Get your expedition on

I often travel to Rosalia, WA (it’s the half-way point between us and my in-laws, we sometimes meet there to trade my son back and forth when he has visited them) and have noticed there is a wonderful gravel rail bed that runs under Highway 195. Once my son and I took the long way to Colfax along Highway 27 (Pines Road) and I noticed this rail bed went through Tekoa as well. I have been intrigued ever since.

I did some research and it turns out this is part of the John Wayne Pioneer Trail, and it runs pretty near all the way across the state. While the western part of this trail gets most of the attention (even getting its own state park), the eastern end runs through some of the most geologically interesting countryside in the U.S. So why don’t we talk more about it here in Spokane?

As far as I can tell you can get on at Tekoa and ride uninterrupted at least as far as Lind, WA (I Google Mapped it and followed it as far as I could stand). I know there are some sections on the western end where the trellises are in bad shape and are not passable, but I can’t seem to find any detailed description of the trail here in eastern Washington. I did look at it on Google Earth (better images) and it looks like the trestle just west of Tekoa is not passable, but it would be easy to get around.

Where am I going with this? I want to know more about it the trail and what kind of shape it is in. And if I can’t find someone who knows, I want to get a couple of people together and explore the trail so we can get the word out. If nothing else we’ll have some fun riding gravel through farm country and some really great scablands. Who’s in?