Dates!

After some serious considerations, and a look at the school calendar for next year, we think we have our first tentative date range for the ride. And they are.... drum roll please... 

June 22 - July 2

Here is how the schedule shakes out: 

• Sunday evening, June 22: Drive out to Spokane
• Day 1, Monday (6/23): Drive out to Idaho border near Tekoa, WA. Ride to Ewan (60 miles)
• Day 2, Tuesday (6/24) - Ewan to Lind: 62 miles
• Day 3, Wednesday (6/25) - Lind to Warden: 24 miles
• Day 4, Thursday (6/26) -  Warden to Wanapum State Park Campground (cross the Columbia River) : 61 miles
• Day 5, Friday (6/27) - Wanapum State Park to Lake Easton: 70 miles (toughest day)
• Day 6, Saturday (6/28) - Lake Easton to Duvall: 67 miles
  
• Day 7, Sunday (6/29) - REST DAY!!! (Yes, We are taking a rest day at home to go to church and relax) 
• Day 8, Monday (6/30) - Duvall to Sequim (includes a ferry ride): 69 miles
• Day 9, Tuesday (7/1) - Sequim to Lake Crescent (Fairholme): 56 miles
• Day 10, Wednesday (7/2) - Lake Crescent to La Push: 44 miles
• Day 11, Thursday (7/3) - Beach day! Or maybe Hot Springs Day? 

So far we have quite a few people showing interest in the ride. We'll see how things shake out in the coming months.

Route improvements: Tunnel 46-50 on the JWPT are now open. 6 more miles of the ODT are now paved. After several hundred miles of gravel and ballast it will feel weird to ride on so much pavement. The ODT folks have done a great job improving the trail and maintaining it.

Wow, typing that out makes you wonder if we are crazy or just a gluten for punishment. Probably both. }B^)

Next up: bike shopping?!?!

JWPT Tunnels Opening soon?

I was recently reading a ride report from someone who recently traversed the west section of the Iron Horse State Park (John Wayne Pioneer Trail) from Rattlesnake Lake to just east of Hyak for a biking and fly-fishing trip. It's not every day that people write up detailed reports about the trail. Russ and Laura did a great job documenting their trip. I hope someday I can meet "Steve," who they mention has researched and written quite a bit about the JWPT. 

Bikefishing on the Iron Horse Trail with Russ and Laura - pathlesstraveled.com

This write-up led me to bikingbis.com which talks about tunnel repairs being done in Iron Horse State Park by WA State Parks...

“Contractors are working to repair two tunnels on the John Wayne Pioneer Trail that have been closed since 2009 when inspectors found falling debris hazards inside of them. The two former railroad tunnels — Numbers 48 and 49 on the old Chicago-Milwaukee-St. Paul-Pacific Railroad, commonly known as the Milwaukee Road — are located east of Snoqualmie Pass between Hyak and Easton.
”

— http://www.bikingbis.com/2013/06/13/state-repairing-2-more-tunnels-on-john-wayne-pioneer-rail-trail-2-others-still-closed/

Tunnels 48 and 49 will reopen soon (July 2013?) while tunnels 46 and 47 and not being repaired. A quick visit to the State Park Website explains that, what the tunnels are still closed, riders can pass through them if they sign a waiver. 

“Public safety notifications for Tunnels 46 and 47 (near Thorp) if you enter these tunnels you do so at your own risk. Prior to entering the tunnels visitors are required to fill out a waiver form and place it in the drop box located at the entrance of each tunnel.”

— http://parks.wa.gov/parks/?selectedpark=Iron Horse&subject=all

Without the waiver it is a 15-mile detour around the tunnels using local roads, which would mean you skip the Yakima river canyon between Thorpe and Cle Elum. I think I know the option we will be using. }B^) 

UPDATE (12 July 2012): Tunnels 48/49 are OPEN! Also, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy did a great piece on the tunnel repairs last December, which I evidently missed. 

More Route Reseach...

A friend of mine recently pointed me to a book:

Mountain Bike America: Washington by Amy Poffenbarger

The book is a fabulous, detailing over 60 rides across the states. One of them is the John Wayne Pioneer Trail! (Pages 298-327)

Amy separated the ride into 7 days riding from North Bend to the Idaho border (west to east) covering 312 miles.

Here are some important items I gleaned from the reading-

• Riding from North Bend to the Columbia River (in Central WA) is part of Iron Horse State Park and pretty well maintained.
• No real places to stay east of Lind. Need to contact DNR about possible camping sites
• You must register for a free permit as you enter the US Army Yakima Training Center .
• Riding from the Columbia River to Idaho on the John Wayne Pioneer Trail requires a permit obtained through the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, which takes several weeks and must be done ahead of time.
• Some sections of the trail are not passable either due to tunnel closures (not mentioned in the book), private land access issues (Smyrna to Warden), or damaged/derelict bridges (Just before Lind and Marengo to Ralston).
• Day 5 of our trip will be the toughest as we climb up 2000' from the Columbia River to skirt the Boylston Mountains. 

Initial Route Maps Are Up!

I spent some time on Mapmyride.com and created some initial routes following the Olympic Discovery Trail, some city streets in Seattle/Kenmore, the Burke-Gillman/Sammamish River Trail, the Tolt Pipline Trail, the Snoqualmie Valley Trail, and the John Wayne Pioneer Trail.

The route so far seems very doable, with the vast majority of it following rails-to-trails projects.

Some current challenges:

1. Should the route go east-to-west or west-to-east?
2. How do I ride from the Edmunds Ferry Terminal to the Burke Gilman Trail in Kenmore?
3. Can we do somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 miles in 10 consecutive days (or less)?

This does indeed seem to be possible but there will be a lot of road riding on the Olympic Peninsula. My kids are starting to get excited!

}B^)

Genesis

In the summer of 2011 I went bike camping with my son (9 years old at the time). We talked about the history and route of the old Milwaukee Road railway that went from Seattle to Chicago. Much of the rail lines east of Montana are still in use but the lines in Washington, Idaho, and Montana were abandoned. In Washington state the line was acquired by the state with more than one-third of the line becoming Iron Horse State Park.

My son asked if it was possible to ride across the entire state of Washington from the coast to the Idaho border. After some research we found that the line does in fact go all the way to the Idaho border but not contiguously and not all of it is improved (i.e. flat and graded). Then he clarified his statement, asking if there was a way to ride across the Olympic Peninsula as well, not just from the Puget Sound? Initially I said no but then one day I found a link to the Olympic Discovery Trail, an old rail line that went from La Push, WA (right on the WA coast) all the way across the north side of the Olympics to Port Townsend.

That's when the pieces started falling into place: it now seemed like a ride across Washington, primarily on old rail-trails, was actually possible!

That was the genesis of this project to Ride Across Washington. It may take several years of planning but in the end we plan to organize a ride across the entire state. This website will be used to track our progress and disseminate information.