Heading Home
23/07/13 05:33
We started out yesterday about 1350 miles from home. After saying our good byes, we hitched up our trailer and headed out down highway 12. US 12 takes a beautiful path through the Cascades. In fact it is possible that there are no paths through the Cascades that I wouldn’t call beautiful. At any rate, US 12 winds between Mount St. Helens on the south and Mt. Rainier on the north. There are spectacular views of Mt. Rainier almost all of the way to Yakima. White pass is gentle compared to the climbs of Washington 20, US 2 and Intestate 90. Still it is enough to give the truck a workout and to make sure that everything is working. It was only 56 degrees when we got up in Olympia, but it was in the seventies by the top of White Pass. The temperature kept climbing to 98 at Yakima and 101 at Walla Walla. The span from Yakima to Walla Walla is a long drive, with not too much scenery for people who like mountains and ocean. The Yakima River is a thread through a desert with a few orchards and vineyards that are green an lush due to the irrigation from the river. The Yakima runs into the Columbia near Pasco, Washington. The tri cities area seemed to us to be simply hot and desolate so we stayed inside of our air-conditioned truck and kept driving.
Even though we have good air conditioning and we kept ourselves hydrated with ice tea and water from the refrigerator throughout the day, the heat takes something out of us. Sitting too much isn’t good for our old bones and joints and walking in the heat isn’t very inviting. We found a cool place to eat our lunch in the shade by a little lake, but we mostly kept driving all day long. By late afternoon, we convinced ourselves that we had driven enough and so we stopped a little early when we reached the Snake River at Clarkson, Washington. We’re really only a bridge away from Idaho and if we get a reasonable start, we’ll have lunch in Montana, so making it home on Wednesday will work out fine for us.
The Snake is an amazing river. We learned a bit about it when we lived in Idaho. Downstream from our campsite, the river joins the Columbia for a leisurely and well-regulated trip to the Pacific Ocean. The dams allow the river to maintain sufficient depth for barge traffic from Lewiston, Idaho to the Ocean. And there is plenty of traffic. Even though the wheat harvest is just beginning to get into full swing in eastern Washington, the elevators are already full. We saw elevators piling wheat on the ground from Pasco to the Idaho line. The barges will need to be filled and the wheat moved as soon as the markets are ready. Much of the wheat from this part of the country is exported.
Upstream from our camping place, the Snake is coming out of Hells Canyon a long and steep gorge that forms the boundary between Idaho and Oregon for much of its way. The canyon was thought to be un-navigable by the early settlers who visited the region. They crossed further upstream at fords in the wider Snake River plain in southern Idaho, downstream from Twin Falls, where the Snake flows through another canyon, made famous by Evil Knevil and his rocket-powered motorcycle. Fortunately Evil had a parachute with him for that venture. These days, Hells Canyon is the place of raft trips and jet boat excursions and there are many professional guides who take tourists through the amazing and deep canyon. The upstream entry into the canyon is called “Farewell Bend” as the river turns from its westerly flow to run nearly northward through the canyon.
The Snake River is heavily developed and there are many diversion dams that carry water from the river to the fertile volcanic fields of southern Idaho. The aquifer in the region is tied to the flow of the snake as well, so that when too much water is taken from wells, it affects the water flow in the Snake. At Twin Falls, Idaho there is a federal courthouse that is dedicated to adjudicating water rights disputes. The case backlog is so long at that court that some of the cases that have already been filed will not be argued before the court in the careers of the people currently working there. Fighting about water rights is a long-established tradition in the West, and it appears that it will continue to be a big source of conflict for the foreseeable future.
But alongside the Snake this morning, it is quiet and peaceful. I took a short paddle last night and I’ll paddle before breakfast this morning. One thing about a desert climate: once the sun goes down things cool quickly. It is rare for the heat to last into the night even on the hottest days, so it is nice and cool to begin our day today. We were treated to a magnificent moon rise over the hills last night and serenaded by a chorus of coyotes. We’ve missed he coyote song at home in the last few years, but they were close and numerous last night. The full moon brought out their song. The day promises a drive into the Idaho and Montana Mountains, across Lolo Pass and down into Missoula. We’ll cross the Continental Divide at Pipestone Pass just east of Butte and it is pretty much all down hill from there until we get home.
Reflecting this morning I am grateful for the ability to travel and to connect with our family. It was a truly lovely vacation and celebration of our 40th wedding anniversary. It was really hard to say good-bye as we put Rachel and Michael on the plane and again as we left Isaac, Allison and Elliot yesterday morning. Despite the difficulties of saying good-bye, it makes sense for us to live in different places and pursue different careers. We knew that our children would likely choose to live in other places when we encouraged them to pursue varied career paths. So we live with the distance as we celebrate the opportunities to get together.
We’ve still got a couple of long days of driving ahead of us, but the driving is a good time of transition from one part of our life to another. We’ll be eager to get home and back to work by the middle of the week.
The Snake is an amazing river. We learned a bit about it when we lived in Idaho. Downstream from our campsite, the river joins the Columbia for a leisurely and well-regulated trip to the Pacific Ocean. The dams allow the river to maintain sufficient depth for barge traffic from Lewiston, Idaho to the Ocean. And there is plenty of traffic. Even though the wheat harvest is just beginning to get into full swing in eastern Washington, the elevators are already full. We saw elevators piling wheat on the ground from Pasco to the Idaho line. The barges will need to be filled and the wheat moved as soon as the markets are ready. Much of the wheat from this part of the country is exported.
Upstream from our camping place, the Snake is coming out of Hells Canyon a long and steep gorge that forms the boundary between Idaho and Oregon for much of its way. The canyon was thought to be un-navigable by the early settlers who visited the region. They crossed further upstream at fords in the wider Snake River plain in southern Idaho, downstream from Twin Falls, where the Snake flows through another canyon, made famous by Evil Knevil and his rocket-powered motorcycle. Fortunately Evil had a parachute with him for that venture. These days, Hells Canyon is the place of raft trips and jet boat excursions and there are many professional guides who take tourists through the amazing and deep canyon. The upstream entry into the canyon is called “Farewell Bend” as the river turns from its westerly flow to run nearly northward through the canyon.
But alongside the Snake this morning, it is quiet and peaceful. I took a short paddle last night and I’ll paddle before breakfast this morning. One thing about a desert climate: once the sun goes down things cool quickly. It is rare for the heat to last into the night even on the hottest days, so it is nice and cool to begin our day today. We were treated to a magnificent moon rise over the hills last night and serenaded by a chorus of coyotes. We’ve missed he coyote song at home in the last few years, but they were close and numerous last night. The full moon brought out their song. The day promises a drive into the Idaho and Montana Mountains, across Lolo Pass and down into Missoula. We’ll cross the Continental Divide at Pipestone Pass just east of Butte and it is pretty much all down hill from there until we get home.
We’ve still got a couple of long days of driving ahead of us, but the driving is a good time of transition from one part of our life to another. We’ll be eager to get home and back to work by the middle of the week.