Tuesday, July 20, 2010

This will be a journal of sorts of my own Voyage of Discovery as I venture down the Rivers that were the greyhound bus ticket home for a tired and disheveled group of surveyors that was the Lewis and Clark Expedition. A more accurate description would probably be an Inventory of treasures and resources the Great White Father intended conning the current owner/occupier out of. History has shown the effects were pretty much what L&C predicted though the scale I believe would have disgusted even them. By the time they were on the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers heading home most of the East had given them up for dead. They were indeed a hungry, bedraggled lot who, reading between the lines, only survived and made it home by stealing dogs, horses and boats,  and begging food and succor from nearly every native they met. Were it not for the compassion of the Nez Perce’ Indians they all surely would have died. They cobbled together an amazing collection of craft on their return journey but I’m not quite that adventurous. I’ll be building a modified Adirondack Guide Boat using recycled wood for my journey starting from plans I purchased from Sandy Point Boat Works.  I should qualify that, there is a Russian Maple in my Ex’s back yard that suffered some ice storm damage last year and has a number of dead branches that are naturally crooked and large enough to carve the stem pieces out of, so there will be just a tiny bit of new wood. I want to incorporate a vertical axis wind turbine and solar panel into the boat to power computer gear and cameras and will install an electric trolling motor just cuz after all, Times Have Changed! Part of my purpose is to show how small your carbon footprint can be and still enjoy a full life. Oh well, photos to follow----http://sandypointboatworks.com/

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