Bicycling the Iron Horse Trail
(Photos below)
September 11, 2005
Our backpacking trip to the Enchantment Lakes that we had been planning with Brian and Hannah was rained- and snowed-out. So to compensate we opted for a day hike to the Upper Enchantments (described here: Hiking the Enchantment Lakes) and a bike trip up Snoqualmie Pass on the Iron Horse Trail.
Feeling lazy, we started at the gravel parking lot at Exit 38, near Olallie State Park. (To do the trip right, you should start at Exit 32 at Rattlesnake Lake, the true beginning of the Iron Horse.) We quickly realized that the one-day hike to the Enchantments over Aasgard Pass had taken a major toll on our quads. Each of us felt awful, just awful. But we persevered and wobbled on up the trail, taking plenty of breaks for views on the trestles and for lunch at the lovely little bike camping areas that State Parks has built.
The Iron Horse is really a neat experience, full of good views and surprises. And it's a refreshing way to bicycle--on a non-motorized (at least theoretically) and well-graded road. It's fun to stop and watch the rock climbers too. After an unspecified period of agony and bitter humiliation at our rather pathetic stamina we finally reached the top of the pass where the trail enters a 2.25-mile long tunnel that emerges at Hyak on the east side of the pass summit. We turned on our headlamps and gamely entered the Mines of Moria. After pedaling for about 3/4 of a mile we stopped, turned off our lights, and enjoyed the darkness.
Finally, we turned around and began the descent and realized the sweetness, the beauty, the sheer perfection of gravity when it's working for you. Our ride back to the cars was quick and darn near effortless. Based on Brian's bicycle odometer we think it's about 14 miles from Exit 38 to the summit, giving us a nearly 30 mile ride. Not bad when you consider that none of us could even walk properly.
The Mine Creek trestle, a typical bridge on the west-side Iron Horse Trail.
Hannah, Jill, and Brian come cruising up Snoqualmie Pass.
Eric takes a breather beside an old snow shed designed for locomotive helper engines.
A northern harrier poses atop a sign for us. He kept leading us up the trail toward the pass.
Looking toward the freeway near the top of Snoqualmie Pass.
A sign at the top of the pass says 13.1 miles back to the car (actually the sign posting proved somewhat unreliable relative to Brian's bicycle odometer, sometimes giving the mileage too high and sometimes too low).
Eric and Jill pause at the entrance to the 2.25 mile long Snoqualmie Tunnel.
A flash photo taken perhaps 1/2 mile inside the tunnel. You may notice that Hannah (on the left) is wearing dark glasses. It was only at this point, after biking in the dark for many minutes, that Hannah noticed she was still wearing her sunglasses.
A typical view of the Cascade forest along one of the drainages that cross the Iron Horse Trail.
Jill and Hannah celebrate as they descend the last few feet of trail back to our starting point.
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