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.