Bike the Trail of the Hiawatha

Over the long Memorial Day weekend was the first of our “authentic” Montana adventures. I’m not being ironic when I say that it was the best of times and the worst of times. Melissa (my sister) and I decided (on Mom’s instruction) to plan out something fun for us to do as a family over the weekend. We decided to bike the Trail of the Hiawatha in Idaho.  The route of the Hiawatha follows the path of the old railroad through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It was a real blast. You take care of everything there. You rent your mountain bike, and then pedal to the bottom of the hill, then you take a bus almost all the way back, so you only have to bike uphill for a little bit. I say a little bit, but I really mean like 3 miles. The path in total is a bit less than 20 miles in total. It sounds like a lot, but it’s really just an afternoon.

So we get there a bit before lunch and pull up to the kind of sketchy rental lodge, where the people are very friendly, but the place is very unkempt. We sprung an extra couple of dollars for the “comfort ride” seats. I am not sure how uncomfortable the normal ride seats are, but these were not luxurious by any means. We also got a little tagalong trailer to put my sister’s 18-month old in. Then we loaded up the bikes and drove to the trailhead.

Because the trail follows the old railroad, the only really terrifying parts are going through the train tunnels that are blasted straight through the mountains. Right off the bat, you have to go through the longest one, which is more than two miles long. They are cold, damp, and dark. You get a little clip-on light for your bike so you can see, but that is not much help. It’s still pretty dark. A lot of them have water dripping from the ceiling. The tunnels are also curved, so there was no “light at the end of the tunnel” until you were nearly at the end. The first tunnel was the worst because it has a two foot deep trench on either side that you must avoid, or you’ll get cut up pretty badly.

The (first) big scary tunnel

Once you get past that, it’s a sunny, nice ride through rolling hills. You get to ride over train trestles that are hundreds of feet in the air, and down winding mountain trails. It was really lovely. We stopped for lunch and saw some squirrels that were not adequately afraid of people. It was really truly lovely. We had a great time. Well, we. The baby did not enjoy this thing too much. But he put up with it. By the end, my bum was hurting from all the sitting, despite the comfort seats, and I have one bad knee joint that was acting up, but I was still able to make it through. As soon as we got into the car, the sky opened up and it began to pour rain. We were pretty lucky.

After a long day of bike riding, it was time to go to our motel. Mom had apparently been shopping around, and found us a place in Saltese, Montana, which has a population of about 28. That isn’t like an exaggeration or anything. There are really no people there. We stayed at a combination motel and hunting supply store called Mangold’s. This was a perfect example of “you get what you paid for”. For 50-ish bucks, we had the finest room in the establishment. In future, I would likely choose somewhere that does not also sell guns. If you would like to take this ride, there’s a Super 8 in Wallace, Idaho that is conveniently located.

After checking in to Mangold’s, it was time for dinner. Saltese, with its ample western charm had a combination restaurant-bar-casino that was two doors down from the motel. However, as I mentioned in this post, I have a deeply rooted phobia of taxidermy. As soon as we set foot into the tavern, there was a 500 pound cougar looking RIGHT AT YOU from the wall. It was at this moment that I had my first panic attack in more than a decade. Yikes. I calmed down a little, and my sister then went to scope the place out to see if it would be okay, and she said that there was not three feet of wall that was not covered in dead things. You name it, they had it. We did not stay there. Although, the menu left something to be desired so maybe it was for the best.

We ended up finding a place in Wallace to eat called the Smokehouse BBQ and Saloon. It was fine, but you really couldn’t be a vegetarian. That's a theme in the rural parts of Montana though. There was a lot of meat. The food was okay though. We spent the night at Mangold’s, and then drove back to my sister’s house. It was certainly a memorable weekend. If you're interested in having this particular adventure, you can find out more at http://www.ridethehiawatha.com/.