Every time we drive down I-90 going into eastern Washington we pass a large bridge with a big sign saying “Palouse to Cascade state park trail”. Ever since I first saw it, I’ve had my eye on the Palouse to Cascade state park trail as an amazing adventure to do some day. Bit of background - It’s a 289 mile trail (350-ish including detours) starting in Cedar Falls near North Bend and going all the way to Treskow on the border of Idaho. The trail follows the old Milwaukee trail (railroad line) and is mostly gravel/sand the whole way. It’s relatively flat (railroad grade) the whole way, with the exception of a few detours that bypass broken bridges/tunnels.
As I was approaching my 40th birthday, it seemed like a very physically challenging and visually breathtaking trip would be a great way to celebrate. I decided to put together a plan and found a way to convince Angela to come with me - and even found a way to bring Sara along for the first day.
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Our first day was 40 miles - starting in Cedar Falls and ending in Easton (small town just on the other side of the pass). The first half of the day included most of the climbing for the day (and for the trip). The trail went through dense forests before climbing up to the side of the cliff overlooking I-90. The last part of the trail before the pass was high up in the Snoqualmie river basin and looked down over the canyon and I-90. It was tough and about 5 miles before we got to the tunnel, we hit a bit of a wall… Our lack of practice rides and the building up heat were taking their toll. Sara was enjoying herself though, especially the breaks where she got to get out and run around a bit. After passing throught the Snoqualmie tunnel (more on that later), we had a long gentle downhill along the lake to Easton. Unfortunately, it was not so gentle that you did have to pedal - so only marginally better than that the western side of the pass. It was beautiful though and we made it into Easton later than expected, but feeling accomplished. We got some burgers and fries to celebrate the days accomplishments and drift off to sleep
The trail was mostly gravel of different sizes and shapes as the ride progressed. On the first day, the gravel was relatively smooth/flat.This video was just a quick sample of what the trail was like to ride on that first day.
The Snoqualmie tunnel is a 2.5 mi long tunnel that goes under the Snoqualmie pass. I think it’s the longest tunnel of it’s kind (bike/pedestrian) and it’s dark. You can see from the pictures that you can’t see a foot in front of you without a light. I had a light on my bike and I gave Sara a hand light so she could see - and to scare away any monsters if it came to that. The entrance to the tunnel is very grand and you can see as you go through it that much of the old railroad infrastructure is still in place. The Milwaukee railroad was the first electrified railroad back in the 20s and 30s - with a series of electric generator substations along the route and a single circuit that moved trains up the hills and recovered some on the downhills. It was a very efficient system for it’s time and it operated all the way through the 70s when diesel engines took over (which are far more economical).
And a quick video:
Day two started out early - I was able to get on the road a little before 6a. Unfortunately, the prior day had taken it’s toll on Angela so I lost both of my trail companions (we were only planning on having Sara for the first day). I stopped about 30 min in for breakfast on the other side of Easton and got on my way. The first part of the day was pretty straightforward and I was able to see some of the sections of the railroad line that were still in operation (backhaul for grain out of Easton/Cle Elum).
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The railroad started to parallel the Yakima river and there were some historic bridges along the way - with the same electrical artifacts as the tunnel (I didn’t learn about the electrification until day 2, so the learnings were applied retroactively to day 1… :) After an hour and a half or so, I made it to the Cle-Elum station - which is one of 2 stations that are still intact along the route. This one was still in operation - at least in terms of the Beanery (railroad speak for the dining facilities) and they looked to have a fairly cool BBQ built out into the station (it was closed when I passed through). They also had a bunch of information about the rail line and how the station evolved from it’s origional construction in 1909 until the railway abandoned it in 1980. Many of the electrification systems were still in place and you could still see the foundation for a lot of the switching yard facilities.
The trail got noticeably dryer as I continued out of Che Elum and after passing through a few more tunnels, I could tell that I was very much in eastern Washington. There were still rivers to be seen, but the plants/animals changes dramatically from forest trees to open plains and farmland. Partway through the day, I learned about the “Olympic Hiawatha” - a pride of the Milwaukee passenger train build in 1947 and used for the next couple of decades. It ran on the electrified lines (at least for part of the trip) and this was a big advertizing play as it was clean and modern. There were several other signs about this train during the trip - not sure if the train exists, but I would love to go see it someday if it does.
A little later I pass the Thorpe fruit stand (didn’t stop there, but definitely would if I did this part of the trail again) and saw my first, and only, deer of the trip. I wrapped up the morning riding through some more farmland and stopped for lunch in Ellensburg. All along the trail, I kept seeing signs for AT&T underground cabling (pictures below). I didn’t find out until the end of day 2 that this is fiber optic cabling that was installed about the same time that the rail line was removed. Apparently, the flat/graded path that the railway provided was the perfect place to install a fiber optic line and I saw signs all the way to the Yakima training center (army base). Another interesting facet of the trail that will probably become a piece of history someday.
The afternoon ride left Ellensburg and went through kittas - the second railway station that still had buildings standing. This one was fully abandoned however and there was a bit of history on some signs and you could kinda see where things used to be. Very cool, but definely not as well preserved as the Che Elum station.
After leaving Kittas, we were definitely in eastern Washingon. Plains had been replaced with desert schrubs and cactus and things were heating up. The next major landmark was the Renslow viaduct (johnson creek bridge). There was a long steep climb up to it and it was one of those things where I knew it was coming, but just didn’t seem to be getting any closer as I went…
The bridge itself was facinating. I don’t know how, but they had a count of the number of rivets used to build the bridge with a level of accuracy that bordered on unbelievable - 16,524 rivets. The bridge currently goes over I-90, but when it was built it went over Johnson creek which was apparently big enough to need a bridge this size but has been since completely diverted into irrigation water for nearby farmland. Not the biggest environmental tragedy of the 20th century, but mildly disheartening…
After the Reslow bridge, the trail entered the Yakima training center (Army training ground). This is where it started to get really hot, the time of day combined with a steap climb up and over the Boylston hill (the first major bypass of the trip as the tunnel is no longer passable). This last leg of my trip for the day was 22 miles and the trail was in good repair and I started to make some good time after getting past Boylston. The trail followed through a series of cuts (through soft granite) and fills. A sign early in this leg mentioned that many of the fills were done recently - replacing bridges that had collaped. I was easily hitting 20 mpg when riding on the fills - they were packed sand and a great riding surface. The cuts were unfortunately crumbling and while the surface was in good shape, I had to slow way down to avoid hitting the rocks. All together, I made good time but it was also getting late in the day and I was eager to get to Beverly.
Side note - I found this odd memorial in the middle of the Yakima training center - “Here lay the remains of Mark Klassen”. I did some googing that evening and the best link I can find is a Milwaukee-based artist (who is still living). Maybe this was some kind of weird art with the Milwaukee trail link? It didn’t look very artistic and the Milwaukee link was weak at best - so I think this one will remain a mystery.
At long last, I came around the last foothill and saw the Columbia. The Beverly bridge (which was just opened in April 2020) was a big step in linking the western and eastern sections of the trail and it was in great shape. For me, it was even more glorious as this was where I was planning to meet Angela to finish up day two. As I got closer and closer to the bridge, I felt an great sense of accomplishment. While this was a little less that halfway through the entire trail, the western section of the Palouse to Cascades trail is something that many aspire to on it’s own. I was very proud of myself and very excited for dinner. :)
And I made it!
I had the goal of getting an even earlier start on day 3 - starting my ride at 6a having already eaten breakfast. The last part of day two had been particularly hot and while I knew I would hit the heat again today, I was hoping to get as much done as I could in the morning before it came. Unfortunately, fate had other plans. When I pulled my bike out of the car, I realized that I had a flat tires in both the front and back tires. It must have been a slow leak since I was able to finish on them the day prior, but now they needed to be patched and reinflated. This took me about an hour and I was finally off at 7a.
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The first part of the ride followed the old Milwakee line along a small creek and adjacent road - both named lower crab creek. The area had a few settlements that were very impoverished followed by some highly dispersed farming operations and homesteads. There was a bridge out about 10 miles in and there was a longish detour that required you to ride on the road for about 7 miles before jumping back on the trail. This is where things started to go south for me. I got two more flat tires (front and back) and had to stop for another hour to fix them. I realized at this point that I was not prepared for this half of the trail and it was seeming less and less likely that I was going to make it. I patched up the tires (2 places on each tire) and used my remaining patch kits. The trail was back on the road in a couple of miles and my hope was that I would get lucky and make it to Othello where I could stop off at an Ace Hardware and upgrade my setup. But even that was not to be, I got another flat tire in my rear tire in another couple of miles - still about 15 miles shy of Othello. I texted Angela to come get me (she was about 2 hours out) and pulled over under a tree to wait. It had been a rough day - riding + 2.5 hours changing tires in the hot sun had taken it out of me. I knew at this point that I wasn’t going to make it - I was in no postion to continue riding today given the condition my bike was in and I expected it would take the better part of tomorrow to get my bike upgraded to the point where I was ready for the rest of the trail (it turned out Ace didn’t have the type of tire my bike uses, so the nearest usable bike shop was over 2 hours away). By the time Angela arived, I had decided that this was it for this trip but I pledged to come back in the fall when things started to cool off. By the time we made it back to the hotel, I read a couple of articles about what I needed and ordered all of the stuff I needed to upgrade my bike (new tubes, Slime, new puncture resistant tires, puncture pads, and spare tubes).
By the next morning, I was feeling downtroden but still very accomplished. I had ridden over 170 miles (halfway) and completed the entire western portion of the trail - nothing to be scoffed at. And I had a mission - I will complete this thing before I turn 41. :)
On our way back to Seattle, Angela suggested we go on a hike. In the spirit of railroading, we picked a trail called the Umtanum trail which was built near a small community that supported the Northern Pasific railway (which is no longer there). The trail goes across a small footbridge (which was a cable bridge back when the community was occupied) and travels across an active railway before heading up the canyon along a creek bed.
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The trail wa highly overgrown and before long the trail disapeared entirely. It was a fun trip for plant spotting - with lots of different flowers and birds along the way. We were hiking alongside another family they seemed to be following us up the creek bed - far beyond the point where the elder (teenage) son really wanted to go. When we turned back and passed them, I overheard him telling his dad - “see, they gave up can we please give up too”. :)
Our last stop before heading back into Seattle was to re-visit the Che Elum railway station when the bbq place was open. When I rode past here on day two the place was closed but it looked realy fun so I convinced Angela to stop here on our way through. The first thing we noticed was the multitude of awards all over the walls from various BBQ competitions - eg “Jack Daniels Tenessee classic”. Many where chef’s choice awards, but there were a number of 2nd and 3rd place awards as well. Given where we were, this was quite impressive. Each of us got some BBQ and we were not dissapointed. Angela isn’t a huge fan of BBQ, but even she cleaned her plate. They also made some beer on site and we purchased some sause and beer to go. I don’t often pass through Che Elum, but this place was worth a special trip.
With that I said goodbye to the Palouse to Cascades trail - See you in the fall!