The Northwest Cycling Adventures of Peter and Chris: Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes (Part I)

Ride #5

November 2nd, 2014

Plummer, ID to Harrison, ID and back

32 miles

594 ft ascent/descent

Partly cloudy, 40-47 degrees

We started out early, leaving Spokane around 8:30. Both of us marveled at the beauty of the Palouse as we drove through the heart of it on the way to Plummer. Beau sat on Peter's lap for most of the drive, looking eagerly out the window, likely pondering what sort of adventure lay ahead. The trailhead is just north of the town of Plummer, and has a nice big parking lot and restrooms with a cool statue of an Indian flipping everyone off from his horse (or so it looked...). We spent a few minutes donning our cold-weather gear before taking off down the trail on our freshly-tuned bikes.

From the trailhead, it's a smooth 3% grade through Heyburn State Park for about 6 miles until you reach the lake. From there to Harrison, the extremely well-maintained trail runs right along the lake, past countless lake cabins and over numerous bridges. Once rounding the bend into the tiny town of Harrison, we took a half-hour break, eating some trail mix, exploring the town and letting Beau run around a bit. It looks like this place must be pretty happening in the summer with its restaurants, bike shop, antique shop and ice cream parlor. But when we were there, it was pretty empty--just like the rest of the trail on this beautiful, cold fall day.

We headed back toward Plummer, working on our spinning and grinding while having some great conversation. We powered up the 594 foot incline until we finally reached the indian statue again, his middle fingers vindictively letting us know we had succeeded.