Monday, June 16, 2008

Route to the Hia"walk"a

I saw this thing on PBS about railway lines in Idaho that had been turned in to paths for bikers and hikers. The Route to the Hiawatha looked amazing! It's starts at Lookout pass and trail runs through Idaho and Montana. It's 14.4 miles with 10 tunnels and 7 trestles. I told Brad next time we were up in northern Idaho we were going to ride the Hiawatha trail. I got my wish last Thursday. We journey up through northern Idaho every June on our way to visit family in Washington, so this year we planned a few extra days so we could fit in time to do the Hiawatha. Once the family got wind of our plan we had everyone on board to go. Our group consisted of 9 adults on bikes, 2 kids on bikes, and 7 kids in bike trailers.
My niece Kaylee kept calling it the "Hiawalka" instead of Hiawatha, which actually turned out to be a fitting name. Along the trail there were some in our party who opted to walk from time to time to give their bums a rest from the hard bike seats. We did 7.3 miles and then turned around. In total we rode 14.6 miles, so we did the length of the trail we just didn't go all the way to the end. (The shuttle service wasn't running because of snow on some of the mountain roads and we weren't up for riding over 28 miles with 9 kids and no padded seats on the bikes:)

If you ever get the chance I highly recommend it! (I think I can talk Brad into going again next year!)

Millie and Lexi weren't big fans of the helments.




St. Paul Pass Tunnel 1.66 miles long. Cody (almost 7) asked, "So are we riding ALL the way through this mountian?"




Most of the group


Taking off the helmets plus the dark tunnel put them right to sleep.


Yes, we rode on that bridge.



Looking down from a trestle


Brad in one of the shorter tunnels (Go towards the light...)


The four little girls mostly happy after a long ride.

Mmmm Mountain rocks are better than regular rocks.

5 comments:

Yvonne Anderson said...

Sounds like a trail I would love to run on. That first pic....ummmm I don't think Mil is a fan of the helmet. She must prefer to live on the wild reckless side.

Barb said...

How fun!!!

Audrey said...

Um yeah it was pretty fun, an dyep the seats were hard, but yep we are game for next year. You got that right. Those are pretty neat pictures.

Erin said...

I think next year you should go the WHOLE distance and then back again! And I will probably stay home... :)

Aprillee said...

Karen!
Your trip looks so fun and wholesome and American! We are getting quite excited to come home, 11 more days. We are spending July in California with our families and then moving to Colorado the beginning of August. Two super places for the great outdoors. I can't wait to go on bike rides and go camping and just be outside in nature again! Hope you have an excellent day!