Back in the saddle

My comments have been virtually absent from this site for several months as I consolidated my position out of the real estate disaster in Southern California, moved to the Lewis-Clark Valley in Southeastern Washington State, and reestablished myself in this beautiful valley.

Clarkston, Washington, lies just across the Snake River from Lewiston, Idaho, at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers. This is an incredible country for an adventurer.

Here deer cross the road at all times of the day and night, coyotes and elk roam the wilds, sharing the territory with cougar and bear, and newly imported Canadian wolves – to the consternation of many locals.

Birds are everywhere, including several seagoing species, because of deep-water access to the ocean down the Snake and Columbia. The list includes many game birds as well as song birds in huge variety.

Steelhead and salmon fishing is as good as it gets anywhere. Jess Baugh, the son of my partner up here, Paul Baugh, owns Mountain River Outfitters, which he has built into the largest such operation in Idaho. When Jess takes you fishing, you will reach your legal limit every time – the only guide who seems able to do this consistently.

The Clearwater River runs entirely inside Idaho, is the longest wild river in America, and with the Snake River, offers some of the most exciting white water rafting in the World. And just to make things more interesting, after a wild down-river run in a raft (or in a kayak accompanying the raft if you’re game enough), you can go back up the rapids on a high-powered jet boat.

If climbing is where your adventure lies, Hell’s Canyon is America’s deepest gorge at 7,993 ft. The Snake River rushes more than a vertical mile below the Oregon rim, and more than 8,000 feet below the summits of the Seven Devils Mountains just to the east in Idaho.

The Snake is damned in three places offering the scuba diver a very different kind of diving experience.

I will publish here from time to time, things of wider interest that have happened and continue to happen in and around the Lewis-Clark Valley.

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.