The Route of the Hiawatha

As we started looking at Wallace, Idaho as a planned stop, we saw that there were interesting options for bike riding in the area -- one of the most interesting was The Route of the Hiawatha, along a former rail line, with a number of tunnels and trestles to ride through and over. We decided to make that trip on Tuesday.

We booked trail passes online for Tuesday, but had to pick up our passes at Lookout Pass Ski Lodge

The ski lodge building was dedicated in 1941 - the center building, still in use. Lookout Pass Ski Lodge manages the administration of The Route of the Hiawatha for the National Forest Service.

The Route of the Hiawatha is about 14.4 miles long, at a 1.5-2% grade for its length from the East Portal, just east of the Montana border, to its West Portal at Pearson Trailhead in Idaho. Most folks ride it from the East Portal to the West Portal and take a shuttle from Pearson Trailhead back up the hill to get back to their vehicles. We did not want to pay for the shuttle (there is a cost for the shuttle + extra charge for e-bikes because they are heavier) nor did we want to have to wait for the shuttle (we had read that waits could be 45 minutes or more), so we decided to do a round trip - and we decided to start at the West Portal, so we would ride up at the beginning (when we were fresher and cooler part of the day) and down, mainly coasting, later in the day. Thus, we were planning a 28+ bike trip! This would test us and our new bikes out!

As we wanted to have food and water with us, we zip tied a milk crate onto the back of my bike and put an insulated bag from our financial advisor with ice, water, sandwiches, and sticks of string cheese in the crate.

Getting all set to go from the parking area at the West Portal. There were already a number of other vehicles there for other folks who had a similar plan (hidden behind the Jeep).

We got to the West Portal at about 11am, just as the first downhill bikers were arriving. The shuttles had not yet started arriving so the folks had a little time to wait.

There were lots of information signs -- we learned that the Hiawatha traveled from Chicago to Tacoma, Washington.

One of the arrivals who had ridden down the trail took our pictures as we prepared to head up the trail.

"Route of the Hiawatha"

First tunnel that we encountered -- note that there is a small child coming out of the tunnel. There were a number of families with small children coming down the trail.

Views from an overlook along the way.

One of the trestles

View from the trestle

Looking down at the structure of the trestle -- makes me dizzy!

Looking out from the trestle

I was making an effort to be sure I got pictures of Carl on this trip too!

The trestles were marked with information about their length and height.

Carl is taking a picture of another trestle and part of the trail that is above us - around a turn that would be coming up.

One of the next trestles in the distance - I've marked it with an arrow.

Carl on another trestle...

and me on one.

Once we had gotten up to the upper trestle, we looked back and took a picture of the lower one.

The trestles made good places for pictures!

We stopped for lunch when we had gone up over half the way (9.8 miles according to our bike's data display)

There were cute chipmunks (I think) around -- this one found a tortilla chip that we dropped.

A view of our bikes with one of the tunnels in the background from the location where we ate lunch.

A family group going into the tunnel.

There was an overlook near where we had lunch...

We took a selfie there.

Coming up to the last tunnel before the East portal... another Route arch announcing "Route of the Hiawatha"

There was a pretty waterfall right outside the entrance to the last tunnel. We took a picture for another couple there, and they took our picture -- interesting - they are also staying at Wallace RV Park!

Another view of the waterfall and stream.

We made it!

Information about the tunnels and trestles on the route

A map of the whole route of the Hiawatha from Chicago to Tacoma...

... and a map of the route we took.

Particularly in the last tunnel, there is a lot of water coming in through the roof, making it very wet inside. We had been told that if you don't have fenders on your bike, you can end up with a distinctive mud marking on your back. We have fenders, but for whatever reason, Carl still ended up with the mud marking!

We had not put our jackets on when we headed up through the last tunnel... we had been through several tunnels and had not needed them... but... the last tunnel is pretty long, so we put our jackets on before heading back down...

The St Paul Pass Tunnel is about 1.6 miles long.

The tunnels are not lit other than by our bicycle lights.

The state line is reached within the St Paul tunnel -- I had not seen the sign on the way through the first time, but I was specifically looking for it on the way down (it is in the dark, and on the side of the tunnel).

The left side of the sign is in Idaho...

... the right side is in Montana.

We took about 3 hours for the trip up, but accomplished the trip down with fewer stops and in about an hour and a half...

Our bike computer recorded 14.3 miles.

Not only did Carl's shirt back get branded with mud in the tunnel, so did our insulated backpack! Thankfully we had already had our lunch!

On our way back to the RV park, we decided to take a different route -- Garmin gave us two choices, and they seemed to be about the same time, though one was shorter. We knew that it would mean we'd be on dirt roads most of the way, but we were okay with that...

Unfortunately, about 6 miles of the dirt road was a VERY rough track -- at times, Carl would get out to guide me driving to try to find the safest route. Thankfully we did not meet any traffic on this route (everyone else knows to avoid it!) and the Jeep and we survived the trip.

We are so glad we did the trip. We never would have tried the round trip if we didn't have the e-bikes. We are really enjoying them!