John Wayne Pioneer Trail July 6

July 6 we drove up to the parking lot at Hyak, the eastern portal to the Snoqualmie Tunnel of the old Milwaukee Road, now part of the John Wayne Pioneer Trail. The tunnel, more than 2 miles long, has been closed due to safety concerns but was opened finally sometime in June. We had purchased LED lights for our bikes, but still, riding through 2 miles of dark was interesting! There indeed was a light at the end, that at first we thought was another biker coming....! Ummmm!  Mike had a LED flashlight in addition to her head lamp which did make things easier to "see". Lindy followed....feeling like the walls were closing in--but after adjusting the head lamp, was able to successfully navigate! The road bed was a little sloppy, with water dripping on our heads in several spots. It was chilly! We had gloves, and sweats over our shorts. As soon as we emerged, however, we shed the gloves and sweats! 

These pictures are at the eastern portal, before we embarked on the great adventure of riding through the tunnel. 

This picture is at the western portal of tunnel 50.

After removing one layer (and stashing those gloves!), and using the facilities, we continued our way downhill (!) over the well-maintained trail. The gravel and ballast, which can be a challenge for a bike. We found a geocache, one of the first, stashed in the first year of geocaching. We have a cool geocoin bicycle we found in Cattail Cover State Park in Arizona, but unfortunately, Lindy changed bags before we left the car, and left the geocoin in the car. We will do the tunnel and trail once more before we depart Washington? Hope so!

Mike's brother drove the jeep back to her dad's house. We rode the trail back to Cedar Falls, and then on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail, back to North Bend and Mike's dad's house. It took 2 hours and 35 minutes of actually riding, but we stopped several times, so actual time out was closer to 5 hours, including the time driving up to Hyak.

It was a great ride, a beautiful day, with grand scenery. Cedar Falls is just over 21 miles from Hyak. We traveled just over 26 miles. A great ride, and the ONLY way to do the trail! We passed several riding up hill, NOT our preference! There are shuttles that operate weekends from Cedar Falls, taking cyclists up to Hyak, for $22. We liked our own personal shuttle, on a weekday with fewer people on the trail!

Here are more of the pictures as we traveled down the trail. A great multi-use trail!