TRAIL OF THE COEUR d'ALENES

Idaho Hits Tourism Grand Slam

By Bill Schneider, 10-03-05

You could say bicycle tourists have a tough life—always fighting traffic, poor road conditions, wind and rain, the scorn of people who think roads were built for motorists only. But Idaho has stepped up to the bar and given cyclists an astonishing reprieve from all of this—and hit a tourism biz home run in the process.

	Biking the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes. Photo by Bill Schneider

This reprieve comes in the form of the two-year-old Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes, a 73-mile strip of glassy smooth asphalt stretching from Mullan to Plummer in Northern Idaho, mostly along the Coeur d’Alene River and Lake and picturesque marshlands and including the half-mile historic Chatcolet Bridge over the South Arm of the Coeur d’Alene Lake.

I’m an avid cyclist, annually riding roughly 5,000 miles, and I have no qualms saying that this Trail is as good as it can be. When riding it, I had to pinch myself over and over to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, and I finally came up with the proper analogy. I likened it to the day I rubbed my water bottle and the Cycling Genie popped out and granted me one cycling wish. I wished for the perfect bike trail—completely non-motorized (as opposed to the “multiple-use� trails agencies love); not lined with commercial development or houses; meandering through outstanding, wildlife-rich scenery; so flat that you lust for a hill to break the monotony; lots of picnic areas on scenic viewpoints; top-of-the-line, solar-powered, composting potties every few miles that are kept cleaner than most home bathrooms; a trail surface smoother than roads used for world championship time trials; numerous and convenient access points; and of course, free. Well, that wish came true, and it’s called the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes. It even has numerous NO MOTORIZED VEHICLES and NO SHOOTING signs, not a single one with bullet holes. For a great brochure and trail map, click here.

The other thought constantly filling my mind while riding the Trail was how could this possibly happen—not in Massachusetts or California, but in Idaho, a state not exactly famous for its innovative non-motorized recreation mindset. I called up the Idaho Parks and Recreation Department for the answer, and a pleasant fellow named Bill Scudder told me the story behind the trail, which is as amazing as the trail itself. Believe it or not, we have the mining industry and our litigious society to thank for this incredible gift to cycling. Here’s what happened.

For many decades, miners dug untold tons of gold, silver and other precious metals out of the northern Idaho landscape. And the Union Pacific Railroad hauled away the spoils, making the Plummer to Mullen spur line the railroad’s most profitable ever. One reason for the high profit margin was the, to be nice about it, less-than-ideal control of heavy metal contaminants along the rail line.

In the late Twentieth Century, mining economics declined and the mines closed. With the mines closed, the railroad sought and received permission to abandon the spur line, which is where this story really starts. The State of Idaho and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe sued the railroad to clean up contaminants left behind along the spur line.

	Photo by Larry Mink, Idaho Parks and Recreation Department

With a big lawsuit in the wings and lots of money at stake, it wasn’t long before everybody—state agencies, mining companies, tribal leaders, the railroad, lots of lawyers, even the EPA—were sitting around a table trying to decide what to do. Normally, this type of stakeholder orgy goes nowhere fast, but this time, as unbelievable as it sounds, everybody agreed to build the Trail to the Coeur d’Alenes.

I don’t want people to be too jaded about this. It wasn’t a railroad getting all philanthropic and wanting to do something for cyclists. Not even close! It was only about money, lots of money. Union Pacific made the decision to build the Trail to save money. The railroad had 71 miles of contaminated rail line it wanted to unload, and one great way to deal with such contamination is to cap it with asphalt. So what do you have when you cap an abandoned rail line with asphalt? You have a bike path.

	Photo by Larry Mink, Idaho Parks and Recreation Department

In the beginning, Union Pacific agreed to pay $20 million to build the Trail. In the end, it cost them over $50 million. I know cyclists everywhere are choking on that figure just like I did. Imagine $50 million spent on a bike trail! And that’s not all. The railroad also set up a trust fund and gave it to the State of Idaho with the interest earmarked to maintain the trail. And should some natural disaster like a flood or earthquake do major damage to the trail, the railroad is on the hook to pay for the repair—in addition to the trust fund and original investment.

Why, you’re still asking, would a railroad do this? That’s simple, and it happens every day in America. It’s called settling out of court. Union Pacific did it because they thought it would be cheaper than what it might cost if the case went to court. The result is what might be the best bike ride on Earth.

I told Bill Scudder that local cyclists in my hometown of Helena had been trying for years to build a similar bikeway along a section of the Lewis and Clark Trail, but have failed to garner enough support for it. He said, “You’ll just have to find some contaminants.�

Wishing for pollution. That’s a new one!

Besides building a cycling and birding paradise, Union Pacific also created a tourism bonanza. When we rode the Trail, we stayed at a delightful B&B named The Osprey Inn in a delightful little berg named Harrison. Arleen Woodside, the proprietor, told me the Trail brought her 85 percent of her summer customers. That evening we went to dinner at the Gateway, a scenic restaurant on Coeur d�Alene Lake two blocks from The Osprey Inn. When asked how the Trail affected business, our server said the restaurant experienced a “phenomenal� increase when the Trail opened. I’m sure you’d hear similar stories from hospitality businesses all along the Trail.

The future looks even better. Scudder assured me that “no user fee is planned,� and that unlike many bike trails, this one will be well-maintained under a joint agreement between the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the Idaho Parks and Recreation Department.

Probably the only dark cloud on the horizon is potential overuse. Something this nice is bound to become extremely popular, so in the future, cyclists might have a yellow-dotted line and speed limits to help all users safely use the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes, which seems like a minuscule price to pay for something so wonderful.

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