How to ride a road bicycle from Spokane to LaCrosse

 

August 15, 2019

After a 79-mile ride from Spokane, the Rutgers University riders roll down Leslie Ave. behind the LaCrosse firetruck on the way to LaCrosse Park picnic shelter where they were greeted by LaCrosse residents. They joined in a potluck dinner and had a swim at the LaCrosse pool. They were served a sendoff breakfast the next day and headed for their next stop at Pasco. The riders finished the 3,500-mile ride at Portland Tuesday, and some of their post-ride reports on the internet refer to the LaCrosse experience.

The eleven bicycle riders from Rutgers University followed a unique route last Wednesday when they rode from Spokane to LaCrosse where they were welcomed for an overnight stay. The route south of Spokane was required because the destination of the group is Portland and at some point they had to head southwest.

Last Monday they had a short day when the rode the Centennial Trail from Coeur d'Alene to Spokane.

The aim of the riders in making the 3,500-mile ride across the country is to draw attention to hunger problems in the United States. They did volunteer work in Spokane Aug. 6 and then departed early the next day for LaCrosse.

Each member of the group carries an iPhone which gave directions to follow for each day's route. The phone included a route map and an elevation chart for the days route.

Last Wednesday's route was charted with a total of 2,471 vertical feet of grade and 3,035 loss in grade. Greatest uphill grade was charted at 10.4 percent and the minimum grade was charted at 16.l8.

The riders Wednesday started in on N. Perry Street south of Rogers High school in North Spokane and returned to the Centennial Trail.

After going through downtown Spokane across from Riverfront Park, they hooked up with Fish Lake trailhead.

The Fish Lake trail is built on the former route of the Spokane, Portland and Seattle railroad which went southwest on the east side of Cheney. The SPS went through Lamont and Benge and the railroad route can be seen running along the north side of Highway 26 at Hooper on its way to Washtucna.

The group left the trail south of Marshall and rode the Cheney-Spokane Road and later went back on the trail and continued south to the trailhead which is located on the Cheney-Spangle Road.

They then traveled west on the Cheney-Spangle Road, but turned south on the east side of the railroad tracks at Cheney and continued to the Cheney-Plaza Road.

They traveled on the Cheney-Plaza Road until its junction with the S. Rock Lake Road. At that intersection they had covered 31 miles of their ride. Thye followed the S. Rock Lake Road for approximately 16 miles and turned off of the Glorfield Road.

They followed the Glorfield south until they hit Highway 23. At this point they had covered 51 miles and had 28 miles to go.

They went west on Highway 23 and turned south on Wagner Road to the Texas Lake Road and then south to the Benge-Winona Road and then east past Winona to the Winona South Road with 11 miles to go until they entered LaCrosse.

The route followed by the riders last Wednesday was revised from an earlier route which would have kept them on the former SPS route all the way to Lamont.

They scraped that route after learning that the former SP&S rail bed has not been improved into a trail, so it could not be negotiated by the type of road bikes they were using to ride across the county.

Another footnote on the route: after they turned south on the Texas Lake Road they crossed the Palouse to Cascades Trail which is on the former Milwaukee Railroad route, another option for cross-county riders headed for the coast. The Palouse to Cascades Trail at that point follows the Rock Creek grade east from Revere.

 

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