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| Coeur d'Alene Gran Fondo Route |
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| Mike, Steve and Rob |
Leading up to the event, we trained by riding many of the Cyclopath rides including Alder Lake, Gig Harbor, Carbonado, and Skate Creek Loop. There were several different reported distances for the ride, any where from 112 to 120. The reported vertical was over 7,000 vertical feet.
The last two weeks leading up to the ride were frustrating and nail biting. With the air quality so poor, we were not able to ride like we wanted to. Also, we feared the ride might be canceled due to the poor air quality. Looking at the weather forecast each day, we saw a trend. It looked like the air quality was going to be good
enough to ride, but this was due to some rain that was going to clear it out. We decided the forecast looked good enough and so we drove across the state. We had some friends who live in Spokane who were nice enough to allow us to crash at their house for a night.
Friday evening, it was still very smoky in Spokane with the air quality index in the 180s. Our friend, Steve, had gone over ahead of Mike and I; and he picked up our ride packets in Coeur d'Alene on Friday. While there, he told us it was so hazy you couldn’t see the other side of the lake. We were a little worried about what the air quality would be.
We woke early and left Spokane about 6:00 a.m. As I understand it, this ride is normally timed; and you get a start time. This year, given that ridership was really down and with COVID-19, they did a rolling start and did not time the ride. We planned to start at 7:00 a.m.
The start and finish are at different places. We parked at the finish line, which meant we had a two mile soft peddle to the start through Coeur d’Alene. We got a little lost not knowing exactly where we were going. This was very fortunate for us, because we came up on a fellow rider, Andy Marosvari, and asked him for directions. Andy was nice enough to tell us where we needed to go and rode with us to the start line. Andy ended up riding with us the whole day. Andy was a much stronger rider than the three of us, and he had done this ride a few times before. Riding the ride with Andy was like having our own personal guide.
It started to rain as we pulled into Coeur d’Alene. By the time we started at 7:00 a.m., it was raining fairly hard and continued for the first hour and a half of the ride. The temperature for most of the day was around 60 degrees. We were damp most of the day due to the early morning rain. Riding was pleasant; but, at the stops, we would get chilled until we started riding again.
We met our Yakima friend at the start line. There were about 10 riders from Yakima who were with him. We all started out together.
The ride starts out on East Court d’Alene drive. There is also a bike path that runs along this road. Some of us were on the bike path and some on the road. You ride the road for a couple of miles and then turn off on East Yellowstone Trail. This is where we had the first several climbs of the day. This road to me felt like riding to the Carbonado ranger station. About half way on this road, you lose the pavement. You ride on a dirt road for about a mile climb. The ride organizers do a good job of packing this road down and grading it before the ride, but it was a little sloppy given the rain. At the top of this climb, you start down hill and pick up pavement again. This downhill was a little sketchy. The road was in poor shape; and with the rain, you really couldn’t bomb it.
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| Hwy 97 |
At the bottom of this downhill, you make the turn onto Highway 97, which is about 10 miles into the ride. We then road Highway 97 for the next 30 miles to Harrison. From my perspective, this was similar to riding in Gig Harbor where you have a lot of rollers, which were interspersed with climbs that felt similar to me like the climb from Wilkinson to Carbonado, although some were a little longer in length. Highway 97 hugs the lake for the most part and you are often riding overlooking the lake. The rain cleared out the smoke and so the air quality was good and it was very scenic riding along the lake. Fortunately, there was really not a lot of wind because the road is quite protected through this stretch.
There was an aid station about 20 miles into the ride, which was at the top of one of the climbs. We opted to pass that station and stopped at the aid station in Harrison. This station is hub station on the ride for a number of reasons. One reason is the Gran Fondo has a number of distances you can ride. There is one ride that is essentially half of the ride that we were doing. These riders ride the same course as we did to Harrison for the most part, and then they board a ferry boat that shuttles them back across the lake. The other reason is that the ride that we did loops back to Harrison so it acts as an aid station twice during the ride.
The aid stations were decent. They had bottled water due to Covid instead of water jugs so you had to fill our bottles up by pouring the bottled water into them.
From Harrison, we left highway 97 and started about a 5 mile climb. This was the start of an approximately 30 to 35 mile loop that took us away from the lake for a big loop that eventually takes you back to lake. The grades of most of these climbs were 4 to 6%, which some of them bumping up to 7 or 8% near the top. This climb took us up on a plateau of rural farm country. Once on top, we rode through a lot of rollers. You then ride a fast downhill off the plateau to a flat part of the course. After a few turns, you jump on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes.
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| Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes |
The Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes is a paved trail that is quite remarkable. The trail is in incredible shape and runs through some marsh lands and then along the lake. We rode this trail for about 20 miles with the Harrison stop about in the middle. The first part of this trail was sheltered from any wind. We rode through a lot of marsh type water on either side of the trail. Andy told us last year, his group was stopped for 15 minutes because a bull moose stood on the trail and wouldn’t leave. He said he often sees moose along the trail.
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| Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes: Chatcolet Bridge |
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| Rob nearing Chatcolet Bridge |
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| Steve & Rob |
After the Harrison stop, we rode into a fairly stiff headwind for quite a while. You leave the trail in the Heybrun State Park, and do a major climb through the park. Once on top, you then ride for about 10 miles through some big rollers. The course then dumps you out on Highway 95. You then make your way to the Coeur d'Alene Casino where there was an aid station.
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| Coeur d'Alene Casino location |
We fueled up and recovered a bit, then started on the home stretch. A lot of this is downhill. There is one last climb several miles from the finish. The course takes you off of highway 95 for this climb. The last stretch of highway 95 is a steep downhill. I was grateful for the downhill grade as I could see the miles flying by much faster as we rode toward the finish.
I found the ride challenging. The best part of the ride was riding with good friends and meeting a new friend, Andy. Andy rides 500 miles a week either on his trainer or the road. We rode this much like a Cyclopath ride where the stronger riders waited periodically for everyone to catch up, which most of the time they were waiting for me. Andy was on the front most of the day and really did more than his part. As you all know, one of the great things about cycling is the new friends you make. We were very fortunate to spend the day riding with Andy. He would make a great Cyclopath, so we told him if he is ever in Washington to look us up for a ride. He was going to do RAMROD this year, so maybe we will see him next year on Rainier.
The total miles ended up being 118 miles for the course, but we rode 120 if you count the two-mile ride to the start line. This is a great ride and would be one that most Cyclopaths would love. They normally do this in conjunction with Octoberfest in Coeur d’Alene. Due to Covid, Octoberfest was cancelled this year. Your ride entry gets you into Octoberfest in a normal year. It would be a fun event you could take your family to.
We wore our Cyclopath jerseys. Many people came up to ask us where we were from because of our jerseys. One of which, was Isaac Mann, the ride organizer. He thanked us for doing the ride and driving over from Puyallup. He told us that next year, if several Cyclopaths want to ride, we should reach out to him; because he will give us a group rate. I think the normal cost is just under $100.
I believe the Cyclopaths would love this ride. It is made up of a lot of rollers and climbs. The only negative in my mind were a few stretches where the roads were a little sketchy. Overall, it was a great ride.
