May 10, 2010…Evans Landing…tr #64 …hike # 352
By Betsy
Today might be our last shot at the lake shore before the water rises…I just had to go one more time to do this last of our planned hikes to the lake…down the Evans Landing trail to the water. It was a gorgeous day, a bit windy but almost full sun, and not cold. Nice surprise since for the last week rain had been predicted. We drove 31 miles south of Sandpoint to the very poorly marked roads to the trailhead.
This trail is quite nice right from the start…with the lake visible down the whole way offering spectacular views. After a short uphill climb at the beginning, the trail meanders down 2½ miles of numerous switch backs thru a forest of Doug fir, larch and other fir trees. There were so many wildflowers blooming… bluebells, trillium, glacier lily, shooting stars, Oregon grape, virgin bower, wild strawberry, violets, balsam root, and more. Close to the bottom, and about the time we could hear the waves, it gets dramatically steep and as we hit the beach, I thought, thank goodness. We tried to find the old log cabin which is supposedly tucked back from the shore near two huge ponderosa pines but we sure couldn’t locate it. We were positive we saw it the last time we were here several years ago. 
After a snack, we began walking up the beach toward Maiden Rock but knew from the get-go we would not be able to make it that far due to deep outcroppings. From the north we could see the white capped waves moving down toward us, bringing with them a stiff strong wind. I decided to keep my jacket on, but our hats kept blowing off so kept them off. The sound of the waves hitting the shore was so pleasant…if I closed my eyes I thought I was at the ocean even if the wave sequence is much longer. Some brave sailor out in a sailboat off in the distance kept our attention…at one point he had the rail down in the water, which we could see thru our binoculars. 
But we did make it to an old and huge boat pier and launching apparatus. We investigated a bit...Jim walked up the steps to a small structure which had electricity. The cables were huge, about 3” in diameter and the only thing we could think of was that it had something to do with the old Farragut Naval Station which was just down the lake a bit and used for submarine training in the 1200’ depths of the lake during World War II. Or maybe it has something to do with the fishing operation things that we have been seeing…that big fishing barge and other net things are still out there in the lake. We sat there for a while, ate our lunch while looking at the strange old launch, and then headed back down the beach. We thought it strange that there were no ‘No Trespassing’ signs, or ‘Danger’ signs or ‘Keep Out’ signs! What is this thing…we are trying to find out. Back at the trailhead we took another unsuccessful look for the cabin
The climb back up was not too bad, and definitely not as bad as the climb back up from Maiden Rock was a few weeks ago. Switchbacks always help!Left home 9:45Started down 10:30Got to beach 12:50 1 hour, 15 minutes
Started back up 1:30
Got to truck 2:50 1 hour, 20 minutes
Total miles hiked 7 miles
Total hiking time 4 hours, 20 minutes
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