E-Bike Tour - North Idaho's Iconic Trails

Arrival in Spokane, Washington

Arrive in Spokane, Washington, with air service from almost all major airlines, or drive from your home. 

ACCOMMODATION : Not Included - Preferred hotel is the Centennial Hotel in Spokane

Riverside State Park, Washington/Idaho Centennial Trail, and Coeur d’Alene

Meet your Pedego Vacations guide at 8:30 AM at the Centennial Hotel in Spokane, Washington, and check out your bike. We transfer 30 minutes west of downtown Spokane for a beautiful ride that winds through Riverside State Park, a 9100-acre park that straddles the Spokane River.  The paved trail passes through a fragrant forest of ponderosa pine with time to marvel at the impressive basalt formations created some 12 million years ago as lava flowed from the earth.  We learn about the original people of the area, the Spokane Tribe, known as the Children of the Sun.  We also stop to talk about Camp 7 Mile, built-in 1933 by the 949th Company of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) who cleared land, built roads, and planted trees in what is today Riverside State Park.

Once in downtown Spokane, we visit Spokane Falls and the site of the 1974 World Expo.  We enjoy lunch at a local eatery, then continue our ride east through Spokane’s University District and on to the Washington/Idaho State line. At this point, we board our van to transfer to Coeur d’Alene, for a festive evening and dinner together. 

Biking: 37 miles total.  All paved.

ACCOMMODATION : Springhill Suites by Marriott (or similar), Coeur d' Alene Idaho

MEALS INCLUDED : Lunch, Dinner

Coeur d’Alene Exploration

Our morning ride takes us along the shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene to Higgins Point, the furthest eastern point of the Idaho Centennial Trail. After our morning ride of 18 miles, enjoy lunch at your choice of one of many great restaurants in Coeur d’Alene.  

This afternoon is free time to explore downtown Coeur d’Alene!  Enjoy the shops and art galleries, take the 2-mile walk around Tubbs Hill on the lakefront.  Those who golf might want to try and book a time on the Coeur d’Alene Resort golf course. 

Dinner together and a festive evening in Coeur d’Alene. 

Biking: 18 miles total with optional routes if desired. All paved.

ACCOMMODATION : Springhill Suites by Marriott (or similar), Coeur d' Alene Idaho

MEALS INCLUDED : Breakfast, Dinner

Trail of the Coeur d’ Alenes to Harrison and Kellogg

We drive south 35 minutes to Plummer, located on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation and the western end of the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes.  This is home to the Schitsu’umsh people whom the early French fur traders named the Coeur d’Alenes, which means people with a “heart of an awl.” The early 1800’s fur trappers found the Coeur d’Alene people to be smart and shrewd traders with hearts as “sharp as a sewing awl”. We honor their legacy on this land.

Leaving the trailhead park, we ride on a scenic and slightly downhill path through towering pines until we reach the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene.  We cross the lake on an elegant railroad bridge and follow our bike path as it winds along the lakefront to the tiny town of Harrison.

After a light lunch and perhaps a dip in the lake, our ride continues on level ground with scenes of the Chain Lakes of the Coeur d’Alene River. Marshes filled with waterfowl and songbirds send fragrant breezes our way.  If time allows, we stop to visit Idaho’s oldest building, the rather stern Cataldo Mission designed by two Jesuit priests and built between 1850-53 with the labor of around 300 Coeur d’Alene Natives.  

Riders are welcome to load up in Cataldo for a shuttle to Kellogg. Riders looking to add extra miles can continue for 11 miles into the Silver Valley, where more silver has been extracted from the ground than any other place on earth.  We end up in the small town of Kellogg for our night’s accommodation.

Biking: 42-miles.  All paved. (Optional 11 miles for those wanting to continue from Enaville to Kellogg)

ACCOMMODATION : Morning Star Lodge at Silver Mountain Resort

MEALS INCLUDED : Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Route of the Hiawatha

We begin the day with a brief drive across the Idaho/Montana border to Saltese to begin our ride on the Route of the Olympian. The ambitious Pacific Extension of the Milwaukee railroad was built at a time when railroads were competing for new routes to the west. The Route of the Olympian and Route of the Hiawatha was financed by the Rockefellers and at the time, the cost was $75,000 per mile, making this the highest-priced railroad ever built.  We enjoy this fabulous engineering legacy and ride over trestles and through tunnels on this inspiring trail.

After 9-miles on the Route of the Olympian, we find ourselves at the starting point of the historic Hiawatha Trail where we enter the darkness of the two-mile-long Taft Tunnel. Before the morning is over, we cross 7 trestles and pass through 9 tunnels in the heart of the rugged Bitterroot Mountain range of the Rockies. The trail is in great condition and is a gravel route that drops gently for 15 miles. Set in the forest with expansive views, we have a bountiful picnic lunch.  By mid-afternoon, we are back in Kellogg to enjoy another night at the Morning Star Lodge.

Biking: 24 miles Packed gravel.

ACCOMMODATION : Morning Star Lodge at Silver Mountain Resort

MEALS INCLUDED : Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Mullan to Wallace, Optional Touring, Return to Spokane

This morning we ride from Kellogg to the eastern end of the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes at Mullan.  We visit the small town then turn around and ride back west 7 miles downhill to Wallace. This charming town is full of historic brick buildings and elegant mansions built during the boom mining years of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The morning's highlight is an underground mine tour led by a hard rock miner who explains both mining technique and machinery as well as the history of mining in the area.  We also learn about Edward Pulaski, a hero in the biggest fire in U.S. history, Idaho's “Big Burn” of 1910 .  After the fire, Pulaski  invented the most important fire fighting tool in history, the Pulaski.  Enjoy lunch on your own and time to explore Wallace.  

By 2:30 or 3:00 pm we're on our way back to Spokane.  If we did not have time on Day 3- we'll stop at the historic Cataldo Mission, home to Idaho's oldest building, constructed by members of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe and Jesuit Missionaries between 1850 and 1853.  The story of the Mission of the Sacred Heart, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is key to understanding the history of U.S. westward expansion and the role that missionaries played in the period after the initial contact between fur-traders and Native peoples, and the arrival that started a decade later, of homesteaders, miners, and the U.S. military.  

Our tour ends upon arrival in Spokane when we return the group to the Centennial Hotel.  

Biking: 11 miles from Kellogg to Wallace with an optional 14 more to Mullan and back to Wallace. All paved.

ACCOMMODATION : Not Included - Return to Centennial Hotel in Spokane, Washington

MEALS INCLUDED : Breakfast