The Idaho Tour -Portland Bicycling Club

The Idaho Tour

The Idaho Tour – Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes – July 24-28, 2022

From Bud Rice, Ride Leader

We will be returning to northern Idaho July 24 – July 28, 2022, to ride the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes and the Route of the Hiawatha. Both trails are considered world class.   This trip is four nights in motels. We drive to Wallace, Idaho, about 430 miles, on Sunday, July 24 and stay there that night. Vehicles are left in Wallace, and on Monday, July 25, we ride the 50 miles down to Harrison, Idaho, right on the banks of the Lake Coeur d’Alene River.

We stay in Harrison for two days and on Tuesday we ride the 35 miles, round trip, to Plummer for lunch. On Wednesday, July 27, we ride the 50 miles back to Wallace and stay there that night. There are two 16 mile options from Wallace that can be done on Monday, Wednesday, or Thursday if you are after more miles.

The two 50-mile days are very scenic and follow the Coeur d’Alene River most of the distance. The 35-mile day is the most scenic because most of it is along Lake Coeur d’Alene. This day has the only hill, a five-mile climb up to Plummer from the lake at a fairly gentle railroad grade.

The Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes is a completely paved trail. The optional Route of the Hiawatha is a 17-mile, one way, gravel trail that goes through 9 tunnels and across 8 high trestles. You need a fat tired bike for this. Mountain bike rentals are available, or you could do the entire Idaho trip on amountain bike.

There is no sag for this trip, so you do need to carry enough with you to survive two days in a motel in hot weather country. This usually doesn’t amount to much. Also, this trip is priced for two to a room so you need to sign up with your own roommate. I do not match people up in rooms. The one time I did this all of the people I matched complained about the other one snoring.

This is probably the last time that this trip will be offered. I’ve said this for the last 4 trips, but I think this will really be the last one.

The trip is limited to 30 people because the only motel in Harrison has 15 rooms, and we have all of them booked. Cost for the trip, four nights in motels, is $335.00 per person. Backroads Bike Tours does a similar trip that only spends three nights in motels and costs just under $1700. To register, I will need a 50% deposit per person, $167.50, sent to:

Bud Rice
506 SW 6th St.
Gresham, OR 97080-9373

If you need more information, contact me at bikebud@spiretech.com, 503-667-0683

I will have an organizational meeting at my house about a month before
the trip to hand out maps and to answer any questions.

Pictures from the 2016 and 2017 Idaho Tour on Flicker.

 

Hotel in Harrison