North Fork

Once again I am slow on the posting.  A couple weeks ago Nancy and I took off without any dogs for a weekend away.  We went camping up on the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River.  It was splendid and I have to say it was quite different not having dogs along.  I did have a bit of anxiety about Walter until we called the second day and found out he slept in bed with the house sitter.  On our way down the river road to take a bike ride we ran into this lovely girl just off the road.

The first day we were there we went for a bike ride on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alene's.  Of course Nancy's bike needed some air and we did not have an adapter so we had to drive into Kellogg to a bike shop.  Even though that is not a very pretty part of the trail we started out there and road west towards Cataldo.

Nancy on the trail

The trail

One of my favorite parts

Too much cuteness

On the way back we stopped at this bridge so that I could jump in.  I have to pretty much wear long sleeves and pants these days because of my weird sun rash so I just jumped in as I was, long pants and padded bike underwear and all.  It was so hot though that I was dry by the time we got back to Kellogg.

After our ride we drove up to Wallace and had dinner at the 1313 Club.  Pretty darn good.  Then we decided to head back to the river via Murry but I headed up the wrong valley and found a mining wasteland.  There were quite a few old villages from the mining days like Burke, Woodland Park, Gem, Frisco and Black Bear.  The scars from mining are unreal and the area looks very economically depressed.

I cannot even convey the scale of the ruins that were there and this kind of thing went all the way up the hillsides.

But, along the CDA river, there are beautiful places like this.  On the second morning I went for a ride by myself along the river.  The country there is so absolutely amazing.  There are no big lakes for big boats, though there are some people who have their ATVs but you just occasionally see them on the Forest Service roads.  Generally they are families and people who fly fish.

I want to live there.

The river valley as it starts to get narrow and head away from the road.

Indian Paintbrush

On the way home we stopped by the closed Settler's Grove of giant cedars.  The road has a half barricade over it but we went anyway.  My car is so small that I can turn it around on a narrow road.  We didn't have to.  The trees are all along a creek (Eagle Creek, I think) an they are impressive.  A lot of fallen in the past few years but some big ones are still around.  This is Nancy being a tree hugger.

A path through the cedars.  We had a really great time.  We stayed for 3 nights.  I did a bit of swimming in a deep spot under a bridge and we read and talked a lot.  And true to our getting older form, we were in bed before it got dark.  And Walter did just fine and home without me.