The preliminary returns are encouraging.

The Route of the Hiawatha Rail Trail already has surpassed a prediction made by a U.S. Forest Service project engineer six years ago that it would attract 20,000 users per year. Last year, 22,000 people traveled from every state and most countries in Europe and Asia to experience the Hiawatha, a scenic, 13-mile trail, straddling the Idaho-Montana border and passing through 10 tunnels and over seven trestles.

At Harrison, on Lake Coeur d’Alene, meanwhile, things are hopping, too. Three restaurants have reopened. A bed-and-breakfast is on tap. The marina has expanded. And local entrepreneurs are scurrying to take advantage of the economic wave triggered by the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes. The 72-mile bike path that stretches along the old Union Pacific line from Plummer to Mullan officially opened Saturday.

The two trails, along with the two-state Centennial Trail, are transforming North Idaho into a mountain-bike Mecca, providing a clean industry for rural communities such as Harrison and other small towns and introducing recreationalists to North Idaho’s spectacular backcountry.

The trails didn’t just happen.

In 1997, Bill Dire of the Taft Tunnel Preservation Society said: “It’s been a long haul, but it looks like we’re finally there. Our whole organization is ecstatic. There were times I wasn’t sure it would happen.” At the time, work had just begun to install guardrails and make improvements to the Idaho side of the Route of the Hiawatha. Dire and other visionaries had spent five years selling T-shirts and railroad history books and lobbying Congress for money to transform the old Milwaukee Road into a sterling path for bikers and hikers.

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, played a key role in the birthing process by winning federal allocations to retrofit the dark old tunnels and towering trestles.

The Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes was the Union Pacific Railroad’s going-away present of sorts. By pulling the tracks, hauling off contaminated waste and capping the rail bed with asphalt, the railroad washed its hands of cleanup responsibilities, setting the stage for Harrison’s revival – and angering NIMBY neighbors who still fear the bike route will draw vandals, thieves and worse.

Instead of petty criminals, the trails are pulling in media coverage and travelers with spending money.

Recently, a writer and a photographer for Sunset magazine stayed in Harrison while doing a piece about the trail and the awakening town. Harrison, population 267 (not counting a dog named Dog, the town’s unofficial mascot), couldn’t afford that kind of publicity. On the down side, the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes has enticed upscale bike riders looking for second homes, driving up local real estate prices. On the up side, the trail is part of a growing system, including downhill race courses, of significant tourist attractions.

Who would have thought that people-powered two-wheelers of the 21st century would supersede the powerful locomotives of yesteryear? Only the dreamers. And North Idaho is lucky to have them.