Monday, June 10, 2013 (St. Regis, MT)

Well today was our big adventure, we are going to ride the "Route of the Hiawatha".  The sun was shining, our bikes were in good working order, we had our lights and bike helmets, we were ready to go. 

We got an early start and left the fiver around 8:45 a.m. and arrived at the trail at 8:30 a.m.  No that's not a typo, we switched back to Pacific time.  We got the bikes unloaded and our tickets purchased, you have to buy a ticket to ride the trail and a ticket for the shuttle ride back.  If you have cash, you can buy it at the trail, otherwise you have to go to Lookout Pass to buy your tickets.  We had cash so we got ours at the trail.  Just a warning, this will have lots of pictures.



parking lot and staging area

The ride starts out when you enter a 1.7 mile tunnel which was built in 1908.  It is very dark, damp and cold - around 45 degrees.  Here is a picture of Rich and I before we entered the tunnel. 

Rich and I in front of the 1.7 mile long Taft Tunnel

When you first enter the tunnel, you have to give your eyes a moment to adjust to the dark because boy it is dark and it's also freezing, which is why my hands are in my pockets.

Kelly standing in the middle of the tunnel


This next picture you can see the "light at the end of the tunnel", it is on the left side of the picture.



The light at the end of the tunnel

Here we are almost at the end of the tunnel and we are still in one piece with no incidents.



The end is in sight

It was nice to get out of the tunnel just because it was so chilly and I even had lots of layers on, but we both didn't think to bring any gloves and our hands were freezing.  Once out of the tunnel, this is the type of scenery that we got to see along our ride.  Those are the Bitterroot mountains.

During the 17 mile ride, you ride through 10 train tunnels and cross 7 sky-high tressels.  None of the tunnels were as long as the Taft Tunnel though.  Here are some pictures of the tressels and a couple tunnels and one of the deer we saw.

train tressel we will be riding across

another tunnel

Kelly along the trail

view of distant train tressel we ride over

One deer we saw along trail

one of the smallest tunnels - you can see through it

Rich riding on train tressel

Train tressel

It's a long way down

We saw some amazing scenery and sights.  Along the way they have information boards that give some history of the building of the original rail track, it was very interesting.  The ride is pretty much down hill, which is why they have the shuttle which brings you back up.  Here is the end of the trail where you pick up the shuttle bus.

signing the log book at the end of the trail

The shuttle takes you back to what they call the West Portal and you get to ride back through the long 1.7 mile Taft Tunnel to get to the East Portal where we started.  The shuttle bus ride takes about 30 minutes and is along a dusty gravel county road, so the going is pretty slow.  I can't imagine a busy day.  Today was the first day that the shuttle was running during the week.  During our ride, we only saw a couple people and there was only one other couple that road the shuttle bus back with us.  On the ride back, the shuttle bus passed quite a few others riding the trail (the bus shares the road with the riders for a small section of the trail).  I'm glad we went early, we didn't have to worry about any bus traffic and getting covered in dust when the bus went by. 

Here is a picture of Rich and I as we are finishing up the ride.  Note that you will see one thing missing, our little Gracie.  No pets are allowed on the trail, so we had to leave her back at the fiver, bummer.

It was a very enjoyable ride and one I would recommend if you are in the area.  It is very scenic and you can take as long as you want or you can do it in a couple hours.  We were back home before 3:00, so we were gone about 6 hours total. 

The rest of the afternoon, we decided on our next stop and spent some time in the swimming pool.  This time we didn't have the pool to ourselves, you can tell the schools are getting out because we are starting to see more kids around. 

We are headed toward Yellowstone, so will be packing up and heading out tomorrow.  This has been a really nice spot to spend several days.  I would definitely come back to the area, it is very beautiful.  See you down the road.  =)