leaving tekoa, we head 15 miles across fields to plummer, idaho. this is coeur d'alene reservation and there is no sign welcoming us to idaho. coeur d'alene got their name from the french because the were so difficult to trade with, the hardest they ever met. therefore ' heart of an awl'.
in plummer, we find a good breakfast and the beginning of the 'trail of the coeur d'alene'. at the start, a monument to the coeur d'alene warriers, starting with the steptoe battle fought against the u.s. army and on to vietnam and present day.
the trail itself is paved and beautiful. first a long grade down to the lake, past burned forest.
then along the lake,
and along the lake front, passed all the vacation homes and vacators. and finally to the small, pleasant tourist stop, a bike rental shop with cafe. this is not the palouse to cascade trail.
notice the distance to the greater alleghany trail? 2,311 mi. that's pittsburg, my final destination. on the otherside of that sign is the virginia creeper trail. interestingly enough, it's the exact same distance.
the trail runs fairly level into idaho. eventually 72 miles, all the way to i-90 and the town of mullan. but we were content taking it to kellog for the night, about 20 mi. short of the end.
we got to kellog not knowing where we would stay, but thought we should run by the bike shop to see if they could help out brothers. we got there 10 minutes after closing, but the owner and crew were still around. we fell into bantering for 15-20 minutes, basically they told us that there was nowhere in town to camp and not to try the city park because the cops (this town actually had their own police force) were "real a-holes". fighting back the hordes of homeless coming their way.
as we were leaving, the woman mentioned they had problems with people jumping the wall onto their covered porch. i said, hey, we can help you out, let us sleep on your porch and we'll keep bad people out. she said, check with the owner. we turned to ryan and he hesitated, then said 'okay'. perfect!
so we left our bikes and gear there, walked up to the brewery and had a couple of ipas and a pasta salad for dinner. excellent! our last dinner together for dan and i.
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