Trail riding notes: As you first enter the Training Center you need to fill out the permit paperwork for riding across the reserve. It is important to sign-in and once you have ridden across you will need to turn in your permit showing you have completed the reserve. Once you are on the reserve you are not allowed to stop and camp overnight, so be prepared to ride the distance.
A ways onto the reserve is a massive tunnel and canyon. You could choose to ride through this canyon and tunnel, however, there was a cave-in several years ago and the tunnel is NOT safe to ride through. There is a bypass that will take you up and over the tunnel; while it is a very heavy basalt to ride through (I did end up walking some more), this is the safest route.
When you ride this section you MUST carry extra water. It is extremely hot and dry with very little shelter from the sun. It is also profoundly windy - gusts up to 40 mph may hit the trail. There were definitely sections we walked due to the ferocity of the wind. The distance is about 22 miles on the reserve and while there is a pit toilet about half way across, there is no available water until about 3/4 of the way through. You can then ride a side road where there is another pit toilet and potable water. If you are running low on water you should definitely utilize this spot to refill as the next section on Huntzinger Road is extremely hot and dry.
Huntzinger Road is a road/risk you can take to ride to Wanapum State Park for a night of camping at the bike sites ($12 for the night) where you will have access to water, showers and lovely shaded camp sites. This road is extremely narrow, winding and undulating; it is often driven by cars going extremely fast. If you choose to ride this road, make sure you are visible and take your time. Along the way there is a fishing spot where you can pause for a rest near the restrooms and be in the shade. You could also choose to have someone pick you up in Doris (the 'town' at the end of the Eastern side of the reserve).
There is a beautiful old trestle, Beverly Bridge, that crosses the Columbia River, however, you may not cross as there is no decking to the trestle and it is closed due to fire damage. You can choose to ride Huntzinger Road and then have a support vehicle pick you up to transport you across I-90 and down to Beverly on the eastern side of the Columbia River and where the JWPT continues. This is the option we chose as it was the safest. We did start to ride down Huntzinger Road, but when we reached the fishing spot we decided it was unwise to continue. We had my husband, Nick, pick us up there and transport us across the river to Beverly. After a heart-felt conversation and realizing we were too exhausted to jump on the trail again, Nick kindly drove us to a campsite near Warden, cutting off about 40 miles of the trail. For us, this was the best decision; I had needed to walk about 7 miles of the trail due to how deep the sand and gravel were at the beginning of the reserve and we were utterly exhausted. It was hard to cut off this section of trail, but we intended to return in the future and try again.
While this information may be worrying, the reserve is an utterly spectacular portion of this trail and I highly recommend riding it! My intention is to provide realistic expectations of what the trail holds. If you were riding with fat tires, this portion would be much easier!
Here's our journal entry for the day...
Rode from military base west end to east end ~23-25 miles. Restroom pit toilet about half way; potable water, toilet and potential side road (?) at around 3/4 way through. Horrifying deep and, large rock ballast, ended up walking ~7-8 miles; terrifying crosswinds and occasional headwind. Had to walk with our bikes leaned over just to not be blown off the trail. Rode with Dan for quite a ways. Found his flags, didn't get to say goodbye.
Tunnel was bypassed and canyon was insanely deep; couldn't even see the bottom!
Rode part of the way down Huntzinger (scary!); Nick picked us up at a fishing spot on the road at a pit toilet.
Drove to Beverly, nowhere to camp, exhausted, no desire to continue on trail. Had Nick drive us to outside Othello and camped at Scooteney campground. Did laundry at a spigot and reloaded gear for the Eastern part of our ride. Did not ride ~37 miles of the trail.
Memorable moments: No injuries! A few gear mishaps from all the rough terrain, sand and wind. Sandy left her tent poles at Huntzinger fishing spot. Smells of dust, ancient rock, grasslands, sage baking in the sun. The canyon cut-throughs howl with the wind and the grasslands sound like wood flutes playing; listening to bats as we fell asleep.
Wildlife sightings: Amazing red tailed hawk swooping out of canyon; bones and owl pellet; lots of tracks - scrub elk, mountain goat (super sweet to spot baby tracks alongside adult) and coyote; sweet canyon birds; bats at campground.
Vital stats:
4 trestles
15-20 canyon cut-throughs
Fitbit says = 30,096 steps; 12.46 miles
Rachel's bike computer says -
- 21.59 miles
- ATM = 3:29:15
- MXS = 17.9 mph
- AVS = 6.1 mph
My mom's bike computer says -
- 23.26 miles
- ATM = 3:21:07
- MXS = 18.6 mph
- AVS = 6.9 mph
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