6-4-2023 Clarkston, WA

Baked halibut steaks - YUM!

Now that we have secured not one but two extra keys for the beast, it’s all downhill from here.  Sure, you may think this is fun and games!  Hey!  We have to pay bills, do laundry and labor our asses off baking fresh halibut steaks for dinner with a fine PacNW Rhody chardonnay to go along.

 

Noobee at our Premier
Granite Lake RV Resort site at
the edge of the Snake River

The main event on Friday was a spectacular 6-hour (60 mi. each way) 2,100 hp jet boat trip on the 1,078 miles long Snake River into the heart of Hells Canyon (no apostrophe).  The canyon is the deepest in North America, 7,900 feet from the highest peak to the bottom of the riverbed, 2,000 feet deeper than the Grand Canyon.  The whitewater is impossibly treacherous in several spots.  In 1895, a publisher who was writing about the geography of the area nicknamed it Hells Canyon and it stuck.  The sternwheelers that navigated the river with supplies and mining equipment often encountered serious trouble in the rapids throughout the canyon.

Sternwheeler Imnaha

 

One such sternwheeler was the 125 feet long Imnaha.  In 1898, two guys named Hibbs and Barton got wind that there was valuable copper ore on the river.  They staked a claim and the mining town of Eureka Bar sprang up, complete with a mill, smelter, 20-room hotel and even mail service (by boat).  The town thrived, supplied by the Imnaha.  The ship had a hard time navigating one of the rapids and after several tries, a plan was devised.  A barrel connected to a cable was tossed into the river from a nearby hill, the shipmates secured the barrel to the ship and it was winched through the rapids.  The government was interested in the mine for its copper but later determined that it was a low grade ore and walked away.  Meanwhile in 1903, Imnaha was carrying a huge load of mining equipment to Eureka Bar and somehow missed the barrel.  The cable became tangled in the paddlewheel, broke off the blades and with no control left, it went sideways.  The bow grounded on one side of the canyon, the stern on the other and eventually the force of the fast-moving water broke the ship in half.  It still lies in the deep water near Eureka Bar.  With their supply ship destroyed, the miners soon abandoned the town and that was the end of that.  It is conjectured (but not proven) that, since the copper ore was not worth much, the sternwheeler was destroyed on purpose to collect the insurance money.

What is left of
the copper mining
town of 
Eureka Bar (a
few walls)

 

In the early 1900s, two ranchers decided that the riverbanks were a great place to raise sheep.  Sheep Creek Ranch was established where 39,000 sheep grazed.  It was a success for a while.  In fact, there was even an airstrip on the ranch.  The plane would sit at the top of the hill, get a good run going downhill and then launch off an upgrade at the end hoping to clear the trees.  Still occasionally in use, a Piper Cub was seen launching from there recently, apparently by a pilot with a death wish.  As for the sheep, they were playing kissy-face with the wild longhorns and giving them a nasty, fatal disease caused by Pasteurella.  The government ordered them gone.  I don’t know how you get rid of 39,000 sheep but here we are.

Runway pointed out by the white arrow.

Rob standing right on the runway.

 

In 1974, Buzz Naninga Jr. decided to buy a 60-ft.-long house trailer and perch it on the bluff of a piece of land he owned.  Well, the trailer slid down the cliffs, all the tires and wheels were taken off as well as parts of the trailer itself.  Undaunted, bulldozers, one pushing and one pulling, and cranes got it to where it sits today.  He and his son, Cliff (?!), repaired the trailer.  Ol’ Buzz apparently thought this was a better idea than building a stick frame house.  It is the only trailer on the bluffs of the Snake River.  This one and most of the homes are accessible only by helo or boat, including mail service.  (Our captain used to be the mailman on the river.  I’m so jealous.)

Hmmm.... now what?

Captain Lee and Lindy

 

The house with the broken windows:  Every year when the owners would return for the summer months, they found every single ground floor window of their river home smashed.  Determined to find the vandals, they installed a camera.  The culprits were busted.  The longhorn sheep would see their reflection in the glass and butt heads with the enemy in the glass.  They won every time!  Why just that particular house?  I have no answer.

House with the broken windows.

 We are wind-blown, wet from the splashing, cold and exhausted.  What a ride!  June 3^rd will be a day of R & R.

Wild Sheep Rapids
There's a boat in this
picture - look
closely.

We are standing at
the geographical
point where ID, OR
and WA meet.

Rob examines the cockpit

Captain Lindy

The lowest lava layer clocks in
at 14 million years old.  The uppermost
layer is more recent:  7 million.

Basalt columns line the river.  They
look like logs but were actually
formed by lava.

 

Now, June 4^th, we continue eastward to Lolo, Montana.

Well, now!  What have we here sailing
by our campsite?!  Take a wrong turn, Captain?