Palouse to Cascades - Round 3!

Success at last! This was my third attempt at the Palouse to Cascades state park trail. The trail runs for ~300 miles from Cedar Falls (near north bend) all the way to the border with Idaho (near Tekoa). This trail is a beast - but after three attempts, I finally made it.

Before I jump into this trip, a bit of history. There is a bridge that goes over I-90 as you are going east from Seattle. It’s a pedestrian bridge, but it seems like it’s in the middle of nowhere so it’s notable and it has a big sign on it that says “Palouse to Cascades”. About two years ago, this sparked my interest and I discovered that this was a trail that followed the old Milwaukee road rail line across the entire state of Washington. Having done the Seattle to Portland bike ride the year prior, I was intrigued and interested in doing this trail - which is only marginally longer than STP (~300 mi vs ~215 mi). I put together a plan which involved dragging Angela along with me and even included bringing Sara with me in the trailer the first day. You can read more about it in the post below, but the bottom line was that I grossly misjudged the trail - not realizing the ruggedness of the trail and how it would impact me and my bike.

Palouse to Cascades round 1

My second round was a bit of a false start - I was planning to leave in the fall of last year but realized that a small nut had fallen off my bike that held the rear axle on about a week before I was to leave. I ordered the part from Diamondback and it arrived the day before I was to leave, but the technician who I spoke to had ordered the wrong part… Ugh! I was unable to reschedule due to other commitments and before long it was too cold to take this one one.

Fast-forward to this trip, I felt like I was finally ready. I convinced a buddy (Mark Thygesen) to join me - after we were both several drinks in. I expect that he did not think I was going to follow through - but he was also unwilling to back down… :) We ended up being quite the team and I probably would not have made it without him so I am super grateful that he stuck to it! We had both done some training rides (separately) but neither of us had done probably enough…

Part of my prep for this time around was to do some more reasearch on the trail conditions after the point where I dropped off on round one. I found this PCTC trail website which ended up being our bible for the trip and ended up being correct to the mile/detour almost the entire time. I was quite impressed with the description, instructions, maps, and current info on the trail provided by the website.

Day 1 started at around 6a when Mark picked me up from my house to head off to rattlesnake lake (eg Cedar City) near Northbend. The day called for 60 miles of riding to Northbend, of which neither of us were able to accomplish due to - shocker - bike issues. This trail is incredibly hard on bikes…

We started off strong and about 30 min into the ride, we spotted a black bear in the middle of the trail. Thankfully, we spotted him far enough out that we didn’t startle him, but he was also not interested in leaving the trail - I’m foraging here, not you. We waited about 20 min, making noise and keeping our distance, before he stepped off the trail about 20 feet to let us pass. We turned around after we passed and he was back on the trail turning over rocks again. I guess it was good foraging!

Our next big landmark was about 20 miles into the ride, the Snoqualmie tunnel. I talked about the history/tunnel itself in depth in my last post so I won’t repeat, but this time we had a new adventure in store for us. About halfway through the tunnel, the rear axle bolt feel off my bike… again. Thankfully I brought along 3 spares and I was going again soon - vowing to superglue the thing on there when I finished up for the day. Not more than 30 sec later, the derailer broke off of Mark’s bike. As we were basically in the middle of the tunnel, we had a very solemn mile(ish) walk in the dark/cold to get to the other side. When we got to the other side, we found snow! And lots of it!

At this point, we parted ways at this point - vowing to meet up in Ellensburgh at the end of the day, with Mark planning to spend the rest of the day/evening trying to get a new bike so he could continue into day 2. Not defeated!

I continued for a bit and found a lot of snow - several miles of it in fact… The next 10 miles took me over 2 hours and I was walking over relatively soft snow basically the whole way. Every time I finished getting over a patch of snow, I would get 1/8th of a mile (if that) before I hit the next patch of snow. It was quite exhausing - mostly emotionally - and I was glad to get to the end of it.

After the snow ended, I had a great 5-6 miles or so of riding on hard pack trail/gravel. It was lovely, until right before I reached Eaton when the sidewall of my tire blew out - unclear how this happened, but there were some sharp rocks that I may have clipped and bounced into my sidewall(?). I had received the advice that I should move to tubeless because it was going to be self healing and was going to help me avoid flats. Unfortunately, once you do get a flat (or a sidewall blow out), there’s really nothing you can do on the trail to fix it. I was actually cursing myself for not learning more about tubeless before this trip when I realized that on the trail…

I texted Mark (who had met up with his wife and got a ride back to his car in Northbend) and thankfully he was willing to come pick me up. We met up around 4p and I immediately called a bike shop in Ellensburg (recycled cycles) which was closing at 5p to see if they could help us out. They stayed open a little late and were able to replace my tire, order parts for Mark’s bike, and find a loaner bike they could offer Mark so he could finish the trail. We were not to be stopped!! The recycle cycle shop was amazing - would highly reccomend. We headed off to dinner and drove over to Stu’s house (where the loaner bike was) to get the bike and fit it with the rear tire rack and show clips. We were still on!

We woke early the next morning and got breakfast at the hotel. The day called for a 75 mile ride and we expected it to be HOT after we passed through Beverly and over the Columbia. I had also remember the ride up the hill to Boylston to be particularly challenging and I wanted to hit that early. We awoke at 5:45 (which was about normal for me, but early for Mark) and hit the trail at around 6:30a.

The first 10 miles or so were flat and easy riding and we made great time. It slowed down after that as we started to climb. I had hit this section in early afternoon on my last trip and it ended up being much easier in the early morning (shocker). At mile 15, we hit the Renslow bridge - the bridge over I-90 that started this whole thing. It was a great milestone to hit and sort of marked the end of the built-up/populated part of the trail and started into the hot/dry/expansive land that makes up the trail in eastern Washington

After the renslow bridge, we entered the US Army Yakima Training Center and starts the bigger climb up to the Boylston tunnel (about 10 mi after the bridge). I sped ahead, still thinking that this was going to be a beast of a hill and not wanting to stop until I got to the top. The tunnel is closed due to rockfall but there is a detour and the high point is in the middle of the detour. When I got to the high point, I waited for about 10 min before I started to get worried and texted Mark - no response. Worried that he was having bike issues or, even worse, was injured, I raced back down the hill to see if I could find him. I got a reponse about 10 min too late and, all in, added about 5 miles to my trip for the day. Oh well. Mark, as it turns out, decided to go through the tunnel and climbed over the rockfall in the middle that closed the tunnel. There was a wall of tumbleweeds about 15 feet high at the other end, so he had to turn around to get back. He had no service during the time in the tunnel, hence no response to my messages/calls.

We got back on track after that and made great time coming down off the Boylston tunnel all the way to Beverly. I remembered this part being amazing the last time I did it and it didn’t disapoint this time either. We were going 15-20 mph over packed sand that felt like asphalt. Amazing. We filled up on water at the army water station right before Beverly and headed over the Columbia!

This was the end of my second day the last time around, but we had another 25 miles or so this time to hit Othello. The trail follows crab creek for the next 10 miles or so and it was getting hot. Something about the landscape on this section blocks out the wind and realy funnels the heat all around you. We were making good time along the trail (there several detours for down bridges in this section as well) and poped off the trail at royal city junction - where an active railway takes over. The last 15 miles to Othello were along roads, but there were quite a few hills so it was slower. This was the part of the trail where my bike fell apart the last time, so I had a lot of motivation to be exceeding my previous attempt and we still made decent time. With about 5 miles to go until Othello, we passed the point where Angela picked me up the last time. Passed my old self!

The last 5 miles to Othello were on a busy asphalt road which was fast but unenjoyable. We checked into the hotel and headed off to get some delicious mexican food - we earned it!

Day 3 was meant to be a shorter day - targeting 55 miles. Unlike the previous 2 days, we didn’t have a specific target in mind as Angela was coming out to meet us and could pick us up anywhere that the trail met up with a road. We were going to play it by ear (since all of my intel on the trail ended the day before) but doing more today meant less tomorrow so we were biasing towards doing as much as we could today.

The first 15 miles or so were on busy roads (although we were able to do a frontage road for part of it). Progress was fast, but the ride was unenjoyable (for me anyway - Mark seems to be a lot more comfortable on busy roads and seemed unaffected). We picked the trail back up in Warden where the active railway diverged from the Milwaukee ROW and the state park resumed. The trail from Warden to Lind was amazing - we were making 12-15 mph the whole way over hard pack dirt and basically flat ground. There was a bypass through Lind where a tresle bridge had collapsed and we took a quick break at the grocery store to get a refresh on water/snacks. Lind was a great cycling down - everyone was so nice, asking us where we were coming from and heading too. We hadn’t seen very many riders since we crossed over the Columbia, but clearly this was a hub for folks doing long distance bike rides.

Leaving Lind, we had another good stretch of trail and in about 15 miles we reached Ralston. Right before pulling into Ralston, the trail went over a tunnel with an active railway. The tunnel had they year it was built on it (1914) which implied that it was built when the Milwaukee line went it. We suspected that it was installed to go over an existing rail line, but never followed up on the history. Railway planning must have been a very interesting profession back in the day…

We pulled into Ralston about noon and our intel said there wasn’t much here - execept for a park where we could get some water. Ralston was meant to be our endpoint for the day, but we arrived just before noon and we knew that our pickup wouldn’t be until 6:30p at the earliest. The town ended up being as expected, except for the park was much more than expected - a tiny oasis of tall trees, grass, and cold water. It was maintained by the local Grange - which sounded like something similiar to the american legion. They also had some camp sides for folks on the trail and would open the building if you were in need of a shower - pretty gracious for a voluneer organization. We were also feeling pretty good, but we opted to take a longer break here (couple hours) and continue down the trail. We had hoped we would avoid the hotest part of the day this way, but I’m not sure it was totally successful.

We departed Ralston around 2p and made our way through farmland and made several short detours around bridges. We passed 3-4 different historic railway depots which we completely removed (no structure remaining). I can only imagine the work required to dismantle a railway - not just the tracks but every piece of infrastructure along the way. It was on this part of the trail that I started to notices a bunch of railroad debris from the removal. Some of it was scraps from old railroad ties or rail spikes. We also found some pieces that appear to hold the track from shifting forward backward by holding the rail against the tie. I still don’t know a lot about building railways - but there certainly seems to be a lot that goes into it.

Our next major landmark was the Cow Creek Crossing - which as late as last year was posted as a 15 mile detour on roads going north almost as far as Ritzville to get around a downed bridge. A local rancher had very generously opened a bypass that went through their land, complete with placards showing the way and kiosks that would eventually show some history of the region (they were blank as of our crossing). A sign at the entrance of the bypass asked us to text the owner and let them know we were coming through - which we did. The response was very accomidating - asking us to take note of any downed markers (apparently the cattle like to knock them over) and let them know if we had any trouble following the trail. The route was easy to follow, except for a territorial bull who really wanted us to go around…

We abliged and were on our way in no time. The bypass saves us almost 10 miles from the original detour and was far more scenic than the asphalt/dirt road alternative. After completing the bypass, we continued on for another 10ish miles before deciding to call it quits for the day. We planned to stop at what looked to be a road crossing, but when we got there we realized that it was actually another railroad ROW which went over our trail and headed north - later determined to be the Columbia Plateau trail. It didn’t look like there was an easy way to get picked up if we went forward, so we went back a mile to a road crossing we had just passed. We dropped a pin, and settled in to wait for Angela (who we aniticipated arriving in about an hour). We also discovered that Angela had made a mistake and brought the Mercedes rather than the van and did not have a bike rack with her. We dicussed for a while and came up with a plan that involved stashing the bikes where we were for the night, staying in the hotel, and then picking them back up in the morning to continue on our way. Angela would then head back to Ellensburg to get Mark’s car which had a bike rack. We were very pleased with our progress today, hitting almost 20 miles further than planned and hoped that it would make for an easier day tomorrow!

The next morning we realized where we had made our strategic mistake. We ran into the land owner who’s land the “road” on google maps ran through. He was not happy about us using his land to access the trail and stopped us to give us some grumbles as we approached the trail. We had a moment of panic that we hadn’t stashed our bikes well enough and somehow they had been found and discarded by this “critter” (a title Mark bestowed on him). The bikes were fine and we said our quick farewell to Angela/Sara/Oakley as we started Day 4.

Day 4 was brutal - that’s the best way to describe it. For a hot second, we thought we might be able to finish today given the great progress we made the day prior. In actuality, it was both our shortest and hardest day yet. The day started on trail for the first 10 miles or so before we hit two large detours, Revere to Ewan and Ewan to Pine city - both due to small sections of the railroad ROW being sold off as private property. Our experience with detours to date has been that they are less enjoyable but much faster than trail riding. In this case however, the detours were dirt roads in much worse condition than the trail itself. Large gravel (perfect for cars but terrible for bikes) constitued the majority of the detour and the road (unlike the railroad ROW) had very little respect for the grade of the incline. It was basically one big hill from Revere to Ewan and we were pretty well smoked by the time we got there.

There is a substantial gap in water fillup points on this part of the trail and we were worried about running out between Ewan and Pine City. We happened to spot a kid mowing the lawn and he was happy to let us fill up from his garden hose - which made us a bit more confortable heading into the next detour. From Ewan to Pine City was much of the same, road with large gravel surface and big rolling hills. We were smoked again…

Arriving in Pine City, we were not expecting much. It was completely destroyed in 2020 by a wildfire (Babb creek fire) and was still in the process of being rebuilt. We saw a lot more than expected however, with lots of new pre-fab homes put up on old foundations. There are 3 large bridges on the trail between Pine City and our next destination of Malden - all three of which were impassable due to the fire and had some very imposing signs warning travelers to stay off. We did and were rewarded with a lightly used asphault road for 3.5 miles into Malden.

Malden was similiarly destroyed by the wildfire in 2020, and they seemed to be in the midst of rebuilding. All of the public buildings in town (city hall, library, etc) were all temporary structures but there was a city park in the middle of town where we were able to lay under some trees for a bit. At this point, we knew that we would not be able to finish today, but the origional plan was to stop in Pine City so we were already confident in being able to finish the next day. We were hopeful that the next stretch wouldn’t be as bad and we only had 9 miles to go to Rosalia (pronounced Rose-A-lia) which was determined to be our new stopping point for the day. We took an hour or so to refill water, stretch, and lay under a tree for a bit before continuing. Mark even decided to take some work calls (crazy!). The section of trail from Malden to Rosalia was closed due to construction (although it was unclear if construction was actually happening when viewing the trail from the road). It sounded like Malden received an infusion of state money after the fire and they were using some of it to improve the trail - which was exciting even if it was inconvenient for us. We took the last 9 miles on the road and arrived in Rosalia around 3p.

Our intel indicated that this was a “real city” - although I guess that’s relative to the last several communities we had visitied. It was a town of 500 ppl, but it did have a brewery and a restaurant. We opted for the brewery on the off chance that they would let us bring our bikes in. We stopped at the Rose Garage Brewery and Taps and met the owner Jay - who was perhaps one of the nicest individuals I have met. He let us bring our bikes in and later allowes us to bring in both our Dog and child - both of which would have likely gotten him into trouble if someone from the city/state took notice. He gave us a tour of his facility - which was a converted bowling alley that was separated into part brewery/resteraunt and part vintage car shop - where Jay was refurbing several old hot rods. Sara, Angela, and Oakely met us after a couple of beers and we decided to have dinner here as well - which included a couple of homemade pizzas and a desert of cinnamon rolls made from Pizza Dough.

It was from Jay learned that the Milwaukee ROW has been a point of contention between the state and local landowners for a long time. Milwaukee Railroad went bankrupt in the late 70s primarily due to over investment in electric trains to replace steam where deisel eventually won out. As late as 2017, there was an initiative to give back the Milwaukee ROW to nearby landowners/farmers and a typo in the bill (“from the Colombia River to the Colombia River”) nullified the agreement. The some interested citizens stepped in and successfully lobbied to classify the old Milwaukee ROW as a state park as part of the Great American Rail-trail - one of the rails to trails coalition’s largest projects. The PTCT (how’s trail description we used) is one of the groups driving it’s development & lobbying the state to keep the trail. This explains the experience we had with the landowner on day 3 and the private property issues from earlier today.

We headed back to Ritzville for the night - in great spirits. We had ~25 miles left to do the next day and we were feeling quite confident in our ability to finish.

We kicked off the next morning in Rosalia at around 8a - our latest start yet, but we had about an hour and a half drive from Ritzville in the morning packing up the whole family was a bit harder than just ourselves. We were back on the trail for this segment and the trail was in mostly good condition - with only a few section of loose gravel to contend with. Landmarks today included 3 large bridges - the Pine creek, Seabury, and Tekoa (which goes over the small town of Tekoa). The trail went out into the middle of nowhere and oddly enough, there were several small stands of wild apple trees - which we later discovered were likely planted by discarded apple cores from railroad passengers/workers. The pine creek bridge was completely destroyed and involed a fairly steap bypass to get through.

But the Seabury Bridge was completely intact and was probably 200 feet high - with planks laid over the old rairoad ties that left dozens of golfball size openings to see just how far up you were… :)

The Tekao bridge was in perfect condition and has been recently rennovated (right before the Beverly bridge) which made for a great landmark at 5 miles from the Idaho border.

Along the entire route, they had signs posted that gave the distance along the Railroad ROW to Chicago. The numbers were in the high 2100s as we pulled out of Cedar Falls and the last one we saw had 1850 mi to Chicago. It’s a small addition to the trail, but I thought it was really cool what they did to tie you back to the history of the railroad.

Angela got our picture as we came around the bend to our finishing point. We were exhaused but happy.

We finished! What a ride!

Sara’s next!