Trail of the Coeur D’Alenes - Ready to Ride
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There were a few logistical problems to work out before tackling the rest of the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes. The Trail is 73 miles long across the panhandle of Idaho. Thus far, we’d ridden only about 19 miles of it at the western end between Plummer and Springston, riding in both directions in order to get back to Blue each evening. We needed to figure out the alternatives for getting back and forth to the trailheads.
We reckoned we had three options. First, I had identified a shuttle service in Harrison, on the western end of the trail, that would drop us and our bikes off at the Mullan Trailhead on the far eastern end of the Trail close to the Montana border for $65/pp. If we took this approach, we’d leave Blue at one end, bicycle between trailheads along the way and stay in hotels each night and eat out as we had done recently when riding the Centennial Trail. We figured this option would take about three days. We checked into hotel rates along the way and during summer high season, they weren’t cheap and they were not always located where we might have liked them to be.
The second option was renting a car. This would involve a leap-frogging approach, leaving Blue at one end of the trail and the rental car at the other end and at each day’s end, collecting the other vehicle, transporting us and bikes to a campsite or hotel, then doing the same thing the next day. This would also take about three days, we estimated. There were no car rental companies in Mullan nor Plummer, so we’d have to acquire the rental in Coeur d’Alenes. No biggie, but this plan sounded mighty cumbersome.
Our third option, do what we did when we rode the first two legs of the trail... ride it in both directions. This was a slower option, of course, but we could park Blue at the beginning of the trailhead each day and he’d be waiting for us at each day’s end. We’d have our ‘hotel and restaurant’ with us each night, we could transport the bikes to the trailheads easily and not have to transport all of our belongings with us for the duration of the trip nor find a safe place to store the bikes each night. The negative? We’d be riding the trail twice, so it would take longer. The remaining 54+ miles of trail became 108+ miles. This did, however, seem like a viable option and, what the heck, we had the time.
Bumblebee Campground in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest was perfect for our needs AND there were no bumblebees that we noticed.
Now, where could we camp each night? We decided setting up a base camp somewhere mid-trail was probably the best course. After doing a bit of reconnaissance, David found that the Bumblebee Campground in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest fit the bill. It was about halfway along the route in tiny Enaville... one section of the trail actually crossed the road a few miles from the campground. We found a large, shady campsite at Bumblebee, paid for a week and set up camp.
David purchased a small portable bike stand to make doing tune-ups, tire changes, etc, much more convenient.. He tuned up both bikes before we headed out on the trail.
The only issue with the campground was the water which appeared to be very rusty. We were told it was ‘potable’, but we preferred drinking our own clear water and using the water from the campground for washing clothes and bikes.
There weren’t just campers in this campground… we had several visitors including this Mama Moose and her calf.
Looking at the route map, we divided the trail into roughly 10-mile sections... we’d ride about 20 miles a day… 10 forward and 10 return. We’re still newbies at this and our limit for ‘saddle time’ is a couple of hours before butt fatigue/pain sets in. If it wasn’t going to be fun, why do it? We wanted to enjoy the experience, not just endure it. Luckily, there are parking spots at most trailheads along the way. We planned to drive to the designated trailhead each morning, park Blue, unload the bikes, ride to and from the planned day’s goal, load back up and return to base camp. It was a workable plan and we were excited to get started.
Join us next time as we head to Mullan, Idaho for the first leg of our next adventure on the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes.
Continue to the next segment of the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes