Apparently when the railroad went out of business the Army grabbed the land to expand their training grounds. They require write your name on a slip of paper and put it in a box at the trailhead. Itās probably so they can see how many citizens use the trail.
Steve and I marvel at how much land moving they did to create this railroad – filling in all these canyons to make the gentle grade up the mountain and it only was used for a few decades.
We didnāt see any soldiers but we did see one other local bike rider, Paul, doing his ride going the other direction. The surface of the trail was quite sandy and rock strewn which made for slow progress but we eventually made it to the peak and headed down the 2% grade to Kittitas and Ellensburg.
We planned to camp at the fairgrounds but the rodeo is this weekend so we couldnāt camp. We even called the city clerk. I decided to look for a WarmShowers host. After the fourth call Jack said āyesā. Heās a retired guy that lives just a few blocks from the trail. He must be cool – he has a 1954 GMC truck! Jack cooked dinner for us and we enjoyed hearing his stories. Thanks Jack!
