Maybe we really can go home again.

Cathie Wilson, former Camp Fire Girl and retired schoolteacher, is planning on doing just that and she'll be paddling all the way.

On Sept. 8, Wilson and several other women - all of them in their 60s - will be making a 104-mile canoe trip around Lake Coeur d'Alene as part of a Paddlefest fundraiser to benefit Camp Fire Camp Sweyolakan. They're planning on taking 10 days to complete the journey.

"We're very excited - we think it's going to be a huge adventure," Wilson said. "We opted to do the whole lake.

"Kathy Davis was the person who came up with the idea, and she, Margie Hames and I are kind of the main committee. We have others we call the 'Goldens' and they're women we've all known for 50 years who, like us, have been campers and counselors at Camp Sweyolakan."

Wilson said Paddlefest hopes to raise enough to ensure the camp will be still be there for future generations. The money they raise will go to scholarships for children who can't afford camp and for facility maintenance and operation.

"It's a very rustic kind of camp. It's not a resort in any way," Wilson said.

Virginia Harger, a 101-year old former camper and counselor, first went to Sweyolakan in 1924.

"All the years I was at camp, we did not have electricity," she said. "All the cooking had to be done over a wood-burning stove and, in the height of summer, it was quite a challenge. We had to get food deliveries almost every day because the iceboxes we had didn't keep food cold for very long.

"We did, however, have flush toilets."

Today Sweyolakan draws campers from all over the Northwest, California and Montana, though most are from the Coeur d'Alene-Spokane area.

As the camp's oldest alumna, Harger will be one of Paddlefest's honored guests. Mason Stinson, 6, also an honored guest, will represent the new Camp Fire generation. Additional honored guests from each decade of Sweyolakan's history will travel with the paddlers for short distances.

Many of the wood/canvas canoes being used on the trip have recently been restored by the camp's volunteer Canoe Restoration Project. The oldest canoe has been in service at Sweyolakan since 1924.

Paddlers will camp out at state parks and public docks or in the private homes of friends who live on the lake.

Paddlefest 2013 is looking for sponsors.

"We've so far received in-kind donations from stores and businesses. Pledge forms are available on our website," Wilson said.

Harger, a retired administrative dietician, remembers her end-of-summer days with great sadness.

"Everybody hated to see the summer come to the end," she said. "It was hard when you knew you'd have to part until the following year."

Information: www.sweyolakanpaddlefest.com