8/2/2019
We spent the night in Wallace, Idaho.You may not know this but this is the center of the universe since 2004.
Its a really quaint town off I-90 in a mountain valley that just begs you to spend time walking the streets. I wish we had more time to hang out and explore every street. The town has several staircases to get from one street to another as there isn’t much flat ground. The views are worth it!
I guess it snows a bit here and they really want to be able to get around!
Our time in town was at an end as we had places to be. Specifically, the Hiawatha Trail.This is a privately maintained rails to trail path high up in the mountains. I made reservations for us before coming out to ensure we had tickets. The plan was to meet at the beginning higher up in the mountains and pick up our pass. Then we would drive around the 1.6 mile (unlit) tunnel where we would start our unicycle trip.
This is the tent at the East Portal where we picked up or tickets for the ride.
The start of the 1.6 mile tunnel that we drove around. Its hard to explain how 40 degree air blowing from the tunnel was early in the morning! We were second guessing if we would be warm enough for the ride.
We drove (a few miles) around to the West Portal on the downhill side of the 1.6 mile Taft tunnel. This is where the shuttle drops you off after riding downhill. You then have to ride back through the tunnel uphill to get back to your car. This is why we opted to drive around it to save the extra riding.
Starting from the West Portal, we rode 14 mostly downhill miles to the finish. Here are some photos of the journey along the way. This ride included multiple tunnels and trestles (bridges in train speak).
Every mile of the 14 mile trip had views that were this good!
Since the ride was going to be a long one, we made several stops, making sure to get our silly faces in them!
Corvin spent at least 15 minutes working his way through the woods to get to the top of this tunnel for some video. As a dad, I was a bit worried for his safety, but it all worked out!
There were multiple trestles that had amazing views and large drop-offs! On one of the larger ones, we met a couple and talked the gentleman into trying a unicycle. We love sharing our rides with others. He didn’t have much success,but we all laughed and enjoyed the experience.
Its hard not to stop every time and capture the views that were available!
We’ll ride across this one later.
Taking in the view with both unicycles!
Taking in the view with both unicycles!
Earlier, when we picked up our tickets for the ride, we mentioned uni-cycling to the ticket guy and he just played the whole thing off like we were just kidding him. Later we would see him on the trail and he was extremely shocked to see that we were both on unicycles. He said that we were the first unicycles they had seen in the 21 years they had been in business 🙂
Uni-cycling is hard work, and I’m happy that I get to do this with Corvin!
Corvin’s Journal Entry
Our Strava entry.
Our map of completed states.
Stats:
Total Trip Miles: 88.2
Total Moving Time: 17h 18m
Total Elevation Gained: 2172 feet
Total Hogan UPD: 10
Total Corvin UPD: 6
Hogan Haake