BIKING ON THE HIAWATHA TRAIL

June 25

My friend, Delores Delrez, arrived yesterday in Missoula. She's here for a few days of sightseeing in Montana (our favorite place), and then she is going to drive back to Georgia with me. It will be great fun to have company on the trip, as well as someone to share expenses. The week before July 4th, and the hotels are not cheap.

Today we are going biking on a trail that is called the "Route of the Hiawatha Rail Trail". This is a 15 mile bike ride (downhill) on what they called the Milwaukee Road. It's an old railroad track where the track has been removed and stone paths/roads have replaced the rails. The tunnels (10 of them) and tressels (bridges -- 7 of them) are still in place and you ride from the top down about 1,000 ft, winding through the mountains. It took us about 3 hours to complete the ride -- we stopped to eat sandwiches we packed, snap pictures, and at one point play with a couple of ground squirrels who were definitely used to getting handouts from the bikers. They would eat out of your hand, and at one point, one squirrel climbed right up on my lap to get a little bread. Very cute. Here is a picture of one of the squirrels trying out a Nature Valley bar -- he liked it a lot!!

My friend Jane Clapp went with us. She had heard about this ride from her mother and had wanted to do it. I'm so glad she did hear about it, because I never saw this mentioned in any of the travel magazines. AND IT WAS FANTASTIC. Apparently if I had picked up an Idaho travel magazine, it was plastered all over the place. The trail actually starts in Montana, but very quickly crosses over into Idaho. (In the picture, Jane is on the left, Delores is in the middle, and that's me on the right)

This railway was called "the best darn railroad in the world" (at least by some of the old time railroad guys). Italians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Austrians, Belgians, Hungarians, Japanese, French Canadians, Spaniards, Irishmen, Swedes, Norwegians, and others worked together from 1906 to 1911 to construct the Pacific extension of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad. It took thousands of workers, at a record cost of $260 million, and they managed to build it in record time. Then, generations of railroaders proudly kept the Milwaukee Road running until it finally went bankrupt in 1977 (can you tell I copied this out of the brochure?). Today, the US Forest Service has transformed the railroad grade into the "Route of the Hiawatha Rail Trail".

The incredible history of the construction of this line was followed by the unprecedented electrification of several long stretches of the main line, forming the longest electrified mainline railroad in the world. WHO KNEW?? Not me.

What I do know is it goes through some very scenic mountains and forests, across the rugged Bitterroot Mountains between Idahoe and Montana. It is best known for the first tunnel, right at the start on the "East Portal". It's called the St. Paul Pass or "Taft" Tunnel which burrows for 1.7 miles (or 8,771 ft.) under the state line. IT IS PITCH BLACK!! Really. When you enter, if you did not have a light on the bike, you would see absolutely nothing. Pool Delores started off with a bike light which pointed up.....so Jane and I were entertained to seeing the roof of the tunnel, while Delores had to follow our lights on the path. That first tunnel takes many minutes to ride, and when we entered at about 10:30 (or 9:30 PST), it was REALLY COLD. We came out the other side covering our ears with our hands to try to warm them up. If anyone is afraid of the dark -- please start the trail from the Western Portal (other side of the tunnel). Most of the other tunnels were between 1,516 ft long down to 178 ft. long -- piece of cake.

I really enjoyed the tressels. It is plenty wide, so you don't feel like you are going to ride over the edge of the bridge (lots of sturdy railings). And you have some of the most fantastic views from the tressels. The longest and tallest one was Kelly Creek Tressel at 850 ft. long, and 230 ft. high. The others ranged from 790 ft. long to the shortest at 281 ft. long, and they ranged in eight from the Kelly at 230 ft. high to 96 ft. high.

As I mentioned above, our lunch took place outside one of the tunnels where a lot of HUGE rail road lumbers were stacked. And I mean maybe 10 times the size of what you think of as a railroad timber. And it was hear we were entertained by the little ground squirrels. They were great fun.

So we finished the trail. Like I said, it was great that it was a downhill ride. You had to peddle, but could coast inbetween. Some brave people rode it uphill, and if you are a biker, it would have been easy. I did do a little uphill stretch to get a picture, and it wasn't that hard. The elevation didn't go up steeply, and probably only the upper portions were steep enough to really tax a person. Then we purchased a shuttle pass to take us back up to the West Portal (otherwise you do have to ride back up the 15 miles).

Notice I said the West Portal -- we got to ride through the 1.7 mile tunnel again. Still pitch black, but not quite so cold. Did I mention that at this point Delores' bike light had totally broken?? Her battery just fell off the bike, and so she had to follow Jane very closely to get back through the tunnel. She said she really couldn't see anything.

So it was quite a good day. If anyone is interested, go to www.skilookout.com and click on the Hiawatha Trail. You can rent bikes, helmets, lights, etc.