St. Maries ID/Tail of the Coeur d'Alenes 7/19/10 - 7/25/10

I grew up, during my childhood, in St. Maries, Idaho, and moved from there when I was about 12 years old. We go back there once in a while and visit some friends I have known my whole life. Dutch was a childhood friend of my Dad's and he and his wife Gail let us park in their yard. They stay in St. Maries during the summer and move to Ogden, Utah, during the winter. They also have a place next to where my Mom lived in Wikieup, Arizona.
I remember this little log house from my childhood, only with lots of trees around it. Dutch later built a really nice home that you see in the background.

Another reason we went to St. Maries this year is that because we have had a dream for about three years, to ride our bikes on the 72-mile Trails of the Coeur d'Alene. It is a bike trail that is where the old railroad tracks were and it has been paved from Plummer to Mulen. We rode a total of about 75 miles in three days, but didn't ride the whole trail. The first day we started in the middle and road about 25 miles to Wallace and stayed overnight. The next morning we road the same part of the trail back to Cataldo where we had left our pickup. Two days later, we parked in Heyburn State Park at the trailhead and road 12 miles, through Harrison, and then turned around and came back.

This is the first day and the first trestle/bridge that we went over. The trail was so nice and smooth and easy riding.

For about half of that day's ride, we were in the woods and along a river. It was so pretty.

There were really nice "rest areas," some with bathrooms and some without, along the way. We would stop about every five miles to rest and have a snack. (Can you tell that we are not serious bike riders?)

At one stop we had a friendly visitor. We were afraid that she would follow us, but thank goodness she didn't.

The last part of the first day, as we got closer to Kellogg and Wallace, we rode a lot through the mining area--not quite as much timber. It got a little warmer and the last 10 miles was a gradual uphill ride. There were quite a few riders on the trail, but most of them were coming down the trail. One lady went by and said, "It's a lot easier coming down!" The ones going up usually passed us and, actually, the only person we passed on the the trail going up was this man walking his dog!

We got to Wallace at about 12:30--we had started at about 8:30 that morning. We had made reservations at an old hotel called the Ryan Hotel. It was built when the town was first built and was still pretty much the same.

Our room was nice and had lots of antique-looking furniture in it. You can see the "modern" air conditioner sitting atop the "modern" heating system. The end of the trail was about 7 miles further, so we thought we would rest up the afternoon and then in the evening we would ride up and back the rest of the trail. But, neither one of us wanted to climb back on our bikes that day. We were pretty hot and tired and our rumps were plenty sore!

So, that afternoon we walked around the town and ended up going on a tour of an old mine. It was really interesting. An old miner was the guide and he showed us how they did their mining back then.

The next morning we left pretty early and by the time we got to Kellogg, we had traded bike seats several times trying to relieve pressure points on our rumps that were pretty sore. We had remembered passing a bike shop along the trail as we went through Kellogg so we stopped there to see if we could get new seats. Terry's was in pretty bad shape--some of the foam padding had even come apart. Well, they guy there almost talked us into buying two new bikes--they were sure nice. But, instead we left with two new seats. Boy, did they make a difference! We finished that day sitting pretty comfortable.

The next day we took a break from bike riding and went fishing with Dutch and Gail. We didn't catch any fish, but had a nice time anyway.

During the day we actually were in four bodies of water without even loading the boat. We were in the Benewah Lake, Lake Coeur d'Alene, Chatcolet Lake, and the St. Joe River! Here is the long train trestle we planned to cross over on our bikes the next day. It separates Chatcolet Lake and Lake Coeur d'Alene.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day in the water with Dutch and Gail.

We saw a couple of bald eagles. One had a fish in its claws and landed on a stump to eat it.

So, the next day we got back on our bikes--feeling pretty good--and left from a trailhead in Heyburn State park. Our biggest adventure of that trip was riding over the trestle that crossed the lake. We had been wanting to do that for several years, as we watched other bikers crossing it.

We weren't disappointed. It was great to be on top and the scenery looking down over the lakes and the St. Joe River was really something!

The trail on both sides of the trestle--going up and down--had little dips and then level out, all the way til you got to the bottom. It almost felt like a carnival ride on it.

The scenery was once again beautiful along the trail. We followed the water all the way and there were lots of flowers along the way.

When we got to Harrison, we watched this seaplane land in the lake, idle up to the dock and pull into a space. The pilot got out and tied his plane up to the dock, right next to the boats.

The lilly pads were all in bloom. They weren't opened up when we went up the trail, but they had all opened when we came back down it.

I have always thought it would be fun to live in a "float home." There are quite a few of them on Lake Coeur d'Alene. This was a really cute one.

This third day only took us three hours to ride our 25 miles (with stops along the way and a leisurely pace), compared to four hours the first day, and we were not nearly as tired and sore as the first day. So, someday we hope to take on the rest of the trail. Many thanks to those who keep it in such beautiful condition and who make it available for us to ride!