Workers Pave Way For Fernan Saddle Lot Project Will Open Up Parking For Outdoors Rush

Del Kerr puffed on his pipe Saturday and surveyed the progress of four earth-movers rumbling in front of him.

The yellow machines pushed and scooped loads of dirt on the Fernan Saddle, cutting a recreational-use parking lot more than five years in the making.

By the time the project is finished in the summer, a paved parking lot, complete with restrooms and an information sign, should accommodate as many as 70 vehicles.

It’ll also provide welcome relief to a parking situation that has grown steadily more cramped the past five years, outdoor enthusiasts said.

“Parking has been real limited,” said Karen Kimball, president of the Coeur d’Alene snowmobile club. “Last year it was even worse.”

An increasingly diverse group of people using the Coeur d’Alene River Ranger District has made the Fernan Saddle area a busy spot year-round.

Heavy snowfall last winter and snowmobiling’s increased popularity often forced weekend riders to park up to two miles down winding roads leading to the Fernan Saddle, Kimball said. Traffic frequently came to a standstill while motorists tried to inch their way toward spots closer to trail heads.

Others, aced out of spots by early arrivals, struggled to turn their vehicles around.

“It was just a mess,” said Kerr, chairman of the Kootenai County snowmobile advisory board and member of the Idaho off-road park and recreation board. “People were parking up and down the (road). We were having traffic jams, bad tempers.”

Five pickup trucks that had to be guided away from the bulldozers Saturday offered a glimpse at the area’s diverse users. Three of the trucks carried loads of firewood. Two bow hunters rode through in an another.

All-terrain vehicles on a trailer followed still another pickup through the tangle of heavy equipment.

In the winter, 3,000 people use the nearly 400 miles of groomed trails accessible to snowmobilers and cross country skiers.

“This is one of the highest used recreational areas in the district,” Kerr said.

The parking lot project is a cooperative effort between the U.S. Forest Service, the state parks service, the Coeur d’Alene Snowmobile Club and the Kootenai County Snowmobile Association.

Volunteers from the snowmobile clubs, using equipment and supplies donated by several local construction and trucking companies, planned to finish leveling the parking lots on either side of Fernan Lake Road by nightfall tonight. Their efforts should save about $35,000, Kerr said.

The forest and parks services have performed administrative and engineering duties for the project. Volunteers will seek a state grant to pay for the rest, about $100,000.

“If we didn’t have volunteers doing this project, it wouldn’t be possible,” Kerr said, taking another puff on his pipe. “It wouldn’t even be possible.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo