Suddenly everything went dark. A sense of unease came over me. It was cold and I could barely see. I was afraid and wanted to stop but I had to keep moving for fear that someone would run in to me. I was in a tunnel - one of the 10 tunnels on the trail of The Hiawatha - when I remembered that I was wearing sunglasses.
~Marlene
Stalactites hang from the ceiling of this tunnel. The lights on bottom right are from oncoming bike traffic.
The Creepy St. Paul Paul Pass
I knew that the tunnel would be dark.
The brochure had described cycling through a mile of pitch black with only the glow of LED bike lights to light the way. What the brochure failed to mention was that the tunnel had two way traffic, was wet, had potholes, and ditches full of water that lined both sides of the dark 8,771 foot long tunnel.
Dad had already hit a rut and slipped in a shorter tunnel. He caught himself, but none of us were sure what we would encounter if anyone fell in a ditch.
Outside the St. Paul Pass Tunnel
I felt especially sensitive to subtleties in the environment. As I rode through the tunnel, I noticed every detail.
Water plopped on my head without warning.
Small shadows with indefinite shapes skittered along the walls. Perhaps they were of rocks or dense swarms of gnats. Maybe they were tiny gnomes sneaking around the tunnel. Anything could be disguised.
The damp, gray, cement walls fascinated me. Perhaps even a little too much because staring at them could cause an accidental turn into the ditch. Several times I caught myself from falling in potholes because it was too dark to see anything - even with the bicycle lights.
We didn't take pictures in the tunnel. This is before going in. Notice the ditch of water on the right.
I stayed at the back of our group so that I could easily follow their lights which illuminated the path ahead.
The tunnel took 12 minutes to go through and if it had lasted longer, I might have had a panic attack wondering if I would run into another cyclist or if I would run off the side of the road.
We finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel and escaped the cold tunnel into the warm sunshine.
E and M at the East Portal.
But that wasn't the last we saw of the St. Paul Pass. After lunch we rode through again on our way back to the Pearson trailhead.
~Mallory
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