The Hiawatha Bike Trail - Riding at the Tree Tops

When I was fooling around looking for stuff to do this month in Montana and Idaho, I ran across the Hiawatha Bike Trail.  Normally, these 'bike trails' are designed for hard bodies that are at least 40 years younger than I am.  It was a real surprise to discover this trail was COMPLETELY DOWNHILL.  I couldn't believe it!  Even I can do downhill.  This is a rail to trail deal.  Basically, that means that an abandoned railway is converted to a bike trail by taking up the steel rails and 'tracks'.  That leaves a graded road bed which usually has a slope of less than 2% - especially in the mountains.  No one wants to see a runaway train.  You ride downhill, and at a certain point, a shuttle bus (actually yellow school bus) takes you back to your car.  

Drake, of course, was all excited; he's been looking forward to this day for months.  I was finally reassured that I could do this when the geezer (he had to be at least 10 years older than ME) who drove the Red Bus in Glacier told me he had done the ride and it was fun.  He was totally right. 

The trail we did is 12 miles long.  We opted NOT to do the one and two-thirds mile tunnel just before the Roland Trail Head which is after the big tunnel.  Doing the St. Paul Tunnel would have lengthened the ride to about 15 miles.  Turned out to be a very smart decision on our part because we discovered in a 648 foot tunnel later in the ride that our bike lights were totally inadequate.  I saw what I'm doing for bike lights in the future.  A couple of women had strapped 9 volt flashlights on their handlebars - now those will conquer a tunnel.  Tunnels, it turns out, are quite scary when you get into utter darkness and can't see light from either end.  That happened to us for about 30 feet in one tunnel.  It was creepy.

Trestles, on the other hand, are absolutely exhilarating.  They are like riding across a two lane bridge; but when you look out, you see the tops of conifers.  Some of the trestles were a couple of hundred feet high, and the views over the trees was breathtaking.  That is what I was looking forward to, and I wasn't disappointed.  

The real bike riders ride the Hiawatha Trail UPHILL for 15 miles then turn around and ride it downhill.  Those would be the 'hard bodies' I referred to above.  All kinds of people are on the trail.  There was one family with a five year old in her helmet pedaling her 16" bicycle.  Even downhill was going to be a big ride for her.  There were groups of college students, and some oldsters like us.  There was one group of women who had included one of their moms.  She was riding her three wheeler and carrying picnic lunches for everyone.   This trail was bumpy in that it's gravel and embedded stones.  Our hybrid tires were OK, but there was one couple with ultra thin racing tires.  They must have been excellent riders because I would have been spilled off in the first 100 feet.  

The trail was like a dirt road, and in some sections like a dirt road with washboards.  My hands and arms are tired from the constant shaking.  One smart thing we did was to both get new hybrid bikes which have suspension on the seat post and on the handlebar post.  Man did we need that extra suspension.  A woman getting on the shuttle bus back to our cars was really complaining about how bad her hands were hurting after riding her 'old' bike with no suspension on it.  Her husband was just ignoring her; I guess she was a complainer in real life.

We ended this day with lunch in historic Wallace, Idaho.  I've been in many, many towns who preface their name with 'historic', but in the case of Wallace, it's the only town in America which is entirely in the National Register of Historic Places.  It's a turn of the century mining town with all of their downtown business buildings preserved as well as their homes.  The lady at the tourist information center told us they registered building after building to defeat Interstate 90 from demolishing the town.  When they finished, they had registered every major building and home in town, and I-90 had to be moved.  

I also talked to a guy who sold me a piece of silver, lead, copper and quartz ore.  I didn't 'pick it up', but it is from one of the mines around Wallace.  Silver is still being mined here today.  Interestingly, lead is lovely in it's raw form and silver is ugly.  When they are refined, it's just the opposite.  We had lunch in the 1313 Saloon, and a milkshake from the Red Garage.  Everywhere you look in town there are unique architectural details.  I tried to capture some of them in the photos  

The pictures are bang up this time, with more info about the trail and the town.

https://picasaweb.google.com/jalyss1/2012DriveToIdahoHiawathaBikeTrail?authkey=Gv1sRgCKO5_PHPsozUFg