Plan a trip to Wallace to ride the Route of the Hiawatha and Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes

Inside the St. Paul tunnel well-illuminated by good night lights! (Courtesy Spokesman-Review)

The Route of the Hiawatha is surrounded by green trees in the St. Joe National Forest. Note the high trestle in the distance.

Hi all,

I've always felt that the Route of the Hiawatha Rail-Trail near Wallace, Idaho, is one of the neatest rail-trails imaginable. I've ridden it several times since it was opened in the mid-1990s, and I even had the opportunity to do an early test ride on the trail before it was open to the public. Every time I ride it, it's an invigorating and beautiful biking adventure.

The reason it's so cool is you ride through 10 unlit tunnels, including the 1.7-mile-long St. Paul Pass tunnel on the Idaho-Montana border, and seven high trestles as part of the 15-mile trail. If you take a shuttle, the ride is completely downhill, and it's totally family friendly.

Several years ago, USA Today published an article about the top 10 rail-trails in the United States, and the Route of the Hiawatha was listed as numero uno!

So when you're planning your vacations or long weekend getaways this summer, try to work in a long weekend in the Wallace or St. Maries area and ride the Route of the Hiawatha. The trail is managed by Lookout Pass Ski Resort, located on the Idaho-Montana border on I-90. Lookout Pass provides shuttles, trail passes, etc. The ride is featured in my Falcon Guide Mountain Biking Idaho.
This is the 20th anniversary season for the trail. Amazing how time flies! 

You'll see some interpretive signs along the way about RR history and mining. 

Here's a video about the trail and the railroad history. Believe it or not, former Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, had a big hand in obtaining federal funds to develop the old railroad line into a rail-trail. There was a very progressive recreation officer working for the St. Joe National Forest at the time when the trail was only an idea, and she worked closely with lots of people in Wallace and St. Maries to create the trail and a new tourism draw in a town that was reeling from the decline of the mining industry. It's always sweet to see a dream project become a reality.

You should stay in the Wallace Inn (formerly the Best Western) or other lodging properties in Wallace while you're in the neighborhood, and check out the Oasis Bordello Museum, or you can camp at the foot of the trail by traveling from St. Maries up the placid and scenic St. Joe River (fly fishing is good!) and camp in the national forest. Bring a canoe, kayak or SUP if you'd like to paddle the St. Joe as a side trip opportunity.

Be sure to bring a BRIGHT and POWERFUL light for riding in the dark tunnels, if you have them. Lookout Pass has lights available for rent for $5, plus they have bikes and helmets available for rent, if you don't want to take your own. I've found that night-riding mountain biking lights work great.

Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes is beautiful with smooth pavement. 

More experienced bike riders will enjoy the challenge of riding the Route of the Hiawatha from the Pearson Trailhead, near Avery, in the St. Joe drainage. It's 13 miles uphill at only a 2 percent grade, and then 1.7 miles of riding through the St. Paul Pass tunnel on the Idaho-Montana border, for a total of 15 miles. Then you can turn around and cruise downhill back to Pearson, for a 30-mile ride. It took me less than an hour to climb the trail, and about a half hour to zoom down it, pedaling all the way.

While you're in the 'hood, carve out some time to ride the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes, a fairly new paved trail along the Coeur d'Alene River. You can access the 71-mile trail in Mullan, just up the hill from Wallace, and ride downriver to Harrison and Heyburn State Park, if you want to ride the whole thing.

If you bring the kids, you have to stop at Silverwood Theme Park, north of Coeur d'Alene, where you can enjoy 65 rides, including roller-coasters, insanely steep and fast rides, and water slides. Silver Mountain in Kellogg also has an indoor water park that the kids would enjoy.

As you can surmise, it'd be easy to spend a week in the Silver Valley-Coeur d'Alene area for a great and affordable Idaho stay-cation. Have fun!

- SS

Go north to Idaho's lakes country to get out of the smoke & go boating, hiking or biking

Priest Lake under a full moon

Hi all,

I think it's safe to say that people are getting really tired of the smoke-filled Boise Valley, and this weekend, they'll be looking for ways to find some clean air. In my mind, this is a perfect excuse to head north to the Idaho Panhandle, where there are a bounty of recreation opportunities to enjoy, and the air is clear, so I've heard from locals in Coeur d'Alene.

You might groan and think, gawd, that's just too far to go! And I'd come back and say, hey, it's not that far, and you've got only a week or so before the kids have to head back to school. Why not take a few days and go somewhere like Priest Lake, where you can hang out on the beach, even camp by the beach,  and go boating on the lake, canoeing in Upper Priest Lake, mountain biking through giant cedar groves or hiking in the Selkirk Mountains. Or, pick up a Panhandle National Forests map and go on a waterfall tour.

Here's one of my previous blogs that details all of the great camping, mountain biking and canoeing opportunities in the Priest Lake area. Wendy and I went mountain biking on the Lakeshore Trail along main Priest Lake, and rode the Navigation Trail to Upper Priest Lake and cruised along the shoreline. We also canoed from our beach campsite at Beaver Creek Campground, paddled up the channel between main Priest and Upper Priest, and toured the upper lake for the day. Pete Zimowsky from the Statesman wrote a very thorough report about that paddling trip in today's paper.

Another more challenging mountain biking ride near Priest Lake is the Upper Priest River Trail. It's 20.4 miles out and back, all singletrack, and you'll end up at a waterfall and swimming hole at the Idaho-British Columbia border, a perfect place to cool off. This one is featured in my book Mountain Biking Idaho. It's one of my all-time favorite rides. The cedar trees are gigantic.  

Several other possibilities in the Idaho Panhandle:

The Taft Tunnel (courtesy Spokesman Review)

• Ride the Route of the Hiawatha, a cool, gravel rail-trail that can be accessed from Wallace if you're taking the I-90 or from St. Maries, if you're driving up through Idaho. There are a whole series of dark tunnels and railroad trestles on the trail. Distance is 14 miles up, 14 miles back. There's a shuttle available if you don't want to ride uphill. Be sure to bring a bright light! (Camping headlamps are worthless). This ride is written up in Mountain Biking Idaho. Here's an informative video about the whole experience. 
• Ride the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes anywhere between Wallace and Heyburn State Park. If you're driving up through Idaho, access the trail from the west side at Heyburn, and cruise on the paved trail to Harrison for ice cream and continue along Lake Coeur d'Alene and then the Coeur d'Alene River, enjoy the scenery and all of the bird life along the way. 



The Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes 

• Pick up a copy of  Mountain Biking Idaho and check out some outstanding rides in the Coeur d'Alene and Sandpoint areas. Canfield Butte next to Coeur d'Alene has a ton of singletrack trails to explore, and Farragut State Park also has some great trails, one of them right next to Lake Pend Oreille. In the Sandpoint area, you can ride a twisty singletrack (more than 40 switchbacks!) to the top of Gold Hill, cruise around Schweitzer Mountain Ski Area, or try a long expert ride like the Bernard Peak Loop (18.5 miles, 2,650 feet of vertical gain/loss.) 

If you go up north, I recommend taking I-84 to Tri-Cities, Wash., Highway 395 to I-90, and then you're home free, in Ritzville, Wash., just an hour from Spokane, and 1.5 hours from Coeur d'Alene. This route is at least an hour faster than driving through Idaho (I've done it in 6+ hours). Save time by driving part of the way in the evening, and the rest in the morning, and then you'll have for an outing the first afternoon. 

If you'd rather stay closer to home, head up to McCall and go beaching, camping, hiking, biking and boating. Here's a blog I wrote recently with 10 reasons to go to McCall. The morel picking season is long over, but you can probably still find some huckleberries.  

If you're stuck in town, don't forget the Tour de Fat event on Saturday in Ann Morrison Park ... The parade starts at 10 a.m. (be sure to dress up in some kind of wacky costume), and then the beer begins to flow ... buy beer and your proceeds go toward the Southwest Idaho Mountain Biking Association (SWIMBA), the Boise Bicycle Project and other great charities.

Have fun!
- SS