The Cancourse, a portmanteau for Canfield Mountain Concourse, comprises a 138-acre strip of private land on Canfield Mountain spanning from Coeur d’Alene and Dalton Gardens to the Coeur d’Alene National Forest. Numerous people throughout the local community have long imagined something like the Cancourse, but we only got started officially in 2018.
Our goal is to create a diverse network of durable hiking/bicycling trails in a beautiful forested setting that is well suited to frequent use by people with a broad range of physical and technical abilities. The existing ad hoc trail/road network contains some nice features, but it also has some deficiencies, such as:
- There are no complete routes suitable to beginner bicyclists.
- Many of the trails were created without regard for drainage, and now they are gullies, in some cases ever-expanding broad washouts with ephemeral shoulder trails.
- Portions of the forest have not recovered from previous logging operations.
- There aren’t nearly as many qualitatively distinct routes as there could be!
The land owners (Jason and Patty Evans) want the Cancourse to be cherished and enjoyed by the entire community, and that requires community involvement. To that end our trail system efforts are already a collaboration of individuals, the Lake City Trail Alliance (LCTA), and Trail Maniacs. We hope to partner with additional organizations as time goes on. If you are interested in engaging in the Cancourse or other projects like it, please get involved with the LCTA and Trail Maniacs, and/or have your organization contact us!
As for creating and maintaining a beautiful setting, we are managing the Cancourse as productive forest land, in a manner that is compatible with the recreation goals. Over the next few decades this will primarily mean erosion control and reforestation. We want the Cancourse to be sustainable indefinitely, both ecologically and with regard to operational costs.