Long Island Sound to Mystic Connecticut and the Seaport Museum. The entry to Mystic is quite beautiful with rocky islands on the outside (including Fisher's Island), then a lot of marinas with a lot of boat traffic on both sides, then a short and close passage thru town, which has to be timed to reach the scheduled railroad bridge opening, and then, we docked on the grounds of the Seaport, right near the repair shop so it was just a short walk to any of the exhibits. 

The special exhibit for the day was an antique outboard motor display with about 20 engines, some featuring very polished brass, and some dating from quite early in the 20th century. Part of the regular museum in the same area is a display of marine steam engines from 1800s and 1900s, all in working order and cranking out steam. Also near there is the shed where the museum is working on restoring the Mayflower II, an exact replica of the original which the Brits built in 1957 and now have given to Mystic.

Mystic Seaport is a Williamsburg like replication of what the old port would have been like in whaling days. There are many different kinds of sailing ships including a whaler, a cod fishing ship, a coal burning steamer (which is stirring up the neighbors because of the ash), an African Queen like boat, and a gentleman's yacht (Huntington Hartford of the A&P grocery family) now used as a dorm for campers at the week long sailing school. In addition there is a true replica of a Viking vessel which the modern sailors took from Iceland to Greenland to Canada (see the Maritimes post) and then up the St. Lawrence before donating it to Mystic.

The buildings on site included sail shops, a chandlery, a display of figureheads, a scaled down map of the harbor and area, and a great little nautical book store.

After exploration of these ships and shops and watching a couple of demonstrations of life saving and throwing the anchor, Connie, Leesa and the kids went to town (to find a basketball court- a now familiar refrain) while Gordon and I stayed in the museum. I rented a cod fishing/ whaling dory to row for a while but it was really hard work- off balance for me, with oars slipping in and out of the oarlocks. Then Gordon and I went on a harbor cruise in a cat boat with a great sailor/ volunteer docent.

That night Michael, Jeanie and their friend Layne Kaplan Levenson (a celebrity to me because she produces Tripod on WWNO in NOLA) joined us.

Aug. 21- Connie and I started the day with a long walk into Mystic proper and then along the river toward the I 95 bridge. The walk took us by some beautiful homes of mid to late 1800s vintage and also along very close to the water. On the ones for sale that we could look up the prices seemed less than those at Virginia Beach but then one would have to put up with Lyme Disease here and the harsher winters.

The SarABeth's port for today's travel is Port Washington, also on Long Island as was Montauk and Sag Harbor.

This is eclipse day but we have no eclipse glasses- none to be found at any stop so far. More later on that.

Michael left in the morning by car for NYC, planning to meet us at the end of the day and the girls stayed with us on the boat.

The big event of the morning was that Gordon and Harry decided to shoot some drone video as we were leaving the museum and going thru the town on the way to Long Island Sound. For some reason there was a little problem and the drone banged into the rail road bridge (when we went by, I was on the hot tub deck and at eye level with the bridge keeper) and then crashed into some bushes along the waterway. Gordon was depressed, caught quite a bit of flak, but then had an inspiration- let's see if Michael can drive back and look for the drone. Even though he's not Irish, Gordon had the luck of the Irish. From the GPS coordinates Gordon could guide Michael to the approximate location, Michael went to some condo dwellers and asked permission to look in their bushes, and there it was. Gordon was bailed out with only a little bit of damage to the drone, more to his reputation as a pilot.

We experienced the eclipse at sea, but it was a little hazy and we were not at the right latitude for it to be a full eclipse. On TV the folks in Washington state had the whole thing and it was impressive. Someone in our group used the idea of a pinhole camera approach and we could see the partial eclipse thru a colander from Drew's galley.

In Port Washington we learned there was a basketball court within a half mile or so of the dock. This led to one of the big highlights of the trip- three on three basketball. Thomas, Jeanie and August versus Gordon, me and Michael. How these teams got chosen for fairness is a mystery to me. Thomas was a whiz in handling the ball and shooting but kept calling out things to do that his teammates did not know- "post up" etc. T started calling Jeanie Kareem and the name may stick, but Michael kept Kareem from doing much damage with his suffocating (and fouling) defense.

Aug. 22- This was the scenic highlight- leaving Port Washington we went by a long stretch of huge homes reminiscent of The Great Gatsby or The Gold Coast by Nelson Demille, and looking on the map the street these houses must have been on was called Gatsby Way.

Then we began the passage into NYC, down the East River with a full view of the East side of Manhattan, the UN building, the bridges, etc. We crossed to the Jersey side to Liberty Landing.

It was a very hot day, We took the ferry over to the financial district of Manhattan, for some lunch, went by the 9/11 memorial, saw the Fearless Girl statue (not so many people looking at it as at the Wall Street bull of Merrill Lynch fame), then up to the 64th floor of the new World Trade Center (where Jeanie works). In getting our visitor passes for the building we had to get photographed and get a visitors card. The guards got Michael and me mixed up and didn't worry about the name on the children's passes, so Thomas got them to put Steph Curry on his pass and he probably still has it among his prized possessions.

Connie and I made a quick visit to Trinity Church while Gordon and August went to the Apple Store to check on phone repairs. Then we went to the 9/11 museum but I ran out of gas from the oppressive heat and walking in the crowd so I went back while Connie stayed to see more.

The Harbormaster moved us to the very back of the marina while we were gone. It was a full quarter mile from our spot to the ferry.

Aug. 23- Russ and Julie came over for breakfast this morning and Michael, Jeanie, and Layne went back to NYC. 

Then it was off to Atlantic City, with a close up view of the Statue of Liberty on the way.

Today I introduced Thomas to western movies. We watched one from Dad's collection about the Nez Perce Indians and Chief Joseph with a title like "I shall fight no more" after beating the soldiers and running them ragged for a long time. I think he liked the movie.

When we got to Atlantic City everyone went to the boardwalk and then to play basketball and I went for a long walk in the casino parking deck. T played ball with a boy named Sincere near the marina after winning a basketball in the games on the boardwalk. 

I don't think I need to go back to Atlantic City.

Aug. 24- Atlantic City to Ocean City Maryland. Good weather, smooth seas, and time for T, Gordon and me to watch John Wayne in The Cowboys, which turned out to be a good one for a boy to watch. I explained to Thomas that John Wayne is the Steph Curry of cowboy movies.

Ocean City is another version of Atlantic City. In spite of the warm feelings for OC generated by Ping Pong Summer, it is another place I don't need to return to. 

Aug. 25- Back to Virginia Beach!!! I can't say enough about how great the crew was on this trip. As usual Drew's food was terrific and Cookie was the perfect stew. I think Thomas and August enjoyed fishing with Harry and Josh in the evenings from the stern. And Dennis is glad his 14 docking and departures are over. Unfortunately we ran this whole trip on one generator and Dennis now has to take the SarABeth around to Portsmouth to try to get the second one repaired.