Have you read this book? Anyone who is hiking the west this summer should read about this mother of a fire storm. It's a fantastic read about the first forest fire the then new US Forest Service had to deal with. It was so big that it changed the global weather pattern. It started in the Panhandle of Idaho. One of the main characters in the book is a brand new train and its wildly expensive track.
The fantastic train track is now a rail trail. The path is like riding on an HO train set, you know, like the ones they put up around Christmas time, with matchstick Trestle bridges and mile-long tunnels. That is this trail: 11 tunnels and 9 high trestle bridges. The best part is the 15 mile route has a shuttle from Lookout Pass Ski Area. So the entire ride is downhill!
Even though pets aren't allowed, Utah, being a service dog, came. I didn't want the poor old gal to run the whole way, so we rented a trailer and I pulled her along.
This is a weird perspective, looking straight down a 212 ft high trestle.
What did I tell you? A real life train set.
Then we went to the St. Joe river. Kevin fished while I puttered, hiked a little, and crocheted.
The little town of Avery had a great little museum, including pix of characters in the Big Burn and stories about the guy who designed the penultimate fire fighting tool, the Pulaski. You can hike to the mine shaft where Ed Pulaski hunkered down with his whole crew as the 1910 fire storm passed over.
It's a great book, great bike ride, and beautiful area in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest.
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