James Hagengruber

Linda \ lin-dah \ 1: derived from the Spanish word for beautiful 2: one of the most popular names during the 1950s for girls 3: North Idaho social club for women of the same name. No Lyndas or Berlindas allowed. Only women named Linda may join a social club created last year in Coeur d'Alene.

The Mercedes, martini and the occasional stretch Hummer are all but overtaking the pickup truck and draft beer crowd that have long defined downtown Coeur d'Alene's nightlife. Although a few old-school, smoke-filled haunts remain, Sherman Avenue is now crowded with wine bars and watering holes that are decidedly upmarket – places where Belgian beer outsells Budweiser, and fake nails flash the latest flavor of platinum credit card. "It feels too ritzy for Idaho. This is Portland," said Coeur d'Alene resident Rebecca Heffter, as she scanned the scene while sipping a drink on a recent Friday night. It was 11 p.m. and the sidewalks were bouncing with a heavily primped and carefully manicured crowd. At any given time, a half dozen men and women stood in front of the avenue's newest bar, the Beacon, conversing on cell phones.

AT THE BOTTOM OF LAKE COEUR D'ALENE – Despite all the music and crowd noise topside, the start of the Ford Ironman Coeur d'Alene triathlon was dead quiet from 10 feet underwater. Moments after the race had begun Sunday, though, the silence was replaced by what sounded like static on a radio. Then, as the swimmers approached, a waterfall-like noise began. It was the sound of more than 2,200 sets of arms and legs flopping, flailing, kicking and slapping the surface of the once-tranquil North Idaho lake.

ORIENT, Wash. – After parking his unmarked Chevy Tahoe in a grove of pine trees about a mile south of the Canadian border, Capt. Gary Roman slipped a set of spurs over his boots. A few minutes later, a local rancher drove up. He was hauling a trailer full of the U.S. Border Patrol's new, semistealth drug-smuggling and terrorist detection weapons: horses. Hap, Jack, Buster, Lurch and Mack would transport Roman and a small team of agents on a daylong patrol last week through the region's steep, thickly forested backcountry.

OSBURN, Idaho – After the silver, lead and gold is dug from deep below North Idaho, mountains of waste rock remain. The state is now in the midst of a five-year, $175,000 experiment to find a better way to cover these heaps of rock with green blankets of grasses and shrubs.

After losing her mate to a fishing net in October, a female loon from Ferry Lake, near Republic, Wash., didn't waste much time in widowhood. This spring, waterfowl watchers received a pleasant surprise when the aging loon returned alone to her summer home on Ferry Lake and promptly set up nest with a younger male. The new man of the nest, originally from Long Lake, had been on the prowl for several summers but had always been thwarted in his attempts to find a mate, residents said.

WALLACE, Idaho – Tunnel reinforcement work will continue for at least another three weeks along portions of the Route of the Hiawatha, a popular rails-to-trail bike path that crosses the Bitterroot Divide along the Montana-Idaho border. The route will remain closed until all the tunnels are certified safe, which could be as early as mid-June, but more likely the route won't reopen until the first weekend in July, said Larry Shepherd, a construction engineer for the U.S. Forest Service. The 15-mile route follows the bankrupt Milwaukee Road rail line. A network of seven trestles carries cyclists high over the forest canopy, while the trail's ten tunnels offer bursts of cool, dark riding.

A mudslide that gushed through a 24-unit condominium at Schweitzer Mountain near Sandpoint on Wednesday might have damaged the structure beyond repair. Two nearby condo complexes have been ordered closed over concerns that more slides could occur. The Snowdrift and Creekside condominiums were not damaged by the slide, but a crack on the hillside above the units and continued torrents of snowmelt from the warm weather indicate the earth might not be done moving, said Spencer Newton, chief of the Schweitzer Fire District.

Strewn with towels and hopping with kids, the beach at Coeur d'Alene's City Park looked positively August on Wednesday afternoon. But the clear water felt decidedly March.

An easier path now leads to the tough climbing walls in Post Falls' Q'emiln Park. For nine days, a crew of volunteers from the Montana Conservation Corps has been working deep inside the park to improve its trail network.

BAYVIEW, Idaho – In a movie, only James Bond or a super-villain like Dr. Evil would be at the helm of Sea Jet, a 133-foot stealth destroyer prototype recently launched on Lake Pend Oreille. Agent Bond or Dr. Evil would keep their futuristic ship moored in a sea cave with a secret door, not anchored next to a busy tourist town marina.