New trail segment offers link all the way to Spokane

Opening of another segment of paved trail at Spokane last month means bicycle riders and hikers in this area can make a downhill run all the way to the downtown area of Spokane. The Spokane Fish Lake trail addition can be linked with the Columbia Plateau Trail which runs mostly in Adams County on the former Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railroad line.

The SP&S, which entered Whitman County when it went through Lamont, marked its last days as part of the Burlington Northern system when the company opted to run all its trains on what is now the Burlington Northern Santa Fe main line from Pasco through Ritzville and Sprague.

Most of the 130-plus miles of Columbia Plateau Trail remain unusable because it still has the SP&S railroad ballast rock on its surface. The trail runs along the north side of Hooper and can been seen departing Washtucna south under the Highway 26 bridge.

“We’ve had a few die-hard mountain bikers who have ridden the whole length of the trail, and they’ve told me they will never try it again,” said Mark Truitt, manager of the Columbia Plateau State Park based in Washtucna. The office is also responsible for state parks in the area and the John Wayne Trail on the former Milwaukee right-of-way.

Twenty-three miles of the Columbia Plateau trail are now usable in the Cheney area and 15 miles are developed on the south end between Ice Harbor Dam and Snake River Junction.

The trail segments on the Cheney end can be linked up with the newly completed 7.5 miles of paved Spokane trail which begins near Sunset Boulevard in west Spokane and goes up the former Union Pacific railroad grade past Marshall.

Spokane has finished a $1.7 million project to rebuild and pave the trail late this fall. The just-finished segment hooked up with another three miles of paving which was put down about four years ago. The paved segment of the Spokane project now ends at Scribner Road which is just up the grade from Marshall.

Riders and hikers from this area can hook onto the Spokane segment at Scribner, or they can start at one of the area trailheads for the Columbia Plateau Trail and ride north to the Fish Lake trailhead which is the end of the state-owned trail on the former SP&S line.

The CP Trail ends with a 365 sign in the parking lot of the Fish Lake trailhead. The 365 is the SP&S mile marker distance from Portland.

Riders can continue all the way to downtown Spokane by exiting the Fish Lake parking lot and making a downhill run on the adjoining Cheney-Marshall Road to Scribner Road.

A right turn onto Scribner Road leads to a quick descent down to a stop sign at the railroad crossing. The road crosses the railroad and goes right to the trailhead coming up from Spokane. Riders, and hikers, can now take the paved trail down grade for the 7.4 mile run all the way to Government Way which crosses the Sunset Highway in west Spokane.

John Tillison, ranger for the north end of the Columbia Plateau, notes an actual right-of-way linkup between the state’s Fish Lake trailhead and the top (south) end of the Spokane trail remains, but it’s not officially open. The undeveloped segment of trail is posted with “no trespassing” signs and a locked barrier.

“It’s really a matter of liability,” Tillison said. He added Spokane park officials have been working for years to link up their trail with the end of the Columbia Plateau Trail at Fish Lake. The long range plan calls for some sort of bridge to be constructed over the railroad.

Tillison added present money shortages do not point to any funding soon for such a bridge project. The latest paving job on the Spokane trail included about 44 percent of federal stimulus money and most of the rest came from a state grant.

A unique feature of the Spokane trail run is its location between two very busy railroad links which are used by the BNSF and Union Pacific to drop down the Marshall Creek grade from the plateau level at Cheney to Spokane and then over Latah Creek.

The trail itself is on the former Union Pacific right-of-way which went out of use when UP’s entry into Spokane was consolidated for Expo ‘74.

Spokane’s Riverfront park, on the former Expo site, was once railroad property. The Expo development meant the UP had to abandon its entry grade into Spokane and switch to one of the lines which run along the south side of downtown Spokane.

The UP hooked up on the SP&S line just beyond mile 365 and that left the former UP route down to Latah Creek open for a trail. The flaw is that the UP right-of-way is between the two surviving railroad links descending the grade.

Tillison noted the engineering on the SP&S line was considered superior because of its grade design which was never more than one percent.

“That’s a big factor for a railroad,” he pointed out.

The other railroad line in the Marshall Creek drainage is descended from the Northern Pacific, one of the parent railroads of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe. Having both lines available on the grade allows the two railroad companies to keep the route open while one of the long trains burns up time ascending the grade.

Among the riders on the new trail Sunday was Nancy Czech, a mountain bike enthusiast who has lived in the Marshall area for 38 years. In that time she and her husband have seen the UP trains pulling the grade on the old line before it was abandoned for Expo. After that, the UP right-of-way was used unofficially by all types of vehicles, and Czech noted she spent time “picking up other people’s garbage” along what is now a paved trail. She was an enthusiastic spectator this summer as crews worked to extend the Spokane trail; she was also dismayed at the cost.

Czech has made trips from the top end of the Spokane trail to the Columbia Plateau, and notes she particularly enjoys the segments of the state trail which cross the Turnbull National Wildlife Reserve southeast of Cheney.

Tillison also notes the Turnbull segment offers a unique change for riders to see all types of wildlife, including moose and elk. The Turnbull segment is open to equestrian use because its surface is not paved. It is surfaced with finer grade rock which was broken down from the former railroad ballast rock.

Access to the Columbia Plateau Trail from this area can be found at the Martin Road trailhead which is north of Sprague. Signs are posted along the Highway 23 entry into Sprague.

The trail can also be entered at the Amber Lake trailhead which can be reached by taking the Williams Lake road off of the Cheney-Rock Lake road north of Ewan.

Another trailhead is located on the Cheney-Spangle Road just east of Cheney. The paved portion of the trail begins here and descends about four miles to Fish Lake and the end of the state trail at mile 365.

People who want to check out the Spokane end of the trail can reach the trailhead by turning left on 16th off Highway 195 just before the cloverleaf intersection of I-90. West 16th links up through Lideke to Government Way. The trialhead is just to the east of Government Way, a block south of Sunset Boulevard and practically under the high railroad bridge over Latah Creek.