THE CHaFE 150 ROUTE

The ride embarks from the Best Western Edgewater Resort, right on the lake in downtown Sandpoint (click for map to staging point). After a police escourt through downtown, the ride heads east on state Highway 200, along the northern shoreline of Lake Pend Oreille (pronounced ponderay) the West's fifth largest natural lake. While eastbound on this leg, headed toward Montana, you'll be on the Great Floods/Wild Horse Scenic Byway, surrounded by three different frontal ranges of the Rocky Mountains -- the Selkirks, Cabinets and the Bitterroots.

You'll enjoy smooth pavement as you leave big Lake Pend Oreille behind to come alongside the Clark Fork River. Here you'll be traveling along a route scoured by the great Ice Age Floods -- cataclysmic floods unleashed 10,000 to 20,000 years ago when glaciers damming ancient Great Lake Missoula broke and freed the lake waters in the largest floods in world history.

Entering Montana, after about 7.5 miles you'll bear left and north up Highway 56 along the Bull River, a pristine tributary to the Clark Fork. This route follows a corridor within the Cabinet Mountains wilderness, chock full of high alpine vistas and babbling brooks. Upon reaching the height of land at Bull Lake you'll descend down to the Kootenai River turning left onto Highway 2 just before Troy, Montana.

In Troy, the half-way point break stop at just over 82 miles, riders of the 1/2 CHaFE have the option of taking a bus back to Sandpoint. For those of continuing on, from here you'll pedal west, down the Kootenai River. Outside Troy you'll encounter the ride's most notable uphill climb, a bit over two miles with 450 feet of elevation gain as you climb onto the north bench above the Kootenai, then continue downriver into Idaho toward Bonners Ferry.

From Bonners Ferry you'll head south on old Highway 95, back toward Sandpoint and the finish. This section of the route uses a combination of the low-traffic old highway, current Highway 95, and paved county roads to get back to Sandpoint with the least traffic. This valley is 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 path once blazed by Canadian explorer David Thompson of the Hudson Bay Co.

• Click for detailed expandable topo map
• Click for elevation map
• Click for interactive route map

Although the route is a challenging distance -- 156 miles -- it has no mountain passes or long sustained climbs, encompassing one huge lake, two upriver legs and 2 downriver legs.

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. 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.