Hiawatha

The route of the Hiawatha starts in Montana and winds through 10 tunnels and over 7 high trestles on its 15-mile course that crosses the rugged Bitterroot Mountains. Our Friday trip was to ride this trail and see the beautiful country that the old railroad people opened up.

This adventure started the night prior with the hunt for the bicycle peddles, and continued the next morning as we drove into Wallace Idaho to hunt for our day’s lunch. We had packed the entire van and our Jeep with bikes, lights and clothing for our 15 mile trek on the Hiawatha Route. We had even made a huge lunch that we put into the refrigerator earlier that morning. Just outside Wallace Diane realized that our lunch sat in the refrigerator back in Post Falls. It was too late to turn back now, so we had to stop at “The Center of the Universe”, as the Wallace folks decreed, and pick up some food. It only took about a half hour and we were back on the road driving up over Lookout Pass and into Taft Montana, where the road left highway 90 to access the trail head.

We put together our gear; bikes, headlights, kid trailers, lunches and drinks. Everyone was ready and I made one last adjustment to my bike seat. I lifted the seat up a bit and then cranked on the lever to set the seats position and “snap”, the bolt broke off. This made it a bit hard because we didn’t have anything to fix it with. So I rode the 15 mile trail with the seat set in its lowest position. I felt like a BMX biker, my knees up around my ears with every peddle push.
We talked to the nice folks at the starting point of the route, they were great. One of them offered to give me a part from his daughter’s bike, but it didn’t fit. Finally we hit the road, our small little group of misfit bikers.

We entered the Taft Tunnel with our full brigade of headlamps, bike lights and Mag lights. I thought we would be lighting the tunnel like an airport runway, but boy did it get dark and it seemed like our lights did little to cut the black. There was enough light to keep everyone happy and on track and soon we could see the round light, our exit destination. I found that as I road if I focused on the round dot, it was much easier to keep my balance in this dark environment. We exited the dark, gathered up and took a group shot in front of a beautiful waterfalls, our adventure was underway, progress was slow but we were on our way.

The kids did real well throughout the day as we rode down the old railroad grade. Alayna sang and played with a flashlight while she sat in the little wagon. Kenyon rode on the trainer bike, sometimes almost parallel to the ground. Because of the bike peddle problem the night before, we forgot to finish the assembly process and we really needed to tighten two bolts and nuts. These help keep the bike upright if the little rider’s skills are not quite developed. As Kenyon rode he became more skilled and that made him ride in a more upright position. Kenyon started by leaning like the Leaning Tower of Pizza and finished riding like Lance Armstrong. As this skill development took place we picked up our pace considerably.

We ate lunch at one of the trestles and then continued the downhill tour. About that time I gave up the slower pace and stood up and cranked on down to the finish. Everyone arrived in one piece and we loaded into the bus for the shuttle back up to the top. At the upper parking lot they unloaded us and we biked through the Taft Tunnel to our vehicles. The tunnel ride went much quicker this time and we had no problems. We loaded up and drove back home, stopping a one rest stop along the way to find a Geocache. Al Dee does not cache as much anymore, but I wanted to collect this one.