Bitterroot 300k

[pumpkinpony]

I thought I'd throw a mention out for this route in the Idaho panhandle. I rode this last week with my brother. 180 miles in 2 days on touring bikes. It covers the Trail of the Coeur d'alenes, NorPac Trail, Route of the Hiawatha, and the Old Milwaukee RailRoad road. It was a cool trip! Very pretty scenery. We started in Harrison, so the majority of the climbing was all in the afternoon of day 1.

This club has a good description of it - http://www.helenabicycleclub.org/files/7513/6262/6997/Bitterroot_300k.pdf. Friends of the Coeur d'alenes trail publishes a guidebook every year too that has a ton of info on the trail and support available along the way.

Here's a few pictures. Well I'm trying to attach pictures.

[pumpkinpony]

hmm. for some reason I don't have the ability to insert HTML photos so I can only do little bitty ones through the image uploader. oh well. It's pretty country!

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[salsabike]

Thanks! We have talked for a while about doing the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes on our tandem. Good to see these pictures.

[emily_in_nc]

How wonderful, PP!

We rode the Trail of the Coeur d'Alene in 2014 but did not get to ride the other trails you mention as we only had our road bikes with us, and some of the other trails were unpaved. What a gorgeous area of the country, though! I fell in love with Coeur d'Alene. Hoping to get back up there one of these days and ride more of the trails.

Thanks for sharing! BTW, 90 miles each day -- you are a beast! :D

[pumpkinpony]

Thanks! We have talked for a while about doing the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes on our tandem. Good to see these pictures.

I actually saw three tandems out there on the trails! (not all at the same time) 2 of them were on the unpaved sections. They were taking it a bit slower - aiming for 30ish I think per day.

Here's one at the start of the Route of the Hiawatha.

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[pumpkinpony]

How wonderful, PP!

We rode the Trail of the Coeur d'Alene in 2014 but did not get to ride the other trails you mention as we only had our road bikes with us, and some of the other trails were unpaved. What a gorgeous area of the country, though! I fell in love with Coeur d'Alene. Hoping to get back up there one of these days and ride more of the trails.

Thanks for sharing! BTW, 90 miles each day -- you are a beast! :D

I would definitely want bigger tires! We had 700x38's, and they gave us a beating on a couple of sections. I was so done with bumpy gravel roads that on day 2, as soon as we were given the opportunity, we jumped over to the paved highway instead. :-)

We actually did 80 the first day (Harrison to Saltese) and the rest on day 2. I wouldn't recommend the hotel in Saltese btw. If I was to do it again, I think I would do a half day to Wallace, then Wallace to Avery, and last day Avery to Harrison. (I have a friend in Harrison which is why I started there)

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[emily_in_nc]

We would ride our MTBs on those trails. We hate getting beat up! We rode our Bike Fridays (1.35" tires) on the Katy Trail, but it's very well packed, no large gravel.

It surely looks beautiful!

[pumpkinpony]

We would ride our MTBs on those trails. We hate getting beat up! We rode our Bike Fridays (1.35" tires) on the Katy Trail, but it's very well packed, no large gravel.

It surely looks beautiful!

That's good to know! I'll be riding the Katy Trail in September..

[emily_in_nc]

That's good to know! I'll be riding the Katy Trail in September..

You will love it. What a wonderful trail. My DH rode the entire thing in 2014, while I rode parts of it. We just rode a segment this summer as we were staying in Hermann in our motorhome.