Biking the Hiawatha

On August 15th after Jake got off work our family and Jake's Dad drove over to the Montana-Idaho border to meet up with some people from Jake's work for a pretty popular mountain bike ride. The proper name for the trail is the Route of the Hiawatha Rail-Trail. Basically, it is a section of abandoned rail-bed located in a very scenic area. The trail is 30 miles round-trip, a 2000 foot elevation change and includes many tunnels (which a VERY nice for cooling off in). There is one tunnel at the midpoint of the ride (you go through the tunnel and then turn around and go back the same way you just came) that is 1.7 miles long. This tunnel is called the Taft Tunnel. It is AMAZING how DARK it is!!! On the way though the first time Saige & Aspynn both fell asleep in the tunnel, but on the way back they were wide awake holding their glow sticks. Kaden was QUITE the trooper!!! He rode the ENTIRE ride without the smallest of complaints. He did sooooo good. We really thought he would complain about something (after all the ride took a total of 8 hours round-trip) but he never did. I should mention the girls only had the smallest of complaints so they did really well too. Their complaints were things like...."We're hot" and "We're squished", so nothing too bad.
Anyhow...we had a GREAT time!!!

Jake pulled the girls the entire 30 miles. What a trooper he was!!!

LUNCH TIME!!!!

Grandpa pulled Kaden most of the way. I took the job for about 2 miles and then Grandpa was ready for his biking buddy back.

Our Family standing on one of the massive bridges you cross while on the trail. The kids thought it was a lot of fun to throw rocks over the side but my hear was only able to take it for a short time before I would have to load them up in the trailer and back on the bikes where I knew they were safe.

Kaden's bike chain kept coming off so Grandpa pulled over and got it fixed.

Jake and the girls headed into one of the REALLY short tunnels. This is one of the only ones you head into that you can actually see the other side.

This is Kaden throwing rocks at the waterfall just before going into the Taft Tunnel (the 1.7 mile long one). This is where most everyone stops to put on a long sleeved shirt of a jacket because even though it was 99 degrees outside in the tunnel it was more like 60 degrees.

Look how dirty Kaden got on this bike ride. As a matter of fact we later learned that what is all the way up his back was oil and it wont come off his shirt = (

But once again WE HAD A GREAT TIME!!!