The Mines of Moria
Snoqualmie Tunnel - Near Hyak, WA
Fresh from our brief encounter with a black bear, I was looking forward to what other wonders lie in store on the Ironhorse/John Wayne/Palouse to Cascades Trail. I knew we’d be in for great mountain scenery as we had made it out of the foothills and were not in the Cascades proper, heading up to the high point of the western half of the trail, the Snoqualmie Tunnel at 2,600 feet above sea level. This would more than double the high point we had reached on the Olympic Discovery Trail some months earlier so I was both nervous and excited to push our limits.
As expected, the trail did not disappoint. The long, gravel path slowly climbed up towards the tunnel at a consistent grade of never more than 2.2%, making for a good workout with the trailer while not pushing me to the point of exhaustion. We were more or less following along Interstate 90, though at a far enough distance that cars were seldom visible and the road noise was easy to forget as we took in the beauty around us. We passed dozens of small waterfalls and a few large rock outcroppings, one of which had people doing technical climbing right off of the trail itself. We paused for a few moments to watch the group ascend the cliff before continuing on. The highlights of this portion were the old train trestles that had been repurposed for the trail while still maintaining much of their original character. The way they curved to match the terrain below made it feel as if these massive structures were almost a part of the natural landscape themselves.
(click photos to enlarge and see descriptions)
The weather was perfect, we were less than an hour’s drive from Seattle, and it was the weekend. That meant one thing, people. The trail was fairly busy, though not enough to ruin the natural feel except for when the occasional groups of 15 or more riders would go by, quickly leaving us behind. We were the turtles of the trail and that was fine, we were enjoying ourselves. In fact, we were so slow that at more than one point, we were overtaken by people out for a run on the trail!
It’s a little embarrassing to have someone outrun you while you’re on a bicycle, but it was so absurd that I couldn’t help but laugh each time it happened. One time, a guy flew by us so fast that I joking told the guy, “Please tell me you’re training for the Tokyo” as the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo were just a few weeks away. Unsurprisingly, he said “no”, but it did give us both a good laugh.
The dogs were also celebrities again as the throngs of people all loved to see the two lazy pups sitting in the back of the trailer while their human huffed and puffed, dragging them up a hill. There were more than a few times that I wanted to let the dogs run loose next to me to give them a chance to stretch their legs and to ease my burden a little, but I typically only do this if we’ve had the trail to ourselves for a long time as I don’t want the dogs to get hit by an unsuspecting cyclist coming around a blind corner. So instead, we just took several breaks and a few short leashed walks which the dogs thoroughly enjoyed.
It was on one of this jaunts that I noticed something. We’d been passing the brown, Carsonite mile marker posts for a while now but I hadn’t noticed that on the bottom it said “Chicago”. Then it really clicked just how vast the Great American Rail was considering we were over 2,000 miles from Chicago. But more impressive, did they really have the entire trail marked, mile by mile, all the way to Chicago? I was looking forward to finding out!
After several hours, we had climbed to the point that we could see what was left of the winter snow melting on the peaks. Shortly thereafter, we came around a bend and saw the large, double arched entrance to the Snoqualmie Tunnel, we had made it! Getting to the tunnel was significant for a number of reasons. It was the high point for the western half of the Palouse to Cascades Trail, it was only open 6 months out of the year due to heavy snowfall, and it was a spot that I had unofficially made as my goal to get to with Captain while she was still alive. And as far as goals go, this was a huge one, literally. The Snoqualmie Tunnel is the world’s longest pedestrian tunnel; at ≈2.3 miles in length, it is roughly 25% longer than the Fyllingsdalstunellen Tunnel, the world’s second longest.
Standing at the entrance of this massive tunnel under the mountains, I felt like we were part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ and our little party was entering the Mines of Moria. It really had an epic feel to it, and rightfully so. As we got ready to enter, we could feel a cold breeze hitting us that even made me a little chilly. This is because the air temperature inside the tunnel is roughly 20 degrees cooler than the outside temperature this time of year. I could actually see my breath. I could see one other thing, total darkness. The 2.3 mile tunnel does not have any lights inside of it, so it is absolute darkness requiring anyone going through to bring a light of their own. Once inside for a few moments, my eyes began to adjust and way off in the distance, 2.3 miles away to be exact, I could see a tiny pinprick of light. It was the literal light at the end of tunnel.
Travel through the tunnel was a bit surreal. It felt a bit like being on a treadmill or stationary bike because there was no real visual reference to confirm that you were moving forward even though you were and at 2.3 miles away, the light is so small and grows so slowly that it doesn’t act as a good frame of reference. The trail surface was mostly flat, though there were some potholes in spots and the constant dripping of water throughout the tunnel gave it a very organic feel. One nice thing, even though it was 20 degrees colder, the extra body heat I generated by pulling the trailer was enough to keep all but my hands warm. I did feel bad for the dogs though as the temperature change was a bit extreme, but they were wearing their harnesses which are about the size of the typical dog coat, so it should have been enough to keep them warm. They never complained anyhow.
The light at the end of the tunnel….
As time went on, the light began growing larger and larger and much more quickly and roughly 30 minutes from when we’d started, we found ourselves exiting the tunnel, officially having crossed to the east side of the Cascades. Having completed our goal, we set our eyes on the next major landmark along our bike touring adventure, the Columbia River.
