Hello Everyone!
The weather is definitely warming up this week. Temperatures have been pushing up towards 90°F (32°C) on me here in the Pacific Northwest but thankfully it cools off quite a bit in the evening. Personally I would have loved some more springtime temperatures between winter and summer, but I know it’s almost June so it’s getting to be that time. The days are getting really long out here which has its pluses and minuses, but for the most part it’s been pretty good. I finished off my time in Oregon this week and I’m definitely glad I had the opportunity to see the Willamette Valley and all it had to offer. It was a relatively quick push back across the north of the Beaver State and southeast Washington to put me back into Idaho. I had a fabulous trip up into the depths of Hells Canyon this week and am ending the week here in Pullman, Washington just across the border from Moscow, Idaho. Both are pleasant university towns, but Pullman has a Planet Fitness so I dipped over here for a workout and I might as well finish up this week’s post while I’m here.
After I left you last week, I decided to stay the night outside of Portland at Edgefield, the old Multnomah County Poor Farm which is one of the McMenamin brothers’ signature properties. I thought a relaxed afternoon seemed like an excellent choice at that point and since I could get a dorm bed there for just $45 and be able to enjoy all of the amenities of the resort, I jumped at the opportunity. I had stopped by Edgefield on my way up the Columbia River Gorge last September and really wished I could have spent more time there, so I’m glad I had the chance to on this go-round. The main building at Edgefield is a beautiful, old, brick building with lots of art, nooks and crannies to explore. The property had four bars and the winery open while I was there, plus the main restaurant. I enjoyed a soak in the soaking pool, a nice long walk around the property and a plenty of quiet time reading my book. All of the shared spaces encouraged conversation and I really enjoyed chatting with several people during my stay. It was a wonderful afternoon and evening and somewhere I would definitely recommend if you’re ever in the area.
I hung around the following morning until checkout time, sipping coffee and reading my book on the balcony in the cool morning air. I was sad to leave, but I wanted to get back into Portland as well. Arriving back in the city, I parked near the Peninsula Point Rose Garden which was magnificently in bloom. Portland is known at The Rose City, and the rose gardens are really special. I hadn’t been to this one before and it was a lovely place for a stroll. From there, I hopped the train downtown and had lunch at Fuller’s Coffee Shop, an old-school lunch counter which has been serving Portland since 1947. I got a burger and fries for less than $10 and really loved the place. By then it was time for a coffee so I made my way over to the Conspirator’s Coffee Lounge for a latte. To get into this speakeasy style lounge, you have to first walk into a custard shop and give them the password for which they hand you a dagger. You take the dagger into a wardrobe and slip it into a slot and then the back wall of the wardrobe opens into a fabulous Victorian parlor, a lovely place to enjoy a cup of coffee and hang out for a while. From there I took a long walk out to the Skeleton Key Odditorium which was similar in some ways to the Peculiarium I wrote about last week, but a little better organized and definitely bigger. There were a lot of cool things to see and learn about from the world of oddities and the macabre.
By the time I left the Odditorium, it was time for Happy Hour. I started the afternoon at Jake’s Famous Crawfish, one of Portland’s oldest restaurants having opened in 1892. I enjoyed the atmosphere, but I ordered a Dungeness crab dip which came out in a thimble and at a nuclear temperature. The roof of my mouth completely scorched, I headed not too far away to Dan and Louis Oyster Bar which opened in 1907. I had a cold beer and a half-dozen oysters which were remarkably good. They brought me a variety of Washington oysters and they were some of the best I’ve ever eaten. I wandered around Chinatown for a while and then headed across the river to a place called Creepy’s. Creepy’s was a weird little clown-themed bar which was just okay. I kept strolling up the road to another Portland institution: The Sandy Hut which has been around for a little over a century. By that time I was pretty tired, so I stopped for a donut at Voodoo Donuts and caught the bus back to my van. It was an amazing “bonus day” in Portland and I’m really glad for it as I ticked everything off of my list that I had wanted to see before I left.
I was up early on Friday and had my breakfast in the rose garden before I headed out of town. I made my way back out to the Goin’ Straight shop and they could see right away that the repairs they had done on Wednesday hadn’t held up. They got right to work and actually pulled the air shocks out of the van completely and reinstalled them. It was quite a bit of work and they didn’t charge me for it since I had paid a lot for the repair earlier in the week. They were sincerely concerned about the trip ahead for me and wanted to get it right. When they were done I went out and drove it around for a while and brought it back. Everything looked good, so I pointed my headlights east and bid goodbye to the west coast for the last time this year. It’s all eastbound from there.
Of course by that time of the day, Memorial Day weekend traffic had started, but I took the scenic route through the gorge and avoided most of it. I continued on through to The Dalles, one of Oregon’s oldest cities and one that also lays claim to being the end of the Oregon Trail. When emigrants reached The Dalles, they had to choose between a river passage down the Columbia River, hopefully bringing them to Oregon City, or the longer, overland Barlow Cutoff (pioneered in 1847) on which they would be racing against the coming winter. Both choices had their risks and rewards and I don’t envy them having to make that decision after walking for several months across the country. The Dalles was named by French-Canadian fur trappers for the many rocks in the river at that location which created some serious rapids (“dalle” meaning “flagstone” in the French Voyageur dialect) and is pronounced like “pals”.
I started my visit in The Dalles at the old fort up on the hill. Originally built in 1838 on the site of a former Methodist mission, its main objective was to protect the emigrant passage through the area from the Indians. Between 1856 and 1858 the fort was expanded with the addition of several large buildings for the officers who were stationed there. Abandoned after the outbreak of the Civil War, the only main building which has survived the intervening years is the surgeon’s quarters which has been lovingly restored and opened as a museum. In addition to this building, the old 1895 Anderson Homestead buildings have been moved to the property to interpret the settlers’ lives at the end of the 19th century. There were also quite a few historic wagons and cars which I thought were pretty cool.
From there I headed back down the hill into town and went to the National Neon Sign Museum. In case you can’t tell, I’m a huge fan of neon signs and I really got a kick out of this place. The man whose collection became the foundation of the museum was on hand and gave us a guided tour of the building (the museum is housed in the city’s old Moose Lodge). His passion for neon was infectious and he was particularly proud to show us the oldest neon tube in existence and the only original George Claud (the inventor of neon lights) sign left in the country. I was fascinated to learn that neon creates a red light, while argon is used in blue lights. Any other colors are stained glass with argon tubes running inside of them, so most “neon signs” are actually argon signs. There were a lot of great signs in the museum and I only wish there had been more of them.
By that point it was getting pretty late in the day and I was starting to get tired so I decided to just call it a day as far as traveling was concerned. I wandered around The Dalles and took some photos. There are some wonderful murals around town and some great old buildings including Oregon’s oldest courthouse. The Dalles was once the county seat of Wasco County, which, from 1854-59 was the largest county in American history, covering 130,000 square miles from the Cascade Mountains to what is now central Wyoming. I got a beer at Freebridge Brewery which is located in a building built by the government in 1864 to serve as a U.S. Mint. It was never really utilized as such as gold in the area played out early. I grabbed a bowl of pho nearby and then called it a very early night. I felt a little worn down and wanted to get an early start so this was definitely a good idea.
I was up and out early on Saturday and made a beeline up the road. Gas usually skyrockets on holiday weekends, but I think station owners understand where people’s breaking point is as many stations were holding steady at $4.99/gallon. I did have to stop to get an Oregon fridge magnet, the only souvenir I must get before leaving a state to put up in my collection around Shadow Catcher. I enjoyed following the Columbia River most of the way through Oregon and when it ducked north, I headed northeast and into Washington State. I passed by Walla Walla and cruised into Dayton, probably my favorite little town in the state. I was there not long before Christmas last year and I wanted to have a look at it in warmer weather. When I got there, I found out it was Dayton Days, a Memorial Day weekend celebration which included a free rodeo at the fairgrounds. I had a little over an hour until it began, so I had some lunch and took a stroll around the historic district. I was glad to be able to get inside the historic train depot, Washington’s oldest, which had been closed during my last visit. I also went to the historic Boldman House, a quaint Victorian beauty built in 1880 and painstakingly restored to its 1912 appearance after 87 years in the Boldman family (the Boldmans had bought the house in 1912 and it was willed to the Dayton Historical Society in 1999). The interior was beautiful and outside they had some cool contraptions set up including a flour grinder, a corn shucker and a butter churn, all of which I took a turn at. From there it was off to the rodeo for an afternoon of bronc busting, barrel racing, bull riding and nachos. It was awesome.
I hadn’t planned on spending all afternoon in Dayton, but I’m not sorry that I did. I really enjoy Dayton and still think it is one of the most quintessential American small towns I’ve visited on my journey. It was only a little over an hour from there to my final destination of Lewiston, so I had already gotten most of the journey out of the way by the time I arrived Dayton. I took off soon after the rodeo ended and aimed my headlights towards Idaho. I did make a short stop along the way in tiny Pomeroy, Washington which felt like a ghost town on a Saturday evening. They had a gorgeous old courthouse and a fantastic opera house though, so I’m glad I stopped and had a look around. I got into Lewiston just before dark, which was perfect. In all the times I’ve looked at this area on a map, it never occurred to me until I arrived that the twin cities across the Snake River are Lewiston, Idaho and Clarkston, Washington which is simply adorable. Lewis and Clark did stop and camp in the area on their way across the country and it is a lovely tribute to the pair. I parked right near the old Idaho Territorial Capitol which is a tiny wooden shack but one I absolutely loved. Lewiston was briefly the capital of the Idaho territory when it was created before it was moved south to Boise. Leaving the old capitol, I took a gander around downtown Lewiston which was also incredibly quiet for a Saturday night. I stopped for a quick beer at Bojack’s Broiler Pit which had an entertaining crew of staff and locals, and then headed to slumberland for the night.
I had a lot of logistical stuff to do on Sunday. I hit the gym, did some grocery shopping, worked on a few things on my van, caught up on some computer stuff and filled up my tank at a still expensive but far more reasonable than anywhere in Oregon or Washington $4.49/gallon. In the afternoon, I sat down to really plot out the rest of my time in Idaho as there are a handful of places I really want to see, but I also want to get moving into Montana as soon as possible. It was a nice planning session and I felt much better afterwards. I enjoyed sitting in the park with my book until the sun went down and then called it a night.
I was up early on Monday and headed down to the Clarkston marina to check in for my 6 hour tour of Hells Canyon. This is America’s deepest canyon, at 7,993’ (2,436 m) from rim to river at its maximum depth. That’s about a half-mile deeper than Grand Canyon. I have wanted to do a trip into Hells Canyon for many years now, and I was very happy to find a company which was running a tour on Monday and which had a space available, as they have all only just opened for the summer. Our captain was only 22 years old, but his dad is a jet boat captain and he grew up cruising up and down the gorge. He was knowledgeable, personable and really knew the river like the back of his hand. He gave us a wonderful tour of the canyon with lots of stops and personal stories. Along the way we saw dozens of bighorn sheep, some deer and even a black bear coming down to the river for a drink. Following the Snake River past where it joins with the Salmon River, we came across a couple who were battling a sturgeon from their boat. We stayed and watched the fight for at least half an hour and they told us they had been at it for 45 minutes before we arrived. When they finally got it in close enough for a look, it was about 7’ long and a real beautiful fish. Sturgeons are all catch and release, so they had to let it go, but it was a heck of a fight to land it and really something to see. We had a great picnic lunch along the shore of the Snake and then headed back down the river to Clarkston. The trip upriver was slow and informative, while the downriver trip was fast and exciting with a good soundtrack playing for the ride. When you look at my photos, remember that this is just the inner gorge of Hells Canyon and that the true rim is much higher and further back. Rim to rim, Hells Canyon is about 10 miles across. When we got back to town, I stopped in for some blueberry barbecue ribs at Roosters which is right there overlooking the river and then called it a day, and a very successful one at that.
It was definitely time to get moving when I got up yesterday. I wanted to see some small towns in the area, so I enjoyed a wonderful ride along the Clearwater River out to Orofino. There wasn’t much to see there, but it had a nice main street (Collage Ave.) and I was pleasantly surprised at how well the town seemed to be doing with very few empty storefronts. From there, I cruised on to Kendrick, which was also a lovely little town, and then through Troy and on into Moscow. After Idaho’s capitol was moved from Lewiston to Boise, northern Idaho wanted to join the newly formed Washington State as the north is very isolated from southern Idaho. To appease them, a new land grant university was slated to open in Moscow, and the University of Idaho is definitely the biggest employer in the region. Originally called Hog Heaven and then Paradise Valley, the best theory as to why it became “Moscow” seems to be that the original postmaster who filed the paperwork to open the post office in town was from Moscow, Pennsylvania. Sadly, there don’t seem to be any ties to the Russian capital (I was hoping for a decent Russian restaurant or a few onion domes around town). There are actually more than 20 towns named Moscow in the United States, but St. Petersburg, Florida is the most prominent city named after a Russian town. Moscow, Idaho is a nice little college town with a pleasant and welcoming downtown area. It was raining when I arrived, so I just took a little stroll around and then decided it would be a good night to catch a movie. I went to see Sheep Detectives which was just pleasant and fun all around and left me with a warm feeling. I’d highly recommend it. It was also a nice way to spend a rainy evening in Moscow.
The sun is shining today, and I’m looking forward to exploring a little more of Moscow and its sister city across the border, Pullman, Washington, where I am writing this post from. Depending on when I can finish this up, I may stay in the area one more night or I may push on up the road. This coming week, I’m looking forward to taking the scenic route along Lake Coeur d’Alene and visiting with my old friend Cameron in the town of the same name. I also want to get to the White Horse Saloon in Spirit Lake, Idaho’s oldest bar. I then hope to visit Sandpoint on Lake Pend Oreille and a couple of small towns and historic sites on my way out of the Gem State. By this time next week, I will almost certainly have begun my stay in Montana. Montana is a big place and I’ve got some planning to do before I get into it, but I’m really looking forward to my time there. I hope you’ll come back next week and see how far I get. Have a wonderful week out there and thank you, as always, for reading.
-Mike
