Hiawatha Trail

It's been awhile since i posted anything so i thought i'd share a few pics from a family bike ride last summer. This particular trail is part of the Old Milwaukee railroadl....one of the first RR lines heading West from back in the gold rush days. Towns would establish overnight back then, and many of those old railroad towns are now ghost or decayed. You can still research them and even along the Hiawatha trail you can see visible evidence of life...old leather cowboy boots, shriveled up to an un-noticeable state. Glass...from 100's of broken beer and whiskey bottles mostly centered around the old whiskey saloons and even remnants of old structures. Most of the towns catered to the old boys and gals who made working and traveling on the railway their life.....brothels, and watering holes were a necessity it seems.


But anyway......and now, here in the states converting those old railways into recreational trails is very popular. You can find them in just about every state, and here in Montana and Idaho we have the proclaimed "Hiawatha" , and it's about as scenic as she gets. Along the 15 mile route you encounter countless old tunels, many require a front lamp to make it thru. My kids absolutely loved'em. The surface is crushed limestone and the grade is fairly flat......it's just a nice relaxing ride, one that i try to do about once per year.


I'll try to edit in a link a little later