September 1, 2024—Besides bringing my road bike with me to Idaho, I also brought along my sea kayak to explore Lake Coeur d’Alene. At 25 miles in length, I was only going to be able to explore just a very small portion of the lake, basically from the Chatcolet Bridge that crosses the lake to the southern shore.
It was Labor Day weekend, so the lake was busy with powerboats and paddle craft coming and going. I launched my kayak at the boat launch at the bottom of the campground where I was staying and set out heading north toward the Chatcolet Bridge. I hung around the bridge for a while as I shot pictures of red-necked grebes.
After taking the pictures, I paddled under the bridge and explored the floating cabins along the west bank. Many of the cabins were nothing fancy, some even looked warped because the docks they were built on were sagging, most likely due to deterioration; however, some were really nice and well maintained.
I crossed the lake to the east shore to get photos of cyclists riding on the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes. The trail runs along the shore of the lake to Harrison before heading east along the Coeur d'Alene River. The sky was somewhat overcast, so it wasn’t very photogenic. I did manage, however, to get a few decent shots of cyclists on the trail even though the wind weathercocked my kayak and made getting the shots difficult.
Crossing back under the bridge, I paddled back over to the western shore, snapping some pictures of western grebes on my way. Boat traffic was much lighter than earlier when I first made the crossing.
I proceeded down the lake to its southern shore, passing a nice little beach on the way—part of the state park—before coming to the marsh. Idaho State Parks staff told me the marsh in the spring is visited by female moose and their calves. I didn’t see much in the way of wildlife except small fish in the shallow water.
It was starting to get hot, so I decided to head back to the launch and put my kayak back on the truck. That nearly ended in disaster. My legs were still so tired from yesterday’s 54-mile bike ride that I lost my footing climbing the stepladder with my kayak to put the boat back in the cradles. I came very close to dropping my fiberglass kayak on the hard ground. That would have been a terrible ending to an otherwise nice morning. Fortunately, I was able to keep from dropping the boat, and a nice guy offered to help me get my boat back onto the rack. He was sure nicer than the kayaker who nearly backed over my kayak because he was in too much of a hurry to launch his boat and couldn’t wait a few more minutes for me to retrieve my boat.
Back at Camp I had planned to go hiking following my paddle, but it was so hot that I decided to return to camp and read a book. It was even too hot to read, and I was only able to get through a few pages before my eyelids began to feel heavy. Taking a nap would have been nice, but even that was out of the question because it was too warm in my tent, so I drove into Plummer to get a milkshake. It’s hard to be motivated to do any outdoor recreation when it’s hot.
While in Plummer, I decided to check out the western terminus of the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes. It sits on land owned by the Tribe of the Coeur d’Alenes. There is a beautiful Native America sculpture at the trailhead that honors Native American warriors and veterans.
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