Jenna and Chris' Cross Country Trip: July 15, 2013

We left 3 Island Crossing campground a little before 7 AM. Chris and I took turns driving for a few hours and stopped in Baker City, Idaho, to see one of the largest Oregon Trail museums. Our National Park Pass must be paying off, it didn’t cost us any extra to get in because we brought our pass-well worth the money! We learned a lot from this museum. It took the pioneers an average of sixth months to get from their home to Oregon(2,000 miles). The NA knew the trails well, the pioneers did not. They lost many animals and many possessions were found along the trail years later. Big cast iron ovens/stoves and dressers were found along the route because they became too heavy for the oxen to pull in the wagon. Oftentimes, heirloom furniture was dropped along the side of the road if it had not already been cut up to be used as a new wheel or part of the wagon. Many people tried to caulk wagons and take the wheels off to float across the river; this did not work out very well for the travelers. More people died from wagon/animal accidents than just about anything else along the route. More people died from accidental misfires of guns rather than from Indians. Researchers estimate there is a grave every 80 yards. One in four travelers died-scary statistics!

When we left the visitor’s center, we drove down the mountain and stopped by the Oregon Trail wagon wheel site. We got out and got to see the wagon wheel ruts from 150 years ago when people traveled the Oregon Trail. The tracks still exist! The ground is so dry that the path has been cemented like concrete. There is a stark difference between car tracks, which traveled next to the path in the early 1900s, and the wagon wheel tracks as you’ll see in the pictures. Cars make two very distinct ruts in the road with a berm in the center. The Oregon Trail is almost like a swale because the animals left one path and the wheels left another path, so a bunch of little paths were being made by the wagons traveling the Trail.

We decided we were not stopping again, except for gas and restroom breaks, until we got to our site in Cascade Falls. We traveled part of old Route 30 and saw the beautiful Columbia River Gorge. One of Chris’ coworkers told him not to miss it, and he was right; it was beautiful! We also saw our first forest fire on the other side of the river. They had 2 helicopters scooping water out of the river and pouring it on the fire(pictures below).

After arriving at the site, we started a fire and had our first “real” campfire food. We cooked burgers and hotdogs and had s’mores. We were able to do laundry and went to bed.