Route of the Hiawatha - 7/28/17

Route of the Hiawatha - 7/28/17

The Route of the Hiawatha is considered the "Crown Jewel" of all rail-to-trail projects in the country and it provides a truly unique adventure.   The trail includes 10 tunnels (one of which is the 1.66 mile long St. Paul Pass Tunnel), 7 trestle bridges as high as 230 feet over creeks below, winding its way through the beautiful Bitterroot Mountains for 15 miles.  The trail drops over 1,000 feet over its 15 mile length with an average grade of 1.6%.

Using The Route of the Hiawatha is a bit of a puzzle to unravel.  One must have a day pass to use the trail and can purchase the day pass at Lookout Mountain Ski Lodge.  Or, one can purchase the day pass at either end of the trail for cash.  To start out on the trail, one needs to undergo a safety briefing by the staff at the start of the trail.  Riders typically begin at the Eastern Portal and ride down to the Preston Trailhead.  The Eastern Portal starts with the 1.66 mile long St. Paul Pass Tunnel.

The St. Paul Pass Tunnel is wet, water runs alongside both sides of the trail in rain gutters, and cold (around 45 degrees).  And, it is pitch black ... a kind of black that one rarely experiences with the absence of light.  Fortunately we had amazing LED bike lights that we had purchased from REI before our trip and they were nothing short of amazing for putting out light that kept us safely on the trail and avoiding potholes in the trail.  We also had Petzl headlamps as back up, but the Urban 500 Light & Motion LED bike light did the trick.  (I just didn't want to risk only having one source of light ... the darkness in the tunnel without light was unsettling ... I don't think that I would have made a good tunnel miner).

The trail surface is rough-packed gravel, so one had to be constantly attentive to the trail and handling the bike over the rocky, gravel surface.  Yet, hundreds of riders, old and young, families with young children on bikes or in towable bike carriers, were happily making their way down the trail.

There are signs all along the trail relating the story of the Milwaukee Road train company that ran from Chicago, Illinois to Tacoma, Washington.   The first train on this route began on July 4, 1909 and passenger service began 6 days later.  The company incurred enormous costs building this route ... originally budgeted for 45 million dollars; it took 235 million dollars to complete and another 23 million dollars to electrify the trains a few years later.  An enormous fire in 1910 hit the area, burning 2.5 to 3 million acres of forest woodland causing black smoke all the way across the northern part of the U.S. destroyed many of the towns along the Route of the Hiawatha ... and, the railroad was key to rescuing many individuals caught by the fire without a way, except by rail car, to escape the conflagration.  Many of the signs also dealt with the various types and capacities of the engines that ran along the Route of the Hiawatha ... and we got a bit of an appreciation of the interest that many hobbiests have for the minutiae of railroad equipment and railroad history.

We made it easily to the end of the trail in Preston where shuttle buses wait to take riders back to the start of the trail ... but no, not us ... we were among four people (one of whom as a trail ranger) who turned around and rode back up the trail ... all 15 miles uphill ... but a great way to experience the entire trail yet again from the opposing side of the trail.  Many people commented ... some in support, some in amusement, about our reverse itinerary, but we felt most satisfied when we returned to the start of our adventure ... well-exercised and well-versed in the Route of the Hiawatha.

And, if you're wondering about the total distance, it was 30 miles, but the Garmin lost sight of the satellites when we were in the long tunnels and "cheated us" out of some of the mileage ... inquiring minds want to know

Bambi offered us cold beers and showers ...