As we travel in the "Wake of Lewis and Clark" we think back over nearly two hundred years. The Corps of Discovery went westward with the setting sun in their faces. As they journeyed to the headwaters of the Missouri River, they looked toward the west. As they crossed the Bitterroot Mountains, they were bathed in the glow of the sunset. When they finally reached the Clearwater, and the Snake, and the Columbia Rivers, the sunshine of late afternoon lighted their tired faces. They were ultimately to stand, looking out on the Pacific Ocean, with the sinking sun in their eyes.
Today on the Sea Lion, in ninety-degree weather, we stand with our faces to the west. Though we travel with comparative ease, compared to Lewis and Clark's expedition, we can get a sense of the vastness of this great land they traveled through. Like them, we feel the burning late afternoon sun as it seeks its way toward the horizon of western waters.
