Trails in Northern Idaho

[jer82]

I am thinking of doing a trip to northern Idaho this winter and I was wondering if there were any good trails in the Hope, Blanchard, or Coeur d'Alene areas?

Any info would be great.

Thanks
Jeremy

 

[treedog]

Jeremy,

Don't know where your comin from, but there is fantastic terrain around hear to ride, trail or mountain. Some of the best mountain riding in N Idaho is just out of Hope. Give me a call I'll try and help you out!

Thanx
-T

 

[Environmentalist]

Trails in N. Idaho

It depends what type of riding you are looking for.

Coeur d'Alene Mtns have like 300 miles of groomed trails. In my opinion it's the best trail system around our area. The bad thing about the CDA trails is it really lacks good places to play.

Hope is really close to Trestle Creek. The trails are usually a war zone, but the boondocking is GREAT. You need to hook up with one of the locals to really find the GREAT areas.

Blanchard gives you access to the Mt. Spokane area. You will be riding ungroomed logging roads most of the time.

Now if you are not set on those three areas, you have a ton of choices. Pack River, Roman Nose, Priest Lake, Burke, Lookout and the list goes on!

I am thinking of doing a trip to northern Idaho this winter and I was wondering if there were any good trails in the Hope, Blanchard, or Coeur d'Alene areas?

Any info would be great.

Thanks
Jeremy

 

[sdobbs20]

Blanchard gives you access to the Mt. Spokane area. You will be riding ungroomed logging roads most of the time.

Now if you are not set on those three areas, you have a ton of choices. Pack River, Roman Nose, Priest Lake, Burke, Lookout and the list goes on!

blanchard is pretty fun. unfrotunately, a lot of the play areas are marked for the logging/paper company so it's off limits. pretty fun spot though, the ungroomed trails get to be pretty nasty.

 

[jer82]

I'm from Alberta Canada, I have a week of timeshare to use and those areas look like they would be fairly mountainous and close to the canadian border.

Thanks for all of the info, are there any published maps or websites that would be a good refrence for the trails in the area? Here is an example for southern BC http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/drm/Recreation/WinterRecreation/SnowmobileTrailRoutes.htm#Brewer

 

[Environmentalist]

Blanchard

I rode up there once last year. Tons a good spots to play, but the guys I was riding with me kept telling me I couldn't go off trail because it's owned and restricted by Inland Paper.

It was like putting a Jenny Craig next to a McDonald's!!!

blanchard is pretty fun. unfrotunately, a lot of the play areas are marked for the logging/paper company so it's off limits. pretty fun spot though, the ungroomed trails get to be pretty nasty.

 

[Spiced Wafer]

if your staying in blanchard at the condo's, you are about 30 mins to a hour of trailering to many different spots to ride.

45 mins to priest
45 mins to hope/roman-nose/pack river/trestle creek
30 mins to to the bunco to get into the cda mtns
1 hour to 1.5 to lookout area...


etc....

 

[jer82]

if your staying in blanchard at the condo's, you are about 30 mins to a hour of trailering to many different spots to ride.

45 mins to priest
45 mins to hope/roman-nose/pack river/trestle creek
30 mins to to the bunco to get into the cda mtns
1 hour to 1.5 to lookout area...


etc....

My main concern would be finding the different staging areas and such once I get to the place. It sounds like there are a lot of fun areas but like Environmentalist said sometimes you need to find some locals to lead you around. Are there any websites that people know of to look at some of the trail maps? Or is it kinda a show up and hope sorta thing?

I can try to get any of the three different places, but if it is already booked then I have to pick a different week or a different place. The nice part about it is that nobody uses timeshare weeks in the winter really so there should be a lot of avaliability.

 

[Environmentalist]

Priest Lake is the only site that has a trail map online in this area and good luck reading that

http://www.snowmobile-priestlake.com/img/snowmobile_map.gif

The Coeur 'd Alene Mtns. Priest Lake and Lookout have maps available at the local sled shops (at least that is what I have in my sled). I have never seen maps for Roman Nose, Pack River, or Trestle Creek but I have never really looked.

I would just post here when your getting close to coming down and hook up with a group. You might want to say what type of riding you like because some of these guys are a little crazy!!!

 

[Spiced Wafer]

My main concern would be finding the different staging areas and such once I get to the place. It sounds like there are a lot of fun areas but like Environmentalist said sometimes you need to find some locals to lead you around. Are there any websites that people know of to look at some of the trail maps? Or is it kinda a show up and hope sorta thing?

I can try to get any of the three different places, but if it is already booked then I have to pick a different week or a different place. The nice part about it is that nobody uses timeshare weeks in the winter really so there should be a lot of avaliability.

you should have no problem getting into stoneridge in the winter time. it sits on a golf course that will be under snow. nice little place. have a good pool and sauna room their.

like envirny said...let people know when your coming, their is always someone willing to show you around, depending on your type of riding ability.

 

[gitnbent]

link to the sandpoint club map page...They seem to have cut the bottom of the map off though

http://www.sandpointwinterriders.com/id11.html

 

[sdobbs20]

I rode up there once last year. Tons a good spots to play, but the guys I was riding with me kept telling me I couldn't go off trail because it's owned and restricted by Inland Paper.

It was like putting a Jenny Craig next to a McDonald's!!!

yup. that's exactly the case. and the thing is, everytime i was up there last winter we saw forest ranger on a sled in the area.

 

[jer82]

I did some more digging and found on http://www.snowmobile.ca/ there is a section on the right side that has a regional maps section, just in case anybody else is interested.