Eastern Oregon and Washington

After breaking camp, we continued on a very mountainous road for another 40 miles until we reached Joseph. The town was named after the Nez Perce Chief Joseph who led his people on a long journey while being pursued by the US Calvery. Perhaps his best know quote was, “I will fight no more, forever.” He led his people many miles almost crossing into Alberta from Montana. They were forty miles from safety before being caught.

In Joseph we located a nice bakery/breakfast café and enjoyed an early lunch. We loved the look and feel of the town. It was not overwhelmed by tourists as we were accustomed to along the ocean coast.

After Joseph and Enterprise we headed north along Route 3, a road I bicycled on a cross country bicycle trip in 1975. Since then Marsha and I have driven the same road once. It’s a great road and much of it is etched into my memory. The road stretches from Enterprise, Oregon in the south and Clarkston, Washington in the north. The road is maybe 80 miles in length and on a map there is a squiggle in the middle. I noticed this back in 1975. It appeared that the printed map had a misprint. Well, that misprint, aka squiggle, was not a misprint. It was Rattlesnake Grade. The road crosses through a canyon offshoot of Hells Canyon. Hells Canyon, with the Snake River at the bottom, is deeper than the Grand Canyon. It is the deepest canyon in North America and over 6,000 feet deep. Rattlesnake Grade is not that deep, but it is deep. Those squiggles, are 10 miles of switchbacks down the canyon wall and another 10 miles of them back up. Until you start down from either the north or south the canyon is not visible. Then the earth drops away.

Back in 1975 I zipped down the switchbacks on a very hot afternoon. The breeze was amazing. I camped along the river below then come morning when it was considerably cooler I biked up. It was the perfect way to do Rattlesnake Grade. Oh yeah, one more thing, I was in great shape back then!

Today being Sunday, our goal was to get to the Lewiston, ID / Clarkston, WA area and find a place to camp for the night. Then on Monday run errands and get the tire repaired.

We located a former Corp of Engineers (COE) government campground about 8 miles outside of town on an island in the Snake River. In some ways the campground was fantastic. On the water in a very park like setting. It even had showers! As we drove in the sign said is was a COE so I thought what a break. Our National Parks Senior Pass gets us a campsite for half price. I asked at the gate and they explained the COE leased the campground to a private group so they don’t honor the Interagency Senior Pass. Oh, well. We asked about hook ups and were told sites with electric and water were $40 and the sites with electric, water, and sewer were $44. We took one with sewer since we knew they had a RV dumpsite. We could dump on the way out. Turns out the place charges every use of the dumpsite whether you are a camper there or not. Charge was not outrageous at $5, but it rubbed me the wrong way. We have never before been charged for using a dumpsite provided we were staying there. I felt it was sleezy. Typically, if one is not staying at the campground there is a charge or $5 to $10. One place in Alaska wanted $30 to use the dumpsite if not staying there or $40 to camp there and use the dumpsite for free. We passed on both options.

We secured the campsite for two nights, Sunday and Monday. Monday had us find a tire place and they assessed what needed to be done. We needed a new tire and they could have the right one by 3 in the afternoon. Next we did laundry and purchased more food since we expect to be away from towns over the next few days. In the afternoon we got the tire work completed and all was good. Back to the campground for Cribbage and relaxing before we leave in the morning.