Harrison, Idaho, June 28, 2012

Today was slightly different. Stephen had found a neat – and lengthy – bike trail, running over an abandoned railway, somewhat east of Coeur d’Alene. Those rail trails are really nice, mainly because they don’t have a whole lot of elevation change.

This particular route was just a small part of the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes. Here is a trail map from that site.

So our plan (which we actually followed) was that we would both head to the tiny town of Cataldo (shown on the right-hand edge of the map below), where he would hop on his velocipede, and pedal his way merrily toward the tiny town of Harrison (by the red line on the left-hand edge of the map below). The rail trail more or less followed the blue river on the map. Meanwhilst, I would transport the chariot to Harrison, where I would then go for a bit of a stroll myself (the red line is my track). I put on 4.3 kms. He put on about ten times that amount! About the time that I returned to where I had parked the car, he had already loaded his bike into it. Excellent timing.

We then refreshed ourselves with an ice cream cone, and headed northward, to Coeur d’Alene and on to Sandpoint. I would like to direct your attention to the map above again – see that Route 97 on the left side? It was a really twisty and turny road (the British Columbians would appreciate it probably more then us Albertans). It took a loooong time before we got back onto the I-90 freeway.

Enough bleating and moaning. Onto the photo record. First, some fauna. This was a moose that Stephen saw on his trip.

Sometimes you see something that brings out a primordial fear. This little thing was just lying on the path as I walked by. It’s probably 5-6 inches measuring from left to right in the photo. I detected multiple bike tire prints on it.

And still on the fauna theme, here is a praying mantis that was about 8′ tall. Some people have too much time on their hands.

Onto more pleasant things. This is a view of the bike trail and Lake Coeur d’Alene.

And now for some flora. There were a LOT of wild flowers where I was walking. This photo is of a steep hill right beside the path. Notice the orange California poppies (I actually know what those are!).

A rose.

A bachelor button, I think.

Something pink

Something purple.

And that’s the news and photos from Harrison today.