When it comes to the subject of the outdoors and those blue-sky, crackling-air, thrilled-to-be-alive-days that are made only in North Idaho, most of us who live here know exactly how lucky we are.

Rocky Mountain International - a four-state consortia that promotes tourism for Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota - is charged with the enviable task of showing the rest of the world what a great place this is.

Over the past several days, more than a dozen European tour operators have been exploring the state from south to north with the goal of experiencing the real Idaho. ROW Adventures, Coeur d'Alene's award-winning, adventure travel company, has frequently worked with Rocky Mountain International to promote local tourism. Peter Grubb, ROW's founder, took the group on a Pedal and Paddle at Farragut State Park Tuesday.

"First we did a brief history of the park. Then we got on our bikes and rode for half an hour on the Lynx Trail," Grubb said. "Following lunch, we went to the Eagle Boat Launch and kayaked from there to Beaver Bay."

Everyone completed the adventure happily and without incident.

"What we want is to familiarize people with the area," Grubb said. "For me it's a chance to expose my product in an economical way to a group of people we wouldn't otherwise get to see it - better by far than my going to Europe and trying to sell my services. The whole program here is reasonably inexpensive in terms of time and money."

Bart Verhoeff, director/owner of Go Amerika, an Amsterdam tour operation, specializes in selling U.S. holidays.

"This is a really great area," he said. "People are much more active here. My clients at home are interested in what we call 'soft adventure' and this definitely fits."

According to Nancy Richardson of Idaho Tourism, Rocky Mountain International's task is to represent Idaho in the European and Australian tour markets as a destination for those interested in seeing the "real America." The consortia, she said, has been funded by Idaho Tourism, a division of the Idaho Department of Commerce for more than two decades. Judging from the feedback received Tuesday from the European tour operators, the project has been a success.

Nadege Peccavet, a representative of a Parisian tour company, said with the exception of the Alps, France has few Idaho-style lakes.

"Our lakes are flatter," she said, "and, of course, they're not glacier lakes."

Franco Bondioli, owner of Milan's Travel Island, spoke of the open spaces he saw in North Idaho.

"There's nature everywhere here," Bondioli said. "For us in Italy, you go from town to town and it takes, maybe a minute. Here you are always in the middle of nature."

Nobody seemed in a great hurry to go home.