tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13670434010655220442012-02-17T01:34:26.182ZWriting about my expedition to travel in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark, following the Missouri river, crossing the Continental Divide and reaching the Pacific before heading to Yellowstone ParkJonathannoreply@blogger.comBlogger271100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-10186822404320400802010-07-11T17:38:00.002+01:002010-07-11T17:44:38.882+01:00

Having made it across a continent and back, what became of Lewis & Clark? They did not immediately publish their journals; indeed, Jefferson had to pester Lewis to start writing. Both received the grants of land they had been promised, as did all the members of the expedition. The captains composed a detailed note suggesting which members of the Corps should receive additional recompense due to

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-12976629868379848372010-07-09T17:49:00.005+01:002010-07-11T17:45:13.385+01:00

The Corps of Discovery made rapid progress as soon as they set their boats on the Missouri heading downstream - 80 miles a day was well within their reach. My chosen method of transportation back east was the California Zephyr. This Amtrak train works its way right across the country from Emeryville, CA to Chicago. At 4 o'clock in the morning it reaches Salt Lake City, where I clambered aboard

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-45244524845779577622010-07-09T15:01:00.004+01:002010-07-10T17:11:31.319+01:00

Any hope of a quick return trip for Lewis & Clark was dashed early on. Bad weather continued into late March and April and they found progress back up the Columbia painfully slow. They also had to buy new horses for the trip back over the Rockies, but had precious little left to trade. Tempers were starting to fray, not between the expedition members but with the coastal and Columbia plains

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-15089412774274507792010-06-29T07:27:00.002+01:002010-07-10T13:13:26.839+01:00

You might think that having negotiated the rapids of the Columbia and reached calmer waters of the lower river that the Corps would find the final leg of the expedition plain sailing. This was not the case. The Columbia in fact is so wide at its estuary that the captains mistook it for the ocean itself near what is now Skamokawa Park. Clark was moved to write "Ocian in view. O! The joy!". This

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-74145539496204612782010-06-28T06:46:00.005+01:002011-08-04T09:34:41.158+01:00

The sun shone on Lewiston as I made an early start for the long drive to Portland. I would spend the day bouncing between Washington and Oregon - the Columbia River is the border between the two. The plan was to avoid the interstate as much as possible, and the first stop was Sacajawea State Park in Washington. Sacagawea (the spelling of her name is still a bone of contention see here) had

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-63335716862461201932010-06-26T16:34:00.004+01:002010-07-10T07:31:54.579+01:00

To do justice to Lewis & Clark's travels along Wednesday's leg of the trail would take more time, a much bigger vehicle and - according to one guide book - a saw. From the Bitterroot Valley, they reached Travelers Rest - pretty much the only spot on the trail where there is archaeological evidence of the Corps' presence. This long-standing crossroads of trade and migration routes was the last

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-67429081960201607432010-06-23T16:47:00.004+01:002010-07-09T19:41:35.986+01:00

Tuesday was a Lewis & Clark free day, and I went instead on a couple of short hikes on the western side of the valley. Here are some photos. Next entry>> Lolo to Lewiston

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-18954791378669045332010-06-23T06:24:00.003+01:002010-07-10T07:24:41.833+01:00

I spent the night at the appropriately named Sacajawea Hotel, which is a lovely building on the National Historic Register. My first stop was the town of Twin Bridges, which required another decision from Lewis & Clark as once again the river forked. They explored the various channels although Lewis was confident that the Beaverhead was the right one. They faffed about for a while here - not

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-43516877500859558292010-06-22T16:11:00.002+01:002010-07-10T07:18:59.697+01:00

From Great Falls the snow-capped mountains started to come into view. A small taster of what was to come. The Missouri adventure was coming to an end, but the Corps - and me - was still a long way from the Pacific coast. The first stop didn't have much L&C relevance. The First People's Buffalo Jump state park is a cliff that the local Indians (the Blackfeet and Crow in these parts) used to force

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-73334248230267816972010-06-22T06:00:00.005+01:002010-07-10T07:14:10.769+01:00

With so many people at breakfast on Saturday morning, we got started early and it was buffet style. And a bloody delicious buffet it was too. There was more chat with the Big Sandy posse, and umpteen invitations to hang around and join in the fun. "We'll have you married off within half an hour." I was more tempted by the great weather and the chance to have longer on the river but I had to be on

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-24580101746597568292010-06-20T15:15:00.002+01:002010-07-10T07:08:53.832+01:00

Despite the wind and rain I actually slept well, but woke very early and headed out of the cabin and over to the main building where I'd been told coffee would be available from 6am. And it was. Spent a very nice couple of hours chatting with Janna (sp?), a college student who is working at Virgelle for the summer. She only started last week and is learning all the breakfast recipes fast. There

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-46964712012016190982010-06-19T03:29:00.010+01:002010-07-10T07:04:26.576+01:00

It took much longer to get going Thursday morning than it was supposed to. Surely Lewis & Clark had those days when getting all their stuff together just seemed to take a while? It was very overcast as I headed out of Fort Peck, stopping by the interpretive centre, which is big on dinosaurs. And dinosaurs are big around these parts. There's a dinosaur trail and everything. Turns out this bit of

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-7778104607078495292010-06-18T19:09:00.003+01:002010-07-10T07:00:04.426+01:00

I didn't linger in Riverdale, I had a few miles to rack up. I was heading to the uninspiring-sounding New Town, largely because the ranger at Trail HQ in Omaha had recommended going to the Three Tribes Museum just the other side. So I did. It was right next to the Four Bears casino. Four Bears was a Mandan chief who was painted in many different guises by artist George Catlin in the first part of

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-24031037730459222982010-06-17T16:44:00.005+01:002010-07-10T06:55:51.854+01:00

After all the rain, the blue skies of a Tuesday morning in Bismarck were quite the treat. I took the River Road (of course), destination Fort Mandan - an extremely significant location on the Lewis & Clark Trail. I didn't know about Keelboat Park on the edge of Bismarck. It was home to another replica keelboat and some bizarre statues of who I presume are Lewis, Clark and Sacajawea although

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-49039285253582056342010-06-17T05:48:00.004+01:002010-07-10T06:50:21.770+01:00

Pierre, capital of South Dakota (and pronounced Pier) deserved more than the morning I'd allocated it. It's the second smallest state capital after Montpelier, Vermont, but it still boasts what must be one of the better museums in the midwest as well as the impressive state capitol itself. For Lewis & Clark fans, as I'm sure you all are by now, Pierre was the site of a major episode in the

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-15922656489935802102010-06-15T04:22:00.003+01:002010-07-10T06:46:45.591+01:00

I left Yankton and the slightly odd Broadway Inn with the faintest pangs of homesickness. A combination of the football and hearing Duffy's 'Warwick Avenue' playing in Quizno's subs the night before (incongruously) were to blame. (For those who don't know, Warwick Avenue is an underground station just a hop, skip and a jump from where I live in NW London). It had rained heavily again overnight

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-87346123278561194072010-06-14T00:55:00.004+01:002011-08-08T16:27:16.600+01:00

Another broken night - this time by a thunderstorm that crashed through Sioux City at about 3am. No obvious damage there, but further north plenty of evidence that some serious winds had buffeted trees and overturned rubbish bins. And there was the sad news that 16 campers had died in Arkansas due to flash flooding - a grim reminder that all the various weather warnings were to be taken seriously

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-18172880982435037542010-06-12T21:31:00.007+01:002010-07-10T06:04:16.142+01:00

I said farewell to Jeanna at the Whispering Pines after a night interrupted by some eerie sirens, which we presumed were a tornado warning. It was very disconcerting. I was quite sad to say goodbye to Nebraska City. It had a real charm, and the icing on the cake was the new Lewis & Clark centre that opened for the bicentennial of the expedition in 2003. This one focuses on the science of the trip

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-40532047676574058852010-06-11T23:35:00.002+01:002010-07-10T05:58:18.895+01:00

The original plan for today had been to bike the whole Steamboat Trace Trail - a 21 mile riverside(ish) rails-to-trails path from a power plant just south of Nebraska City to a nuclear power plant just south of Brownville. Have I sold it to you yet?Slight hitch - I couldn’t hire a bike in Nebraska City. There is a big bike store here, but they don’t do rentals apparently due to insufficient

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-18265657902022346312010-06-11T02:58:00.008+01:002010-07-10T05:55:16.395+01:00

After Tuesday's definitively Clark day, Wednesday was another Meriwether Lewis day. And merry weather it was (c'mon, you knew that was coming eventually - better get it out of the way sooner than later). Under cloudless skies I crossed into Nebraska, the third state of the trip (keeping up?) over a spectacular road bridge that was also very narrow and thus required concentration. Now, when I've

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-37506817184313816122010-06-10T04:00:00.003+01:002010-07-10T05:52:07.086+01:00

Lewis & Clark weren't the only westbound trailblazers. More than half a century after their return from the Pacific, it still took weeks for news to travel from one coast to another. This situation was far from ideal on the eve of civil war and the US government sought a solution. Step forward the Pony Express. Not just a bit of Americana on a belt buckle, but a 1900 mile route across the plains,

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-31199475739983118702010-06-10T03:16:00.004+01:002010-07-10T05:50:20.445+01:00

It was a dark and stormy night. Except it was about 10.30 in the morning. Heading west along I-70 it looked like we were driving towards an enormous massif of black rock. But this is Missouri - sure, it's not pancake flat, but there ain't no mountains. It wasn't a solid wall we were about to encounter. It was cloud. But what a cloud. Day turned to night as I fumbled with the headlights. And

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-74340539264592091402010-06-08T12:33:00.006+01:002010-07-10T05:48:36.282+01:00

In the early days of the expedition, Lewis would often leave the hard river work to Clark's supervision. Lewis was a man clearly comfortable in his own company - although he would be acconmpanied by his giant Newfoundland dog Seaman. Lewis was also something of a naturalist. As the boats plied their way upstream, he could be found walking the countryside for miles, meeting back up with the Corps

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-4277610039279405202010-06-07T22:20:00.010+01:002010-07-10T05:46:29.812+01:00

"The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, and such principal streams of it, as, by its course and communication with the water of the Pacific Ocean may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent for the purposes of commerce" Thomas Jefferson's instructions to Captain Lewis, June 20th, 1803 Lewis & Clark spent the winter of 1803/1804 at Camp

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-11434979232367882532010-06-03T12:35:00.001+01:002010-06-03T12:35:40.072+01:00

Just 48 hours until I'll be up in the air thanks to strike-busting British Airways people. In theory I arrive in St Louis (via Chicago) on Saturday evening. On Sunday I'll go and look at the Gateway Arch and at the embarkation point of the Lewis & Clark expedition. Then I'll head to Jefferson City, following the Missouri River on Highway 94

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-26127932689925263732010-03-25T09:49:00.001Z2010-03-25T10:09:32.996Z

This sounds like the start of a school maths problem: "If a train leaves Salt Lake City at 4.10am..." But if a train DOES leave Salt Lake City at 4.10am - in this case the California Zephyr en route from Sacramento to Chicago - then surely entering the date you want to travel and "Morning" as the time you want to travel in Amtrak's website should produce that train in the list of results. It

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367043401065522044.post-48046921652390651782010-02-28T10:44:00.000Z2010-02-28T10:44:09.129Z

As I start to move from the planning phase to the booking phase for my trip and make tweaks to the schedule, it dawned on me that I should really sort out accommodation in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks before it got a bit booked up. Good thing I did. All the accommodation in Yellowstone is managed by one company, Xanterra, which makes the booking process very easy (although one

Jonathannoreply@blogger.com1