.............--- Blanding, Utah to Priest Lake Idaho ---
.............................................................--- July 9-11, 2009 ---
After we bought our Mac 26S in the spring of 2009 we wanted to do at least one big trip in the summer of that year. I had been working on my lakester for Bonneville, but decided to put it on hold so that Ruth and I could enjoy some time together sailing. Our Mac was a clean boat, but we felt it wasn't setup for an extended trip on it like we wanted to do. We set forth making many mods to it that are documented elsewhere on this site with the hopes of leaving on our trip in late June after going east to my nephew's wedding. We took a 5 day trip the first of May which was the first time either of us had ever sailed and it was a comedy of errors, but we survived and were hooked on this cruising/sailing thing even though we had only sailed a few miles during those 5 days.
We considered destinations for our first long trip from home and finally decided on Priest Lake in northern Idaho after it was mentioned on one of the boards and after looking at pictures of it on the Internet. I'd been through Idaho a couple times on the intestates, but wasn't prepared for the beauty of Priest Lake and Upper Priest Lake and Ruth would likewise find herself in awe of the setting we ended up in. Since our sailing experience at this point was close to nil we decided to go to Priest Lake as it looked smaller on the Google maps than Lake Pend Oreille, also in Idaho and Kootenay Lake in B.C., Canada which also interested us. If we were still alive after Priest and the Boat was still whole then it would be on to one of the other two lakes.
09 JUL 09:
We finally put a halt to boat modifications and pulled out of Blanding on the 9th of July with the Mac behind the Suburban.
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The single axle trailer was probably overloaded and the 'burb was full. Ruth had prepared some meals and froze them and we had one cooler with ice and 5 lbs. of dry ice and the frozen food and the other with ice and food and drinks we would need for the first few days. We wanted to make the 300+ miles to Salt Lake City before the late afternoon rush hour, but of course that didn't happen with our 11:00 am departure.
The trip to Salt Lake went without incident and we were so glad we had bought the used Suburban and weren't trying to do the trip with the Jeep Scrambler. That would have been a disaster even with the new motor I'd put in it after our McPhee Reservoir trip. We needed a few small things for the Mac and stopped at the West Marine Store in Salt Lake that was near the freeway and then headed north in the 5:00 o'clock traffic which proved to not be near as bad as what I had experienced on other trips.
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At the Idaho state line there was a sign telling all boaters to pull in at the next exit. The next exit was a rest area and we pulled in there, but found nothing pertaining to boaters. I'd checked a week earlier about their new Zebra Mussel program, but had been told there wasn't really any program and at this time they were only collecting money and you put a sticker on your boat that let them know you had paid into their fund. Thinking the boat check was about that we also pulled off into the next small town and inquired there, but no one knew what the sign was about so we went on.
We reached Blackfoot, ID about dark and pulled into a Wal-Mart parking lot there and after spending some money slept in the Mac in the parking lot as many other RV'ers do.
10 JUL 09:
In the morning we took about a 2 mile walk on a trail around a nearby lake and then headed north in Idaho for Montana where we would pick up I90 and take it west back into the Idaho pan handle. The area must have received a lot of rain as it was really green.
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Once we cleared the Snake River valley the mountain scenery stared and never let up as we headed north and over the continental divide and down into Big Hole Montana area.
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We had lunch in Dillon, MT and continued..................
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.....................north until we came upon I90 and...........
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..................headed west on it and back over the continental divide and back into Idaho and down into Coeur d'Alene. I90 runs past part of Lake Coeur d'Alene. We looked at it and noticed that it was way bigger than our McPhee Reservoir and were glad we weren't going out on it. We would soon find out that the lakes we had in mind were easily as large. It was about dark and we had to decided on a motel or some place to park the Mac where we could sleep in it or continue on north to Farragut State Park on the south shore of Lake Pend Oreille were we had wanted to go so that we could get a look at the lake. It was on to the state park in the dark where we found it to be closed, but we filled out a sheet and put some money in an envelope and headed in. Of course all of the campsites were filled, but we were told by a campsite host that there was an area where you could park along side the road if you were self-contained. We felt that if we overlooked the fact that the sink discharges overboard that we were self-contained and headed for it. Well a few minutes after we were parked a ranger came by and after talking to him we found out that we had paid for day use and would have to go straighten that out in the morning.........
11 JUL 09:
After a good night's sleep we left for the boat ramp to check that out. On the way to it there was a sign directing all boaters to pull into an inspection area for a Zebra Mussel check. In one week they had gone from no program to one with about 4 inspectors at this lake. They spent about 15 minutes checking the Mac over and asking us where we had sailed and when. Utah was on their "bad boy" list but they felt the boat was clean and put a seal on it so that we wouldn't have to re-do the inspection once we got to Priest Lake.
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Then it was on down to the boat ramp. It and the docks were very impressive, but........
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........... so was the expanse of the lake that stretch out into the distance. We began to feel that we were maybe in a little over our heads at this early stage of our sailing careers, but decided to leave it open as to whether we would return here after Priest Lake or not. We went back to the part headquarters and paid the amount due for overnight and also got a state park seasonal permit that would work also at Priest Lake, kind of.
From the state park we head north 30 miles or so to the north shores of Lake Pend Oreille and into the town of Sand Point, ID. Another trip to Wal-Mart and then west along the long arm of Lake Pend Oreille that is where the lake drains off into a valley and becomes the Pend Oreille River. Of note is the fact that Lake Pend Oreille was a U.S. Naval training center in W.W.II and a submarine training center. The lake is over 1000 feet deep and was formed by glaciers as was Priest Lake and Kootenay Lake. Near the west end of Pend Oreille we came upon a small park with a boat ramp. We pulled in and checked it out as a possible launch site if we came back. A boater there warned us about the really big winds and waves that could come up quickly on the big part of Pend Oreille. More information that just added to our fear of this lake.Just a little further west we headed north on the paved road that would take us to Priest Lake, but that didn't go further north except as a gravel road that was only open in the summer and we had no plans on taking the Mac on gravel roads and throwing gravel at her with the Burb. Probably time to also let you know that the Mac now had a name, the Kera Jane, named after Ruth's two daughters. We drove in and out of the very small town of Coolin on the south end of Priest Lake..............
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................. and headed up the west side of the 19 mile long lake for about 12 miles to the state park there. We were told upon entry that our pass we had bought would help, but they were still going to charge us $5.00 a day for parking and that they would like us not to park down by the boat ramp as we were going to be on the lake for so long and that we should bring the Burb and trailer back up to the entrance parking about 1/4 mile from the ramp parking. This was not a big deal for us and we like the idea of the Burb and trailer being in the park and not somewhere along a road.
It was about 1:00 in the afternoon when we started to prep the boat and the inflatable for launching. When it came time to step the mast I discovered a big problem. I'd left the turnbuckle that is at the bottom of the forestay on for the trip and put it and the line down into one of the anchor tubes. I thought I'd tightened the jam nuts on it, but must of failed to do that. Somewhere on the 1000 mile trip to the lake it had vibrated loose and the middle of the turnbuckle and the bottom that attaches to the bow were gone. I was really bummed and thought we were going to have to go back at least to Sand Point and figure an alternative method of attaching the forestay. I really didn't want to do that as I was beat from the 1000 mile two day drive and it was hot, probably in the low 90's. I looked around the boat for a solution and came up with using the pieces that hold the life lines up at the bow that are similar to the pieces for the side stays with all the adjustment holes in them. I robbed the two pieces that were used on one side to hold the life line along with one of the pieces from the other side and tied the life lines off with some line. With these pieces I was able to make a connector that tied the forestay to the bow attachment point. I couldn't tighten it like with the turnbuckle, but had the holes where I could move in one hole at a time increments. It took a couple of tries to find the right hole and we used the mast raising jin pole, block and tackle and winch to pull the mast forward enough so that when I pinned my new connector there was good tension on the forestay. I felt good about it but still had visions of something breaking and the mast falling. I did have all of the connection points in double shear.
With that out of the way we inflated the Zodiac and finished packing the boat. We decided for the time being to keep the Zodiac's 5 hp Nissan mounted to the back of the Mac on it's mount high on the stern above and to the right of the 8 hp Honda which we hoped performed better than on the McPhee trip. I don't know where the time went, but it was about 3 hours before we were ready to back the Kera Jane down into the Priest Lake waters and tie her to the dock along with the Zodiac, which is named Teresa after Ruth's daughter-in-law. Launching her into the water was anticlimactic after everything else and I ran the Burb up to the parking lot and walk back down to the dock. This was the 11th of July now and a Saturday and the park was full of campers and the long beach was filled with swimmers, power boaters and water skiers with the ramp in pretty constant use.
It was now late and we had to find a place to anchor. About 2 miles south of the ramp was 8 Mile Island and we ran on the Honda down to..............
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................ the south side of the island as the weather report was predicting north winds for the night and morning. We were tired, but also really excited about finally being on a lake and a big one at that, at least for us, and starting on a new adventure. So here we have two mid 60 year olds on a new lake with only 4 nights of anchoring experience facing the problem of will they find an adequate place to anchor for the night. The south side of 8 Mile Island is only about 1/2 mile in length and watching the depth finder we weren't finding shallow water as we ran west to east along the south end. This lake is over 300 feet deep and most of the shores drop off very rapidly. Finally as we almost reached the...........
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............... east side of the island we started to see some shallower water in the darkness at the left side of the picture above. Next was the first dumb move of the trip and we should of known better after doing the same thing in Colo.. We were running parallel to the shore a short ways off with me up on the bow and Ruth running the tiller and outboard. I directed her to turn towards shore using hand signals which we find to work better than yelling. I shouldn't of done this for as I was watching the bottom and getting ready to throw the anchor the shore came up too fast and I'm not sure exactly what happened next, but the the bow made contact with the rocks that line the shore in the above picure. At least at that moment we didn't have much speed up. We backed the boat off and this time did what we should of done the first time and that was we circled around and came towards shore at a slight angle and then when the depth was right Ruth turned to starboard and open water and I dropped the anchor and plenty of rode. The boat coasted to a stop at the end of the rode. I took a line ashore and pulled the Kera Jane in that direction and tied the stern off to shore. Back on the boat and it was a light dinner of crackers, cheese and canned fruit and off to a wonderful night of sleep in the v-berth with no further problems.
