John Wayne in the Rain

While Valerie was having "fun" at Ikea yesterday, I had taken the two older kids out with me to ride bikes on a long stretch of the John Wayne trail.

We left very early in the morning, around 5:30 AM and stopped off in North Bend for a quick breakfast. We then headed to Rattlesnake Lake (I-90 Exit 32), the Cedar Falls trailhead and caught a new shuttle service they are are running.

There is a small bus with a trailer there which will take you up Snoqualmie Pass to Hyak (Exit 54). The plan was to then ride back to the van which we had left back at Rattlesnake Lake. This was to be a 20.3 mile ride if ridden straight through along the John Wayne Pioneer Trail.

We were a little hesitant about going yesterday as when we woke up, despite the calendar saying August, the weather outside was strictly October. It was raining very hard when we pulled out of the driveway at home.

Typically, if the weather here is rainy, up in the mountains it is a torrent. The kids and I had been very excited to go though so we decided to pack some warm clothes and just go for it. If you wait in Washington for the weather to be perfect before you do anything, you're never going to be doing anything.
As we sat in the car waiting for the shuttle bus at Rattlesnake Lake, it was really pouring rain. The rain continued as we loaded up the bikes, paid our fare and were on the way.

About 1/2 mile from the trailhead at Hyak, is the 2.3 mile long Snoqualmie Tunnel. We figured we'd just hit the trail very quickly and make our way to the tunnel. Where we would at least have a respite from the rain for the two miles of tunnel.

I have a bit of a personal history with the Snoqualmie Tunnel. It is a now abandoned railroad tunnel that was built from 1912-1914. Back in the summer of 1994, when Valerie and I were still pretty much newlyweds and were working very hard to make our way through the college years, I spent a whole summer working in that tunnel basically shoveling mud for $4.90 an hour.

The tunnel has temps year-round in the 50's with a constant breeze as the wind passes from west to east. There are no lights in the tunnel and the tunnel is long enough that when you are in the middle, there is just a pinprick of light visible from both ends. It is a smothering kind of darkness in there.

This picture illustrates that. You can see the end of the tunnel visible just above Josh's head. Water drips constantly throughout the tunnel from the ceiling and every surface is covered in soot.

When working in the tunnel, we had to work by small lights powered by gas generators. To add to the fun, the small group of guys I worked with was teamed with a group of inmates from the State Women's Penitentiary in Purdy that came from prison daily to work in the tunnel with us. So picture youself working in complete darkness with a group of convicted felons with shovels an pick axes.

This was probably my WORST JOB EVER. Mike Rowe would have been impressed. The things you do to pay the rent when you are young.

That was a lot of years ago, so I digress...

The tunnel is now very popular with hikers and bikers for the historical and creepiness factors that abound. We took out of flashlights and passed through the tunnel very quickly. We were happy to emerge on the other end and find that the weather had cleared up just a bit.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon making our way down the road, exploring side trails, and of course finding a few geocaches along the way and hiding one of our own. We really had a very nice time.

We had in our minds somehow that since we were starting at the summit of the pass and were heading back down to the trailhead, that the path would be more downhill as in a lot of coasting. That really wasn't the case. You do descend a few hundred feet in elevation but since the trail follows the old railroad grade, the descent is very gradual. The grade at no point is any steeper than 2.2%. All in all though, the gradual slope makes for a very pleasant ride.

We ended up with our side diversions traveling 22.5 miles in total. I was very proud of Josh. He just first learned to ride a bike a few weeks ago and now had successfully ridden quite a long ways. He was dragging the last four miles but all in all he did great.

When we got home, the kids just zonked out within seconds of walking in the front door. This is a sign of them having had a good time.