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North Fork CDA

By Julie Titone

Warmth, coolness, sunshine, clouds Idaho's North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River dished up its usual springtime weather smorgasbord for the May 18 outing organized by Dave and Casey Luzzo.

The couple had high-hightailed it over Thompson Pass from their new home in Columbia Falls, Mont., to lead their SCKC friends down an easy stretch of the river. Ten canoes and one kayak journeyed from Yellow Dog Creek to the family cabin that's upstream of Prichard. (The big brown A-frame used to be a bar and restaurant, and looks to be the ultimate party palace/hunting lodge for the huge Luzzo clan.)

Despite the high runoff -- 3,300 cfs on the Prichard gauge -- the flood-stage water level of a few weeks previous was gone and there were still some nice eddies on the river. My favorite part was pulling out into pockets of calm water under the lacy cedars that line much of the riverbank. We navigated bouncy little wave trains. We gawked at kingfishers and hawks. Dave pointed out a deer browsing in the brush, although Casey thought it was just his imagination.

Claire Carpenter sought out the waves in her kayak. Besides the Luzzos, tandem canoeists were Mark and Marcia Tracht, Megan and John Roland, Chris and Jeff Stevens, Bob and Jill Kassa, and James and Kathy