Bicycle Idaho
By Gary Gilbert
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Bicycle Idaho is a 6 day ride in Northern Idaho. The route changes from year to year. 2006 was the 8th time this ride had been run. Most of the participants were from the NW part of the US. I rode this ride with friends I've met on other rides - We call ourselves NSPlus after the initial group met on a ride in Nova Scotia.
I flew to Spokane Washington on a Friday evening. On Saturday morning, I assembled my bicycle and went for an hour's ride in Washington. Since the upcoming Bicycle Idaho was going to take place in Idaho and Montana, the Saturday morning ride in Washington allowed me to check off 3 more states on my quest to ride in all 50 states. I'm now up to 34. Saturday afternoon I took the ride shuttle to Sandpoint ID, in preparation to begin the ride. It was about a 90 minute drive from Spokane to Sandpoint. I met up with old friends, and as is likely to happen, had to fix my one and only flat tire of the trip. Evidently, the heat in the back of truck over inflated my tires and a loud explosion occured a few minutes after taking my bike out of the back of the truck. The tube split down the seam.
Bicycle Idaho is primarily a camping trip. I decided to take the motel option. Each night when I arrived in camp, I packed up everything I needed to change clothes for the evening and the next days ride in a small backpack and rode off to the motel. I walked back to camp after showering and in time for dinner. Bicycle Idaho includes breakfast and dinner each day. A catering company travels with the group and the means are excellent.
The route for Bicycle Idaho in 2006 took us from Sandpoint Idaho to Thompson Falls Montana to Kellogg Idaho to Harrison Idaho to Coeur d'Alene Idaho and back to Sandpoint. We spent two nights in Kellogg.
Day 1 - Sandpoint to Thompson Falls
The cue sheets for each day were handed out at registration on the previous night. They were very nicely done, on good stock paper and incouded an elevation profile, a map, and route description. Much of the first days ride was along ID/MT 200, a lightly used road on Sundays. Sag stops were at 36 and 57 miles. The stops were stocked with a fantastic array of fruit, cookies, candy, peanut butter, crackers. They had chairs and an awning set up. Temperatures all week were in the 70s and low 80s. Early morning temperatures were in the mid 50s. The rest of the country was have a heat wave but it had passed through Idaho the previous week. The days ride was 92.4 miles with an advertised elevation gain of 5800 feet. I look the 'low road' option and cut off at least 1000 feet of climbing. While it was a long 90 miles, the climbs were not difficult.
The early part of the ride took us by Lake Pend Oreille shoreline.
The farms and ranches were sparsely separated. The entire state of Idaho has a population of 1 Million, more than half live near Boise. I;m guessing that the northern counties have a population of maybe 10 or 20 thousand.
The sky was blue and the many lakes and streams were a deep blue color. Primarily I saw rocky bottoms in the lakes and streams.
This spot is near where the Kullyspell House stood. In 1809 this was the first permanent structure in Idaho inhabited by a white man, David Thompson. http://www.thefurtrapper.com/david_thompson.htm
This is part of the Clark Fork, named for William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame.
A typical view of the ID/MT 200, where we spent the majority of the day. Many ponderosa pines. http://forestry.about.com/library/tree/blponp.htm
Bull River
Entering Montana.
We arrived in Thompson Falls and were able to find the Little Bear - home for great ice cream. I had my first of 4 Huckleberry Ice cream cones of the week. Thompson Falls Montana is named for David Thompson, the same David Thompson who built Kullyspell house. He was a british geographer who mapped the region and traded furs with the native Americans of the region.
Day 2 - Thompson Falls to Kellogg
As I mentioned earlier, I used a small backpack to transfer my belongings between the campgrounds and motel. Unfortunately this morning, when I returned to camp for breakfast, I managed to put my camera in my suitcase which then went on the luggage truck. The result is I have no photos from today. Even more unfortunately, this is the day we saw a moose lounging in the river. If I can get a moose photo from another rider, I will post it here
This day was 69 miles and about 3100 feet of climbing. All that climbing happened in the first 25 miles making the day quite challenging. The first sag stop was at 23.5 miles -- I was out of water by the time I got to the stop - if it had been a hot day I would have had to stop one of the support vehicles and obtained more water. After the stop, we began an 8% grade up to Thompson Pass for the next 1.3 miles.
We stopped at the Sprag Pole in Murray and had lunch.. http://silver-valley.com/sprag_pole/ In the Sprag Pole Museum, I learned about Molly be-Dammed who came to Murray to "entertain" the gold miners.
Nearly to Kellogg, we stopped at Enaville at the Snake Pit, an old restaurant and tavern, before taking the Coeur d'Alene trail to Kellogg. There we met Richard Shaffer who calls himself the Prime Minister of Wallace, ID. http://wallace-id.com/ Richard was quite entertaining and persistent in his salesmanship to get us to ride to Wallace for a visit. Wallace calls itself the Center of the Universe and Silver Capital of the World http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace%2C_ID Lana Turner was born in Wallace Idaho.
We took the Coeur d'Alene trail into Kellogg. Kellogg is the home of the Bunker Hill EPA Superfund site. It made me a bit nervous to ride past the EPA sign as we entered Kellogg. Signs along the trail urged riders to stay on the trail, don't jump off the bridge into the water, don't touch any plant life, remove dirt from clothes before going home, and wash hands before eating anything. The trail is a 70 mile paved trail that covers old train tracks used to transport lead from the mines.
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hac/PHA/bunkerhill91400/bun_p1.html
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hac/PHA/bunkerhill91400/bun_p2.html
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hac/PHA/bunkerhill91400/bun_p3.html
Day 3 - Kellogg to Kellogg
I took this day off, rather than taking the Dobson Pass Loop. I did laundry, had lunch, and caught up on my reading. 7 of us, rented a house in Kellogg. Most of the NSPlus gang came over that night for Wine and Cheese party, we ordered pizza skipping the Bicycle Idaho dinner.
Many of the fire hydrants in Kellogg were uniquely decorated.
Leif, aftert his successful crossing of Dobson Pass, poses with Don Quixote.
There were many junk-yard sculptures around Kellogg.
Day 4 - Kellog to Harrison
Kellogg to Harrison was only about 45 miles. The total for the day was about 61 miles as we rode past Harrison to Plummer and back to Harrison. The entire day was along the Coeur D'Alene Trail and was quite flat. Most of the day we traveled through marshland.
I didn't take very many photos of my fellow cyclists. Here Joe Recumbo waits for the rest of us to finish taking photos. Joe is the leader of Nova Scotia Plus - a real organizer and nicer than all the rest of us put together.
Along the trail.
Today I took photos of some of the plant life along the route. I don't know varieties but tried to capture the variety.
Several of us stopped at this point to admire the scenery. Someone said that this was the typical Idaho scene - water, trees, and mountains - and the best spot of the week.
While I took this photo to show the flowers growing out of the bluff, I later realized that this is the only photo I took of the many bluffs I rode past.
Several of us took a detour to visit the Old Mission. This is Idaho's oldest standing building,constructed in 1850 by a missionary, using the Coeur D'Alene Indians as labor.
Someone said that this flower is related to the sweet pea.
An abandoned home.
I rode ahead of a few other riders to take a photo of them riding by me and couldn't resist taking this photo of a ranch.
I patiently waited for a while for others to catch up. I couldn't figure out what had happened, until Linda came by riding on Joe's recumbent. Push the button to see a video to see Linda first, followed by Joe and Leif, then with Kurt bringing up the rear. If you listen carefully you will hear Linda laughing. 
We rode past several marshes and wetlands. This one, just before we entered Harrison, had many water lillies, some white and some pink.
Just a question. So if we aren't supposed to touch the plants, what happens when one goes to seed and spreads themselves across the land? Isn't nature spreading the pollution from the ground via seeds?
Near Harrison, the Coeur D'Alene river connects to Lake Coeur D'Alene.
On the way to Plummer, the trail crosses the Chatcolet Bridge. http://friendsofcdatrails.org/may04.html It has stair steps leading to the tallest part. The bridge is 3100 feet long.
We spent the night in Harrison. Harrison is named for president William Henry Harrison http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Harrison It is a town of about 250 people, which was doubled by Bicycle Idaho. Following dinner, a member of the Coeur D'Alene Tribe spoke about customs of his tribe. http://www.cdatribe-nsn.gov/ We learned that Coeur d'Alene means "heart of the awl".
I took another view, giving a 360 degree view from the bridge.
View of the lake from my motel room.
Day 5- Harrison to Coeur d'Alene
This day was a short day of 45 miles. Elevation gain was 3265 with three climbs of a few hundred feet.
One climb took us along the Yellowstone Trail. This was the old US 10, before Interstate 90 was built. We had to go around a concrete barrier and climbedabove Lake Coeur D'Alene for a fantastic view. We talked to a local resident at the top of the hill, who wondered why so many bicycles were going past his home. He told me that on an average day, only 3 cars pass by his home.
Day 6 - Couer d'Alene to Sandpoint
Our last day was about 64 miles. Elevation gain of only 1800 feet. The area we rode in this day was more populated although still not very densely. We rode through many Christmas tree farms today.
One of several ranches we saw today.
One of the best parts of cycling is meeting interesting people. We were passed by a car and Joe remarked - "That was a Corvair". When the driver stopped in his driveway to pickup his mail, Joe and I stopped and talked with him for a while. He owned three Corvairs and had restored them all. http://www.corvair.org/
Many of the days we were in areas where eagles nest. While I didn't see any eagles there were several ospreys.
Joe rang the bell on his recumbent and the osprey started flapping his wings. Watch the video
We crossed the long bridge into Sandpoint and the ride was over.
Epilogue - Sandpoint to Spokane
Sandy Green and the Bicycle Idaho staff are terrific. This was one of the best run tours I've been on and highly recommend it to other cyclists. For the 250 riders, there were nearlhy 50 support people.
Meals were catered by an outfit out of Bend – they supplied breakfast and dinner. Dinner was something different every night with the fix dinners being: pasta, potatoes with chili, salmon, chicken, beef, and ribs always with salad and veggies and dessert. There was also a vegetarian option. The food was ample and tasty. They had awnings set up with tables and chairs. Pop and beer were included.
Sag stops were also ample. There was always a wide assortment of fruit, cookies, pretzels, candy, and even SPAM. There were awnings and chairs. Portapotties even had a sink and soap and paper towels.
H2O and Gatorade were provided.
Cue sheets were very good. Although, in northern Idaho there really weren’t many places to get lost and take the wrong road. There just aren’t many secondary roads. The roads were also marked with chalk. If this ride was in a more conjested area, I don’t know if the cue sheets would be any better than anyone elses. The mileage was right on. They were printed on heavy stock paper so were very sturdy.
I didn’t camp but the camp grounds seemed very reasonable. I used motels and those ranged from 100 feet to 1.6 miles from the campgrounds. At the camp grounds, there was a shower truck. Daily clean towels were provided for everyone also.
Breakfast and Dinner were at 6AM and 6PM. When we went to Montana, even though Montana is on Mountain Time, the campgrounds ran on Pacific time.
Most everyone drove to the start of the ride. They had shuttle service for the 20 of us who needed to be shuttled to Spokane.
The luggage truck was handled very well. Young people took your bags and you never had to lift them. They had wheel barrows to make it easier to carry your stuff from the luggage truck to wherever you wanted to camp.
I did have a massage one night, I would rate it a C+, I’ve had much better.
Most importantly, the entire crew was friendly and pleasant. That can’t be said for all the other riders. They weren’t the friendliest group I’ve been with. If I hadn’t gone with a group, it wouldn’t have been as much fun. Most riders were in their 40s-60s.
In general, for this kind of ride, I’d give it a big thumbs up.
It was also terrific to see all my friends from NovaScotiaPlus again. You can read about this electic group here NSPlusHistory I missed last years excursion to Maine.
I returned back to Spokane in the shuttle. I disassembled my bike and was able to spend the next day and a half with cousins Stacey and Mike.
I've included a few photos on this web page. The complete set of photos from my trip can be found by clicking on the camera:
Map of the states where I have cycled
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