Sometimes a lightweight adventure is exactly what is needed. I'll grant you, a 22 mile bike ride might not fit that bill, but when it's almost all downhill it's not that bad. And even though it was forecast to be in the 80s, there's the breeze that comes from riding down the trail and the fact the first two miles of the trail is in an old railroad tunnel.
This section is the westernmost part of the Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail. The park stretches across almost the entire state of Washington from the wet foothills outside Seattle to dry farmlands to the border with Idaho.
The tunnel takes the trail under Snoqualmie Pass going as deep as 1,400 feet below the surface. It was 30F degrees colder in the tunnel and pitch black. We turned on headlamps and I lit up a new light I was given for testing: a Fenix TK16 V2.0 Tactical Flashlight. 3100 lumens compared to the 300 lumens of my headlamp? Yes, please.
Except when I turned it on I wasn't that impressed. It was pretty much just like my headlamp. What the heck? Oh, wait. Sunglasses. Take off the sunglasses and WOW. That's bright. Way too bright to look at, but great if you're riding through a pitch black railroad tunnel.
The only problem with using such a bright light was when we approached hikers walking the other way. I'd taped the Fenix TK16 to my handlebars so I couldn't easily point it away, but the flashlight has a handy dimming feature so I could turn it down to something less than surface-of-the-sun intensity. (Using a lower setting helps preserve the battery, too.)
Upon exiting the tunnel our ride was uneventful. A lot of people turn around after completing the tunnel, but we'd arranged a car with the bike rack to be waiting at the west end of the trail.
The Snoqualmie Tunnel is 100% recommended both as an escape from the heat and an adventure in its own right. Just remember the tunnel is closed during winter and you need to bring your own jackets and light.
