Wednesday 14 May 2008

Three times a river.

Kamiah is a town in Idaho. If you approach it from the East you will drop down to it from the Camus Prairie. Now, although it's a very important place to the Nez Perce, you won't be sorry to leave the Camus Prairie. It's largely open to the elements and other than a lake near Winchester and not so distant views of the snow capped Rockies, there's not a great deal to please the eye.
Kamiah is a different kettle of fish altogether. Even the truck and trailer graveyards you pass on the way down the hill appear fascinating. Some of the trucks have been driven into trees.
Then, at a suitable distance, homes appear, each sporting a sign supporting this fellow for Sheriff of Lewis County, another, that fellow. Oh no, it's not just a new President being elected this year. Then you'll pull up outside a Cafe for a breakfast. You'll enter and find yourself in a building that would not be out of place in the middle of the City. High ceilinged, wooden panelled, mirrored counter and freshly painted. A sight for sore eyes after the sheer functionality of the prairie. Then, before you know it, you're being served Eggs over easy by the Sister in Law of Her Majesty's Government representative in Tunisia. Yes, quite. He'd been in the Sudan when Bill Clinton bombed the Aspirin factory. Not anymore.
If you stay long enough to survive the opening pleasantries, "My brother in law's a British Ambassador don't you know", you'll hear all about Sig Grove. This chap, whilst devising an irrigation system for his lawn in 1957, unearthed a Mammoth's remains. On top of all this, it's also part of the Lewis and Clark Trail and two miles away from the Nez Perce's legendary 'Heart of the Monster' rock formation. It's a good story with shades of Maori legend, look it up. All this plus the River Clearwater too. Kamiah has a population of 1,106.
The River Clearwater features in the image accompanying this blog. It's the one immediately to Precious' right. The river flowing from the left of the picture is the Lochsa, the one from the right, the Selway. They usually carry Rocky rains but they've been swelled by melting snow after two hot days and they've churned up the silt enough to turn the Clearwater into the not so Clearwater. With the Lolo pass a couple of days away, they've also doomed my desire to show Precious the snow. Dammit.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Nigel

Fat ashy here!

Just had a quick butchers through your site, very interesting!!

Will look in more detail when get back to uk. Had to stop with people putting me up last night so no beer but will get in touch when down in ilford next and meet you for an ale and a chat then. drop me your email address at tonyash99@yahoo.com

have fun ashy

(heading north to whitefish tom.)

good luck