Explore mines and waterways of the Idaho Panhandle (North Idaho) on bike.  The Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, Clark’s Fork and Pend Oreille rivers connect Lake Coeur d’Alene, Lake Pend Oreille and Spokane essentially forming the 400 mile loop.  To enhance the quality of the route, a few changes have been incorporated from the 2008 Tour.

The loop will start and end in downtown Spokane, WA at the Red Lion Inn.  From downtown, the tour will take a roller coaster ride over the Palouse hills and on to Plummer, Idaho to pick up the Trail of the Coeur d’Alene’s.  The trail passes along the shoreline of the lake, over the southern end of the lake and on to Harrison, ID, a small picturesque town on the lake, where we’ll spend the night.

From Harrison, the route continues to follow an old RR route converted to form the Trail of the Coeur d’Alene’s bike path past the Cataldo Mission (oldest building in Idaho, 1844) to Wallace, a town rich in silver mining history, for an overnight stay. The town of Wallace is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  It is in the center of one of the richest silver mining districts in the world.  For those interested, Wallace has a railroad museum, a mining museum and a miner’s cemetery in addition to other buildings of historic interest.  There are also opportunities for mine tours near Wallace.

From Wallace the tour climbs Dobson Pass, descends, passes through the living ghost town of Murray and then continues on up and over Thompson Pass (4860 ft).  Descend into Montana, the Big Sky Country.  After an overnight stay in Thompson Falls, MT, we will ride down the Clark’s Fork River past the Cabinet Mountains and Cabinet Gorge.  Please note that some Montana and Idaho roads are a bit narrow.  The route passes back into Idaho and soon, the north shore of Lake Pend Oreille begins to come into view.  After riding along the lake, our destination for the day will be Sand Point Idaho.

There will be a 2 night stay in Sandpoint, ID on Lake Pend Oreille.  Sandpoint offers swimming, hiking, biking, canoeing and other activities. From Sandpoint, the route goes over the “long bridge”, west along the Pend Oreille River, through Spirit Lake (started in 1902 as a panhandle lumbering community) and on to the town of Coeur d’Alene for a night on the north shore of the lake.

Please note that the tour will include short sections of unpaved roads which are expected to have good riding surfaces for road bikes.  These sections are included to avoid heavily traveled, narrow paved roads.

Please also note that in a couple of towns, the lodging is slightly below HeartCycle standards.  The reason for this is that 2 of the towns we stay in are small, interesting towns, but do not offer the choice of lodging which is up to HC standards

On the final day of the tour, the route returns from Coeur d’Alene to Spokane along the Spokane River via the Centennial Trial, past Post Falls, Spokane Falls, Gonzaga University, the 1974 World’s Fair site and Riverside State Park.

Tour leaders:  Harvey Hoogstrate and Ken Condray

For further information please contact Harvey Hoogstrate at (303) 755-9362 or harvhoog@gmail.com or Ken Condray at (425) 745-1159 or condray3@comcast.net