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FORT CLATSOP, Ore. -- Lewis and Clark hated it here.
After traveling 4,000 miles by boat, on foot, on horseback and by canoe, after following the great Missouri River to its source and nearly starving while crossing the Rockies, the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery finally reached the Pacific. "Ocian in view!'' William Clark famously wrote. "O! the joy!''
The excitement didn't last. The expedition built a small fort near present-day Astoria; and of the 105 days spent there before the return trip, it rained on all but 12. And six of those 12 days were cloudy.
"Some rain at intervals all last night and today,''one journal entry reads. "Wet and rainy weather during the whole of this day'' reads another. And "O! how horrible is the day.''And "Rained incessantly all night.'' And "Trees falling in every direction, whirlwinds with gusts of rain, hail and thunder, this kind of weather lasted all day. Certainly one of the worst days that ever was!'' And finally and succinctly: "Rains all the time.''
The only way it could have been worse was if they had to watch "Yankeeography'' during the rain delays.
| CAPLE'S LEWIS & CLARK TALLY |
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Miles: 110 from Portland to Astoria (3,231 total, including side trips). Total states: 11. Weather: Warm and sunny. Diet sodas: 2 units. Lewis and Clark Trail Markers passed: 18 (274 total) Price of gas: $2.02.p> Traffic citations: None. Businesses/parks/bridges/rivers, etc. named after Lewis for entire route: 8. Named after Clark: 6. Named after both: 23. |
The problem was that Lewis and Clark came here in the winter, when it pretty much does rain all the time, instead of in midsummer -- which is when I arrive at Fort Clatsop, the 49-year-old replica of the original fort. After sweeping down the Columbia River gorge and passing through Portland, I complete my sports road trip of the Lewis and Clark trail on an idyllic afternoon -- sunny, with temperatures in the mid-70s.
Thanks to the hospitality of park ranger Jill Harding, who graciously agrees to endure an uncomfortable night with strangers, I am able to spend the night sleeping inside Fort Clatsop. After the park closes to visitors, Jill builds a fire in the cramped captain's quarters, we break out some cheese and smoked salmon and talk late into the night about the expedition.
What was Lewis really like? He was a personal secretary to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson said he possessed "courage undaunted." He was perhaps the nation's most celebrated bachelor when he returned to St. Louis after the expedition. And yet, why couldn't he get anyone to marry him? Was he really that moody? Did he really commit suicide, as most historians believe? Or was he murdered, as a few suspect?
What was it like for Sacajawea, the only woman on a military expedition, carrying an infant son up the rivers and over the passes?
And finally, if you could go back in time, which day from the expedition would you choose to see?
I pick the day Lewis crawled to the top of Lemhi Pass and realized the Rocky Mountains still stood in his way.
Harding picks an average day at Fort Clatsop, just to see what it was like.
Soon, it is past midnight. The constellations are out and the night is silent except for a soft breeze rustling the cedar trees. I cover the bed with buffalo and elk hides, wriggle myself into the narrow space between two timbers and get tolerably comfortable. I pull a College World Series blanket over me and am fast asleep.
The nation, its land and its people, have changed so much since Lewis and Clark.
Just five years after Lewis and Clark wintered at Fort Clatsop, John Jacob Astor founded Astoria. By 1843, a thousand pioneers were trekking west on the Oregon Trail.
By 1869, people were being paid to play baseball in Cincinnati, where Lewis bought supplies for the expedition.
By 1875, the Kentucky Derby had been started by Meriwether Lewis Clark. Yes, William Clark's grandson.By the 1890s, people were teeing off on the oldest golf course in the west (or so its owners claim) at Gearhart Golf Links, a long slice from where Lewis and Clark made salt from the seawater.
By the 100th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the city of St. Louis was hosting the Olympics.
Today, Albert Pujols is being paid $7 million to play baseball at the beginning of the Lewis and Clark Trail. At the trail's end, there is an outlet store for Nike, the company paying LeBron James $90 million to wear its shoes. In between, hundreds of players are working to reach the pros and earn the same kind of money.
And to think, Lewis received $7,262 in pay and land grants for leading the expedition. Clark received a little less. The privates received $5 a month.
Before I leave Fort Clatsop, a park employee asks a question that stops me cold.
"So, you've driven the whole route,'' she says. "If you had had the chance, would you have gone on the original expedition?''
Would I?
We have become a soft people over the past 200 years. We get into air-conditioned cars to drive a quarter-mile to the store so we can buy pre-packaged, sugar-laden foods that we'll take home, pop into the microwave for a minute and devour even after we're no longer hungry. We fly across the country in six hours and complain that the meal didn't taste good and that there wasn't enough of it. We gripe when we connect to the Internet and a page takes more than five seconds to load. We bitch about gasoline prices, which -- when adjusted for inflation -- is cheaper than it was 20 years ago.
We can't even be bothered to get up from our couch to change the channel, relying on the remote control instead.
When Lewis and Clark crossed the country, they sent hunters out in advance to kill buffalo, deer and other animals needed to feed the Corps when it stopped for the day. (Given that each man ate up to nine pounds of meat a day, the hunters would have to bring back hundreds of pounds of game.) They resorted to eating dog, bear oil and candles.
I received my food along the route through my car window. The only effort required on my part was deciding whether I wanted it super-sized. Even when I hiked along the Lolo Trail in the footsteps of where Lewis and Clark nearly starved, the tour guide had a picnic waiting for us as we reached the end of the trail.
How pampered was I? At the College World Series, a full meal of lasagna not only was provided in the press room, but there were bowls of M&Ms for the reporters.
Nice touch; but next year, could you please remove all the green M&M's first?
The Corps went 28 months without receiving word from family or friends.
"We are to ascend the Missouri River with a boat as far as it is navigable and then to go by land, to the western ocean, if nothing prevents,'' Sgt. John Ordway wrote his parents in April 1804, adding, "Will write next winter if I have a chance.''
I had the Internet and a cellphone -- though, in my defense, it ought to be noted that I had to occasionally pay roaming charges.
The Lewis and Clark expedition spent a winter in 45-below-zero cold, waded through ice-cold rivers lugging a 20-ton boat, scrambled over prickly-pear bushes that left their feet sore and bleeding, and wore their saturated clothes until they rotted off their bodies.
| LEWIS & CLARK HIGHLIGHTS |
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Best view: The Oregon coastline from Ecola State Park at the very end of the trail. (If you remember "Kindergarten Cop,'' this is where Arnold holds the school picnic.) Runners-up: The view from atop Hole in the Wall in the White Cliffs of Montana, and anywhere along Highway 12 from Missoula to mouth of the Lochsa River. Best restaurant: The Baldwin Saloon in the Dalles, Oregon. Great food, great prices and the hardest-working woman in show business: an older woman who not plays standards non-stop on a piano, but also climbs a ladder to get to the piano loft above the restaurant. Runners-up: Rick's Cafe in Mobridge, South Dakota (superb chili and a mean buffalo burger) and Clarklewis in Portland (despite the name, no tainted dog meat, just great lamb). Best stretch of road: Highway 12 through the Lolo Pass, as close as you can get to experiencing the untouched Lewis and Clark Trail without leaving your car. Runner-up: Interstate 84 hugging the Columbia River gorge. In addition to the view, we passed wineries and roadside stands selling strawberries, raspberries, cherries and fresh salmon within a stretch of 25 miles. Worst stretch of road: Highway 200 in Montana. You aren't close to the trail (no road is during this stretch) and it's not particularly scenic. Fortunately, it's Montana, so you can drive through it fast. Must stops: Every Lewis and Clark interpretive center, beginning with Camp River Dubois in Illinois and ending with Fort Clatsop. Yes, there is some repetition, but each center has superb exhibits about that specific part of the trail. You never walk away thinking, "I've seen that before.'' Must-do: Take a hike on the Lolo trail; canoe ride in the White Cliffs. Most unusual site: The Stonehenge replica on the Columbia Gorge built by Sam Hill as a WWI memorial. Nicest surprise: A fireworks display in South Dakota in the middle of a long drive from Sioux City, Iowa to Chamberlain, S.D. Best park: Fort Stevens, a couple miles from Fort Clatsop. Best ballpark: Lewis and Clark Park in Sioux City. |
Except for my night in Fort Clatsop, I slept in hotels -- though, again, I must point out that only two of them provided turndown service. I only needed to wash my clothes once because I bought so many souvenir t-shirts at the College World Series.
Would I have joined the Corps of Discovery? Would I have signed up for the greatest and grandest road trip in American history? Would I have volunteered for the great American epic?
I really want to say yes. But let's be honest. I wouldn't have made it out of St. Louis.
Would you?
One last story from the route.
I didn't know it at the time; but as I was getting into my rental car to start my trek back in St. Louis, the 24th annual National Veterans Wheelchair Games were beginning there as well. Among the nearly 600 athletes competing were three veterans of the current Iraq war, including 21-year-old Johnnie Williams. According to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch story, Williams was left mostly paralyzed below the knees last year when a civilian vehicle rammed his Humvee off the road in northwestern Iraq. While he has regained some movement in his lower legs, he doesn't know whether he will ever walk again.
"You can't stay down,'' he told the newspaper. "It's just a part of life. You have to take it in stride and just deal with it."
Williams won the gold medal in weightlifting in the novice category, and planned to compete in the javelin, discus and shot put.
Could any of us have done what Lewis and Clark did?
Absolutely. It seems there still is some undaunted courage in this country.
Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com
