Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Visited September 18 - 24, 2021

By Marty

We had a GREAT time in Canada and were just starting to master the language (eh?) but it's good to be back in the good old USA! We were disappointed, however, to find that masks are few and far between in the beautiful State of Idaho. Leaving Cranbrook, British Columbia Saturday morning we had to show our vax cards and photo ID to order a Grand Slam at Denny's. Arriving in Idaho it's like we're in a different country!

It seems that only one in 20 people here are wearing masks indoors, despite the fact that Idaho currently ranks at or near the top in all of the unsavory COVID categories:

- Hospital admissions exceed last winter's peak by 67% for all age groups. 

- Deaths are running 32.7/day currently vs 20/day last winter. Idaho leads (if you can call it leading) the nation in deaths per 100,000 residents by a wide margin.   

- Only 47% of Idahoans (all ages) have had at least one vaccine dose (compared to 65% in the USA and 72% in California).

The governor of Washington state has appealed to Idahoans to "stop clogging up my hospitals" and behave more responsibly regarding COVID. Hospitals in eastern Washington are being overwhelmed by COVID infected Idahoans (Spokane is only 34 miles from Coeur d'Alene).

You can't say that Idaho isn't doing anything to deal with the crisis: Idaho recently implemented its Crisis Standards of Care, which permits hospitals to prioritize care for patients with higher chances of recovery.  Now there's a common sense solution for you...

Give me liberty or give me death?  Sadly, with so many Idahoans insisting on the former (it's just a mask for pete's sake!), too many are ending up with the latter...

This concludes my public service announcement (rant? diatribe?) 

We stayed at the Blackwell Island RV Park on the Spokane River. The Beast is on the left. On the right is another Tiffin Allegro Red, owned by Steve and Joy, a very nice couple from the Lone Star State.

The view from The Beast

The RV park dock is in the Spokane River. Beyond the dock is Coeur d'Alene Lake which outlets into the Spokane River at the north end of the lake. The Spokane River later joins the Columbia River before flowing to the Pacific Ocean.

A breakwater outside of the marina in downtown Coeur d'Alene

We explored downtown Coeur d'Alene before taking an afternoon cruise around the north end of the lake.

Our lake cruise took us along the northwestern lake shore where the lakeside "cottages" are only accessible by boat. As we approached this particular dwelling I was sure it was a resort or condominium. Not so. It's a single family dwelling.  Does Jeff Bezos have a summer place on Coeur d'Alene Lake?

On the east shore of the lake is a well known golf course (well known, that is, to those that know of well known golf courses...)

The Coeur d'Alene Resort Golf Course along the shores of the lake "ranks among the best in the world by golf enthusiasts for pampering service and beautifully manicured course conditions".

What the course is best known for is the 14th hole, which has the world's only floating green (just to the left of center in this photo). We were told that each duffer gets two attempts to reach the green before taking a boat out to the green to putt out.

An hour east of Coeur d'Alene (CDA as it is referred to locally) is the historic mining town of Wallace. Wallace is the principle town of the Coeur d'Alene silver mining district, which has produced more silver than any other mining district in the United States.

 

We toured the Sierra Silver mine where they put us to work!

A (fake) canary in the silver mine.  I guess the live ones kept dying...

Lee, a career miner, was our awesome tour guide. We learned about the history of the Sierra Silver mine (it was abandoned twice before a third operator took over and hit the big time), mine design and construction, and mining methods. This mine is not currently active but Lee operates some of the mining equipment on the tour to give us a feel for a working mine.

We were hoping to complete the tour before 2:20 p.m....

If you were wondering about the location of "The Center of the Universe", wonder no more!  It's in Wallace, Idaho!  It's located under a manhole cover in the middle of the street. 

In 2004 the Mayor of Wallace issued a proclamation, excerpted here, that the Center of the Universe resides in Wallace:

 

"Thanks to the newly discovered science of Probabalism - specifically probabalistic modeling, pioneered by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Health and Welfare, and peer reviewed by La Cosa Nostra and the Flat Earth Society - we were further able to pinpoint the exact center within the Center of the Universe, to wit a sewer access cover slightly off-center from the intersection of Bank and Sixth Streets."

 

"The science of probabalism has its roots in the 2002 EPA Coeur d'Alene Basin Record of Decision, and as a syllogism expresses itself thusly: if a thing cannot be disproven, it is thereby proven."

 

"Similarly, after a search of the literature, our government contracted scientists in Moscow, Boise and Seattle have, after years of diligence, been unable to unearth a scintilla of proof that Wallace is NOT the Center of the Universe. In the absence of such proof, we are compelled to conclude that Wallace must BE the Center of the Universe."

Interstate 90 passes through Wallace on an elevated freeway viaduct, completed in 1991, just north of downtown. Prior to 1991 I-90 traffic used the city streets through downtown. Wallace had the last traffic light on a coast-to-coast Interstate highway.

The Federal Highway Administration originally planned to build I-90 through the heart of Wallace (cheaper than the viaduct) which would have demolished much of downtown. In the 1970's the city leaders worked to successfully list downtown Wallace on the National Register of Historic Places with the result that every building in downtown Wallace is now protected. As a consequence the Highway Administration had to build the elevated viaduct.

We are not big museum people. Some interest us more than others. My preliminary Idaho research resulted in this particular museum making my list of things to do. I was disappointed (more so than Janell I suspect) to find that the museum was closed for 2021 (presumably due to the pandemic.)  That said, my disappointment was mild compared to last summer (2020) when I was not able to tour Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin due to COVID.

For some reason this sign caught my eye...

Because Wallace is in a canyon there was limited flat ground on which to build. Consequently some of the residential streets traverse the steep hills on the south side of town. There are a handful of long staircases that were constructed in the 1800's so that townspeople could get into town and back. We were told that there are over 800 steps if you add up all of the staircases. We walked most, if not all, of them (some were hard to find) as we explored Wallace.

As we walked along a street perched above town we heard a clambering sound and then spotted the moose visible in the center of this photo. The moose had been snooping around on the porch of the house shown here and heard us approaching. At the end of the road in front of us, 50 yards away, was a young moose also watching us. Mom moose kept a close eye on us, making it clear that we best not get any closer to her bambino.

A cold amber beverage at Wallace Brewing seemed like the correct way to finish up a lovely day in historic Wallace.

Our last activity in Coeur d'Alene was to bike a portion of the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes. This trail may have been the best cycling experience of our trip so far. The Trail of the CDA is a 73 mile long paved multi-use trail that follows a former Union Pacific right-of-way. This "rails to trails" bike path was quite scenic and, to my pleasant surprise, relatively flat. The trail generally follows the Coeur d'Alene River. We did a twenty-five mile ride (12.5 miles out and back). We'll have to come back for the rest of the trail!

The river water was remarkably flat in many sections which made it amazingly reflective.

We met Beavis and Butt-Head.  Actually, we don't know their names but these two dogs were loping toward us as we approached this bridge. There were no humans in sight so I guess it was a "dog day afternoon". They didn't seem aggressive so we greeted them briefly before they ran down below the bridge for a quick dip. B & BH then ran back up to the trail and continued on in the direction from which we came. Is it possible they were running the entire 73 miles of the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes?