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Coeur d'Alene for Lunch

264 miles, approximately 6.5 hours

Part 1: To Coeur d'Alene from Moscow

1. Head east out of Moscow on ID-8 towards Troy.
2. At Deary, continue on ID-3 to Bovill.
3. Just as you enter Bovill, turn left and follow ID-3 towards Clarkia. Just before Clarkia, you will see the "Fossil Bowl" on the left, a popular motocross track for folks in Spokane, Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene.
4. You won't actually go into Clarkia, you'll see it off on your right as you ride by on the way to Santa, ID.
5. After leaving Santa, you'll ride over a small hill, then ID-3 will branch off to the right towards St. Maries, ID. Take the turn.
6. At St. Maries, you'll be about 1/2 way there. There's fuel available there if you need it.
7. Stay on ID-3 until you come to a Y-intersection, with the "White Pine Scenic" route continuing up ID-3 towards Rose Lake and I-90. Stay to the left, and take ID-97 towards Harrison. This is a nice twisty, though slow, road along beautiful Lake Coeur d'Alene.
8. As you get towards the north end of the lake, the traffic will increase, so don't try to rush it too much.
9. ID-97 will dump you out on I-90 at the Wolf Lodge exit (named for the famous local resturant just to the east, on a frontage road north of the freeway.
10. Turn left onto I-90 headed west. Take the first exit, "Sherman Street", cross under the freeway and head down Sherman St towards downtown. When you see the Coeur d'Alene Resort (the only "skyscraper" in town), you're downtown. Pick a restaurant, there are many to choose from.

Part 2: To Moscow from Coeur d'Alene

12. You refueled in Coeur d'Alene before leaving town, right?
13. The trip back has a few different roads. Start by getting back on I-90 and heading east towards Montana. Take exit 34, the Rose Lake exit, and turn south on ID-3, aka the White Pine Scenic Highway. If you forgot to refuel, you can do it at this exit -- there are two gas stations.
14. This stretch of ID-3 is more open and high speed than ID-97 along the east shore of the lake. If you're tight on time, you may want to do this on the way north too, instead of ID-97.
15. A mile or two after you pass a possibly closed bar called "Cave Lake" something, on the right, there will be a vista point on the right. It makes a nice photo opportunity.
16. Follow ID-3 back into St. Maries, and continue on towards Santa. As you climb the hill south of St. Maries, the "Christmas Hills" ORV area will be in the trees on your left. I guess somebody had a thing for Old Saint Nick, eh?
17. Just before Santa, ID-3 will meet ID-6, where you will bear right towards the tiny village of Emida. This road has some nice twists, and some big old trees.
18. Just past Harvard, take ID-9 south towards Deary. On the north side of this road near the Deary end, there is a large Buffalo herd which often grazes near the road. There's a fence, don't worry!
19. At Deary, turn right on ID-8 and head back to Moscow.

If you're running late, or want to catch up with a group that already took off, you can simply take US-95 between Moscow and Coeur d'Alene. Its a major north-south 2-lane road with good road surface and somewhat frequent passing lanes. Its also got more traffic than the route I described above, and definitely more law enforcement, but overall you can make much better time on it. Motorcycle travel time is probably roughly 1.5 hours or so between the two cities. It's pretty too, just not as pretty, or as fun.

On this route you can find fuel in Moscow, Deary, St. Maries, and Coeur d'Alene and likely a few other spots as well.

Copyright © 2004, by H. Marc Lewis. All rights reserved.