Leaving Ft. Clatsop & White Rock Canyon

Two hundred years ago today Lewis & Clark left Fort Clatsop to the local Native Americans and headed back east across the continent. On March 23, 1806, Capt. Clark wrote: "...at 1:00 p.m. left Fort Clatsop on our homeward-bound journey. At this place we had wintered and remained from the 7th of December, 1805, to this day, and have lived as well as we had any right to expect, and we can say that we were never one day without three meals of some kind a day, either poor elk meat or roots."

To honor Lewis & Clark's departure I headed out to White Rock Canyon for a mini-expedition of my own. Dad & Sue are now familiar with this trail at least the descent. Which I made in record time today of 40 minutes, usually it takes 50. I proceeded on to the Arizona Hot Springs, a somewhat treacherous climb over slippery rocks and mini waterfalls. There I basked in the hot springs for at least 20 minutes hoping to cure some minor aches and pains. Then I proceeded up the alternate route, which I had done once before but I forgot how difficult it was. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the trail around the lake at Sunset Park and 10 being the Hillary Step near the summit at Mt. Everest, I would rate the degree of difficulty at 9.5. There were two particularly steep scrambles that I wouldn't recommend to anyone without adequate insurance. But somehow I successfully scaled the rocky cliffs and even saw some ancient pictographs on the way. My luck ran out on the drive home when I encountered grid lock at the Hoover Dam. The dam road became the damn road when it took nearly an hour to drive 4 miles.