Because we left from a different place than originally planned we did have to make some adjustments to where we were riding and we ended up doing quite a bit more road riding than planned. We rode through beautiful countryside and fields upon fields of numerous different plants. We rejoined the trail in Warden and the trail continued to kick our behinds! Rough trail - sand, heavy, deep gravel and river rock, overgrown canyons with tumbleweed and sagebrush, trestle bypasses (these are spots where trestles have been removed and you must ride around), and gates we had to lift over as they wouldn't open and there was no way around. We rode from Scooteney to Lind. Our plan had been to ride from Doris/Beverly to Othello. In 2017, we did ride from Beverly to Othello. From Othello you can ride on to Lind.
We are truly in the heart of Central WA and the agricultural center of our state. Absolutely beautiful and the columnar basalt formations are breath-taking!
**Trail etiquette note: when gates are closed and locked you will need the codes from your permit to open them. That being said, codes don't always work; be respectful of gates - if you see a way around them you could attempt this. NEVER cut fences, locks, change gate codes or leave gates open/unlocked.
Trail riding notes: If we had ridden from Beverly we would have arrived in Othello. I'm including directions for what we would have ridden rather than what we did ride. Once you cross I-90, turn right onto Highway 243 and proceed south, turn left onto Road 17 SW, take the first left onto Main street and you will dead-end onto a very rough parking area where the trail begins on the eastern portion. Proceed on the trail for as long as possible, the trail technically 'ends' in Smyrna, but you can remain on the trail if you wish. There are no services anywhere between Beverly and Othello, unless a trail angel helps you out; be sure to carry extra water! The trail eventually dead ends into where the railroad tracks are still in place and trains actively run. You must diverge from the trail at this point and best to do so prior to the railroad tracks. About a mile before the railroad tracks begin you will see a steep road-cut to the left, take this down to Road 17 (a gravel back road), turn right onto Road 17; eventually the road becomes Crab Creek Road and eventually changes to W Gillis Road; the road will take a sharp turn to the left, climb a short ways and you will turn right onto Highway 26. This is a busy highway, but there is a wide shoulder and drivers will usually give you space. Make sure you are visible! Turn right onto S Danielson Road (caveat: when we rode in 2017 this road was closed), makes a sharp right, follow and cross railroad tracks, turn left onto W Bench Road, turn left onto Hwy 24/S Broadway Ave, turn right onto Main street. If Danielson Road is still closed, you could continue on Hwy 26 all the way into Othello. You ride Hwy 26 until Othello where you turn left on 1st Ave, then right onto Main street. Othello has numerous services and is quite a large town; there are hotels and parks. When I attempted to contact the city regarding camping in the parks I did not hear back, but I would imagine you would be able to camp in the parks.
Trail angels: A sweet family offered to let us sleep under their balcony to shelter from the storm when we arrived in Lind. As we rode out of Lind a sweet gentleman asked if we needed help; Jeff at Tires West and Napa auto parts people let us use the bathroom and tried to help Sandy with her chain in Warden.
Memorable moments: Smells of wheat ripening, wet fields, chemicals, mint, thunderstorms. Sounds of machines and trucks roaring by, the wind in the wheat. Land of sage, sun and sand. Rainbow over Lind. Circle farming, crop duster, combines; old farmstead. Mama fell in the sand, Rachel fell into a tumbleweed and on a rock (gaining her the trail name "Tumbalina"). Encountered our first locked gates, combo worked on West end, but due to double lock and no correct codes we had to do a gate lift-over on the East end.
Wildlife sightings: 2 lizards, one was a horned lizard; crazy insects - butterflies, moths, ground hornets, DRAGONFLIES!! (translucent wings with black bars and black bodies); amazing owl (?) nest/hunting/eating spot; two covey of quail families - one had chick's that were teenagers and the other had chick's the size of silver dollars; 2 coyotes; 1 rabbit; amazing raptors - family of red tailed hawks hunting; white bird with black wing tips - not ID'd; saw 1 hit and dead Kestrel and a sparrow or Finch.
Vital stats:
5 bridges, 30 canyon cut-throughs, 8 trestle bypasses
45.09 miles
ATM = 6:01:54
MXS = 27.8 mph
AVS = 7.4 mph
My mom's bike computer:
45.26 miles
ATM = 5:38:29
MXS = 22.9 mph
AVS = 8 mph
JWPT Day 5
Showing posts with label Beverly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beverly. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
2016 John Wayne Pioneer Trail - Day 4
Probably the hottest, most rugged portion of the trail thus far. The Yakima Training Center is a barren, stunningly beautiful place. According to Wikipedia, "It comprises 327,000 acres (132,332 hectares) of land, most of which consists of shrub-steppe, making it one of the largest areas of shrub-steppe habitat remaining in Washington state." While day 4 definitely did not let up on us, we finally started to hit our stride and really sink into the trail.
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 -
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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