The Sea Lion docked early this morning at Clarkston, Washington. The air was crisp and the sky was powder blue. The sunrise illuminated the dry golden hills and highlighted the red brown orange and yellow colors of orange. I smiled when I saw this because exactly 196 years ago today, Lewis and Clark were camped 20 miles away from here - looking at the same rich display of early winter foliage in the land of the Nez Perce Indians.

I wish Lewis and Clark could have had our sunny, clear weather. They needed it. One of their canoes had hit a rock, split open and spilled dried roots, clothes and blankets into the Clearwater River. So they had to painstakingly dry everything while the canoe was being repaired but the cloudy weather made this extremely difficult. Clark writes on October 9, 1805: "The morning cool as usial the greater part of the day proved to be Cloudy, which was unfavourable for drying our things…"

Unfortunately, the damp items delayed them all day. "The wet articles not sufficiently dried to pack up obliged us to delay another night…"

We are following Lewis and Clark down to the Pacific Ocean. They are only 20 miles behind us - and we are exactly 196 years behind them.