August 2002: Mouth of the Columbia River, near Astoria, Oregon, with the Pacific Ocean in the background. The end point of David Thompson’s extraordinary travels in the northwestern interior of the continent between 1784 and 1812. One stop in a 26-day, 5,500-kilometre research trip for Epic Wanderer: David Thompson and the Mapping of the Canadian West. Other stops included: Rocky Mountain House, Alta., Kootenay Plain, Saskatchewan River Crossing, Bonner’s Ferry, Sand Point, Idaho, Wenatchee, Wash. and Thompson Falls, Mont., named for the great explorer, who wintered there in 1810 among the Salish Indians.