EATONVILLE, Wash. — On one of those perfect summer days when Mount Rainier appears to be posing for postcards, we met pre-teen Bailey Johansen, a fan of bubble machines, Siberian Huskies and telling it like it is.
We'd seen her finishing up her ride at RailCycle Mt. Rainier before it was our turn and we wanted to know what it was like.
After a big sigh she said "My butt is literally sweating from that."
So we were warned we'd be getting a workout as we began our mile and a half journey down an old Milwaukee Road track that had been silent for decades.
Not anymore. Not since these pedal powered rail cycles came to the mountains.
"It's just fun being able to bike and not have to worry about where you're going because it's on the track," said Marley McGee, one of the supervisors. "There's no way to go wrong."
How could we go wrong? We started ahead of everyone else and we've got pedal power provided by my son Cooper.
It's a smooth ride, mostly downhill.
"You get to bike right next to your friends without worrying about the car next to you," said McGee. "And you can chat and have fun."
We're the first to roll into the camp at the bottom of the ride.
Turntables are used to flip the Railcycles so they're facing the right direction for the journey back. While that happens most of the cyclists relax and play games.
On the way back there's a bit more climbing involved. We begin to understand Bailey's comment about sweating.
"You get a good little bit of exercise," said Randall Bo. "It gets the heart rate up a little bit and you get to see the mountain and trees and butterflies floating around and everything. So it's really nice. A lot of fun,"
And on that point even the very honest Bailey Johansen agreed.
"It was fun," she said. "Really really fun,"
"Would you do it again?" her grandmother asked.
"No," she said.
And her family laughed.
With RailCycle Mt Rainier, families rent the railcycle which will cost about $160 for four passengers. They're scheduled to run though October.
Here's more big news: after a two year hiatus, Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad is scheduled to start steam train excursions on the first of September.
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