51 - 7/13/2011 - SF Coeur D'Alene (Idaho)

Pinball

We convinced the hotel manager to let us check out late so we could run the local river and then use the pool and hot tub before we packed up. We decided that we would start below the town because we didn't know about possible trees in the section above. That section involves going through some long, dark tunnels under the town, and a log in there would be deadly.

Like the St Regis, this run was coincident with I-90. We immediately began running under the highway, and crossed under it several times in 5 miles. The weather was cloudy and it rained on us a little.

This river is officially the SF Coeur D'Alene River, but people call it Shit Creek because it was pretty much the area's sewer and mining runoff for many years. Because of this name, I couldn't resist - at one point I asked Cynthia if she had her camera handy, and when she said she did, I tossed her my paddle. She started to take a picture when suddenly she saw a rapid coming up. This run has several man-made rock ledges, put there to keep the water turbulent so that the old chemicals and minerals keep flowing downstream. I was running these ledges without a paddle! I ran two of them by leaning and using my hands before Cynthia could give me back my paddle.

We finished the run and packed up, and then went back to the hotel. We hung out in the pool and hot tub for an hour, and then Lee took Cynthia back to Coeur D'Alene to pick up her car so she could go on a trip to California. In the meantime, I took advantage of the hotel WiFi to download more podcasts for my iPod. When I left home, I thought I had brought enough for a month, but it turned out that I had mostly video, and that wouldn't work while driving.

In the late afternoon, Lee returned and we headed up over Moon Pass again and down to the St Joe River. We found our camp and set up for the night.