26 September ‘06
The sun was beautiful, 76 degrees, and it was our day off. I have wanted to kayak from Priest Lake to Upper Priest for some time, and today was the perfect day. The only thing that caught me off guard, was the drive up there…it was much further than I had remembered. We drove up through Spirit Lake and then onto Newport, where we stopped for lunch. The restaurant turns out to be the 2nd oldest restaurant in the state of Washington and has a bar that was shipped around the tip of South America in 1800. Fact is, after the bar arrived in San Francisco, it continued it’s journey over the next 3 months to it’s final destination…Kelly’s Restaurant and Bar in Newport. We found a great place to put the kayak into the lake…The National Forest campground. This is located at the northern end of Priest Lake (which happens to be at the end of the road…again, a long way away). We had a sandy beach to leave from and the water, absolutely flat. Now to find our way to the channel that runs from the Priest to the Upper Priest. We ended up taking ourselves across the lake and following a couple of boats behind this break-water. Low and behold, we found ourselves heading up the channel to the Upper lake. It was just like a river. About 30-40 yards wide, very shallow, and lined with tall trees along the banks which would twist and turn about every 100 yards or so. We hit the water just after 3 and by the time we got to our destination, it was already 4:30. For the whole trip we had our eyes scanning the shoreline looking for a bear or even a dear, after all, we did see and read the warning that we were in Grizzly Country… Finally, just about half way back up the channel, we heard a splash. We both stopped rowing and set our ears to “alert”. Geezzz, it’s a Moose… “I didn’t know that there were Moose this far south…” We got to about 30 yards from her. She was standing in about 3 feet of water and dipping her head down to grab some of the grasses from below. What a great surprise, but unfortunately that was the only one. The row up to the Upper was beautiful and we both were happy we did it. Tomorrow, kayaking Spirit Lake.
The sun was beautiful, 76 degrees, and it was our day off. I have wanted to kayak from Priest Lake to Upper Priest for some time, and today was the perfect day. The only thing that caught me off guard, was the drive up there…it was much further than I had remembered. We drove up through Spirit Lake and then onto Newport, where we stopped for lunch. The restaurant turns out to be the 2nd oldest restaurant in the state of Washington and has a bar that was shipped around the tip of South America in 1800. Fact is, after the bar arrived in San Francisco, it continued it’s journey over the next 3 months to it’s final destination…Kelly’s Restaurant and Bar in Newport. We found a great place to put the kayak into the lake…The National Forest campground. This is located at the northern end of Priest Lake (which happens to be at the end of the road…again, a long way away). We had a sandy beach to leave from and the water, absolutely flat. Now to find our way to the channel that runs from the Priest to the Upper Priest. We ended up taking ourselves across the lake and following a couple of boats behind this break-water. Low and behold, we found ourselves heading up the channel to the Upper lake. It was just like a river. About 30-40 yards wide, very shallow, and lined with tall trees along the banks which would twist and turn about every 100 yards or so. We hit the water just after 3 and by the time we got to our destination, it was already 4:30. For the whole trip we had our eyes scanning the shoreline looking for a bear or even a dear, after all, we did see and read the warning that we were in Grizzly Country… Finally, just about half way back up the channel, we heard a splash. We both stopped rowing and set our ears to “alert”. Geezzz, it’s a Moose… “I didn’t know that there were Moose this far south…” We got to about 30 yards from her. She was standing in about 3 feet of water and dipping her head down to grab some of the grasses from below. What a great surprise, but unfortunately that was the only one. The row up to the Upper was beautiful and we both were happy we did it. Tomorrow, kayaking Spirit Lake.