Cycling the Palouse to Cascades Trail - Sunday, October 15 - Ponderosa Pine Campground to Vantage - 52 miles

 I woke up a couple times during the night to pee. At 6:00am I had been horizontal for about 10-11 hours so I figured it was time to get up and get moving. We had a cup of hot cocoa in bed, then packed up the saddle bags and headed out a little after 7:00am. There was no one on the trail until we reached Ellensburg, 17 miles away. There we saw locals using the trail for morning walks, runs and short in and out cycles. The route passes through 2 short tunnels as it winds down the Yakima River shoreline. They are short, but still require a headlamp. Once out of the Cascades foothills it is a series of about 5 or 6 miles long stretches of absolutely straight trail across the plains of Ellensburg to Kittitas. 

We stopped in Ellensburg for breakfast. The railroad grade was bulldozed out of existence in downtown Ellensburg. You have to take a side trip down the city streets to rejoin it. Along the way are restaurants and grocery stores and CWU. We ate breakfast at a coffee joint and relaxed. Before riding out of town, I stopped at the Grocery Outlet for a package of cookies to see us through the afternoon. We arrived in Ellensburg about 9:30am and didn’t leave town until about 10:15am.  Andy had pegged Kittitas about about mile 30 for the day so we were surprised when we entered town at mile 25.5. We figured it must be 30 to the Renfrow Trestle that crossed high about I-90. The trail now starts an uphill grade of about 2% for the next 10 miles. Our tired legs balked at the extra exertion, but it was manageable. 

Three years ago when we rode to the trestle we found it had not been worked on since its days as a train trestle.  There was no way to ride across it. We had to lift our bikes over fences and scurry around on some side roads to rejoin the route on the other side of I-90.  This time the trestle was converted to horse/foot/bike path and we simply rode across, grinning at the luxury of it.

Now comes the hard part.  The old railroad bed sat on sand and the sand is still there. With bikes in low-low gear we struggled to maintain 4 miles per hour as we rode across the loose sand.  Andy actually walked parts of it, noticing that he kept up with me even though he was on foot. After about 3 miles of this torture the surface hardened up a little, making it possible to ride at about 6 mph, although the effort of peddling was about the same. 

About 6 miles from the I-90 crossing lies the Boylston Tunnel. It is closed due to a partial roof cave in and loose rock at its entrances. Last time we rode up and over the tunnel. This year we rode through it. The west entrance was choked with tumble weeds blown in over the years.  There was a narrow path between the mass of weeds and rock cliffs of the entrance that we negotiated to enter the tunnel. The tunnel was lined with concrete at both ends, but the middle was just bare rock.  The floor was smooth enough to cycle across. In the middle a portion of the roof had fallen in and created a small mound of rock we had to walk our bikes across, but other than that the tunnel was fine. On the eastern entrance water has encroached and we had to ride/push our bikes through a swampy area for a 100 feet. 

Now to the downhill!  The next 14 miles is all 2% downhill to the Columbia River.  It is not fast enough to coast on, but with minimal peddling effort we could maintain about 12 miles per hour on this steady downhill grade. At no time can you ride with only one hand on the handle bars. Pockets of deep sand lie on the grade and when your tires enter it the bike squirrels all over the place. Two hands driving is the only thing that keeps the bike upright. The only part that is packed hard enough to ride is about the width of a car tire. Drift out of that narrow band and the bikes tires start sinking into loose sand slowing the bikes speed and causing the bike to drift sideways. 

This part of the railroad is so interesting. The route traverses a side hill that has many ridges on it. The builders made cuts through the ridges and deposited the material from the cuts into the draws between the ridges so the ride is a series of cuts and fills. In the cuts, which are just wide enough for a train to traverse, rocks fall off the sides and lay in the roadway. You have to carefully steer through these areas to avoid these fist sized boulders. It was better this year than 3 years ago. The state parks department must have sent a plow up the grade and pushed most of the rocks to the sides. But there were still many to dodge.

We noticed some large vehicles off in the distance and heard what sounded like automatic heavy gun fire.  As we approached we saw they were Army vehicles of some type, about 20 of them, out on maneuvers.  We waved at them as we rode past.

We reached the truck about 3:45pm. We both changed into cleaner clothes, loaded up the bikes in the truck bed and the bags behind the seats and started the drive back to Kirkland, about 3 hours away. We stopped in Ellensburg for dinner at the Sugar Thai restaurant. It was excellent.  We got to Andy’s house about 7:30pm.  I flew his F-18 flight simulator with the 3D headset. That is sooooo cool, even if I did get shot down by a couple of Migs. We next moved to his hot tub for 20 minutes.  By this time I was exhausted and went to bed.

What a great trip!!

The trestle over I-90 is repaired!!

Andy shows his approval of the new trestle surface

Approaching the closed Boylston Tunnel

Riding thru the weeds on the east side of the Boylston Tunnel

Riding down to the Columbia River

Approaching one of the cuts thru the ridges


Army troop transports on maneuvers (zoom way in to see)