Matchless scenery from mountains to salt water

I converted almost 200 slides to DVD to show to the audience when I speak on Sunday, December 1, at Village Book Store, Bellingham WA, about my book, The Columbia River. I took photos over a period of several years of travel and research along the river. The scenery all along the river leaves one gasping at times. Up north the crags of the Rocky Mountains that line eastern BC and Alberta sometimes are like laying a rock pyramid atop a high mountain, usually dusted or covered with snow, depending on the season. 

Farther south in Washington not far south of the international border the river widens into Lake Roosevelt, where one can rent from suppliers a houseboat to enjoy lazing along calm waters. Before the dams were built, wild rapids ruffled the river waters frequently, sometimes claiming lives from overturned boats trying to travel the river. Not now. Most of the river's length is controlled and calm. The mountains retreat from the river's shores for awhile, allowing ranchers and farmers to raise animals and grains on flat, fertile plains.

When the river is near Walla Walla WA and turns west toward the ocean (several hundred miles distant), mountains line its shores again. This time it is the North Cascades Range that narrows down between the cities of The Dalles and Portland to form the famous, breathtakingly scenic Columbia Gorge. And eventually the river meets salt water to challenge its breakers and create maritime scenery. It stirs the imagination like a living being.

Climate differences for the Columbia River

A sunny day in Washington About 770 miles of the Columbia River trace channels through this state.  When the river finally reaches southeastern WA, it heads almost straight west to the Pacific.. Most people are familiar with part of the westerly-bound river as the Columbia Gorge, considered one of the most scenic places in the West. The narrow gorge between high mountain peaks acts as a venturi, too, with high winds screaming through that delight boarders who gather around the Hood River section and elsewhere.

In covered wagon days pioneers did not appreciate that aspect of the gorge, nor the colder weather and snow of the easterly approach to the gorge. Makeshift rafts and boats did not ride the Columbia rapids well. If the travelers were forced to walk along a meager shore trail, their stories are of freezing and deep snow, great hardship. The contrast always (or almost always) between east and west of the mountains is far warmer temperatures and rare and brief snowfalls on the westerly side of the mountains.

One past winter I experienced this first-hand while bound for a book signing of another book in Portland, Oregon. I drove along in about 50-degree temperatures through a winter rain south of Seattle WA. When I was about 15-20 miles from Portland, I began to hear accounts on the radio that cars and trucks were sliding sidewise on the east-west freeways on icy surfaces -- even big trucks. You can imagine I slowed down as I approached the Columbia River bridges to downtown Portland. A cold wind blew westward through the gorge, plunging temperatures in the city. I managed to slide into the first motel I found. Later I took a cab to my destination bookstore; no way was I driving on the "skating rink" Portland had become. Fortunately, this wind/cold/ice situation is rare in the gorge and city. I am not accustomed to driving on ice very often in the western part of the state. The river itself rarely has icy edges, but in decades long past, it was known to have ice across its span, although briefly and rare. My book, The Columbia River, tells tales of barges caught in such situations.

STORMY PACIFIC NORTHWEST

Wow! A system came down from the frozen north today, bringing wind and a descending thermometer down to about 50 now in extreme northwestern Washingon State.. Lots of snow piling up in the North Cascades Mountains, but here at seaside nothing like that, just rain.

I'll bet places like the Arrow Lakes of BC or Lake Roosevelt in northern Washington have big whitecaps today, even if they are just lakes. Then there's the wicked Columbia entrance into the Pacific. The Columbia River book tells of attempted entries of big ships into the river that ended in loss of life and sunken ships. Not so much any more after building of certain breakwaters and aids to navigation, but from the headland museums above, it's still impressive to watch.

Pacific Flyway over Columbia

I had to laugh when I found myself playing golf at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort and sending a drive across the Columbia River. After all, not so many miles downstream and certainly just before the river enters the Pacific Ocean 1,214 miles away, the river is miles wide, not a few feet, Between Columbia Lake, its birthplace area, and Fairmont, the river is narrow, its rapids only feet wide there giving a preview of the roaring cauldrons (before dams) of rapids downstream. Before and after the charming little town of Invermere, though, the river is virtually a series of swamps. The river searches for a direction through many slow-moving channels lined by waist-high rushes

It's an ideal place for wintering birds, and summer birds, too. Indeed, clouds of birds fly overhead  frequently, in BC's Columbia River Valley as part of the vast north/south Pacific Flyway. I visualized getting a raft and floating through this tranquil stretch but didn't have time. Traveling the long, long river and searching the human history that surrounded it dominated my days. I had a year to write a book, so I divided up the miles into 100-mile increments per month. I was on or by the river each two weeks for 100 miles, gathering history from local and regional libraries, talking to people, and soaking up its essence. Then I went home to write for the next two weeks, returning to pick up my journeys the following month. As my year's deadline loomed, I was roaming Astoria and Pacific Ocean sites.

Way up north on the Columbia

A sunny day where I live. In the dead of winter up on the Columbia River in Canada, west of the Columbia Icefields that are near Jasper, construction crews in the early 1900a could not find cranes and huge trucks that had been parked there. It had snowed so hard they were covered up and could only be located by a low-flying helicopter.  This was not far from where David Thompson came over the Rocky Mountains in January, 1811, through Athabasca Pass (5,735 alt.) fleeing hostile First Nations Piegan people. The icy trail was near the foot of a 2,000' high glacier and all too often a team of dogs pulling sleds would slide around both sides of a tree and get stopped, of course. Two of Thompson's men fled back east, but the others reached the Columbia where it makes a hairpin turn from northwest to south -- roughly the same place where the incredible snowfalls later covered construction equipment.

David Thompson was honored in 2011 by Canada and, to a lesser extent, the United States history for his discovery there of the Columbia River. Thompson actually was honored for his whole career as a surveyor in Canada. He was a valued employee of Hudson's Bay Company, then switched his allegiance to the North West Company, for whom he worked at the time of the Athabasca crossing. Eventually, his men built a small cedar cabin near the river, which became the base for fur company (and other) travelers coming north on the Columbia from way down at Fort Vancouver, Washington State,. They switched to the overland trails there on their route to Hudson's Bay itself or the later HBC posts built near today's Winnipeg, Manitoba. Imagine the hardships on such a trail, first on the none-too-peaceful Columbia River and then over land through the prairies. 

WELCOME TO NW HISTORY FANS

WELCOME and bear with me, as this is my first ever blog. I want to share the stories of the stunning scenery and romance of the Columbia River, once called the River of the West, a brawling river that has been misplaced and misunderstood throughout its history. It rises not in eastern Washington but way up near the British Columbia-Alberta border of Canada. It puzzled early historians until almost 1900, because it promptly runs northwest before turning south in BC, roughly west of Jasper AB. Fully one thousand two hundred and fourteen miles later it enters the Pacific Ocean at Astoria, Oregon, often creating huge waves as it argues with the incoming southwest swells at the entrance as to which has the right to occupy the narrow entrance channel. The book relates stories of the people and happenings in and beside this wonderful waterway. I look forward to sharing my fascination for the river with you, the readers.