Snakes and the Snake: From Kennewick home to Missoula

Southeastern Washington State
Touchet River
Taken June 19th, 2007

When last I wrote, nearly a month ago, I left you in Kennewick, Washington, on my way home to Missoula. By now you’re probably wondering if I ever made it home. Well, indeed I did, and back again as well. Today’s column will tell about the drive along the Snake and Lochsa Rivers, moving across eastern Washington and the Idaho panhandle.

I started out by doing my homework. That is, I went online to geocaching.com and found a series of caches that stretched from right across the street from my motel all the way into central Idaho. What fun. As soon as I got up, I headed across the street and found the first cache with no problem whatsoever, hidden in the parking lot of the local Walgreen’s Pharmacy. Now that I know the trick about hiding things on light poles, I am fairly confident when faced with this kind of challenge.

After packing up the Saab, I headed out for cache number 2, still in Kennewick, and actually moving away from my home-bound direction. Had I arrived last night by my usual route, I would have had to backtrack to find this particular cache. Or rather, I should say look for this particular cache because in truth, I never found it.

Relying on my trusty Garmin eTrex Legend GPS receiver, I parked across the street from a large park with a creek flowing through the middle. The creek has cut a canyon that is quite deep, and I found myself going down a very steep slope, on loose rock, until I ended up at the bottom where there was a labyrinth of trails leading through the brush. The GPS receiver kept telling me I was getting closer, but I never got quite close enough until I climbed back up the slope, crossed the bridge, and descended on the far side of the creek.

At that point, I was able to get to the exact co-ordinates listed on geocaching.com, but all I found was a hole the size and shape of an ammo can. This I found by crawling into the underbrush. When I finally gave up and crawled back out, I found myself at the feet of a young couple who were jogging through the park. They didn’t ask, and I didn’t tell what I had been doing in the bushes.

Back in the car and out of town, I stopped at a historical marker near the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers. Ainsworth was a town, once upon a time, but now it’s just a sign along the highway. The cache took a while, but eventually I found it, logged it, and moved on.

Turning off US 12, I headed east on Washington 124, stopping first at Hood Park where I found two more caches. The park itself was beautiful and had a lovely campground, swimming pool, hiking trails, and beachfront on the Snake River’s Lake Wallula. Next time I go through the Tri-Cities during camping season, I’ll stay there instead of in a motel.

I’ve said that I followed the Snake River, but that’s only true in a very general sense. Washington State Highway 124 actually follows the Touchet River across Walla Walla County until it ends in Waitsburg where it meets US 12. Touchet River made me think of my old friend Dave Touchette. If anyone has heard from or of Dave recently, how about letting me know.

Road to Historic Prescott Cemetery
Note the Road Hazard
Taken June 19th, 2007

Between Hood Park and Prescott, I found a cache on the old, abandoned railbed, and two more just outside of Prescott. The second of these finds was hidden in the old cemetery which was a very peaceful place to stroll, take pictures, and find a hidden bit of treasure. The main reason I’m involved in geocaching is the way the game introduces the players to new places and lets you see places you’re already familiar with in a new light. As an example, I’ve been coming to Del Norte County on a regular basis since 1973 when my parents moved here. It wasn’t until I started geocaching that I found the bison herd and the Indian cemetery that are both within 5 miles of my parents’ home.

East of Waitsburg, and now on US 12, I found three more caches along the Touchet River, including one where I’m sure I was tempting fate and snakes, and two more where I trudged through grass and weeds that were almost as tall as I am, and I’m 6’6”, for those of you who don’t know me personally. By now I had filled my socks, my hiking boots, my moccasins, and my New Balance sneakers with various sorts of burrs, cheat grass, and other weeds. I did ask myself about the wisdom of traipsing off through thick, high grass where I couldn’t see what I was stepping on, but when in the midst of a game, we do unreasonable things. Besides, what’s life without a little risk taking?

What should have been the easiest find of the day turned out to be my second miss. A veteran geocacher had hid an ammo can along his own driveway and spread the word that game players were not to worry about wandering up his drive. He even told us that our GPS units might have trouble because of the overhead power lines. But try as I might, I just couldn’t find where in his driveway he had hidden the thing. Boy did I feel stupid.

Dayton, Washington, is a pretty little farm town that straddles US 12. The county seat of Columbia County, Dayton had a population of 2655 in the 2000 Census. The town doesn’t look like it has grown (or, for that matter, shrunk) much since then. There was a geocache hidden right off Main Street, and I took it as a challenge to find it without alerting the locals to what I was doing. I succeeded too. Leaving the Saab parked in the shade, I enjoyed a huckleberry shake at a local antique/hardware/ice cream shop…just the sort of place to entice tourists to spend their money locally.

While in Dayton I took advantage of the local history to photograph the old Dayton railroad station and the Columbia County Court House. Both are fine examples of a bygone day’s architecture.

At the wide spot in the road known as Tucannon, I had my third experience today of not finding a cache. Turns out that someone had felled a tree across the cache and as people had reported seeing snakes in the area, I wasn’t terribly keen on crawling around under dead branches. I did manage to stain my jeans green from the weeds growing in the area, and also almost fell into a creek as I couldn’t see where I was walking. But I did get some lovely photos and that’s why we do it, isn’t it.

At the point where Washington 261 meets US 12, that is about midway between Starbuck and Dodge according to my map, I was the second person to find a newly hidden cache right alongside US 12. The cache site was named “Delaney” both for the grain elevator across the road and for the pioneer settler in the area named Berton Delaney. I’ve never before been second to find a cache, so that in itself was exciting.

Just past Dodge, I took a brief sidetrip up Washington 127 to find a cache that is part of the Washington Delorme Challenge. Don’t ask me, I don’t know, but I’m assuming that somehow the Delorme map people have found a way to capitalize on the geocaching game. This particular cache was the stated cache for Garfield County, and locating it under a rather large sagebrush allowed me a view of the surrounding farmland. Beautiful area with great patterns in the landscape. I’ve driven US 12 across southeastern Washington before, but the drive was always one where I thought constantly about how slow going the trip cross this rugged country is. This trip took even more time as I was stopping every few miles to seek out caches. Somehow the trip was much more fascinating because of the extra time I was taking getting to know the area.

A few miles further east and I stopped at the Pataha Pioneer Cemetery. This cache had been damaged, and of course, once I found my way to the top of the rise where the cache was hidden, I discovered that I did not have a pen in my pocket. Grabbing the cache, I walked back to the car, filled in the log, tried to repair the cache, then returned it to its hiding place. Got some pics of the old tombstones in this small, historic graveyard. It made me wonder what my own family cemetery back in West Virginia looks like. I’ll be finding out soon enough, if my plans don’t change.

Garfield County (Washington) Court House
Pomeroy Washington
Taken June 19th, 2007

Pomeroy, Washington is the county seat of Garfield County. Again I took pictures of the historic Court House, and stopped on the eastern edge of the town to take some pictures of the art work on display along the highway. These metal sculptures are what is termed a “virtual cache” in that no actual container has been hidden. The purpose is to get the game player to stop and see some item of interest, then answer some questions in an email to the person responsible for the cache. In this case, the cache was a series of very strange animals sculpted out of found objects. Great fun, and I’m glad that geocaching got me out of the Saab one more time.

Nearing the Asotin County line, I stopped at the rest area at Alpowa Summit. This rise is almost 2800 feet and offers a good view of the surrounding countryside. The big fear of looking for caches is that someone who is not a geocacher will see you and get the wrong idea about what you’re doing. These people are called, Harry Potter style, “Muggles.” At Alpowa Summit there was a whole family of muggles next to me. I found the cache just the same as the family was so engrossed in making sure their numerous offspring stayed off the highway and out of the restrooms (or in the restrooms if appropriate) that they paid absolutely no attention to me. I’ve found that at 6’6” and 200+ pounds, it’s almost impossible for me to be inconspicuous, so I just go ahead barging through life as if I know what I’m doing, and very few people pay me any mind. This was my seventeenth find of the day—a remarkable achievement in my book, but one that really slowed down my progress eastward.

At the aptly named “Bridge to Nowhere” I found my eighteenth and final cache of the day. Not much to report on this site, but the old bridge was a fascinating thing to find and explore. Just before reaching the Snake River near Clarkston, I tried for a cache called “Dogs of War.” I started on the wrong side of the road, exploring another abandonned bridge, but getting no nearer the cache. Back in the car, back up the road and down a drive on the north side of US12 into a parking area where I scared out some young toughs. As they drove off, I headed into the brush wondering if this would be the place I met a snake. So close to the Snake River, it would have been appropriate. Some of the people looking for this cache had reported ant hills, and I did find an ant hill right where my GPS receiver said the cache should be. Never found the cache though, but I note that everyone who has logged in since I did apparently had no trouble with this one. All I can say is that it had been a very long day since I left Kennewick. My neck was on fire as I’d had the top down on the Saab most of the way, and I was still at least five hours from home. Giving up on this cache, I climbed back in the Saab, drove through Clarkston, crossed into Idaho and Lewiston, and continued east on US 12.

Moon visible over the Lochsa River
You may want to enlarge this (click on the pic) to see the moon
June 19th, 2007

I love the drive between Missoula and Lewiston, and this trip was no exception. Filled the tank in Lewiston, stopped along the Lochsa to eat some of the food I had stashed in the car, and crossed the state line into Montana after dark. Around 11 p.m. Mountain Time, I pulled up to the Stoddard Street house, three days after I had left Smith River. That’s the longest I’ve ever stretched a trip out. It was good to be home with Gary, Faylene, Rocky, Minnie, Gypsy who had been staying with her siblings since April, and Princess the cat.

The Columbia River--Portland to Kennewick

The Columbia rolling down from the Canadian Northwest
Looking East from Chanticleer Point
Taken 6/19/07

Roll on, Columbia, roll on
Roll on, Columbia, roll on
Your power is turning our darkness to dawn
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

Green Douglas firs where the waters cut through
Down her wild mountains and canyons she flew
Canadian Northwest to the oceans so blue
Roll on Columbia, roll on

--Woody Guthrie

In my last epistle, I wrote of the drive along the Suislaw River, ending with a late night in Portland. With this post, I’ll talk about the second day of my drive, June 19^th, 2007, on which date I drove through the Columbia Gorge, and spent some time in The Dalles, Oregon.

Getting a late start from Portland (due, no doubt to the lateness of my bedtime the night before), I drove east out of Portland on I-84, heading for The Dalles, Kennewick, Washington, and points east. In the olden days, I would have driven directly from Portland to Missoula, taking about 10 hours for the trip. But I’m no longer under strict schedules, and can enjoy the journey as much as, if not more than the destination.

Approximately twenty miles east of downtown, I left I-84 to drive the Historic Columbia River Highway. The sign pictured below should have been my first warning. But I do love a challenge, and what’s a 10% grade, especially if you’re going uphill in something more modern than a Model T. Mind you, I wouldn’t want to take the road uphill or down in winter driving conditions. Nor would I want to have one of the houses hidden in the deep foliage, living in constant fear of having someone’s SUV landing in my sun room. The sign warned of a one and a half mile ascent, but I didn’t clock it. I can only say that once I came out on top, I was in suburbia, with beautiful homes, large yards, fences, and narrow, twisty streets which lead eventually to Chanticleer Point, or The Portland Women’s Club, which may be the same thing. The signs were confusing. If I had to guess, I’d say that the Portland Women’s Club was responsible for the establishment and maintenance of the Chanticleer Point Overlook. But that’s only a guess. The photo at the top of this page was taken looking east, up the Columbia, from the overlook. In the distance you can see the Vista House which turned out to be my next stop.

You have been warned
Corbett Hill Road, Corbett Oregon
Taken 6/19/07

A few (OK, many) twists and turns later and the road deposited me at Vista House, the next major tourist overlook on the highway. And actually the last overlook as immediately after Vista House, the road dropped quickly to river level. Vista House was somewhat frustrating in that I saw lots of folks walking around with grande lattes, but saw nowhere to buy one for myself. Grande lattes do seem to have become the drink of choice for Americans in what I refer to as the Seattleization of the World. I wandered around Vista House, taking photos inside and out, and then turned the Saab loose on the old road.

For the next several hours I drove at 30 mph or less, stopping at Latourell Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, Wahkeena Falls, Multnomah Falls, and Horsetail Falls. I hiked many of the short trails leading to these falls, but only at Wahkeena was I tempted to continue beyond the base of the falls itself. Meeting a pair of what Gary would call “Women in sensible shoes,” I asked if the trail circled back down to the parking lot. They weren’t sure about that, but told me that it did go to the top of the falls. Now personally, the only reason I can think of to go to the top of a waterfall is to throw yourself off. You can’t really get a good perspective of the falls from the top. So, semi-reluctantly, I turned around and followed the women back down the trail I had just climbed.

At Multnomah Falls I was put off by a bus load of fundamentalists, and decided against visiting either the gift store or the restaurant. I do recommend the Sunday brunch at Multnomah Falls, however. Many’s the time I’ve headed home from Portland with the idea of having my first meal stop here. All you can eat for a reasonable price and quite a choice as well, with both breakfast and Sunday dinner options available. In fact, why not just eat it all. Life’s short.

A brief stop at Horsetail Falls, led me to try and get a good close up. Instead, I found myself at risk of falling into the pool, and my acrophobia kicked in. Unfortunately, most of the shots I did take were ruined by sunspots as I had reached the time of day where the sun was directly behind the falls. Horsetail Falls is just a couple of miles from my favorite Columbia Gorge campsight, Ainsworth State Park. Before I discovered the nighttime pleasures of Portland, I would camp in Ainsworth and spend a day at Rooster Rock, a clothing optional state park right on the river. There’s no camping available at Rooster Rock, and Ainsworth was the closest park with tent sites. The downside of camping anywhere in the Gorge is that the flat area is so narrow that you’re camped right next to the railroad and the trains run all night long. The upside is that you’re in an absolutely beautiful area, so you ignore the trains rumbling by just outside your tent. I’ve camped with tent and with camper, and Ainsworth even has spots for motorhomes. If you’re at all into camping, I recommend the park which can be reached by taking exit 35 and heading west about half a mile.

I wanted to stay off the interstate as long as I could, but it proved to be impossible east of Ainsworth. The first road I took was a dead end. The second paralleled the freeway for a few miles then became an on-ramp. Even though there were other chances to get off the highway, I continued east on I-84 to The City of The Dalles. (That’s its actual name.) Along the way I saw some fantastic sights, including one fellow windsurfing with a parachute. The wind caught him and lifted him at least twenty feet in the air. Unfortunately, I was driving 65 mph on I-84 and had no place to stop and take some shots of his acrobatics.

Once at The Dalles (the common name for the city), I had some geocaches to find, and exited I-84 at River Road. You can read more about my impressions of this seat of Wasco County by visiting my travel site, www.travelforaday.com/thedallesor.php . I ended up spending much more time than I’d planned, largely because while I found two caches, the second required some hiking up a trail south of town and I had entered the co-ordinates incorrectly in my GPS unit. I got close, but no cigar, when I decided to check what was going on. Once I had the correct co-ordinates, the cache was relatively easy to find. However, having found it, I next found that I had no pen with which to sign the log, and I was unwilling to use my Swiss Army knife to draw blood for my signature. I took some bad photos of me at the cache, holding the cache, showing the cache in position, etc., and figured I could always mail those in as proof of having found the darned thing.

See, I found it! I found it!
Eagle Falls Geocache, The Dalles Oregon
Taken 6/19/07

This sure looked like good rattlesnake country, and the rocks I was climbing did have me a bit concerned about what could happen. I was at least a mile away from my car (and therefore my cell phone). No one knew where I was. No one was really expecting me to show up anywhere at any specific time. And I saw no one else for the entire time I was on this particular quest. Who knows how long my lifeless body would have lain there before it was found, or eaten by coyotes. One of these days I have to learn to carry that darned cell phone with me. And by the way, hiking back from the cache I turned and saw a spectacular view of Mount Hood on the horizon—but the lighting was wrong to get a good pic. Not sure why I missed it hiking in.

Back to the car, which I’d parked in front of a house as directed by the instructions on geocaching.com. The pickup truck in the driveway had a license plate frame that read "www.geocaching.com," so I figured I was in the right place. As I approached the car, I saw a man working in the yard, so I stopped and asked if he were responsible for the cache I’d just found. He seemed surprised that I would make that assumption, but I pointed out that having people park in your front yard was a dead giveaway. He called his wife out of the house. She was the one who actually had placed the cache. We talked for a while, and I thanked them for introducing me to a new section of The Dalles, new to me, that is.

There are lots of geocaches in the area. I had set out to find four and actually found two. After the fiasco finding the Eagle Falls cache, I decided not to try for the second cache hidden in the same general area, but did drive back to Fred Meyers to look for one hidden near the interstate. Alas, even though my GPS unit said I was right on top of the cache, I never found it. Guess that means I have to go back. I did find one along the newly constructed Riverfront Trail. This trail is ten miles long and is an excellent place to get out, stretch your legs, indulge your inner rollerblader, or just get on your bike. There are lots of caches hidden along the trail as well, so make sure you have your GPS unit with you.

The Skyline behind The Dalles.
Doesn't this look like good rattlesnake country?
Taken 6/19/07

Leaving The Dalles, I filled the Saab and my tummy at Biggs Junction, returning to the Shell Station/Linda’s Diner where I’d stopped back in April. Instead of continuing on I-84, however, I crossed the Columbia on US 97, then turned east on Washington 14. I’ve written about this road as well, and recommend it highly as an alternative to I-84. The trucks I was following turned north at Paterson on Washington 221, and I followed suit. This road led us through the Horse Heaven Hills, and past field after field of corn, peas, beans, wheat, mint, I don’t know what all else. The smells coming through the car were intoxicating. Nothing like acres of peas to really make you hungry.

The northern end of 221 is Prosser, the seat of Benton County, about twenty-five miles west of Kennewick. This is wine country—Benton County being the second largest producer of wine in the US. Napa County California is first. I was pleased to note that the monoculture taking over Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties in California is not happening here, at least not yet. Still I was struck by the evidence of extreme wealth side by side with that of poverty. Huge mansions are being built on the hillsides overlooking shanties and trailer parks on the flats. I didn’t see much evidence of middle class America in this region. Rather disheartening, I think.

Usually I come into Kennewick from the south. This time I approached from the west and promptly got lost. Kennewick is a much larger city than I previously thought, and the signs seem to be there to direct people who know where they’re going. Those of us from out of town, or out of state, just have to guess where we want to end up. Eventually I found my way to Inca, my favorite Mexican restaurant, where I enjoyed my dinner of tostada de ceviche de pulpo (Raw Octopus Salad). Having decided that I was going to drive no further, I also enjoyed Inca’s special margarita, served, to my surprise, with three cocktail olives. For dessert I had their version of fried ice cream, scoops of chocolate and vanilla ice cream served in a hot fried tortilla, and drizzled with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Ymmmmm. My impressions of Kennewick can be found at www.travelforaday.com/kennewickwashington.php

Dinner done, I checked into my motel, and collapsed for the evening—spending time on line getting plenty of geocaches ready for the rest of the way east. But that’s a story for another day. You can see a selection of my (mostly unedited) photos from the day's drive on Picasa