Searching for Bullwinkle

September 8, 2021

Coeur D'Alene Trail - take 2

Today's ride was back on the Coeur D'Alene Trail, but starting this time at a trailhead near Chatcolet. There was more haze and smoke than yesterday which was disappointing, but we decided to ride anyway and hope that it cleared later. That seems to be the trend here.

The ride was flat as it followed the lake shore, except for the climbs up to the top of the bridge.

There was a SW breeze and cooler than yesterday as it was also overcast. Maybe that was why we didn't see too many other riders out first thing this morning. They tended to come out mid-day when it was a little warmer.

Today ended up being a veritable bonanza of wildlife day! We saw a doe and fawn, still with spots at one spot and lots of varied waterbirds from pelicans, osprey and a Western Grebe that kept diving every time we tried to take its picture.

But the highlight of the ride was a moose cow and her calf grazing in a swampy area north of Harrison! We stopped and watched the pair for a long time, hoping that they would raise their heads up out of the grass so I could get a picture.

I managed a few shots, but they were on the opposite side a small lake from the trail and thus too far away to get decent closeup. We had hoped to see moose on this trip as we knew they frequented the area.

After we turned around, we saw many groups of cyclists that appeared to be with organized tours. As we noticed yesterday, a large number of riders were on e-bikes. Maybe rental?

We even had a group of trikes pass us going the other direction. But it was the riders that had stuffed pink flamingos attached to their helmets that made us chuckle! You just never know what you're going to see.

Anyway, by 1:30, we were back at the truck. It had been an enjoyable ride full of interesting sights. If the air is decent (it did improve), we'll drive up to where we left off of this ride tomorrow and continue further north on the trail.

I wasn't able to put this picture in yesterday's page but this shows some of the fire damage we ran into along the trail

This is a horse that got loose and was wandering around the campsites this morning. Don saw it from a distance and thought it was a moose! We thought it would be the only "wildlife" we would see today. The flamingos are part of our flock!

Near Chatcolet we saw a number of floating homes.

I was zooming in on these pelicans but didn't realize that I also caught this osprey. We had seen a number of nests but no birds except for this one.

Momma moose finally raised her head enough out of the grass so I could get a picture with her head up.

The baby was grazing next to her. So cool!

We saw lots of these pretty water lilies.

Very creative dragonfly! There was a dragonfly in camp yesterday that behaved very strangely. I was sitting outside and this large dragonfly zoomed up and hovered in front of me. It would then fly over closer to the trailer, then back out in front of me. It did this for over 20 minutes - back and forth, back and forth. I wondered if it was attracted to its reflection in the shiny side of the trailer. Weird!

Today's ride: 22 miles (35 km)
Total: 967 miles (1,556 km)

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Maureen HollandLoved your pictures of the flamingos, moose, and "bugs". Sorry about all the haze. It's still bad here too. Last night at Windsor, we had only 30 people. Lots of room to dance and the floor seemed fine to me! It was great to see so many of our friends that we hadn't seen in since February 2020!
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