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THE CHaFE 150 ROUTE

The CHaFE 150 route begins in Sandpoint and inscribes a grand loop around the Cabinet Mountains -- a frontal range of the Rocky Mountains of Idaho and Montana -- following gorgeous lake and river valleys. Although the route's 150 miles is a challenging distance, it has no mountain passes or long sustained climbs, encompassing one upriver leg, two downriver legs and one huge lake.

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The ride embarks from the Best Western Edgewater Resort, right on the lake at downtown Sandpoint's City Beach (click for map to staging point). After a police escort through town, riders head north on state Highway 95/Highway 2 toward Bonners Ferry. This valley is between the Selkirk Mountains on the west, and the Cabinets on the east, up what geologists call the Purcell Trench, carved out by ancient glaciers during the Ice Age that ended about 12,0000 years ago. It's also the route followed in 1809 by Canadian fur trader David Thompson of the Hudson Bay Co. as he explored this historic homeland of the native Kalispel and Kootenai Indian tribes. Although this segment of the route is along the highway, the shoulders are spacious and the early hour will keep the traffic minimal.

At Three Mile Junction just north of Bonners Ferry, riders will turn east on Highway 2, following the scenic Kootenai River into Montana and descending down the Yaak River hill into Troy. Just past Troy, the half-way point break stop at 70 miles, riders of the 1/2 CHaFE will join the ride. At Troy riders will pedal south on Montana Highway 56 for a moderate uphill leg to Bull Lake, then downstream along the Bull River. This route follows a verdant corridor through the Cabinet Mountains wilderness, chock full of high alpine vistas, lush meadows and babbling brooks. Riders continue south on Highwy 56 to the junction with Highway 200, where they turn west to ride along the Clark Fork River and back into Idaho.

Riding alongside the Clark Fork -- named for the explorer of Lewis and Clark fame -- bikers travel along a route scoured by the great Ice Age Floods, the cataclysmic floods that occurred about 12,000 to 20,000 years ago. This area is the nexus of those floods, the site where glaciers formed ice dams and created ancient Great Lake Missoula; periodically those ice dams would break, freeing the lake waters to rage all the way to the Pacific Ocean in the greatest floods in world history.

On this last leg riders enjoy breathtaking views along the northern shoreline of Lake Pend Oreille (pronounced ponderay) the West's fifth largest natural lake. The ride concludes back at Sandpoint's City Beach with a warm finish line welcome.

Support and Aid Group (SAG): Full food support and SAG will be provided. A lead vehicle and sweep wagon, staffed by a driver, nurse and mechanic will be patrolling on the route. There will also be four motorcyclists circling throughout the day to ensure rider safety and protect them along the route. Five full break stops will be prepared, at approximate 30-mile intervals, stocked with timely foods, portable bathrooms and staffed with volunteers and mechanics with work stands. Bus services are scheduled to provide mass assistance should weather or forest fire force the ride director to choose such a drastic support.