2012/04/16

The Kennewick-Man Expedition, DAY 15


Phillip took me to look at places in advance by his white van the whole day, where were McNary Dam, that was going to be the first big obstacle to my journey and is located sixty kilometers downriver from City of Kennewick, and landing points where I was able to pitch a tent along the river between City of Kennewick and McNary Dam.

The Columbia River, which I took in the view away from City of Kennewick, was also a grand spectacle, cutting big groove on the rusty earth, lying down like a blue lake. I was impressed that the scale of it was more than ten times as large as Japanese rivers. Actually, its discharge is twenty seven times as large as the Tone River, which has the largest basin area in Japan.

There were clear and deep blue sky, dry air, and tumbleweeds on the dirt road. Because my mental image of the scenery of the desert area of the Western Unites States was that of tumbleweed and cactus, which I am not sure that what had injected that mental image into my brain, I was very impressed to see the real tumbleweed.

McNary Dam came within sight through a front window.

Copious amount of melted snow water, which was discharged from the massive dam, fell with a roaring sound and a spray of water. And so, at a downstream of the dam, violent waves were jumbled like waves in a shore reef in angry ocean. I heard that the discharge of this year was twice as much as of last year, since the amount of snow accumulation this winter was so large.

Although nature leaves room to accept challengers depending on originality and ingenuity, a man-made massive structure gives them on kayak a flat refusal. The massive dam consisting of concrete and iron, lying down across two kilometer river width, showed a strange contrast between nature and human intellect.