We spent the second week of September on the road again. Between Seattle and Minnesota again. We're getting pretty good at it, even though we never do it the same way. As usual, there was plenty of neat scenery and some geographic highlights, but not many beaches. This one in Coeur d'Alene was the only one.
AERIAL VIEW
I know little about this one - other than it is called City Beach. It lies west of the big resort complex and east of the lake's outlet (the start of the Spokane River). It's oriented pretty much toward the greatest fetch on this part of the lake. It stretches west from Independence Point - a headland formed by a stepped concrete revetment that even includes a little waterfall and a moose.
I believe the lake level is controlled by the dam at Post Falls, several miles downstream, and is therefore likely higher than it was naturally. And in recreational settings like this, beaches have often been created, sculpted, or at least supplemented with additional sediment. But I really don't know much more of its history. It would have been fun to explore a little more, but this was the last day of a long trip and we were anxious to get home. I grabbed coffee at Calypso's and we were on our way.
For those more interested in our road trip than in beaches, you can always check it out at:
hshipman: "roadtrip2014"
These photos were taken way back on August 27th, just a few days after Seahurst Park reopened after being closed for year. At some point, I'll come back and post a longer follow up on the recent project, but I'm still in catch-up mode and will stick to little more than a few photos.
The bottom line is that the beach has been restored, an awful lot of old seawall and riprap and fill removed, and a small stream daylighted. All the responses I overheard from the folks wandering around were positive, although I suspect some were also just trying to line up what they were seeing with what they remembered. The seawall was a useful reference point and now most of it is gone.
AERIAL VIEW
Seahurst Park: January 2014 (during construction, with links to earlier posts)
This was a very quick stop at the end of the day (back during the third week of August), but enough time to see how this new beach was sorting itself out. I posted from here last fall, but the weather was awfully bleak and the photos awfully gray. At that time, I said eventually I'd post more, and I guess that't still likely, but it's not now.
Bottom line - very simple (they're never really simple) beach nourishment along the toe of the bank a couple of years ago with a lot of initial reorganization of sediment.
AERIAL VIEW
The site is along the west side of March's Point, north of the old railroad trestle (now Tommy Thompson Trail).
I've fallen way behind - a week in August on Salt Spring and another week driving back and forth from Minnesota in September resulted in some beaches being collected, but not yet stuck in the album. So I'll add them quickly - with abbreviated comments - so I can check this off my list.
This is a neat park on the site of the old Scott Paper mill. The site has been cleaned up. Two new breakwaters were installed to replace the dilapidated timber wall that used to protect this side of the entrance to Cap Sante Marina and to provide shelter for small boats launching from the new pier. There was always a small pocket beach in the cove on the park's north side, but the low tide beach is no longer a tangle of rotting wood and the upper beach is clean gravel, not broken bricks and debris.
AERIAL VIEW
There's a lot more that I'd like to add about this site, but that will have to wait for a future post.
