Getting to Coeur d’Alene was a bit of a hike, but after a week of “rest” in Eagle, we were up to the challenge. Once more, our route took us northwest along I-84 into Oregon before heading northeast through Spokane and ultimately back into Idaho towards the lovely shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene. This leg of the trip was noteworthy for our piss poor gas milage resulting from a strong, steady headwind. We would have comfortably said that we averaged around 11 mpg when towing prior to this trip. Unfortunately, this new data point cast this hypothesis into doubt. We now think that we average somewhere around 10 mpg (maybe even a little lower).
All our stops before Eagle were quite brief (longest was four nights). However, no longer beholden to any deadlines, we decided to extend our normal stay period to a full week. No more moving on weekdays – that turned out to be way too stressful with Sam working and all.
Our first full week campsite was the Tamarack RV Park. Despite the tight spots and being a bit further from the lake than we would have liked, Tamarack ended up being a perfectly fine campground. This family friendly park had a serviceable central location and came with all the amenities we required.
It was nice to have an uneventful week for a change. Sam was able to catch up on work from the past week while I tried my hand at fishing one of the local ponds (unsuccessfully).
Charlotte got a chance to catch up on her sleep. Here she is hanging out in “her” cubby.
Sam finished her work up early one evening, so we opted to head down to the lake and check out the downtown area.
This place was pretty stinking cool. We could see why a lot of wealthy people chose to spend their summers here. There was so much to do – from boating and fine dining to just walking around the picturesque parks lining the water.
Here is Sam adding yet another beautiful sunset to our collection.
That weekend, we decided to branch out further and explore the forested mountains surrounding the lake. Surprisingly, we found that hiking options were rather limited, but we managed to find a suitable path in the form of Mineral Ridge National Recreation Trail. This 3.3-mile hike was a great Saturday afternoon activity. We worked up a good sweat and snapped some fantastic pics of the lake while we were at it.
For our final act in Coeur d’Alene we chose to get a bit wild and rent out a Jet Ski! We had a blast zipping around from cove to cove and getting to see all the fancy cliffside houses up close. Although the water was a tad choppy, we were able to survive (I only threw us off once) and bring the boat back in one piece.
Our week in Coeur d’Alene was well spent, but it was time for us to venture even further north and into the wonderful, rugged land that is Montana.