Swan Lake and the Coeur d’Alene River.

For the first time in a decade, I kayaked to and through Swan Lake in the Chain of Lakes near Medimont Idaho.

I started my journey at the Rainey Hill Boat Launch on Medicine Lake in Medimont. This very basic launch is perfect for launching kayaks.

As soon as I left the boat launch, I turned right and passed under a small road bridge and entered an amazing winding channel that connects Medicine Lake to the river.

The channel is less than half a mile long, but it is a beautiful half mile. Just before it empties into the Coeur d’Alene River, the channel passes under an old railroad bridge that is now a bike trail bridge.

The Coeur d’Alene River downstream of Cataldo has almost no current during the summer months. Wind direction is a bigger factor than water flow. The main river channel is realitively wide and deep.

On weekends this river supports a lot of recreational boat traffic. Today I was on it over two hours and was passed by a total of four boats. That’s traffic I can live with.

Just downstream of Medimont, I checked out a small gap in the river bank that allowed me to explore a marshland between the river and Cave Lake. The bike trail also separated the wetland from the lake.

I thought the small aquatic plants made a fascinating pattern. It was extremely peaceful in the still waters.

Before I left the marshland, I took another photo looking back towards Medimont. The row of trees on the right is on the berm created by the Trail of the Coeur d’Alene’s and the small hill surrounded by lakes, wetlands and the river is presumably what Medimont is named for.

After enjoying exploring the marshland for a while, I headed back to the cut in the river bank to resume my trip down the river. Across the way are the bulls near the east end of the lake I was heading towards, but first I had to go all the way to the west end of the lake to get to the outlet channel.

It took well over an hour paddling downstream but against the wind to get to the channel that connected the river to Swan Lake but it was a scenic ride.

Finally I made it to the outlet for Swan Lake and covered the quarter mile that led to open water. There was a heron rookery near the outlet. You could tell from the stand of trees that all died from being covered in the birds waste.

Their were a lot of these birds, I just wish I could have gotten a better picture of them. They don’t like to pose.

The south side of the lake is very weedy. the north shore has the deeper water and is at the base of some impressive rocky cliffs. There is not a single house on the lake.

Swan Lake is sizable. I’m guessing its about six or seven hundred acres and maybe a mile across. It’s big enough for the wind to generate decent waves but I’m glad I choose this trip over a return to Pend Oreille today. The waves on this lake just made for a workout, not a near death experience.

The far shore on the north side looked interesting with several big coves and rock formations, but that’s were the rougher water was so I stayed “in the weeds” on the south side.

There is an island in Swan lake that I later found out is privately owned. I headed towards it and saw that it was not posted and I needed a place for a quick break. I can only hope the land owners would tolerate a kayaker seeking refuge here. I’m guessing that they use it for a camping spot.

It is a beautiful spot. The area between the island and the south shore of the lake is covered in thick aquatic grasses and looks to be too thick to paddle a kayak through. I had to go around the north end of the island.

This is the north end of the island. There was more water to the east so that’s were I headed next. The wind really picked up at this time.

I hugged the edge of the weed line to avoid the waves. At the east end of the lake there is a short (maybe one thousand foot) slough that is well worth exploring.

The slough is fascinating. I only wish that it was a lot longer. To me it was obvious that this was once the main river channel.

Instead of the middle of the flood plain, this slough was located right at the bottom of the bluffs descending from the mountains to the north. I only wish that there was a way to portage the kayak across the nearby river bank to the river itself saving a return trip through Swan Lake. It would make for an interesting loop as the slough ended not that far downstream from Medimont.

So I paddled back the same way I came for a five hour trip. Recrossing the lake in the face of a building west wind was a grind. At least I had a tail wind on the river back to Medimont. Later I found out that the Idaho Department of Fish and Game owns a piece of property (parcel number 48N02W290100) that would allow for a portage between the east end of the slough and the river. I’m thinking about lobbying them to do just that. A kayak “loop” would be awesome.

I’ve never met anyone else who has ever kayaked on Swan Lake. This is truly a hidden gem, over shadowed by more popular and/or accessible water bodies. The water clarity was good, the scenery amazing and the length of the trip made it quite a workout. The trip had a little bit of everything.