Riding the Route of the Hiawatha

This activity on my annual bucket list is one of my favorites. The Hiawatha is a 15-mile stretch of an old Chicago Milwaukee & Puget Sound train route turned bike trail, a seasonal part of Lookout Mountain ski area.

Some of the things that make it so cool are the tunnels - there are 10 tunnels, pitch black and chilly. When I say tunnel, I mean TUNNEL - one of them is a mile long! It’s Idaho, so helmets are optional on this trail (thank you!), but bike lights are MANDATORY because of those tunnels.

The trek also has 7 sky-high train trestles, which Steve doesn’t love (heights!), but which are amazing to cross.

The entire trail is on a slight downhill slant, so the pedaling is easy. They have a shuttle that takes you back up toward the top (and that also lets/makes you go through that mile-long tunnel one final time to get back to your car.)

We have done this trip many times, and often it is crowded and lava hot, with long waits for the return shuttle. Montana and Elijah once had to wait here in the summer sun with a nightmare tire blowout on a rented bike. But let me tell you that a weekday in September is the ONLY way to go. We had the place practically to ourselves!

And I love ANY reason to ride my Dutchie bike, a sentimental possession used in the Netherlands and transported back with me so many years ago, that doesn’t get to see much use on the Green Bluff gravel!