Idaho: Navigating the Rivers
Captain Clark wrote in his journal:
I determined to pass through this place notwithstanding the horrid appearance of this agitated gut, swelling, boiling, and whirling in every direction...However, we passed safe, to the astonishment of all the Indians...who viewed us from the top of the rock.
—October 24, 1805.
The rivers that Lewis and Clark's team faced on the way to the ocean were challenging. Besides logs, rocks, and bears, they had to face sandbars, rapids, and storms. Sometimes canoes almost turned over and things were lost, and sometimes rocks or logs damaged the canoes or trapped them.
But the worst part may have been traveling upstream. Until they got to the Rocky Mountains, they often had to pull the boats from shore against the current. This made the trip slow going and hard work. Shoes wore out quickly and the prickly pear cactus in the plains was hard on the feet.
At one point in the journey, some American Indians showed the explorers a quick way to hollow out a log to make a canoe. Instead of chipping away at the wood with a tool, they set little fires that burned the inside to ash. As long as they put the fires out in time, making canoes went a lot faster that way.
A Keelboat Nickel has been added to your collection. To learn about it, click here.
The trail will lead you next to Oregon, as the explorers end their journey westward.