Will be gone bikin'

No post tomorrow morning. Bill and I will be on our way to the Hiawatha Trail east of Wallace near the Idaho-Montana border. My brother Kevin from Frenchtown, Mont., will join us as we help chaperone two classes of Farmin School fifth graders taught by my sister Laurie and her colleague, Colleen Filipowski.

The biking adventure not only serves as the culmination of a two-day field trip featuring several key features of North Idaho history, but it's also designed to help the students "gain an appreciation for the nation and region where they live" after a year of related classroom study.

Today, the fifth graders will see the Mullan Road, which served as the first Transcontinental military route in the United States. At Cataldo Mission (Idaho's oldest church), they'll view some displays showing the influence of missionaries or Black Robes on the native cultures in the region. They'll also visit a museum at Wallace in the Silver Valley where they'll learn about the mining culture which began during the 1880s.

Tonight they'll stay at the Mullan Community Center where, thanks to the efforts of a well-organized army of parents, they'll dine, gab a lot, and later enjoy some swimming.

Tomorrow morning we'll meet up with them there and move on to the Hiawatha Bike Trail (http://www.skilookout.com/bike_home_page.html) , which opened to the public just a few years ago. This 13-mile scenic ride with lots of tunnels and plenty of beautifully-planned interpretive panels follows a route of the Old Milwaukee Railway.

Bill and I will accompany six students through the route, which begins with a trip through the dark, dank and drippy 1.8 mile Taft Tunnel. Kevin and I chaperoned two years ago and had a great time with our group as we stopped a lot and snapped dozens of photos.

Besides its gradual downhill grade with the promise of an ample sack lunch and a bus at the bottom for transporting kids and bikes back uphill, the route offers some spectacular views of a pristine area once devastated by the 1910 forest fires, which burned off much of North Idaho's forests.

We're looking forward to the experience, especially sharing it with family members. I also know that Laurie's students will never forget this hands-on approach to history.