Trail of the Hiawatha

What a blast!  Last weekend Aaron and I went on a bike ride called the Hiawatha Trail which is on the border of Montana and Idaho, about an hour east of Coeur d'Alene.  It starts in Montana, and takes you on 17 miles of an old railroad route through 9 train tunnels and over 7 high trestle bridges. 

 This was the start of the trail.  The 1st tunnel is the longest - 1.66 miles through the Bitterroot Mountains which took us from Montana to Idaho.  Everyone is required to have lights on their bikes since they havn't added any lighting inside the tunnels.  They are DARK and COLD!  So we geared up and wore some layers so we wouldn't freeze!  It was amazing to be so deep inside a mountain, what a fun experience!

 Some of the other tunnels were a bit shorter.  This one you can see the whole way through.

 On top of one of the high trestle bridges.  It kinda freaked us out that we could look straight down and see the very top of tall pine trees right beneath our feet!

 

 

 Inside one of the tunnels!

 We rode through the longest tunnel twice.  After we got to the bottom of the trail, a shuttle bus picked us up and took us back to the Idaho side of the long tunnel and we rode back though to our car on the Montana side.  This is the marker in the middle of the tunnel where the Idaho and Montana crew met as they dug towards each other.

 

This video is a little shaky since I'm riding on a bike in a dark train tunnel using one hand to video and the other to avoid puddles!


While we were up north, the Kidd family were nice enough to let us stay with them for the weekend.  They recently found out they're moving, so we also got to help them out by painting a few bathrooms and a hallway to help them get ready for their big move.  We'll miss having them close by!

We went to the beach on Lake Coeur d'Alene with the Kidds and their 3 (1/2) kiddos to gather driftwood for one of Amy's fun projects.

 

It felt so good  to get our feet wet in the waves.... but unfortunately that's not all that got wet!

 

And to end the weekend right, we went to the fireworks show in St. Maries, Idaho, for their annual Paul Bunyan days!

 

Can you guess what their mascot is?    Reminded me of how we used to tease my dad about being a Lumberjack!

 Saw this sign, and I knew we had to get a picture!

Well from this picture, you can tell how close the fireworks were to us.  I wasn't zoomed in and the fireworks were too close for my camera to get the whole shot!  

Happy Labor Day!