Riding the Rails

August 7, 2013 – Wednesday
Our plan today is to make it to Hayden, ID so we arose early, but we got a little delayed at the dump station. Got to chatting it up with someone already there dumping tanks. You know, this is like the morning chat around the water cooler in the office, for RVers. Well, maybe not, but it delayed our departure a little. For a place to camp close to Glacier, you can’t beat Johnson’s Campground for location, price, and overall nice folks.

The scenery along US 2 is awesome. We had heard they were doing repair on 2 up by Libby. In Kalispell, Lynn saw a sign for closure of US 2 up that way, so we made a detour down MT 35 and along the west side of Flathead Lake to MT 28. MT 28 had some pretty big grades and wasn’t much to write about, but MT 200… Wow! It was an easy tow and gorgeous as you travel along the Clark Fork river with mountains along side. We got to Alpine CG about 3:30 PM Pacific Time.

August 8, 2013 – Thursday
We made a morning run to Wal-Mart for groceries and a Mobil 1 oil change, then to a car wash. The truckie deserved a little TLC, so today was its day. Our stop in Hayden, ID is to visit family, so we are heading there next, to spend the afternoon and evening. We had a nice dinner on the patio of the White House Restaurant with Gayle and Paul. It’s been a while since we have seen them and it was great getting caught up on things.

August 9, 2013 – Friday
Today is to be an adventure. Paul is taking us over to bike the Hiawatha trail, a 15 mile railroad bed converted to a bike trail. The rail line was used by the Milwaukee RR from the early 1900s until they went bankrupt in the late 70s. The route takes you through tunnels and over trestles. The scenery is breath taking and it’s downhill, so you don’t really work too hard. The first tunnel is a dooesy, 1.7 miles through a mountain. There are no lights so your bike has to have a headlight and it is cold; maybe 50 degrees. It really is more like a cave than a tunnel. Lynn had trouble adjusting to riding in the darkness and could not keep her balance, so we actually walked it.

Along the way are interpretive signage telling about the Milwaukee Line. Imagine the 1910 time frame as these guys had to span canyons with the trestles, and cut through the mountains for the tunnels. That first tunnel took over two years to complete. There was an interesting story about a guy name Johnson that set 25,000 pounds of dynamite to blast away some of mountainside down the line. Sounds like a lot of TNT right? Yep, and when it blew it showered the construction camp below with huge rocks wrecking it. Fortunately, no one was in camp at the time, but they had to find another location after that.

Definitely two thumbs up on this one. If interested, check out
http://www.railworks.com/railworks-great-works/bike-trail-showcases-railroad-construction-wonders
Some pictures follow.

We then went back to their place for dinner and to catch up on Polina’s day camp activities. It sounded like she had a good time. After a great dinner we had to say good bye, but first Polina wanted to see the camper. After a tour of the inside, she asked to see the outside, the top to be more exact, so up the ladder she went! I could really use her courage up there when it’s time to wash the roof.

August 10, 2013 – Saturday
Next on the itinerary are visits to Mount Rainer and Mount St Helens, so we traveled to Packwood, WA today. About 200 miles were along I-90 which was mostly boring. However, as we approached the Columbia River gorge the scenery made a drastic change and became really pretty. The truck got a work out on I-83 and US 12, lots of 5-6% grades 2+ miles in length. It pulled it OK, sometimes as low as 3rd to get up the hills. US 12 was spectacular, although a bit white knuckle with the bends and grades. White Pass at 4800 feet was the highest, a climb from about 2500 feet. At our campsite you could see Mt Rainer if not for the clouds.