Hiking- Biking the Iron Horse trail
posted in Hiking |Kat has been trying to get me to go tackle the Iron Horse trail for some time now.
Sunday we decided to go for it. First we went to the bike store to get some good
bike-lamps and I also got some gloves and some padded bike pants. We headed up
the pass and left my car at the end of the trail and took Kat’s up to the
beginning.
The Iron Horse trail used to be a railroad track through the pass and has
been converted into a hiking and biking trail. Because it used to be for trains
the grade is pretty even the whole way through- its the easiest way to go
through the mountains without lots of up and down. The direction we went is
overall slightly downhill- enough to keep a nice pace while still being a nice
workout. The trail starts off with an almost 3 mile tunnel. The weather in the
area has been close to 100F, but the tunnel was probably around 50 degrees,
cooled by the melting snow run-off. One thing that surprised me a bit about the
tunnel is that it was completely straight- you could see this little speck of
light at the other end over two miles away.
Mostly the path was very nice for biking- dirt and some gravel. There were a
couple of bridge overpasses that were much thicker loose gravel and those were
fairly treacherous. There are also several side-hikes available along the way
that are worth checking out sometime in the future.
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