2024 Tour Schedule (Archive)

Arrive in Spokane on your own schedule and spend the night in lodging of your choice, and at your expense. Note: We highly recommend that our riders book rooms at the same hotel our guides are staying, to simplify logistics. This is The Centennial at 303 W North River Drive in Spokane. (Tour participants receive a negotiated, discounted rate)

37 miles - Group Orientation, Cycle from Spokane to the Idaho Border

Meet your tour guides at 9:00 AM for bike selection. We’ll start our ride by heading west on the Centennial Trail, through the 9100-acre Riverside State Park and along the Spokane River. Optionally we can drive to the trailhead at the Nine Mile Falls for a shorter ride.

The greater Spokane area is home to the Spokane Indians, known as the Children of the Sun. They had villages and fishing locations all along the Spokane River. In 1810 a fur trading post was established at Nine Mile Falls, where our ride begins. The Centennial Trail follows the gorge carved by the river, passing through massive basalt flows in a spectacular canyon lined with towering ponderosa pines. Our guides are familiar with the geology and will inform the group about the massive Columbia basalt flows of 12-15 million years ago that created this inspiring landscape. After the gorge, the trail continues following the river and into downtown Spokane. The 1974 World Expo was located at the site of today’s Riverfront Park and we see firsthand the remarkable transformation that the Expo created from once-industrial ugliness to a beautiful park with Spokane Falls at its center.

After a delicious lunch downtown, we bike east on the trail through the Gonzaga University District of Spokane and parallel the Spokane River until we reach the Washington/Idaho border. Here you have a choice of either taking a short van ride to the lakeside town of Coeur d’Alene, OR those seeking more miles may continue biking all the way to tonight’s accommodations. We’ll get checked into our hotel before enjoying happy hour and dinner in town.

Biking Miles: 37 miles total with an optional additional 13 miles.
ACCOMMODATION: Springhill Suites by Marriott or similar
MEALS INCLUDED: Lunch, Dinner

31 miles - Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes
Our 16-mile morning ride follows the shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene to Higgins Point, the easternmost point of the Idaho Centennial Trail. Following lunch at a favorite spot, we’ll drive to Plummer, the western terminus of the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes. The afternoon’s lovely downhill ride through pines and wildflowers to the shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene and Chacolet Lake are on the converted Union Pacific Railroad line. We cross the lake on a scenic railroad bridge as we follow the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene to the small town of Harrison where we spend the night in a comfy lakeside inn. A swim in the lake just might interest you before dinner!

Your guides will have plenty of local information for you about the area and its original inhabitants, the Schitsu’umsh people and their history with the early 1800’s French fur-traders. These traders named the native people the Coeur d’Alene, meaning people with “heart of an awl” for their shrewd trading skills and hearts as sharp as a sewing needle. They were introduced to Christianity by the Jesuit missionaries in the 1840’s. In 1878, Fort Coeur d’Alene was established by General William Sherman (a famous Union General of the Civil War) on the land adjacent to the Spokane River’s source from Lake Coeur d’Alene. Soon the town of Coeur d’Alene was established and quickly became a transportation hub for logging and mining in the region.

You'll find downtown Coeur d’Alene to be a charming place filled with art galleries, restaurants, shops and the town’s greatest treasure, Tubbs Hill. This 130-acre city park offers several miles of hiking trails and shoreline.

Biking Miles: 16 miles in the morning and 15 in the afternoon.
ACCOMMODATION : Osprey Inn (or Similar)
MEALS INCLUDED : Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

35 miles - Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes, Cataldo Mission, Ride on to Wallace

Leaving Harrison, the trail passes through the Chain Lakes of the Coeur d’Alene River, a series of lakes along the river valley. As we pedal past marshes and water on the raised trail, we may see moose, deer or osprey. We stop to visit Idaho’s oldest building, the stout Cataldo Mission designed by two Jesuit priests and built between 1850-53 with the labor of some 300 members of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. Soon it’s time for lunch at the local legend of the Enaville Snake Pit. Those wishing may continue to ride to Wallace while others shuttle in our van the final miles. The brick buildings and yesterday-feeling of Wallace captures a moment in time when mining was the main activity of the area. Center of the Silver Valley, more silver was taken from the ground here than anywhere else in the world before or since. Today the town is home to a couple of breweries and some good dining options. We enjoy dinner in town together.

Biking Miles: 35-mile bike ride with optional 10-20 miles
ACCOMMODATION : Wallace Inn (or similar)
MEALS INCLUDED : Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

24-42 Miles - Route of the Olympian, Hiawatha Trail

It's a short drive across the Idaho/Montana border to the hamlet of Saltese, our starting point on the Route of the Olympian. In the day when railroads were competing for routes west, the ambitious Pacific Extension of the Milwaukee railroad was built to connect west to Portland, Oregon. Financed by the Rockefellers, it was the most expensive railroad ever built at that point in time, costing $75,000 per mile. The most challenging section of the entire route was the 22 miles through the Bitterroot Mountains around today’s Idaho/Montana border, requiring the construction of 21 bridges, 16 tunnels and seven high trestles. It’s nothing short of thrilling to ride on this legacy trail!

After our 9-mile ride on the Route of the Olympian we arrive at East Portal, the starting point of the historic and spectacular Hiawatha Trail. We start at the East Portal trailhead and immediately enter the two-mile long Taft Tunnel. Before the morning is over, we go through another six tunnels and cross a number of breath-taking trestles that span deep and forested canyons of the Bitterroot Mountains. This is one of the most spectacular, if not the most spectacular, rails-to-trails trail in the United States. It is well maintained, and the gravel route and gentle grade make for an easy ride. Being on a railroad grade, this portion of the trail follows a mellow 1.7% downhill grade from 4160 ft. at the West Portal to 3175 ft. at Pearson, for a total drop of a little less than 1000 ft. in a distance of 15 miles. Along the way we stop for a trailside lunch. At the trail’s end we can load up in our van, or you may ride back up the gentle grade part way or all 15 miles.

When the day's riding is done, we return to Wallace to enjoy another evening in this historic mining town.

Biking Miles: 24 miles with optional 18 miles downhill from the Hiawatha on the NORPAC trail.
ACCOMMODATION : Wallace Inn (or similar)
MEALS INCLUDED : Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

14 miles - Morning Ride on Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes, Enjoy a Wallace Mine Tour, Return to Spokane
We ride from Wallace about 7 miles east, to the eastern end of the Trail of the Coeur d’ Alenes through a steeply forested canyon. There we turn around and enjoy an easy descent back to Wallace. In the late morning, we take a short trolley ride to start a fascinating tour of one of the area's old silver mines. Led by a former miner, this is a rare glimpse into the history and reality of hard rock mining. Guests love the experience. Then we enjoy a final lunch together before our two-hour drive back to Spokane. We plan on returning to the Centennial Hotel in Spokane Washington between 4 and 6 PM.
MEALS INCLUDED : Breakfast, Lunch