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Hiawatha’s Trail
November 11, 2008
 Hit the trail for a ride through railroad history
By Dave Reese
The dank concrete walls seeped with water and filled the ruts in the dirt road as we rode our bicycles quietly through the old railroad tunnel. Our headlamps shot narrow beams of light through the long, dark tunnel, through a blackness so intense that by shutting off your light you were immediately engulfed in utter darkness.
We rode on and on, drawn toward a small distant spot of light, the proverbial "light at the end of the tunnel." Reaching it, we were thrust back into the world of light and life, having just emerged from the first of several tunnels on the Hiawatha Trail.
The Hiawatha bicycle trail is a former Milwaukee Railroad line that winds up, through and over Lookout Pass on the border of Montana and Idaho. Nearly a century ago, this railway pass was built to haul cargo through some of Montana's toughest country: steep mountains and rocky gorges that tumble toward narrow, flat-bottomed valleys where creeks meander.
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