We started planning a trip to Northern Idaho to ride the Coeur d'Alene bike trails with our kids about a year ago. As it turned out, the only ones able to go were us, Shay's family, and Jill's family. So, we and Jill's family left Cascade and headed north to meet up with Shay and his family at Dutch's place in St. Maries, ID.
Dutch and Gail, our friends from St. Maries, were still down at their home in Ogden, UT. But, they allowed us to park in their yard without them being there. Dutch built the little cabin we parked next to back when I was just a kid. I remember staying in it with my Great-grandmother and Grandfather Fisher when I was about 10 years old. The kids got tired of all of my old stories about growing up in St. Maries. We even drove down the old Benewah Road where we lived and saw where our house was and an old swimming hole and other places I remembered.
I spent a lot of time at Rocky Point on the Benewah/Chatcolet Lake as a young girl. We all went there and had a good time playing in the water. Dan, Emily, Boe, Kamber, and Jill try to stay afloat on a log in the water, while Tyson looks on.
Kamber and Emily have fun playing on a log.
Sean and Marissa (behind the boat) opted to go fishing on the docks, where I fished many times with my family as a young girl.
We were all ready to head to Church in St. Maries. The Branch there is where I got started going to Church. I always think I am going to run into someone who remembers me as a little girl and going to Church all by myself, but it hasn't happened.
When we left Sunday afternoon to go to the campground at Harrison, ID, the kids asked to ride in our motorhome. It has four seat belts on the table benches, so off we went. None of them even got car sick!
Our campsite in Harrison was right on Coeur d'Alene Lake. The kids fished a little right behind our rigs.
The next morning we were all ready to start our adventure of riding the bike trails. The trail is all paved and is where the railroad tracks used to be. It is about 72 miles long. The first day we rode one way about 9 miles and then turned around and rode back, for a total of about 18 miles. That was pretty good for our first day! Susan, Terry, Sean, Boe, Dan, Shay, Jill, Tyson, Heidi, Marissa, Kamber, and Emily.
We brought our tandem along and so Tyson got a free ride the first day, except when Shay put his feet up and made Tyson pedal!
We stopped every few miles for everyone to catch up and make adjustments and such.
We made quite a group of 12 riding along the lake. It was a beautiful ride.
There is a long trestle that goes over the lake, with a tall bridge that used to turn in the middle for the boats to go through. It is now part of the bike trail and is pretty exciting to ride over.
Here we are climbing to the top of the trestle. It was even more fun riding back down the other side. It was good to have the side railings along the edges to keep us on the trail! It was pretty high when we got to the top.
On our way back home that day, we saw this family of turtles in the marsh. The night before, Kamber, Emily, and I had gone for a ride and found a turtle on the trail. We got to pick it up and hold it. What fun to see this whole family!
After getting back from our bike ride, it was time to cool off with a swim. The campground was right next to a marina and a swimming area with a dock in the middle and a diving board. Diving into the water together are Boe, Kamber, Emily, Shay, Marissa, Jill, and Dan. That evening, Dan, Shay, and Sean decided to ride the trail again and go far enough so that Sean could pass off part of his cycling merit badge by going 50 miles in one day. By the time they got home that night it was dark and they were all pretty tired, but they did it!.
The next morning, Shay and his family opted to sleep in a little and then met us later down the trail. (I think the 50-miler the day before kind of did Shay and Sean in!) So, that left the tandem free for Dan and Kamber to ride! We all took off on a 20-mile ride the opposite direction from the day before.
After riding a ways, Jill and Boe traded bikes to give their bums a little change. Boe was a pretty good sport about riding Jill's pretty pink bike!
On our way back, all of a sudden this moose came up from side and just started walking down the trail! He walked a ways and then went back down into the river, swam across it, and went up the other side. We had really been hoping to see a moose, and we did! Shay, Heidi, and the kids had joined us by that time and we all go to see it.
The next day we went on a different trail, called the Hiawatha Trail. It is about 15 miles long and all downhill, if you start at the top, which we did. There are about ten tunnels and seven trestles on the trail. The longest tunnel is 1.7 miles long and pitch dark! We all had to have lights. It looks like Terry is ready!
Here is Jill's family, just out of the tunnel, Dan, Boe, Jill, and Kamber. It is kind of spooky in the longer tunnels. At first it was hard to keep your balance because it is so dark and all you can see is the small area of light from your headlamp. Thank goodness we had a couple of big lights that helped lighten it up a bit. We also put glow sticks on the backs of everyones bike so we could tell when someone was ahead of us. We all made it through the tunnels just fine, with no crashes!
We stopped for some family photos. Here is Shay, Heidi, Emily, Marissa, Tyson, and Sean.
The waterfall was a nice backdrop for a photo of Terry and me.
The trestles were amazing to go over. Some of them were so high we were glad they were wide and had good railings on them. What a fun trip we had!
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