Our September campout was supposed to be a simple 20 mile bike ride down an abandoned railroad track. However, since we could not find a camp spot by where we were planning on starting we had to go a little further up the road...20 miles!! The whole trip ended up being 40 miles and began a 9:00 am and finished about 4:00 pm., but it was still fun. We were riding on the John Wayne Trail. This is a trail that used to be an old railroad line. When the tracks were moved, the state of Washington bought it and turned it into a state park. It goes for miles and miles. People hike it and bike it, there are even camp spots periodically on the trail for those going a long way and really want to get into nature. I have posted some of the pictures from the ride here. It was really a fun thing to do. Both Michael and I would do it again. Especially now that our back sides have fully recovered.
This is an idea of where we were. If you drive up here from Utah, you drive along the side of the lake pictured in the middle of the map.
This was our first stop after riding about 5 minutes. We had to make sure everything was working okay and no one needed to make any adjustements to our bikes before really starting.
We had not been on our bikes for another 15 minutes before we came to our first photo moment. We are looking down at the Yakima river.
The Yakima river we were looking at.
The first 20 miles were up hill. Man, that was a long 20 miles.....
Along the way there were camps that you could stay at if you wanted. They were all first come first serve. They were all very nice and clean and even had out houses as seen below.
About half way through the ride there is a railroad tunnel that we had to ride through.
Just before getting to the tunnel, we rode on the far side of the lake I mentioned earlier.
The tunnel is 2.7 miles and pitch dark. We all had to have head lamps on in order to see anything. While riding through the tunnel, Michael got a little mesmerized by the passing walls and veered into one, but never fell down. He did a great job staying upright. He said he was fine and just kept peddling on.
After getting through the tunnel we rested and ate some lunch and, come to find out, Michael had scrapped his hand on the wall and his finger was bloody, so we cleaned that up. No worries, all was well.
This is also when we discovered that were only a little over half of the way done with our days ride.
Along the way, we had to ride over the old railroad tressels. There was not much to these and most were very high.
This is a look over this side of one of them. I only dared get this close to the edge once. BTW...those trees are about 100 feet tall.....The rest of the time I just rode across them non-stop and was happy to be across.
A waterfall on the side of the trail.
These mountains are not so big....
A photo for Mountain Biking Magazine
Riding through the forest...This was a beautiful ride.....
Cedar Falls....Finally the end our ride, but not the trail. It continues clear down to the Columbia river and beyond.
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