Road Trip 2009: Final Day?

Waking up on the Lochsa River with a bright blue sky and perfect temperatures was both relaxing and tempting to stay another day. If rafting trips were offered today, perhaps we would have lingered but we continued down the river, through the Nez Perce Reservation stopping in Kamiah, Idaho for a late breakfast at the Hearthstone Bakery & Tea House.

We have run across references to Lewis and Clark both coming and going on our trip. Partly because following the 200th anniversary of the expedition a couple years ago the path is well marked with sign posts and interpretive markers and because our trip overlapped parts of both their coming and going journeys.

Today we were following their path for a long way and we stopped for several of the markers. At one point we realized we were retracing, in reverse, a trip we took several years ago.

Entering Washington it is hard not to hit the highway and head for home. I know that would be Jim's preference but we are continueing on our backroads journey taking HWY 12 across the state. We plan to cut north through Mount Rainier National Park and then home over the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

It is looking like we will be home late tonight, assuming we don't run into any distractions or get tired and decide to stop . . .

Change of plans: Short discussion and we are heading for I-90 and home. The pull just gets too stong when everything starts to look familiar. The timing and weather aren't prime for photos at Rainier and we can easily return a little later in the season.