Hiawatha Scenic Bike Trail – Just Do It!

Leaving Mountain Meadows on Saturday, 7/10, we made our way to Albert’s Landing, another private RV park, just across the Idaho border near Kingston. The good news, with temps in the mid-90’s we had hook-ups so Riley had the AC to keep him cool. More importantly, we were also right on the Coeur d’Alene River so you know where we spent every free moment. Lol.

 

Coeur d'Alene River

Riley and Rog, my favorite river rats. 

Riley selfie. 

Unfortunately, the park was completely full and the spaces were tight. Even though we’d given them the length of our RV and towed vehicle when we made the reservation, the gal at the desk took a look at our rig and said she wasn’t sure we’d fit. Uh Oh. With little hope of finding an alternative on a Saturday afternoon, we were determined to make it work. Rog had to back down a long drive and squeeze the short bus into our space. He did and even made it look easy. Whew!

 

Tucked into our spot at Albert's Landing.

The real reason we’re here is to ride the Hiawatha Bike Trail – the Crown Jewel of America’s Rail to Trails. At least that’s what the brochure says, and after doing the ride I am happy to report that we totally agree! The Hiawatha Trail follows the abandoned Milwaukee Railroad grade between Taft, MT and Pearson, ID. It is 15 miles of gentle downhill grade (which makes Momma happy!) with – and this is the really cool part – 10 tunnels and 7 sky high steel trestles. IT IS AMAZING. So much fun! Oh, and did I mention there is a shuttle so we didn’t have to ride 15 miles back uphill. Yay!! (Gotta say, that was a huge draw for me. When Rog mentioned maybe riding back and not taking the shuttle, he got some serious stink eye. Lol.)

Brochure map of the Hiawatha Bike Trail.

The Lookout Pass Ski and Recreation Area operates the Hiawatha Trail under a special use permit from the United States Forest Service. You purchase tickets for the trail and shuttle from Lookout Pass. They also rent bikes, helmets and headlights (required for those tunnels). Lots of detailed info available online if you’re interested, and you should be!

Rog at the entrance to the trail.

The first tunnel is right at the trailhead and it’s a highlight of the trial. The St. Paul Pass Tunnel, is 1.66 miles long! It is also cold and wet. Only 44 degrees year round with water running down the sides and dripping from the ceiling. Some of the tunnels actually have small stalactites and stalagmites forming along the ceiling and walls. The other nine tunnels aren’t nearly as long as St. Paul and range from 217 to 1516 feet. Most are smooth concrete, but a few are natural hewn stone.

Entering the famous 1.66 mile St. Paul Pass Tunnel.

 

Can you see the tiny stalactites hanging from the ceiling?

The tunnels were so much fun! Very cool and a little spooky. 

The views of the Bitterroot Mountains were beautiful.  There was some smoke from wildfires that made it a little hazy. We actually caught a break, the staff said it was much smokier the day before. The trail switchbacks through the mountains and you can see some of the trestles in the distance that you’ll eventually be riding across.

Trestle in the distance and then a zoom shot.

On a trestle with a tunnel in the background.

The trestles rivaled the tunnels for coolness factor with their breathtaking vistas – not sure which was my favorite. The 7 trestles ranged from the relatively diminutive Russell Creek trestle (281 ft long, 96 ft high) to the magnificent Kelly Creek trestle that is 850 ft long and a dizzying 230 ft high! Wow!

The trail across the trestles is gravel roadway, but the board walkways on each side are cantilevered over the edge. When you walk on them you can see…all…the…way…down through the gaps in the boards. That was a little disconcerting. Lol.

Kelly Creek Trestle - 850 ft long and 230 ft high.

It's a long way across and...

...a LONG way down.  

There are also 50 interpretive signs along the way. I think we stopped at almost all of them. They provided lots of interesting history on the railroad, the engineering of the trestles and tunnels, and a devastating fire that swept through the area in 1910. The route was built in 1907-1911 and was in service for 71 years. The bike trail was first opened in 1998.

Beautiful day for a ride!

Most of the trestles were straight, this one curved.
Quite a feat of engineering. 

 

Looking down the valley at the Bitterroot Mountains.

What a fun ride!

This is one adventure that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend. There were folks of all ages and abilities on the trail. It doesn’t require any technical skill and it’s just a ton of fun. We were smiling all the way.

We got to ride both ways through the St. Paul Tunnel.

End of the trail and still smiling!

Our final stop on this trip was Wanapum State Park near Vantage, WA. We’ve stayed here several times, it’s right off I-90 and then an easy drive home. We arrived in the afternoon on Monday, 7/12, and found the park staff were still running the sprinklers in our site. Riley was not sad about that. Lol. Unfortunately, he’s not content to just play in the water, it’s a challenge to keep the big doofus from nomming the sprinkler heads. Rog has had to reset the oscillating heads on multiple occasions. Since we were camped right on the Columbia River, we also found a secluded spot where he could play with his ball in the water. Spoiled pupfish. Lol.

Rog doing damage control. 

Do you wonder if he's ever dry?

Evening light on the Columbia Gorge. 

Home again. We arrived Tuesday afternoon, 7/13. Our housesitter was a jewel. The house looked great, the cat was well cared for, and she’d even managed to keep all my plants alive through the 111° heat. We unpacked and Rog tackled the lawns while I started in on 15 (yes, count ‘em 15!) loads of laundry. I did a few loads when we moochdocked at Faith’s house, but managed to avoid the laundromat for over a month. Those debts came due. Lol.

We haven’t got any solid plans for our next trip. We’re hoping to do something this fall. Whatever we decide, you’ll be the first to know! Which brings me to a logistical issue. Google owns Blogspot which I’ve been happily using for years. They have, in their infinite wisdom, decided to discontinue the “Follow by Email” widget that has worked so well. Sigh. By the time I post again it will likely be gone, so you may get an email directly from me or there may be some new mechanism to sign up for a feed. Once I figure it out, again, you’ll be the first to know! 😊

Gorgeous Glacier National Park

A little peek of Glacier National Park goodness.

Where to begin? I’m running a bit behind on the blog. Part of the reason is that we’ve been busy having fun every day and that leaves limited time for keeping in touch. Unfortunately, what time I did have was spent chatting with Verizon tech support instead of you! Allow me to briefly (Honest, this is the condensed version!) share my tale of Verizon woe.

When we reconnected to Verizon after having no service at Tally Lake, we had a text message saying there was only 10% of our data left and 20 days remaining in the cycle. Impossible!! There must be a mistake. Well… maybe not. It turns out Randi’s wifi went out and she had been watching anime on her phone. Momma was not happy. Buying enough to get us through 20 days would have been prohibitively expensive and “safety mode” was not an option. Just two days of that had us crawling the walls last time.

So, I capitulated. Verizon won. After years of holding out, we switched from our grandfathered XXL shared data plan to their not-so-unlimited unlimited plan. And then the fun began. Nothing worked. All five devices on the plan were next to useless. Rian was having trouble calling and texting, we couldn’t get any internet, and our mifi was a brick. Ugh. After wading through the automated menus, I would invariably get a very polite, friendly, helpful support staff who assured me the problem was fixed. Performance would improve and then a few hours later we’d be back to square one. Arrrrrrgh! After hours on the phone, we’re still not sure if the problem is solved. It seems to be intermittent and with limited connectivity in some areas, I can’t tell if it’s the tower or me! Anyway, all that to say I’ve been thinking about you, but haven’t been able to get anything posted. I will, however, make up for it with this monster post with way too many awesome photos. At Glacier it’s hard to take a bad picture!

See. No bad pictures. Beauty everywhere you look!

Now let’s catch up on the amazing things we’ve been seeing and doing. We had eight days (7/2 – 7/10) booked at Mountain Meadows RV park in Hungry Horse, MT about 10 miles from the west entrance to Glacier National Park. We’re camping with my brother, Tim, his mastiff Brody and Mike and friends Mikey and Glen and their hound Prince. We have done some great hikes, explored areas of the park we hadn’t visited before, and did a white-water rafting trip on the Middle Fork of the Flathead River. Throw in a couple shopping trips, those lengthy conversations with Verizon, puppy playtime, and waaaaay too much good food and you can see that we’ve kept busy!

This was Mike’s first visit to Glacier so on Saturday, 7/3, we piled into two vehicles to drive the 50-mile Going to the Sun Road. It’s a great introduction to the park with breath-taking vistas and heart-stopping drop offs. The extremely narrow, extremely windy road runs east-west across the park, crossing the continental divide at Logan Pass. (FYI if you’re planning to visit: Glacier NP now requires a ticket for GTS Road along with a park pass. Check out the details online.)

MacDonald Falls
Our first of many stops along the way.

 

Haystack Creek flows through Going to the Sun Road. Cool!

Heaven's Peak

With that backdrop, even we look good. Lol. 

Awesome waterfalls all along the road. 

Riley wasn't that impressed with the scenery,
 so he got a snow cone as a consolation prize.

Jackson Glacier

Mike and Tim take a seat in front of Jackson Glacier.

St. Mary's Lake

Mike got the best shot of the Mountain Goats that hang out near Logan Pass.

On Sunday we did the hike to Avalanche Lake. It ended up being longer than anticipated because we had to park a mile down the road from the trailhead. It wouldn’t be the last time parking was an issue during our stay. It was a fun and challenging hike. The lake is lovely and it felt good to soak our tired tootsies in the cold water. Mike is just 2 ½ months post back surgery, so Rog fetched the car when we got back to the trailhead.

 

On the trail to Avalanche Lake.

Before you get to the lake there are rushing streams, mossy trickles,
 and a rainbow cascade.

Break time for baby brother and me.

A beautiful payoff.
Avalanche Lake.

Rog and I pose in front of another stunning backdrop.

The Usual Suspects. Lol.
(Glen, Mikey, Rog, Teddi, Mike and Tim)

Since it was the 4^th of July and neither Riley nor Prince are fireworks fans, we all loaded up the puppers and drove to Logan Pass after dinner. Mikey and Glen brought their telescope, and we were looking forward to some serious star gazing. Unfortunately, the clouds rolled in and before long we were totally socked in. When we left after midnight we drove the first few miles down through the clouds, which was very cool. We saw a fox and a prickle-bear (aka porcupine) on the drive down. By the time we got back to the campground around 1:30am the skies were clear! Of course. Lol. 

 

Headed to Logan Pass at dusk.

You can see the clouds rolling in. No star gazing for us!

Monday we took a day off. Rog and I made a quick run to Apgar Village by Lake MacDonald and then hung out around camp. I fought with Verizon and we continued our tradition of eating way too much. Cooking duties rotated over the course of our stay and we were treated to amazing entrees (including Mikey’s dutch oven magic!), fabulous sides, salads, and desserts. I’m not lying when I tell you I gained 4 pounds in one week. I thought I took some pics, but apparently I was too busy stuffing my face. Lol.

Lake MacDonald

Hanging out in Tim's palatial 45ft Tiffin coach, which,
to his dismay, I've dubbed the "Deathstar". 

On Tuesday we did another hike and our parking karma had not improved. Mike loves waterfalls and we planned to do a 2.6 mile hike to St. Mary’s Falls. The distance doubled when we had to park at Sun Point instead of the St. Mary’s Falls trailhead. While we got to see three waterfalls on the longer hike, it was brutal. The part we hadn’t planned on hiking was through an old burn scar and in full sun. After seeing the falls, Rog came to the rescue again and went back for the car while Tim, Mike, and I took a shortcut up to the Going to the Sun Road where he could pick us up. We weren’t the only ones struggling and we offered some other hikers a lift back to their car. They had also been forced to park at Sun Point and one of the gentlemen was older, out of shape, and had run out of water. He could have been in serious trouble and we were happy to offer him a ride.

 

Baring Falls was our bonus for the extra miles.

But those extra miles were in full sun through
 the skeletal remains of a 2015 forest fire.

The trail skirted St. Mary's Lake.

Wildflowers along the way.

Rog takes in the view.

St. Mary's Falls.

We hung out at St. Mary's for a while, enjoying the cool spray
 from the falls and then continued up the trail.

Some of the "no name" falls were spectacular!

Upper Virginia Falls. Magnificent!!

The hike back was less fun.
So glad Rog was willing to be our Uber driver.

Wednesday and Thursday the group all did different things during the day, meeting up for dinner in the evenings. Rog and I did a Costco run to Kalispell and stopped for lunch and a beer at Sacred Waters Brewing.

 

Drinking with the locals at Sacred Waters Brewery.
That's one guy I really wanted to take home. Lol.

On Thursday Rog and I decided to explore a part of the park we’ve never seen. Our plan was to drive 20-some miles down a dirt road to Polebridge Mercantile and then enter the park at Camas Creek to kayak on Bowman Lake with Riley. It was a bumpy, washboardy dirt road, but we’d read glowing reviews about the huckleberry bear claws available only at the Mercantile. It’s been in business for 108 years, so they must be doing something right! The bear claws were delicious and I snagged some huckleberry beer bread too. Hey, that’s not something you see every day. And yes, I shared the bear claws, they weren’t all for me. Sigh. 

 

Polebridge Mercantile and their famous Huckleberry Bear Claws. So good!

The parking gods were still angry with us however, because there was a sign at the Mercantile saying the parking lot was full at Bowman Lake. We’d come too far to just turn around, so we went to the Camas Creek entrance and talked to the Ranger. He said Bowman Lake was full, the road was closed and wouldn’t reopen until later in the day. He suggested driving up to Kintla Lake. It was 14 more miles of dirt road and four-wheel drive was recommended, but the Ranger was confident we’d be fine in the Acadia. So off we went.

Crappy road...stunning views. 

An old homestead from 1908.   

Riley isn’t a huge fan of bumpy roads and he certainly had more than his fair share that day. We made it to Kintla Lake, which is probably the most remote lake in the park that you can access by car, and found a parking spot near the beach (yay!). We walked down to check it out before pulling out the kayak. That’s when we noticed the sign that said, “No Dogs On or In the Lake”. What the hell! So after all that driving, not only could we not kayak with Riley, he couldn’t even get his paws wet. Grrrrrr. We made a command decision and let him wade in Kintla Creek, the poor boy deserved some reward for his patience. (And I wasn’t giving him one of my bear claws! Lol.) The lake was gorgeous and we chalked it up as another adventure. To ease our disappointment we stopped at the Polebridge Northern Lights Saloon on the way back for a beer and some lunch. We can always find a silver lining. 

 

Beautiful Kintla Lake.

Rog enjoys the dog-free wilderness view. Sigh. 

Riley wasn't too sure a few minutes in the creek
 was worth the long bumpy ride.

Lunch break.

Friday was our last group activity and, thanks to Mikey and Glen for arranging things, we had a full-day white water rafting trip on the Flathead River. Mike decided white water would probably not be a good idea so soon after back surgery, so he went to visit relatives in Victor, MT. The five of us went with Wild River outfitters and had a great time. Our group had a raft to ourselves with our guide, Chris. The morning was a lazy float with just a few riffles. Then after a yummy lunch, we hit some fun rapids. The river was running a little low, so it was mostly class 2-3. Tim had never been white water rafting, so it was a great introduction - enough for some fun thrills, but not too scary!

Tim, Mikey, and Glen ready for a Wild River adventure!

 

The morning was as easy float.

Rog is ready for some white water.

Careful what you wish for! Lol. 

Group shot and a paddle High Five!

The lovely Flathead River.

The water was crystal clear. I loved the colored rocks too.

Thanks to Glen and Mikey for arranging the trip. 
Looks like they're having fun too!

Our time at Mountain Meadows passed too quickly and we left on Saturday, 7/10. We have a really cool biking adventure scheduled at our next stop. You all know I’m a Rails to Trails kind of gal and this one should be something special. Stay tuned!