A great bike trip to explore rails-to-trails paths up North! With my riding partner, John Thomas, we drove north to Coeur d’Alene. We spent one night on the road and then two days in Coeur d’Alene. A beautiful spot. We split the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes into two pieces. A shorter “there and back” section the first day, then a longer ride on day two (which included a shuttle to the starting spot). Total of 100 miles or so. Beautiful scenery along the Lake, plus a few hills. Gotta love biking Rail-to-Trails!
After conquering the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes – it was hot even that far north – we then drove eastward to the Route of the Hiawatha Trail. It is on the Idaho/Montana border. A beautiful downhill ride through the longest railroad tunnel open to bikes in the US (over 1.5 miles long!), plus many shorter tunnels and amazing trestles (100s of feet high over the valleys). You can shuttle back uphill, but I chose to ride my bike.
A really scenic trip with lots of scenery variation, plus good food, museums, and camaraderie.
