The Hiawatha Route bike trail

[montanan]

The Milwaukee road is long gone, but one can still visit the breath taking scenery that it passed through from Avery, ID towards Haugen, MT on the Hiawatha Route bike trail, which travels over the old right of way of the Milwaukee Road, over trestles and through tunnels. Here are a few pictures.

[montanan]

Here are a few more pictures taken along the bike trail.

[LoudMusic]

Wow, that's fantastic. I'm planning my trip now!

[otiscnj]

This is on my bucket list.

[Rico]

Sad to see the rails gone but good to see that they are preserving it this way.
Great shots!

[montanan]

Here is a Google Earth picture that I have overlaid the route that the mainline takes between Avery, ID and where it cuts south between Haugen and Saltese, MT. The route is double that of a straight line. Being that this was done near the turn of the century, it is one amazing engineering feat.

[tootnkumin]

That is some truly dauntingly rugged country to even dream of putting a rail line through. They must have been courageous people that surveyed, planned and built it.

[MRLdave]

I don't know how much the forest has closed in, but when I rode the trail I tried to vjsualize traveling the route in a train at 40-50 mph. I'm not sure what speed the trains were doing thru this section, but it felt pretty tight at bicycle speeds.......the scenery would be a blur at higher speeds. Adding to the difficulty was this is all electrified line.

[montanan]

I was only 10 to 12 years old when I got to ride on this line, and being a kid, I wasn't the best judge of speed, but I doubt that the speed was anything near 45 to 50 mph. I would guesstimate that the speed rarely got over 30 mph until the train got to water level nearing Avery. As you said, with all of the tight turns, plus the down hill grade, speeds were probably limited.
That sure is some beautiful country and mist have been quite a job to build.

[tootnkumin]

There would have been some squealing of wheels against rails and hissing of air then.