Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes

Back in the 70's, a railroad company went defunct and in recent years, some enterprising people have spearheaded an effort to turn the rail bed into a bike trail.  The Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes is a stretch of the route that has two things that make it especially popular:  it's paved and it's (basically) flat.  Oh, and it's surrounded by beautiful scenery. 

Here was our highest elevation gain the whole bike ride.  Our first trip up and over was less then a mile into the ride.  The return trip was after we'd put 38 miles behind us.  Our rears were relieved to see it and our legs were thankful it allowed us to to coast into the parking lot.(:

Don and Darlene came with us and Don insisted on trading bikes so I wouldn't have to pull Lane on the tag-a-long.  Since his bike was a cruiser, I think I had the better deal!

The lily pads along the river were in full bloom.  I was surprised at how pretty they were.

On the way back, we stopped at an ice cream shop that boasted the biggest single scoop in the state of Idaho.  They weren't kidding.  This is after Logan and I had already eaten it down a bit.  The funny thing was, Don was looking at his cone (which was about the same size as my cone above) and wondering how he was going to eat it all, when the owner snatched it out of his hand.  With an indignant voice she hollered to her help, "This is too small, our customers need to get their money's worth," then proceeded to pile on at least two more scoops worth.  I actually told the boy scooping mine to stop and Logan and I still couldn't finish it!  Oh boy - it was good ice cream!

We took more breaks on the way back then on the way out and somehow Lane still had energy to climb rocks!  Morgan and Logan just wanted out.  Thankfully there was a playground at the trail head and they got to play a bit too.

The trestle from the other direction - a welcome sight!

 

Stopping at the top to watch a big boat pass underneath. 

It was a fun day and a great way to spend part of the Labor Day weekend.  The trail is paved for over 70 miles, so we'll have to try a different stretch next time!