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Routes / Re: St Regis to Missoula avoiding the Interstate? (with new bike lane update!)

« on: February 27, 2019, 11:36:10 pm »

I did Missoula to St. Regis in 2017. I will take a look at the map further, but at this point I will say that I would be wary of the stretch between mile 43 and 47. I am almost certain that's the old Milwaukee Road right of way. It very well could be a private road now. Turn on the satellite view and look at mile 45.8. There appears to be some sort of structure in the middle of the right of way with a track going to its south. I also read a journal page on Crazy Guy describing how the author was confronted by a local about his trespassing. Based on the description, it sounded like he was on that right of way.

Also, look at Street View at mile 77 (Red Hill Rd.) A portion of the road east of there is definitely the old Milwaukee Road right of way. As you can clearly see from Street View, it is signed as a private road with a no trespassing sign. (Notice the old railroad mast signals used to string up the private road sign. Nice touch.) There is also a sign indicating that county maintenance ends at that the point where the road is signed as private.

As for the Olympian, note that is is rough in places. And once you get east of Haugan there is no getting off until interchange 26 of I-90. That's because you are hemmed in by the river. Also, the connection from the NorPac to the Olympian is NOT at grade. Going east you will have to climb a relatively short but very steep gravel road. The connection doesn't appear on Google Maps, but you can see it on satellite view.

Thanks for this!  This is really great detail and insight. I'll have to think this over a bit. 

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Routes / Re: St Regis to Missoula avoiding the Interstate? (with new bike lane update!)

« on: December 25, 2018, 10:55:29 pm »

Yes, that route is mostly correct.  I rode it east bound and the only difference is I am pretty sure you have to do 1 extra mile on the interstate due to the location of a special westbound only entrance. 

That said, we had absolutely no trouble with the interstate.  Traffic wasn't bad at all and the vast majority pulled to the inner lane when passing.

As a side note, if you are doing the route of the hiawatha and are willing to do some easy downhill miles of gravel, I highly recommend you ride the St Joe River Road between Avery to Gold Creek Road then up over the pass (paved up, gravel down) into St. Regis.

Absolutely great scenery and quiet roads.  NO services other than camping (filter water) but wonderful overall.

That's reassuring.  I'll look into the exact location of the westbound only entrance.

As for getting to St Regis, we were going to take the new(ish) rail trail called Route of the Olympian (by way of NorPac Trail) which terminates right next to St Regis. The NorPac and Hiawatha trail connect, so we'd like to sneak in the Hiawatha if we can.  I think we're going with 35mm tires in order to take gravel roads and rougher rail trails along our journey.

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Routes / St Regis to Missoula avoiding the Interstate? (with new bike lane update!)

« on: December 25, 2018, 09:38:31 pm »

Planning for a 2020 ride across the country that will route us from St Regis to Missoula.  I'm reading all sorts of contradictory stuff online, so I wanted to see if there truly is a way to make it to Missoula from St Regis entirely or almost entirely off the interstate. 

Excitedly, there is a new bike lane expansion that will connect from Huson to Wye, around 11 miles total, which makes this route even more attractive. I found this route posted to Ride with GPS, https://ridewithgps.com/routes/7643564, and it seems to show a route all the way to Missoula while avoiding the interstate with the exception of a few miles between Cyr and Alberton and another two miles further east.  That seems like an okay compromise for me (around 5 miles total w/o crossing any exit ramps), but I'm wondering if anyone can confirm this route doesn't run into some of the closed sections I've read about in posts that are a few years old?