Around the Lake in Ten Days

By Kathy Cooney Dobbs

Last fall, just before I set off with a group of seven women in their sixties on a ten-day attempt to paddle the 104-mile shoreline of Lake Coeur d’Alene, I reminded myself I had been in a canoe once for about twenty minutes, and the last time I went camping was 1974, when I was twenty-four years old, traveling across Europe.

So I looked toward launch day not only with anticipation but also with some anxiety. Yet my concerns were put to rest when I was warmly welcomed by the women, who call themselves the Goldens. Also with us were two young counselors from Camp Sweyolakan on Mica Bay, a youth camp dating back to the 1920s cherished by all these women, who still know each other by their camp nicknames from long ago [for more about the camp, see “Two if by Sea,” by Kathy Cooney Dobbs, IDAHO magazine, September 2012]. Our trip was a fundraiser for the camp.