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Volosong - Pretty much as I expected. The overcrowding part only becomes an issue when it generates too much noise or starts to become dangerous (lets face it, drinking plays a big part in that). Are the lakes patrolled by local authorities? Sobriety checks?
I'm most familiar with Pend Oreille and Priest Lake, then a few of the smaller lakes in Bonner County.
Pend Oreille is such a huge lake it's hard to envision it ever being crowded. Some of the bays might get that way from time to time, but not out on the main part of the lake. Bonner county sheriff operates a few patrol boats on the lake. I think they are mainly out there looking for folks who need help and watching out for any misbehavors. The lake level is drawn down in the fall, and then allowed to return to normal in the spring as the snow melts in the surrounding mountains. It is a natural lake, but the output is dammed, so the level is controlled. As a result, most boats are pulled out of the lake for the winter. I'm going to guess the lowering starts on mid-late Oct, and I can tell you the lake is still about 10-15' low as of today. I'd say the heart of the boating season is late May thru mid-Sept, but you might be able push it a little on either end.
Priest Lake is quite a bit smaller, but still a large lake. My judgement is there may be a little more activity there relative to its size, but still not what I'd call crowded. We are kayakers, and love to kayak up there and have never felt bothered by the level of power boat activity. It's a beautiful spot, some would say the prettiest lake in north Idaho.
There are other lakes large enough for the type of boat you're thinking about - Cocollalla, Spirit, Hayden, Fernan, Twin Lakes, etc. We've kayaked most of them at one time or another and haven't found any to be crowded. I think a lot of the power boat traffic at these smaller lakes are people who live on those lakes.
Thanks Dave - you paint a good picture of what its like. A little bummed the season isn't a bit longer but I suppose on the longitude its to be expected.
CNYNRAT (Dave) has beautifully explained sound reasoning on winter weather in the north country. It should practically be a sticky! Here it is again:
This brings me to my second point, which is I think one needs to enjoy winters here in order to be fully satisfied with living in the area, at least if you are going to live here year round. It can't be a case of "Oh no, here comes winter again we're going to be freezing and have spend all our time shoveling snow. What misery!" Winters here are long enough and serious enough that it can't be a season you dread. I think it's best if you actually look forward to them to some extent, whether that's because you get a chance to ski or snowshoe or snowmobile, or just because it's a quieter time of year when you can spend time sitting by the fire and enjoy a good book. Doesn't have to be your favorite time of year, but it shouldn't be a time of misery for you.
Now, if you are planning to be snowbirds anyway, then why does winter weather matter? IMO it really shouldn't matter in that case. There are some financial considerations for that sort of lifestyle, and you might consider the inconvenience of moving twice a year, perhaps worrying about maintaining two residences, etc. But again, most of us can't help you figure out if that's the right lifestyle for you. I might be wrong, but I don't think any of the regulars here are snowbirds. (Setting CFF aside for the moment who I think plans to live here year round, but hasn't made the full time move just yet. )
I can tell you that it's not very unusual for people who own places here to spend winters somewhere else. Drive down the road a mile from where we live and you come to a small bay on Lake Pend Oreille. There are about 25-30 homes there, and all but a handful of them sit vacant over the winter. So there are plenty of homeowners here who snowbird somewhere else. One of our neighbors actually "snowbirds" up at the base of Schweitzer Mountain, but that's a different matter! The snowbird lifestyle isn't for us, but then we wanted to move from the two season climate of SoCal to somewhere with four real seasons, and in many ways winter is our favorite season.
I hope that doesn't come across wrong. I think this is a question each individual needs to sort out on their own. I can tell you I love winters here, but that doesn't really help if you are a warm weather and sunshine person who hates being cold.
Thanks Dave - you paint a good picture of what its like. A little bummed the season isn't a bit longer but I suppose on the longitude its to be expected.
I'll bet kayaking up there is idyllic.
Some boaters do push the season a little longer on both ends. From what I observe most of the early/late season boaters are dedicated fisherman. Setting aside lake levels and so forth, the air temps usually don't favor a lot of aquatic recreation outside those times. We have yet to see our first spring day with temps above 70 degrees (we have gotten very close a few times). Lake Pend Oreille water temp is currently 54 degrees. We have a sailing kayak which is usually good for a wet sailing experience, and were out for the last time in mid-Sept last year. I think that was our last 70 degree day for the season. We were out on Pend Oreille in our kayaks in mid-April and only saw 3-4 other boats (it was mid-week). We were out again a couple weeks ago on a Saturday, and only saw maybe a half dozen other boats out in the area where we were. All of them looked like they were fishing.
Yes, the kayaking here is great. Plenty of smaller lakes where you can enjoy quick paddle, or you can go out on Lake Pend Oreille where the scale of the lake gives you the sense of being on a huge body of water compared to your small kayak. Upper Priest lake is amazing, and you can sometimes have that lake to yourself on a weekday or early/late season.
In light of your concern about winters I'm curious whether you are considering western NC at all. We've vacationed quite a few times in NC, both at Lake Lure (my parents spent their honeymoon there) and also at OBX - sometimes both on the same trip. Those visits led us to consider western NC as a retirement destination. I realize it's not the northern Rockies, but it has mountains, lakes, a fair amount of open space in a milder 4-season climate. Plus you have that awesome North Carolina BBQ!
Yes, Asheville has been on "the list" for a long time. It wasn't until recently I began to question it for retirement for a few reasons:
1) Housing costs have gone way up (big surprise right?) but still proabably a less than CDA
2) Traffic, especially on weekends, get REALLY bad - Asheville is a BIG weekend geteaway spot for folks from Charlotte and Knoxville who clog up the city, parking, etc. - locals hate it
3) No lakes like you have there. Lake Lure is basically it, and it lacks that big blue alpine water you have there. Murky with lots of coves is more like it. Oh, and the water moccasin aka "cottonmouth" snakes that swim in lakes. If I ever saw one of those forget it - I'd never be in the water again.
4) Tries too hard to be hip. Asheville has been cultivating a perception its a progressive mountain town, but its still just NC. Its no Bend, Boulder, Berkeley, Portland or Austin, so it feels a bit forced IMO.
That said, we're still open to it as a possibility. Asheville always ranks very high on many retirement lists and you could do worse.
The OBX - probably not. Hurricanes....tourists....desolate winters....did I mention hurricanes (and hurricane insurance?). We go to Nags Head every 4th of July and while it's fun, I'm bored by day 3 - can only sit on a beach so long. Not a whole lot to do there toherwise esp. during odff-season when half the coast is boarded up. And its basically one road up and down the island, so traffic or evacuations are miserable. They're getting hit with a hurricane as you read this!! Not a huge one but we're just getting started.
If we stay on this coast we'd probably consider Charleston first. Big city, good healthcare, tons of top dining, historical charm, airport...
Ya, I wasn't really suggesting OBX as an alternative to a mountain setting. We thought one of the positives about being in NC would have been the opportunity to vacation at OBX from time to time. We've always visited in Sept, which I think is after the worst of the summer crowds, but even then there have been times when traffic has been pretty bad, so I get that. We've not been there in winter, but I can imagine it's quite desolate.
I also understand some of the differences you highlight between AVL and CDA. For sure, our lakes are blue vs. the murky brown color of Lake Lure. No water snakes here either. OTOH, Lake Lure is warm!
You might find some similarities though. I don't know exactly how bad AVL gets on a busy weekend, but you certainly see some of that here. Sandpoint is significantly busier during summer, and especially on a weekend when there is some event happening. Gets hard to park, restaurants are much busier, etc. I'm more familiar with Sandpoint, but I'd guess CDA is the same way at least to some extent. I know many of us breath a big sigh of relief as we move into fall and things quiet down. I think many feel that fall is a great time to enjoy our little town to ourselves.
Yes the OBX is a great place for a beachy getaway and we still enjoy a long weekend there.
I know its off-topic, but if you ever decide to go steer WAY clear of Myrtle Beach. Not sure why it has a good rep - its the cheesiest, low brow, place I've seen on the coast. Like a trailer park with sand. If you have a craving for nasty looking biker chicks way past their...um, "prime" and their "old men" with homemade tattoos and six teeth, Myrtle is your place. They treat the beach like a giant ashtray if that tells you anything. North Myrtle Beach might as well be Detroit.
But I digress. I think we must see CDA/Sandpoint this summer. It sounds too nice not to at least check out.
All very good points Dave and I agree if you choose to enjoy winter it becomes much easier to live with. Ironically, we're also not considering places like AZ, So. Nevada or New Mexico because of heat. I suppose it boils down to ....we are fine with four milder seasons, just not anything one might consider an extreme.
As for making winter fun, sadly, we don't ski anymore (two torn ACL's skiing and age has put an end to that.... We dont snowmobile, so I can't clam we do anything in the winter, and have not lived with any winter at all for the past 12 yrs. Its hard to put into words, but if you're not a winter enthusiast, AND, once you've been out of it for a prolonged time, it feels very "uphill" to attempt to re-integrate it back into your daily life.
As for becoming snowbirds...was not ever our intention and I agree that wehn I really think through all the effort involved, seems like a LOT of work!! I don't think we'd buy a second home, but rather get a decent size RV and just road-trip it for 90 days. It's the only reasonably simple "coping strategy" I have at this time..lol!!
Yes, its a very individual decision so I'm just happy to know facts rather than speculate, and since we won't be visiting in winter that remained a big question mark. All said, the PNW has the most beautifiul terrain in my opinion.
Let me shift gears...the lakes. We are VERY attracted to the numerous lakes in your area. How many months a year are the "boatable?" Do they get overcrowded with boats in the summer? We would be more of a pontoon type than speedboat. Is it easy to transport to different lakes? We used to live on Lake Norman in Charlotte. During the peak summer months parts of it became downright dangerous there were so many boats speeding and criss-crossing paths.
We’ve had boats on Priest, Pend O’Reille and now have a lake house in CDA with boats. None of them are ever really crowded but the wake boats are hated by most other boaters, and lake home owners, and with good reason. Pontoon boats are great for our lakes. We used to have a big Sampan and we loved it. We kept it on Priest and it was perfect for beaching on the islands and in upper Priest.
We have a year old Chrsi Craft launch now and a vintage 1938 wood Chris Craft but sometimes we really miss the pontoon. Like a floating living room.
Some diehards in CDA keep their boats in year round, almost always fishermen but you really need a dock or slip with a bubbler to keep the hull from getting iced in. We pull our boats in early October usually. The best boating is really in fall.
Easy enough to transport boats with a trailer but then you have to deal with launch traffic and trailer parking. We used our boats a lot more when we finally ponied up for a slip at a marina.
Well, I think we've accepted the fact that if we were to go with CDA or Sandpoint, we'd have to become snowbirds in the process. I've been in denial and fighting it, but 42 inches of annual snow is too much for us to live with. It's the same as
Fargo, even parts of Alaska!! It's more than Chicago, and I swore I'd NEVER return to Chicago winters.
In light of that, we'll just have to figure out what winters will look like for us and how/where it will play out. I suspect we'd leave right at the 1st of the year for about 3 months at a stretch. Would love to here from anybody doing this or knows of people doing it - I'm not keen on buying a second property, esp. with all the tax breaks gone, and not interested in being an AirBNB host or long-distance landlord either. Big RV maybe? This would be new territory for us, but the appeal of escaping for 90 days to warmth is hard to argue with.
So, any snowbirds out here willing to share their experiences? (and I don't need a checklist of all the things we'll need to do to prepare our home for extended absence - those are plentiful. I want to hear how being a snowbird has worked out for you in general.)
Last edited by NC_Cpl; 05-28-2020 at 07:37 AM..
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. We dont snowmobile, so I can't clam we do anything in the winter, and have not lived with any winter at all for the past 12 yrs. Its hard to put into words, but if you're not a winter enthusiast, AND, once you've been out of it for a prolonged time, it feels very "uphill" to attempt to re-integrate it back into your daily life. 
