Quick Weekend Camping on the Cd'A River

At around five o’clock we left the house for the second time and headed out to go camping at the Coeur d’Alene River. It was our second departure because we got on the freeway and neither of us could remember it we closed the garage door. So I turned around at the Northwest Boulevard exit and we drove back and checked. We had closed it!

Now is the time to be camping up the river, we saw one group camped and our camp is above Yellowdog Creek. We chose a spot where there are few trees and we get the longest sun in the evening. Mornings are cold, about 36 degrees, but buy 10 o’clock we have full sun and it heats up nicely. Three day of beautiful weather, bright cloudless skies in the day, evenings spent by the campfire eating, drinking and reading. As soon as the sun settles over the mountain tops, the cold wraps around you and you need your coat.

On Friday we took two hikes, one up a logging road to over look the river and one around the camp area that is just across the river from us. Not much on the logging road except a little bear sign. Baka got a good workout sniffing around and running after smells. The campsite tour turned out to be a long one. That camp could hold at least 10 parties without being to close to each other. We walked all the roads and found that there were four very nice camps and the rest were good to very rustic. Looks like several areas have been used for extended living. One even has a home made pit toilet that looks real bad.

Our evening meal was Mac-N-Cheese and Linda did a great job again. She used our oven for the first time to bake corn bread, what a treat. I have to say that this is my favorite camping meal. The dutch oven makes everything taste so good. Clean up is a little of a hassle, but it is well worth the work to have such a great meal. After dinner we sat for a spell and then we watched the Chronicles of Narnia on the laptop. I guess we are a little spoiled but it was sure fun.

By the end of the movie our camper warned us that the battery was low. I just can’t figure that out! We started camping Thursday night and by Friday night our batteries were low. Most of our use was very conservative; we ran the water pump, lights, very little heater fan and the refrigerator fan. The only beyond normal use was the stereo for the movie sound. Two hours of sound shouldn’t kill the batteries that much, but it did.

So we turned off everything that used power and went to bed. We’ll recharge when we travel home. We are leaving Saturday because Linda is participating in the Nine Mile Falls Duathlon on Sunday. I’ll be doing the Bennett Lawn Triathlon while Linda does her thing. Mowing, raking and trimming takes very little training, but it has to be done.
I don’t know when we will be out in Canyonwren Too again, I think next weekend I might use it to stay overnight at the NIAdventure Race sight at Beauty Bay. The weekend after that I believe we head to Canada for the long holiday weekend. The weather is warming up and so we’ll be out camping more and more. I’ll keep the blog up to date!