Day 20 - Mile 4,052: Warrenton and Astoria

We finally arrived in Astoria which is situated at the mouth of the Columbia River as it spills into the Pacific. 

At the Columbia Maritime Museum we learned how trecherous the entrance to the river can be.  There have been over 2,000 ships lost and as many as 700 documented wrecks within the vicinity of the entrance.

The museum has a displayed dedicated to the rescue missions performed by the U.S. Coast Guard -- it is pretty impressive!

Another remarkable display was the story of Yosegaki Hinomaru that were returned to relatives of young Japanese men sent off to war but who never returned.  As soldiers went off to war, their friends and families would write on a japanese flag messages wishing for the safe return of the soldier.  The soldiers carried theses flags with them typically folded up in their pockets.  For the Japanese soldiers that perished, many of these flags ended up in the hands of American soldiers as war trophies.  The display was about an effort to return the captured flags to the Japanese relatives.  It was a very moving display and one that reminds us of the catastrophic costs of war.

It was difficult to find an available campsite and after calling several we ended up in Warrenton just a few miles down the road from Astoria and very close to our next stop at Fort Stevens state park.  It turned out to be ideal.  The reason it was so busy is that this day was the opening day of salmon fishing at the mouth of the Columbia.