Hi all, I am planning trips for 2020, including the trail of the Coeur d'Alene, Route of the Hiawatha, and then on to Cycle Greater Yellowstone, which starts in Butte. Any ideas or resources for/about safe-ish bike routes from Wallace or St. Regis to Butte? Thanks.
I've done Wallace to Missoula twice, only in the opposite direction, and rode the Route of the Hiawatha back in June.
First off, the Hiawatha is not a warm and fuzzy surface. I rode fully loaded with 37c tires. You might find 35c to be pushing it unless you are lightly loaded, especially on the western end.
And how do you plan to ride it? I climbed Gold Pass from St. Regis to the ID border, came down the St. Joe River to Avery, rode the old railroad right-of-way up the western trailhead and then continued east on the Hiawatha. From there, I descended down from East Portal to pick up the NorPac Trail and rode that to Lookout Pass. From there I took I-90 down to Mullan to pick up the CdA trail and rode that to Wallace. If you are going the other way, you don't want to take the NorPac Trail if you want non-bumpy surface. That leaves you with no option but to take I-90 from Mullan up to Lookout and then down. If you want to then reach the Hiawatha, you have about a 3 mile climb up to East Portal on a recent dirt road. But understand that once you reach East Portal Trailhead, you are heading west back into ID. I guess you could ride the Hiawatha and then catch the shuttle back to continue east.
In any event...If you want a straight shot from Wallace to Missoula via the I-90 corridor, there are some additional stretches of I-90 that you will need to ride do to lack of frontage roads. You could avoid some of them by taking the Olympian Trail, although again I think you may be pushing it on 35c tires. I rode some of it west from Haugan in 2017 and did some bouncing around on 37c tires. When I get a chance I will post links to maps for my 2017 and 2019 trips out that way.
As mentioned, you could ride Thompson Pass to MT 200. Also did that in 2017 and 2019. You can actually go straight from Wallace to Dobson Pass via 9 Mile Road, descend to Delta and then take Delta-Murray Road over King Pass and down to Murray. King Pass is not paved. Three miles up and three miles down. You should be o.k. on 35c tires. From Murray it's nine miles to Thompson Pass. Don't know if I was just lucky, but both times there was very little traffic on weekdays. Have never gone east on MT 200 from Thompson Falls, so I cannot comment.
I have done Missoula to Butte three times, although in roundabout ways. One cool way would be to follow the TransAm route to the east slope of Big Hole Pass and then turn onto the Pioneer Mountains Scenic Byway. That will take you to Wise River, MT. From there, there are a couple of ways to get to Butte relatively directly. I can show you them as well. I can also tell you where you can get a good steak in Butte.