Riding the Centennial Trail in Idaho & Washington State

[emily_in_nc]

Recently my DH and I rode this beautiful trail from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho to Spokane, WA (me) or to the western terminus (him). I wrote a couple of blog posts about it if anyone is interested:

Part 1: http://travelingtwosome.weebly.com/traveling-twosome-blog/coeur-dalene-idaho-and-pedaling-into-washington-state-part-1

Part 2: http://travelingtwosome.weebly.com/traveling-twosome-blog/coeur-dalene-idaho-and-pedaling-into-washington-state-part-2

We also rode (the next day) from our hotel in Coeur d'Alene east to the end of the trail at the lake. Blog post coming soon!

[salsabike]

Those are great! We want to do the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes on our tandem some weekend--just haven't found the time yet. And I love Riverfront Park in Spokane! I actually like the town itself quite a lot--I go there for work about once a year.

[AppleTree]

Great pictures and blog Emily...we did almost the exact same trip last June. We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Coeur d'Alene (and I had to learn how to spell Coeur d'Alene). When we got there we did the path along the lake front, very scenic, but we didn't go far, it was late and pretty hot...maybe 10-15 miles? Had the BEST pizza that night in the old downtown area.

The Centennial Trail was right next to our hotel, and we left our car there the next morning and biked to Spokane and stayed two nights. The first day there we did the trail to Nine Mile Falls from Spokane, and you were right about that part not being well marked at ALL. One thing we noticed was how well marked the trail was in Idaho, but once we crossed over into Washington, not so much. The trail to Nine Mile Falls was pretty rugged actually, very hilly (for me) and remote. We thought we'd be able to get water and food at the park, but there were NO stores or anything there. I ended up asking a ranger going by if there was a place to get water and food and there was a little convenience store a few miles across the bridge...thank goodness for that place! We were starting to get a little desperate. It was a really hot ride back to the hotel and a lot of uphill... we were so glad to get back. The next day we biked back to Coeur d'Alene.


I absolutely loved being along the Spokane River for miles and miles, oh that was beautiful wasn't it?? I kept smelling orange blossoms and sure enough there was a shrub I found out later was actually called a "mock orange" that looked and smelled exactly like orange blossoms. Never heard of it before! I'm not sure what kind of berry you were eating, definitely not blueberry...it might have been Oregon Grape, those kinda look like blueberries. Usually those are low growing, so not sure. Birds love them.

We were going to travel to Wallace and do another day tour of the Hiawatha Trail, that is supposed to be awesome. But the weather ended up turning sour on us, they were predicting thunderstorms for that part of Idaho the next few days, so we just bagged it and drove home.

Enjoyed your post and pictures, thanks for sharing them here.

[thekarens]

Beautiful pics! Thanks for sharing.

[Irulan]

Glad you enjoyed our local gem. The Centennial Trail and Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes are two different trails and it would be nice if there was a way to connect them. It is definitely more rural here, and you need to plan accordingly.

[Helene2013]

I so wished we had beautiful trails/paths like that in my area! Oh well, keep on dreamin' baby!

Thanks for sharing. Can't wait to retire and have all the time to visit on bike those areas.

[lauraelmore1033]

I have very fond memories of the centennial trail! Lovely pictures! I think the fruit you sampled was Amelanchier (service berry).

[Helene2013]

Well I'll be darned. haha I did not know you could eat those berries. I planted many years ago 2 of those for the birds as I read birds love those fruits. You should see them in those trees when the fruits are there. I never tasted any as I was not aware they would be good for us. I'll gave it a try next year when they are back on the trees.

[cosc]

Emily, Your ride reports are inspirational and I love your pics-next best thing to actually being there.

[emily_in_nc]

Thanks everyone! I just put up the blog on our "day 2" ride where we rode east to Lake Coeur d'Alene. We didn't have nearly as nice a day for it, but it was still a nice ride, and the city is very pretty. They were busy prepping for the CDA Ironman a few days away -- we had no idea!

http://travelingtwosome.weebly.com/traveling-twosome-blog/lovely-lake-coeur-dalene-and-a-couple-of-mishaps

I appreciate the info on the berries. Most were pretty tall bushes, and I normally never eat unidentified berries, but these looked JUST like blueberries, only I didn't think the habit was right, even for highbush blueberries. That's why I only ate one. I would not go out of my way for them as it was very bland. Pretty, but bland, nothing like a wild blueberry (or blackberry, raspberry, mulberry, etc.) would taste. But at least it didn't make me sick, thankfully!

AppleTree, sounds like you had an epic adventure! Only my DH rode the westernmost part of the trail where it gets very hilly. He confirmed that it was tough and really no services along that part, like you found. He ran out of water on the way back to CDA so stopped at a Jack-in-the-Box, around Spokane I guess, and got a huge beverage and an ice cream. Can't blame him a bit! On the section of trail between Spokane and the WA state line, there was an entrepreneur who'd set up along the trail in the wooded section and was selling ice cold bottled water and sodas out of a cooler. I bought a freezing cold Coke for $1 on my way back (even tho' I still had water from a water fountain along the way, but it was warmish) -- best buck ever spent!

Wish I'd been there during the mock orange blooming season -- I love the scent of orange blossoms! Reminds me so much of visiting my g-parents in Florida.

Salsabike, we also liked Spokane from what we saw of it. The park was beautiful!

We would have liked to have ridden some of the other trails in the area but didn't have enough time, and I am pretty sure at least one of them (Hiawatha?) is unpaved -- we didn't have our mountain bikes along.

Thanks for reading the blog and for your kind comments!

[Trek420]

Thanks for the report and beautiful blog. Knott and I would like to do this ride maybe as a bike overnight?

[emily_in_nc]

Thanks for the report and beautiful blog. Knott and I would like to do this ride maybe as a bike overnight?

You're so welcome and DO IT! Spokane would be the best place to stay, probably, since you could ride west one day and east the other. We stayed in Coeur d'Alene primarily because it worked out time-wise driving from Missoula. We don't like to drive more than 5 hours a day if we can help it, since we're traveling with our dog, and well, we just don't like driving long distances!

[Irulan]

The one you can overnight on is the 70 mile Trail of the Couer d'Alenes. Lots of little B & Bs that are set up for bike tourist.

[smittykitty]

Nice story. Our first "Big Ride" was from Spokane to the boarder. We didn't make it all the way because at 8 mph, I was afraid to go "so far". Thanks to the inspiration of all the TE ladies and a couple of bike upgrades that distance is just a typical ride now!

We've talked for years of going back and doing it right. After reading your posts, we just decided we will make a weekend of it later this summer!

Our favorite is the Trail of the Cour d'Alenes, which crosses the Idaho panhandle. Love the moose sightings. Since you've made it over to our side, I hope you get a chance to check out Chehalis Western trail south of Olympia or the other Centennial trail going north from Snohomish (2nd fav.)

Awaiting your Western WA blog report. Can't wait to see where you visited. You chose the best time to be here, weather wise.

Oh, having grown up in Honey Bucket country, I thought that's what everyone called them! Funny!

[Irulan]

"Honey Bucket" is the registered name of the company that distributes porta potties around here.

[Eden]

Everyone who loves this trail should know that a supreme court decision could put it at risk!

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/10/supreme-court-railroad-land-dispute/6252835/

Let's all hope they rethink this position.

[Trek420]

Quote from the article: "Justice Stephen Breyer, who has had three bicycling accidents since 1993 — the last of which in April resulted in a shoulder replacement — envisioned a future in which landowners could be besieged by bikers.

"I certainly think bicycle paths are a good idea," he said, but "for all I know, there is some right-of-way that goes through people's houses, you know, and all of a sudden they are going to be living in their house, and suddenly a bicycle will run through it."

[Irulan]

(more nutjob legal wrangling)
Since we have three major trails that attract bike tourists from all, I think if they were truly endangered we'd hear about it. The tourist dollars from the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes and the Hiawatha have had significant positive impact on some small communities around here, and if that were to be cut off, I think there'd be something happening.

[emily_in_nc]

Awaiting your Western WA blog report. Can't wait to see where you visited. You chose the best time to be here, weather wise.

Oh, having grown up in Honey Bucket country, I thought that's what everyone called them! Funny!

Haha...no, not at all, being from North Carolina. They are managed by different companies all over the country. I'd never seen one with as cute a name as Honey Bucket!

I'm afraid you will be disappointed in our Western WA rides. Our first day, it rained, so we didn't ride at all, just took a walk (between showers) to buy groceries. We did ride into Seattle on our second full day, and up to Black Diamond on our third, but that was it. We had a VRBO booked in Walla Walla starting July 1 so just didn't have a lot of time in western WA. In fact, going there at all was almost an afterthought. When we left my DH's parents' home in Ohio for Walla Walla, we had no idea how long we might take meandering westward. Our goal was to travel no more than 5 hours in the car at a stretch, and to stop in numerous places along the way to ride. We did that. As we got farther west, we realized we'd have a few extra days, so why not go to Seattle? Obviously we could have used a couple of weeks or a month there.

Ah well, that will be another year. We hope to be traveling for a long time to come!