The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow tells how the Indian Hiawatha shoots his arrow with accuracy and swiftness. So the name of the rails to trails bike route was named The Trail of the Hiawatha because it runs swift and sure through the Bitterroot Mountains. We rode this trail 4 years ago and it is so unique we wanted to do it again.
Wednesday we moved from Missoula to near St. Regis to stay at the Sloway National Forest Campground on the Clark Fork River. It was still a 40 minute drive to the Hiawatha Bike Trail but we have stayed here before and it is an okay campground except for the trains that run through all day and all night. We took a warm up bike ride along the road from the campground towards St. Regis except that the road is closed now so we only rode 4 miles. St. Regis is a tiny town 5 miles up the road.
This morning we loaded up the bikes on the Jeep and drove to the East Portal of the Hiawatha. Most people ride down the trail then take the shuttle back up to the parking lot. We thought we were physically better so we rode down the 15 miles and back up the 15 miles! Lucky for us it is a 1.7% grade according to the signs. None-the-less our bottoms were bruised and hurting by the time we got back to the car.
The railroad built this route in 1907-1910 with 10 tunnels and 6 trestles on this portion that goes through the Bitterroot Mountains. One tunnel had to be closed due to a fault line running under it. The first and longest tunnel, the Taft Tunnel, is 1.7 miles long with no lights. We were required to have head lights on the bikes or head lamps and a helmet. Once we got past the light from the entrance, it is really dark and cold and damp as there is water running down both sides of the tunnel. It is rather spooky. The other tunnels are shorter - 1700 ft., 970 ft., 760 ft. and shorter. The trestles are 230 ft. to 96 ft. tall. The scenery is beautiful. There is signage all along the route telling how the railroad track was built and the perils of the mountain, weather and other obstacles. It took 3 months to dig the 1.7 mile long tunnel working around the clock. There were 400 men inside digging, 200 outside moving the rocks and 100 men as a support crew.
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