Wednesday 28 July
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| Yakima River |
Bit of a fore-taste of things to come, we spent time today motoring in +90F temps
out through the Yakima river canyon onto a high plain.
Actually, its not yesterday as I write this, its 5.30am the next morning
I'm sitting at the BBQ table where we had a pretty raucous night with the locals.
An elk doe and its fawn has just walked down the backstreet about 100' from me!
and here comes another!!
One jumped onto the road in front of me 2 mornings ago.
Talk about GPS's doing a recalc when you take a wrong turn
in less than 3/5 sec I did one too, but the deer recalced even quicker, fortunately, and got out of the way.
The squirrels are even funnier, they'll dart onto the road, stop, re-dart, then decide to quit, and shoot off, very quick little animals.
I commented to our hostess, that I only saw one boy-racer last year, but this time I've seen 3, so far
and she said, oh yes, we're seeing that a bit now
but I'd say, NZ's still the world leader at this by far.
apparently this town, bit like Marton in size, is unemployment central, WA
and there's a seasonal swell in pop 2-3 times resident.
The second deer, a 6 pointer stag, hasnt seen me yet and is grazing a stones throw away
havent got my camera.
So yesterday, onto the plains from Yakima
paused to photograph the river, wide clear water
have to wonder at NZ's "clean and green" promotion image, wasted on how much of USA
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| Ephrata corn |
We rode across the Ephrata plains irrigated from a lower coulee dam set up in 1920 a local told us
fields of onions, potatoes, alfalfa
and where there was waste ground, the soil revealed as poor as Waiouru, 1100' asl, probably as cold in winter.
Past Soap Lake
The CB pulls 80 kmph at 3000 rpm, and 160 at 6000
the tacho's red-lined between 8-10,000, but I didnt push it.
The headlights following Sam a distance behind might have been the local constabulary.
Grand Coulee Dam...
so what are we, 3 days since leaving the coast, and still following the Columbia River.
Mighty piece of water, the dam's US's largest hydro power producer, 4th in the world.
12 million cubic yards of concrete a mile wide, the equivalent of a 4' wide footpath twice round the equator.
The dam stretches 151 miles upstream, and was engineered to stop short of the Canadian border, started in 1933 as part of Roosevelt 's post slump measures, completed 1941.
At a cost though, apart from man and money, the salmon couldnt get any further up no more
and the injuns got their food supply shortchanged, not to mention a bit of village and urupa flooding
with resulting "relocation"
again...
Just off Grand Coulee we're onto the Colville Reservation, 1.3 million acres
but just 10% of the original NezPerce reservation first treatied, before gold got discovered.
Chief Joseph's band were the dissidents who didnt want to comply, and this started their trail of tears as they set off on the great 1600 mile flight.
Prior to this they were major cattle herders supplying the Union army
but as I mentioned last year, who got the cattle when they left?
But they did take their 2000 horses, and dunno who got them either when they eventually got run down just short of the Canadian border.
With so much grand scale land, you'd wonder how humanity couldnt share, rather than swipe the lot
although I guess having pissed off locals in your backyard, no matter how big, wasnt tenable.
Sitting Bull made it into Canada and you'd have to wonder if this was regarded as a security risk seeing General Brock clouted the yanks at Niagara.
Getting to Chief Joseph Memorial at Nespelem was something I was looking forward to
but was totally apalled when we got there,
its a public toilet
what a way to commemorate a folk hero and legend
at least the reservation appeared nice grassland and forest
but no evidence of the industriousness similar to the whites down country
probably more interested in huntin n fishin, and I'd be saying stuff you too
flying the american flag
amazing
Time for breakfast.
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