Hiawatha Trail

We braved smoky southwestern Montana to check out the Hiawatha Trail with some friends last weekend. We had 16 people total: 4 of those in trailers/tag-a-longs (we felt Hadley could probably have done half easily, but didn't want to deal with the extra bike when she got tired, so she was in a trailer), 4 junior bikers, and 8 adult bikers. It was a little challenging to keep all of those bikers together along the 15-mile descending trail, but it was pretty fun, even in small groups, and everyone did great. Even Owen's bff Carson and his family came over to meet us there!

This was the start of the trail - straight into the 1.6-mile tunnel! It was so dark and cold (about 40 degrees) in there, that headlamps were required to see where you were going. The kids said it was spooky, but they were also howling like wolves, which was pretty funny in its echoes and free-spiritedness. We went through 10 tunnels, but but most were pretty short.

Since it was an old railway, there were not only tunnels, but trestles as well (7 in all). The views were supposed to be even more stunning on a clear day, but the local wildfires prevented us from seeing much. It smelled faintly smoky, but it wasn't too bad for breathing, at least.

Some views of the trail between the tunnels and trestles.

We had lots of chubby chipmunks come out from the woods during our lunch stop.

And we made it - 15 miles! A little saddle-sore and covered in a fine layer of dirt and mud splatters, but not too tired, surprisingly. I guess that's the advantage to an all downhill trail.

But we were definitely glad to be done! So proud of him for biking the whole thing!

The kids were excited to be taking the shuttle back to the top! It actually dropped us off at the first 1.6 mile-long tunnel, so we got to do that one twice.

Here we are making the last couple of miles back to the car, through the tunnel. It was a lovely place and probably worth a return trip in a few years (when we can all bike sans trailers) on a clear day!