The Hiawatha Trail

Saturday was a beautiful day to do something together as a family. We had Uncle Paul and our neighbor, Tim, staying the weekend with us so we dragged them along. We made plans with some friends, Mike and Linda, to go ride our bikes on the Hiawatha trail. The Hiawatha Trail is an old train track that has been converted into a gravel bike path. It is 15 miles long, a gradual down hill slope most of the way. There are several tunnels and trestles that we went through and over during our ride.

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At the beginning of the trail is the big tunnel which is 1.7 miles long. Whew! It's a BIG tunnel. Tom bought us all flashlights (1.00 store flashlights) and he had a nice LED light on his helmet. Needless to say, the dollar flashlights were pretty much worthless in that tunnel. I was really glad that Tom had that LED light. I just followed him. The weird thing about being in a deep dark tunnel, on a bike, is that I kept losing my balance. My equalibrium kept going off. Also not to mention, there are ditches on either side of the trail through the tunnel that are 18 inches deep, full of water. So I had to keep my bike from going into those also. I did end up walking my bike through most of it. It was kind of neat, in a weird-creepy kind of way. Once we were back in the sunshine, it was great. The fall colors were starting to show. There were lots of wild flowers, and it was just cool to ride along the trail, looking at the mountains and trestles off in the distance.

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We stopped for lunch at about the half-way point and enjoyed sitting in the sunshine eating our sandwiches next to a little creek. There were a lot of people riding the trail, so it was kind of neat to just watch everyone. Mike and Linda brought their granddaughters with them, and they had fun running around with Winston. (Tom was the lucky one who got to tow Winston on the back of his bike). We got back on the trail after lunch and right away I noticed that my bike was harder to pedal than it was before. I thought to myself, "Whew, I must really be getting tired." That's when I noticed that my tire was flat. When I caught up with Tom, we tried to fix it. Luckily we had purchased a can of 'fix it' for the flat tire. It worked, but only for about a half mile. We still had almost 7 miles to go. So all of the boys, including Paul and Tom, took turns riding my bike the rest of the way. I am really grateful that they were willing to do that. Otherwise, I'd still be on the hill trying to ride down.

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When we reached the end of the trail, we were just in time to catch the shuttle bus back up to the top. It was an interesting bus ride. Kind of like those bus rides people take in the middle of Mexico. Mountain straight up on one side, cliff straight down on the other - and people trying to drive their cars in the opposite direction. Busses take up a lot of road, so there were a couple of times we weren't sure if anyone would have to back up. We survived the ride and the bus dropped us off on the mountain side of the BIG tunnel. Soooo - we had to ride back through the 1.7 mile-long tunnel to get back to our cars. Tom happened to be riding my bike, so we just walked our way through. Poor Paul had taken Tom's bike, with Winston on the back, so he had to entertain our little wild child on the other side while we slowly made it through the tunnel.

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Despite the flat tire and the BIG tunnel, we all had a great time. It was beautiful, and as tired as we were at the end we were all glad we went. I recommend it to anyone who is an outdoor enthusiast, or just likes to do something with the family that is fun and recreational. It is definitely worth doing again!