compose Guest time Sep 5, 2025 comment 0

Matt Westfall of the Wax Tracks YouTube channel recently got out to ride the Idaho Panhandle Ramble, enjoying the 320-mile bikepacking route over six days. Watch the 18-minute video and read a short reflection from his ride here…

Words, photos, and video by Matt Westfall

I had the opportunity to attend college in Moscow, Idaho, which lies just west of the route. Moscow is famous for the gentle rolling hills region called the Palouse. You will not find any gentle hills on this route. The Idaho Panhandle Ramble delivers big climbs, possibly up to snow, followed by quick descents down to rivers, and then a turn uphill to do it all again. Impressively thick forests engulf you throughout most of the trip.

I thought I would know all the towns I would be passing through, but Idaho always seems to deliver new corners to see. Avery, Clarkia, Emida, and St. Maries were all new towns for me to see and pedal through. Emida has a restaurant called the Drifter that was one of the highlights of the trip. The bacon cheeseburger, bottomless coffee, and people watching were all-time. Wallace is an old mining town that has gotten some major downtown renovations and new businesses in the last decade. It was quite an incredible scene there when I rolled through with lots of people dining outside and walking around. I am always thinking of the movie Dante’s Peak when I am around Wallace. If you haven’t watched it, check it out and spot the shots that were filmed in Wallace.

The most challenging section of the route was between Avery and Clarkia. The route takes a very long, gradual climb up to Crater Lake, which is off-trail and not marked on the road. I did the route in six days, and I would take at least another day if I did the route again. I enjoy climbing, but around 5,000 feet a day is more than enough for me with a decently loaded bike. The other main tip I would suggest is to use Facebook to find a person willing to let you park your vehicle at their house. Coeur d’Alene is a bustling town in the summer, and I thought I had a golden parking spot location, but I still got a message from the police department.

One of my favorite sections was going through the tunnels on the route of the Hiawatha, which is a sweet rail-to-trail. I didn’t research it beforehand and thought it would be the section that people commonly pay to ride, and it is quite busy throughout most of the summer. The Pan Ram route goes onto the Hiawatha below the busy section, and I only saw a handful of people pedaling through that section the entire day. It felt really surreal to enjoy those tunnels by myself. Lots of yips and hootie-hoos happened in those tunnels. Ample streams, rivers, wildlife, charismatic small towns, and what seemed to be endless thick forests are a few good reasons the Idaho Panhandle Ramble should be on your list of bike tours to pedal.

Further Reading

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