The Trantum's joined us for a bike ride on the Hiawatha trail. It's been called one of the most scenic stretches of railroad in the country. Winding through ten tunnels and over seven high steel trestles, the 15 mile route crosses the rugged Bitterroot Mountains between Idaho and Montana. The route of the Hiawatha is best known for the long, dark St. Paul Pass or "Taft" tunnel which burrows for 1.7 miles under the state line.
the Trantum-Charette crew about to go through a tunnel
Charette's: J, K and C
Trantums: Tina, Jakob, Zach, Aric
Trantum-Charette crew
You have to bring a flash light and jacket for the tunnels, especially the Taft tunnel, which is pitch black, freezing cold and wet! This is all I could see... Tina's tail light on her bike. To the left of her tail light and up just a bit is the tunnel opening. Light!
between the mountains you can see one of the trestles
crossing a trestle
Tina looking over the edge. J is probably laughing at me because I'm about to hurl at the sight of Tina leaning on the rail. The highest trestle is 850 feet long and 230 feet high.
I'm not a fan of heights so unfortunately this is as close as I was getting to the edge. Too bad because I'm sure it would have made a great picture looking down.
the boys resting at the end... waiting for the shuttle bus to take us back up to the top. Zach is giving the piece sign... C is giving his age (3).
C was excited he got to ride a school bus for the first time!
Yeah! We made it. The shuttle takes you from the bottom of the trail up to the Taft tunnel. Then you get to ride through the Taft tunnel (1.7 miles) a second time to get to the parking lot. J and I have done the Hiawatha trail 3 times now, but this was the first time with C. This was also the first time we started at the top and only rode it down. The other two times we started at the bottom, rode up 15 miles then down 15 miles.
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