lewis and clarkston

10/20- Forty hours later we found ourselves pulling into a small dock in Clarkston WA, which, strangely enough is across the Snake river from Lewiston Idaho 350 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. The Lewis and Clark expedition camped out in the area in the early 1800’s with the Nez Perce Indians before they headed out on the last part of their 2 yr plus search for the Pacific! In that forty hours time we had gone through eight different sets of locks/ dams including; the famous Bonneville dam, The Dalles, John Day, McNary, Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite. The Columbia River drops twice the elevation as the Mississippi in half the distance! It is said to be far more difficult to maneuver than the Mississippi due to its shallow rocky bottom compared to forgiving mud. Clarkston is just a small simple town with a large paper mill and of course a Wallmart. Early on the 20^th the guests disembarked the ship and loaded onto jet boats headed into Hells Canyon, a section of the Snake far too shallow and difficult for the N.G.S.B. With all the guests away we were really put to work. Fresh water was pumped into the boats tank, which holds 4400 gallons. All the garbage, recycling, and laundry were delivered to the dock by means of a human chain where bins and trucks awaited. Once all the dirty work was done we took on a weeks supply of food for 72 people including employees and naturalists. Seeing the amount of food and waste consumed and produced by this amount of people in a weeks time is quite impressive! The rest of the day was filled with painting, cleaning and organizing. At 2300 we took off to head back down the snake!