Idaho Rail-Trails

trail bridge over lake

If there’s a rail-trail heaven, then it may be located in northern Idaho. Two of the greatest rail-trails on the planet are located there. One of them is the Route of the Hiawatha and the other is the Trail of the Couer d’ Alenes. These trails are very different from one another:

• One is a paved trail and the other is a gravel trail.
• One of them travels through tunnels and over trestles, while the other wanders a long a river and around and over a giant lake.
• One of them is totally out in the boondocks while the other goes through small & large towns.
• One of them is a fairly long trail and the other is an extremely long trail.

All differences aside, you really should do both of these trails… if possible in the same trip. Either one is worth a trip to Idaho. Put them both together and they’re possibly the greatest trail tandem in the world. Feel free to visit the Route of the Hiawatha page on trailsnet. Below you will find an excerpt from the Trail of the Coeur d’ alenes web page:

trail follows river

This perfectly paved piece of peaceful paradise is a powerful path to plenty.

Let’s list its assets: It’s long, smooth, scenic, uncrowded, plenty wide, accessible by numerous forms of human-powered transportation, set amidst forests, rivers, and a huge lake, and is planned to connect with numerous other incredible trails including the amazingRoute of the Hiawatha.

Eventually, energetic travelers will be able to pedal from near Missoula, Montana all the way to the Pacific Ocean via a network of trails that are already well on their way to completion. It will be trail nirvana.

via Trail of the Couer d’ alenes rail-trail in Idaho » trailsnet.com.

International Trails, Electric Bikes & Travel

Swiss Alps trail

Rarely do I find three of my favorite topics in one article; a recent New York Times travel article seemed to reassure me that all is well in the universe. The article was especially interesting because it highlighted a network of trails in Switzerland, revealed a fleet of electric bikes with which to navigate those trails and reassured me that some publications still publish a travel section. All three of those topics are wonderful, indeed.

For 50 Swiss francs a day, about $62 at $1.25 to the franc (with discounts for multiple days), you can rent an electric bike from one of 400 rental stations around the country and then set out on some 5,600 miles of well-marked bike paths. With hundreds of places along the way to obtain fresh batteries free, you don’t need to be a whippet-thin racer to roll for days through the spectacular Swiss hinterlands — up steep mountain passes and past soft meadows, burbling creeks and curious cows.

via The Swiss Alps on an Electric Bicycle – NYTimes.com.

 Swiss Trails

With the help of smooth trails and an electric bike, just about anyone can pedal the Swiss Alps. It’s like mountain biking without a mountain bike. But if you’re not into biking at altitude, you’ll be glad to find out that a group called Swiss Trails has a plethora of Switzerland bike rides that don’t involve heavy duty mountains. Some of the bicycle trails include the:

• Rhone Route (aka the Wine Route)
• Rhine Route
• Youth Hostel Tour
• North-South Route
• Lakes Route

And more…  Have you ever biked in Switzerland or been on any Swiss trails? We’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

Add Your Favorite Trail to Trailsnet.com

Swamp Rabbit Trail page on trailsnet

The Swamp Rabbit Trail in South Carolina was the latest trail to be added to the network of trails on trailsnet.com. Thanks to @BikePedBrian for adding a great new multipurpose trail and for adding the first South Carolina trail to trailsnet. As with all new technologies, we still have some bugs to work out of the trail submission system. But in general, it’s working great. To make sure we end on a positive note, let’s take a look at some of the areas where we need to improve the “Add a Trail” experience:

• pictures – The process for adding pictures could be easier and smoother. Currently, many users are experiencing difficulties when trying to add trail photos to trailsnet. Part of the problem is that we have the picture size set pretty low. This is to avoid slow loading times. We may experiment with allowing larger trail pictures, just to see how it works.
• maps – Up until recently, no one was adding maps w/ their trail submissions. Other than copying and pasting codes from other trail websites, we didn’t know how to get map files onto trailsnet. Fortunately, that’s an easy problem to fix. If you can get your map into GoogleMaps, it’s easy to get the trail map code onto trailsnet. While on the Google Maps page, you will see a link symbol near the top left of the page. When you click on that symbol, you’ll get an option to “Paste HTML to embed in website.” Just copy that code and paste it into the “Add a Google Map Code” area on the trail entry submission form.

Fortunately even the bad news about adding trails to trailsnet is being improved. And even better, we’ve got more good news than bad news:

• People are starting to add trails to trailsnet.
• The trails that are being added are awesome.
• Most people who add trails are also notifying folks on their Twitter accounts and Facebook pages.
• We’re getting a much greater variety of trails than when I was entering all the trails myself.
• We’re hoping to go international with our “Add a Trail” feature soon.

Needless to say, the more people who add trails to trailsnet, the better it will be. Trailsnet is still hoping to have trails from all fifty states on there by the end of the summer. So if you haven’t added a trail yet, go for it. It’s quick and easy and makes you part of the solution. It’s important volunteer work you can do from your own home, coffee shop or library.