I know I know. There are a ton of pictures in this post. But guys it was so fun and amazing, I am putting almost ALL the pictures in this post.
So Lauren and Darcy did the Hiawatha Trail last year. They had a great time with their kids and decided to do it again. So at Barker Baptism on June 01 they invited us to come do it with them. Now we had already booked Koocanusa for around that time and with some fancy maneuvering, corporation from Grandma and Grandpa, ordering headlamps for 6 that were strong enough and booking time off work we made it happen! It also involved bringing EIGHT bikes 650km away. We tried to connive all of my family to do it in conjunction with the Chipman thing in Koocanusa- but the rest of them were not interested at all.
It was so much freaking fun. Have you heard about the Hiawatha Trail?
We agreed to meet the Bennetts between 8:30-9:00 am at the start of trail. Our campground was an hour and a half away from the trial head and so we were up bright and early to drive. Packed to the nines- seriously we WAAAY over packed. Online it says it takes 2.5-3 hours to do the trail- we figured with kids it was going to take longer. So we packed lunch and snacks and LOTS of water.
We stopped for our tickets and then headed up to the trail head to meet Bennetts.
Hiawatha is 15 miles long with 10 old train tunnels along the way. The first part of the trail is the first of many tunnels. The St. Paul Pass Tunnel that goes from Montana into Idaho, its 1.66 miles long. Pitch Black and cold- man was it fun!
Grandma has a hard time with tunnels so she drove around the first tunnel and met us after, which was totally fine. Grandpa had Remy behind him on his bike, the tag a long doesn't fit on Justins bike, and I knew if I had her on my bike I was going to slow everyone down. So Grandpa kindly had her on his bike- which also took some time and figuring durning the planing stage.
Right off the bat in the tunnel we had a few problems with headlamp and some people rushing- we got split up. Which was fine and we all met up on the other side.
Covered in mud.
Remy's face and sweater covered in mud.
Remy is such a trooper and if you know her personally you know this. You know that she is an easy going, happy, let's do this kinda kid. Remy said nothing in the long tunnel about getting soaked in mud- Grandpa asked if she was getting wet at one point and she said "a little" and then nothing else. By the time we took a look at the end, her face was splattered in mud yet she was smiling! Annaliesse and Barker also got rather muddy, but just on their backs. Lucky for this OVER PACKING Mommy I had put a jacket in my bag for Remy as well as the hoodie she was wearing. So we took the wet muddy hoodie off and had a nice warm clean jacket for her and away we went.
Now if we are being honest, we flew down the trail. The kids were thrilled to be on bikes, with friends, in the fresh Mountian air. We all were- and so we had a great time. We stopped a few times for breaks, but we were having too much fun to stop. By the time we reached each new tunnel the kids were, lots of times, half way though already. The views were amazing.
We concurred this trail in 2 hours and 10 minutes.
The kids ate a few snacks and drank a bit of water but our bags were still loaded at the end.
I highly recommend doing this with your kids.
It was amazing.
A highlight for 2019 for sure.
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