Shipboard naturalist Lyn Baldwin adds a sketch of Fort Clatsop to the personal journal she compiled during our week-long voyage of discovery aboard the Sea Lion. Today's weather in the Astoria, Oregon, area was unbelievably nice, giving us a perfect string of pleasant and sunny days since we departed Portland six days ago on our trip along the Columbia and Snake rivers. It is difficult to believe that the Pacific Northwest is famed for its rains. Lewis and Clark would not have found that hard to believe, however. Rain was a constant companion during the winter of 1805-06, which members of the Corps of Discovery spent at Fort Clatsop. Only twelve days of that exceedingly damp and disagreeable time at Fort Clatsop were free of rain. From here the Lewis and Clark expedition headed for home on March 23, 1806. When they returned to St. Louis on September 23, six months later, people greeted them with great joy.
Today we also visited the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria and traveled aboard the Sea Lion to the mouth of the great river that has been our companion on so much of our voyage in the wake of Lewis and Clark.
