The First of July has me missing home. The desert is fine, and the brigade taking a day off on Canada Day to celebrate is a nice gesture, but I miss the lake. The river has become a constant in our day to day life, it's always there, so large yet so unchanging. Maybe it's all in my head, but if I could be on the shores of Rainy Lake in the shade of the pines with friends and family, even with the Brigade, I would prefer that.
The last week has been through the desert. No more complaining about rain – now we worry about sunburns and strong winds. Something about the unrelenting sun heating the stone cliffs causes a wicked and constant wind. The air is dry here, and just today as we were coming to find Wi-fi I had a feeling of being in a sauna – that sort of burning air smell and feel, but fortunately without the moisture that comes with it. That has been one blessing of the desert heat, there is little to no humidity in the air. Hot weather I can deal with, and being soaked due to rain in the cool clouds I can deal with (as proved by our bout with near hypothermia conditions weeks ago), but being hot AND soaked is not a pleasant experience.
We've seen some cool things in the past few days. A while back, we toured the Grand Coulee Dam – inside and out. Two days ago, when we were in a little tiny community on the edge of some cliffs, we saw a collection of petrified stumps dug out from the hills. There were all sorts of trees, elm, pine, beech. It's hard to imagine the desert being covered in such a forest, like the ones from back home with trees ten times larger. Tomorrow we head for Sacajawea National Park, which entails two days of 20k – nothing compared to the 83k day we had yesterday of which I paddled the whole length. On the fourth we're celebrating for the Americans. It will be interesting to see how they celebrate down here.
The last week has been through the desert. No more complaining about rain – now we worry about sunburns and strong winds. Something about the unrelenting sun heating the stone cliffs causes a wicked and constant wind. The air is dry here, and just today as we were coming to find Wi-fi I had a feeling of being in a sauna – that sort of burning air smell and feel, but fortunately without the moisture that comes with it. That has been one blessing of the desert heat, there is little to no humidity in the air. Hot weather I can deal with, and being soaked due to rain in the cool clouds I can deal with (as proved by our bout with near hypothermia conditions weeks ago), but being hot AND soaked is not a pleasant experience.
We've seen some cool things in the past few days. A while back, we toured the Grand Coulee Dam – inside and out. Two days ago, when we were in a little tiny community on the edge of some cliffs, we saw a collection of petrified stumps dug out from the hills. There were all sorts of trees, elm, pine, beech. It's hard to imagine the desert being covered in such a forest, like the ones from back home with trees ten times larger. Tomorrow we head for Sacajawea National Park, which entails two days of 20k – nothing compared to the 83k day we had yesterday of which I paddled the whole length. On the fourth we're celebrating for the Americans. It will be interesting to see how they celebrate down here.
Petrified Wood
A generator at the Grand Coulee Dam
Answer: Because the Sea weed.
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