Today was a beautiful day, sunshine and the pleasant warmth of a Spring sun. It was also a slow day for me. With the 61 miles yesterday, I still had too many miles left to get to the the summit of Lookout Pass in a day. I therefore took my time to leave St Regis. The last thing I did there was to have some more Huckleberry flavoured ice cream - yummy.
Just outside St Regis the road passed through lovely views of the farms and surrounding hills/mountains.
The next rail trail on our cross-USA trip is the Ride of the Olympian. It starts next to the St Regis River outside St Regis. The entire about 19 miles I cycled today shows that it is a multi-use trail with motorised vehicles allowed.
It was beautiful to cycle among the trees.
A culvert washed away in an earlier flood and the detour
is a beautiful All-TerrainVehicle (ATV) route. There are wooden structures on both ends of the route to prevent larger vehicle from using the detour.
A view towards the washed away structure.
The scenery is wonderful. In the distance you can make out a cutting for the Interstate 90. The I-90 follows the same valley up the mountain. You almost always hear the traffic, but rarely see them. The trees along both river banks are a perfect screen.
There are not many markers along the trail. What we enjoyed on other trails is the presence of mile posts. This will give you a better idea where you are along the trail. This would be very helpful further along the trail where it gets quite remote with no villages nearby.
There are sections of the trail that require surface maintenance. The potholes and the larger loose stones are a nuisance but, overall, this did not detract from the beauty.
More views of the valley, the river and the Trail.
At two points the trail cuts under the I90. The original rail line followed the smoother grade line along the river while the road cuts straight across the valley. There are so many beautiful camp sites.
Talking of trail maintenance, I was slowly getting fedup with the potholes when I came to this tresle AND a section of the trail that has recently been maintained. It was a smooth ride from here.
The river cut into the railway embankment here and I also prefer the lower cost option of putting a slight kink in the road rather than building river training works to reinstate the original alignment.
At another place more than a half mile of trail washed away and the detour is the current road. You can see one of the smaller culverts that survived but not part of the active trail at this stage.
Another bridge with the I-90 in the distance. You will see a signpost advertising a store, 50,0000
Silver Dollars as well. This is at Haugan where I decided to stay over for the night.
I have two questions for you all; (1) Did I stop and if so, (2) what did I have?
This is a huge building and a total tourist trap. I must say I am glad that I am on my bicycle otherwise I would have bought some goodies/stuff. :):):)
The weather forecast shows lots of rain for this area tonight and the entire day tomorrow. I therefore decided to delay the last section up to the summit until after the rain. There is still quite an amount of snow at the higher elevations and trying to cover this section while it rains, may increase the risks. Tomorrow will be a rest day - yippieee!!!
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