To Coeur d'Alene, ID

 

June 15, 2022

Waking up in Lewiston, ID was a delight.  We could put on our walking shoes and walk on a great trail along the confluence of Clearwater and Snake Rivers.






  We have followed the Snake River for most of the way from Yellowstone.  For those that might wonder we left there the day before their rains began.  In fact, we had driven up the highway that was affected the greatest by the flooding and slides.

We liked Lewiston.  It is a small town with a lot of character.  Also, it appears to be an outdoorsy community.  As we left, we climbed 2000’ from the town in 7 miles.  Our little covered wagon was holding on to 3rd gear as we climbed at 40-45 mph.  This really puts a strain on the fuel mileage even with the tailwind that we had.  Our trip to Coeur d’Alene was the shortest of our legs for the trip.

Coeur d’Alene sits in a basin along a beautiful lake.  From all appearances the lake is cold.  The town has a strong touristy feel with boat trips, parasailing behind a boat, bike rentals and events that take place almost every weekend.









  We did a small walk through the town and fell sucker to the smell of freshly made cookies.  Jan got a “Sugar Bear” and I got a hot out of the oven chocolate chip.

  These were so big that we decided to let them be our supper.  Really not a bad choice. 

Since we hear that Cookeville and the South is experiencing such heat, we want to share that the daytime high here was 68.  We traveled a long way to avoid that heat.

Popular posts from this blog

Columbia River Scenic Drive

Image
  June 19 Our visit to Columbia River Scenic Highway this morning was met with a great deal of fog.   The first stop was an overlook called Crown Point Vista House.   The only thing we saw was a silhouette of the building.   As we drove along the road the feeling was like we were in an enchanted forest.   We were nearly the only ones on the road for a while.   Our first falls to see was Latourell Falls. There was a nice little hike into it.   This drive takes us along this scenic road that was the first national scenic road developed about 1915.   There are nearly 14 falls along this road all seem to be very different from the other.   We skipped one of the falls since we plan to see it tomorrow.   Most all of the falls are just a short hike from the road and a lot can be seen easily from the road.  Other than the falls there were some pretty creeks and hikes to them. After a nice lunch at Cascade Locks at the foot of bridge ca...
Read more

Lake Tahoe ride around

Image
  July 1, 2022 Our day trip today is was to Lake Tahoe. I came here back in 1982 as a support person for my friend Wally Robinson.   Wally was here to run the Western States 100, from Squaw Valley to Auburn, CA through the Sierra Nevada’s.   I was amazed how good my memory was regarding the area.   Today, we drove to Truckee and then over to Squaw Valley to see where the start of the run was/is.   What amazes me is that he had to run in the first 4 miles 4000’ in elevation increase.   Not too surprising to me was that the mountain was still there and still horribly looming over the start line. From Squaw Valley we drove the perimeter of the lake stopping at a beach (not too many bikinis at 55 degrees) then on to the “Vikingsholm” and then on to Lower Eagle Falls.   Both of these locations were within the Emerald Bay State Park. This was quite a walk for us, only 1 mile, but the elevation change was 500’.   We didn’t know if the altitude of 65...
Read more
Image
  June 30, 2022 We began our trip today by driving down the Sacramento Valley through orchards of walnuts, almonds, olives and oranges.   Mile after mile of orchards.   We then turned east and climbing into the Sierra Nevada mountains.   The first part of the trip after the valley was through farmland and then we began our climb.   Traffic was really heavy on this backroad and there was construction that helped to slow us down even more.   Even when we got to I-80 traffic was heavy.   Thank goodness for 3 uphill lanes when climbing these big “hills”.   Forty-five to fifty miles per hour was the best that we could maintain as we climbed.   At the top we went trough Donner Summit.   There was a pretty rest area showing a lot of the beauty of the Sierras.   Our goal today was Verdi, NV a small community on the border of Nevada and California.   In fact, part of our campground is in California and the office and adjoining casino...
Read more