Pete Zimowsky
The Idaho Statesman
HARRISON — Fresh spring rain droplets create silver beads on the light-green needles of evergreen trees along the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes.

Nearby, a great blue heron flushes from a marshy meadow and flies over the slow-moving waters of the Coeur d'Alene River.

Scenery and wildlife are two of the major lures of this new 72-mile paved bicycling, hiking and in-line skating trail being constructed in North Idaho.

“This is a world-class trail,” says John Kolbe of Harrison as he makes his way up the trail near his hometown with his wife, Sharon Yablon.

“It is unmatched for its length, quality and scenery,” he says, stopping for a break along the Coeur d'Alene River.

Unmatched is the best way to describe the trail that stretches from the towns of Plummer to Mullan across Coeur d'Alene Lake, up the Coeur d'Alene River and along hidden lakes and pine and cedar canyons.

The newest rail trail for Idaho is being managed by the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation and the Coeur d'Alene Tribe.

It has 20 new, paved parking lots; 13 new restrooms and 40 tables and benches along the way.

“It's smooth and new,” said Leo Hennessy, Idaho non-motorized trails coordinator, who saw potential for the trail more than a decade ago.

“This has what no other trail has. No place has ever laid that many miles of pavement at one time,” he said.

“This should be a Roller Bladers' and road bikers' heaven,” he said. “This is fresh, brand-new pavement, and it will be the best maintained asphalt of any trail in the country.”

The asphalt has to be maintained because it is a cap over a rail bed where mining waste contaminated the soil.

The railroad bed was an environmental nightmare. Trains hauled ore over the rail bed from mines in Silver Valley.

Ore spilled along the way. Much of the rail bed's sub layers were made of up mine waste, containing lead and heavy metals.

The abandonment of the railroad bed started in the late '80s, but the environmental cleanup remained a question.

Citizens, state parks and recreation officials and members of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe worked with Union Pacific to come up with a solution.

Union Pacific constructed the trail. Soils were removed and the rail bed was capped with asphalt. Union Pacific will continue to maintain the pavement.

“We took a liability and made it a win-win situation,” said Hennessy.

Warning signs and tips in brochures inform the public on how to use the trail safely.

Now the rail bed is a major access point to areas the public couldn't reach before. Trailheads dot the trail from beginning to end. Restrooms have been installed at key locations. Picnic spots and interpretive sites can be found along the trail.

A highlight of the trail is a long stretch that crosses a bridge on Lake Coeur d'Alene.

“Two different things make this trail unique,” said Dave Landrum, trail manager with Idaho Parks and Recreation. “It's the wildlife and the scenery,” he said.

Landrum, who patrols the trail and has seen every inch of it, is excited that it is creating new bicyclists from local communities.

“I'm seeing people using the trail who have never been on a trail before,” he said. “Senior citizens in their 80s are riding the trail on bikes.”

It's also a family trail that is easy to ride for miles because it is relatively flat most of the way. It also opens up a lot of small lakes to access for fishing.

Landrum saw a bicyclist on the trail who built a bicycle trailer to haul his canoe to some of the Chain Lakes. The Chain Lakes are a series of hidden lakes along the Coeur d'Alene River that are famous for bass and northern pike fishing.

For visitors and families from southern Idaho, the trail can lead to a week or more of exploring state parks and other campgrounds, sampling the cuisine in small-town cafés and seeing forested river and lake vistas as far as the eye can see.

The Idaho rail trail is more than just a state trail. It's a cycling link to the Northwest.

There are plans to link it on the western end to Washington's John Wayne Rail Trail, which travels from Seattle to Tekoa. When it is linked on the east end to Idaho's Hiawatha Trail (tunnels and trestles trail north of Avery), it will link to a trail in Montana.

But the part in Idaho on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes is the part that journeys through unsurpassed mountain, lakes and rivers scenery.

“It's an undiscovered trail,” Kolbe said. “There's nobody out there.”

Except for the herons, moose, deer, geese and elk.