Say yes to huckleberries, yes to lazy days by the lake, yes to fast bikes on long trails.
Say no to fancy French pronunciation. Say no, also, to white supremacy. And say no, thank you, to the Rocky Mountain oysters at the Snake Pit restaurant east of town, unless that’s your sort of thing.
Follow this simple advice and you’ll do just fine here in the middle of the Idaho panhandle, where the lakeside city of Coeur d’Alene (pronounced core-DA-lane) draws travelers and second-homers from all over the West.
At the docks, you can catch a ride to the golf course, take a 90-minute cruise on Coeur d’Alene Lake, hop on a float plane or rent a kayak. At McEuen Field, a youth baseball diamond between the main drag and the lake, you can sit in the bleachers, munch on a $2 hot dog from the snack shack, then stroll down to the water’s edge or up to the Moose Lounge for a cold drink. At the Wolf Lodge Steakhouse on the eastern end of town, you and your beloved can share a 34-ounce sirloin steak.
Now that I’ve spent a few days here, I have an idea why many Southern Californians have retired to northern Idaho, why so many travelers arrive every summer — and why some stay away. Whenever somebody starts talking about “the light at the end of the tunnel,” I’ll think of Idaho for reasons I’ll explain.
The hub of action in Coeur d’Alene is the lakefront, where the 18-story Coeur d’Alene Golf & Spa Resort rises next to City Park. On a grassy expanse here, the Rotarians and the Kiwanis Club appear to be locked in a vicious struggle over who can provide more benches, playground structures and bandstand improvements. Wooden lifeguard towers overlook a family-friendly beach. Float planes, cruise boats and a gaggle of rental watercraft line the dock, and a sculpted moose stands sentinel at Independence Point, where local teens like to sunbathe and practice their slouches.
Every few hours, the sun or the scenery overcomes one of them, usually a boy. He’ll back up slowly, like a gymnast preparing for a floor exercise, then rush forward, hurl himself through the air, soaring over the concrete steps and the stenciled letters that read NO DIVING, then splash down in the water. The same happens on nearby Tubbs Hill, but the leaps are from boulders and cliffs.
Maybe the water exerts some gravitational pull. The lake stretches south for 25 miles and fills with pleasure craft in the summer. Hiking and biking paths are threaded around its 135 miles of shoreline.
The city of Coeur d’Alene (population about 41,000) is neatly spread around the resort. The lakefront area’s main drag, Sherman Avenue, is peppered with restaurants, a few motels and numerous galleries, including several that focus on glass art and Western art.
Apparently, Coeur d’Alene’s name comes from the early days of interaction between this area’s American Indians and the French-speaking traders who eventually showed up here. As the story goes, the Indians were tough traders, so a settler concluded, in French, that these bargainers had “the heart” (coeur) “of an awl” (d’alene).
A floating golf green
The resort, the 800-pound gorilla of tourism around the lake, opened in the 1960s, then expanded in the ’80s. In 1991 it added a widely admired golf course with a floating 14th hole. You see lots of expensive boats in the hotel marina, and you get spectacular views from the hotel’s upper floors.
Whether you stay in a $220 resort room or a $79 motel room (as I did, at the Resort City Inn), it’s easy enough to pass a summer’s day: If you’re not golfing or fishing, you’re on a lake cruise boat, on the beach, paddling in a kayak or dangling a few hundred feet above the lake on a parasail ride.
To get lunch or to get out of the sun, you walk up to Sherman Avenue. If it’s a Wednesday afternoon in summer, there will be a little farmers market at Fifth Street.
Instead of the expected Idaho spuds, it’s huckleberries that show up everywhere, in pies, smoothies, beer, ice cream, you name it. They usually start appearing at the Kootenai County Farmers Market in late July, alongside the smoked meat, organic soap, organic tofu and organic hummus.
The afternoon I browsed, many shoppers showed up on bikes — not surprising considering the growing network of trails around town. The North Idaho Centennial Trail carries nonmotorized traffic 24 miles west from Higgens Point on Coeur d’Alene Lake to the Washington state line (then goes 37 miles farther under the name Spokane River Centennial Trail). The Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes, another paved path for nonmotorized riders, runners and skaters, was completed in 2005. It runs 73 miles along an old rail route between the towns of Mullan and Plummer.
In winter, the area draws skiers to Silver Mountain Resort (30 minutes east, in Kellogg) and Schweitzer Mountain Resort (45 minutes north, in Sandpoint). For the past several years, the summer calendar has featured the Ironman triathlon and the Car d’Lane auto show, both in June, and a downtown street fair, restaurant showcase and art-on-the-green festival (starting Friday and running through Aug. 3 this year).
One thing Coeur d’Alene doesn’t offer, at least so far, is desperate recession discounting.
Dani Zibell-Wolfe, vice president for tourism at the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce, in mid-June reported that hotel occupancy was running less than 2 percent behind last year.
Old-school American atmosphere seems to be selling.
A sweet Bitterroot ride
“Think like a train,” said the man in the Lookout Pass bike-rental shop, handing me a map.
I was about 60 miles east of Coeur d’Alene, in the Bitterroot Mountains on the Idaho-Montana line. My rented bike and rack in place, I drove up an unpaved mountain road to the mouth of a 1909 railway tunnel.
It looked dark in there.
For decades, this was the route of the Olympian and Olympian Hiawatha passenger trains that ran between Chicago and Seattle-Tacoma. The trains stopped operating about 1980. In the late 1990s, workers hauled away nearly 15 miles of track. Just like that, a mountain-bike trail was born.
OK. Into the tunnel. I had been warned that spring runoff would be dripping from the walls and ceiling, and that it would be really dark, which was why my bike was outfitted with a powerful headlight. Also, they had told me, there would be the occasional pothole. The temperature would drop to 42 degrees.
Oh, and the tunnel, officially known as St. Paul Pass, is 1.7 miles long. It starts in Montana and ends in Idaho.
It’s a shame one can’t bottle such an experience.
In the tunnel, you can lose track of time and space so that you feel suspended in near-blackness, water splashing, your legs pumping away, a faint light hovering like a distant keyhole. Then the daylight bursts upon you and you’re gliding out under the big sky, a green valley unfolding with trickling creeks and chirping birds.
From there, the route bends and descends. In the next 9.4 gentle downhill miles, I pedaled across low and high trestles, their metal supports rising from the forest floor like misplaced Erector Sets. And I passed through several shorter tunnels, some curved.
On straightforward stretches, I spotted a deer, two moose and a Wolf — Steve Wolf, a bike-riding anesthesiologist from Spokane, Wash., who had been here before.
“This is my favorite,” said Wolf, staring down from the trestles over Clear Creek, 220 feet below.
I had to agree.
Then, grateful that the railroad engineers had designed the grade at less than 2 percent, I turned and pedaled back the way I’d come. (In summer, a daily shuttle bus carries weary riders back to the top.)
A few hours later, I was back in Coeur d’Alene, intending to watch the sunset from Independence Point. Instead, taking a seat near the lounging local youths, I got something different.
A cloud bank I had spotted on the day’s ride had become a full-blown thunderhead, obliterating the low sun, throwing lightning sheets at the lake.
Even the teenagers were impressed.
See more photos of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho at .
Coeur D’Alene Insider’s Guide
From Denver International Airport (DEN), Frontier, US Airways and United offer direct service to Spokane, Wash. Round-trip fares begin at $228. Coeur d’Alene is 30 miles by car.
STAY: Coeur d’Alene Golf & Spa Resort, Second Street and Front Avenue; 800-688-5253, cdaresort . It’s the 18-story tower on the shoreline, with 337 rooms, marina, golf course, several restaurants. Rates from $179.
The McFarland Inn, 601 E. Foster Ave.; 800-335-1232, . A five-room 1905 B&B walking distance from the lake and downtown. Genteel feel with a generous breakfast area and backyard. Guests can borrow bikes. No children under 12. Rates from $135 in summer, about 15 percent less off-season.
Resort City Inn, 621 E. Sherman Ave, 208-676- 1225; . An 18-unit, two-story motel on the main drag with friendly service, no elevator. A short walk to the lake. Rates $79-$119 in summer, $59 to $79 off-season.
DINE: Angelo’s Ristorante, 816 N. 4th St.; 208-765-2850, angelos . A romantic setting, many organic ingredients, big wine list. Best meal in town. Dinner entrees $12 to $35.
Scratch, 501 E. Sherman Ave.; 208-930-4762, . Contemporary American cuisine in a casual, modern dining room. Dinner entrees $18 to $36.
MORE INFO: Coeur d’Alene Visitor Bureau: .
Coeur d’Alene Downtown Assn.: .
Lookout Pass Ski and Recreation Area’s Route of Hiawatha rail-to-trail site: .
