Day 52 - Kalispell to Sandpoint

Tony Cacciarelli • August 5, 2020

Kalispell, MT (S27) to

Sandpoint, ID (KSZT) - August 5, 2019

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Wish I had time to land on them all

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On the ground in Sandpoint before heading to Priest Lake

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Following the river north

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Perfect

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Priest Lake shoreline

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Tree farm

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Just a few bugs

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Original Instagram Post

I'll have more days like today, if you please!

Left Kalispell before 8am with just a light breeze and clear skies. The 90-minute trip over to Sandpoint went really well. No major winds and I was able to get through the mountains without having to climb halfway to the ISS. There was some smoke from wildfires burning further to the south.

I followed the Clark Fork River up to Lake Pend Orielle - Sandpoint is at the northern end of the lake and the airport sits right at the base of a 4000' mountain. The views along the river and coming into Sandpoint were spectacular [I'm fresh out of adjectives on this trip, so forgive me if I repeat myself]. I landed, got refueled and made the 30 minute flight up to Priest Lake. Since I'd crossed over into the Pacific time zone, it was still only 9am!

The lake was calm with almost no wind. I worked my way around the whole lake, landing in at least a dozen different spots. I spent a good 2.5 hours on and off the lake, sometimes shutting down the plane and just hanging out and taking in the sights. I would've stayed all day except for needing fuel [there wasn't any available at the lake] and also the boat traffic was picking up. I did one last splash-n-go and headed south for the return to Sandpoint.

Best part is I was back at the airport before 1pm. I spent an hour or so cleaning the bugs off the wings - I'd accumulated quite a collection. Then I got my overnight parking and hotel sorted out and still had time to walk around the downtown area. It's a cool little town that's definitely seeing some revitalization. Lots of new restaurants and shops. Will definitely be coming back here again.

So, yeah, THIS was the kind of day that I'd planned this trip around, and it was wonderful. Tomorrow is a Meat and Potatoes day to get over to Seattle, but I'll be connecting with some friends there and hopefully some more lake flying. 😀👍🏼

I made a promise to myself that Sandpoint was one spot I wasn't going to skip, and I was very glad I stuck to that promise.

I couldn't spend a whole extra day there like I'd originally hoped but I'd adjusted my stops so it was a short hop to get there from Kalispell. That, combined with the timezone change, left me with the whole day to explore.

I enjoyed having plenty of time to splash around on the lake and fuel being the determining factor for leaving instead of the water or weather conditions.

I flew over what I think was a tree farm. It looked like a giant chess board with blocks of trees at different stages of growth. On my way back from Priest Lake I noticed a huge area where thousands of trees were stacked up, so my guess was those all came from that tree farm.

I was very tempted to refuel and go back out to the lake, but I needed to eat at some point. I checked into my hotel, which was significantly nicer than the one in Kalispell. I'd decided to splurge on this one, but the price was still pretty reasonable.

I wandered around the town for a while and found a decent little brewpub (MickDuff's) just a short walk from my hotel.

This was definitely another one of the top water flying days of the trip. I think I'm well over 5 now. Guess I'll have to put together some proper rankings for one of my wrap-up posts.

EDIT: Forgot to add a video clip of a water takeoff on Priest Lake. I was doing a step taxi around on the lake then gunned it and took off. Try doing THAT in a boat.