Today I hiked a section of a abandoned spur of the St. Maries River Railroad south of Santa to the old tunnel about halfway back to the town of St. Maries Idaho, about an hour south of Coeur d’Alene.
I started my hike at a pullout just south of the State Road 3 bridge over the old line about 30 minutes south of St. Maries Idaho.
If you go south under the bridge, the rail line parallels the river into Santa about three miles away. The old line at one time continued all the way to Boville east of Moscow Idaho. I headed north in to the wilderness.
I immediately crossed a small creek on this bridge. The bluffs in the background looked worth exploring.
Within half a mile, it became evident that no trains had passed this way in a long time. My understanding is that the line was last used about a decade ago.
Large basalt bluffs border much of the route on the inland side of the old rail bed. The St. Maries River is usually right next to it as well.
Old railroad lines can be a little creepy. It is always a good idea to turn around occasionally to make sure nothing is following you. It is North Idah0 after all.
Looking up is advisable too. You never know what’s watching you from above. Also, I’d hate to get hit by a falling rock.
About an hour and a half in, I came across this small bridge over Flat Creek right where it empties into the river.
It was higher than it looked at first.
Walking on an abandoned, but still intact railroad is a little more difficult than it sounds. In some stretches the lack of ballast forces you to walk on the ties and they’re never spaced for a normal stride. The round trip ended up being just over twelve miles, about as long as I want to go in one day.
The old pieces of railroad history scattered along the line and the extreme isolation of this section created a kind of haunted atmosphere. The old telegraph post looked almost like the entrance to a graveyard.
Here it appeared the railroad used old rail cars filled with boulders to create a barrier to protect the line from the river at this outside bend.
Finally I arrived at the first bridge over the St. Maries River. I originally planned to hike to this bridge, the tunnel just after it and then the second bridge but it took longer to get here than I expected so I cancelled the half mile or so each way to the second bridge.
The bridge was an impressive structure with nice views of the river both upstream and downstream.
Immediately after the bridge was the entrance to the tunnel. You could see daylight through it and I would guess it to be less than four hundred feet long. No problem, right?
Actually it was creepy as hell inside. You could see that large chunks of rocks had been falling off the ceiling.
And I thought the north end was creepy. I almost didn’t want to go back through it but my hike out was at an end and it was time to turn around and head back.
The railroad bed on the south side of the tunnel seemed completely different, like it had been abandoned for much longer. The vegetation was much thicker, even on the old rail bed and it was much wetter. The ties had algae on them making walking a little more treacherous. Because the tunnel cut off a long bend of the river, the railroad on the south side was much higher above it than at the other side of the tunnel only a few hundred feet away.
On the return hike a cold drizzle made me curse my luck. Five minutes after I got in my car, a downpour of rain and small hail made me reassess my luck. I guess it was good after all. Six hours from when I started I made it back to my rig and then drove another hour and a half back home. I plan to explore more of the Pacific Northwest’ old rail lines in the future either by foot or bike.
