Columbia Plateau Trail

History

Originally commissioned by James J. Hill (of Spokane-Hillyard fame) in 1905, the Spokane, Portland, & Seattle Railway provided a direct route from Spokane to Portland; passing down through the Tri-Cities, then along the north bank of the Columbia River Gorge.  Part of the goal was to compete for lumber traffic with the already established Union Pacific Railroad, which traveled the south bank of the gorge.

Commentary

The Cheney Trail head is at the junction of the Fish Lake Trail (to the north) and the Columbia Plateau Trail (to the south).  The Fish Lake Trail is paved, while this one is not.  The trail is said to be  'developed' between Cheney and the Martin Road trail head (near Sprague, WA) - but even so, it was pretty rough going.  It started off with small gravel, but turned rocky, and included short sections of the bigger ballast rock.  The arms can only take so much shaking before you start to go crazy.

The terrain is admittedly more typical of the Eastern Washington scablands. And as wearying as it was, the marshlands and lakes along the way made the route a little more tolerable.  It's a beautiful ride, as you can see in the pictures below - it was just a little much for this old body.  Back to the pavement.

Overview

• Length: The full trail is about 130 miles, between Cheney and Pasco, WA; today's ride consisted of just 12 not-so-pleasant miles (out, then I had to come back)
• Elevation change: Gradual downhill heading southwest.
• Full description on the TrailLink web site.
• GPS of today's ride between Cheney and Amber Lake, WA.
• Trivia: Although part of its name, Seattle was never serviced by this railway.

Photos

A Discovery Pass is required for access.  Otherwise it's $10 for the day.

Discovery dollars at work - the facilities were clean and well-stocked.

Here's the contrast.  The Fish Lake Trail heading north - nicely paved.

...and the Columbia Plateau Trail heading south - not paved.

Entering the Turnbull Wildlife Refuge.

There was a fair amount of water and marshland in Turnbull, but at least on this day, there was not a lot of wildlife.

As it was, I probably saw more wildlife outside of the refuge than in.

Portions of the path are carved into the Basalt outcroppings, typical of the Inland Northwest.

The final bend approaching Amber Lake.

The reward for 12 miles of arm-shaking misery.

Arriving at Amber Lake.