Idaho #34 100 Done

Wednesday August 15 – Thursday August 16, 2018

After our long ride on Tuesday we took the day off. Flo did not allow us to sleep in too late. Walked into town, the train depot and railroad museum is near the RV park.

We spent the afternoon at the City Limit Brew Pub using their internet to update our blog. Good Mountain Top Ale served here.

Thursday morning we were up early to head for the East Portal Trailhead of the Route of the Hiawatha. We followed a 2 mile dirt road to the trailhead. The east portal to the St. Paul Pass – Taft tunnel is in Montana.  When you exit the west portal you are back in Idaho.

The Taft Tunnel was cold, damp, very dark and long.  Helmets and lights are required! The trail is 15 miles from the east portal to the Pearson Trailhead. Along the way we passed thru 10 tunnels and over 7 very high trestles.

It is the roughest trail surface we have ridden. Good news is that the trail was all downhill with about a 1.6 percent grade. Mountain bikes may have made for smoother ride. The scenery was amazing.

There were many historical marker along the way. We road thru an area that was burned in the 1910 fire which was one of the largest forest fires in the history of the U.S.

Some humorous markers also. This one about bears eating fermented grain from a train wreak.

We took a shuttle from the Pearson trailhead to the west portal of the Taft Tunnel.  It was much colder and our hands were freezing by the time we exited with our glasses fogged.

We returned to the RV, walked Flo and headed to Cataldo to finish our Idaho 100.  We road on the Coeur D’alene east of Cataldo along the river. Another beautiful ride and a good way to finish with 103 miles in Idaho. We celebrated with a bottle of Moose Drool.

• Trail of the Coeur D’alene
• Route of the Hiawatha