A photographer, a writer and their crew are retracing the Lewis and Clark trail in a flying canoe.
That's how Lewis and Clark might have described the long, narrow, John-Deere-green experimental aircraft if it buzzed them low and slow, snapping photos at 40 mph over the Lolo Trail.
"Close enough to smell dirt," said writer Mary Walker, 59, of Tucson, Ariz.
Walker and Ron Lowery, 59, a photographer based in Chattanooga, Tenn., have teamed up to produce a coffee table book called "Chasing Lewis and Clark Across America."
Monday, the crew traveled from Orofino to the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport. Today, they were up with the birds to fly to Hells Canyon and then continue into Oregon.
"The first half-hour of daylight is the best time for photographs," said Lowery, who claims he has stayed on Eastern Standard Time so he has no trouble waking up at 3:30 a.m.
The trip began June 12 in St. Louis and will end in late-August.
Their mission is to photograph the people and landscapes along most of the 3,700-mile route Lewis and Clark mapped out from 1804 to 1806. Walker, a retired chemist who founded EnviroLink magazine in 1991, is documenting the adventures.
Thus far, the crew has had little difficulty finding locals who want to talk.
"We have people follow us to the airport," said Sue Lowery, Ron's wife, who is in charge of posting photos and field notes onto a Web site dedicated to the expedition's progress.
People are drawn by the odd shape of the project's key component, a $68,000 Air-Cam kit airplane dubbed Cloud Chaser.
The airplane is an upgraded version of an experimental craft designed for a National Geographic magazine photographic expedition over the African Congo.
The craft can carry two people -- canoe-style -- one behind the other. It has a single 38-foot wing and two 100 hp Rotax 912 engines situated on back of the wing behind the pilot.
Dual engines are a safety feature necessary for travel over remote areas -- if one goes out, the other will get the pilot back to the strip.
The total weight of the craft is 1,054 pounds and it can take off and land within 150 feet. It's cruising speed is 75-80 mph. About 100 of the crafts are in existence.
Lowery said the craft's ability to fly at such low speeds gives him a clearer look at the earth below.
Sue Lowery, 49, and the couple's son, Alan, 19, work as ground support piloting two RVs.
"We have all the latest technology, just like Lewis and Clark did," said Sue Lowery.
Lowery said photographs of Idaho should be updated to the Web site within a couple days. The site is at www.chasinglewisandclark.com.
The expedition will stop off somewhere in the middle of Oregon today and plans to be in Portland Wednesday.
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Ferguson may be contacted at dferguson@lmtribune.com