I took a break from biking, hiking and kayaking for one day to enjoy a leisurely float down a local river with friends and family. The Coeur d’Alene River is a popular recreational destination for fishing, tubing, kayaking and boating.
We started our adventure just outside of Kingston Idaho. Including our awesome guide Scott, there were eight of us. We booked our trip through Castaway Outfitters.
Over the next two hours and forty-five minutes we floated about six miles of the river in an area with no road access and almost no development. It is a very pretty river.
Being early August the water levels have settled down and other than a few ripples it is a flat water trip. In late spring the experience can be a little different and most trips at that time of the year revolve around fishing.
Wildlife commonly found along this stretch of water includes bald eagles and moose. We saw one of the former but with it being an afternoon float and a talkative bunch of folks we did not see a moose.
About have way down we ended up paralleling a section of the Trail of the Coeur d’Alene’s rail trail were it hugs the riverbank.
Here’s the view of a section of the river we floated from my favorite bike trail.
We made two stops along the way at beaches were we could swim and relax.
At our second stop this was the view looking downstream, By now the clouds had built up considerably making it a little bit cool to linger in the water for too long.
Just before we reached the end of our trip we passed under the bike trail bridge just north of Cataldo. Cataldo is the site of Idaho’s oldest building, the Cataldo Mission and the nice state park than it is in.
Unlike my other adventure no physical effort was required on my part. The guides do all the work. There’s nothing to do except relax, enjoy the scenery and share a good time with friends and family.
All too soon the adventure is over. The outfitters provide a shuttle service so we ended up landing were our vehicles were waiting for us.
This photo was from a previous trip on the bike trail near the starting point of out float trip.
Castaway Outfitters has a location on 4th Street in Coeur d’Alene where the trips can be booked and another next to Idaho’s oldest restaurant, The Snake Pit in Enaville Idaho where the guests meet to start their adventure.
Floating part of the Coeur d’Alene River is a great way to experience some of the natural beauty of North Idaho. Hopefully in the next year or two I’ll find time for a couple of more float trips in the Inland Northwest.
This trip is easily accessed. The store where everyone meets for this trip is just north of Interstate-90 at the Kingston exit and about 30 minutes east of the City of Coeur d’Alene.
