Route of the Hiawatha Bike Trail in Montana and Idaho

The Route of the Hiawatha bike trail is the best mountain trail in Northeastern Idaho and Northwestern Montana. Unlike other bike trails with paved roads and ordinary mountain scenery, the Route of the Hiawatha takes you through silver mining country in its authentic 1800's glory. Over mountain railroad trestles and through Montana border tunnels, you can enjoy the Old Northwest in style. But there's a few things you might want to familiarize yourself with before you take a day-long excursion to the Route of the Hiawatha.

Researching the Route of the Hiawatha bike trail before we actually rode it was an undertaking in and of itself. Even when we called the bike rental for the trail, we couldn't get straight answers as to how to actually get to the trail and how exactly we were supposed to transport bikes along the highway once we rented them. So here's a few pointers you'll find helpful before you take the plunge onto the trail.

First, you don't have to rent bikes to go on the Hiawatha. If you own your own, you can drive there yourself and simply purchase your trail passes. However, if you need to rent bikes, I suggest renting them from Lookout Pass Ski and Recreation Area. They offer both mountain bikes and comfort bikes, though I suggest the mountain bikes for anyone who doesn't want to be there all day. You can expect to pay over $30 for any bike, which includes a helmet and a light, which is required for riding in the tunnels.

You will also need to buy trail passes here, if you don't have a season pass, and that will cost you $9.00 per adult or $6.00 per child up to age 13.

For bike transportation, you'll need to bring a bike rack or a truck with plenty of space in the back to haul as many bikes as you need. If you have 5 people, you are responsible for hauling all five bikes. You cannot ride them to the trail head, since the Lookout Pass bike rental is five miles away from the starting point of the trail along the interstate.

Once you reach the Route of the Hiawatha trailhead, you have two options. You can drive to the parking lot which begins at the big tunnel (which I'll talk about later) at the East Portal trailhead, or you can ride bypass this and drive to Roland trail head to avoid the dark tunnel. We chose to ride the whole trail, so we started at the East Portal.

The very beginning of the trail starts at Taft Tunnel (also known as St. Paul Pass). This tunnel takes you underneath the Montana border and is 1.7 miles long. It is a drippy, somewhat chilly tunnel that is also rather dark if you don't have a lot of people lighting up the path with bike lights. Take care in riding, as one of our riders took a tumble on one of the rougher patches of the tunnel.

There are also gutters 18 inches deep on each side of the tunnel, so ride towards the middle to prevent falling in. It's not fatal, but it causes quite a surprise, and you could get hurt. Bike traffic travels from both directions, by the way, so watch out for oncoming bikers.

Once you exit this tunnel, you're home free. The remaining tunnels aren't near as long or as dark or wet, so if you made it through Taft tunnel alive, you'll be fine.

Throughout the rest of the trail, you'll take pleasure in scenic creeks when you ride over top of railroad trestles, which are just suspended bridges over mountain valleys, basically. If you're afraid of heights, this might not be the trail to take, but the views from each trestle are breathtaking.

There are rangers and park personnel along the way to help you if you get a flat tire or have any other kind of trouble. This is a pack in, pack out trail, meaning there are no trash receptacles. Your bike rental has a water bottle carrier on it, so if you brought water, keep the bottle with you, even if you drink it all. The Lookout Pass Recreation Area sells pack lunches and snacks, but it's hard to tote lunches on your back and they're rather expensive, so we just brought snacks in a small drawstring bag with a jacket and sunglasses.

Speaking of jackets and clothing, one of the bike trail's most notorious features is "skunking." When you ride through the wet tunnels, the wet, somewhat muddy substance on the trail flings up onto your bottom and back, creating a skunk tail along your backside. Don't wear good clothing, and think about packing a light jacket for the cooler tunnels if you tend towards a chill on your biking trips.

When you're all finished for the day, the shuttle will pick you up at the end of the trailhead. On weekdays, the last shuttle leaves at 4:15, and on Saturday and Sunday, 5:45. The trail only takes between 2 and 4 hours to ride, depending on your pace, so you should make great time if you leave just before or after lunch as we did. The shuttle will take you back up to the end of the Taft tunnel, where you'll have to ride back through if you rode through it the first time, since the shuttle cannot make it through this tunnel.

I had a wonderful time riding the Route of the Hiawatha. The only thing I didn't like is that the packed gravel grew tiresome to ride on during the last 10 miles or so (after we crossed the Montana/Idaho borderline). Other than that, I really have no qualms about the adventure, and would consider doing it again sometime. If you're visiting Northwestern Idaho during the spring, summer, or early fall months, this is a must-do activity for sure!

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