| Washington is more
prosperous than Idaho and has lower taxes. So the bulk of the business is in
Clarkston rather than Lewiston. We returned across the Snake River through
Lewiston and headed north again. The camp site has a pleasant outlook. |  |
 |
Taking the road and railroad across a river carrying shipping is a
challenge, hence this old lifting bridge across the Clearwater river which
joins the Snake at this point. |
| We quickly climbed high
above the two towns and looked down and tried to trace the path of the old
road. It is tortuous now, let alone in 1917 when the 10 mile grade was first
built. We are at 2756ft. |  |
 |
Steamboats ran from 1866 to 1940 to these ports. Serious river transport
restarted in 1975. |
| We think this is maybe
rush skeleton weed - one of a number of invasive species which are causing a
serious problem here. |  |
 |
One of the many neat looking farms on the endless prairie. It could almost
be Amish owned since the style is right and there is a strong Amish and
Mennonite presence here. |
| The next town up is
Moscow. This is the city hall. Moscow is also home to Idaho State
University, a very old institution. |  |
 |
We had a brief side trip to Potlatch, once home to the largest timber mill
in the US. I thought we might find a Shay locomotive but we only found the
railway station. |
| We did pass a nursery on
the way out back to the main road. It is all conifer timber around here. |  |
 |
Jan liked the name of this tiny town. McCroskey state park is 4500 acres
given to the state. The state accepted providing the benefactor maintained
it for 15 years first. He was 79 at the time and faithfully maintained the
park and its road until he died aged 94. |
| And so to Coeur D'Alene,
a prosperous major town in the north of Idaho. It looks and feels like many
small US cities. US 90 crosses our road here. We had thought to stop to
visit Dawson Gardens but it turned out to be a suburb not a garden. |  |
 |
So we continued north towards Bonner's Ferry. We were joined by the twin
tracks of the railroad heading over the border. This was the pusher loco at
the back end of about 150 grain cars. It took about 10 minutes for us to
overtake it. |
| This is at Sandpoint on
the shores of Lake Pend Oreille, once the home to a 2 mile long wooden
trestle bridge. This railway bridge is the third bridge to have been built
and we are on the fourth, a road bridge. All are now sadly in concrete and
steel. |  |
|