Cities Must Decide What Kind Of Trail To Build Planners Intended To Pave Path, But Some Horse Users Want Soft Surface

A philosophical debate about the nature of trails must be settled before the cities of Cheney and Spokane can build a long-awaited path between the two.

Planners intended to build a paved trail that could be used by bicycle commuters. But some users, including horse riders who felt betrayed when workers laid asphalt on the Centennial Trail, say a paved trail is a contradiction in terms.

“There’s some kind of mentality out there to pave everything,” said Geri Hamilton, treasurer for the Backcountry Horsemen. “That lacks thought, not only from a users’ standpoint but also monetarily. Paving costs a lot of money.”

The trail, along an abandoned Burlington-Northern Railroad route, is part of a 143-mile public corridor from Spokane to Pasco. Although the rails already are gone, the corridor gets little use because the jagged, fist-sized ballast rocks make for difficult walking, bicycling or horse riding.

Spokane owns 10.5 miles of the trail, stretching from Latah Creek in west Spokane to a county park at Fish Lake. The city received a $35,000 federal grant to plan the path, and may apply for construction grants in the next year or two, said Paul Crutchfield of the city parks department.

Cheney already has a $410,000 federal transportation grant to develop 3.4 miles of trail between the town and the lake. Work would start this year, if not for the question of whether the trail should be paved, said Paul Schmidt, Cheney’s public works director.

“We’re not going to proceed with anything until all the questions are resolved” and Spokane decides what kind of trail it will build, said Schmidt. “We don’t want to have two different designs.”

Cheney also must get its plans approved by the state Parks and Recreation Commission, which owns the section the town will develop. Cheney is doing the work so it can lay a sewer pipe adjacent to the trail.

Considering the success of the Centennial Trail, planners in the two cities gave little thought to an unpaved trail until they met earlier this month with Hamilton and a handful of other trail users.

“It was the first time I’ve heard the idea of not paving it,” said Crutchfield.

The Centennial Trail along the Spokane River draws crowds of bicyclists, skaters and walkers. But horse riders, who were among the earliest donors to the project, are kept away by the pavement.

Robbi Castleberry, a Centennial Trail organizer, said pavement suited that trail because it’s in an urban area.

“My input (at this month’s meeting) was, maybe trails in rural areas shouldn’t be paved,” said Castleberry, an avid horse rider.

Other soft-trail advocates say horses aren’t the only reason to use gravel, cinders or sawdust.

Pavement is tough on runners legs, they said, and encourages speeding by wheeled users. Past radar checks on the Centennial Trail show that most bicyclists and many skaters exceed the 15 mph speed limit.

There’s already a bike route along the Cheney-Spokane road, said Easy, an environmentalist who uses no last name. He attended the meeting with trail planners. Besides, he said, “most bicycles today are mountain bikes” that don’t need pavement.

Crutchfield said Spokane officials won’t make any decisions about the trail surface until they’ve held public hearings that aren’t yet scheduled.

Whatever is decided for the 14-mile stretch between Spokane and Cheney, some of the other 129 miles will not be paved, said Bill Fraser, state parks planner for Eastern Washington. One possible option, he said, is grinding the ballast rock into gravel.

By the end of the year, Fraser hopes to complete a draft plan for developing the state’s portion of the trail. The work is being done with a $500,000 federal grant.

There’s no telling how much construction will cost, where the money will come from or when it will be available, Fraser said.

The trail crosses Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge south of Cheney, then parallels the Snake River from Lower Monumental Dam to Pasco.

It cuts through some of the most remote country in Eastern Washington, sometimes using tunnels and trestle bridges so high that “if you’ve got vertigo, you may not want to be on it,” said Bill Jolly of the state Parks Department. “It’s breathtaking, quite literally.”

Exactly what the trail is called depends upon whom one asks.

Easy and many other trail fans call it the Scablands Nature Corridor. State parks officials call it the Pasco to Fish Lake Corridor. Planners in Cheney and Spokane call their portions the Fish Lake Trail, the Cheney to Spokane Trail or the Spokane to Cheney Trail.